Shōgun recap: The epic turns up the action in “Tomorrow Is Tomorrow”

We know now that Shōgun has established itself as a Big Serious Show, but what if I told you there were some amusing little capers in store? That’s more the tenor of this episode, as Lord Yoshii Toranaga tries to save his own ass at all costs. Lady Ochiba is returning to Osaka from Toranaga’s castle at Edo now that her sister’s baby (Toranaga’s granchild) has arrived, and with her back in the fold, Toranaga’s time as a captive is ending; he’s moving a big step closer to execution o’clock. But you and I know that he’s too smart to just sit there and take a blade to the neck, so let’s talk about what he gets up to with Anjin/Blackthorne, Mariko-sama, and his frenemy Lord Yabushige by his side.

We actually open with Lord Yabushige writing his will, which is apparently something he does routinely, every time he thinks he’s probably about to die. He goes out to meet Toranaga, the guy he thinks will be responsible for that death, but instead they talk about the hardcore assassins coming after Blackthorne (the Society of the Amida) and they make a plan to try to get out of Osaka alive. Yabushige admits that rival Regent Ishido had offered him Toranaga’s seat in the Council of Regents in exchange for a favor, but he assures him he declined it, that all he wants is to expand his fief. Toranaga says he can go ahead and do that for him without Ishido, if Yabushige just agrees to escort Blackthorne and Lady Kiri (Toranaga’s consort, a.k.a. highest ranking wife) over to his fishing village. Is that really all he wants? We’ll see. For now, the two men ominously watch the sun rise together.

Later, a great big crew has assembled to get Blackthorne and Kiri off to the fishing village per Toranaga’s orders, including a very grumpy Buntaro who yells at his kid as the poor lad is saying a tearful goodbye to his mom, Mariko (what a dick). Ichido finds this procession and insists he wants to say goodbye to Lady Kiri (clearly to suss out any schemes that may be afoot) when suddenly, Toranaga’s pregnant concubine starts “having pains.” As everyone rushes to her side, Lady Kiri hops out of her coffin-like carriage box and skitters away—and Toranaga himself takes her place. Blackthorne saw it all go down, and when the inevitable Shishido-ordered inspections come up before they can clear the palace, he creates a distraction by acting a fool, yelling at everyone that, where he comes from, they wouldn’t dare search a lady’s quarters. It ends up being enough to get the guards to back off and let them go without discovering Toranaga. No one knows he’s in there until Kiyama and his Catholics start shooting at everyone with fire arrows as the big procession moseys through the forest, and he has to hop out and help fight them. So now that Toranaga has been discovered, the crew really needs to book it to the great lord’s ship.

Speaking of boats, the Portuguese captain of the Black Ship (the one that facilitates trade between Japan and China) has been super pissed off by the delay in shipping due to the request for an earnings report. The captain is itching to take advantage of the favorable winds to set sail and do some trading, to get that money. He doesn’t care about Toranaga’s feelings or favor and insists they leave that night, by order of the Portuguese government, so that’s what’s gonna happen. He’s gonna be one of the sneaks this episode, but not a very good one: Toranaga himself sees the great ship sailing away when his party arrives at the docks. It lines up just right for Toranaga to catch his ass.

And catch his ass they do. When faced with more Catholics with arrows blocking off the port as Toranaga’s ship takes off, Blackthorne insists they sail straight over to the Black Ship to see if they can rely on the Portuguese for safe passage past the arrow guys. And while Toranaga’s at it, he goes ahead and asks if the priests could sway Kiyama and Ohno over to join his side instead of backing Ichido. He offers the godly men a church in Edo and the capitalist captain some cash in exchange. The Portuguese agree and hand over Blackthorne’s journal, which they claim holds evidence of piracy. There’s one more thing: The captain insists that as part of this deal, Blackthorne has to hang back; he can’t go with them on the big ship. Toranaga’s like, “sure.”

Now stranded on Toranaga’s galley while everyone else sails off with the Portuguese (well, everyone but Mariko’s husband Buntaro, who got held up in the forest, missed the boat, and is now presumed dead), Blackthorne has to hatch a new scheme. Good thing he’s buds with the captain of Toranaga’s ship after helping him steer through a storm en route to Osaka in the first episode. That goodwill he has fostered with him means cap’ is totally down to essentially race the Black Ship upon Blackthorne’s request. It’s high octane, baby! The rowers are rowing their little butts off and steering like mad trying to get past the giant vessel. Then, once they’ve outpaced it, Toranaga calmly requests to be brought back to his own galley. Now that it has made it past the arrow guys, he no longer needs the Portuguese boat, and their little deal for the churches and cash is pretty much moot. They have still managed to sow division among the Regents with this whole thing, too. Kiyama is in trouble with Ichido now because he shot up the forest with fire arrows, making Osaka’s leader look like a bad forest protector in the eyes of his people. Uh oh.

So this is a more action packed episode than we’ve had so far, and that’s kind of fun, isn’t it? (The title of the episode “Tomorrow Is Tomorrow,” even kind of sounds like a Bond movie or something.) It also ends with a nice little moment where Blackthorne teaches Toranaga how to dive from the ship into the water by allowing the great lord to watch him do it a million times before he makes any attempt to try. Sure, he has Blackthorne’s incriminating journal now, but that thing is going to take forever to translate. They can have a good time together for the time being. Toranaga even gives him a job: Blackthorne’s a hatamoto now, and he’ll be training Toranaga’s men on how to use the weapons they found on Anjin’s ship. In general, this episode feels lighter. There are some little jokes in this episode, more so than in the others so far, and there’s a little boat race to boot. Plus, each scene is still beautifully and pristinely shot, and each part remains well-acted. And even with the amusing diversions throughout the episode, the plot is still definitely moving. Toranaga has left Osaka Castle! He’s not just going to die there after all. This was a nice little change of pace, with the promise of some interesting new territory to explore. Let’s see what comes of it.

Stray observations

• Cycling back to the first episode for a minute, this guy Tadayoshi, husband to Toranaga’s general’s favorite grandkid, makes a cringe outburst during that first meeting with all the regents (basically telling everyone to stop picking on Toranaga). Instead of being granted permission to commit seppuku for being so cringe, he and his infant son are executed while the general’s granddaughter is spared. In this episode, her grandfather brings her family’s remains to her in little boxes wrapped in white cloth and encourages her to put her father’s samurai swords to good use now that she’s all alone. I’m excited to see what she does.
• Toranaga’s son is jealous of his little friendship with Yabushige. He wants his dad to trust him instead. It sure looks like there’s potential for conflict here.
• When the palace doctor is tending to a wound on Blackthorne’s arm, Blackthorne asks, like a true English dum-dum of his time, “You’re going to bleed me then?” Bloodletting was the thing in England. What a wild time that was.
• Mariko says her husband “is [long pause] a strong and admired warrior” when Blackthorne asks her what he’s like. That’s all she’s got, and she really had to think about it. Ouch. He must really suck.
• Blackthorne and Mariko are getting to know each other a bit more, which is cool for them—particularly as Mariko’s husband remains a dick (even if he is presumed dead). Also, she talks about “pillowing” (code for sex) a whole lot this episode, which definitely means the two of them are going to “pillow” real soon.
• Speaking of Buntaro, do you guys think he’s really dead, or is this some stunt he’s pulling? I think he’s definitely out there, still being a bitch.
• Torches are a cool visual. Seeing a whole city lit by ambient firelight is a nice little byproduct of having this drama set pre-electricity.
• Some of you in the comments on the last recap mentioned Blackthorne looking a bit too well-fed to be believable. I get that, but also…have you seen Yellowjackets?