S02.E03: Gaman

[raven]

Quote

As the Terminal Islanders adjust to their new surroundings, Chester tries to provide for his family, while fending off the evil that follows him; Henry reels from the trauma of his imprisonment; Asako sees bad omens; Amy takes up a new job.

Airdate 2019.08.26

[foxfreakinmulder]

Okay, so now we know the spirit wants the baby. Why, I don't know. Why is the spirit killing everyone else, I don't know.

And don't push your agenda on me show, (build that wall, um, I mean fence) oh and (the guy that runs the whole place is an asshole) give me a break.

I agree the detention camps were horrible but America was not in the war until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor so Japan was enemy number 1. That doesn't make locking Japanese people up in detention camps right. I'm just saying I have to wonder if America would've ever participated in that war if it wasn't for the Japanese and I can't help but think of all the American lives lost and of course the 2 bombs we dropped on Japan to end the war. Would it all have been avoided if Japan never bombed Pearl Harbor?

When I read what this season was going to be about I was on the fence about it and I'm not liking it very much. If it wasn't for the "spirit" it would be a docudrama. I'd rather it be something in history we don't know the exact details of (because it happened so long ago) then add the supernatural to that.

Edited August 27, 2019 by foxfreakinmulder

[Robert Lynch]

Hey, Ponyboy! Didn't think to see C. Thomas Howell in this role. 

[iMonrey]

Who or what the hell is Gaman? I missed that part.

The show is holding my interest but I still think they would have been better off just calling it something different. There's no actual connection to The Terror and trying to sell it as a second season is just pissing off fans of the first.

[foxfreakinmulder]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Who or what the hell is Gaman? I missed that part.

I have no idea. I watched the whole thing without getting up but must have zoned out.

I think the spirit is dumb, she's not scary, she's pretty. She's just evil but why I don't know, and I think she's supposed to be The Terror.

Edited August 27, 2019 by foxfreakinmulder

[Mr. Sparkle]

Gaman means "persevere." 

[cdnalor]

I don't know if it's just makeup but Howell looks about 70 years old in this role (he's 52).

On the other hand, the spirit did a fantastic job sewing up her torn face.  You can't even see the stitches.

[jewel21]

I still find this show confusing. At least we have one motive for ghost girl, she wants Chester's baby for some reason. I fear for Chester's baby mama whose name I can't recall, Luce or something?

So Chester thinks it's wise to leave and be a translator. No boy, you girlfriend's in danger! Come back! Gah!

[tennisgurl]

Luz, you in danger girl! So the ghost lady has some connection with the older generation, and she wants Chester's baby. No idea why, is there a particular spirit in Japanese mythology that is particularly interested in babies?

Chester's dad is seriously messed up, but I can certainly understand why he is so out of it. That frost bite looked freaking nasty. This season sure is going hard on the body horror, with the breaking bones and what is just happening in day to day life. 

Of course its not enough that they are unjustly imprisoning people based on racism, they are also telling them to build their own prison, and asking for their help with the war effort! Jerks. Cant the ghost take a few of these assholes down?

Edited August 28, 2019 by tennisgurl

[Robert Lynch]

13 hours ago, cdnalor said:

I don't know if it's just makeup but Howell looks about 70 years old in this role (he's 52).

On the other hand, the spirit did a fantastic job sewing up her torn face.  You can't even see the stitches.

Nope. No makeup. He was looking like that since 2004!!! And he's only 52! I wondered if he is a big smoker or something. It's weird how youthful he looked in the 80s and seeing him looking wrinkly is quite a shock. He didn't look too bad in the straight to video sequel The Hitcher 2 from 2003.

Edited August 28, 2019 by Robert Lynch

[MaggieG]

I'm weirdly invested in Chester and Luz. I hope they can make it work and the ghost doesn't steal their baby.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Gaman means "persevere." 

