Shogun follows his political evolution until the provoked act of War at the conclusion, with several important political moments, but: who was with John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) in the dark of night? “Cushioning”? That’s all we want to know!

The love earthquake metaphor

The relationship between Blackthorne and Mariko (Anna Sawai) is being built with her forced intimacy being the only source of communication between him and the world, which allows the two to talk more frequently. Mariko, extremely intelligent and with the power of translation, teaches him local customs (without wanting to learn theirs), but is obviously admiring the foreigner.

Blackthorne is literally where he started. When he arrived in Anjiro and was taken prisoner, he was taken to Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and now believes he had made a deal with the future shogun. Only to find out he hasn’t gained any freedom, title or otherwise. To make matters worse, he “gains” a wife, the widow Fuji (Moeka Hoshi), something that offends both him and her, who would rather be sent to a convent. Mariko is the one who once again steps in to help.

After catching Blackthorne taking a shower, and talking to him about his past, with the chance to even imagine what they would do together in London. He is later woken up at night by a woman and the two spend the night together. The scene is purposefully dark and we, like him, believe it to be Mariko, but when she joins him and Fuji at breakfast, Mariko suggests that he must have liked the courtesan who waited on him last night. Her smile alone leaves us waiting for romance.

And how the new hatamoto, Blackthorne, finally begins to have a greater curiosity about Japanese culture. He approaches Fuji, who is perplexed by the fact that Blackthorne gives him one of his pistols, and returns the honor by giving him his late father’s swords. The pilot has the help of two great women.

Toranaga’s strategies

Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) continues the dangerous game of trying not to choose a side and believes that by proudly displaying his army of samurai, he will show Toranaga his potential as a leader, but quickly the applause for the shogun becomes louder and he becomes frustrated.

The master of surprises pulls yet another one: instead of staying, he immediately returns to the vessel, leaving Blackthorne, Mariko, Fuji, and his son to train the army while he goes to an unknown place to plan the attack. He believes the process could take a year.

All the men react badly to the surprise, only Mariko remains confident in her lord. He resigned from his position on the Council of Regents and is now – apparently – more vulnerable to an attack, the most angry is not even Yabushige, who still believes he will be able to convince Ishido (Takehiro Hira) that he is just pretending to be faithful to Toronaga. The one who is most angry with everything is Yoshii Nagakado (Yuki Kura), who doesn’t like not having his father’s trust or admiration for his men. Urged on, he will be impulsive and will change the course of history.

The war: what now?

Blackthorne is training the men to use the 20 cannons he has on Erasmus when men loyal to Ishido, led by Nebara Jozen (Nobuya Shimamoto), appear to check Yabushige’s position and demand that he come to Osaka. He tries to buy time, but Nagakado takes the initiative. With cannons hidden in the tree line and positioned toward their enemies, the attack begins as Blackthorne, Mariko and the others watch in fear. And she sums up the scenario. “It’s war”.

How will Toranaga react? How will Ishido fight? And Blackthorne? And Mariko? Oh! We have to wait another week!

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