A Certain Scientific Railgun T

Episode 10

For as much as episode 9 revealed, it was just the warm-up; this is where we find out the real truth about what's been going on so far this season. Or at least a good chunk of that truth, anyway.

About half of the episode is involved with Misaki's flashback to her childhood, when her Mental Out power was still being developed. Even though it's not explicitly stated in the episode, all presented clues point to the girl Misaki encounters, Dolly, being the prototype Misaka clone. (That would then make the name a clear reference to the first-ever cloned sheep.) Likewise, all of the clues presented point towards the friend Dolly mentions as having been a young Mitori Kozaku. That partially hints at why she may be so invested in the Sisters, though it also feels a like a couple of big pieces to the puzzle are missing there. Whether or not there are any consequences of that on the relationship between Mikoto and Misaki should be interesting to see.

Equally big is the revelation about the nature of Exterior: it's a giant brain grown from a piece of Misaki's own, and it's designed so that even someone without esper powers could use Misaki's Mental Out ability if properly registered. That's a very scary thought, and Mikoto might even be under-reacting to the enormity of what that means when she's startled by the revelation. Its origin means that Misaki can harness it herself in order to tremendously boost the range and number of potential targets for her powers. Both those factors make it quite clear why she's so eager to keep it out of the hands (figuratively speaking) of gensei Kihara. The problem is that, for all of her canniness and abilities at manipulation, she's still an amateur compared to an old fox like Ginsei. As he demonstrates here again, he's been at least a couple of steps ahead of her the whole time. Even adding another Level 5 into the mix only causes him to adjust his timetable a bit, especially since, as it turns out, he was actually after Mikoto all along. (His comment about her being Aleister's “favorite” is also plenty interesting.)

For as expansive and complicated as the Index universe is, the story does a remarkably good job of always having its foundations in previously-established events. Level Upper (from season 1) was effectively a set-up for allowing gensei to manipulate Exterior without having to register, and both that and getting access to the Misaka Network were set-ups for trying to force Mikoto to advance to Level 6 all in one shot, rather than progressively as was the case with Accelerator. Exactly why he wants to accomplish this is still unclear, as is how he expects to come out of this unscathed when he's right there as the energy from the Misaka Network is feeding into Mikoto, but I suspect we'll get a better inkling on that next episode. (And is that ribbon-like thing around her – a hagoromo, I think? – supposed to be suggestive of divinity?)

Since these events take place during the middle of A Certain Magical Index II we know that that effort didn't succeed, as Mikoto is fine and seems normal in later events. Thus how this is all going to be stopped is the mystery to be solved in the next episode or two. Touma seems likely to get involved, the Next Episode preview also shows Gunha and Kuroko, and Last Order passing out is sure to get Accelerator's attention. I am eager to see how that plays out.

Rating:

A Certain Scientific Railgun T is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.