Last Friends Episode 11 (Final)

Out of many dramas shown this spring, Last Friends was by far one of the best series produced this season. Though I must admit that this last episode was not quite what I totally had in mind as a powerful ending, it was still pretty good. To me, it felt like all the power and energy disappeared after episode 10 and everything was about tying loose ends in the final episode just so questions were answered, but it was not completely exciting. We got to learn more about Sousuke and Takeru in this episode to answer the domestic violence & "fear of women" issues in the series, but it felt like the writers only put enough in so that we don't feel as though we've been completely cheated over not knowing more about these two characters, but it felt like such a ... dull way to do it... Also, the acting in this episode was only so-so. Usually, it's pretty good, but for some reason, I felt as though something was off with the acting in this final episode. Anyway...

The episode starts with Michiru sobbing over Sousuke's dead body in his apartment. She finds a letter partially in her purse and pulls it out to read it. The letter contains Sousuke's final words to her:

"Goodbye Michiru, I'm setting you free. As long as I'm alive, I will only end up binding you to me. That's why in order to let you go, I must die (*lit. trans: this heart of mine must stop beating). I wanted to become your everything, your entire world, everything that's good to you. No matter where or when, I always wanted to be with you. But you found happiness in a world that did not include me in it, didn't you? That's why I'll go. At least I was able to feel your warmth in this hand, my body remembering the two of us being together... I'm sorry. Even though I loved your smile so much, I couldn't make you smile. I'm sorry, I didn't know how to love you. I'm sorry, I couldn't make you happy. Goodbye Michiru, please be happy."

She leaves town after reading the letter, and the sound of an ambulance can be heard in the background.

Meanwhile, Ruka wins her race and is in a press conference when an interviewer asks her about the recent events & article about her to which she answers with how she has trained so hard under the same conditions as a man, and that she came this far with the support and love from her family and friends. She is most happy that she has been able to do this well and does not want to be looked as a woman or man, just as another human being.

After the conference, Ruka finds Takeru and Eri in the hallway. Eri approaches Ruka and tells her congratulations and that she wished that Ruka had told her sooner. She would not have been freaked out and if she had been, she would have gotten over it, because Ruka is Ruka -- and Ruka begins to cry. Eri says that she (herself) was insensitive and was not able to realize it sooner, and tells Ruka that it must have been so hard keeping it all to herself (Ruka). Ruka cries next to Eri and their relationship gets even stronger.

The next morning, Takeru and Ruka are standing on the porch and Takeru wonders how Michiru is. He asks if they should contact her and Ruka says that Michiru wasn't able to accept her, so that's why she didn't go to the race, and even if they can't meet anymore there's really nothing they can do about it. Just then the phone rings and Chinatsu asks if Takeru can put Michiru on the line, to which Chinatsu seems surprised. She then asks if they (people at the share house) haven't heard about it.

That night, the share house members discuss Sousuke's suicide and Eri wonders if it may have been her fault since she said some things to him that day, but Tomohiko strongly disagrees saying that she has nothing to do with it and it's that Sousuke realized that he's done lots of bad things and made up for it by killing himself. They all wonder what happened to Michiru, and Tomohiko says that she probably wants to be alone so they should just let her be.

Another morning, Ruka goes to get the mail and sees a postcard from Michiru saying that she's sorry for not being able to say this calmly, but she's fine and doing well on her own. Inside the share house (same day or another day), Tomohiko is packing up and Eri walks in on him. She looks surprised and he tells her that he's been transferred to Milan. When she asks about his wife, Tomohiko goes silent, to which she understands that he's going to take his wife. She then says in a fake happy tone that it makes sense since they're married and Tomohiko blurts out an apology. Eri tells him not to apologize, because it's rude, say thanks instead. She holds out her hand and Tomohiko hesitantly says a quiet thank you while accepting it. Eri then heads to her room, with a devastated and teary expression.

That night, Eri, Takeru, and Ruka sit down for dinner and both Ruka and Takeru wonder where Ogurin went. Eri explains that Ogurin and his wife went to Milan due to the job transfer, and Ruka wonders if Eri is alright, she comments that Ogurin really is no-good to which Eri disagrees and says that to her, Ogurin was a good man.

