Jin Season 2 – Episode 11 Synopsis (final)

Episode 11: End of the miraculous time slip caused by a 150-year story of love and life

After Ryoma’s death, a war breaks out between the old shogunate army and the new government army. The new government army centred around Saigo closes in on Shinagawa and enters Edo. Calling themselves ‘Shogitai’, the old shogunate army (retainers of the shogun) that had served the Tokugawa family assemble at Ueno to wait for an opportunity to rise in revolt. Even though Kyotaro has been recommended by Katsu to study in France at a time like this, he agonises over his role in setting in motion Ryoma’s assassination and the path he should continue to take as a vassal of the shogun.

Meanwhile, Jin’s condition has been deteriorating to the extent that he can no longer hold a bowl with steady hands. Medical instruments not found in this era are needed to treat his cancer so there is little that can be done. Jin is asked by Matsumoto to instruct the Institute of Western Medicine at a time when Edo is under a full-scale assault. Keenly aware of the limited time he has left, Jin tries to pass on his entire medical knowledge to the doctors at Jinyudo.

On the other hand, Katsu worries that with the Shogitai going around agitating the new government army, a battle between the factions would be inevitable as neither side would concede defeat without a fight.

The next day finally comes. Kyotaro, who had heard that the new government army will launch an offensive against the Shogitai on this day, braces himself to live with the path that he has chosen as a vassal and meet his fate.

“I’ve caused someone’s death for some reason.
That person was someone who deserved to live more than I do.
The people I am indebted to didn’t condemn me but only told me to look to the future.
However, I cannot forgive myself for paving my own way without a care
when I’ve taken the life of someone of great promise.
If there is one thing I can be proud of,
it is that I remained loyal to the very end as a Tokugawa vassal.”

Learning about her brother’s decision, Saki heads to Ueno to save him despite Ei’s tearful pleas to her not to go. She promises that she will return with Kyotaro and asks her mother to let her to walk through the gates of the Tachibana residence at that time. Saburi follows Saki while Jin orders the doctors at Jinyudo to establish a medical treatment centre in the battlefield.

Before long, the doctors of the Institute of Western Medicine and the Tokugawa government’s medical school come hurrying to the medical treatment centre. The wounded are treated without regard for their allegiance to the old shogunate army or the new government army. Then, to Jin’s alarm, Kyotaro appears at the site shouldering an injured Saki. Saki had finally found him on the battlefield, but was struck in the left arm by a stray bullet.

Jin can no longer hold a scalpel because of his shaking hands, so he is unable to operate on Saki. Saburi takes over but the surgery is done without anesthesia. As Jin’s frustration and vexation builds at his inability to save a person important to him, he hears Ryoma’s voice tell him, “You just have to speak if you can’t move your hands.” And so, Jin goes back in to issue precise instructions to the doctors. Seeing both the doctors of Western and traditional medicine work hand in hand to carry out treatment, Saki is deeply moved for she did not think that such a day would come.

Kyotaro is gently admonished by Jin and finally sets his mind on the way in which to live his life, “My pride is not to die for the sake of the Tokugawas.” He finally realises what Ryoma and Jin had set out to achieve … …

The battle ends in a single day with the new government army emerging as the victor. After that, the centre’s location is moved and the treatment of the wounded is continued. However, Jin’s symptoms steadily worsen. At that moment, Saki collapses from a high fever which seems to be the onset of a pus-filled infection caused by the bullet that had hit her. The penicillin is ineffective against the bacteria, so they have no choice but to depend on Saki’s immune system for a natural recovery.

The days go by but Saki’s condition does not change for the better. Jin, who has been keeping vigil by her side, worries that she could go into shock brought on by septicemia if this goes on. Yamada visits the Tachibana residence to convey the news to Ei and Kyotaro. However, Ei refuses to go and see her daughter for fear that Saki would realise that she might die soon and lose her willpower.

Then, something comes to Jin’s mind. When he came to this era, he had been carrying a small bottle of the antibiotic, fosfomycin! He tells the doctors at Jinyudo as well as Kyotaro and runs about searching for it. But the bottle cannot be found. As Jin makes the wish to return to that very day in order to get hold of the medicine, he hears Ryoma’s voice in his head again! “Go back if you want to save Saki-san!”

