The chain of fickle overuse of D-mail earlier in the series is starting to take on some gravity as Hououin attempts to unravel the mess he’s got himself mired in. In episode 17 of Steins;Gate we get insight into the motivations and past actions of Feyris, the cosplaying competitive boardgamer.

Years ago in the original timeline, her father had donated an IBN-5100 computer to a local shrine, but subsequent changes have put the device out of our protagonists’ reach. Can they undo the damage they’ve caused? Nobody but Kyouma remembers the old continuity and he didn’t compose or send the D-mail himself. Once they figure out what was sent and why, an ethical dilemma presents itself.

This episode strayed perilously close to sappy and melodramatic territory, but didn’t quite cross the line. Kyouma is left with a greater appreciation for the repercussions of his actions.

A sci-fi show revolving around time travel? That doesn’t involve a TARDIS? That’s good? Yes! Still! Steins;Gate is running strong at 16 episodes, in defiance of my cynical expectations.

In this episode a personal mystery is unraveled, a 35-year-old bicycle changes hand, and somebody dies a long time ago. Good stuff.

After a young girl dies in an accident, her tight-knit group of friends drift apart. Years later, Yadomi Jinta is a recluse hiding away from the world. After skipping out on a semester of school, he is haunted by the memory of his lost friend. As he reconnects to the world, a touching story unfolds.

Eleven half-hour episodes of excellence. I rather admire that this series didn’t attempt to stretch itself out to an artificial “season” length. It took eleven episodes to tell the story properly, sometimes leaking into the end credits where things would have been too compressed otherwise. Highly recommended.

Spoiler: They never find out the name of the flower they saw that day.