Premiering on Max the day after Valentine's Day, Tokyo Vice season 2 episode 3, "Old Law, New Twist," is fittingly in large part about relationships: new relationships, changing dynamics in old ones, sacrifices and, sometimes, the consequences of them.
The first relationship we see is a breakup between the Kabukicho club and the Tozawa gang. Two Tozawa men go to the club, thinking they'll just simply collect their regular payment, instead, the owner tells them they are under the protection of the Chihar-kai now, so she won't be paying. They use some force to get some money out of her, but she warns their feeling of power won't last long.
Let's go over the varying relationship dynamics of everyone else in the episode.
Jake's new girlfriend
Jake (Ansel Elgort) is riding high after he's gotten a lot of attention from his article about Tats (On Nakano) and the motorcycle thieves and has been seeing Misaki (Ayumi Ito) regularly. They're keeping their relationship low profile, though, as Misaki is still worried about Tozawa's men finding out.
Her worries may be valid. Tozawa's wife is closely monitored by Yabuki (Kazuya Tanabe), who while treating her well, seems to have her under lock and key. And that's him being polite, as shown by how he treats the two men who went to the Kabukicho club. He demands they give the money back and stay away from the club, forcing one of them to beat up the other to reinforce the lesson. When his actions are questioned, he says he doesn't need people to understand his plans, just to do what he tells them.
Still, Jake plows ahead, later inviting Misaki to an event at the US embassy so they can have a real date.
Business partners
While Jake is enjoying a romantic partnership, Samantha (Rachel Keller) has work relationships to contend with. One is pleasant enough, the architect Masa (Takayuki Suzuki), has enjoyed his time with Samantha so much at the club he would like to see her outside of it. But Samantha is nervous about mixing work and real life.
An associate she is not happy with is Hayama (Yosuke Kubozuka). He is constantly putting other customers on edge and clearly doesn't respect Samantha. Adding to her frustration is that Sato ( Sho Kasamatsu) isn't doing anything to help. Talking about it later with Jake, he explains Hayama is Sato's superior, so he can't really do anything about it.
Meanwhile, Sato has conflicting business/personal interests as well, forming his own relationship with Erika (Hyunri Lee). They flirt as he drives her home and she invites him up. As she pays her babysitter, her son Daichi (Ukyo Nakamura) stumbles upon Sato, saying he woke him up and now has to read him a bedtime story. Sato is surprisingly good with the little one, which only makes Erika like him more. As he leaves, they kiss.
Things are more complicated with Sato's younger brother Kaito (Atom Mizuishi). Though he has him working for him with the online sneaker sales and invites him out to a karaoke night with other Chihara-kai members, Sato makes it clear they're not to talk business around Kaito. But some of the gang members mention Hayama, and having not heard about him from Sato makes Kaito feel isolated from his brother.
Eventually, Samantha brings the Hayama problem up to Sato, telling him she wants him banned from the club. Sato says he can do that, but Samantha needs to do something for them.
Chihara-kai wants info on a big project Masa is working on so they can make money off it; Claudine was originally doing that for them, but since Samantha fired her and has become close to Masa, they now want her to take it on. Samantha is reluctant to spy on a client, but Sato points out that because of Chihara-kai's ownership of the club, she really can't say no. Still, he gives her a day to give an official answer.
Investigative teams
When Eimi (Rinko Kikuchi) sees Shingo (Soji Arai), they talk about the fire at the paper that destroyed Jake's tapes. Eimi spoke with the AV team, who all claim they couldn't have started the fire, but Shingo thinks they’re lying and she needs to recognize the issues at the paper. She has to put a pin in that though to go check on her brother, who as a reminder has mental health issues. However, today is a good day, as he is thoughtfully making Eimi dinner when she gets home.
The other big investigation ongoing is Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) and Ngata's (Miki Maya) increased pressure on the yakuza. They ID a struggling gang, Hishinuma-kai, to raid and charge using the Obstruction of Police Duty law, a new twist on an old law previously used only for political protests.
They arrive at Hishinuma headquarters as Chihara-kai is attempting to take over their operations. Ngata tells the head boss he is under arrest for having ordered one of his men to kill someone. When someone places their hand on her to try to stop it, this gives her the justification to call in the raid and arrest everyone (except for the Chihara-kai men, who are escorted out). Katagiri gets into a fight with one of the men and has to chase after him. Eventually, the assailant gets Katagiri's gun and points it at him, but Katagiri warns him he doesn't want to be a cop killer. The assailant drops the gun and runs.
Ngata is thrilled with their success and intends to keep pushing against the yakuza. Katagiri is less enthused and is clearly shaken. He tries calling home to talk to his wife, but his daughter says she is too tired to talk to him.
Later, Ngata asks why Katagiri is not as excited about their success. He says nothing comes without a cost. But she replies that they need to make what they’re doing worth the cost.
The cost
Jake and Misaki arrive at the embassy party, where most are having a good time — Eimi and Jake make a new contact with a high-ranking embassy officer, while Trendy (Takaki Uda) gets hit on by a staffer named Jason. However, Tin Tin (Kosuke Tanaka) is the exception. He is getting jealous of Jake's success and becomes suspicious of his colleague when he sees him with Misaki, recognizing her but not remembering how.
While Jake and Misaki are enjoying their first real date, Jake takes things too far. He asks Misaki if she will come to Missouri with him to meet his family, believing they could have a future together. This combined with Misaki spotting a Tozawa associate freaks her out. She leaves and tells Jake to stay away from her.
Things don't get any better for Jake, who learns his articles have increased pressure on the motorcycle thieves and Tats was arrested. He visits him in jail, where he has already been beaten up and is scared. Jake talks with Eimi to see if there is anything they can do, but Tats is certainly going to a juvenile prison.
To try and help, Jake talks to Sato for the first time since they fought. They are able to quickly bury the hatchet though and Jake asks if Sato can help protect Tats in prison. He can, but that will mean Tats will become Chihara-kai when he gets out. Jake hesitates over that prospect, but realizes there's no other choice.
Sato has problems of his own, as learns he is unable to keep his younger brother away from Hayama, who shows up unannounced at Kaito's apartment to check out the sneaker site he set up. Calling it a potential goldmine, he compliments Kaito, much to Sato's dismay. Later, Hayama continues to influence Kaito, taking him out to a brothel to celebrate his success.
Samantha, realizing how much the club and her staff mean to her, talks with Ishida (Shun Sugata) and agrees to spy on Masa for them, but for a price. She wants full ownership of her club and a guarantee that no Chihara-kai (presumably including Sato) will go to her club. Ishida agrees, with the condition that she continues to pay 25 percent of her profits for the next three months.
The episode ends by checking back in on Misaki and Jake's relationship. Jake attempts to call her, but there is no answer. There's a good reason for that, as Tozawa (Ayumi Tanida) is back in Japan.
New episodes of Tokyo Vice season 2 premiere Thursdays on Max.