Becoming aware of the way to return to the future, Jin and Kyotaro go to Kinshibori, the place where the unidentified patient had been found. On the way there, Jin is attacked by remnants of the ousted army and slashed in the forehead. Kyotaro quickly intervenes, giving Jin the opportunity to scramble away to safety. As Jin gets to the edge of a cliff, Ryoma’s voice tells him, “Go back to that world!” He pauses to gather strength and then leans forward to hurl himself off. What is left behind is a small bottle which Kyotaro picks up and takes to Saki … …

In present-day Tokyo, a man in a kimono is discovered to have collapsed at Kinshicho Park. That man is Jin from the Edo era. Present-day Jin performs an operation on Edo-era Jin to remove a brain tumour that looks like a deformed foetus. When Edo-era Jin regains consciousness after the surgery, he hurriedly makes his way to the medical supplies room where he pockets bottles of fosfomycin and takes the jar of the deformed foetus. He wills himself to go back in time to 5 May 1868, but the same sequence repeats itself again. As he staggers up the emergency stairs at the hospital, he encounters present-day Jin, who had been alerted to his patient’s disappearance. In their struggle on the staircase, present-day Jin loses his balance, tumbles down a flight of stairs … … and vanishes before the eyes of Edo-era Jin!

Edo-era Jin wakes up in a hospital ward to find that the world he has returned to, is somehow slightly different from the world he had been in. His colleague, Sugita, had operated on him and removed a benign brain tumour and not a tumour in the shape of a deformed foetus. Furthermore, he was in western clothes when he was found, and not in a kimono. It appears that the events as he knew it did not exist. Could this be a result of him changing history?

Couching his experience as the story of a doctor’s time travel to the Edo era that had been inspired by his stay in hospital, Jin seeks the help of a fellow doctor, Noguchi, to explain the phenomenon that occurred.

Noguchi speculates that there could be many parallel worlds which appear similar but have slight differences. Present-day Jin was born in the A world, and thought he had travelled back in time to the Edo era in that world, when he had in fact gone to the Edo era in the B world. Then, he was operated on by another self in the B world. This time, the doctor in the B world would travel back in time to the Edo era in the C world. C would go to the D world while D would go to the E world in a continuous loop. But there is a similarity – the date of their time travel to Edo on 11 October 2009 and their return on 20 May 1868. Noguchi also offers the vanishing twin theory to explain the foetus-like tumour

Jin tries to avoid the issue but finally gives in to his impulse to find out what became of Saki and of the time he had lived in. He first searches for information at the library. The records mention that a penicillin production method indigenous to Japan had already been developed at the time it was discovered by Alexander Fleming in England in 1928. The people behind it belonged to Jinyudo which was regarded as a renegade of the medical community because it mixed Western and traditional Japanese medicine … … He comes across the pictures and names of Saburi, Fukuda, Yamada and the other doctors at Jinyudo , but there is no mention of Saki or himself no matter how much he searches.

And so, Jin begins to look for the place where the Tachibana residence had been. Venturing to that neighbourhood, he comes across Tachibana Hospital! At that same moment, a woman who looks just like Nokaze appears and identifies it as her home. Jin, who cannot hide his surprise, asks if she can tell him about her ancestor, Saki. He learns that Saki had refurbished her family home and opened Tachibana Hospital after the Meiji Restoration. Although it was rare for a female to be a doctor in the early Meiji era, Saki did not draw much attention and was regarded as a midwife who knew a lot. She lived a long life, but had also been on the brink of death once, only to be miraculously saved by a bottle of queer medicine that Kyotaro had picked up in the forest.

Jin is shown photographs of Saki in her old age, the doctors of Jinyudo, Ryoma, but he realises that he does not appear in any of them. Then, a photograph of Saki hugging a baby girl catches his eye. The name ‘Ange’ is written on the back of the photograph. It seems that Saki had adopted the girl at the wishes of her late parents, Nokaze and Lelong. And the woman now seated before him is Tachibana Miki!

Miki, who had been observing Jin’s expression during their conversation, guesses that he is the person that Saki had been waiting for, and hands him a letter addressed to a doctor identified not by name but by two circles.

In her letter, Saki notes that she could not remember Jin’s name or features after surviving the infectious disease. When she tried to check, the doctors at Jinyudo told her there was no such doctor, and she grew convinced that it had been a dream until she came across a 10 yen coin inside a small pouch made of a sort of net bandage. Then, she began to dimly recollect watching the sunset with him, his love for deep-fried tofu, hands like God and her love for him. Fearing that she would forget these memories and feelings one day, she committed them to this letter which Jin now reads as tears come to his eyes.

“I think I’ll always remember these feelings.
But, all my memories may also be erased with the passage of time.
Because of history’s ability to rewrite events.
Even so, I’ll no longer be able to forget
the beauty of this day.
I probably can’t forget the traces of history
where everyone fought, suffered, lost lives to win
in this world that we take for granted.
This time, I wish to bring greater hope for the future
with these hands of mine.”

Sometime later, a woman is taken to hospital by ambulance due to a brain tumour that has spread to the extent that it has encroached on the region of the brainstem. That woman is Miki, and Jin is her surgeon … …

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