What is happening at the start of episode 12 of Steins;Gate?


At the start of episode 12 of _Steins;Gate_ , Okarin and Mayuri have time
traveled 70 million years into the past. They are in an arid desert
environment which appears to be the inside of an hourglass. Mayuri says that
you could say that they are just one of many versions of themselves, but you
could also say that they were the originals. Shortly before dissolving into
sand, she says that their wills will carry on to the versions of themselves in
Akihabara 70 million years in the future.

In the future, Okarin snaps out of a daze, like he does when he time leaps.
Does that imply that Okarin remembers the incident? Was the incident symbolic?
If this was one of Okarin's attempts to save Mayuri, why didn't it happen in
the alpha/beta/gate timelines?




_Steins;Gate_ sort of uses the many-worlds time travel theory referenced by
[John Titor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor#Time_machine). There are
many discrete worldlines, like parallel universes. When Okarin leaps to the
past, he is moving from one worldline to another; his actions do not affect
the future in the worldline he leaped from, only the future of the one he is
currently in. The worldlines exist independently. Kurisu talks about this
briefly in episode 22, shortly before Okarin time leaps.

This is why Okarin and Suzuha can use the

> time machine to travel to the past twice and not run into other time
> traveling versions of themselves; both times they traveled to the past they
> landed in a different worldline.

When we see the scene from 70 million years ago, we are seeing a version of
Okarin and Mayuri who have traveled to the show's current worldline from a
separate worldline we didn't see.

They would have had to travel using

> Suzuha's time machine. SERN's experiments and Okarin's nightmarish memory
> showed that sending physical objects through time turns them into gel. The
> time machine appears to offer protection against this.  
>  
>  It is unclear why they traveled so far back into the past; perhaps the time
> machine malfunctioned.  
>  
>  Mayuri had to explain to Okarin that they were 70 million years in the
> past. Suzuha also lost her memory when using the damaged time machine. It is
> unclear why Mayuri retained her memory. Perhaps her reading ability is quite
> strong; she displayed knowledge of alternate worldlines on multiple
> occasions.

