Shogun returns with a triumphant eighth episode that sets in motion a masterful conclusion. The series regains momentum with its best episode in weeks as Toranaga’s ultimate plan is revealed in the face of tragic losses and a devastating major character death.
Score: 10
Priests and Prostitutes
After 4 episodes in Ajiro, Shogun was beginning to feel stuck. Happily, episode eight restores momentum to the series and erases that drift entirely. After his outburst against Toranaga’s surrender in episode 7, Blackthorne has lost his hatamoto status but now has the opportunity to regain his ship and crew. With Nagakado’s death, Toranaga and his retinue have been permitted to return to Edo to hold the young man’s funeral. Meanwhile, seemingly ill and driven to despair, Toranaga has disengaged from his fight against the council and repeatedly tells his vassals he will accept imminent death.
This leads dissent to fester among the ranks. At Nagakado’s funeral, several of Toranaga’s generals wear their armor in protest, while at a drinking session with the rest of Toranaga’s war council, Omi speaks up as the lone dissenter in praise of Nagakado’s assassination attempt, saying despite his recklessness he was brave and justified to die fighting rather than lie down.
Among its other exploits, this episode lends more depth and screen time to the Kashigi than in previous weeks, and Omi’s wavering loyalty to the cause forms a notable subplot. Ultimately, Kiku shakes him to his senses while they survey the plot of land destined to become Yoshiwara with Gin, reminding him of the honor in service even unto death. Toranaga has indeed followed through on his promise to Gin in the previous episode—and, in a bit of mirth, his promise to Fr. Alvito to grant him a church in Edo from episode three. The undeveloped plots of land allocated to both prostitutes and priests are side by side.
Unlikely Alliances
Cast out of the inner circle, Blackthorne has decided to call Japan quits once and for all by reclaiming his ship, striking the Portuguese kurofune, and sailing off back to Blighty. It doesn’t work. Left to their own devices, Blackthorne’s Dutch crew have given themselves over to drunkenness, debauchery, and whoring, and Blackthorne finds himself disgusted by their coarseness and filth. Resentful of his success and partial assimilation to Japanese culture (“take off those skirts!” one says) Blackthorne is cursed out as an opportunist who led his men to ruin in pursuit of personal glory.
After a brutal street fight in which he prevails, Blackthorne turns his back on his old life and attempts to make a comeback by the most unlikely means possible—allying with Yabushige. Yabushige is more receptive at first than anyone could expect. Warming to Blackthorne’s flattery that they are both survivors intent on making their own fate, he is almost persuaded, until Omi reminds him that further attempts to play both sides are fruitless. Yabushige claims he remains loyal to his lord and refuses. Blackthorne’s cause is now hopeless, or rather, he no longer has one. Maybe the apathetic life of a drunken wastrel stranded in Japan will also be his fate?
Irreconcilable Differences
Whatever it may be, it can hardly be less sad than Buntaro’s. In one of the show’s greatest scenes to date, Buntaro prepares tea for Mariko and attempts to make amends, saying that rather than submit to Toranaga’s suicidal decision to surrender, they should commit sepukku and die together as husband and wife.
Despite the tenderness of this scene, Mariko will have none of it. She tells Buntaro she has longed to escape him in death, not join him, and would rather live a thousand years of anguish than forgive his abuse. Despite the justice of this reply and his terrible actions as a husband, it’s hard not to sympathize as Toda Hirokatsu sobs as Mariko leaves. It is a season-best performance by Shinnosuke Abe. Buntaro has earned this grief, yet it’s moving in its way.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
But the triumphant, shocking conclusion to episode 8 is the seppuku of Hiromatsu, a moment so breathtakingly brutal and profound that I could hardly believe I was watching it unfold. After Toranaga sends Alvito to Edo to report his imminent surrender, Hiromatsu deduces that Toranaga has been bluffing and intends to fight. But as the day of surrender arrives, with Toranaga ordering his vassals to formally submit to the council’s judgment, many of his generals object in horror, alleging that he has chosen to squander all they worked for. Silencing the lesser lords, Toda Hiromatsu declares to Toranaga if he does not reverse his position, he will commit seppuku immediately. Unwilling to bend, Toranaga orders him to proceed, and Hiromatsu disembowels himself before Buntaro, as kaikushin, decapitates his own father. There is no denying the severity of the situation. The Yoshii clan has truly succumbed to defeat.
Crimson Sky
Except not. In a private meeting with Mariko, Toranaga reveals that Hiromatsu volunteered to commit seppuku in order to decisively deceive their enemies that he is defeated. Correctly anticipating that Yabushige and Blackthorne will reconcile now that defeat seems imminent, he sends Mariko to join them en route to Osaka, where she will fulfill a secret mission to the Regents as they prepare to attack the black ship. All this time Toranaga has plotted to follow through with Crimson Sky. As the episode ends, he visits the grave of his son (whose death he did not anticipate), thanking Nagakado and Hiromatsu for buying him the time he needed to further his mission despite near-certain defeat. While it remains to be seen how Toranaga will break free of Saeki’s encirclement of Edo, how Mariko can strike at Ishido, Ochiba, and the Regents, and whether Blackthorne and Yabushige’s alliance will hold, much less end in success, the stage is set for a thrilling conclusion. Next week, Crimson Sky.
All photos are property of FX
Benjamin Rose is a poet from Washington D.C. and the author of Elegy For My Youth (2023) and Dust Is Over All (2024). He studied English at the Catholic University of America and is the winner of the 2023 O’Hagan Poetry Prize. From 2019 he has edited The Path. Buy his books here.
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