Oh, thanks. Did they show ever explain that or did you just know (or look it up)? It seems to me that the show is taking for granted an awful lot WRT how much the audience understands from history or just from context. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

If I'm not mistaken, one of Chester's parents said it, and it was translated on screen. 

Also, I totally googled it. 😜

Edited August 29, 2019 by Superclam
spellin

[ferjy]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Did they show ever explain that or did you just know (or look it up)? It seems to me that the show is taking for granted an awful lot WRT how much the audience understands from history or just from context. 

Or they take for granted that you’re actually watching the show. 😛 Did y’all have your eyes closed because of the “scary” ghost? 😄 It was a significant scene at the end when Chester was saying goodbye to his father. Chester told Henry that doing nothing is no way to live. Henry retorted “It’s what we do. Gaman. You run away.” (“Persevere” was subtitled for gaman.) So each had their own idea of what the right thing was to do. 

Edited August 29, 2019 by ferjy

[ferjy]

On 8/27/2019 at 11:33 PM, tennisgurl said:

So the ghost lady has some connection with the older generation, and she wants Chester's baby. No idea why, is there a particular spirit in Japanese mythology that is particularly interested in babies?

I was thinking it had more to do with what happened to her. In the scene with Furuya just before she killed him, she said something like “Do you remember what you did to me?” Maybe she lost her baby because of his actions and wants a replacement now?

Edited August 29, 2019 by ferjy

[tennisgurl]

10 minutes ago, ferjy said:

I was thinking it had more to do with what happened to her. In the scene with Furuya just before she killed him, she said something like “Do you remember what you did to me?”

Yeah I've been getting a real "vengeful spirit" vibe from her, especially this week and last week. She said that Furuya said she was "exquisite" to her when he saw her last, maybe one of them got her pregnant, blew her off, and she lost the baby? As mentioned in the show, she is possibly an Onryo, a ghost in Japanese folklore that takes vengeance due to some wrong done to them in life, and can not only cause physical harm to the living, but can take the spirit of a dying person. They also normally are depicted in clothes from the Edo period, anad generally match the description of the ghost here. 

Also, they can possess people people in some stories, usually to reenact their own death (maybe thats what happened to Furuyas wife in the first episode? Hence her traditional clothes when she killed herself?) and are often associated with a death rattle sound, like those creepy bone breaking noises that follow her around when she is stalking people. Of course, I cant find anything about Onryo ever stitching their face back on from time to time, so who knows?

[iMonrey]

Quote

 It was a significant scene at the end when Chester was saying goodbye to his father. Chester told Henry that doing nothing is no way to live. Henry retorted “It’s what we do. Gaman. You run away.” (“Persevere” was subtitled for gaman.) So each had their own idea of what the right thing was to do. 

Thanks. Yes, I must have missed that. Or else I promptly forgot about it immediately afterwards, which doesn't speak well of the impression this show is making on me. I maintain the writing does a fairly poor job of explaining things, though. At this point I assume the Nakayamas and the Yoshidas were simply neighbors and friends but it took me three episodes, close-captioning and the assistance of IMDB to reach that conclusion. I usually don't have to do this much work to grasp who the characters are in relation to one another. I also had to look up some history on the Japanese internment and get help from fellow posters to understand what was going on.

I still think the show would be better if it eliminated the supernatural element but I suppose it's the only thing that ties it to the first season.

Quote

If it wasn't for the "spirit" it would be a docudrama.

Historical fiction more than docudrama, I think. I think what the Japanese are going through in the story is horrific enough without some ghost girl plaguing them.

Edited August 29, 2019 by iMonrey

[meep.meep]

23 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I still think the show would be better if it eliminated the supernatural element but I suppose it's the only thing that ties it to the first season.

Historical fiction more than docudrama, I think. I think what the Japanese are going through in the story is horrific enough without some ghost girl plaguing them.

I thought the supernatural element in the first season was ludicrous - I like this much better.

