This episode was phenomenal. The way the case was presented to us in the first half throwing in some clues to the surprise betrayal at the end was excellent. I didn’t quite catch the actions or demeanor of Takei throughout the flashback, but going back to certain scenes and hearing Cho-san’s words as he realized what Takei did, it was all clear. This episode is what I was expecting to get out of this show from the beginning, and I’m glad the story took this shift (even if it was too sudden).
Sayuri Kambe was Daisuke’s mother who was suddenly killed out of nowhere. The main suspect was Shigemaru Kambe, the husband and Daisuke’s father. Everything seemingly pointed at him as there was an eye witness who had seen him apparently, but things got to a dead end when Shigemaru suddenly committed suicide. The one piece of significant evidence Cho and his partner Takei had was a green locker key that was found in a Kambe photo album he stole, which would lead to something connected to adollium, the material Shigemaru was researching.
Everything about the case is suspicious and strange. I don’t think Shigemaru would just kill his wife, especially just leave her body out like that. And Shigemaru committing suicide is rife with suspicion as well. Whenever someone “kills themself” in cop shows/movies, it usually means that someone killed them and staged it that way. Whatever this adollium is, probably connected to the devices from a couple episodes ago, was so important and it angered the wrong people the wrong way and the Kambes suffered for it. It’s all just speculation since we still don’t have any leads or evidence.
That is, unless Takei knows something the others don’t. I had to go back and rewatch certain scenes after we learned of Takei’s betrayal at the end. Marrying your director’s daughter, it makes sense to want to be in good standing with him so it doesn’t come as a surprise that Takei would betray Cho and sabotage the investigation. From how Cho spoke at the park, it seems that he knew that Takei had been involved as he didn’t denounce whoever had stolen the key since he believed that’s how you’d move up in the police force. That “Be a father that you can be proud of” line made it obvious that he knew, and he probably hoped that Takei would self-reflect from that. Takei was the one that stole the key, he contacted the director, and assisted with the cover up of the investigation. He was able to stay with First Division while Cho and Kiyomizu were demoted to Modern Crimes, as they were the ones being watched. Watching it all unfold was surprising at first, but then understandable when you go back and rewatch certain parts and really get to know the characters. They did a really great job at not making it too obvious, or else it wouldn’t have been so entertaining. Everything was well done, though I will say the VR investigation was a little much. It was still pretty cool to see, but it makes it a little too convenient? Damn you Kambe family and your insane technology!
All of this also explains why Daisuke joined Modern Crimes. It’s just so cool to see everything slowly come together and be connected. One thing I will note: Even if Cho and the others had found the locker and gotten the adollium, it still wouldn’t count as evidence would it? Like Kiyomizu said, any stolen item isn’t counted as evidence and the key was stolen since it was found in the photo album Cho snatched from the mansion. Yes they probably could have made more progress but there wouldn’t be much they could do, would there? It really was too reckless of Cho, but at least they were able to get even a tiny clue.
We got one revelation in this case, and it’s that Takei was involved in some way. We still don’t know anything about the deaths of Daisuke’s parents, the adollium material, etc. It’s possible that Takei may know some things so that’ll be something to look forward to next week. I also want to see a bit more personal time with Daisuke. Losing both parents at such a young age is a traumatic experience, so I wonder how he was able to cope with that as a child and what he’s thinking right now.
