History Recap / NeonGenesisEvangelionEpisode11TheDayTokyo3StoodStill

The JASDF, getting increasingly worried about NERV not answering their calls, finally decides to act. They issue an evacuation warning to Toyko-3, sending planes equipped with loudspeakers to spread the message that a threat is heading their way. Hyuga hears the message, and decides that he has to do something quickly.

* AlienAnimals: Matariel has the shape of a "daddy longlegs".
* BigBlackout: Matariel arrives conveniently in the middle of a daytime blackout. Since the power grid of NERV HQ had multiple backup systems, it HAD to be sabotage.

* BigBlackout

!!Tropes:

* MakesUsEven: Asuka's reason for taking the defense role.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: By inadvertently causing the BigBlackout in Tokyo-3, it leaves the city open for Matarael to attack.

Hyuga, in the meantime, has been busy on the surface and has commandeered an election propaganda van with its loudspeaker and uses it to ram into the barricades for NERV Headquarters. He uses the loudspeaker to warn everyone at NERV that an Angel is on the way. Upon receiving the message, everyone at NERV prepares to mobilize the Evas for launch manually. Even Gendo goes down to help the workers hoist the entry plugs up. The only thing missing from the whole plan are the pilots themselves. Said pilots soon come tumbling out of the ventilation ducts some time later. (At least, that’s the case for Shinji and Asuka. Rei actually lands quite gracefully.) Shinji is told by Ritsuko that the Evas have all been prepped and shows his father working with the other men on opening the entry plugs, something which surprises him. As the pilots enter their respective units, the Angel halts directly above NERV Headquarters.

The three Evas start climbing up a vertical shaft in order to fight the Angel. However, the Angel starts dripping acid down the shaft, causing the team to lose their weapons and forcing them to retreat and come up with another plan. Asuka comes up with a plan involving one person playing defense and shielding the others from the acid with their bodies, another person going down the shaft to retrieve the lost weapons, and the third person standing by to receive the weapon and open fire on the Angel. While Rei volunteers to play defense, Asuka actually tells them that ''she'' will play the part of defense while Rei fetches the weapons, saying that she needs to get even with Shinji for her rescue from the volcano. The plan is executed without any significant drawbacks and the Angel is defeated.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The situation NERV finds itself in demonstrates that they might be able to do a good job of fighting off Angels, but they are woefully vulnerable if [[Recap/NeonGenesisEvangelionEpisode25LoveIsDestructive a human force was to attack...]]

As the three pilots sit outside at night, Shinji notices how beautiful the stars can be without the interference of artificial light. Asuka, while agreeing, mentions that without electricity, the whole place looks abandoned. She feels much more comfortable when the lights go back on, leading Rei to say, “Man has always feared the darkness, and so he carves it away with fire.” Shinji asks if that’s why mankind is special and if that’s the reason why the Angels attack. Asuka dismisses the notion and simply states that there’s no way to know what those creatures think.

* {{Homage}}: The reference to ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951'' in the episode title is more than just skin-deep; Kaji, like Klaatu in the film, is responsible for causing a BigBlackout, and he ends up getting stuck in an elevator with Misato as a consequence of it, much like Klaatu gets stuck in an elevator with Helen.

Misato and Kaji, meanwhile, are trying to find a way of the elevator. Misato, having climbed up on Kaji's shoulders, attempts to open the maintenance hatch, but much to her frustration it won't budge. Just then, the back-up power finally kicks in, causing the elevator to start move again. The shock leads Kaji to loses his balance and falling over, causing Misato land on top of him in a rather compromising way. To add insult to injury, the two are found inside the elevator by Ritsuko, Ibuki, and Hyuga before they can get back on their feet.

As the three sit outside at night, Shinji notices how beautiful the stars can be without the interference of artificial light. Asuka, while agreeing, mentions that without electricity, the whole place looks abandoned. She feels much more comfortable when the lights go back on, leading Rei to say, “Man has always feared the darkness, and so he carves it away with fire.” Shinji asks if that’s why mankind is special and if that’s the reason why the Angels attack. Asuka dismisses the notion and simply states that there’s no way to know what those creatures think.

* {{Homage}}: The reference to ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951'' is more than just skin-deep; Kaji, like Klaatu in the film, is responsible for causing a BigBlackout, and he ends up getting stuck in an elevator with Misato as a consequence of it, much like Klaatu gets stuck in an elevator with Helen.

The JASDF, getting increasingly worried that NERV aren't answering their calls, finally decides to act. They issue an evacuation warning to Toyko-3, sending planes equipped with loudspeakers to spread the message that a threat is heading their way. Hyuga hears the message, and decides that he has to do something quickly.

!Tropes
* MakesUsEven: Why Asuka offers to be defense.

Hyuga, in the meantime, has been busy on the surface and has commandeered an election propaganda van with its loudspeaker and uses it to ram into the barricades for NERV Headquarters. He uses the loudspeaker to warn everyone at NERV that an Angel is on the way. Upon receiving the message, everyone at NERV prepares to mobilize the [=EVAs=] for launch manually. Even Gendo goes down to help the workers hoist the entry plugs up. The only thing missing from the whole plan are the pilots themselves. Said pilots soon come tumbling out of the ventilation ducts some time later. (At least, that’s the case for Shinji and Asuka. Rei actually lands quite gracefully.) Shinji is told by Ritsuko that the [=EVAs=] have all been prepped and shows his father working with the other men on opening the entry plugs, something which surprises him. As the pilots enter their respective units, the Angel halts directly above NERV Headquarters.