And this is a very rare depiction of what American citizens of Japanese descent were subjected to by their own government not that long ago.  Not to mention the miscegenation laws - Chester and Luz can't get married even if they are having a baby.  Those laws weren't declared unconstitutional until 1968.

[iMonrey]

I don't know, I have no objection to the supernatural in general - in fact it's one of my favorite genres. I just don't find it particularly necessary for this story. It's actually rather intrusive. We're only three episodes in and every time they cut to a smiling, enigmatic Yuko spying on someone from afar I just groan. It just pulls me right out of the story. 

[meep.meep]

The producers really have a thing about people getting their tongues cut out!

[Kel Varnsen]

This episode really grabbed my interest more than the first two. It helped that I am slowly figuring out who is who, regularly killing people off helps with that. I did laugh at Cheater smashing the light though, because if there is one thing militaries do well its supplies.

Also just as a side note how many jackets does Chester own? I first noticed this because in episode 1 he had an Indiana Jones leather jacket and fedora. But he also has a plaid jacket with leather sleeves that he wore last episode, the Indy jacket that he was wearing when talking to Luz and a cloth jacket of some sort he wore when he shipped out. Considering he was only aĺlowed 2 suitcases it is an odd choice. 

[TexasGal]

On 8/27/2019 at 10:33 PM, tennisgurl said:

Luz, you in danger girl! So the ghost lady has some connection with the older generation, and she wants Chester's baby. No idea why, is there a particular spirit in Japanese mythology that is particularly interested in babies?

I wonder if it was some sort of collective attack on her by them.  Would explain why she’s jumping from man to man, but not why Chester.  

I speculated the below before watching episode 4, but now I’m spoiler tagging it because it seems more like I may have been right. 

Spoiler

Unless - total speculation - she’s his mom somehow

.

I actually yelled - who’s the midwife!  I am maybe hooked.

[Mr. Sparkle]

12 hours ago, TexasGal said:

  Reveal spoiler

Unless - total speculation - she’s his mom somehow

Spoiler

I read this theory on another site, and it actually makes a lot of sense. Like when Chester's mother said she didn't remember his birth. 

[Bruinsfan]

On 8/28/2019 at 6:46 AM, Robert Lynch said:

Nope. No makeup. He was looking like that since 2004!!! And he's only 52! I wondered if he is a big smoker or something. It's weird how youthful he looked in the 80s and seeing him looking wrinkly is quite a shock.

I like to think it's due to the blackface makeup he wore in that Soul Man trainwreck in the 90s. Maybe it was made almost entirely of karma?

Edited September 10, 2019 by Bruinsfan

[WritinMan]

Eh...I'm out. This show is neither interesting nor scary. At least get one right.

[ctlady]

On 8/26/2019 at 10:50 PM, foxfreakinmulder said:

And don't push your agenda on me show, (build that wall, um, I mean fence)

Compared to some shows who really go overboard in the social/political pool (immigration on Pearson, environment on Siren, anti-police on Blue Bloods) I didn't find this fence-building mention some kind of subliminal agenda message.  It never even crossed my mind

I think this episode (and the next one) kicked things up a bit as I was beginning to get bored.  It no way has the tense, nailbiting factor as the first season.  The spirit is no polar bear monster.  I'm guessing whoever this spirit is, she looks to have been burned in her real life because of her hair/wig. I just don't find the supernatural stuff scary, but I'm kind of too vested to not ride it out to find out exactly who this spirit is and Chester's connection to her.

[SmithW6079]

On 8/26/2019 at 10:50 PM, foxfreakinmulder said:

And don't push your agenda on me show, (build that wall, um, I mean fence) oh and (the guy that runs the whole place is an asshole) give me a break.

What is the "agenda"? Japanese immigrants and their American-born children were torn from their homes and imprisoned in internment camps in harsh conditions just because of their race. That's not an agenda, that's history, a rather shameful part of American history.

Edited September 16, 2019 by SmithW6079

[raven]

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