The final episode of the drama series "Good Things and Bad Things" (NTV, Saturdays at 9 PM), starring actors Mamiya Shotaro and Araki Yuko, aired on December 20th. In the episode, the "true culprit" was revealed to be a friend of Utsumi (Subaru Kimura) classmates. The scene in which Utsumi confronts Takagi caused a stir on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
In the final episode, the case seemed to have come to an end with the arrest of Utsumi, the perpetrator of the series of murders, but Shinonome (Fukagawa Mai) wrote an article revealing the motive for the crimes and the current state of Takagi, the ringleader of the bullying. This led to Takagi's house being vandalized and his daughter Kanon (Miyazaki Ririsa) being harassed at school.
Meanwhile, Shinonome reveals to Sonoko (Araki) that she attended the same Takuto Academy as Seto Shion (Ohgo Suzuka), who committed suicide, and that she was a classmate of Seto, and that she will write a follow-up report calling for the elimination of bullying from the world.
Meanwhile, Takagi notices that the Takuto Academy logo is the same as the logo on the coaster at the snack bar "Imakuni," and questions Imakuni (Junki Tozuka) about whether he was a student at Takuto Academy. Imakuni explains that he graduated from Takuto Academy and was a classmate of Seto. When Takagi asks if he and Utsumi were accomplices, he reveals, "I wouldn't say accomplices, we're friends." "I thought of a way to make your dreams come true." Takagi then presses him, saying, "Did you order them to kill in the order of your dreams? In the order of our parody songs!" Imakuni replies, "I don't know the song. You brought me here, didn't you?
Imakuni resents Takagi for causing Seto's suicide, and he met Takagi by chance, arranging for him to come to the bar as a customer. He then reveals that he had blacked out the faces of Seto's fiancee Utsumi, Shinonome, and the other six people, including Takagi, in the school yearbook...
In the episode, after telling the whole story, Imakuni raises his voice and urges Takagi, "Why did you bully me in the first place? Because you wanted to kill me, right? You bully me because you want me to die!" and "Bullying is the same as murder!" Imakuni then hands Takagi the gun Utsumi left behind and urges him to kill him and become a hero, just like he imagined in his dream picture for the future. Imakuni and Shinonome had planned to get Takagi to kill the real culprit of the serial killers as revenge, making the incident memorable for the public. However, Takagi is unable to shoot and continues to apologize to Imakuni through tears. Afterwards, Takagi is given an exclusive interview with Sonoko, where he confesses about his past bullying and his current feelings, saying, "I was a bully."
On social media, as the fact that Imakuni and Shinonome were Utsumi's comrades and the full extent of the incident were revealed, comments such as "So it's true that people who come to Imakuni are targeted after all," "It can't end with him just being a friendly store owner," "Maybe he just happened to come to the store in the order that the songs were supposed to be in," "He's so good at misleading people," and "This drama really made me think about a lot of things" were posted. There were also many sympathetic comments about Imakuni's cry when he confronted Takagi, such as "I can't help but agree," "It really hits home," "He's so right," "I want bullies all over the world to see this," and "I hope it becomes a required part of moral education classes in schools."
