The titular Blue Eye Samurai is Mizu. She is the product of an interracial affair who has grown up in Japan, and she has been ridiculed all her life for her physical appearance. Since the authorities put out a hit on a biracial girl, Mizu was forced to live her life as a boy while hiding her eyes with a mask, a straw hat, or a pair of yellow sunglasses. When a meteor landed in her village, and Master Eiji took it to turn it into a sword, Mizu started living with him and learned almost every kind of martial art. When she was ready, she went out to seek vengeance by killing the white men who were in Japan when she was conceived because one of them was her father, and that individual issued the kill notice in her name. In the first season, she targeted Abijah Fowler, an Irishman looking to rule over Japan, and Heiji Shindo, a Japanese flesh trader who was helping Fowler execute his plans. Prior to the finale, it was revealed that Fowler was bringing in a massive shipment of guns to raid Edo during Akemi’s marriage with Shogun Itoh’s son, Takayoshi, something that Akemi’s father, Lord Daichi Tokunobu, knew about because that’d help in his and his daughter’s ascension. Since that gave Mizu another chance to kill Fowler, after she failed to do so at Fowler’s castle, she headed to Edo, along with Ringo.
Spoiler Alert
Abijah Fowler invades Edo
Mizu and Ringo spell out their plan, which is to get to the main castle where the shogunate, the shogun and his family, Akemi, Seki, and Akemi’s father were holed up, and escape with Akemi without dying. Mizu underscores the fact that it’s not their responsibility to save Shogun Itoh because his oversight has caused the expansion of businesses conducted by white men. Their job is to save Akemi and reunite her with her lover, Taigen, and Mizu’s solo job is to kill Fowler and get her revenge. Mizu reminds Ringo that if she doesn’t make it back, then Ringo is supposed to assume that she has either died or failed and continue with his task. Fowler meets Itoh’s sons and tries to meet Itoh face-to-face, but his sons, Takayoshi and Kazuyoshi, refuse this proposal because the shogun is actually busy with the wedding gift acceptance ceremony.
By the way, Heiji Shindo is already in the castle premises under the pretext of giving gifts, but it’s obvious that he is supposed to clear out a path for Fowler and his army. Mizu enters the castle and warns Madame Kaji about the threat that Fowler poses to everyone in the castle. We see Daichi talking about how he wants Akemi to become the last surviving member of the Itoh clan and then assign her father as the shogun. Seki, who has just learned about Daichi’s plans, rescues Akemi and imprisons Daichi. Mizu then rescues the two of them and tells them to go to Ringo. Meanwhile, Ringo comes across Taigen, disguised as a samurai, and the both of them decide to get to the shogun and warn him about the incoming threat. By the time the shogun hears them out, Fowler and his Red Army can be seen marching through the city.
Seki and Akemi try to escape
Taigen goes to protect the shogun, his family, and his associates. Mizu reminds Seki and Akemi to go through the sewers to avoid the attack and get to Ringo. Fowler, with some help from Shindo, tears through every line of defense like it’s nothing. I mean, we are talking about guns versus arrows. It’s not a real competition at all, and Fowler highlights the fact with his chilling lines about technology overpowering everything that’s organic or old. Fowler does talk a lot about invading Japan and turning it into an extension of Ireland. But he doesn’t waste too much time killing the shogun and his associates. When he points the gun at Kazuyoshi, Mizu breaks into the room and begins fighting Fowler and his guards, along with Taigen. Takayoshi leads Kazuyoshi, Lady Itoh, and the surviving ministers out of the castle through a secret passage. Ringo joins the fight, but he is told to get out of there as soon as he can by Taigen and Mizu.
While Mizu goes after Fowler, Taigen hangs back and pulls out Shindo, who is hiding amongst the dead bodies stacked by Mizu, Taigen, and even Ringo. Shindo tries to buy his way out of the situation, but Taigen kills him. When Taigen catches up with Mizu, they team up to fight Fowler. Both of them get knocked down. Mizu tells Taigen to get out of the castle while she continues to pursue Fowler. Mizu starts a fire to trap Fowler, which spreads throughout the castle and the city. Seki and Akemi make it out of the gates. When they try to close the doors and trap Fowler’s soldiers so that they can burn and die in there, Seki gets killed by one of the soldiers. Lady Itoh orders his sons to leave the ministers behind because they did nothing to save Itoh. So they close the door on them and escape out of the castle. Taigen gets to Akemi and asks her to run away with him. However, Akemi says that she is a changed woman now and that she wants to be part of the shogunate and become a leader, not someone who succumbs to oppression.
Did Mizu kill Abijah Fowler?
When Fowler is about to crush Mizu to death, Mizu retaliates and pins Fowler to the wall. Fowler realizes that there’s no way to beat Mizu in a straight battle. So, he starts to manipulate her by telling her about the two other white men who were in Japan when Mizu was conceived. He says that these men, Skeffington and Routely, are well-hidden, and Mizu will never be able to find them if she kills him. Mizu says that she has already killed someone called Violet, and she has her knife at Fowler’s throat, so she is fairly capable of killing white people, regardless of their power and influence. Fowler says that they are in London, and since that’s a foreign land, Mizu will need his help. He also talks about their physical features and how they match Mizu’s, so that she gets confused about who she must go after first. Just for good measure, Fowler throws another haymaker, which anyone could’ve seen from a mile away, by revealing that the woman who used to look after Mizu, the woman who was killed during a scuffle with Mizu’s husband, isn’t actually her biological mother. He says that he knows about Mizu’s biological mother’s whereabouts, too.
During Blue Eye Samurai‘s ending, we see Mizu sailing away to London with Fowler held captive in a cage. That means she has chosen to believe everything that Fowler talked about. However, she is being cautious because Fowler is a desperate man, and he can lie to stay alive. The Itoh family looks over the destroyed city and welcomes Akemi as they seek to rebuild the place and make the country’s borders impenetrable to white people. I have to mention here that this fire has some historical context. The name of the episode is The Great Fire of 1657, and that’s a reference to the fire that destroyed Edo on March 2, 1657. It apparently went on for three whole days, and it was started by a priest who was trying to cremate a cursed kimono. Around 100,000 people were killed, and it took over two years for the city to return to normalcy. The fictionalized version of that incident doesn’t seem to be that devastating. So, we can assume that the Itoh family will resurrect the city soon and prove the shogunate’s prowess in no time. During the concluding moments of the show, we see that Ringo has reunited with Eiji and has started to work as his apprentice. The only person we don’t get to know more about is Taigen. Maybe he is sitting somewhere, mourning his breakup with Akemi.
