Akihabara has become a war zone, there is only one option left to Okabe and the others at this point if they want to save Suzuha, Mayuri and Kagari. Complete the time leap machine and send Okabe back into the past to the events that lead to the time machine being blown up. Maho is a mess as she thinks she can’t complete the time leap machine on her own, she’s not Kurisu after all but after a small fight and high running tensions among everyone, she asks the question she was avoiding asking because of her own pride. How did they do it before?
So Okabe opens up about it. About hacking SERN, about needing the CRT television in the shop below to be running when they run the phone wave. They work tirelessly to complete it and eventually with the support of everyone working together they get it up and running.
Okabe vows it, that he’ll do anything and go back over and over again if that’s what it takes. He’d swore to protect his timeline because Kurisu’s sacrifice for this timeline was done under the idea that it would protect everyone else. That’s why he was holding onto it so tightly. So now that he knows that’s not true, he has to find a place and time where it is true. So he goes back. First he runs and warns Daru and Maho about the things to come.
Then he makes his way to the radio tower building.
Yet at the end of it all, he fails once again at preventing the time machine from getting blown up. Though the circumstances this time are wildly different, including the appearance of a second woman in black leather. The female professor that works with Leskinen. Okabe can only wonder, is the time machine blowing up a convergence point? Is there anything he can do to stop it? There seem to be a few points that remain the same through the time line.
A bullet that grazes his leg, rather it comes from Suzuha or something else seems to be a point. The complete shut down of the cell lines and communication, the warnings from Amadeus. It seems almost like the moment with the watch from the original series but without any of the sense of impending dread every time you hear Mayuri mutter the lines about her watch stopping.
He rushes back to the lab and they fix up the time leap machine again and he goes to jump. Maho says, much like Kurisu to tell her past self that she agreed to help Okabe no matter how many times it takes for them to get things right. He goes for the jump and the episode ends, but something is wrong. The clock that shows the time that jumps back starts acting strange and at the end of the credits, it sets back to an odd time and then crack completely.
All I can do is sit and blink and scream “WAIT WHAT?”. I’m so nervous about what this break means, what does this mean for the timelines? What’s going on? I mean, i’m pretty sure we’re heading for a happy ending where everyone is alive and well and World War III is no longer a threat. How are we going to get there though?
Well, we’re going to have to wait to find out. The next episode will see a one week delay and then we’re back to the crazy adventures of Steins;Gate.