Pachinko
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Here we are at the seasons end.
Can you believe that more than five years have passed since the first episode?
For a few chapters, we were placed firmly in two time periods: 1945 and 1989.
Its been a very, very long summer for Solomon.
The Baek familys only priority was and could only be to survive.
In Osaka, Mozasu displays his own talents by showing friends how to manipulate the pachinko machines.
Try as he might at school, his strengths lie elsewhere.
This is so obvious to Goto that he offers to hire Mozasu himself.
Mozasus face can barely contain his excitement; he is psyched.
We never find out what was written in them.
The episodes thematic concern with consequences sharpens into focus in the new dynamic between Hansu and Noa.
Noas ideals literally make her horny.
But he cant take her to his room just yet.
Something fundamental has shifted in Noa he has hardened.
In defiance of this notion, Noa gives Kurogane his Korean name, which makes everyone uneasy.
He intends to be a teacher, not a politician.
Just as theyre about to get into it, the doorbell rings.
Not so later, when they get home.
She provokes him: Is it because she knows that Hansu is his father?
It felt like a huge swing for a character whose defining characteristic has been gentleness.
Rather, they feel like the product of a rudimentary suggestion that violence can be genetically inherited.
Why would he forgive and befriend his own bully?
When Hansu confirms Akikos hunch, Noas eyes bulge cartoonishly.
Instead, Noa goes home to Osaka.
She is startled to see him and starts immediately worrying that something is wrong.
He reassures her that everything is okay; he just misses her.
A couple of seconds after he is gone,itdawns on her.
She runs after him, desperately calling out his name, but its too late hes gone.
Ill find him no matter what, Hansu promises, but Sunja doesnt look soothed.
When she gets home, she collapses on her bed, spent from despair, sadness, anger.
Itsucksthat we have landed here again, just when things seemed like they were about to change.
For his part, Hansu is not handling it very well, either.
At one of his bars, he is literally hitting women.
Looking like hes about to cry, he stares at his trembling hands in classic villainouswhat-have-I-donesorrow.
At this point, sadly, it doesnt matter.
Upon further investigation, he discovers the author behind this good deed: one Solomon Baek.
You know what Im capable of, he threatens.
This whole thing really took me aback.
Our one beacon of light-heartedness, humor, harmless mischief and fun?
And as if that wasnt enough, the relationship between Sunja and Katohadto get ruined, too.
On their next date, Sunja tells Kato about what the P.I.
uncovered about his past.
To his credit, Kato doesnt flinch in the face of the truth.
Remorsefully, he confesses: I am a murderer.
We were barely human, he tells her.
But his mistake is having tried to forget the past as much as he could.
This is not only inexcusable in Sunjas mind but also impossible.
She hands him a wrapped book, wishes him well, bows from the waist, and leaves.
When she gets home, she throws away all the potted plants they had worked on together.
You might as well kill a puppy in front of me.
The only possible thing to say to Solomon at this juncture is: Happy now?!
But that is ungenerous.
Why do some people get to survive and others dont?
Sunja asks Mozasu at the dinner table.
Its just the two of them now (and Solomon, who lives a little far away).
The question is whether that courage can save them it hasnt always.
Sometimes, it hasnt been enough.
Its a point well taken, but it speaks too explicitly to the emotional core of the show.
Writing this recap and consideringPachinkoat large, I got to wondering about the definition of a tragedy.
In hisPoetics,Aristotlearguedthat a tragedys events arouse pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish catharsis of such emotions.
We connect with a tragedy because we live in fear and pity; the practice is literally ancient.
But Ill leave you all with a suggested reading and a reflection.
Modern life is inherently traumatic.
Unless were worse at it more prone to perceive everything as injury.
So many laborious debates, all set aside when its time to be entertained.
