Summary
The following contains spoilers for episode 18 of NieR Automata Ver1.1a, nowstreaming onCrunchyroll.
After successfully recovering A2’s memories, Pod 042 oversees her recovery. Finding herself in a village surrounded by docile machine lifeforms, she’s in more than disbelief. Though Pod 042 is now responsible for her, she has no authority over it, as it’s stillabiding by 2B’s wishes. Soon enough, however, A2 starts to warm up to the friendly machines, despite insisting that she’ll kill them. Meanwhile, 9S recovers in the Resistance camp thanks to Devola and Popula, who discovered him.
Before this, we never learned much about them, but players who are familiar with theNieRfranchise will be aware that the sisters are based on replicants of the same name, who were blamed for the extinction of humanity after the failure of Project Gestalt. Though he needs to rest, 9S goes to enact his revenge for 2B - however,he has yet to accept her death; as when he witnesses a Resistance member in a makeshift graveyard burying the dead, 9S refuses to acknowledge that he lost someone, when the former brings it up. Coincidentally, as he leaves, A2 herself recovers at the Resistance camp, where she finally reunites with Lily.
Stages of Grief
In previous episodes, it’s implied that 9S has an infatuation with humans, and attempts to imitate them in the form of making suggestions to 2B. Given the recent set of circumstances, his personality is actually quite similar to that of a human specific phenomenon, “the stages of grief”. Depending on the source, there are either 4, 5, or 7,but all have common stages, which consist of, anger, denial, bargaining, and acceptance. So far, 9S has experienced anger when he lunged at A2 in a rage. Now, he’s in a state of denial, as he refuses to accept 2B’s death but still holds on to his anger. Unfortunately, not everyone eventually overcomes grief, and 9S may end up being an example of that.
On the contrary, Lily and A2 have visibly reached the final stage and moved past it; Lily, taking up Rose’s role as the new leader, and A2 accepting her comrades' death, butcontinues to live on for their sake. What’s more, in A2’s case, after experiencing more clarity in her memories, her hard shell softens, and she begins to find a community in the machine lifeforms in Pascal’s village. While she could easily dismiss them, when they begin crying and saying she’s scary, A2 cheers them up by unceremoniously telling them how much fun she’s having - almost like a babysitter around children. This shows that A2 still carries that inner kindness her No. 2 self had, as stated by Lily when they reunite.
There’s no “I” in Team
Lily and A2 are glad to see each other again, but their circumstances have changed. While Lily willingly works with the machine lifeforms, A2 still despises them (and, to an extent, Lily as well). But despitetheir shared experiences, something is to be of note: Lily found new companionship in the other Resistance members, whereas A2 chose to isolate herself. But one thing’s for certain, at the end of the day, while experiences shape who we are, we’re still our own people. It’s only how we choose to live our lives that will dictate the outcome. And looking at A2’s change of heart now that she’s been exposed to a different perspective, it’s only proof that the best way to grow is to learn and empathize with one another.
