[Review] Bitter Blood Episode 2

It’s an explosive episode for Bitter Blood as Ginza Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) dodge bombs and catch kidnappers for their second episode. Father and son has their usual share of misunderstandings with Sahara getting to know his father in a newer and much favorable light.

Here is a quick recap of Bitter Blood: Episode 2

Kazumichi pedals his way back home when he notices a black van following him, he stops for awhile and when the van passes-by, he gets to sigh with relief until a gloved hand covers his mouth.

In an upscale neighborhood, Imamura Yuko heats-up nabe for dinner as her husband, Imamura Yoichi arrives. The two waits for their son, Kazumichi, when they hear an explosion outside their posh residence.

Outside, they saw their mailbox in tatters and Kazumichi’s bicycle by the gate, without their son.

At Sahara’s household, nabe is also being served for dinner but as Shinobu says, it’s “nabe water“. Sahara argues that he’ll get paid soon and Shinobu even volunteers that she’ll let him borrow some money.

Sahara’s eyes widen as he sees that Shinobu owns Louis Vuitton purse and bag, all of which was given by Shimao. Shinobu asks Sahara what he had been doing with the money from their father and Sahara says that he never spent it. Wow, I admire your strength.

Before the nabe gets cooked, Sahara receives a text from his senpai about a certain crime so he heads-out with Shinobu handing him a printed red tie; Shinobu says that he should look good or no suspect will take him seriously. Sahara was like, “don’t sound like someone I know”.

In a certain barber shop elsewhere, Shimao sneezes the life out of him and muses that someone must be talking about him. XD

Sahara arrives t the “crime scene” or more like a goukon scene set-up by the Bachelor and Taka. Three girls arrives and Bachelor introduces himself as 25 years old and single. If he’s 25 then I’m 40, pls. Much to Bachelor and Taka’s dismay, the three girls were all fawning on Sahara and they can only blame themselves for bringing Sahara with them.

Taka gets a call about a real crime this time and the three of them heads to CID.

At CID, Inspector Kageyama gives-off details about their new kidnapping case involving Imamura’s son. While Sahara passes the hand-outs, Shimao eyes widen as he sees his son wearing the same tie. I love his gobsmacked expression. Shimao even tries to cover his tie using the hand-out.

As Inspector Kageyama finishes-off his orders, Shimao grabs Sahara and orders him to take-off his tie. Inspector Kageyama sees this and can’t help not to tease father and son on how alike they are even with clothes. Peeved by the comparison, Shimao and Sahara immediately removes their neckties.

At Imamura’s residence, the CID team minus Inspector Kageyama sets-up their equipments as they await for the kidnapper to call. When the expected call arrives, Yuko answers it as Chaser traces the call ; Maeda and Sahara hears a different sound aside from the call being made.

Yuko denies that she reported her son’s kidnapping case to the police and the kidnappers demand that they open their window to prove that the police are not inside.

CID packs-up and hide as Yuko and Yoichi opens their window and they were surprised to see a remote-controlled helicopter flying to their house.

The said helicopter is not only equipped with a camera; it also has a bomb timer that made everyone scrambling outside. However, Yuko was too shocked to move and remained inside and as Sahara tries to pulls her out of the house, the seconds ticked by and before the bomb exploded, Shimao have thrown it off in the sky.

Given that the helicopter is remote-controlled, the controller must be nearby so Sahara goes out and chases after a departing black van. The van speeds-up so Sahara fired once enough to hit the left rear tire of the van.

Shimao arrives and chides Sahara for firing in a residential area and letting his emotions gets the better off him.

Back at Imamura’s residence, CID tries to console Yuko and Yoichi that the kidnappers would surely call again. In the meantime and if they can, they must prepare the requested 5 million Yen from the kidnappers. Yoichi says that they will prepare it, quite forcefully actually.

Sahara offers his jacket to Yuko who laments that her son has an asthma and hopefully, he is in a warm place. Sahara assures her that they’ll get Kazumichi safely.

Yoichi goes back to the living room and tells Yuko that he must leave because he has an important meeting to attend. Sahara finds it unacceptable that Yoichi will leave his wife in times like this so he tries to stop Yoichi from leaving.

Yoichi reasons-out that he can’t do anything as well if he’ll stay in the house. Shimao arrives and tells Yoichi that he can leave much to Sahara’s dismay.

Sahara and Shimao brings their argument in a restaurant where Shimao argues that Yoichi won’t be able to support his family if he doesn’t work. Sahara decides to bring-up the past by telling Shimao that, “oh, so that’s why you still acted like a father even though you abandoned us. By giving us money, do you think you’re doing your duty as a father?”

Shimao tells Sahara to stop bringing-up their private life and takes-out some bill to pay for their unagi meal before leaving.

Sahara tries to return the money but the owner of the restaurant, the disaster-magnet granny from episode 1, says that Shimao is only trying to act cool in front of his son. She shares that Shimao always orders the 380 Yen student meal yet this is the first time that he orders the 1680 Yen unagi meal. Aww, Shimao is actuall frugal like son?

Granny also adds how Shimao pushes himself hard at work because maybe, men think that they can maintain their dignity (at home and as a father) by being a workaholic.

Sahara receives a text that the kidnappers have sent a new message. Indeed, the kidnappers sent an online video message featuring a tied and gagged Kazumichi whose sole asthma inhaler was crushed to bits. They also have a new demand, they now want 10 million Yen.

