Critic’s Rating: 3 / 5.0
3
The mood darkens in Pachinko Season 2 Episode 2 as Sunja’s family suffers another loss and the air raids draw closer.
A dream-like change in tone can’t disguise that this is the second bridge episode of this season, keeping us tethered to the unresolved narrative threads of Season 1 of the Apple TV+ series.
The good news is that we might now be at the point where Season 2 can finally start.
It was hard to tell at first if the episode’s first scene, with its deserted streets and smoky skies, was real.
Our expectations were subverted when the ominous gas mask-wearing figure turned out to be a human friend, not a ghostly specter.
Those expectations were subverted again when we learned that the true messenger of Death arrives on a bicycle.
Neither A Gift, Nor A Power
This episode spends a lot of time in the realm between the dead and the living.
But its overriding theme is mercy: who gives it, who withholds it, who asks for it, and who deserves it.
Isak (Noh Sang-hyun)’s unexpected return home felt otherworldly at first, but he quickly reestablished his position as the spiritual core of the household, even when wracked with coughs.
It was a good reminder of his importance to the family and why Sunja (Kim Min-ha) is so devoted to him.
They’ve existed in limbo without him for so long that it’s achingly painful to see them together in a moment that’s about love, not just survival.
Unfortunately, it was also a reminder of the self-destructive idealistic streak that Isak and Sunja share.
Sunja is brutally pragmatic, except when it comes to Isak.
This vulnerability and her refusal to leave Osaka without him has kept her family in potential danger from the air raids.
She was right to suspect that Koh Hansu (Lee Min-ho) was responsible for Isak’s release and that he could have done so much sooner — like, years sooner.
Koh’s excuse that he could only bribe a guard now, on the eve of the bombings, sort of made sense and may well have been the truth for all we know.
But it seems like he could have done more for Isak in some capacity a lot earlier and perhaps spared his health.
The Family’s Last Night Together
Isak’s scene with Mozasu was funny and touching, and darn it, there must be a tissue around here somewhere.
Much less funny was Isak’s conversation with Pastor Hu (Junyoung Choi), who confessed that he turned Isak in to the authorities years ago.
This exchange happened before a shocked Noa, who will probably abandon the church for good now.
If that happens, at least Noa’s schoolteacher, who wants him to attend college, will be happy!
Isak’s immediate forgiveness of Pastor Hu was completely in character but also maddening.
If anyone has cause to be upset at the world in general and Pastor Hu in particular, it’s Isak.
While his noble act is indeed noble, it also reminds us how much his inflexibility of principles has cost his family.
He left Sunja with the burden of pragmatism when he was jailed, but apparently his purity of heart is enough for her and everyone else in the family to overlook that fact.
Of course, Sunja loves him.
After all, he took Noa as his own child and gave her a legitimate home.
He loves her with the same fierceness that her father did, and that level of devotion has been rare in her world.
Isak’s death was the most merciful gift he could have given his family since Sunja would never have left Osaka if he had been alive and in need of recuperation.
Still, Sunja allows her sentimentality to get the best of her one last time when she has to be dragged from Isak’s cremation to the bomb shelter as the air raid sirens finally sound, almost sacrificing herself for his memory once again.
Disturbing The Dead
Solomon’s request for Abe-san’s mercy didn’t go well.
His former boss was like, “You remind me too much of me, so I intend to crush you absolutely.”
This cleared up a couple of things for Solomon.
One, he won’t be on Abe-san’s payroll again, and two, he won’t ever be able to do business in Tokyo.
Well, at least now he knows.
Solomon’s visit to Halmoni’s graffitied, darkened house held shades of a horror flick.
This was reinforced when she let slip that her land was so cheap because the military used to dump corpses onto it years ago.
WHAT.
This raised the question of how much we owe to the dead.
We’d just seen Solomon confess his sins to Halmoni (Park Hye-jin) and admit that he didn’t deserve her mercy.
That no one in his generation truly deserves that kind of mercy when they are so far removed from the horrors that had to be survived to provide them with the world they all enjoy now.
But here Solomon is, asking yet another favor from both Halmoni and the dead: permission to sell her land and spread rumors about a secret wartime graveyard under Abe-san’s hotel if he tries to build it.
If we’re being honest, this threat doesn’t seem big enough to bankrupt Abe-san.
Sure, some investors might back out, but it seems like something Japan’s Businessman of the Year could easily buy or bully himself out of.
Still, it’s a thread of hope for Solomon. It also provides the chance for his redemption with Halmoni while giving her enough money to improve her living situation.
Unfortunately, Solomon bypasses all that and goes straight to “TELL HIM IT WAS ME!!”
This business deal is not about anything other than revenge for him now.
Just when we, like Halmoni, thought Solomon had finally learned to recognize and avoid manipulation.
A Clear Way Forward
This was another slow episode that kept its eyes on the rearview mirror, although it did lay out a course of action for Solomon this season.
Now that Isak’s story has been (literally) put to rest, Sunja and her family have nothing keeping them in Osaka and can fully move ahead with their lives.
Koh Hansu will undoubtedly continue to play a big part in providing for them, although Sunja might now be a little better at recognizing his different versions of help when they appear.
Pastor Hu’s betrayal seems to set Noa up for a lot of character development this season.
Noa has been so quiet for so long that I have the feeling this will change in a big way soon.
Solomon has started to play a very dangerous game with a powerful man who is intent on destroying him. Hopefully, Halmoni will remain safe on the sidelines.
What did you think of this episode?
Do you believe the show’s pace will pick up now that Isak’s storyline has been resolved? Let us know in the comments!