Suppose in . Then in . Since is a differentiable convex function, its supporting inequality is
Take , and integrate. Part (i) shows that every energy is finite and that the fixed field belongs to , so
The last integral tends to zero by the definition of weak convergence in . Therefore
This is weak lower semicontinuity of convex gradient energies. It uses a fixed supporting gradient at the limit; weak convergence alone would not justify passing pointwise through the nonlinear integrand.