We're back for the penultimate episode of FX's hit show Shōgun, episode nine Crimson Sky.
The scene opens in a snow-covered landscape with a lady who sheds her outer kimono. A soldier seemingly helps her up.
It's a flashback of Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), who once again escaped. We hear male voices discussing her situation, describing her as the daughter of the treacherous Akechi Jinsai and longing for death even after her husband shows her mercy.
Father Alvito (Tommy Bastow) sits with her. This is most likely their first meeting, and when he bestows her her Christian name, Maria. He prays the Lord's Prayer beside her, and pauses to give her a rosary of her own.
Shōgun ramps up on the ramparts
We see Mariko on the Erasmus.
John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) asks her why Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) sent her. She replies that it has nothing to do with him; they're only traveling to the same place: Osaka.
They arrive in Osaka, met by Lord Ishido's (Takehiro Hira) men.
Mariko tells Blackthorne that everyone in the castle is now Ishido's hostage.
Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) tells him that he's to meet Ishido tomorrow and wants him there with him. Mariko moves to translate for him, but he essentially waves her off.
Not sure how much of that they both understood, but they pretend anyway.
Mariko is welcomed by Toranaga's wives. She hands his first lady a letter, which she doesn't read and places inside her kimono.
Kiri no Kata (Yoriko Doguchi) then says cryptically, “Let's hope this works.”
The Black Ship captain and the Portuguese head priest meets with Alvito at the docks. Alvito tells them that Toranaga has given up.
The head priest's suspicions aren't allayed as he says, “Tempest in a bottle. War is coming.”
The Battle of Shade
As Blackthorne gets prettied up for his and Yabushige's meeting with Ishido, he is taught to bow properly. The Englishman is Japan is lost in translation. For there is none.
Lord Kiyama (Hiromoto Ida) greets them first, thanking Yabushige for returning his prisoner. But no, Yabushige, corrects him. He's not yours. He is for Ishido. And so are his guns.
“After all, no one lord should possess all the guns in Japan,” he explains.
But before they can leave, Kiyama blocks Blackthorne by introducing himself in English (well, Portuguese).
Blackthorne throws shade by asking Kiyama which is his priority, God or his purse strings?
But Kiyama doesn't seem to take this as an insult. He doesn't trouble himself with matters of faith, but he is a student of trade.
He continues to tell Anjin that he's gatekeeping Japan from his kind. Thank you very much.
Ishido, with Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido) in attendance, has called for a full assembly with Blackthorne and Yabushige as supplicants. The Heir (Sen Mars) walks in and seemingly whispers a request to his mother while pointing at Anjin.
Yabushige offers, on behalf of Toranaga, his surrender and belated condolence for the death of the late Taikō's wife.
Ishido isn't impressed, calling his surrender the “hollow words from a traitor.”
Yabushige tries to explain but the caretaker of Osaka Castle isn't having it. He dredges up his frenemy's past mistakes such as letting Toranaga slip out of Osaka and bearing responsibility for killing Nebara Jozen.
However, Yabushige tries one more time. He offers his head on a plate while in the next breath presents Anjin, once Toranaga's prized hatamoto, as a gift.
No joy for Yabushige as Ishido dismisses them both.
Now, it's Mariko's turn. She kneels in front and bows. Ishido welcomes her to Osaka Castle.
Mariko congratulates both Ishido and Ochiba on their engagement. He asks after Toranaga and his “progress.”
She replies that he is still in mourning. Ishido parries with the fact that he has others.
Ever been to a haiku-off?
Ochiba declares a haiku-off with Mariko, in memory of the late Daiyoin (the late Taikō's wife's name when she became the equivalent of a nun in feudal Japan). She graciously offers Mariko to take the first shot.
And she does.
While the snow remains
Veiled in the haze of cold evening
A leafless branch
As Mariko says the last line, Ochiba has no rebuttal. It's a mic drop for Mariko. And Ishido agrees as well, saying that he looks forward to more of it.
She then tells him that, alas, she won't be there for the rest of it. She's leaving tomorrow with Toranaga's wives.
Ishido's flabbergasted. Where is she going?
Well, they're going to meet their liege lord in Edo. Toranaga asked her to escort his wives there.
Ishido's confused. Wasn't Toranaga going to be on his way to Osaka? What's this business with Edo?
Ochiba is quick to catch on and asks that they take this conversation offline.
Mariko says, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
She repeats that she is leaving tomorrow.
Ishido reminds her of her manners.
Mariko explains again that she will still be going to Edo, but will return to Osaka when Toranaga arrives. Unless…
“Unless we are confined here,” she begins.
See, here's Ishido's problem. For the entire series, he has insisted that it's Toranaga who started all of this. He's merely reacting to his provocations. However, if he refuses to allow Mariko to leave, he now becomes the aggressor as the hostage-taker.
