First off I want to apologize for getting Shorters name wrong in the previous review, if I have to be honest, names are usually a huge weak point of mine and unless i’m deeply familiar with the series I’ll have the Wiki up when writing a review just to double check the spelling or making sure I have the right character names, but I wasn’t doing that here. So my apologizes.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at episode six. We left off with the group planning to go to Ash’s childhood home to look through the things that Griff left behind to see if they could find any clues about Banana Fish among his belongings. In this episode, we meet Ash’s father and a girl named Jennifer who’s relationship to Ash’s family isn’t exactly clearly defined in the episode. It doesn’t seem like they are related, she’d not his mother because his mother left. She’s not Griff’s mother, because his mother left as well. He didn’t call her a sister or anything of the sort so one could only assume that she is perhaps a family friend that just helps out his father and runs the local diner.
The group drops by the diner to get the keys to the house and discover quickly that relations between Ash and his father are extremely strained. He seems under the impression that Ash is a manwhore and the people he had with him are all people he seduced.
Honestly, after the backstory we get later in the episode it makes me sick that he would say those kinds of things. How can you say that about your son when you’re the one who told him to basically shut up and take it when a local war hero was sexually abusing him at the age of seven. How could you say something like that when the police flat out denied the claims against this guy until after Ash killed him and they found the bones of children in the basement.
The Bluebeard of Cape Cod huh? Disgusting. Ash’s dad sort of redeems himself at the end of the episode, but the idea that he would press the fact his son was like that even when it was the fault of the adults around Ash, himself included that shaped him this way is horrible.
Anyway, the group goes to the house and in a picture book they find in Griff’s room they find a picture including the guy that shot Griff. Who was apparently serving in the same unit as Griff before Griff transferred to the one Max was in. A quick search into him turns up the address that was given to Ash as the man in the first episode was dying, so the group is now on it’s way to Los Angeles. Before they go though, Dino’s men find where they are and go to the diner and hold Jennifer and Ash’s father captive trying to get Ash to turn himself over.
Max turns on the truck and yells ‘cops’ and gives them enough space and room to fight back. Ash shoots one of the guys and Shorter takes out the other one, but not before Jennifer and Ash’s father are shot. Jennifer dies, but Ash’s father makes it and tells the person that comes running to see what happened that it was a burglary. He wipes Ash’s finger prints from the gun and holds it himself and has Shorter put the knife in Jennifer’s hand.
He says he’s proud of Ash and then urges them to go. This what what I mean about redeeming himself. Also, poor Jennifer, she seemed like such a nice young girl. Most of all though, poor Ash. How much more of this can he take? They kill Skip, They killed Griff, They killed Jennifer. This really is enough to break someone. It’s painful and I feel so bad for him.
We also get some insight into Ibe in this episode and hopefully some potential for growth. As he is forced to see that he is in fact babying Eiji, despite the fact that Eiji is 19 and by no means a child. Speaking of Eiji, can I express once again how much I adore him!?
This boy is so cute! The way his eyes light up when he gets to try new things even if that new thing is trying to shoot a gun at a bottle. The way he snaps at Ash’s father and tries to find out the truth of why he would treat his own son like that. The sadness and respect that he feels for Ash and most of all, the strength he shows even when faced with seeing someone he considers a friend slit the throat of a man right in front of him. He looks sick and like he’s going to vomit for a second, but he manages to pull himself together wonderfully. He understands fully what kind of world he’s pulled himself into by getting involved with Ash and I just adore him for it.
In the ending, we see Dino meeting with someone who has a greater influence in Los Angeles then he does. The person that Ash was asking help from last episode, I suppose that’s just how mafia deals go. The person has a contact in Chinatown that they seem confident will be able to handle Ash and the gang. Though, while they do seem to be very much after Ash. He frames it as if they are after Max and Ibe as well, two reporters and well, leaked information is dangerous. In this meeting, he also mentions that Banana Fish is a drug meant to be used in Assassinations, if this is true or not is yet to be seen.
So things are setting up for the next arc quickly here in L.A. and hopefully we’ll be on the way to more answers all around.