JIN Episode 10

While waiting for the latest episode of Bridal Mask to be translated, continuing my search for -- oh no! Emannuelle left Nour and has run off with the ice cream man! Anyway, continuing my search for another episode of The Chaser with subs, and cooking dinner (I'm so multi-tasking), lets see what the good old time traveling doc is up to this time.

I go into this episode fully prepared. I know that somewhere, at any time, that Creepy Baby in a Jar is going to pop up.

Yep, and there it is, right off the bat. Jin grabs his head in pain and falls to the ground unconscious. Somehow Saki gets him back home. As she's nursing him, big brother Kyoutaro brings up the subject of the marriage proposal and assures Saki that her family is not pressuring her to make up her mind right away. I love you, Tachibana. I love everybody.

Sitting next to the doctor's side, Saki thinks back to when she had walked up to join him at the cliff side. He was looking at his photograph and at the angle she was at she could see how Miki was disappearing from the picture. Wanting to see it to make sure, Saki starts to search Jin for the photo but can't find it.

Meanwhile, Sakimoto Ryoma is hanging out at the brothel when he's approached by a man. (He was part of the group of men at the very end of Episode 9.) Mystery Man hands Sakimoto a letter from Kusaka Genzui, a Choshu retainer (and thus anti-Westerner). In the letter Kusaka expresses interest in this new wonder drug, penicillin, and wishes to meet with Sakimoto privately about it.

In the morning Jin finally awakens. He thinks back to Father of Creepy Baby in a Jar. Could it have been him, Jin? Could it be possible he operated on himself? But then the voice sounded like it was Sakimoto's. If it was Ryoma, then was there no assassination? Or is the Sakimoto Ryoma Jin knows not the Sakimoto Ryoma of history? Both Jin's and my head hurt thinking about this.

Saki comes back from the cliff side hangout where she retrieved the dropped photograph. She returns it to Jin, mentioning she notices the picture is different. Miki continues to fade.

Hikosaburo drops by to see the doctor. Jin learns that she's been bought (that's what it is and that's what I'm going to call it) and once she goes to the home of her master he'll never see her again. Hikosaburo asks Jin to examine Nokaze as that is her last wish. (Well, her last wish was to have some nookie with Jin but it didn't work out so a girl's gotta take what she can get.)

Jin has a talk with Saki. He gets it into his mind that the last time when Miki started coming back into the picture (when Jin was about to rock Nokaze's world) was when Nokaze was thinking positively about her approaching sale. Therefore, Miki must be a descendant of Nokaze and this guy who is paying out some hefty cash, Inkyo. Jin must help Nokaze to go to her new master. Saki asks to go with Jin to be present at the examination.

Creepy Baby.

Jin is joined by another doctor who has been sent by the buyer. Jin uses his new stethoscope and I'm sorry, it looks like something the Professor from Gilligan's Island cobbled together from bamboo and coconuts. Anyway, as Jin begins to examine Nokaze's breasts, sure enough he finds the lump that she knows is there. Yet when Nokaze asks if anything is wrong, Jin replies in the negative. Again, as Jin is giving his report to Hikosaburo, he says nothing is wrong. Ever vigilant Saki can tell from Jin's face that he's lying.

Back home, Jin worries if he did the right thing or not. To him what he felt wasn't that big so may not be a malignant tumor, therefore he wasn't lying when he said nothing was wrong. Oh Jin, sometimes I could smack you upside the head. It would be for your own good. When he checks the photograph again, Miki has come back stronger, which convinces him he's done the right thing.

Jin consults with the Chinese medicine man - come to think of it, I believe that's the guy with the hole in the stomach Jin had to take care of - about breast lumps and Baldy suggests Jin speak with the Hanoka School. Breast cancer is their specialty. It's mentioned that Saburi had some training from Hanoka, yet he denies it when asked. What's up with that?

Saki and Moma T go to visit a friend who has recently had a baby. Seeing her daughter holding a baby gives Moma T a bad case of Granny Fever. On their way back home Moma T asks Saki just what does she have planned for her future. This gets Saki to wondering about it herself. Returning home she finds Jin once again staring at that damned picture. (She and I are getting rather tired of that.) I believe Saki is starting to realize that Jin isn't going to feel the same way about her that she feels about him.

Sakimoto shows up to deliver a letter to Jin from Nokaze. The men go to the hangout so Jin can read. This letter is nothing but a thank you for your time and attention, yet we viewers know Nokaze had started to write another letter asking for a re-examination. It is up to Sakimoto to open Jin's eyes to the fact Saki is in love with him. Ryoma joins me in wanting to smack Jin upside the head.

