Picking off shortly from last episode, Aramaki is talking with Interior Minister Daijinn. The revelation of police
illegally using technology to spy as well as the broadcast of the Laughing Man announcing he will kill General Daido is of course causing concern. Minister Daijinn says the Police are proceeding with caution and warms Aramaki to cooperate, and not to go to far in his investigation.
Meanwhile, Batou and Kusanagi are waiting in the car for Aramaki. Batou complains about how long the Chief is taking inside.
When thet notice Aramaki coming towards the car, Batou says how it looks like he had been lectured by Daijinn. Aramaki enters
the car, and Kusanagi asks if he was lectured. Aramaki explains the situation, how the public believes that the police HQ are
behind the Laughing Man's appearance (a way to get rid of the corrupt Daido), and so the police want to handle it. Kusanagi
asks if all they're going to do is watch the case happen on TV, and Aramaki (still annoyed from his meeting with Daijinn)
snaps back saying she's going to make her work for her pay. Batou barks and starts the car.
Back at Section 9 HQ, Aramaki has gathered all the team and announces to them how he believes that the Laughing Man incident at the conference last night was the Police Force's own doing. Everyone is a little taken aback. Batou says that no doubt the
police used interceptors, but it is too early to believe that they were the ones pretending to be the Laughing Man. Kusanagi
agrees, and asks why Aramaki thinks this way. Aramaki explains. The police Special Investigation Division have been watching
a man named Nanao Ei as a prime suspect in the Laughing Man case. In his college years, Nanao was involved in one of the
Liberation of Mankind Fronts, an extremist organization. They committed crimes, and Nanao was jailed. When he got out of
prison, he hid his past, and was hired as a programer by Serano Genomics. However, after a year, an anonymous report was
published revealing Nanao's past, and Serano fired him. This would be motivation to kidnap Serano's CEO. Recently, lots of
circumstantial evidence keeps appearing that could help convince a court that Nanao is the Laughing Man. The S.I.D first want to link Nanao to General Daido's assassination threat, and then they will arrest him.
Batou scoffs at all this, saying none of this evidence is conclusive, getting fired does not make him the Laughing Man, and aside form that, Nanao is just an ordinary worker. Aramaki agrees, saying it's easy to realize that appears to be a decoy - so why are the S.I.D following him so closely? Aramaki figures something else is going on deeper. Togusa mentions that Yamaguchi must have been killed because he found out too much. Aramaki says they must find out why the S.I.D is going after Nanao with such focus, and also keep an eye out on Nanao himself, gather info on him to see if he has some connection. Aramaki assigns Batou and Togusa so watch Nanao 24/7, and everyone else under the command of Kusanagi to look into Nanao's past.
Different members of the team do their tasks. Saito talks to a former friend of Nanao back in college, but he knows nothing.
He only says Nanao was very persistent, and a lot more extreme than he was, but he didn't know anyone more devoted to
politics than Nanao. Borma talks to a man at Serano who explains the micro machine code used by Serano was almost soley writen by Nanao alone, and the firing greatly benefited Serano, because they got full rights. The man feels sorry for Nanao, and actually feels like helping him. Paz speaks with an old Yakuza member, who explains Nanao tried to team up with the Yakusa once. The man speaks highly of Nanao, saying he was a genius who spoke up against authority. Ishikawa has been looking at all the data the S.I.D gathered on Nanao, and is amazed at the sheer quantity, finding this much data after this much time has past is very unusual. He contacts Aramaki to let him know it will take a while to sort through it all for clues. Aramaki tells him to do his best, as they have a deadline. Batou contacts Aramaki as well, complaing about the stakeout work that could just be left for the S.I.D. Nanao is only sending brief unimportant emails, and doing nothing else. If they wanted to arrest him, they could without incedent. They also can see the S.I.D in the apartment next door Nanao's, they are monitoring him as well.
While at home, Kusanagi decides to look at the original information on the first Laughing Man incident, the one that started
it all half a decade ago. Her other roommates are disappointed that Motoko won't spend time with them, and she's doing work
now.
Motoko watches an original broadcast of a live weather report. In the weather report, a man charges in front of the
cameras with a gun to the head of the Serano CEO, Earnest Serano. The man is in a raincoat zipped to the top, covering the
bottom his face. He has a hat that covers his head - this is the Laughing Man. He orders Serano to reveal "the truth" to
every one on this live broastcast. Serano refuses, saying Laughing Man won't shoot. Laughing Man hits Serano with the gun,
and points it at his head. The camera zooms in on Laughing Man, and the head is replaced the with Laughing Man face. Laughing
Man again orders Serano to tell the truth to the people. Serano refuses. Motoko finishes watching.
Motoko looks at the information. Earnest Serano had been kidnapped two days before the incident, but the media hadn't published it because of news censorship. Earnest Serano was kidnapped from his home by being cyberbrain hacked so he left by his own free will, and a ransom was demanded. However, after the demand, no contact was made with the kidnapper until two days later on the weather report camera. After Serano refused to reveal "the truth" the Laughing Man fled. The Laughing
Man had been hacking the camera so that the Laughing Man logo appeared over his face. Not only that, but he hacked everyone
else's cyberbrains in the vicinity so that to them it appeared he had a the Laughing Man face. When he was fleeing from the
scene, security cameras in the subway were also hacked so his face was covered, and he hacked everyone so no one could
identify him. The only people that saw his real face where two homeless men who had no cyberbrains (and they couldn't provide a good description.)
