Serial Experiments - Lain: Deus (Layers 8-10)
As Lain's story continues to unfold, she--and the viewer--become  increasingly unsure of what is real and what exists in the cyberrealm of the  Wired. The cyber-Lain grows bolder and more unpleasant, spying on her friends  and spreading rumors, while her real-world counterpart seems to be fading out  of existence. Does she need a body any longer? Does she still possess one?  Her father departs, announcing that her family has never been anything but a  group of actors. The Knights, who seemed omnipotent within the Wired, lose a  critical power struggle: its members are executed by agents of Tachibana  Laboratory. Lain greets these revelations and questions with her usual fixed  stare and little indrawn breaths. Chiaki Konaka clutters his already-fragmented screenplay with references to alien contacts and some odd theology. Lain debates the nature of God and free  will with the Masami Eiri, who researched the idea that human minds are  linked like electronic circuits on a subliminal level--before he was found  murdered. Director Ryutaro Nakamura doggedly re-uses the same close-ups of  Lain's eyes, the shots of power wires, the simple computer graphics, etc.  Viewers will love or hateLain; no one will watch it with indifference. (Ages 16 and older due to violence, implied sexual situations, and an abstruse story line)--Charles Solomon