Tokyo Vice Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: 10 Biggest Reveals

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Tokyo Vice season 2, episode 5.

Tokyo Vice season 2, episode 5 “Illness of the Trade” picked up after the cliffhanger ending of episode 4. At the halfway point of the celebrated new season of the acclaimed HBO series, Tokyo Vice has five episodes left to see how Jake (Ansel Elgort) and Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) can possibly have the ruthless gang leader Tozawaw (Ayumi Tanida) face justice. New developments over the first half of Tokyo Vice season 2 have placed both Jake and Katagiri back into the world of the Chihara-Kai, which they had been wisely avoiding for the sake of their own protection.

The stellar and widespread cast of Tokyo Vice remains one of the best parts of the series, despite there being a surplus of storylines for the viewer to keep up with. After five episodes, Tokyo Vice season 2 has received positive reviews, earning it an impressive 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. With little information currently available surrounding the potential for Tokyo Vice season 3, it appears that the positive critical reception will provide a strong case for HBO to move forward with its acclaimed series. Until the viewership numbers are revealed, however, fans of Tokyo Vice will have to wait and see.

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Tokyo Vice Season 2 Episode 4 Recap: 10 Biggest Reveals

Tokyo Vice season 2 continues in the aftermath of the sudden return of Tozawa, as Jake, Katagiri, and the Chihara-Kai respond to the new threat.

10 Jake Tells Eimi About Nakahara’s Death & Tozawa’s Likely Involvement

Jake following Tozawa in the previous episode paid off

Immediately following the shocking ending of Tokyo Vice episode 4, it’s confirmed that Nakahara was the person who was apparently thrown off the building during his meeting with Tozawa. Jake, who had been tracking Tozawa’s whereabouts last episode, quickly connected the dots as the first witness to Nakahara’s murder and calls Eimi. Jake insists that he knew Tozawa was in the building and likely had something to do with Nakahara’s death, a suspicion that Katagiri also has in the episode.

9 Samantha Comes Clean To Masa About Why She Tried To Steal His Blueprints

Samantha tells him that the Chihara-Kai were interested in his Shimbashi project

Masa is stunned and defensive when he discovers that Samantha went through his belongings at the end of the previous episode. Fortunately, Masa is a respectable person and allows Samantha to sleep on the couch that night until they can sort out where to go from there, although he feels incredibly used. Samantha comes clean and reveals that she is in deep with the Chihara-Kai and delivering the Shimbashi blueprints would have grated her sole ownership of her Club Polina. Ishida was very interested in buying property by the Shimbashi development to flip for top dollar.

8 Eimi Discovers That Tozawa Pays Baku & Could Have Destroyed The Yoshino Tape

Shingo tells Eimi that Baku is financially linked to Tozawa

After the police press conference regarding Nakahar’s apparent “suicide”, Eimi runs into Shingo, a fellow journalist and also her current love interest. Shingo reveals some very interesting news regarding a connection he found between Baku and Tozawa, revealing that Baku was essentially on Tozawa’s payroll due to their similar right-wing politics. This all but confirms that Baku had set the fire at the Meicho office that had destroyed the Yoshino tape that would have implicated Tozawa in the death of Polina.

7 Misaki Is Forced To Become Tozawa’s Mistress Again Despite Feelings For Jake

Jake becomes increasingly motivated to take down Tozawa and save Misaki

Jake and Misaki’s love affair is brought to an abrupt halt once Tozawa returns to Tokyo, leaving Misaki no choice but to resume her role as his loyal an loving mistress. Jake and Misaki are incredibly fortunate that word somehow did not get back around to Tozawa about Jake, but there is still plenty of time in Tokyo Vice season 2 for that to quickly change. Misaki had pleaded to Jake that she would not go back to her old life of servitude to Tozawa, but she doesn’t seem to have many options at this point in the season.

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Tokyo Vice Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: 12 Biggest Reveals

Tokyo Vice season 2 episode 3 expands the developing stories of Jake, Samantha, Katagiri, and Sato while throwing in several new twists and surprises.

