Review: Shogun, "Servants of Two Masters" | Season 1, Episode 2
In which a pawn becomes something more...
Last episode ended with all three major players--Lord Toranaga, Anjin, and Mariko--in the same room together. It was framed to make the importance of the moment obvious: Toranaga and Anjin are going to need one another if they're going to survive, and Mariko is likely going to be crucially important to both men (although her goals remain a mystery, at least for now). The second episode, "Servants of Two Masters," picks up right where "Anjin" left off, albeit after a cold open establishing Toranaga's relationship with the now-dead emperor. An Important Conversation is about to take place. Deals will be struck, bonds established.
At least, that's what I thought was going to happen. But after an exchange with Father Martin serving as interpreter, Toranaga sends Anjin to jail. It's unclear, at first, what's going on, which is what makes it exciting to watch. As audience members, we know that Anjin is not going to be executed, nor is he going to spend the rest of the series languishing in jail. But Anjin doesn't know that, and Toranaga doesn't either. Teamwork between unlikely allies needs to be earned, and when the viewer already knows how things are going to end up, it's especially important that the "earning" never feels forced or arbitrary. Speaking for myself, I want to invest in the relationships between the three main characters, but I need those relationships to be built on a plausible foundation. So instead of everyone hitting it off from the start, there is a period of uncertainty--and there's tension, and danger, in that.