Last episode left up right at the heart-pounding moment when they were going to unveil Amadeus and I remember saying that I thought Amadeus would have Kurise’s memories inside, so when they unveiled it and it was Hiyajo, I was, frankly, slightly disappointed. Still, it was fun to see the reaction of the audience to the possibility of this AI and the researcher’s attitude towards Rintarou when he defended intellectual pursuit free of dogmatic thinking. I agree with him too, of course!
I enjoyed the interactions between Hiyajo and Okabe during the party and how they bonded over knowledge that had been given to both of them by Kurisu. This conversation leads to a very important event: Rintarou is invited to meet another AI within Amadeus, one that has Kurisu’s memories, but Maho is quick to warn him that this is a terrible idea because he will only be more reminded of the fact that she’s not around anymore. He admits this is precisely the reason why he agreed to meet Amadeus-Kurisu and isn’t that heartbreaking? In this episode the overall gloomy mood persists, although there are a few humorous moments here and there, too.
One of such moments happens just minutes after Rintarou meets Amadeus-Kurisu for the first time and Kurisu asks Maho to get closer to the speaker so she can ask something. It’s kind of implied that she’s assuming Rintarou and Maho’s relationship as something of a more romantic nature and and I found that really funny. It was also very different to see this Kurisu. Although, like Rintarou says, she has the same voice and the same looks, her demeanor is slightly different, she seems gentler somehow. Well, we did see some of this side of her in Steins;Gate, but it came much later in the show and it was more of a glimpse. It’s interesting to see that it was her default behavior with some people.
Rintarou also calls attention to the fact that her reply to the time machine question is different this time in comparison to when he met her in person. He asks himself if it might be because it’s a beta timeline, but personally I think it may have to do with events she experienced between her memories being stored for Amadeus and their meeting. It remains to be seen how they’ll tackle this, but for the time being I am pretty intrigued about them exploring that difference. There’s a glimpse of the old Rintarou here too, he gets worked up and calls her Christina, which embarrasses him and puzzles the researchers and Amadeus-Kurisu. It was a really nice moment and I look forward for more of them in the future.
Afterwards Rintarou is asked to talk to Amadeus-Kurisu more often and to give reports. He doesn’t seem very willing, but later on we learn he has the app on his phone. 
Towards the end of the episode Rintarou meets Mayuri who talks about organizing a birthday party for Suzuha. She gives him space to take a call and it’s from Amadeus-Kurisu who wastes no time in being a bit more like Rintarou (and I) remembered her. As he hangs up with tears in his eyes, the scene turns to Mayuri looking away from him with a concerned face. It’s obvious to me that there’s emphasis on the ever-growing chasm that now exists between these two and I’m wondering how the world will be put back to its rightful balance with them being close and happy and having fun.
I honestly can’t wait for next week!