[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Tokyo Vice” Season 2, Episode 10, “Endgame.”]
In “Tokyo Vice,” honor is a double-edged katana. On one finish sits Ozaki (Bokuzō Masana), the Meicho Shimbun newspaper govt who confesses to Emi (Rinko Kikuchi) that he was the one who destroyed the Yoshino videotape — though “confesses” is just too beneficiant a phrase. Ozaki solves her season-long thriller with out batting an eye fixed, earlier than mansplaining his motion as if Emi is an fool. He had to destroy the tape. If the Meicho ran a narrative a few authorities official’s involvement within the homicide of a hostess, then the paper could be frozen out of presidency enterprise for years. “And the way would that serve our readers?” he asks. So now that Emi has introduced him additional proof towards prime-minister-in-waiting Jotaro Shigematsu (Hajime Inoue), proving his ties to Yakuza chief Shinzo Tozama (Ayumi Tanida), the dignified factor to do is flip over her paperwork to the right events, who will power Jotaro to resign.
“Justice will likely be served,” Ozaki says. To him, it doesn’t matter how Jotaro is ousted from energy, as long as he’s ousted. However to Emi — and really a lot to the “Tokyo Vice” viewers watching at house — permitting the powers that be to back-channel an answer to an issue they’ve allowed to occur isn’t the identical as exposing the issue to the general public.
In different phrases, Ozaki is working for the person, and Emi is working for the folks. She sits on the opposite finish of the katana; the top the place honor isn’t an antiquated concept that preserves the established hierarchy, however a super price preventing for, price dying for. Whereas Ozaki’s understanding of honor requires him to politely inform his fellow highly effective males that they’ve been caught — so the responsible social gathering can resign with dignity — Emi’s honor refuses to permit the reality to be trapped behind closed doorways when it’s clear that significant change can solely occur with an knowledgeable citizens.
It’s becoming, then, that the demise blow dealt to Tozawa lands in 4 easy phrases: “You don’t have any honor.” Standing behind closed doorways, the place a bunch of highly effective males precise their very own type of justice, Tozawa barely places up a combat earlier than committing seppuku — an finish too honorable for the killer, but one afforded him by the identical code that he broke. At the least his spouse, Kazuko (Makiko Watanabe) — who instructed her husband it was “unwise of [him] to make an enemy of me” — will get handy him the blade.
“There are occasions when the correct selection shouldn’t be the ethical selection,” Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) says, earlier within the episode. How proper he’s.
All the things comes collectively so effortlessly in “Tokyo Vice” Season 2, and but effort is strictly what makes it nice. Showrunner J.T. Rogers and his staff craft a tense, thrilling conclusion the place every associated but disparate puzzle piece clicks into place without delay. The reporters save the day. The cops play their half. The Yakuza end the job. For many of the sequence, every of those organizations have an effect on the opposite, however none are alleged to work collectively. The Yakuza seems to be down on the cops. The cops resent the Yakuza. Cops are suspicious of reporters. Reporters are suspicious of everybody. However the finale manages to pluck out our favourite folks and put them on the identical staff. Six weeks in the past, I might’ve thought it inconceivable to unite our sequence regulars round a typical trigger, and but, right here they’re. Jake (Ansel Elgort) and Samantha (Rachel Keller), Sato (Present Kasamatsu) and Katagiri. We’ve been rooting for them individually throughout two seasons, and seeing them be a part of forces (particularly Sato and Katagiri) solely makes the (comparatively) completely satisfied ending that rather more cathartic.
However is that this the top? Official phrase on a renewal or cancellation has but to given by Max, and the artistic staff stays at nighttime. Rogers mentioned, in an interview with Den of Geek, that he’d initially mapped out two seasons of story so they may “land the aircraft in a means that might be very satisfying to the viewers. However I even have labored out and proceed to work out the world going ahead.” Given the latest artistic programming catastrophes selections at Max, I’ve little hope for “Tokyo Vice” Season 3, however that solely makes me admire this finale all of the extra. Not solely was Rogers sensible sufficient and type sufficient to keep away from ending on a cliffhanger that will by no means be resolved, however he used his final scene to emphasise why this story might (and will) dwell on.
Perched on Katagiri’s stoop, sipping on post-dinner drinks, the retired detective and lively reporter begin questioning what’s subsequent. At first, Katagiri insists he’ll be completely satisfied doing nothing and Jake is the one one between the 2 of them who “can’t cease.” To show his pal unsuitable, Jake tries to meditate, however can’t final 10 seconds earlier than getting up to make use of the lavatory. “Like you can do higher?” he asks a smirking Katagiri, who, it seems, can not. When Katagiri’s expressionless face provides option to a smile, then fun, it’s clear he and Jake are one in the identical. Neither is constructed for a quiet life, whether or not it’s in a tiny Tokyo yard or an expansive Missouri farm. “All that being accomplished with one factor means is you haven’t began the subsequent one but,” Jake says.
That unceasing drive, their uncompromising spirit, it’s what makes these males who they’re (and makes them excellent topics for pilot director and govt producer Michael Mann). It’s additionally what equips “Tokyo Vice” to inform compelling crime tales for years to come back. Tv is constructed to maintain going, to narrate lengthy tales, to search out contemporary sides of characters that dwell in your house for years and years. So two males who can’t cease, even after they’re given the proper alternative to securely — and honorably — name it quits, these are the lads who make nice TV. And never simply males. Not simply Jake and Katagiri, however Sato (who doubles down on his adopted household), Samantha (who’s solely taking a break to “recharge my batteries), and Emi, who will discover a option to make it work at her ex- (and future?) boyfriend’s journal. In spite of everything, she’s on the correct facet of the katana.
So what’s subsequent? This time, the correct selection and the ethical selection are one and the identical.
Grade: A-
“Tokyo Vice” Seasons 1-2 can be found on Max. The standing of Season 3 has not but been introduced.