Pretty stupid episode, though a bit better than the last one since we actually learned something, rather than the writers trying to force emotional sympathy down our throats.
Kyouma is a moron, but even more bizarre is how he could "loop" continuously and magically make it to the time machine without harassment or failing. What's more, he ignores the obvious solution of talking to Makise Kurisu or Daru, or trying to send a D-Mail into the past and undo what seems to be a dead end where Mayuri to his world line. And...that's exactly what happens, but if to show how utterly impotent Kyouma is we have Makise Kurisu approach him herself. A subtle self-indulgence among Steins' writers...?
The Suzuha reveal was nothing special. Given how the anime is set up with a "closed room" cast, you know that the characters introduced are going to have something to do with the mysteries surrounding them. I called earlier in the year that either Feliss, Moeka or Suzuha were going to be an antagonist, simply because the story wouldn't be interesting if there wasn't a "traitor" among the cast. And Moeka's interest in the IBN for no apparent reason really suspect, while Suzuha's army training - remember John Titor was originally a soldier - hinting at a purpose for meandering in the past.
I was surprised that the satellite turned out to be the physical time machine. Those first few episodes didn't make much sense, but no way am I going to review them to see what happened. Maybe it could have been called back then. Still, it's pretty quirky, I bet Kyouma and Makise Kurisu were both forced into working for SERN, and maybe Kurisu killed the previous looping Kyouma at some point, given Suzuha's hatred of her.
But even when the plot is in full swing, Steins manages to not be anything but derivative.
I still haven't seen anything that couldn't have been vaguely predicted upon playing
Remember11 or MLA prior, kind of embarassing really that after popular games like that, Steins could still "surprise" people.
