The first quarter of the 2-hour and 35-minute film is spent dealing with the fallout of the previous film. Shinji is just this side of catatonic: with his best friend killed violently before his eyes and everything he thought he knew turned upside down, it's no wonder he thinks that his every action just makes things worse.
Yet while Shinji is dealing with his most recent trauma, Rei begins to learn about life outside of Nerv. With a sense of child-like wonder, she starts the journey to becoming her own person—not just another “Rei Ayanami.”