This week is very Devola and Popola-forward, starting with a storybook tale narrated by the twins of the original Devola and Popola, designed to be observers of Project Gestalt, the program to restore humanity that ultimately failed and led to their extinction. Popola laments that once again they were unable to protect anyone, and asks how long the feeling of regret will last.
Meanwhile, when the door to the Tower won’t open even with the passcodes, Nines goes into Hacking Mode, and finds…himself. Not a copy, but a previous version of him. This Nines takes him on a tour of various places where he shows him corpses of themselves. It eventually dawns on Nines that 2B, AKA 2E, executed him countless times.
She did this because it was her purpose, but Nines’ former self tells him he believes it was their purpose to be executed by 2B, in order to bring forth the current Nines. He’s a part of Project YoRHa that will lead to a new ending that hasn’t happened before (unless it happened in the game, which I haven’t played). But 2B also intended for him to be here.
Shortly after leaving Hacking, Nines is confronted by a group of hostile MLs, and he’s too damaged to even wield his sword. Fortunately, Devola and Popola come to his rescue and defeat the MLs, then heal his significant motor cortext damage. When more MLs arrive—a lot more—the three prepare to retreat into the Tower, but only Nines is able to enter.
Devola and Popola must hold off the MLs to cover Nines, and they do this because they have to “atone for their sins.” Those sins are those of their predecessors, the first Devola and Popola, the “great failures.” For some reason these two kind and helpful androids have been saddled with the immense regret borne of their belief they were the cause of humanity’s extinction.
When a heavily-damaged Popola’s eyes start to turn red to her sister’s horror, I just want to jump into the show and tell them that humanity is responsible for their own extinction. As was made clear before, one can’t survive without the other, so this looks like the end of their story. We’ll see what Nines can do in the Tower all by his lonesome.
