Max's crime drama Tokyo Vice is back, and season 2 episode 1, "Don't Ever F**king Miss," wastes no time in answering the big cliffhangers from season 1, while also setting the table for what's to come this season.
Key to all this is the videotape left for Jake (Ansel Elgort) showing Polina (Ella Rumpf) being beaten, presumably killed, on a yacht named Yoshino. Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) recognizes that one of the men in the video is Jotaro Shigematsu (Hajime Inoue), the vice minister of foreign affairs.
Let’s break down everything that happened in Tokyo Vice season 2 episode 1.
Sato's fate revealed
Tokyo Vice characters are asking the same thing viewers are: what happened to Sato (Sho Kasamatsu) after he was stabbed? Samantha (Rachel Keller) tries calling him after two other Chihara-kai yakuza show up at her club instead of Sato, while Sato's brother Kaito (Atom Mizuishi) goes to Chihara-kai headquarters asking if they've seen him.
Eventually, Kaito gets a call from the hospital informing him Sato is there, alive but in bad shape. However, the Chihara-kai also get this info and come to the hospital to take Sato with them, despite the doctor's objections.
Ishida (Shun Sugata) promises Sato whoever stabbed him will suffer. As others ponder who it might have been, Gen (Nobushige Suematsu) nervously tries to hide that it was him.
Jake's story
Katagiri drops Jake off at the newspaper to work on the story. While they hope this will help expose Tozawa, Katagiri warns Jake to be cautious, as the yakuza boss has already threatened Katagiri's family. Jake admits he feels guilty about what happened to Polina, believing his mistakes kept Tozawa from being arrested previously, but Katagiri says he wasn't the only one who made mistakes.
Jake's editors realize the story represents the biggest government scandal in years and decide to go forward with it. However, they tap Eimi (Rinko Kikuchi) as the lead instead of Jake. But before they can run the story they have to get a comment from Shigematsu.
After the meeting, Jake has a message from Samantha asking if he's heard anything about Polina, but he continues to ignore her. Instead, he has Trendy (Takaki Uda) and Tin Tin (Kosuke Tanaka) help him look up who the yacht was registered to and if they are connected to Tozawa.
Eimi and Jake then meet with Shigematsu, showing him a photo and saying they have footage of the incident. But he simply says "no comment." Jake goes further, asking if Shigematsu believes Tozawa would blackmail him? If so, his speaking up against the yakuza boss will let them defend him as best they can in the story. But Shigematsu strongly refuses and criticizes Jake. Eimi isn't pleased either. Jake wonders why they shouldn't be focused on Tozawa in their story? Eimi explains they don't have Tozawa yet, so they must work with what they have and do justice to Polina's story.
With that in mind, Jake finally goes to see Samantha, who instantly knows Polina is dead. Jake quickly goes into journalist mode, wanting Samantha to share info about Polina so they can do right by her in the story. But Samantha is upset Jake won't give her time to grieve her friend, telling him to get out.
As Jake leaves, he gets a call from Trendy revealing the yacht is registered to Misaki (Ayumi Ito), Tozawa's mistress.
Tozawa sends a warning
At the police station, Katagiri receives an envelope containing a matchbook from Hotel Apio and a message reading "Miyamoto, room 107." Katagiri checks it out, finding Miyamoto dead with a needle stuck in his arm, making it look like an overdose. When another officer arrives at the scene, he notes Miyamoto hated needles, so it doesn't make sense he would die of an overdose, believing this was a message from Tozawa to Katagiri to back off.
The assistant commissioner, upset Katagiri and Miyamoto did this undercover operation despite his objections, said they are calling Miyamoto's death a heart attack to avoid scandal. Katagiri wants to assemble a task force and go after Tozawa, but the assistant commissioner refuses, ordering Katagiri to take a break from this case and look after his family.
But he can't just sit by. He is staking out Tozawa's hotels when he gets a call from his wife (Yuka Itaya). Katagiri already moved his family to a different location, but Mrs. Katagiri wants him to be careful and think of his daughters and how they need him before he does anything rash.
Difficult choices
Jake goes to ask Misaki about the yacht. She isn't even aware she is the registered owner, saying her signature must have been forged. She also can't give Jake any more info from Tozawa, as he is out of the country and doesn't know where he is or when he's coming back. Jake tells her he has to include her name in the article, but she begs him not to, as that will ruin any hope of a future she may have beyond Tozawa. When Jake does sit down to write the article, he hesitates in putting Misaki's name in but ultimately decides he has to for the story.
Meanwhile, Sato is conscious again. This prompts Gen to go to Tozawa's right-hand man, Yabuki (Kazuya Tanabe), to ask for protection. Instead, Yabuki sees this as an opportunity. He meets with Ishida and gives him Gen, explaining he is the one who stabbed Sato. With Tozawa away and Yabuki the de-facto leader, Yabuki wants this to be the first step in erasing the hostilities between the two gangs, which Ishida hints he may be open to.
But first, they must deal with Gen. Ishida brings Gen in, puts a knife in Sato's hand and tells him to take his revenge by killing Gen. But Sato won't, only saying "no more." Ishida accepts this, but it means Gen now belongs to Sato and must prove worthy of his mercy.
Dealing with grief
Grieving Polina, Samantha gets drunk and tries calling other friends to come out with her, but no one answers. She wanders around the city, ultimately ending up at a nightclub. While dancing, she gets knocked to the ground. When someone asks if she is OK, she admits she isn't.
Samantha then goes to a religious site she and Polina once visited. In a flashback, Polina tells Samantha when she got a sheep as a child her grandfather told her she needed to stay up all night with a rifle to protect it. In the early hours of the morning, she spotted a wolf coming toward her sheep. She took a shot but missed and the wolf went after the sheep. But before it could get it, another shot rang out and killed the wolf. The other shot was from Polina's grandfather, who told her "don’t ever miss" and then beat her to enforce the message.
Surprisingly, Polina calls it her greatest lesson and gives Samantha the same advice: if she sees a wolf, "don’t f**king miss."
Up in flames
With the article submitted, Jake, Trendy and Tin Tin celebrate. However, Jake gets an emergency call to come back to the office. There was a fire and the original videotape and the copies were all destroyed, killing their story as they no longer have the evidence to back it up. Jake is confident this was no accident.
At Katagiri's house, Jake explains what happened and asks if Katagiri can look into it. But Katagiri tells him he's been ordered to stop the investigation after Miyamoto was found dead. He lets Jake know he and Miyamoto were working together to get Tozawa, but Tozawa had Miyamoto killed and if they continue all of them are at risk. He makes Jake promise not to repeat any of this and tells him he should look to expose other crimes, but their day to get Tozawa will come.
Jake heeds this advice. When Tin Tin gets a tip from a source that Miyamoto's death may not have been a heart attack, Jake lies and says he remembers Miyamoto talking about having heart issues. This convinces Tin Tin to not pursue the story.
Katagiri, on the other hand, doesn't take his own advice. He breaks into Shigematsu's house to interrogate him. Katagiri asks why Tozawa is blackmailing Shigematsu, threatening to cut off his fingers if he lies. Shigematsu says Tozawa wanted help getting off the no-fly list to the U.S., but even Shigematsu couldn't do that; he also doesn't know why Tozawa wanted to go to the U.S. Katagiri, with a scary determination, tells Shigematsu he'll kill him if he speaks of this.
Tokyo Vice streams exclusively on Max in the US, with new episodes every Thursday.
