Summary:

Since Telestina has taken responsibility of the children, Kuroko thinks that everything has been settled, but Mikoto still wonders if she did the right thing. Saten urges Uiharu to go visit Haruue, but Uiharu decides to go see Kiyama first. She tells Kiyama about Haruue and then urges Kiyama to bring the data she has to Telestina and the MAR group. Unfortunately, once they get there, Telestina refuses to let them see Haruue or any of the children, and she destroys the data in front of them. What really drives Kiyama crazy is learning that Telestina’s full name is Telestina Kihara Lifeline, but Telestina is easily able to subdue her and forces the two to leave. Uiharu’s friends don’t realize that something is wrong until after they call her and hear her crying, and Konori’s research reveals that Telestina is actually the old man Kihara’s grandchild. What’s more, they find out that Telestina was the first test subject in her grandfather’s experiment. After Kuroko slaps some sense into her, Uiharu tries to figure out where the children were taken, but Mikoto heads out by herself before anyone can stop her.

Mikoto finds the children being moved right as she arrives at the MAR facility, but she’s more interested in confronting a power-suit equipped Telestina. When Telestina laughs at and taunts her, Mikoto tries to user her power, however this is hindered by a Capacity Down system. It turns out that Telestina was the one who originally developed Capacity Down as well, and it prevents Mikoto from putting together any significant attack. Instead, she has to avoid getting hit by Telestina’s grenade launcher and then gets choked unconscious, though Telestina first reveals that her goal is to finish what her grandfather started. Telestina doesn’t kill Mikoto however and instead has her subordinates capture Mikoto to be use as a guinea pig. After Telestina leaves though, Kongou Mitsuko – who had heard the commotion earlier – saves Mikoto. Thanks to her, Mikoto wakes up sometime later in the hospital surrounded by her friends. She feels that this was all her own fault and takes it upon herself to stop Telestina, but Saten stops her and makes her realize that she’s got friends too. Saten also has Uiharu and Kuroko make up, and the girls then return to their Judgment office. They try to get Yomikawa and the Anti-skills involved and are subsequently able to track the MAR trucks carrying Haruue and the other children. The satellite images also reveal that Kiyama’s car is following those trucks, and so the girls get ready to head out.

Preview

Not surprisingly (at least not to me), Telestina turned out to be the villain. What I did find a bit odd was the fact that she turned so drastically down the road of crazy. All signs had pointed to her being a very manipulative woman who liked to operate from behind-the-scenes, but I didn’t think she’d show herself to be a complete lunatic if given the chance. The J.C.Staff crew certainly gave her some great facial expressions during the fight with Mikoto, and I guess they’re trying to make it easier for the audience to turn against her given how she had been fairly nice up until now.

On that note, I also was very happy to see all the action in the latter half of this episode, and I think Mikoto would have no problem handling Telestina if the Capacity Down system weren’t around. Perhaps that’s how they plan to show the importance of friends working together next week – and who knows, maybe even Touma will show up! Speaking of friends, I felt no sympathy towards Uiharu when she was crying halfway through the episode, and I was actually cheering a little when Kuroko slapped her because it’s exactly what I was hoping someone would do. Saten making everyone reconcile was a nice moment too, and I’m glad they’re not dragging that subplot out into the finale next week. It’s too bad the preview didn’t reveal anything, but as I alluded to above, I’m sure the theme of friends will be important, especially given the finale episode title.

43 Comments

  1. I actually liked this episode a lot, which is suprising becuase I was actually sorta bored with this whole arc. I was hoping for some epic Biribiri action where she’ll kick that Telestina’s ass but I’ll just have to wait til next week, huh?

    And damn, those were some troll faces Telestina had there. Telestina = Beato? :O

    xDD

    amandaa23
  2. didn’t touma lose his memories some time before ep19? he didn’t seem to recognize her when he bumped into her behind stage during that episode. and if he did show up in the finale, i wonder what capacity down would do his abilities…

    valdor
  3. I wonder if they’re gonna put an insert song for next week’s battle. Since they used “only my railgun” in the LU arc, “Level 5 – judgelight” would be nice this time.

    pierce
  4. @Valdor
    touma’s ability isnt like other espers so I really doubt capacity down would do anything more than make him dizzy.

    on the other hand this episode was 100% pure win.

    (was sad to see Uiharu get slapped even though she might have needed it 🙁

    FallenRock
  5. Kihara…Kihara…I wonder if she/her grandpa is related to Kihara Amata from the Level 6 Experiments with Accelerator. That bloodline must be whack.

