I think point of the episode was to show that it is very difficult for humans to fight their subjective sense of reality. Rationally, Souta knows and understands that Holon is not a woman and not even human. Her gender could be switched any time and it only takes a minor customization to activate the “love” program. Apparently, she isn’t even special and just a standard model. However, emotionally Souta can’t fully accept this. She looks and behaves a human woman most of the time. It’s a bit like the equivalent of an optical delusion where you see - very clearly - things that are - very clearly - not there. You have to use rational thinking to transcend the limits of your senses.

This was similar to the ELIZA episode except that this time it was more about emotions and it didn’t explicitely any scientist or scientific works as far as I noticed. There are of course AI-related projects that try to understand emotions and conscience through simulations.

Souta can’t crush Holon because he has a crush on her. I’m convinced that Holon only cried because she’s excellent at analyzing situations and supporting her master. She had already revealed that she (as an android) understood why Souta couldn’t beat her. Which was kind of funny because Souta hadn’t even realized this yet - or was fighting to accept this idea. Thus, Holon cried because she knew that Souta needed this emotional support to get ouf of his lock and win the fight.

I’m not usually interested in fight scenes, but the fights in this series are amazingly cool. Well-thought out ‘choreography’ to them, and a refreshing lack of any gravity-defying superpowers or l33t ninja skillz.

I also got a kick out of the android’s protocols stopping her from drowning Souta, but then she happily goes back to pummelling him senseless once he’s up. :)