As exciting, and oddly funny, asTokyo Vicecan be, the first season of the HBO Max crime drama feels like a precursor to a more interesting story.
The series byJ. T. Rogersand executive produced byMichael Manntells the (supposedly) real-life story of Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort), a journalist in late 90s Tokyo who teams up with detective Hiroto Katagiri, (Ken Watanabe), and gets entangled in a cold war between yakuza families. The eight-episode first season told a fascinating slow-burn of a character drama, with some plotlines being left in a very interesting (and bloody) spot.
So without further ado, let’s dig into what happened in Season 1, Episode 8 ofTokyo Vice, “Yoshino,” and what it could mean for the future of the series.
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The episode begins with Jake helping Samantha (an American hostess/aspiring club owner played byRachel Keller) out to find information about her friend Polina’s (Ella Rumpf) disappearance. After Jake gets a tip from a Meicho reporter about the Yoshino district – where Polina is supposedly working to pay off debts – the two decide to pay a visit to Ukai Haruki (Motoki Kobayashi), the meth-addicted writer of articles about Shinzo Tozawa (a Yakuza leader played byAyumi Tanida) articles for any info about her. Jake and Samantha bring meth to get Haruki to talk, and after agreeing to smoke some of it with him to earn their trust (which is followed by a pretty funny chase sequence with Elgort acting goofier than usual), they learn that Polina is more likely working in a sex boat that shares the same name as the district. In an effort to calm down a stupidly high Jake, Samantha kisses him before they go their separate ways. It’s a sweet moment that’s fitting for the struggling odd couple and is sure to lead to some potential drama in the love triangle between them and Sam’s yakuza ex-boyfriend/collector Sato (Show Kasamatsu). Or not, but we’ll get to that later.
Meanwhile, Katagiri is on cautious ground after catching Miyamoto (a vice squad detective played byHideaki Itō) on tape trying to steal evidence that could incriminate Tozawa. Miyamoto later comes clean to Katagiri and explains that he’s been working with Tozawa and is desperate to find a way out of it. The two cops team up to put a stop to Tozawa (whose liver has been making him sicker) but are quickly apprehended by his goons. Tozawa implies that his men killed Miyamoto (we don’t see him die, so his fate is left ambiguous) to Katagiri, and warns him that he’ll kill his family if he continues to meddle in his organization. In the final scene of the season, it’s revealed that Katagiri was able to get his family out to a secured location.
If one thing’s for certain in the show, it’s that everything seems to be caught under the thumb of Tozawa’s grip on the city, and that’s made more apparent with what happens to Jake and Sato. Following his little adventure with Samantha, Jake enters his apartment to find some of Tozawa’s goons waiting for him. They swiftly rough Jake up and warn him to stop following Misaki (Ayumi Ito), Tozawa’s mistress. This event, alongside a number of unfortunate moments that Jake had to go through, leaves him at a crossroads where he considers going back home to his family in Missouri.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the yakuza storyline, Sato is forced by his boss Ishida (Shun Sugata) to act as the debt collector for Samantha’s new club, who was left with no choice but to ask his organization for loans after her savings were stolen. Sato and Sam’s relationship takes on a whole new meaning by the end of the episode, as the two will now have to put aside their personal feelings for each other and act as professionals. That relationship may not last long, though, as Sato is stabbed multiple times by a fellow Ishida member and is left for dead, as another character’s grim fate is left to interpretation.
But just when it was starting to look like all is lost, Jake is presented with a mysterious delivery containing footage of what may be Polina’s death at the hands of a Tozawa thug. He takes this info to Katagiri in the hopes that he’ll forgive him for the botched drug raid and work with him to finally take down the organization. Katagiri lets Jake inside, setting the stage for ongoing adventures for the cop and writer, as well as the inevitable flash-forward from the pilot. Whether the series can get to that point is another mystery altogether.