Ishido tries to salvage the situation by using the tried and tested method of bureaucracy: he will ask the Council of Regents for a formal review.
Mariko seemingly concedes, but reminds them that her first duty is to her liege lord, Toranaga. And he has ordered her to leave.
Ishido tries to finish the conversation, but Mariko throws his words back to him: the conversation is finished when he remembers his manners to let her finish talking.
Mariko is Shōgun's Crimson Sky
“I am no peasant to be trodden on. I am the daughter of the great Lord Akechi Jinsai. My line has been samurai for a thousand years, and I will never be captive, or hostage, or confined. I am free to go as I please as is anyone,” she says.
Ishido insists that she be patient, but Mariko clearly won this round. There are many mic drops in her speech. She reminds him that while he may be sitting in a place of power, she isn't his inferior. It's no accident she began with saying she isn't a peasant because Ishido was one.
Mariko also reminds him of who she is, the daughter of a great lord — and a samurai at that — descended from a long line of samurai. She's everything Ishido isn't.
In their quarters, Yabushige berates her for her behavior as Anjin looks on. She begs off, excusing herself because she's tired.
Anjin remains. He tells her that she can't leave Osaka with all of Ishido's men around. Why, they might even use force to keep her there.
Exactly. Ishido would have to admit that he's keeping her there by force. Not just her, but every single member of nobility inside the castle.
From now on, instead of saying, “You'd cut off your nose to spite your face,” I'll be using Blackthorne's “You'd walk into a sword just to prove the blade is sharp.”
She asks him not to involve himself, “for the sake of everything we've been through.”
Mariko's son arrives the next morning and entreats her to stand down. He tells her that Kiyama is on their side, as a fellow Christian, and that he's to be betrothed to his granddaughter.
Mariko rejects that. Their family serve Toranaga. He will decide who he is to marry.
Her son tells her that she is ashamed about the things people say about her family. Mariko doesn't back down even as he tells her that he will disown her if she is disgraced.
As annoying as he is, he's thinking logically of his own survival. He's seen it happen to his own mother. If his family is associated with Toranaga and what could be his devastating loss and disgrace, his survival isn't ensured. He could very well be dead in the next few days.
Later, Mariko walks with Toranaga's wives (they're in litters) on their way to leave Osaka Castle. She takes her place in front of her guards.
She had an audience on the ramparts. Ishido's guards stop her and insist that she present a permit. After a bit of back and forth, she orders one of her guards to kill the men stopping them.
Ishido's guards fight them in earnest as Mariko stands in the middle of the slaughter. All her guards die, the last one right in front of her. More of Ishido's men arrive.
She asks Lords Ohno (Takeshi Kurokawa) and Kiyama to order the men to let her leave. However, they are not theirs to order; they're all Ishido's.
Mariko declares loudly that they really are being held against their will. With no help form the lords, she proceeds to walk. Arrows are shot from above and yet she continues to walk. The guards still won't allow here to pass.
She then holds out her hand and a maid delivers her naginata (Japanese spear). She takes the first few swings. Then tries to fight them in earnest. She's vastly outnumbered, but the guards aren't really hurting her as the lords ordered that she be left unharmed. Still, Mariko continues to fight, screaming all the while.
By the end, she's forced to the ground. But she stands up and says tearfully, “It is not possible to fight through all these men.”
She turns to back who's left of their party and tells them they have to turn back.
“However, these men have prevented me from doing my duty to my liege lord and I cannot live with the offense,” she says aloud.
But she's not finished. She turns back to Ishido's men and declares, “I will take my life at sunset.”
Mariko looks up to address Kiyama, “As a Christian, you understand it is a mortal sin to take my own life. I formally ask that you be my second.”
He nods his assent, and Mariko walks back. Ochiba sees this display.
The Council of Regents assemble and they all agree that Mariko would never go through with committing seppuku because she would consign her soul to eternal damnation.
However, Ochiba disagrees. She tells them that this is her way of taking her vengeance against fate and all of them. That she will die in order to free herself from the disgrace that has burdened her all her life — not just the one she recently experienced.
And if she does that, Osaka will be the one in disgrace for allowing it to happen.
Ishido asks Ochiba for her counsel, but she has none. However, if he allows her to die all of Osaka's noble families will revolt. And if he allows her to leave, the hostages will also demand to do so as well.
He side-eyes her fiercely as she says this.
With all players now inside their quarters, a soldier arrives to let Anjin know that he has been summoned by The Heir. Blackthorne arrives to greet Ochiba. She asks if he understands her well enough. He does, but requests that she use simple words. Mariko then arrives to serve as his translator.
She tells her that The Heir's request is a ruse for the the childhood friends to speak together.
Echoing what Daiyoin asked of Ochiba in her death bed, she tells Mariko to stop these games. Mariko replies that she's isn't playing one; she's only trying to do her duty to her lord.
