Shōgun Episode 9 has fans reeling, as the show dealt its hardest blow yet, with a major character death. Obviously, there will be FULL SPOILERS that follow in this discussion.
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Shōgun “Chapter Nine: Crimson Sky” saw Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) enact his carefully orchestrated plan to bend the iron-clad system of Japanese formality, etiquette, and rituals to his favor. When many viewers heard the term “Crimson Sky” as a battle plan where samurai soldiers would be making a Kamikaze-style charge on the castle in Osaka; instead, Toranaga sent a targeted missile at Osaka in the form of Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai).
Mariko accompanies John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) and Toranaga’s vassal Lord Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) to Osaka, and when she appears before the Council of Regeants she forces Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira) and her old friend Ochiba no Kata (Fumi Nikaido), into a binding choice and consequence: allow Mariko to return to Toranaga with his consorts and newborn son (and thereby free all the lords Ishido is holding hostage), or be held against her will, and take her own life for failing in her duty (causing a revolt within the highborn families of Japan).
With the utmost courage and resolve, Mariko marched toward the gates of Osaka with her garrison of samurai, and fought a bloody battle (in vain) to leave the castle. When she is detained, Mariko goes through with her ritual suicide (seppuku) but is stopped at the last moment when Ishido issues permits for her and Toranaga’s consorts to leave. The reprieve is just a ploy, though: Ishido uses Yabushige to hire some ninja assassins, who attack Mariko that night. In the battle, Mariko, Blackthorne, Yabushige, and the consorts barricade themselves in a storeroom for protection. When the ninjas go to bomb the door, Mariko doesn’t hide but allows herself to be killed in the blast.
Shōgun: Mariko’s Death Explained – Why It Matters
The story of Shōgun has been ruminating on themes of life, death, duty, sacrifice, and purpose since the very first episode. Mariko was most often the vessel for conveying these themes, by way of her conversations with Blackthorne about Japanese culture. And with her death, Mariko arguably brings those themes around to their climatic conclusion.
As the daughter of disgraced warlord Akechi Jinsai, Mariko had lived in the shadow of (customary) shame since childhood – despite her father questionably ‘doing the right thing’ for Japan by slaying a toxic ruler. She wanted to end her life – but more than that, Mariko struggled to find any purpose in her continued existence. In Shōgun Episode 9, those two issues finally converge: Mariko finds that she had to stay alive during those years of suffering and shame to obtain a purposeful death.
Even with the cover of the ninja attack, the loss of a politically important figure like Mariko (a highborn lady, prominent Christian, and object of powerful men’s admiration) will have a major impact. The political shifts its causes could be the key to buying Toranaga room to seize more power and influence in the council – like the death of his closest advisor Toda Hiromatsu (Tokuma Nishioka) bought him time to plan.
Shōgun is streaming on Hulu/Disney+ and airing on FX.