Back at Choushi, the town where Michiru and her mother lived in when they ran out on her father, Michiru is standing at the concrete pier (same one as in episode 01) and is stepping close to the edge, looking as though she's going to jump over when she hears an elderly woman, Suzue, calling her name. She then follows the woman back to her Japanese style restaurant and eats the food given to her. The woman asks about her mother and then tells Michiru that she doesn't know what happened to Michiru, but she shouldn't think about doing something foolish. She then takes Michiru to the apartments and shows her a room (the same one she's staying in during episode 01).

We see later that Michiru has started working in the Japanese style restaurant, and then one day when she is working she suddenly becomes nauseous and the lady owner wonders if Michiru may be pregnant. When Michiru goes to the doctor, she is confirmed that she is pregnant, but the pregnancy does possess a lot of risk to both mother and child. On the way back to her place, Michiru looks conflicted with the news and remembers the first time she met Sousuke. He picks up something she accidentally leaves behind at a social workers office and he rushes out to give it back to her. Then later when they've already started dating, they're eating at a restaurant when Sousuke tells her about his mother. She asks if she's kind and Sousuke says that she was up to the point she left since she got a lover, and then he was tossed around by other people who raised him. Michiru apologizes for asking him such a thing and he says that it's fine, because of what happened to him in his past, he wants to hurry up and marry Michiru and have children with her.

End of the flashback and Michiru arrives back at her apartment. What she finds is her mother waiting for her, who is against her having the child. Chinatsu tells her how expensive and troublesome it is to have a child, and Michiru asks if Chinatsu thought that about her (Michiru), saying that she's always wondered if her mother's always thought of her as a burden so that's why she has to become an adult soon as to not give her mother any more trouble. She tells her mother that she will not become her and that she will raise the child well -- when she suddenly gets nauseous and rushes to throw up. She later tells her mother that she's going to try her best with this child, and her mother says that she thought the say thing when they left her father (Chinatsu's husband). Michiru looks a bit conflicted over these words. Still, throughout the duration of her pregnancy, Michiru tries her best and is getting along well on her own.

One day at the airport, Eri looks up at a destination/arrival board and sees the word Milan flash on the screen. She makes a pained expression and proceeds to leave when she notices Tomohiko standing there, waiting for her holding a bouquet of red roses. He tells her that he went away but could never forget her. She smiles at this. We see later that the two get married and both Takeru and Ruka are dressed up in tuxes watching them. At the reception, the four chat a bit and then both Takeru and Ruka head home together. Ruka reminisces over how she found Michiru at the park that one time and where everything came together. That night, the two are sitting at the dinner table and they look pretty lonely.

The next day, Takeru comes back home after borrowing a motorcycle from Hayashida and says that they should go find Michiru. When they go to Chinatsu's apartment, no one is home and the landlady tells them that she's moved with her husband back to his hometown in Kyuushuu. They ask about Chinatsu's daughter, Michiru, but the landlady says that she doesn't know where she would be. Both Takeru and Ruka are walking along when Takeru asks if Ruka may know any other place that Michiru might go to, but Ruka says she's not sure and then thinks of Choushi, the place where Michiru and Chinatsu stayed for a while. The two then embark towards Choushi together. Using Michiru's picture, the two try asking everyone if they've seen her, but after a long day's of searching, they are still unable to track down Michiru.

At night, the two camp out on the beach, Ruka tells Takeru that they seem like a married couple and he feels surprised to hear this. Ruka explains that in a marriage, after a while the two partners just become more like best friends even when the passion isn't there anymore, and what they're doing now reminds her of that sort of relationship. Takeru then proceeds to tell Ruka about his past with his sister. They actually have different parents, but he says that he wanted to be his sister's strength since she suffered from a lot of stress. After some inappropriate things happening between the two, he becomes scared of womens' bodies. He says that's why he'll never be able to bring happiness to women. Ruka then disagrees and says that it's not true, he brings a lot of happiness to women. She for one knows this best. Takeru proceeds to cry and Ruka puts a hand on one of his shoulders.

The two wake up the next morning together like a married couple, and then take off again. They find an elderly man who operates a shop and has seen Michiru working at the Japanese-style inn. Ruka and Takeru are excited and ride the motorcycle faster and faster to meet her. However, they nearly collide with a truck and are thrown off the road. Meanwhile, Michiru is washing dishes and drops one just when both Ruka and Takeru are nearly hit by the truck. Back on the road, Takeru is alright, but Ruka is unconscious. He asks for an ambulance and the trucker goes to make the call.

