AMC “The Terror: Infamy” is fixing for a family reunion with “My Sweet Boy.” If you missed the last episode, you might think this refers to Chester/Taizo, but in “My Perfect World” (Episode 7), we learned that Yūko Tanabe, younger sister of Asako Nakayama, had two boys.
I’ve played the episode over so while during Episode 6, “Taizo,” Yūko gives up her children to the nuns and says something about a mother should be able to take care of her child, that’s a generalization just as when the nun says children shouldn’t be raised on the street. At the end of the last episode, Yūko had killed Luz’s father and discovered where the young couple were heading. You know she wasn’t going to be far behind.
In Colinas de Oro, Oregon at the relocation camp, Chester had left on bad terms with Asako and Henry Nakayama, escaping the military police who were taking him to Tule Lake (California). Ken was killed by Major Bowen but Amy tape recorded him incriminating himself.
In Aguayo, New Mexico, Chester is hoeing and the sound of wind and a creaking windmill makes us wonder if someone is already there. Chester/Taizo was supposed to leave the area, but Luz’s Abuela asked him to prepare a garden. According to Luz, she had asked him to do other chores before that. The Abuela obviously approves of Luz and Chester. During an evening discussion, in Chester’s room, Luz and Chester get cozy again (in bed), but don’t worry. This time, Chester’s going to make Luz an “honest woman.” They are soon married in a barn with Luz’s relatives with a Catholic priest presiding. New Mexico had its anti-miscegenation law repealed in 1866 before it became a state in 1912. That law only restricted whites from marrying blacks.
We know that things aren’t going to end happily for everyone because one of the older women becomes possessed. Luz and Chester don’t realize this until they are back at Abuela’s home and the sheriff shows up. At first, they think the law is looking for Chester, but it turns out the sheriff has news that Luz’s father is missing. We know that Yūko has killed him (Episode 7 “My Perfect World”).
Chester’s been writing to all the camps searching for Jirou, but can’t find him. Luz’s abuela has powers and she tells Chester, “We can use the magic, but we can’t control it.” Then she explains, “If you meet your brother it will be him at the moment of this picture. he will not know that he is dead.” We learn that Jirou was in the hospital when Taizo was adopted. Yet we know that Yūko is near because one of the people attending the wedding becomes possessed so Yūko has found Chester.
Yūko takes possession of Chester and in the reality of the photo they sink into the sandbox that Jirou was playing near. Chester tells Luz, “she said she wanted me and my brother to live with her in her perfect world.” Luz admits to Chester, “She was my midwife; she was kind to me.” Luz and everyone else wonders why Yūko was kind then, but killed Luz’s father.
Looking at the photos of the wedding, they see that Doña Maria is blurred. Chester goes to her home, but it is too late. She is dead, holding a onesie with yotsu hanabishi. Luz tells Chester, “She knows. She’s not here for you. I’m pregnant.”
Back at the internment camp in Oregon, Henry is given a job as a gardener, $25 and a ticket home. Everyone gets $25 and a ticket home.
Walter Yoshida returns to the camp. He helps recruit more men, but when Toshiro attempts to enlist, Walter tries to dissuade him, saying, “Guys in my unit are dying faster than they can be replaced…with all respect, this isn’t for you.”
Toshiro angrily replies, “I graduated high school in a g*d-damned prison.” He’s determined to enlist.
Elsewhere, Walter’s sister Amy has to deal with Bowen. He asks if she’s found a sponsor, telling her that an old buddy needs a secretary in Long Beach. Bowen takes Amy outside the camp to a van that has broken down, but she isn’t sure that there is a van. It turns out Bowen was telling the truth and that the army is going to decorate the mess hall to celebrate the closing of the camp and the return of some of the soldiers. At the party, Asako and Henry dance together. Amy dances with her brother, but we later see her walking alone. She’s drunk. Bowen shows up, and he says, “Miss Yoshida? You’ve had too much to drink.”
Amy wakes up bound and gagged. Bowen tells her, “When I was a young officer I was taught discipline. What to do, what to say, what to eat, what to drink. Most of all I was taught who to trust. I will never forget the day you walked into my office.” He recalls that her mother said Amy wanted to help her country in a time of war. Then he explains that the people in charge of the camps did receive the taped reel that explained some of Bowen’s illegal actions, “the reel, that you sent anonymously” but “and old training day buddy” intercepted it. Betrayed, he means to do something about it, but Amy resists and eventually kills him.
At the end, we see Jirou waking up in a futon bed in the perfect refuge. Yūko is there and a baby basket waits for another baby.