it's ayanami… or isn't it?

neon genesis evangelion (episode fourteen, "seele, the seat of the soul")

With the introduction of Asuka in episode eight, Evangelion went into a more relaxed, “let’s have adventures” mode that is now reaching its end. We will exit the fun zone definitively—no turning back—next episode, which for most of its runtime feels like a restoration of the vibes after the surreal weirdness of this one (only to come crashing down at the very end). But the good times start to end here in episode fourteen. “Seele, the Seat of the Soul” is half Gendo recounting the events of the series thus far to SEELE (with one notable omission) and half “you remember how at the beginning of this show, everything seemed really weird? remember how Shinji hallucinated Rei standing in the street before he ever met her? yeah, well.…”

As far as the pilots and the bridge crew are concerned, the Evas have one purpose—to defeat the Angels and prevent the Third Impact. As far as SEELE is concerned, the Evas have a different, secret purpose—the “Human Instrumentality Project,” the meaning of whi…