    NEED MORE LONG RANGE RAILGUN SHOOTING!! screw the freaking sound waves. also, Touma would be useless against all those Gundam/powersuits they keep building.

    xcswmboy
  6. Well about the radical change in the personality of Telestina do not forget she was used in the experiments that power surge in her should turn her into a bit of a power hungry lunatic . And her evil grin is just perfect .

    dominus
  7. @dominus
    Don’t forget she’s a Kihara and she’s just like her grandfather, they both may look nice but in reality are evil maniac scientists. Heck in runs in the family.Show Spoiler ▼

    MrTerrorist
  8. Man, that Telestina’s gone crazy like her grandfather! Damn bitch busted Kiyama’s USB drive! First subject of grandpa’s experiment resulted her in the crazies. Her facial expressions were creepy and insane! Given her confidence toward Mikoto (and using a powersuit with Capacity Down), she’s gotta be at least a Level 4. Completing the Ability Body Crystal will probably let her become a Level 6.Maybe we’ll get to meet the old crazy man pulling all the strings, and have Heaven Canceler punch him in the face! Uiharu needed that slap from Kuroko, and Saten (she is officially the leader of their team!) makes them drop all the baggage, while getting Mikoto to wise up. Too bad we didn’t get to see Kongou use her Aero Hand ability, maybe next episode she’ll create a tornado! Oh, and Touma would be at a severe disadvantage since powered suits aren’t negated by his Imagine Breaker; Telestina would blast him up and grab him by the neck like she did to Mikoto.

    samu
  9. Kihara family values… Power, knowledge, and both at any coost?
    Anyway, props to Saten for fixing everyone’s attitudes!
    And the facial expressions of Telestina were equal of best Beato puts in Umineko!
    Her strangling of Misaka was reminding me of Vader in New Hope with poor rebel officer…
    Overall, great episode. Also, I hope they get some Skill-out support because with capacity to shut down all esper powers Telestina and her mecha-armored mooks will be hard nut to crack for the Scooby- erm, Railgun gang. I can imagine Saten sneaking up and smashing the soundspeakers with her bat, to allow her esper friends full use of their powers, but some conventional guns can be needed too.

    ewok
  10. this epi uiharu is so annoying~ cry cry cry /swt
    nice job kuroko ~ slap XD
    i wonder why they got to searh info so hard ?[not reli hard but took some time]
    They can just ask misaka hack in and find info easy .

    KWeng
  11. Finally, all the loose bits are tying up nicely together. Capacity Down, once forgotten by some, is now nicely reintroduced.

    As expected, Telestina is the queen bitch here, credit to the animators for her twisted expression and Ohara Sayaka for giving her a great maniacal laughter.

    I see Kuroko giving Uiharu the “Brightslap (TM)”, which applies well to girls like Uiharu as well, it seems.

    http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7978/87601brightslap1super.jpg

    But Saten takes the ultimate spotlight by putting everyone back in their place. Not bad for a Level 0 esper, you go girl.

    Is anybody bothered by how they omitted showing how Kongo rescued Mikoto? Wonder if they’ll show just how awesome her power is if she can save her from so many mechas?

    Kinny Riddle
  12. For such a serious episode, I sure laughed a lot. When Kiyama made the manic-depressive face here:

    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2010.jpg

    I was surprised that she was defeated so easily. However, it’s because her opponent upped the psycho-face ante:

    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2025.jpg

    There was also the bitch-slap, Kongou’s inability to take a compliment and Saten’s baseball bat as her weapon of choice. So, lots of lulz. In any case, I was surprised how quickly everything spiraled into crazy Academy conspiracy. I’m not sure what happens after the Index anime, but both of these series built of the city itself as the villain. Hopefully the sequels will build up the atmosphere with a bit more paranoia.

    AuroraFlame
  13. I really liked this episode but there was 1 thing I didn’t like. Telestina came unhinged so fast that its impossible she would be able to have held the position she has and ridden it to the top to control everything and in the blink of an eye went stark raving crazy. Somebody somewhere would have seen that happen. I too kept thinking of Beato when she was making the crazy faces.

    At any rate it would be cool if Kiyama gets to rip some of her hair out to return the favor or better yet pulls out an electric razor and shaves the bitch’s head bald. I like her character and think of her more as a good guy then a villian.

    Splash
  14. I really could hear Beatrice from Umineko in Telestina’s voice, with all the cackling and “just TRY and see if you can do anything to stop me, AHAHAHAHAHA!!” attitude. I wonder if they decided to give Telestina her troll faces because they were influenced by Umineko… Sayaka Ohara ftw.