The three [=EVAs=] start climbing up a vertical shaft in order to fight the Angel. However, the Angel starts dripping acid down the shaft, causing the team to lose their weapons and forcing them to retreat and come up with another plan. Asuka comes up with a plan involving one person playing defense and shielding the others from the acid with their bodies, another person going down the shaft to retrieve the lost weapons, and the third person standing by to receive the weapon and open fire on the Angel. While Rei volunteers to play defense, Asuka actually tells them that ''she'' will play the part of defense while Rei fetches the weapons, saying that she needs to get even with Shinji for her rescue from the volcano. The plan is executed without any significant drawbacks and the Angel is defeated.

Misato is also experiencing some trouble as the power shuts down for the elevator. Ritsuko’s experiment shuts down as well. The backup circuits are not connecting so there is no backup power available. Elsewhere, Hyuga walks out of the laundromat, wondering out loud why he ever agreed to help Misato with her laundry, before he also notices the blackout as he stands at a street crossing and notices the crossing signal turn off.

Misato is also experiencing some trouble as the power shuts down for the elevator. Ritsuko’s experiment shuts down as well. The backup circuits are not connecting so there is no backup power available. Hyuga also notices the blackout as he stands at a street crossing and notices the crossing signal turn off.

As if on cue, the JASDF notice a foreign object moving towards Tokyo-3 from the former Atami region. However, the generals don’t concern themselves over it since they expect NERV to handle the situation. The “object” is the ninth Angel, Matarael, a giant harvestman-like creature, covered in eyes.

Shinji, Asuka, and Rei are, in the meantime, repeatedly trying and failing to get into some form of contact with NERV. They make up their minds to find some way into NERV and Asuka takes this opportunity to take charge of the group and act as leader. However, Rei seems to be the only one who knows anything about the structure of NERV’s facility and she decides that they should use one of the access ports for Route 07 which can be manually opened. They make progress even through all the unnecessary bickering. Asuka repeatedly tries to take control of the group but, in the end, always has to be corrected by Rei. Shinji, as usual, just takes a passive stance and follows the leader.

Back in the command center, Fuyutsuki deduces that the reason for the multi-system failure is because of someone wanting to figure out the layout of the facility through the gradual restoration process. Ritsuko offers to run a dummy program through the MAGI that would prevent anyone observing from getting the full picture.

Hyuga, in the meantime, has been busy on the surface and has commandeered an election propaganda van with its loudspeaker and uses it to ram into the barricades for NERV Headquarters. He uses the loudspeaker to warn everyone at NERV that an Angel is on the way. Upon receiving the message, everyone at NERV prepares to mobilize the [=EVAs=] for launch manually. Even Gendo goes down to help the workers hoist the entry plugs up. The only thing missing from the whole plan are the pilots themselves. Said pilots soon come tumbling out of the ventilation ducts some time later. (At least, that’s the case for Shinji and Asuka. Rei actually lands quite gracefully.) Shinji is told by Ritsuko that the [=EVAs=] have all been prepped and shows his father working with the other men on opening the entry plugs. As the pilots enter their respective units, the Angel halts directly above NERV Headquarters.

Ritsuko and Ibuki are picking up their clothes from the laundromat before the start of yet another day at NERV. Aoba joins them on the train ride into Headquarters with a guitar on his back. The trio also run into Fuyutsuki who is reading the newspaper. Ritsuko comments on how early the vice-commander is up. Fuyutsuki explains that he has to represent Commander Ikari uptown for the City Council meeting. He complains about the tedium of such an assignment and how Ikari always seems to push the most meaningless tasks to him. At Ritsuko’s remark of the city elections coming up soon, he clarifies that the whole exercise is ultimately meaningless. In truth, the government is run by the three MAGI supercomputers used by NERV. He comments that in a twisted sort of way it ''is'' a kind of democracy. Ibuki is delighted in being part of a city that she views as being "built on science" while Aoba has the exact opposite reaction. Fuyutsuki then casually mentions the Unit 00 activation test that Ritsuko will oversee and hopes to hear good news.

Some time later, however, the test does not seem to be going well as alarms go off and Unit 00 has to be powered down before it goes berserk like before. Ritsuko orders the reciprocal conversion rate to be lowered by 0.01 and starts the test over again.

* MakesUsEven: Why Asuka offers to be defense.

The three [=EVAs=] start climbing up a vertical shaft in order to fight the Angel. However, the Angel starts dripping acid down the shaft, causing the team to lose their weapons and forcing them to retreat and come up with another plan. Asuka comes up with a plan involving one person playing defense and shielding the others from the acid with their bodies, another person going down the shaft to retrieve the lost weapons, and the third person standing by to receive the weapon and open fire on the Angel. While Rei volunteers to play defense, Asuka actually tells them that ''she'' will play the part of defense while Rei fetches the weapons. The plan is executed without any significant drawbacks and the Angel is defeated.

----

Meanwhile, Shinji makes a call to an audibly irritated Gendo telling him that he was instructed by the school to talk to his parents about the career discussion interviews that will be happening at school. Gendo curtly tells him that he has delegated all of those duties over to Misato and tells Shinji to not waste his time again. However, near the end of the message Gendo begins to break up.

As the three sit outside at night, Shinji notices how beautiful the stars can be without the interference of artificial light. Asuka, while agreeing, mentions that without electricity, the whole place looks abandoned. She feels much more comfortable when the lights go back on, leading Rei to say, “Man has always feared the darkness, and so he carves it away with fire.” Shinji asks if that’s why mankind is special and if that’s the reason why the Angels attack. Asuka dismisses the notion and simply states that there’s no way to know what those creatures think.

As if on cue, the JASDF notice a foreign object moving towards Tokyo-3 from the former Atami region. However, the generals don’t concern themselves over it since they expect NERV to handle the situation. The “object” is the ninth Angel, Matarael.