Ochiba accuses Mariko of being a pawn in Toranaga's fight. Mariko tells her that she's wrong, her lord only wants to end the fight.
The late Taikō's consort then asks Mariko to tell Blackthorne their history. They were childhood friends and grew up like sisters even though their fathers were enemies.
Ochiba describes her as becoming a martyr she hardly recognized. That she was now “the girl who did everything right, with anger growing in her chest,” seeking destruction.
However similar these two women are, they differ mostly in what they now want: Mariko wants to die, to reclaim her dignity; Ochiba wants to survive, as she has tried to do after her father was killed, at any cost.
In the end, they're at a stalemate. Mariko tells Ochiba that she's the only one who can put an end to these games. Ochiba responds that she doesn't have that power.
“Accepting death isn't surrender. Flowers are only flowers because they fall,” Mariko says as they part ways.
As they arrive in their quarters, Blackthorne rages about how Toranaga is a coward in sending Mariko to Osaka instead of the thousands of soldiers at his disposal.
She refutes this. He continues arguing that her life is worth more than being a sacrifice. She again refutes this.
So he's left with the only card left up his sleeve: will she consider living for him?
It's useless. Mariko knows this, and maybe Blackthorne does, too, but he just can't reconcile it in his head.
Up on the ramparts, Yabushige receives Ishido's answer to his request: his service his accepted, but only if he does this one thing.
Alvito is with Mariko in her quarters to receive her confession. As she does this, Blackthorne is seen defacing (not his intention, I'm sure, but if I did the same I would most likely be kneeling on sharp stones somewhere) a pristine rock garden.
The priest sings a hymn while maids prepare Mariko's clothing. One of Toranaga's men at the ramparts starts striking a drum (incidentally, also called a taiko).
Sunset has arrived and Mariko is seen wearing an all-white clothing. She kneels in front of Toranaga's vassals, including her son. She places her wakizashi and hands her death poem to a maid.
The ritual for seppuku is different for females. You see this in Mariko tying her lower thighs together. This is to preserve her modesty when her body falls when she dies.
She calls on Lord Kiyama to fulfill his role as her second, but he's nowhere to be found. Mariko breaks her rosary and removes it from her neck.
She picks up her wakizashi. Blackthorne steps forward and offers to be her second, saying, “Hell is no place I haven't already known. Let it from your mind.”
He then receives her rosary after unsheathing a sword from one of the guards. As Mariko unsheathes her blade, the doors close to prevent her family from witnessing the act.
And just as she is about to make the slice, Ishido arrives and throws their permits at her feet.
As Ishido turns to leave, what Ochiba said comes true. The ladies who were there to bear witness for Mariko start requesting to leave as well, with Kiri no Kata adding, “May we request safe passage, too?”
He allows it, telling them to apply for permits, and walks away in disgust. Mission accomplished.
With all that done, Toranaga's vassals celebrate while Mariko stays inside her room. Her door opens and Blackthorne enters. He kneels in front of her and removes his swords. The couple kiss and the scene fades to black.
It pans to Yabushige on the ramparts offering a drink to one of his men before stabbing him several times in the back. Hooks start being thrown on the walls as Yabushige proceeds to let shinobi (ninjas) in to kill the men in the quarters.
Their leader signals him to wait by tapping on his shoulders. When he's done and the shinobi are elsewhere, Yabushige enters the quarters to break a few pottery before calling on the guards, announcing the presence of intruders.
The shinobi reach Mariko's quarters and attempt to kill her. But Blackthorne is with her and they fend off their attackers.
They leave the room and meet other survivors, with Yabushige arriving as well. The party make their way to the storeroom since the doors are thicker and more protected.
They hear explosions being planted. Blackthorne tries to find a way for them to escape. However, Mariko stands in front of the door as it blows open.
End scene.
This is the first Shōgun episode not to feature Toranaga in person. He's seen nowhere in this, but his presence is very much felt.
His Crimson Sky isn't his thousands of soldiers laying waste to Osaka. It's Mariko and her sacrifice. It's one she has begged of first her husband and then Toranaga.
While I do miss Hiroyuki Sanada in this episode, it's only right that its focus is on Lady Mariko. This is her episode. It's the culmination of the years she's endured. This is what she was referring to as a necessary death in her conversation with Blackthorne.
You may wonder what all the theatrics was for. Because that's what they were, theater for a very important audience: Osaka. Not just its caretaker, Ishido, but for its citizens both willing and unwilling.
Mariko needed an audience for Toranaga's strategy. While his thousands of soldiers had a chance of taking Osaka by force, the optics won't be in his favor. This way he's not the aggressor; sympathy will be for his cause.
Crimson Sky is definitely Toranaga's strategy, but in this episode Mariko is the most important part of it.
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