By Golden Kamuy standards – recent form anyway – that was a positively sedate episode. This was really the first time all season that the narrative took a step back and let things play out slowly, focusing more on dialogue than action and general outlandishness. I love the rush but this was nice, I have to admit. Some variety in tone makes you appreciate all the faces this series can show you. And if nothing else it was kind of nice to get a bit of a rest.
This was also the first time in a good while Tsurumi has really commanded the stage. And it’s a reminder both of how creepily magnetic he is and how tremendous Ootsuka Houchuu is in the role. He has Asirpa, and that puts him in the catbird seat for the moment. Sugimoto literally runs himself sick trying to catch up before he happens on the beermobile and Shiraishi invites him on-board. The moments of signature lunacy thus week involve that vehicle and the two men’s spectacular inability to drive it (the bit with the cat had me in stitches).
The Russians are coming, and that makes everything more complicated. Sofia has already made her (re)appearance but she’s not alone – and her allies have Tsurumi worried. Tsukishima manages to get the better of Sofia and capture her, but Tsurumi decides to take his two prisoners to a secret location (a church) and wait out the 7th securing a safer passage to their local HQ. But the two slowpokes eventually do catch up and spot Lt. Koito. Shiraishi suggests bursting in and rescuing Asirpa. But Sugimoto demurs, though it’s one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make. He’s gambling on Tsurumi not trying to extract information by torture while and and Shiraishi locate Hijikata and his group and bring them in as support.
There’s all kinds of interesting stuff going on in that old church. But perhaps most fascinating is what develops with Koito and Tsukishima. Tsukishima – who doesn’t miss a trick – has noticed Koito slipping out of his Satsuma accent in speaking to Lt. Tsurumi and guesses that he’s lost faith in him. And when Tsurumi orders Nikaidou to clear everyone out and keep them well away while he interrogates Asirpa and Sofia, both men’s suspicions only deeper. Cracks in the unity of the 7th have been pretty rare, and if indeed these two crucial cogs are indeed turning on Tsurumi that represents a huge challenge for him.
The issue is betrayal. If Tsurumi is in this for personal reasons (which Tsukishima clearly already suspected), that’s a betrayal of the promise he made which was the foundation of this entire enterprise. And betrayal is the theme inside, too (as the two listen at the keyhole). Tsurumi wants to know why Sofia and her people ordered the fire that led to the death of his wife and daughter. He also refers to Sofia as “Golden Hand”, the name she went by at the height of her revolutionary days.
The other betrayal here is Wilk, to Kiroranke. And this was surely a crucial moment in the evolution of the entire Ainu gold plot. When Wilk sours on the idea of taking on the Russian Empire, he’s betraying Kiroranke and the Karafuto Ainu (who don’t come from Hokkaido). Not to mention the other ethnic minorities in the Russian Far East, like the reindeer-herding Uilta. This was the fatal schism between the two, and set Wilk off on his final plan with the gold. And an old man named Kimuspu – a survivor of the original Ainu plot living alone high in the mountains – may just have been the key to everything.
