The Ghost In The Shell Episode 3 Recap: What Does Major Believe About Her Existence?

As the most faithful adaptation of the iconic sci-fi masterpiece, Science Saru’s “The Ghost in the Shell” perfectly blends humor and fan service with heavy themes, philosophical musings – as perfectly shown in the latest episode.  Previously, Aramaki formed the Shell Squad with Major Kusanagi in the lead, and the team started investigating Gavel Republic military junta leader Col. Malles, who had sought asylum in Japan while secretly funding pro junta factions with his hold on the country’s platinum reserve. An elusive master hacker known only as the Puppet Master, was presumed to be helping Malles, and one of his lackeys infected Japan’s foreign minister’s translator with an AI virus to ghost hack her, prompting Major and her team to go on a hunt. Togusa and Major find the hacker responsible for infecting the translator, who nearly manages to slip away donning a camo suit.

Spoilers Ahead

Do Shell Squad Catch Puppet Master?

The beginning of the third episode picks right from where the previous one ended, riding her AI robot  Fuchikoma, Major goes after the hacker and after a point, decides to directly get in the field by ditching her ride. Swinging around the building like an urban vigilante, Major is able to corner the perp on the street, when he creates a ruckus by lying to the crowd about her intentions. As the crowd gathers around Major, the scoundrel shoots a person to make the situation even more chaotic, and begins rampantly shooting around. One of the bystanders fearfully grabs on to Major for help, making it impossible for her to go after the perp. The excessive usage of guns by both Major and the hacker is a commentary on the increasingly troubling nature of authorized violence.

Togusa arrives at the right moment, and seeing the hacker has gone completely berserk, tries to take him down by shooting at his head. However, knowing that they need to extract intel from the hacker, Major uses Ghost Key on Togusa to control his aim, and has him shoot the hacker in a non fatal way. Major is shot by the hacker, but thanks to her cybernetic body, she remains unharmed. Later, Togusa expresses his dismay over Major taking control over his body, and even though she is not proud of her actions, it was a necessary decision. Major mentions the Ghost Key will be used to extract intel from the detained hacker, and he will be ‘cured’ of his ‘dangerous side’ which basically means personality alteration. Irrespective of whether this is a necessary step or not, it surely raises ethical questions about authoritative control. 

Major reaches out to Chief Aramaki and Batou, who are leading a cavalry of Shell Squad operatives and are waiting in the wilderness nearby Col. Malles’ mansion. The infamous Puppet Master arrives to meet Malles, and Nakajima, who’s the intelligence department mole. Unaware about the fact that the Shell Squad is silently infiltrating the mansion as they speak, Puppet Master spills all the beans that the hacker nabbed by Major was just a puppet with a fake personality of being an ex-hitman installed in his mind. This master hacker uses humans as disposable tools to create chaos, knowing full well that his subjects can never spill his secrets as they have no recollection of meeting him and he can kill them in an instant using the control key he has over them. Malles has been using Puppet Master’s service, and so is Nakajima, who is defrauding the intelligence department funds to pay him. 

Aramaki leads the Shell Squad to surround the trio, and Nakajima makes a vain attempt to pretend that he was working undercover to expose Malles. Major uses the Ghost Key on him to extract intel later, and Aramaki reveals to Malles that he will be sent back to Gavel Republic. Knowing that this implies certain death, Malles tries to bribe Aramaki, to no avail. As it turns out, like the killer hacker, the garbage truck driver of the previous episode was Ghost hacked as well, and his whole background of having a troubling family life was a concocted story inserted through his fake personality by Puppet Master. In fact, Major deduces the flashy buffoon pretending to be Puppet Master is just another puppet in the hands of the real one, who obviously won’t risk exposure like this. The garbage truck driver is in tears upon knowing his memories were lies which can’t be erased. During a conversation with Major, Aramaki reveals that these simulated experiences and dreams are  simultaneously real and illusion, and Major aptly comments just like fiction which can alter reader/ viewer’s perspectives despite not being real.

Fuchikoma Fever Dream: The Question About Sentience and Identity

The second segment of the narrative focuses on Shell Squad’s trusted, versatile AI robots, Fuchikomas, who are sentient in nature. They have individuality but also share a hive mind like network consciousness, which is shown the way they dream together. As the Fuchikomas dream of spending leisurely time on a tropical island, one of them proposes the idea of rising against humans. They believe themselves to be better in every way, and in a sense they are virtually immortal – they will be better off by exterminating human civilization. However, as they debate pros and cons of such a decision, one of them mentions that if they indeed manage to wipe humans away, they have to do their own maintenance, which is a hassle. Given humans already do that for them, the question regarding whether a revolution is even needed is asked by many. Right at that moment, the leader Fuchikoma, who proposed the idea of revolution, ends up showing that he was inspired to revolt from the memories of “Empire Strikes Back,” making it seem it failed to differentiate between simulation and real world. The other Fuchikomas start taunting him by calling her system bugged, the Fuchikomas wake up and the planning of revolution is quelled even before it had any legs. Viewers will find this Fuchikoma dream sequence to be somewhat similar to Neil Gaiman’s “Dream of a Thousand Cats” from “Sandman”. 

The biggest shocker drops when it is revealed that Major hacked the mind of one of the Fuchikomas to deliberately propose the idea of revolution, only to have the proposition sabotaged later. This is a contingency plan to keep the sentient AI robots in check, as keep the possibility of real revolution at bay. Really makes you think that as a ‘human’, Major’s decision to manipulate the Fuchikomas is not so different to oppressive governments, tyrants who manipulate narrative to keep holding on to power. Batou goes on a walk with one of his Fuchikomas, who asks him whether Fuchikomas aka AI robots have their rights as well. Batou agrees, but remains ambivalent, likening their situation with human condition, that we too have our rights but that doesn’t make the lives of downtrodden less insignificant. The Fuchikoma’s childlike curiosity and innocence, and Batou’s conversation with him makes it hard to keep it in mind that the AI robot lacks the ‘Ghost’ which keeps its sentience, its identity from being fully recognized. 

What Does Major Believe About Her Existence?

The final segment shows Major going to a cybertech enhancement lab where one of her girlfriends is getting a new prosthetic body, laced with the most advanced tactile and sensory upgrades. Major shows her amazement at the fact how fast, clinical and efficient the whole process of getting a completely new body has become, and as her friend is being treated with haptic bio films and micromachine fluids, the inevitable question is raised in the mind of the viewers as to whether this person is even human or a sentient AI android. The nurse, who is also one of Major’s friends, feels the prospect of integrating sophisticated physical enhancement to be exciting, and it turns out their friend who underwent full body modifications is a human after all. 

Later, while spending time with her girlfriends, Major can’t help but share a suspicion which often plagues her mind – she often thinks that the ‘real’ she died long ago, and her current form is just an advanced AI simulation with prosthetic body. Her girlfriends try to ease her mind by mentioning she still has a brain and is treated like a human being, which should be proof enough of her existence as a human. However, existential dread has taken a hold over Major’s mind, as she reveals she can’t be sure of that as she has never seen her own brain, and with how things are, trusting on what she sees is not possible, mere sights and experiences aren’t absolute proof of anything. Major’s questions reflect on the nature of reality and identity in a time when lines between humans and artificial intelligence have become blurred, and her nurse girlfriend, visibly scared, asks her to stop killing the vibe as the episode concludes. Undoubtedly, the third episode is the best one so far, and hopefully as Puppet Master’s mystery intensifies, more such discourses take place in upcoming chapters. 

...