Shōgun Episode 4 review, ending explained

In the last episode of Shōgun, we saw John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) become Lord Toranaga’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) hatamoto — his personal retainer, essentially his vassal much like Lord Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) is. In this episode, we see the entire party arriving int he seaside village of Ajiro where Blackthorne's Erasmus was first see in Japan, now sparsely covered in snow.

Omi (Hiroto Kanai), Yabushige’s nephew, receives a letter with word of his uncle’s arrival and that of Toranaga’s. The village then prepares for their Lord’s arrival. Omi is full of anticipation as this could be his chance to prove himself.

Maybe it’s my bias, but the color grading of this show is excellent. When the camera closes in on Toranaga, there’s hardly any smoothing effect. You can see the texture of his skin. I find this important because if his skin were smooth, it would take away from Toranaga’s character.

As Lord of Kantō — the largest island in Japan and where the current capital, Tokyo (formerly Edo) is — and a former member of the Council of Regents, we may have met him as a bureaucrat. But once upon a time, he was a warrior. And in that close up, you believe it. You can see the years and the live he has lived in those years on his face. I mean that in the best way possible — narratively speaking.

Hiromatsu’s granddaughter, Fuji (Moeka Hoshi), is being given to the Anjin as his consort. She’s very reluctant and she’s begging Mariko (Anna Sawai) to let her be a nun. For her, it’s a much better alternative than to serve a barbarian. Remember that this woman — in a short amount of time — has had to deal with a major upheaval: the loss of her husband due to his own impulsiveness and the loss of her son. That’s a much bigger loss than the husband, in my opinion.

But she’s self-aware enough through her rant that she’s yelling this at Mariko who has also just very recently lost her husband. She also saw him die right before her eyes. However, Mariko just responds to say that her husband died with honor. Unspoken is the implication that at least he chose his death. Fuji’s did not.

And in the same breath, Mariko reminds her saying that in her husband’s death, she inherits his wishes and will continue to serve Toranaga. Unlike what Fuji is doing right now. Toranaga had asked for a year of her service… which she then counters with six months as Mariko relays to their lord.

When Yabushige finds out about Toranaga’s resignation from the council, he realizes that he’s just damned all of them to death. He then suggests that Toranaga do the honorable thing and commit seppuku. However, the Lord of Kantō said he would rather wait for the order and keep his head for the meantime.

Seppuku or ritual suicide by disembowelment was originally reserved for the samurai class. This is done to preserve one's honor: dying by one's hand instead of the enemy's. However, it can also be ordered by one's daimyo or lord. In this case, since Toranaga is a daimyo himself, the order would need to come from the council.

Going back to Ajiro's shores, an army is there waiting to greet their lord’s arrival.

Some of those who had seen Blackthorne when he was first brought to shore look surprised at how he's cleaned up. They're even more surprised when Yabishige tells them that he's a hatamoto now. He also asks them to make sure that he has a house and that both his consort and Lady Toda (Mariko) will be staying with him.

When Anjin is presented to the rest of the people and meets Omi again for the first time since he left Ajiro, he uses the scant Japanese courtesies he knows and in the same breath insults him in Portuguese (but English to our ears), calling him a “sniveling shit rag.”

Yabushige invites Toranaga to inspect his cheering men. And the Lord of Kantō puts on an impressive show. I’m a fan of his fan-work. His rousing speech reminds me of my own country’s local politicians. Any minute now, I’m anticipating singers and dancers to come up and perform.

As Toranaga winds down his speech with a call to arms to protect what the late Taikō had built against treachery, Yabushige’s men change their cheers from his name to that of Toranaga’s. I love that as they cheer, the camera pans to the proud Yabushige, who now realizes how difficult his road would be to replace his lord.

And to add insult to injury, Toranaga, in the middle of all that cheering, decides to leave. Now Yabushige is left with the knowledge that his own men have declared for Toranaga. And now that he’s leaving, Omi’s mother who remarked that they should've gotten the expensive sake now says, “Should’ve bought the cheap stuff.”

After Toranaga leaves Blackthorne tries to approach Ajiro’s soldiers looking for his men. They shy away from him, but meets Muraji (Yasunari Takeshima), the man who tried to help him before, again. He tries to help, but with the language barrier he can't really tell him anything. Blackthorne ends up learning from Mariko that his men are actually in Edo.

He reminds her that he and Toranaga had an agreement: that he would teach his men foreign battle tactics in exchange for his ship and his men. She clarifies that his ship and his men aren’t his anymore. They’re Toranaga’s.

He may be his hatamoto, but he is still his lord. And what the lord gives is the lord’s.

There's nothing Blackthorne can do so Mariko guides him to his house in the village. There's a moment of levity when she explains that the house belongs to him and as hatamoto, he will be receiving a generous 240 koku a year as his salary.

To which Blackthorne replies, “I don't want any generous cuckoos!”

Just to explain: the koku was a unit of currency used in feudal Japan. A koku usually refers to rice so one koku is how much can feed an adult for a year, about five bushels. It's difficult to put it in monetary terms because so many factors depend on how much a koku due to rice production. But that's not what we're here for.

Going back, there's one more thing that Blackthorne has now from Toranaga: an escort, Fuji. Despite all that, he complains that he's back to being a prisoner. Only this time, he has better living quarters.

On the other side of the island, Yabushige rails at how he’s been screwed. However, Omi reminds him that he still has the guns and cannons. At least until Toranaga returns. Omi further tells him that that could be his leverage for Ishido who must now think he’s been betrayed by Yabushige.

Back to the Anjin's living situation, Mariko explains Fuji’s situation to him. She tells him how she is her late husband's niece. Blackthorne doesn't think it's right that she's now following him around after everything she's been through, that she should still be grieving.

