Anime Episode Summary needed

[Squall]

Can someone fill me in on what happened in the last .hack episode?

[KKC]

Sure, This is an episode summary, but I didnt make this, just so you know.

Episode 21 - Despair

Mimiru and Bear are waiting. Subaru's late, and they're worried about her. She's rarely ever late. She's been looking for Tsukasa non-stop.

She arrives. No sign of Tsukasa at all. She again beats herself up for having left Tsukasa in that dark place. Bear tells her that there's no point in dwelling in the past. (Plus, I wonder if there was anything she could of done there that wouldn't of gotten her Data Drained.)

They conclude that the one spot left they haven't looked is the Secret Place where Subaru left Tsukasa (cue flashback) But they can't get to it by themselves, it took Tsukasa's power to get Subaru there the first time.

Subaru excuses herself, as she has a meeting with BT. After she leaves, Mimiru and Bear note that Subaru's looking rather haggard. She probably hasn't slept at all since. Mimiru postulates that maybe they can make a message on the message board, asking about Tsukasa. Bear hmmms about this. He doesn't think that would work.

Change of sceneto the secret place, by the teddy bear, Tsukasa is seated by the bed, still devastated from the Voice's psychic attack. His mind lost, his eyes staring unseeing, intermitted gasps/grunts at failed attempts to do something, anything at all.

Meanwhile, Sora, BT and Silverknight are musing on how Bear and company haven't actually done anything. SilverKnight is seething over Subaru's devotion to Tsukasa.

Sora is amused, and teases SilverKnight for being jealous. Silverknight retorts he's not jealous, he's just consumed with the path Subaru has taken ever since being with Tsukasa.

BT remarks that most people call this jealousy.

Sora fires this little bombshell. Tsukasa in the real world is female. A girl.

Yep. Tsukasa's a girl. Anyone surprised by this? It's the _worst_ kept spoiler ever on the Internet. If anyone was, however, I would like to shake their hand.

Anyhoo, Sora says, because Tsukasa's a girl, there shouldn't be any reason to be jealous. Yet.

"Yet." :snickering:

Riiiight.

Now, would Bee Train, the makers of .hack//SIGN do something like that? The same folks who wrote Noir? [url]http://www.csusm.edu/anime/gallery/Desktops/800/noir.jpg[/url]

Naaaah.

Anyhoo, BT notes that Subaru probably doesn't know about Tsukasa being female.

Speaking of, BT has an appointment with Subaru, and leaves.

Sora goes to look into a rumor, with SilverKnight grouchingly trailing behind.

Subaru confirms with BT that she hasn't found out anything. BT notes Subaru isn't looking too well. It _is_ just a game, after all.

Subaru notes that she's been told this before. That she should do what she enjoys. Well, she _is_ playing that way now. Her entire purpose for being in The World is Tsukasa, and she enjoys playing so much more than she used to. All she wants is to see Tsukasa again.

BT is taken aback at Subaru's devotion. Subaru asks her to tell her if she finds out anything about Tsukasa. Subaru's about to tell Subaru that Tsukasa is a girl, but decides against it. (She's got her own lonliness issues) Subaru leaves, and BT notes in awe that The World is more than a game to her.

Meanwhile, Crim is having the battle of his life against a DataBug monster, a beast that cannot be killed. He's heard of the rumors, but now he knows they're true! (Data Bug monster looks like a normal one, except there's strange glow and electrical discharge around it.) This is, in Krim's words, interesting.

:commercial:

Back at the secret place, Tsukasa is still clawing through insanity. Maha is watching, curious, from behind a tree. He grasps at a blade of grass on the ground....

Crim is talking with Bear. No one knows where Tsukasa went. Bear expresses concern about Subaru, who he fears might burn herself out. Krim waves this aside, saying that she's stronger than that. He's known her for sometime, after all.

Anyhoo, Crim notes that there's rumors of invincible monsters in The World. Different from the Barbells, they don't ever die. You either run away, or get killed. In fact, Crim has fought one. (He doesn't say whether he ran or died, though. I suspect he's upset either way.)

SilverKnight and Sora are walking, Sora says pretty much the same as Crim.

Tsukasa is still battling his own emptiness. Struggling, he plucks the blade of grass. Maha gets closer, curious, and to her surprise, still-blank eyed Tsukasa gives Maha the blade of grass. She teleports away. (Here we see Tsukasa doing something where even normally, he had trouble. Reaching out to someone. In this case, he _has_ to, thus is the road to sanity. Even if reaching out to the servant of the enemy.)

Bear continues his favorite passtime, repeating what they know. It's all pieces of a puzzle, and they have to put it together. Right now, they need to look into the Sleeping Girl or the Monster. The Sleeping Girl seems a more likely bet.

In leaving, Crim asks Bear to pass a message to Subaru. Remember, she can also "use the spell." (Thus referring to Crim's offer in episode 19 that Subaru can call him in the real world, his phone number being the spell, anytime she wants. Subaru has apparently _not_ taken him up on this offer.)

In an open field, a party of novices kills a monster. One of their party comments on the rumor of the invincible monster, much to the interest of Sora. He "softens them up" by instantaneously killing the 2 fighters in the party, and then casually asking the wavemaster what they know about these monsters.

Back at the church, Subaru, Bear and Mimiru are talking. Crim's gone investigating. Bear passes along Crim's offer, and Subaru's response is a polite but non-committal affirmative. Moving on....

Bear has a plan. To find out about the Sleeping Girl, they need to see the Broken Man again. He did some research, and the Broken Man has the same face as Harald Hyueck, the man who created "Fragments" the prototype of The World! He has to have answers...

:Flashback to episode 14 He wanted to create tangible proof that he loved someone:

But, Mimiru notes, that area he was in was destroyed. Bear agrees, but notes that he suspects The Broken Man is a major part of the original code, thus must have backups on each server. How to access them? Perhaps...Helba! But how to contact them? To Mimiru's disgust, Bear notes they used Sora to contact her before. However, this time, he's got a new idea. Actually, it's a variation of Mimiru's old idea. They'll use the message boards!

Somewhere...else, somewhere new. Rocky and dark. We see the Sleeping Girl suspended from her feet in the air. She's now got black and purple highlights, and the rather evil sounding dark version of the Aura song. Maha's concerned, looking at her. He's holding Tsukasa's blade of grass.

The voice consoles him. Tsukasa is no longer a concern, they (Maha, the Voice and the Girl) can live together in peace, forever. Uh oh, look out, Maha. Remember what happened to the last person The Voice said that too. (Unless The Voice was never talking to Tsukasa at all when she said that in the past)

Said Tsukasa is still in a catatonic state. Apparently mindlessly, his fingers pick apart the eyes of the Teddy Bear.

Meanwhile, Bear in in a dungeon, filled with Lava. Helba is behind him. Not even looking around, Bear notes that the message board idea worked. Helba smiles.

[Squall]

Cool, that helps a lot (And it also starts to open up to .hack//infection.)