Taking a quick detour, Tokyo Vice season 2 episode 8 begins at a fancy Hawaiian resort, where a group of yakuza are hanging out. Their pleasant stay is short-lived as the FBI quickly raids and arrests them, part of a larger operation against yakuza activity in the US. So how will that impact Jake (Ansel Elgort) as he works to take down Tozawa (Ayumi Tanida)?
"The Noble Paths" sees many of the characters choosing their way forward. How will Sato (Sho Kasamatsu) react now that he is out of Chihara-kai? Can Samantha (Rachel Keller) recover from her recent troubles? And what does Tozawa have up his sleeve?
Read on to find out what happens in Tokyo Vice season 2 episode 8.
Chasing leads
Shortly after Jake arrives back in Tokyo, Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) and Ngata (Miki Maya) show up to discuss Tozawa. Jake believes Tozawa entered the US on a fake passport, which means among the potential crimes he committed are fraud, immigration violations and manslaughter for skipping people on the transplant list who may have died. Jake's story is going to be key for the US to extradite Tozawa, so they encourage him to reach out to the FBI to get more info.
Fortunately, Eimi (Rinko Kikuchi) gives Trendy (Takaki Uda) the Hawai'i story and has Jake, who apologizes to everyone for his actions before he left with gifts, help him liaison with the FBI.
Trendy and Jake talk with Jason (Aoi Takeya) to get background on the arrests. He tells them it was part of an ongoing investigation, with more arrests on the way. Jake then asks what the US position would be on extraditing a Japanese national who committed a crime in the US before returning to Japan. Jason doesn’t know, but recommends Jake talk with his boss, Lynn Oberfield (Geraldine Hughes).
After revealing what he's found out about Tozawa’s actions in the US, Lynn promises Jake she'll look into them. It's not helpful though, as she tells Jake it wasn’t Tozawa who got the liver transplant, but a Japanese American teacher currently recovering at home in Georgia. Jake is skeptical. He talks it over with Eimi, saying the doctor he talked to in Minnesota said his patient didn’t speak English and was covered in tattoos. He now wonders if Lynn was also bribed by Tozawa. Eimi encourages him to chase it but to tell no one.
She has reason to be cautious, as she and Tin Tin (Kosuke Tanaka) continue to investigate Baku. Tin Tin found an old article Baku wrote for another paper where he actually interviewed Tozawa and defended him, further suggesting they could still be connected.
New day
Samantha prepares to take action against her recent string of bad fortune, asking Sato for a gun. When he gives her the one he is carrying, she’s confused. He explains he has been kicked of Chihara-kai for challenging Hayama (Yosuke Kubozuka), but Kaito (Atom Mizuishi) is still in. They're both starting from scratch, but are glad they at least have each other.
Things are going much better for Tozawa. He's confident the violence in the street and increased police presence will weaken the other gangs, making it easier for him to take over everything. He also wields his influence with Minister of Transportation Shigematsu (Hajime Inoue), who remember was on the tape killing Polina. Tozawa uses this leverage to push for a new Minister of Justice. Mrs. Tozawa (Makiko Watanabe) argues Tozawa is thinking too small, and that the real power lies in controlling Japan's finances. But Tozawa seems to have a plan.
This difference in opinion among the Tozawas continues when it comes to Misaki (Ayumi Ito). Scared as she is brought before Tozawa, she is surprised when he reveals the paper she signed in episode 7 was a deed to a house for her mother. Misaki believes she has escaped punishment, but soon learns she also has a meeting with Mrs. Tozawa. In exchange for continuing to keep Misaki's relationship with Jake a secret, she wants any info Misaki may know that Tozawa hasn't shared with his wife.
Police corruption
Katagiri reenacts the murder of his witness. As they go over the scene again and again, Katagiri realizes his colleague who was in the back seat must have ducked to avoid being shot, meaning he knew the attack was coming.
The corruption goes up the ladder. When Ngata talks with the assistant commissioner about needing to bring in internal affairs to deal with this, she is given the book and replaced, citing her culpability for the outburst of violence and the witness being killed.
Katagiri is not happy with all of this, but when he attempts to defend Ngata, he is told he could just as easily be reassigned as well.
Taking action
Samantha visits a host club to get info on Akira (Tomohisa Yamashita), the former host she saw on TV and who robbed her in season 1. Once she has his address, she recruits Erika (Hyunri) to help break into his apartment and confront him. Unfortunately, despite his boasting on TV, Akira is broke, so Samantha's hope of getting her money back from him is shot.
Meanwhile, Sato gets official paperwork that he is banned from Chihara-kai (who knew they were so thorough with documentation). Taro (Koshi Uehara) tells him Kaito took part in a shooting and a war is about to begin because no one has the courage to stand up to Hayama. Taro mentions this is not what Ishida would have wanted.
With this kick in the pants, Sato goes to confront Hayama while he, Kaito and other members of Chihara-kai are at a bath house. Sato says he is just there for his brother, not wanting Hayama to get him killed. But Hayama is done with Sato being a thorn in his side. He orders the men to "handle" Sato.
They are reluctant at first, but look like they are about to do as they are ordered when Kaito shouts out that Hayama killed the old Chihara-kai member in the mountains, which Sato confirms. Hayama then attacks Sato himself and gets the early upper hand, but with Taro's help, he is able to knock Hayama unconscious. Sato starts to drown Hayama in a tub; when he struggles, the other yakuza side with Sato, holding Hayama down until he drowns.
Sato takes Kaito back to their mother, as he promised. Kaito apologizes for his actions and his mother says Sato’s father would be proud of him for keeping his word. She invites Sato in for tea, but he says he can’t. He is back with Chihara-kai and likely about to become the leader, so the people closest to him are going to be targets. He leaves to keep them safe.
Jake's decision
Jake receives a call from Yabuki (Kazuya Tanabe), who tells him Tozawa wants to speak in person, leading to the meeting we saw in the opening moments of the pilot episode. Yabuki stands in for Tozawa, telling Jake to stop investigating or they'll go after his family before killing him. Jake agrees. Yabuki then turns his attention to Katagiri, who came as a friend for Jake, taunts that he hopes this doesn’t make Tozawa think their arrangement has ended.
When Jake and Katagiri leave, Katagiri is adamant Jake has to keep working on the story. Tozawa is clearly scared about what Jake may find out, so the only way to truly protect themselves is to expose him so he has nowhere to hide. Jake is worried though, and still has no proof to back up his theories. Katagiri tells him to find it, swallow his fear and write fast.
However, Katagiri is scared too. He takes his family from their country home and puts them into a hotel. He promises his wife he’ll do whatever it takes to bring Tozawa down and make them safe again.
Jake calls his dad (Danny Burstein) and asks him what he should do. He tells Jake if this is the only way to put Tozawa in jail he has to see it through, as long as Jake can get it done, which Jake believes he can.
The task gets harder though as Jake sees a news report that the prime minister is resigning from his position for undisclosed medical reasons. Replacing him is Shigematsu. Jake and Eimi, who watches the news unfold at the paper, both know what this means — Tozawa holds the strings now.
New episodes of Tokyo Vice season 2 premiere on Thursdays exclusively on Max, where you can also watch past episodes.