Sahara heads to Yoichi’s company and was surprised to see the company in bankruptcy. Yoichi feels miserable that he can’t collect the 10 million Yen for his son, though he still has some ways, and will definitely try. After all, as a father, preparing the money is the only thing he can do to save his son.

Thinking of the fatherly similarities between Yoichi and his own father, Sahara decides to help Yoichi, by none other than donating the money his father has sent him all these years.

Back at Imamura’s, Yoichi was able to prepare only 8 million Yen, much to Yuko’s dismay who was kept in the dark about their state of finances. Sahara offers his 700 thousand Yen (woah!) money from dad and tells Yoichi that he wants to see them complete as a family. Shimao tells Yoichi, “why don’t you accept it, he’s gonna throw it down the drain anyway”. Shimao says this without any sarcasm, he’s pretty please and proud with his Junior.

Yoichi tells Shimao that he has a good junior and Shimao tells him that Sahara is still a failure as a detective.

Plans have started rolling with Yuko being designated to deliver the ransom. A GPS tracker, a large one at that, was attached at the botton of attache case with 10 million Yen. Her cellphone is also being monitored wherein the CID will be able to hear her conversation with the kidnappers.

She heads to a cafe where Sahara and Shimao are already on stand-by. Sahara decided to takes a jab at his father’s red sunglasses for being too noticeable than gives concealing.

The CID orders Gentle and Junior to converse normally as it will look weird if they are not talking to one another. Shimao was like, “what should we talk about?” and Bachelor says, “talk like father and son”. The father and son are obviously clueless how father and son converse normally so they chose to sipped their drinks. heeee. The rest of the guys at CID was like, “They can’t even talk to one another even though they are a real family”.

The kidnapper calls Yuko and as she heads out, Shimao and Sahara tails her and they make a really bad job out of it, it’s so obvious.

Yuko heads to an empty telephone booth where she puts the money in a Boston bag and was ordered to leave her phone behind. She then starts acting as instructed by the kidnappers, one of which is running in an alley where she unknowingly ignited a dynamite(?)/bomb that sent father and son for covers.

Shimao gets a leg cramp so Sahara continues to chase Yuko with Maeda being ordered to help Sahara.

Unknown to them, Yuko heads to a jewelry shop that by the time Maeda sees her, Yuko is attaching a small paper bag to another remote-controlled helicopter. The police deduce that Yuko exchange the money for jewels and the guys must now search the sky for a remote-controlled helicopter.

At CID, Chaser was able to reduce the noise levels from the last phone call they got from Yuko’s monitored phone. They heard a certain announcement from Big Hop Mall and orders the rest of the team to head to the said mall.

Sahara, being the one nearby, heads to the mall and searches for the most quiet place that happens to be the parking lot. He runs to the parking lot and sees a white van. He stops it for inspection after hearing a coughing sound and true enough, a man is coughing inside and he lets them pass. Uhm, isn’t the bonnet a giveaway? I mean, those two were wearing almost identical clothes and bonnets in a car. Duh.

Shimao, despite his leg cramp, reaches Big Hop Mall and orders for the white van to stop and for the passengers to come-out with their hands behind their head. Sahara was like, “why?” and Shimao points-out that the car’s left rear tire is the only one new and judging from the white paint spray near the tire, they must have painted the car.

When the van’s driver was searched, Shimao finds the small paper bag filled with jewels and questions him where is the kid.

Upon learning Kazumichi’s location, Sahara runs away where he didn’t even notice our main villain standing by with a remote on his hand.

Sahara arrives at the food court area, now deserted because of a bomb scare, and opens the wash room when he sees a tied Kazumichi with a timed bomb few feet from him.

The bomb exploded just in time when Sahara rushes Kazumichi out of danger. He then carries Kazumichi on his back where Yoichi and Yuko cries with relief upon seeing their only son.

Sahara was touched by the family’s reunion that he tries to fight back tears. Shimao even offers his red sunglasses for cover, which Sahara refuses. Father and son bickers as they walk-away where they unknowingly pass-by our main villain who can only sneer at them.

As Shimao limps his way home, Sahara heads to back to granny’s restaurant and orders the 380 Yen meal.

Comments

Episode 2 is an entirely new story and the leftovers from episode 1 seem to have been forgotten. Remember episode 1, an explosion happened at interrogation room and Skunk seemed to have recovered well because there’s no trace that he was ever in an explosion in episode 2. However, I think that it’s not entirely forgotten because our main villain will make his presence known (finally!) in the 3rd episode.

Though I’m quite disappointed with the plot in 2nd episode, again, I was expecting a continuation from episode 1 so this kidnap plot seem unnecessary. It doesn’t make sense that the main villain kidnaps someone to make father and son go around circles and I don’t think it was also his intention to kill them despite the bombs so what is the really the motive for that kidnapping?

Speaking of motives, I think this episode just want to show how Shimao is different to what Sahara have painted his father who abandoned them.

I think that Sahara is starting to be more forgiving of his father and he is trying to understand his dad. I guess it’s a good thing for Sahara to learn more about his father instead of just shutting him off. It’s a mystery how his sister, Shinobu, holds no grudges against dad compared to son. Though the Louis Vuitton items is a good way to start asking for forgiveness. LOL.

For the second episode, Bitter Blood didn’t match the pace of their strong debut by inserting an unnecessary kidnapping case that I don’t think will affect the succeeding episodes.

Despite that, the acting, humor, and chemistry between lead stars is still worth watching.

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Usual disclaimer applies.