Sadly Shogun (2024) is coming to and end, today was episode 9 that brings more context to the story specially how things were between Mariko and Lady Ochiba when they were little growing up together and how things currently are, they know each other very well, I think part of the hate from Lady Ochiba to Toronaga has to do with Mariko moving away, if her father didn't plan to kill Lady Ochiba father Mariko would not be in danger and would not be force to marry Buntaro ending with her and Lady Ochiba separate, she believes the master mind behind all this was Toronaga, so there is part of the hate she feels for him.
Mariko was send to Osaka not to translate for John but to force Ishido hand to let all the other powerful family members out of the castle, some though they were Lady Oshiba prisoners other thought it was Ishido holding them. Until some point her plan work out but towards the end Ishido took a decision that in the end will make him look bad, the Osaka castle infiltrate by assassins that Lord Ishido knew nothing about? plain stupid.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2788316/
- Platform: FXNOW
During the entire series women like Mariko and Fuji has been asking to let them die but they were constantly interrupted and given orders by their lord Toronaga that denied this desire but for both of them specially for Mariko it goes way further than just dying because after her entire family was wipe out and she marry Buntaro, Mariko attempt several times to die but never had the courage to take her life with a knife to her heart, every attempt end up in failure and then she stop when Father Martin offer her comfort in his religion, making her temporally forget about death, there were two reasons she wanted to die those were honor her family and get away from Buntaro a men she never ask to marry and on top denied her wish.
Mariko, John and Yabushige arrive to Osaka each with a different agenda, but the only men in town who knew it was not over for Toronaga was Father Dell'Aqua when on the other hand Father Martin did believe it was finally over.
Potentially the only one who had a clear picture of what was going on in Osaka was Mariko, she knew everyone who gets in the castle becomes Ishido prisoner and its the first time during the series that Mariko pull ranks on someone.
As the coward that Yabushige is he came to Osaka to bargain with Ishido for his life, he came to offer John as allies, have him work for Ishido as Captain along with the artillery only him knew to perfectly operate but this request or "gift" gets rejected by Ishido since both were useless for him, Toronaga was wrong about Yabushige he thought he and John would join forces to attack Osaka but it was never the case. In the case of John he came to attack Osaka at some point but once he was inside the castle understood this was nearly impossible and now his faith was on Yabushige hands, I really thought he was done at playing double agent but once again Yabushige tries to betrayed Toronaga, I really hope this guy gets capture or killed on next episode, such a bitch.
It was time for Mariko to deliver a message to Ishido and its here where for the first time it was reveal that Lady Oshiba still has a lot of affection for Mariko, she talks about their relationship while they were little, how they grew up together.
Mariko message for Ishido was simple, she would take Toronaga family members and get out of Osaka, Ishido immediately denied her request but also tells her no one is held against their will, he was rude to her by interrupting her while she was still talking so Mariko pull ranks and called for their family lineage, she comes from a very respected family and was the last one of her name, something that she has been ashamed of but seems others are not, it was kind of confusing and contradictory, she challenges Ishido orders to stay and told him she would not be held hostage and will departure next day.
Once again Toronaga playing mind games, he knows that if Ishido held Mariko against their will or even kills her then other powerful families will raise against him but if he allow her to go then other family members will do the same, Ishido excuse for keeping everyone on the castle was the Concil reunion to take actions against Toronaga and that it was for everyone safety since their enemy Toronaga, was still out there loose and dangerous.
Lady Oshiba request John presence for the heir and Mariko to translate but the truth is that she wanted to get Mariko to stop, after Mariko was denied and force to stay in the castle she threatens to take her life in form of protest, any way she would win and become a martyr making Ishido look as a tyrant.
All four Regent had a meeting to discuss what to do with Mariko as other powerful family members met too to greet Mariko before she goes on with the ceremony to take her life. Lady Oshiba seem to be the only one that Mariko would win at the end, Mariko is let to go away then the others ask to go away too or Mariko gets killed then the other family would look bad at Ishido, there was basically no wining scenario for Ishido so he took probably the most desperate solution to send a bunch of assassins helped by Yabushige to infiltrate the place where Mariko and John were staying and had her murder.
This series has been quite the journey, every episode has been hit after hit from day one, for a very long time I have not seen a TV series getting score of 9/10 across the board but yet we are still to have that final battle that I'm looking forward. Today I made a thread about how much I like episode 9 and how much I would hate for this entire situation been solved by politics and not war, after all its a TV series its no educative content, I want a big bloody samurai battle, want to see John fire his ship canons against Osaka castle, this entire situation gets me the feeling that I will not be fully satisfied once episode 10 is over if it doesn't happen this way. Until now Shogun (2024) has been an amazing TV Series in every aspect we can think about.
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