Tachibana is back to hanging out at the red light district, stealing glances at his near-sighted geisha, who is looking rather woeful herself. While he's outside, his sister is inside visiting with Nokaze. (Saki has spent an inordinate amount of time in the brothels. I'm surprised she hasn't developed a reputation.) Nokaze tells her visitor about the lump in her breast and also about how her own mother also had a lump in her breast which ended up killing the woman. If the lump was something to be worried about, Nokaze's sale would have been canceled. Since Jin said there was nothing wrong with her, then Nokaze is fine with it. Saki isn't fine with it. She urges Nokaze to be re-examined. What if this lump continues to get worse? Isn't she afraid of dying? Nokaze's pointed silence says loud and clear that she's not afraid of her own death.

Saki and Tachibana return home to find Jin's sign is down. Saki rushes to Jin's quarters to find him packing up his stuff. He says he has decided to move down to the penicillin factory. Saki asks Jin to examine Nokaze one more time, calling him out for not saying anything earlier about what he felt. Jin explains that what he felt may not be a tumor, or if it is, may not be cancerous. Besides, he admits he doesn't know how to treat breast cancer. (Oh, so you know how to do skin grafts, treat STD's, and sew up stomachs, but you don't know anything about breast cancer.)

Saki berates Jin. Is he going to sacrifice Nokaze because of Miki? Didn't Nokaze save Jin's life when she warned about the assassins? Is this how Jin repays her? Nokaze is a human being who deserves help the same as anybody else Jin has treated. Give it to him, Saki! Give it to him good!

Saki leaves Jin in disgust and goes to tell Moma T to accept the marriage proposal.

The next morning, as Jin is starting to leave the household, Saki is in a more forgiving mood. She gives him a packed lunch and thanks him for teaching her about medicine. It is knowledge she hopes will benefit the family she's marrying into. This is the first Jin has heard about Saki getting married. (Maybe if you stopped looking at that damn picture all the time you would know more about what's going on around you.) As Jin walks away he doesn't look back, otherwise he would have seen the tears in Saki's eyes.

Jin doesn't have much time to get settled in at the factory. Sakimoto shows up and practically drags Jin along to meet with the Chosu faction and explain about penicillin. Kusaka has brought along with him a syphilitic man in order to see for himself whether this new drug does what it does. After a few shots, the man is looking much better. Kusaka asks how much does the medicine cost when Sakimoto cuts in. The cost of the medicine is that the Chosu faction stops fighting with fellow Japanese. Instead, they should join with Sakimoto in selling the penicillin to the barbarians, then using the money made to build a great Navy, which will once and for all defeat the barbarians. As Sakimoto and Kusaka have an intense stare-down, Jin wonders what he's done to history. Kusaka only says he'll think about it.

As Jin and Sakimoto are walking through that scary-in-the-dark bamboo forest, the doctor more and more worries about messing with history. (Now? You're only worrying about it now?) Jin stops Sakimoto and apologises, but he won't have anything to do with this deal. The samurai argues about how he's trying to save lives by preventing battles. Jin argues back what if these battles are meant to be? The What If debate goes on for a minute or so.

Suddenly Jin cries out Ryomo's name. Without even turning around to look, Sakimoto draws his sword and skewers the assassin coming up behind him. More killers emerge from the ... woods? No, bamboo is a grass. Anyway, there are more bad guys. Ryomo leads the killers away from Jin, knowing they're after him anyway. Jin just stands there for a moment until he grabs his head in pain. Where are you, Creepy Baby? You must be around here somewhere if Jin has a headache.

Sakimoto is valiantly fighting three against one. Just when the assassins are about to get the best of him, Jin finally gets his headachey butt in gear and comes to Sakimoto's aid. Sakimoto fights the men off while yelling for Jin to run, but Jin has once again become useless. Sakimoto is disarmed and is at the end of three sharp swords. Good thing this fight somehow ended up at the hangout. Right before the killers strike, Jin tackles Sakimoto and they both go flying off the edge of the cliff into the river below.

Elsewhere, Saki's light goes dim. Nokaze's kaleidoscope breaks. (Which I'm glad. The kaleidoscope was as annoying to me as Jin's picture-staring.)

There is a moment of stillness. Then Jin surfaces, gasping for air. But where is Sakimoto?