At the hospital, Ruka comes out with only a scratch and is told that she's fine. Takeru is worried, but the two go to leave. When they are in the parking lot, they try to start up the motorcycle, but it's not working. At the same time, Michiru is waddling out of the hospital and towards the bus stop. When Takeru walks around the bike, he catches sight of her and whispers her name. Ruka hears it and turns around to see her then calls out her name. Michiru is shocked to see the two, but brings them back to her place. She tells the two that Suzue, the woman who's taken care of her before, has given her a job here and that she's doing well. Ruka asks if Michiru can go back to Tokyo with them and live together again. Michiru says that she can't, because this child is Sousuke's. Because of her, because he thought of her, he died. She says that she was very lonely when she was living here, but then when she remembered that she was pregnant, she became so happy because there will be two of them later. In a way, she feels as though Sousuke's forgiven her and that it's ok to live. Ruka says that of course it's alright to live and that Michiru has the right to do it as she likes. She tells her that she does not approve of Sousuke's way of solving things and that it's cowardly of him to die like that. She then says that she would like to live with Michiru, though she may not be able to become the father of Michiru's child, she would to be able to help raise it. Takeru then says that he would like to raise the child as well, because three people is even better than two. (So cute Ruka says two to top Michiru's one and Takeru says three to top Ruka's two lol) Michiru is extremely touched, but then her water breaks and they call her cab to take her to the hospital.

When they arrive to the hospital, Michiru is rushed into the delivery room and both Takeru and Ruka are left outside. Michiru -- remembering what the doctor has told her about the pregnancy being a dangerous one -- begs one of the nurses to save her baby, but the nurse tells her that both her and the baby are going to be fine. Takeru and Ruka wait and agonize outside while Michiru is fighting hard to bring the baby out to the world. (This is where the acting ... gets funny =_=) After what seems to be forever, the baby is delivered out and both Takeru and Ruka hear the baby's cries, except a nurse rushes out in a hurry and another is running inside the delivery room with a towel full of blood. Meanwhile Michiru looks like she's dying.

Later, we hear the doctor and nurse calling out to Michiru and telling her that she's got a daughter. A tear streams down her eye as she looks at her baby. Once moved to another room, Michiru is resting next to her baby while Takeru and Ruka watch her. Michiru looks over at Ruka and asks her to hold the baby. Ruka holds the baby girl and tells her that the world is a good place to be and that she will see lots of good things from here on out, for sure. Takeru then asks to hold the baby next and it squeals slightly in his arms. Takeru jokes and says "I'm your Papa." All three look very happy and Michiru thanks both her friends for being there for her and the baby.

When Michiru is better, the three walk on the beach with the baby. Michiru narrates her letter to Eri and Ogurin, telling the two that she has named her child Aida Rumi, "Aida" as in her own surname, the "Ru" is from Ruka's name, and the "Mi" is from Michiru, but Takeru's "-ru" is also included in the name. She says that the four of them will go back and live in the share house as family, friends, married partners, lovers, and will treasure their relationship for all times, being friends forever. If possible, stay friends forever, even if separated they will be able to meet again. She then concludes with "My dear friends, you are my best of friends" in English.

My Thoughts: Watching the first time, it was an ok episode, but if you watch it a second time, you like it better. At least for me, I liked it better the second time around. The writers did some cheesy, soap-opera-like things in the last episode which did not really impress me at all, but oh well. Overall, things were resolved and seem to have ended happily. I think it'll be interesting for Rumi to have three parents, but probably good. I kind of wonder if they'll ever tell Rumi about her real father or not. Oh well, I guess I don't really need to think about that. In any case, it was a very powerful drama and pretty well done. The last episode garnered 22.8%, increasing the average to 17.7%. If not for the small percentage of viewers for the first episode, this series could have done a lot better. The really good thing about this series is that the ratings started small, but then continued to increase. Other series may have strong viewership first week, but then see continuing decreases in ratings as the season continues. To me, this shows that the drama was really worth watching and I have to say that I really do recommend this story to every drama addict.