Mariko counters this by saying, “We grieve those we have lost by continuing their fight.”

She also explains that Fuji being Anjin’s consort gives her a place to serve Toranaga, the same way her husband and father did.

She then explains the idea of an eight-fold fence. Essentially, it's a fence you build within yourself so you can retreat when you need to. This is where we hear the lines from the trailer when Mariko reminds him that their politeness is merely a shield.

At the end of their conversation, she gives Blackthorne his pistols back.

The Lady Fuji has claws… and guns

The next morning, he's told he's not allowed to bring his guns as Omi says he's not allowed to. Now both men are at a standoff with Omi's and his men's swords unsheathed and Blackthorne's pistols at the ready.

Fuji asks Mariko to ask Anjin to give her the guns instead. She relays it to Blackthorne and reassures him that as his escort, she will protect them with her life.

The men are still at a standoff, but Fuji breaks it by forcefully asking for the guns instead.

And my favorite moment of the show comes when Omi asks for the guns again, Fuji who already has them, aims one of them at him (to his great shock) and politely asks them to be on their way.

This impresses him — and Blackthorne. Omi bows to her (she outranks him since she’s highborn) and Blackthorne tells her she did a good job — in Portuguese.

He and Mariko go before Yabushige to discuss foreign tactics. He begins by telling the story of the Siege of Malta. The problem is… Blackthorne didn’t fight in it as it occurred 30 to 40 years ago. In fact, he has never fought a battle like that before. He has experience in naval battles, though not ones on land.

He suggests that instead of land tactics, he can teach his men English naval tactics. He wants to demonstrate how he can lay siege to Osaka castle from his ship.

Yabushige and the rest are skeptical because cannons — at least the ones they have from the Portuguese aren't known for their accuracy. However, Blackthorne proves them wrong by using his own cannons.

That night, Mariko begins reading Blackthorne’s diary which detail what the Portuguese have claimed as his crimes.

In this episode, Mariko and Blackthorne have a lot of time to talk. At one point, he tells her that he wants to build Toranaga a navy, with the help of his men. However, Mariko shuts this down; that it's not his place and he doesn't know what their lord needs.

Elsewhere, the courtesan Kiku (Yuka Kouri) is planting the idea that maybe Omi can supplant his uncle Yabushige.

Blackthorne, Mariko and the rest of Yabushige's men are testing the cannons almost every day. However, Ishido's men led by Nebara Jozen (Nobuya Shimamoto) suddenly arrive with an invitation for Yabushige to return to Osaka. He knows, as well as everyone near earshot, that this will lead to his execution.

Nagakado: Is the Minowara “brat” gunning for the title Shōgun?

Yabushige refuses and tells Jozen that he's still Ishido's ally. He persuades him to stay and be their guest so he can demonstrate the new cannons that they acquired.  Jozen reluctantly agrees. Toranaga's son, Nagakado, looks at both men suspiciously.

That night, Blackthorne decides to expand his palate by asking to try natto. He also asks Mariko to offer his apologies to Fuji for how he was the first time they arrived in Ajiro. He thanks her with a gift — his favorite pistol and offers to teach her.

In return, she gifts him her father's swords. This is considered a great honor. As hatamoto, Blackthorne needs to have swords. And as a hatamoto’s escort, she cannot serve a man without swords.

These swords aren't just great weapons; these basically are physical proof of her father's service to Toranaga. Besides that, these are also a huge part of his identity as a samurai.

On another part of the island, Omi and Nagakado speak. Omi tries to sway him to speak to his father. He speaks to Nagakado’s need to prove himself to his father… that he’s not just a Minowara brat.

It's a night of realizations for most of the samurai on the island. And speaking of realizations, Blackthorne realizes he needs a bath. Mariko shows up as well and the two end up having a heart-to-heart talk.

I appreciate his one particular realization when it came to her which also ties to their previous conversation about houses: that if something is destroyed and rebuilt and destroyed and rebuilt again … when it seen from an outsider's perspective, the rebuilt structure is really all that's seen. Without knowing its history, all one would see is a house. To that person, it's still a house.

They both go back to the house. We both see Blackthorne and Mariko getting ready to go to bed separately. Fuji closes his door, but a woman — we don't see who she is — steals into his room in complete darkness and they make love.

The next day, Blackthorne is in good spirits. I'm not quite sure who he thought he slept with as he spoke with Fuji. But when he speaks to Mariko, it seems — to me, at least— that he thought she was the woman who came in to his room. However, she disabuses him of that notion and tells him that she and Fuji sent a courtesan to “pillow” with him.

Props to the Anjin for taking it well and just tells her that it was a “thoughtful” gift.

We're nearing the end of the episode when the samurai — and Blackthorne — congregate at the field. You can just see on Nagakado’s face that he’s planning something. He’s supposed to be coordinating a demonstration of the cannons for Jozen.

But he ends up challenging Jozen, and gives the order to blast his men, effectively provoking war with Jozen and his men lying there in literal pieces.

Exactly as Omi had intended.

The characters are no longer on the precipice. They've fallen and the fifth episode will tell us whether or not they're going to survive this.

The show's pacing is remarkable in the sense that it sometimes gives you the sense that everything's calm. You know full well that war is brewing, but the cinematography — which is one of the show's greatest assets — lulls you into a false sense of peace.

However, there's nothing false about that last scene. Schemes are at work. Omi's making his move. Yabushige is definitely between a rock and a hard place. And now everyone else has no choice but to try to fight and survive the oncoming storm.

They're all going to need that eight-fold path to retreat and strategize. They have a few choices: fight their way through this, scheme some more in the hopes that there's another way or just wait until Toranaga returns.

But whatever way they may find, Shōgun's next episode will certainly be war.