The final episode of the drama series "Reunion ~Silent Truth~" (TV Asahi, Tuesdays at 9 PM), starring actor Ryoma Takeuchi, aired on March 17th. The episode revealed the connection between the incident from 23 years ago and Detective Ryo Minami (Noriko Eguchi), which generated a lot of buzz on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
The final episode suggests that Junichi might not have been the one who shot and killed the bank robber 23 years ago... The key lies in the handgun of a police officer who died in the line of duty, which was taken and hidden from the scene by four classmates: Junichi (Takeuchi), Makiko (Inoue Mao), Keisuke (Koji Seto), and Naoto (Watanabe Daichi), and was also used in the murder of a supermarket manager 23 years later. After hearing Minami Ryo's hypothesis, Makiko turns herself in, desperate to prove Junichi's innocence. She admits to killing the manager and hands the handgun to Minami Ryo.
Minami Ryo immediately examines the gun and notices a "crucial fact." Junichi, meanwhile, is intrigued by a casual recollection Naoto made about "memories of the immediate aftermath of the incident 23 years ago." After a tenacious investigation, Minami Ryo and Junichi head to the location of "the person believed to be the real culprit." That person turns out to be Kosugi (played by Danta Yasunori), the chief of the Mitsuba Police Station.
Minami Ryo reveals his deductions to Kosugi, explaining that Kosugi, his accomplice, was responsible for shooting the deceased police officer and the robber, that Kosugi swapped his gun with the deceased officer's, and that he also swapped the gun's equipment number in the computer's equipment ledger data to match the rifling marks. Minami Ryo also reveals that the original paper document with the equipment number still intact was still in the prefectural police headquarters' archives, leading to Kosugi's arrest... and so the story unfolds.
In the episode, Junichi grabs Kosugi as he is being led away and angrily shouts, "Why are you alive and my father had to die? Why?!" He then presses him, "Have you ever had a dream about someone you killed... or someone who died?" Kosugi immediately replies, "No," and retorts, "Thanks to you guys, I'm also sentenced to death. I'll appear in your dreams."
Seeing this, Minami Ryo muttered, "I shouldn't have caught you. I should have killed you with my own hands," and pointed the gun he had drawn at Kosugi, screaming, "Aaaargh!" Afterwards, in front of Junichi and Detective Nagai (Shusaku Kamikawa), Minami Ryo confessed that Kurihara Akio, the first victim of the incident 23 years ago, a civilian hit by a stray bullet at the bank, was his fiancée. He then performed a tap dance in front of the astonished Junichi and the others before leaving.
On social media, many people expressed surprise at the unexpected connection between Minami Ryo and the incident from 23 years ago. Comments included: "Wow, I got goosebumps!", "I can't believe they were connected in that way!", "They were engaged...", "I see, it was revenge," "No wonder he investigated with such passion," and "So it was also Detective Minami Ryo's revenge drama..."
