WiC Watches—The Terror: Infamy

Kiki Sukezane as Yuko – The Terror _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Ed Araquel/AMC

Episode 206: “Taizo”

RECAP

The episode begins with a flashback to Terminal Island, 1919: facilitated by Wilson Yoshida, the young, beautiful Yuko has arrived from Japan as a picture-bride for the drunken Hideo Furuya. She reveals she is pregnant and Hideo throws her out. A year later, the homeless Yuko gives her baby up for adoption in Los Angeles, then commits suicide by bridge jumping in view of a bakemono.

Yuko wakes in a traditional bed in Japan, attended by the mysterious woman bakemono. The room is located in a perfect garden bearing the crest of her ancestors. Things start getting weird, but Yuko isn’t sure what might be real or a hallucination. Then things get really bizarre. The woman reveals that Yuko is dead, and they are in their family’s eternal paradise. Horrified, Yuko seeks a way out, eventually destroying the demon by luring her into the gravel of the rock garden, which is really the ceiling of hell.

Hira Ambrosino as Fumiko Yoshida, Naoko Mori as Asako Nakayama, Shingo Usami as Henry Nakayama – The Terror _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Ed Araquel/AMC

As the paradise collapses, Yuko escapes through a door leading into the underground; digging her way out, she emerges from the soil of a Los Angeles potter’s field 21 years later (1941) as a decayed yurei.

“Taizo” then shifts to the present day, landing in the 1943 Colinas De Oro “War Relocation Center” as Chester returns from his tour of duty. He’s met by his loving parents, Henry and Asako, who deliver Luz’s “Dear John” letter and worry about the curse following him. Letter still in hand, Chester visits the graves of his twin children and ends up sleeping through the night alongside them.

In the morning, Chester is awakened by the widow Fumi Yoshida (Hira Ambrosino), who blames the evil spirit following him (Yuko, who is glimpsed nearby) for the deaths of the people around them. The yurei Yuko gets busy, jumping into Asako’s body to tell Chester to find Luz and continue their family line; she calls Chester “Taizo,” the name she gave her infant son. She chokes Chester in a rage, but soon leaves Asako’s body without hurting her.

Derek Mio as Chester Nakayama, Naoko Mori as Asako Nakayama – The Terror _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Ed Araquel/AMC

Henry and Asako must spill their secrets to Chester, revealing that Yuko was Asako’s sister and Hideo’s “picture-bride,” and that she committed suicide after Hideo shunned her. Chester is “Taizo,” Yuko’s biological son, adopted by the Nakayamas. The bereft Yuko wanders the Obon celebration night, abducting a baby in an attempt to take it back to “paradise” with her, but fails.

REVIEW

“Taizo” opens with a neat supernatural turn, carrying us through the last chapter of Yuko’s tragic life leading to her death, afterlife and ultimate return to the world as a vengeful yurei. It’s a loaded installment, revealing the backstory of the creature who haunts every episode. The showrunners give us good, spooky material, and let it play out for the entire first half of the episode. Kiki Sukezane does a great job portraying Yuko, both living and dead.

Naoko Mori as Asako Nakayama, Shingo Usami as Henry Nakayama – The Terror _ Season 2, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Ed Araquel/AMC

Yuko is on a rampage for onnen (restitution), and now we see why Hideo and Wilson were among her first victims. The showrunners give us the sympathetic side of Yuko’s story, but then deviously and expertly proceed to show us her frighteningly unhinged elements as well.

“Taizo” is perhaps the slowest-moving episode of Infamy so far, and absolutely the best. The time spent on Yuko’s story, both in flashback and present day, unfolds in neatly drawn layers. It’s a slow, eerie burn, and after that the dramatic reveals come on at a blistering speed. Poor Chester is buried under a tidal wave of disasters: war hauntings, lost children, a “Dear John” letter and finally the revelations surrounding his secret adoption. The final shot is as haunting as anything Infamy has conjured up so far.