Episode 4: ‘The Eightfold Fence’

Last week’s episode dropped the ball when it came to depicting visceral combat. This week’s fired it straight at the enemy and pulped them.

In the bloody climax of this episode, Lord Nagakado (Yuki Kura), the untested young son of Lord Toranaga, decides to make a name for himself by blowing the visiting enemy forces of the Lord Ishido to bits with John Blackthorne’s frighteningly precise cannons. Virtually every witness to the slaughter, including Blackthorne and Lady Mariko, is aghast, the double-dealing Lord Yabushige most of all.