Banana Fish – Episode 4&5

Sorry about the delay and the double post everyone, some personal issues kept me from being able to cover episode four on time, but we’re back! Thanks for baring with it. -Midnight

THEY KILLED GRIFF TOO.
This show is determined to rip from Ash everything that he cares about and that makes me really worried for Eiji. I don’t think it’s going to kill him, but i’ve seen enough of these Mafia/Gangster shows to be too confident in a happy ending.

We saw at the end of episode three that Eiji had been followed, and when he is found at the doctors place. Arthur and his men have already set to get the drug back from the Doctor. Eiji, the doctor and his assistant would of all ended up dead if it wasn’t for Scooter showing up and saving the day.
However, the sound of the voice of the doctor that is with Dino’s group draws Griff out of his coma like state and he walks out and looks at him and calls him ‘Banana Fish’. Now leading us to believe that Banana Fish is a person.
Though episode five confirms what i’ve thought from episode one. That Banana Fish isn’t a person, but a drug.

Max is informed about Griff’s death and is told not to tell Ash about it. What does he do? Immediately tell Ash. Great idea, tell the guy who is clearly either going to break out of prison or wait until he’s released out of prison and go for revenge. Which is exactly what ends up happening.
When his bail is posted in episode five and he’s out of jail he plans a way to escape and get away from Charlie and the others. What he doesn’t count on is Eiji’s sheer determination to help him out and how much he feels responsible for Griff’s death considering it was the result of him being followed.

Dino has a restaurant that he also uses for human trafficking that he visits on the 15th of every month. This is where Ash plans to corner him, so Eiji, Scooter and Ash come up with a plan to take old man Dino down. Meanwhile, Max grabs Ibe, who is super worried about Eiji and runs off to save the kids from getting themselves killed.

Honestly, i’m not sure who I feel worse for. Ash or Eiji, both of them are struggling so much in all of this. Ash has lot so many precious things to him in his life, hell, in these last five episodes not to mention anything that happened before the series. Then there is Eiji. Who was just an athlete in Japan before all of this, he hurt his leg and couldn’t compete as an athlete like before. Seeing that he was depressed, Ibe brought Eiji to America as his assistant and that’s how he ended up here.

This boy has lived a totally normal life up until now. Not thinking of drugs, or street gangs, or holding a gun and pulling the trigger even if it meant saving his own life. When he is faced with that very situation, Scooter has to take his hands and pull the trigger on the gun just to keep the two of them alive.

Max and Ibe show up and disrupt the gunfight between Ash and Dino’s men. They dive into the river and escape to live another day.
Max says he intends to bring them back to Ash’s home in Cape Cod. To try to find the truth about Banana Fish in the pictures and letters that were left behind by his brother. There is something there though, something painful. Ash had to have run away for a reason.

These two episodes raise a few questions.
1. What kind of drug is Banana Fish. We already know the small fact that it’s based in LSD, but Dino implies that there is so much more to it.
2. What came between Ash and Dino? There was some sort of inciting incident between the two of them that the show is sort of skirting around.

and a personal question on my end. How is Eiji going to come out of all of this? He blacked out after the group jumped into the river and didn’t wake up before the end of the episode. He just had to be holding the gun while a life was ended in front of him. He may not of pulled the trigger, but that’s not something a normal person can just adapt too. I’d really like to see if and how this show is going to tackle that trauma.