(spoiler)
In Mr. Noguchi's den, Sugishita Nozomi cannot prolong her Japanese chess game against Mr. Noguchi any more and ends up telling him how to win the game. Mr. Noguchi is happy to know how to win the game. He reveals the truth that if he wins this game, Andou will be sent to work in a third-world country where they have no public electricity or gas.
Nishizaki Masato finally arrives at Noguchi's condo, pretending to be a flower delivery person. In the elevator, he happens to meet Andou who is on his way to the top floor lounge to wait for Mr. Noguchi. Nishizaki tells Andou that he delivers flowers as his part time job, but Andou does not believe his words. Andou suspects Nishizaki is plotting something against the Noguchi's.
In Noguchi's den, Sugishita gets on her knees and begs Noguchi not to send Andou away.
Nishizaki meets Mrs. Noguchi and tries to take her outside. She stops him saying it is not her, but Sugishita that she wants him to take away. She suspects Sugishita is having an affair with her husband and wants Sugishita to go away.
Andou does not get off the elevator on the top floor, but instead decides to go to Noguchi's place. Knowing Sugishita, Nishizaki, Mr. and Mrs. Noguchi are inside, he locks the door from outside. He wants to know whom Sugishita will call for help.... whether it will be Naruse Shinji or him..... He goes to the lounge to wait for a phone call from Sugishita for rescue.
Noguchi teases Sugishita by asking if she will follow him to the third-world country or she will ditch him as her boyfriend. She tells him she will follow him. She also reveals Mr. Noguchi that a man cares for Mrs. Noguchi more than he does and is coming to take her away from him. Sugishita tells the truth to Mr. Noguchi as an attempt to keep Andou away from him.
Door bell rings and Mr. Noguchi runs to stop Nishizaki trying to take away his wife. He hits Nishizaki, blaming him for his wife's miscarriage and all other bad things. Nishizaki tries to escape, but the door is locked from outside and cannot leave the place. Mr. Noguchi, then, starts to strangle his wife, accusing her for trying to leave him. Nishizaki picks a knife and tells Mr. Noguchi to stop. The two struggle with each other and the knife is now in Mr. Noguchi's hand. When he is about to stab Nishizaki, Mrs. Noguchi hits her husband's head with a candle stand. Mr. Noguchi falls on the floor, bleeding heavily.
When Sugishita tries to put a towel on Mr. Noguchi's wound, Mrs. Noguchi picks up the knife and tells Sugishita not to touch her husband because he is her man and she is the only person to be able to stop him. She tells Sugishita and Nishizaki to go away.
Then she says to Nishizaki,
"I thought you would help me and my husband. That's why I was nice to you. I licked your wound, didn't I?"
She asks Sugishita and Nishizaki again to leave her and her husband alone.
Sugishita calls for an ambulance and tries to leave the place, but the door is locked from outside and she cannot leave.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Noguchi picks up the knife that was lying on the floor. She stabs herself in front of Nishizaki and Sugishita. She falls down on the floor, and says she is leaving with her husband. She says to Nishizaki, "I am sorry for doing rotten things to you." Hearing that sentense, Nishizaki remembers his mother because those were the exact words his mother used to tell him.
Sugishita thinks this incident happened because she told Mr. Noguchi the truth about his wife and Nishizaki.
Nishizaki picks up the candle stand that Mrs. Noguchi used to hit her husband. He tells Sugishita that Mr. Noguchi stabbed his wife, and then he (Nishizaki himself) killed Mr. Noguchi for killing his love.
Sugishita is against Nishizaki's scenario, but Nishizaki insists because he does not want Mrs. Noguchi to be called a murderer. He asks Sugishita to act as if she did not witness the deaths.
Nishizaki tells Sugishita that he wants to atone for letting his mother die in front of him. Without atonement, he cannot face the reality. After the atonement, he will be able to live in this reality.
Nishizaki picks up the knife Mrs. Noguchi used to kill herself, wipes off her fingerprints and puts it in Mr. Noguchi's hand.
Sugishita tells Nishizaki she is not sure if she can lie like Nishizaki told her. Nishizaki answers, "You said your ultimate love is to share guilt. We may not love each other, but please share this guilt with me." She cries, saying she cannot do such a thing.
Naruse calls Noguchi's residence on the intercom from the ground floor lobby. Sugishita answers the phone and asks him for help. Naruse goes upstairs and unlocks the door chain. He goes inside and sees the two dead bodies as well as a blood-stained towel held by Sugishita.
Noguchi asks Naruse to call the police. He tells Naruse that Operation N II ended up in failure. He asks Naruse and Sugishita not to tell the police about Operation N. He originally planned to take Mrs. Noguchi away without getting help from anybody. That's his scenario.
Naruse realizes the reason why he was there. Four years ago, Sugishita protected him without asking him anything. Now it's his turn to protect Sugishita.
Naruse agrees to go with what Noguchi proposed, that he and Sugishita met each other at Noguchi's residence by chance and they did not know anything about what Nishizaki was going to do. Then Nishizaki starts to call the police.
Andou leaves the top-floor lounge and goes to Noguchi's place. He sees the door being unlocked. Although Sugishita tells him not to enter, he goes inside Noguchi's place and sees the two dead bodies on the floor. He asks "What happened?" Nishizaki answers, "We could not escape." Andou says, "It's my fault," and puts his head down.
