Now that we’ve gotten the prologue out of the way, we get our first major problem: locate future Mayuri’s adopted daughter Kagari. Apparently, Suzuha didn’t return to the past alone; she was joined by a little girl, but they got separated at some point in 1998. Suzuha had practically given up on Kagari, but then she saw this conspicuous necklace in a photo. Oddly enough, Mayuri’s adopted daughter appears to look a whole lot like Kurisu except obviously smaller. I thus can’t help but wonder if there’s a connection between the two (there probably is). Still, if she went missing back in 1998, then she should be a grown woman by now. Who knows what she would even look like these days. Plus, she didn’t disappear normally (if that makes sense). Kagari behaved oddly the last time she was with Suzuha. The latter was in the middle of fixing some Y2K problem and talking about changing the future when the little girl started zoning out. Kagari had a vision of a mysterious man (I think) saying something to her, then all of a sudden, she grabbed a gun and pointed it right at Suzuha: “You can’t do something like that.” Do something like what? Avoid WW3? Why wouldn’t Kagari want to avoid it? This makes me think that the little girl might have been some sort of unsuspecting sleeper agent. It seems odd to me that a child would not want to change the future in which her mother dies.

Anyways, this all comes about because Daru wanted to know what Suzuha had been up to lately. Seeing as how he wants to be such a good father, he turns around and asks Rintaro for help. Rintaro then enlists Amadeus, Faris, and even Ruka to the cause. I don’t know how you can expect to find a missing girl from 1998. You’d have more luck waiting for the girl to magically come to you, since there are no records whatsoever of her existence in the first place. After all, she’s from the future. As a result, there’s no reason why she would show up in any sort of missing persons database. But maybe Rintaro will get lucky. After all, a red-haired lady has dropped by Ruka’s house… could it be a grown up Kagari? That’s a little too convenient, isn’t it? Meanwhile, Daru has also requested help from a very familiar face. Rintaro is freaking out, but I dunno… I kinda like Moeka. After all, she killed Mayuri a whole bunch of times, so how can she be evil?

Misc. notes & observations:

— At the start of the episode, Rintaro finds himself in a dream within a dream. Then maybe another dream? Because he’s supposed to be at the Christmas party. As a result, when the guy finally finds himself back on the rooftop of his lab, he rushes back to the party to see if Mayuri is okay. She’s fine, but there’s something sinister about the whole thing.

— Hm, if he needs help with this, he should go to Ruka.

— I dunno how the animators could’ve made such an obvious perspective error here.

— Anyways, Rintaro later apologizes to Amadeus for hanging up on her, but she tells him it’s okay because he had called her right back afterwards. Huh? He did? And I thought it was Maho who hung up on Amadeus. Now I’m all confused. I literally went back and rewatched the ending to last week’s episode, and yeah… it was Maho who ended their conversation. What is Rintaro apologizing for? Amadeus even goes “Huh? Senpa–” Maybe we are in a different timeline…

— When Rintaro finally meets up with Alexis and Maho, we learn that the professor wants Amadeus to fall in love with the protagonist. That’s… bizarre. Maho doesn’t want Rintaro to treat Amadeus as if the AI is Kurisu, so shouldn’t she have a problem with this? Plus, I feel like we’re skipping a lot of steps. Maybe you should have Amadeus form other sorts of attachments first before working your way up to loving another person.

— Plus, you gotta wonder about the ethics behind such an endeavor. Even if you do manage to get Amadeus to fall in love, then what? If the AI is capable of being this human, then doesn’t it seem cruel to continue treating it like a test subject? There’s something very cold and heartless about Alexis. He doesn’t seem to have any regards for either Rintaro or Amadeus. They are just a bunch of lab rats to him. His friendly, jovial nature almost seems like he’s trying to overcompensate for his true nature.

— Plus, unless you’re Rintaro or Daru, all important male characters seem to be evil in Steins;Gate.

— Maho ominously adds, “Even if it came to that, Amadeus would never truly be a real girlfriend.” I don’t know what she’s even getting at. If she’s trying to say that Amadeus isn’t Kurisu, sure. But if she’s speaking from a broad point of view, I can’t agree with that. If an AI is capable of falling in love, why can’t it be a girlfriend?

— The girl has long suspected that Rintaro and Kurisu had a much deeper relationship than what he claims. She’s saddened by the fact that she never knew this side of her former friend. That’s fair. But this next part? Not so much: “I don’t even know her favorite words or numbers…” Yo, I don’t even have a favorite word or number. How many of us actually know our best friend’s favorite words or numbers?” Nevertheless, the girl takes a long, hard look at her laptop when she returns home for the day. Even though she’s been warning Rintaro not to treat Amadeus as if it’s Kurisu, she might be tempted to do just that.

— Daru at least seems thinner in the future, but he’s still wearing the same yellow hat. Plus, Mayuri wears the same dress she always wears.

— At least Rintaro seems to have taken Maho’s words to heart. Every time the AI does something that makes his heart skip a beat, he quickly ends the conversation. Still, how much longer can we keep this up? Certainly not the whole season, I hope.

— Still, this episode doesn’t feature a whole lot of conversations between Rintaro and Amadeus, so that’s a bit disappointing.

— I feel like Steins;Gate 0 is really making a concerted effort to play up Suzuha’s babe factor.

— If Ruka’s visitor is Kagari, it’s a bit silly that she also has a large chest. C’mon, guys.