6 Masa & Samantha Plot To Have Jake Publish Article About Shimbashi Development

Masa tries to get Samantha is off the hook & promises another opportunity

Raher than completely leave Samantha hanging, Masa devices a plan to get both of them off the hook by planting the announcement of the Shimbashi project in the press. Samantha knows she can hand this project off to Jake who would then make the Shimbashi project well-known in a Meicho article, which would negate Ishida’s interest in investing in the surrounding properties. Masa somewhat naively thinks that after the Shimbashi project is announced, he and Samantha can then bring a new opportunity to Ishida.

5 Sato & Hayama Return To Ishido Win Guns That Sato Hid At Club Polina

Neither of them mention the truth of what happened or Ota’s death

Sato and Hayama return from their outrageous trip to meet Ota to purchase weapons based on Ishida’s orders. Surpringly, Ishida is unaware of Ota’s death and doesn’t question the weapons that Sato brought back, which he had been secretly purchasing and hiding at Club Polina as a back up plan. Eventually, before the end of the episode, Sato comes clean and tells Ishida he had been stockpiling the guns in secret. Ishida says because of his intuition, Sato will make a great oyabun someday.

4 Word Of The Shimbashi Project Gets Out & Ishida Grows Suspicious Of Samantha

Jake handed off the assignment to Tin Tin potentially knowing it would blow up in his face

Jake outsourced Samantha’s favor to write about the Shimbashi project to Tin Tin, claiming that he thinks he should take on more responsibility. Tin Tin botches the interview with a spokesperson for the project, who then immediately releases the information publicly in a press conference. Baku realizes that Tin Tin fumbled the article, which would have been an exclusive if he had been able to get confirmation during the interview. Jake still completed the favor for Samantha at the expense of Tin Tin’s reputation, but Ishida immediately becomes suspicious of Samantha.

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Tokyo Vice Season 2 Episodes 1 & 2 Recap: 15 Biggest Reveals

The first two episodes of Tokyo Vice season 2 pick up right where season 1’s cliffhanger left off and set up new thrilling characters & developments.

3 Sato Tells Jake That Tozawa Got The “Illness Of The Trade” & Won’t Live Long

Tozawa likely got a strange blood tranfucton or liver replacement that will eventually kill him

Sato meets up with Jake at the batting cages, during which Jake asks him about the “Illness of the Trade” which refers to the frequency of Yakuza who get liver disease. Sato explains that nobody in Japan would go so far as to donate their liver or any other organ for that matter, but there is supposedly a German doctor in Thailand who could perform a liver transplant. Sato also speaks of the doctor offering blood transfusion from young people but that the procedure would only extend life by half a year. Jake suspects that this is what Tozawa did when he disappeared for months.

2 Tozawa Instills Himself As The New President Of The “Reformed” Tozawa Clan

Tozawa’s vision is to rebrand the clan as a business not a gang

Appearing good as new, Tozawa speaks before his clan in the aftermath of Nakahara’s death. During a long-winded inspirational speech, Tozawa creates a vision of rebranding the Tozawa gang as a business, expressing a desire to become a more accessible and respectable organization that does not necessarily pertain to criminal activity. He instills himself not as the new oyabun but as the President of the Tozawa clan, which eventually earns the support of his gangster followers.

1 Assassins Kill Ishida During His Meeting With Samantha & Masa

Masa is also shot and killed in the crossfire

In a shocking twist, Ishida is shot and killed by armed assassins while meeting with Masa and Samantha about a new real estate opportunity. It appears that the assassins had come specifically for Ishida, but it’s unclear by the end of the episode who had sent them and why they were only targeting him. Masa, who was sitting in front of Ishida when the assassins came, was shot and killed din the crossfire in an instant death. Sato intervenes and drives off the assassins but it looks like the end has come for Ishida in Tokyo Vice season 2, episode 5.

Tokyo Vice

Based on the novel and the true experiences of Jake Adelstein, Tokyo Vice is a drama thriller series that sees the first American journalist ever to join a Japanese newspaper, forced to start at the bottom of the totem pole to earn his place. Set loose under a vice detective’s close tutelage and supervision, Jake steps into the Yakuza-led underworld of Tokyo and learns what it means to ask too many questions.

Cast

Ansel Elgort , Rachel Keller

Release Date

April 17, 2022

Seasons

2

Writers

Destin Daniel Cretton

Directors

Josef Kubota Wladyka , Michael Mann , Alan Poul , Hikari