Scams Season 1 Episode 9 Recap

Yamada asks help from Makoto. But Makoto says he has no money because he used it all. When he says he failed as a conman, Yamada laughs at him. “Serves you right,”  Yamada says. He punches Makoto when he refuses to give him money. “A piece of trash like you can’t do anything on your own, anyway!” Makoto shouts. Then he runs as fast as he can away from Yamada. When he arrives home, he finds Sachiko waiting for him. Sachiko tells him about Goriki and Mori who broke into their home. Makoto asks about the cops. She says she didn’t tell anything to the police. “That’s good. For now, just act normal,” Makoto says. He receives a call from Dokugawa asking him to return to the office. Makoto runs again as fast as he can. He fails to hear his mom when she says that his father will be coming home that day. When he gets to the office, he sees Dokugawa and Mori cleaning up. He starts helping them by breaking the phones they used in their scams. Dokugawa breaks the CDs, tears all the papers, and tells Mori to mix all of those in paint. When the police arrive at the office, everything is clean, and no one is there. “Even if you’re caught, keep your mouths shut,” Dokugawa tells Mori and Makoto. He tells them their work is finished. Then he gets into his car and drives off.

Makoto visits Misaki and apologizes to her. He asks her not to say anything to the cops, but Misaki pushes him away and tells him to leave. Makoto has no other choice but to go back home. When he gets inside, he finds his mom making cake. Because their goal is to act normal, Makoto offers to help his mother. While they make the frosting, Makoto’s phone starts ringing. Instead of answering, he takes the phone and throws it against the wall. When Misaki’s name is mentioned, Sachiko gets sad. She starts crying and apologizing. “She was so scared,” Sachiko says.

Yamada pounds at the glass door of Makoto’s house. He uses his megaphone and tells Makoto not to ignore him. Makoto loses his temper, goes up to his room, and takes his box of money. He throws all of it to Yamada, then he goes back to making cake. In a parking lot, Kanbe tells Dokugawa he’ll make him the new leader. He will give him all the stores and the people. Kanbe says he’ll try to work at a normal job after quitting. An elderly couple gets into a car. They get confused for a second about what they should do. It’s too late for Kanbe and Dokugawa to see the car reversing too fast in their direction. 

Back at home, Makoto finally apologizes to his mother. “I didn’t want to do anything bad. I just didn’t have a choice,” he says. When the doorbell rings, Sachiko opens the door thinking it’s Makoto’s father. But to her surprise, it’s the police. “Makoto Kusano, you’re under arrest,” a policeman says. Makoto fights back to free himself, but no matter what he does, he can no longer run away. He screams for his mom as the police drag him out of the house and into the police car. 

Seimiya finds a new job. This time, it’s legal. He wonders what Makoto is doing, completely unaware he got caught. When Makoto finally gets out, a police officer talks to him.“If Misaki Azuma hadn’t rescinded her testimony I could have thrown you in prison,” the police officer says. As Makoto steps out, he sees Misaki waiting for him. A car passes by and when the person rolls down the window, Makoto sees his friend Shotaro, smiling at him.

Our Thoughts

We want to feel sorry for Makoto, but we want to take the side of the victims. We can’t deny we felt disappointed that Misaki took back what she said. We thought she would let the victims have justice, but she still chose to help Makoto. Maybe because they’re childhood friends, so she can’t turn her back on him. But the story ends there. We don’t know who will take the blame for everything that happened. Kurusu might be dead. And we don’t know what happened to Goriki. It seems unfair if Goriki goes to jail and Makoto gets to keep his freedom. They are obviously good that they didn’t leave any evidence.

As for Shotaro, he’s the one who introduced this kind of life to Makoto. If he didn’t ask him to take the gig, then maybe Makoto’s problems wouldn’t have piled up. It indeed helped his father, but the damage done is way bigger. For Dokugawa and Kanbe, they paid for it with their lives. And the people who accidentally killed them are elderly people. Maybe it‘s their karma.