Week 2 Summary
Episode 2 Summary (“Resolve”):
So apparently it’s not a great idea to walk around staring at pictures of known insurgents: as the episode opens, Yugo gets accosted by two friendly-yet-violent army men, who take away the picture and step on Yugo’s hand a little bit. But they’re just doing the neighborly thing by reminding Yugo that associating with dangerous criminals is dangerous. Yugo wanders off rubbing his hand and remembers his sweaty informant, who told him that a man named Haji Rahmani might be able to provide assistance. It seems that as Yusuf Ali Mesa took control of the dacoits he killed all of the sheiks except for Haji, and Haji wants his revenge. Yugo goes to a travel agency where he’s been told he can contact Haji, and there he meets Ahmed, a rather fiery young man who tells him that when the temperatures are pushing 120 degrees Fahrenheit, travel in the desert stops. Yugo demands to see Haji, and Ahmed pulls a revolver on him—but clever ol’ Yugo knows that if he simply holds the chamber so it can’t spin, the revolver won’t fire. Ahmed is so impressed that he agrees to take him to Haji. On the way they run into a couple of men roughing up a woman; Yugo chases them off (although they take the woman with them) and Ahmed contemptuously says that they must be unbelievers.
Haji Rahmani is now a slightly-decrepit mosque leader who isn’t very keen on the idea of reopening his old wounds. Possibly literally—it turns out that back when he was a proud sheik and Ali had killed all of his fellows, the two decided to settle their differences in single combat. Ali, being the nice kind of guy he is, declared that he would leave his opponent alive to serve as an example, and branded him eternally as a coward by picking him up by the head and ripping a nice gash in his forehead. As a result Haji’s put himself in exile—but now his scar stings as he thinks about the shame he must endure; and when Yugo reminds him that he leads a mosque in prayer, a calling not fit for cowards, Haji agrees to help.
Meanwhile back in Japan, Reiichi is making “scary eyes” at the forlorn Mayuki. Creepy.
Yugo and Ahmed meet that night at the beach for Yugo’s send-off. (He’s fallen asleep while waiting, and Ahmed is understandably concerned about his reliability.) Ahmed tells Yugo that Ali had a poem printed in an Arabic paper just after he took the hostage; when interpreted correctly, it reveals that he is willing to negotiate and stipulates the place and time when such negotiation should occur. Yugo has three days to cross the desert before his time runs out. While Yugo waits for his ride, he and Ahmed see an interesting sight: a ring of slightly decrepit men around a fire, watching the woman Yugo tried to help earlier as she dances. When they draw near, she comes up and dances just for Yugo; obviously she has taken a liking to him. Since it’s equally obvious that she doesn’t want to be in the company of the others, Yugo offers to buy her. The slaver is pretty reluctant to sell her until Ahmed threatens him with police action (once again someone besides Yugo does the real negotiating, naturally); at that point the men take off and Yugo and Ahmed are left alone with what they have just discovered is a mute. (She’s had her tongue cut out—lots of bodily mutilations in this show, it seems.)
Yugo’s ride, a date cart, shows up and he trades clothes with Ahmed so as to blend in a bit better. Although they try to stop her, the woman clambers onto the cart beside Yugo and it looks like she’s prepared to follow him all the way. And so, with a mute woman, a rather ineffectual disguise, and a bunch of bruised dates, Yugo heads out into the desert to meet his fate…
Yugo is a tiny bit uncertain how to react to this hug…