When witnesses to the crime were asked to draw a picture to help id the suspect, the cyberbrain hacking made them all draw the Laughing Man Face. The fact crime was so violent and severe, combined with the fact the face is so humorous and silly, made the whole incident very popular and famous, and created all sorts of subcultures. Motoko mulls over the facts some more. She notices how the incident with the Laughing Man face is very similar to the incident involving General Daido's assassination threat. If Laughing Man did this alone, he must be an incredible hacker, but Kusanagi thinks that as the whole kidnapping incident was actually very sloppy.
The Laughing Man never showed "himself" "in person" again, but he continued to send threats to Serano, saying he would put a virus into the production of the micro machines. Because of this, the production of micro machines for medical treatment stopped, and Serano's stocks dropped. The threats against Serano quieted down after this, as if The Laughing Man's goal had been reached. After this, The Laughing Man then used the same technique against six other micro-machine companies. Motoko is frustrated, after all this information, she really doesn't know anything about the Laughing Man. His real objective? his
race or age? if he's working alone? all unknowns. After the government gave funds to the businesses to help them out, the
Laughing Man simply disappeared. Motoko watches an old news program talking about the Laughing Man. The people on it discuss
more questions and theorys. They wonder what the Laughing Man was trying to get Serano to reveal, and one suggests that the
Laughing Man must be made up of multiple people, each working individually - A Stand Alone Complex.
Kusanagi goes to Aramaki, saying she wants to leave the Nanao case with Paz and Saito and instead watch General Daido. She
explains it's not that she doesn't believe that the police created the latest Laughing Man incident, but she thinks something
else is missing, and she needs to know what. Armaki is a little taken aback by this, but realizes that Section 9 is really
just a team of individual players, not one that works all together. He lets Kusangi go ahead with this. Aramaki contacts
Ishikawa, saying Paz and Saito are going to stop doing interrogations and join The Major. Ishikawa says that's fine, and
assigns all the work to Borma, who is amusingly annoyed as he's just about to eat.
Togusa and Batou are still watching Nanao. He's still just sending emails and doing nothing interesting. We cut to Nanao now,
his phone rings and he talks to someone on the other line. Nanao is in front of several computer monitors that have pictures
of the outside of his building on them, Nanao knows he's being watched by the S.I.D. He speaks in riddles on the phone, talking about his plans. He is up to something.
The graduation ceremony is starting, and General Daido arrives at the hotel (where the university graduation is being held) with a full police escort. The press are
everywhere, all very interested in what's going to happen. Kusanagi watches him, and listens to the police lines in the
building, though she notices a lot of static on them. She contacts Batou, asking him what Nanao is doing. Batou says he's
just sending short messages like always, but none contain any viruses. Togusa interrupts and tells Kusanagi that he's been
listening to the S.I.D's conversations (they are also monitoring Nanao, in the room next door at Nanao's building.) The S.I.D
is under a lot of pressure, there's some infighting, some want to move in and arrest Nanao now, while others want to wait
until he makes a move on the General. Meanwhile, Ishikawa is finished his information sorting. The testimonies on Nanao are
very contradictory, in fact, under close scrutiny it can be seen they are false memories, created by cyberbrain hacking.
Someone has been making these, which is why the S.I.D was so certain Nanao was the Laughing Man. It seems someone is trying
to pin the Laughing Man crimes on Nanao, but it also looks like these might have been created by Nanao himself, which is why
everyone spoke so complimentary of him. Is Nanao trying to make people believe he is the Laughing Man just so he'll be famous? Aramaki orders Batou and Togusa to capture Nanao.
Motoko contacts Saito and Paz and asks if they are picking up any noise on the police line, they respond that they aren't
getting any. Batou and Togusa charge past the S.I.D to go arrest Nanao, much to the dismay of the S.I.D officers. Batou
breaks down the down and he and Togusa charge in. The chair is turned away from them, and they announce he's under arrest.
When the chair turns around, it reveals what appears to be a sex doll. Nanao was never in that room to begin with, and
everyone has been monitoring a decoy. Away from this action, Nanao laughs to himself, he speaks about how he's now going to
be able to go down in history as the Laughing Man. Batou notices that the sex doll has an interceptor, and Nanao has been
watching through it, and the S.I.D, so he always knew what was going on. Back at the university Motoko realises that the noise she's been hearing is the cause of a virus. Nanao has been sending fragments of a virus over the police line. With that, Batou plugs into Nanao's computer, in an attempt to track him down, and Nanao starts to transmit the full virus from whatever location he might be at.
Trivia/Did You Notice?:
Motoko's relationship with the women at her home is in reference to her bisexuality in the manga.
Speaking of the manga, Motoko's dress uniform seen in this episode is also featured in the manga.
On Nanao's dosier (stock file) Section 9 looks up, under the section where it says if he's cyborged on it, it says he's "Implosive." What that means is anyone's guess.