The police arrives and Nishizaki confesses the murder. Sugishita asks Naruse not to tell the police that the door was locked from outside with door chains, and Naruse agrees. Naruse understands that Sugishita is protecting Andou this time.
Naruse holds Sugishita's hand just like Sugishita did when they were watching Naruse's parents' restaurant burning.
2014.
Naruse takes Sugishita out for a walk, and asks her to go back to Aokage Jima with him. Sugishita tells him she doesn't want to do that. Naruse tells him he will be waiting for her.
Takano's wife who was missing is found. Takano takes her home. He tells her what happened is what happened, and they cannot change the past. He tells her that carrying a burden by not telling the truth about the fire must have been so hard for her. He also tells her that he will not leave her. She starts to sob silently.... and her sound/voice comes back. We can hear her sobbing.
Knowing Sugishita's mother is in Takamatsu, Sugishita's doctor offers to make referral to a good doctor there. Sugishita hesitates and tells the doc she cannot decide what to do. She asks the doc if a person can die without making anybody sad. The doctor tells her it is impossible just like we cannot live without making other people sad. She also tells Sugishita that nobody can live by him/herself.
Takano and Sugishita meet in a coffee shop. Takano apologizes to her for suspecting she was covering for Naruse for the restaurant's fire. He tells Sugishita that he and his wife are leaving Tokyo to live on Aokage Jima. He gives Sugishita her mother's address and phone number. She gives the note back to Takano, saying she has no intention to see her again. But in the end, she keeps the note anyway. Sugishita tells Takano that she is planning to visit Takamatsu to see her brother's baby. He assures her that it is okay for her to live for herself.
Takano meets Andou to tell him that he and his wife are leaving Tokyo. He tells Andou that he found out what he had wanted to know, but Andou still doesn't know what he wanted to know. He mentions that he knows some people lie to protect other people.
Andou meets Naruse for the first time after the murder incident. Naruse tells Andou he has nothing to tell him. When Andou starts to walk away, Naruse starts saying, "On that day, Sugishita was thinking about you and tried to protect you." Andou says to Naruse that Sugishita always had somebody in her heart, and relied on that person. Naruse says that Sugishita and he needed each other to leave the island.
In Takamatsu, Sugishita goes to a bowling alley where her mother works. She watches her mother from afar and leaves the place. As she leaves, his mother's husband recognizes her and stops her. She runs away and hops onto a bus. The mother runs after the bus, and falls down. Sugishita gets off the bus and runs to her mother to see if she is okay.
Sugishita and her mother sit on a bench. The mother apologizes her daughter for what she has done to her. Sugishita tells her mother that she is sick and how scared she is to disappear from this world. Sugishita starts to sob and the mother holds her.
At Nobara Apt., the landlord stops Nishizaki who is about to leave his room to go to a job interview. Nishizaki takes time to help him. They talk about good old days when Nishizaki and his two friends saved Nobara Apt. The landlord says Nishizaki is lucky to have such good friends. Nishizaki smiles.
Takano and his wife are leaving Tokyo. They walk together holding each other's hand.
From an aiport in Tokyo, Sugishita calls Andou. She tells him she can't take his ring, and that she is going to live on Aokage Jima.
Sugishita: "Were you able to see the whole wide world?"
Andou: "I'm still doing that. A lot more to see."
S: "Are you living like you wanted to live?"
A: "Yes. It's not perfect, but it's not bad, either."
S: "I'm glad."
A: "How about you?"
S: "I also have a lot more to do."
A: "You live, facing forward. That's more like you."
S: "You do the same. I want you to go wherever you want to go without having somebody block your way. Take care. "
On a ferry boat to Aokage Jima, Sugishita looks back the past and thanks all those people who "gave life to her".
Sugishita waits for Naruse outside his restaurant which was newly opened. When Naruse spots her, Sugishita shows him a ferry ticket. On the back of the ticket it is hand-written "We opened on March 9. N. " Just like they bought each other's ferry ticket out of the island, Naruse sent her boat ticket back to the island.
Naruse walks to Sugishita. He holds her hand, and holds her.
(My Reaction)
I'm very glad that everybody now has a sense of closure, and is able to start a new chapter of his/her life. No more heavy burden.
As for the death of Mr. and Mrs. Noguchi, it's hard for me to understand their love and violence. Mentality of the abuser and the abused is beyond my understanding.
It's hard to believe that the police took Andou's confession to be the truth and did not check Mrs. Noguchi's stab wound. By examining a wound, it should be easy to tell the stabbing was done by a third party or self-inflicted.
I'm sorry for Andou who lost the chance to get his girl. If he had not lock the door from outside, things may have been different. But as Takano told his wife, what happened is what happened. There's no going back.
Good drama. Good story.
Thank you for reading my posts.
N no Tame ni Ep.9
N no Tame ni Ep.8
N no Tame ni Ep.7
N no Tame ni Ep.6
N no Tame ni Ep.5
N no Tame ni Ep.4
N no Tame ni OST
N no Tame ni Ep.3
N no Tame ni Ep.2
N no Tame ni Ep.1
