Betrayal Abounds in ‘Tokyo Vice’ in the Lead-up To Episode 5

Season two of one of the best sleeper shows of 2022, Tokyo Vice, is well underway. Jake Adelstein, played by Ansel Elgort, has gotten himself in deep, perhaps too deep in the world of Japan’s organized crime as the body count only gets higher. So when’s the next episode?

Based on the novel of the same name, written by real-life journalist Jake Adelstein, Tokyo Vice blends fact with fiction as it creates a gripping drama set in 1990s Tokyo. At this time, the yakuza still maintained a strong presence, but the shifting world caused chaos. Alliances were failing and breaking and the brutal yet effective order of the Japanese mob was finally being clamped down on by Japanese law enforcement.

Amongst all this chaos is a young Jake, the first foreign journalist for a Japanese publication on the crime beat, with a nose for sniffing out a story and plenty of danger. Season one saw his character descend into the murky waters of Tokyo’s organized crime scene, putting himself and the people he cares about in danger.

Season two follows on from that and tensions between police and yakuza only get worse as we are introduced to the idealistic and strong-willed character of Superintendent Nagata who is determined to come down strong on Japan’s mob rule. At the end of season two, episode four, the yakuza are scrambling to work together so they may outlive this latest crackdown, but with the return of the brutal and volatile Tozawa unity does not look on the cards.

The last moments of episode four, appropriately titled ‘Like a New Man,’ see Tozawa turn against the leader of his clan as he decides he will step up and take over. The result, his leader is thrown off the roof by the very men who swore to serve him with his body landing by an overly curious Jake who had been following Tozawa to collect evidence of anything that could throw Tozawa in jail for good and free his girlfriend, and former mistress of Tozawa’s, Misaki from his clutches.

Episode five will follow from this sudden shock, and with Tozawa now in full charge of his clan, things are about to get even dicier. The next episode will air on Max on Thursday, 29th February at 3 AM EST. The runtime is expected to remain under one hour as has been the case with many of the episodes of this season. It hasn’t been officially announced but according to Ready Steady Cut, the title of the next episode is “Illness of the Trade.”

(featured image: Max)