// Episode Guide

This serves as a quick reference guide for those people with a specific episode or event in mind, but who cannot remember which episode that was. Episode plots are completely given away, so please don't proceed if you want to be surprised. Spoiler-free story summaries can be found on Wikipedia.

** SPOILERS GALORE! **

// #13 NOT EQUAL

Type: Stand Alone. Title: Unequal Terrorist -– NOT EQUAL

Decades ago, an early cyberized girl was kidnapped by an extremist organization protesting cyberbrain technology. Recently, she has appeared on an oil rig, looking unaged. Section 9 goes covert to investigate.
This is a really action-packed episode, with gunfights, explosions, and all that firepower.
The oil rig is a self-sustaining marketplace with an electic mix of bizarre people and goods. Also, the Section 9 members look good in their casual combat/civilian gear.
Funny moment: A merchant gets scared when Batou is yelling at him, not realizing that Batou is taking a call inside his head. It's like when we get confused hearing people talk on their wireless headsets. It's amusing to see a technology-related misunderstanding that commonly occurs in our world as well.
Surprise twist: The girl who looks like the original hostage is actually the hostage's dauther and the new leader of the extremist group. The mother's age has accelerated due to the trama that happened during her life. Many questions are presented, but ultimately left unanswered.

// #14 ¥E€$

Type: Stand Alone. Title: Automated Capitalism -– ¥€E$

After breaking up a Chinese criminals hideout, Section 9 discovers a billionaire investing recluse is the target of an assassination plot. Section 9 races to intercept the assassin at the target's mansion, as no one can get ahold of him to warn him.
Surprise Ending: The investor is already dead. No one noticed because he was a recluse who used an automated program to run his business for him.
There is an immense amount of symbolism regarding money. The assassin used coins in a shotgun as ammo, to kill the target with irony. The investor dies among his piles of gold, though alone and unnoticed by the world. As they take the body away, Togusa puts a single coin in the body bag, "to pay the ferry across the River Styx." You can make all the money in the world, but in the end, you won't be taking it with you.

// #15 MACHINES DESIRANTES

Type: Stand Alone. Title: Time of the Machines –- MACHINES DÉSIRANTES

Another tachikoma-centric episode, and the last for a while. The tachikoma get into general mischief around the base and ponder the concept of existence.
This episode is a goldmine of philosophy, as the Tachikomas spend most of the time discussing the line between humans and machines. Batou sports a hilarious "What..." expression when his favorite Tachikoma starts discussing individuality, god, death, and having a soul.
One of the Tachikomas loves to read paper books, and is a bit of a black sheep. In this episode, it is reading the novel Flowers for Algernon - fitting, since that book concerns the theme of the conflict between intelligence and happiness.
Ending: The Major calls Batou in to discuss the Tachikoma's increasingly troublesome behavior, noting the camoflaged one spying on them as an example. They're developing individuality and egos. As weapons, they're dangerous to Section 9. So they're being sent back to a R&D lab.
This has been foreshawdowed subtly but numerous times before, such as with the runaway Tachikoma in Ep 12 and the tachikoma abandoning her duties in Ep 14.

// #16 AG2O

Type: Stand Alone. Title: Chinks in the Armor of the Heart –- Ag2O

Batou goes undercover to investigate a former Olympian boxer who is suspected of being a spy.
The boxer's name, Zaistev, is a homage to Vasily Zaytsev, a Soviet sniper in World War II.
Batou befriends Zaitsev by sparring with him at the gym, meeting his lovely wife at home, and going out for drinks. All while trying to catch him hacking and stealing information.
There is continuity with the next episode, as it is mentioned that Aramaki is in London.
No surprise ending here. Zaitsev was a spy, and Batou arrested him after defeating him in a boxing match. The real beauty was in the execution of the episode. Batou's and Zaitsev's friendship is developed, their personalities are fleshed out, making it all the more difficult when Zaitsev is caught.

// #17 ANGELS' SHARE

Type: Stand Alone. Title: True Reason for the Unfinished Love Affair - ANGELS SHARE

Aramaki and the Major visit London on business, where Aramaki takes a break to visit a former love interest, who works at a wine bank.
Aramaki and the woman are taken hostage when the bank is robbed, and a Mafia money laundering scheme is revealed.
This is an Aramaki-centric episode where Aramaki demosntrates his veteran expertise by masterfully coercing the robbers to follow his instructions and hiding everyone in a hidden wine cellar, thus avoiding execution by a corrupt police and security officials.
The Major uses her cleavage to distract a soldier and steal his uniform. This mirrors an earlier conversation she has with Batou about why she use with a female body as opposed to a physically stronger male body.
The father-daughtter relationship between Aramaki and the Major is emphasized here. It is demonstrated by his trust in her ability to discover the hidden cellar, her recognition of his feelings for the former flame, and their friendly repretoire at the ending.

// #18 LOST HERITAGE

Type: Stand Alone. Title: Assassination Duet - LOST HERITAGE

The team must race to find and stop an assassin who plans killing a visiting politian during a public ceremony. The main suspect is the young son of Aramaki's old war buddy, the Colonel.
It is revealed that the son has downloaded the consciousness of this father from a terminal. The two ghosts combined, fusing the military expertise of the father with the reckless desire for revenge of the son.
There is a cute scene where the Major chastises Togusa for entering a woman's room without knocking.
Surprise Ending: After the views see the son assassinate the politican by blowing up a bomb at close range, we learn that the explosion was a fake memory. The son was captured after the Major read the Colonel's files and discovered his recommended method was a suicide mission. The son's mind is so mentally unstable that a fake memory of a successful kill was necessary to stablize him. He now lies in a coma and it is unknown who he will be once he awakes.
Consistent theme: Like original Ghost in the Shell movie, this episode reinforces the concept of letting of constrained identities and the acceptance of a new existence. Like how the Major creates a new identity after merging with the Puppetmaster in the movie, both the Colonel and the team warn others that this combination of father and son is no longer individually identifiable.
Coincidence: The father's take over of his son is similar to the the relationship between Ras Al Ghul and Talia in the Batman Beyond western animated series.
Theme: While the merging of two ghosts is a haunting use of GitS technology, it could also be symbolic of how parents try to live vicariously through their children. The resulting burden usually ends up psychologically harming the child and resulting in disappointment for the parent.