By Jana Monji
(Editor’s Note: Episode 8 of The Terror: Infamy airs tonight on AMC. Here’s a recap of episodes 6 and 7 to catch you up.)
AMC’s The Terror: Infamy, Episodes 6 and 7, explain the title of the first episode set up the ending by getting Luz and Chester back together.
Taizo
Taizo explained the title of the first episode, A Sparrow in a Swallow’s Nest, and why Asako (Naoko Mori) told Luz (Cristina Rodlo) that giving birth to Chester (Derek Mio) took place so long ago she didn’t remember it at all (Episode 4, The Weak Are Meat).
Chester is back at Colinas de Oro Relocation Camp having been discharged from his service in the MIS (Episode 5 Shatter Like a Pearl) where Yūko took possession of his fellow Nisei MIS translator Arthur who then held Chester at gunpoint and they attempted to drive away in an army jeep. The White US GI shot out the tires and they overturned. A very blackened Yūko crawled out of a bag and called to Chester, saying, “Taizo.” In Episode 6, Taizo, we learn that Chester’s given name was Taizo Tanabe and that he was the son of Asako’s younger sister, Yūko and a soldier who was killed in the war.
The title of the first episode, A Sparrow in a Swallow’s Nest, refers to Chester as the sparrow in Asako’s home. In an old Japanese folktale, the sparrow and the swallow began as sisters, but their different reaction to news of their parents changed their form.
In Taizo, an episode which is predominately in Japanese (with English subtitles), we flash back to 1919. Yūko is the new picture bride of Hideo Furuya (Eiji Inoue) in an arrangement made by Yoshida (James Saito). Hideo throws her out because she is pregnant by another man. She gives birth but after some desperate times, opts for adoption. She then commits suicide by jumping off a bridge.
In the afterlife, she rescued by Chiyo (Natsuki Kunimoto) who brings her to a perfect world, but the rules are–don’t step into the raked pebbles because you’ll sink down and you can only bring people of your bloodline into this world. Yūko fools Chiyo into stepping into the pebbles and digs herself out of what is a grave in 1941 (21 years later).
In the present, 3 July 1943, Chester (Derek Mio) is returned to the relocation camp Colinas de Oro, having been discharged from the army. He finds Luz gone and Yūko has followed him. Yūko briefly takes possession of Asako and says, “She is no mother; she’s a thief.” Once Asako breaks away from Yūko’s possession, she’s forced to explain that Yūko is her younger sister.
Yūko is caught attempting to take someone else’s infant to her world and after consulting Yamato (George Takei), they attempt to stop her, but Yamato’s knowledge is imperfect and although they burn her, she escapes.
My Perfect World
Yūko takes possession of a doctor, forcing him to perform a curious operation. He’s taking a thin layer of skin off of a cadaver and sewing it with a whip stitch–the kind that is long, large and uneven that you’d rather see on your version of Frankenstein’s creature then on any stitches you might require. He’s covered up the body of Yūko in this fashion to cover up that blackened flesh she had after being burnt by Chester, Asako, Henry and Yamato as they attempted to prevent her from returning. But remember: Yamato only knew snippets of information from the old traditional ghost stories. Yūko then makes the doctor inject himself in the neck. That’s corpse number one for this episode.
At the camp, Chester/Taizo has been writing letters to Luz, but she sends them back in a package–all unopened and still sealed. Chester attempts to walk out of the camp, but is beaten up by three White soldiers and then sent to Tule Lake, where all the agitators are sent. On route, Chester escapes by jumping off a bridge and into a river.
Chester makes it to Los Angeles and looks up his adoption papers. He learns he was born on 14 June 1920 and has a brother named, Jirou. With this information and a photo of Jirou, Chester picks up Luz and they head to New Mexico where Luz used to spend her summers with her maternal grandmother. Yūko isn’t far behind, killing Luz’s father and discovering where Luz and Chester are heading.
Amy (Miki Ishikawa) is concerned about what appears to be a TB epidemic with one of the patients, Toshiro (Alex Shimizu) . The major refuses to get help until Ken (Christopher Naoki Lee) takes him hostage. Instead of being sent to Tule Lake, Ken is murdered.
The main theme of this episode is that Yūko wants her “kanpeki no sekai” or “perfect world.” What exactly that means, we’ll learn later.
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