    I absolutely HATE the Kihara family. They’re all screwed up. Kihara Gensei, Kihara Amata, and Telestina Kihara Lifeline should go die for all the inhuman experiments they’ve performed
    Show Spoiler ▼

    As for Uiharu being slapped, I think we all saw that coming. I actually felt glad that Kuroko slapped her. It’s a bit mean, but I think she deserved it.

    akani
  15. Finally! This damn filler fest will be over. This series has been a letdown for me, was it so hard to just follow the manga? Seriously did we have to go from filler arc to filler arc? meh. Can I get Index season 2 now finally?

    GP
  16. Looks like I wasn’t the only one cheering when Kuroko slapped her, wished it happened sooner though.

    And let Telestina snapping like that be a lesson, the super nice ones are always insane.

    Firefly
  17. Saten !!!! yay I love her so much by bringing the group together. Telestina need to die after kicking Kiyama in the gut. I did post like 3 episodes back that Kongou will be part of this 🙂 Cant’t wait … time please fly!!!

    @Alec
    Hamy!!!!! don’t die. That series should get the dead galore prize at the end of the year. Because Noloty killing was so wrong.

    Island Esper
  18. Cool episode, kinda. Mikoto going on her personal vendetta annoyed me, as always. Shirai’s voice makes me die inside, as usual.

    Also, I don’t get the Uiharu hate going on. Out of the four main characters, she’s easily the second less annoying, after Saten of course.

    UnrealJason
  19. I love the picture of Misaka at the end of this entry!
    This episode was very interesting. I’ve loved Railgun all the way through, I’m sad to see it end next week. But it didn’t surprise me that Telestina turned out to be a villain either.
    I LOLd at her facial expressions so hard though.

    Cat
  20. So first sample is Telestina? Bah… they had such a good oportunity to link towards the Sisters and they blew it. Ever episode after the end of level upper has been bad…

    RyougaZell
  21. Oh god that was so corny..
    This crap will end with all the same shounen bullshit we’ve already seen 9000 times (power of friendship, generic villain, useless character doing something important, etc..)
    This series managed to be even worse than Index, and I thought that was impossible..
    GJ, JCStaff

    sabin
  22. @sabin
    Something tells me you are not very convincing in your complaining; if you don’t like it, why bother to watch it in the first place? If you really hate this series then you would have dropped it long ago.

    If there was meant to be a Sisters subplot they would have done so much earlier in the series. Having them pop up at the end would be a rather strange thing since not everyone is familiar with Index and therefore won’t know what they are about.
    I liked this episode; Uiharu got the slap she deserved (apparently it was physically painful for Kuroko as well XD ) and it showed that Mikoto is just as vulnerable as anyone when she has no control over her powers.

    Luke
  23. regarding Mikoto’s vulnerability –

    Evil overlord handbook:
    * I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way — even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless — my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.

    Saten and her bat!
    OFC here is a role reversal with villain disabling heroine’s superpowers, but you get the idea…

    ewok
  24. Trained judgement, Level 5 esper, whatever, they are all 13-14 years old girls after all. They are not always stable mentally and easily make wrong decisions, like Saten with level upper or Kuroko with that “I have done nothing wrong here” attitude. They are, just immature. But they all are very lovable kids we can cheer for. I guess that’s all about this show.

    DC/AC
  25. I don’t mind the filler or the relative lack of action in this series. I’m not much into fighting series per se, so when I do watch them it’s for some other reason – usually because I like the characters, or because the stuff in between the fighting is sufficiently enjoyable. Between that and the fact that I like the characters in this series substantially more (and I especially despise Touma, although the incidents with him and Misaka can be quite amusing), I’ve enjoyed this series much more than Index.

  26. tell me i’m not the only one who knew telestina was the villain from the moment she showed up in the second opening? it kind of irritated me how supercrazy she went all of a sudden, like an audience can’t root against a villain that’s calm and collected. it felt completely out of character for telestina to snap like that.

    dietotaku
  27. Yeah, but in Index novel, we have another guy named Kihara who I assume are related with the old bastard and his bitch granddaughter. And he talked trash just like Telestina did here when he had a fierce fight with Accelerator. I guess this is her true color and calm and collected side of her is just a fake personality.

    DC/AC
  28. Telestina reminded me of Takano from Higurashi from the get-go. Superficially friendly and helpful, but oozing subtle malice. I was fooled when in ep22 it was revealed Kiyama-sensei was creating (accidentally) poltergeist effect. I presumed earlier Telestina got the kids and was experimenting on them, while Kiyama is searching for them.

    ewok

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