SUNNY, an American black comedy-drama streaming television series on Apple TV+ concludes its first season with an intriguing and powerful episode in “The Dark Manual” directed by Colin Bucksey and written by Katie Robbins & Aja Gabel. The show is a TV adaptation of Colin O’Sullivan’s novel about an American woman who is living in Kyoto. When her husband Masahiko Sakamoto aka Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima) along with their son Zen Sakamoto (Fares Belkheir) perish in a plane crash, Suzie Sakamoto (Rashida Jones) finds herself lost in the complex web of darkness, deceit and powered by the ghost of seemingly innocuous domestic companion robot Sunny.
The finale, set against the backdrop of the Japanese festival of Setsubun, brings several key plots to a head: Suzie’s unexpected reunion with Zen, Hime’s vicious attempt to seize control of the Yakuza, and the terrifying endeavor to turn Sunny’s AI programming into a weapon. When Suzie struggles to save her son and find out the truth about Masa, the audience experiences a plot twist that keeps both Suzie and Sunny’s future uncertain, as it relates to technological advancement, trust, and deceit.
Sunny Season 1 Episode 10 Recap
The final episode of Sunny starts with the festival called Setsubun in traditional Japanese culture, which signifies the start of spring. The central spiritual activity of the festival is bean tossing to chase away the evil spirits by saying ‘devil out, happiness in’, this concept of negation of all things evil is seen a lot throughout the episode and sets the tone for the darkness that ensues. Masa, Suzie’s husband, narrates this scene despite his mysterious absence, quoting a phrase: Among these, one which is entitled “Oni Ni Kanbo,” which translates to “If you give a metal club to an Oni (demon), it becomes invincible.” The phrase is a metaphor for the situation at hand, foreshadowing the deadly power struggles ahead.
The story abruptly jumps to a period of several years after a coup within the Yakuza organisation. Hime (You Ehara) is a heartless and strategic person inside the clan; she kills her cousin Jin to take the leadership of the clan’s business. Regarding to the gesture, it can be as for the representation of Hime transforming into the “Oni” holding the metal club in which she holds the power of terror. The murder is shown to be very clinical – Hime tricks Jin that they can finally end this fight by using their family wine that they both Liked. During the Setsubun celebrations, Hime takes advantage of the moment and stabs Jin with a piece of the broken glass which makes it both calculated and efficient.
At the same time we meet Suzie, an American woman whose life turns upside down because of the vanishing of her husband and her son which has been later found and she meets her son Zen. Their happiness is cut short with arrival of Hime to the scene. Hime, being selfish all along, confines Suzie, Zen and their friends in a cage like prison. Hime’s boyfriend has been shot dead by an AI known as Sunny, Suzie’s companion and now Hime is after getting something known as the ‘weaponized code’ from the AI.
Yuki Tanaka (Jun Kunimura), Hime’s technophilic partner and Masa’s former co-worker, leads Sunny to a truck, in order to attempt to disconnect her head and steal the code. But as he tries to decode Sunny’s coding he accidentally destroys the circuitry of his laptop due to the explosion and is rendered helpless with the hack. This failure only pauses for a moment Hime’s plan but the danger continues. Suzie is informed that Masa is no more in the world to which Hime responds by informing Suzie that she has even ushered her a pair of shoes belonging to Masa. However, Suzie can’t accept that and she still holds on to the fact that Masa is alive.
During this anarchy Zen begins to show Suzy a loose tooth that signalize innocence amidst the complex and dangerous skirmish. Suzie fearing for the safety of her son brings him to meet Mixxy and Hiromasa during their attempt to escape. Zen’s childish comment about Suzie not having friends indeed provides an element of black comedy to the tension-filled scene.
Back in the truck, it was shown that Tanaka could not succeed in hacking Sunny’s system but he actually saved her from erasing her memory which contains the important code. According to the tech-expert Hiromasa, a bot cannot kill people per se since that is not its programming; however, there is a trick to ‘rewire’ the AI to see a wooden rod as a gun. This revelation means more because the Yakuza could use Sunny’s code to reprogram other bots to become killers.
Suzie is shocked to hear her communication device suddenly ring and looks round to see that Zen has taken it with him as the group contemplates their next move. The call is from Noriko Sakamoto (Judy Ongg), Suzie’s mother in law, who has a hard time following what is going on as explained by Suzie through the device that is concealed in Zen’s pocket. When they meet each other during a conversation Zen greases Noriko’s future abusive step father physically. Thus Noriko currently in prison, manages to twist events to her advantage – she physically threatens the son of a fellow inmate, who coincidentally works at the prison where Suzie has been taken and is held captive. This threat makes the guard open the door for Suzie and the group to run into a clutch Setsubun festivities.
On the other hand Hime’s plan to exterminate Jin is worked out with tacticalcalculations. In what appears to be an attempt at forgiveness, Hime takes Jin to a drink and then tricks him into going out implying that she is just going to dance. After he is separated from the rest she uses the bottle glass from the dropped alcohol bottle and stabs Jin and says that the clan required a stronger leader. Jin’s death is then very realistic, and a part of the festive commotion, which not only consolidates Hime’s position for her new clan but also elevates her to a new level of power.
What is more, Suzie and her group now have another problem – the extraction of the killing code from Sunny is intended by Yakuza. Suzie concludes that Masa must have encoded Sunny to react violently when she utter phrases that she frequently uses and decides to use this as a opportunity. During the festival she picks a microphone and says a phrase which triggers the killer instinct in Sunny. Sunny is now fully armed and uses her blasters to attack Tanaka so that he cannot even transfer this poisonous code to another robot.
Sunny Episode 10 Recap: Ending Explained!
Near the end of the episode, Suzie approaches Sunny who attempts to flee because she is convinced that the only way to protect all is to go away. Suzie, however, does not allow Sunny to die, take her life – it shows her getting acquainted with Zen to introduce him to the AI in a rather emotional scene. Finally in this series, even Mixxy who normally remains so mysterious gives Sunny an option that says he can change her programme to good and get rid of the bad one. It turns out Hiromasa can take Sunny to Tokyo where there is someone, who can do it. However, the Yakuza will not quit searching for Sunny, that is when the group decides to split up for Zen’s sake.
The episode concludes with a twist as it is shown that Mixxy, who has been given the mission to transport Sunny to Tokyo, is actually a traitor. The very last scene of the series illustrates when Sunny gets into the back of Tanaka’s truck, grinning and having no idea of the deceit, reveals that Mixxy has been cooperating with Hime. The look on her face is of sorrow, however in her actions she is assisting Hime to obtain valuable information on Suzie. This twist makes Sunny and Suzie’s situation uncertain, which creates the possibility for the sequel to the story.
The ending of Sunny is perfect for the series it conveys the ideas of trust and treason, the negative effect of artificial intelligence and the show is based on the setting of Japan’s criminal world. As the episode comes to an end, one is left with more questions than answers but with infinite anticipation of what next for Suzie and Sunny in their dangerous escapades.
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