Going to start recapping this series!(: 

Yeah, just a screenshot of the title…and did you notice that the heart is made up of eyes, and faces, and mouths and what not? Brrr, nasty. 

(I was eating my lunch when I started watching. The following scene made me twitch uncomfortably for some reason.)

A guy, who was in obvious pain and discomfort, crawled towards the toilet bowl and flushed some pills down, before he collapsed and died. 

A forensic doctor, Koniuku, got Reiko to buy both black and white puddings for him because he got something to tell her. Initially, he informed her that someone's body just got sent to them the night before, and after the autopsy, they found out that it was because his liver suffered immense pain and he died. Reiko wasn't happy that she had to buy such expensive puddings just for such a nothing-to-worry-about case, and made Koniuku say more by refusing to give him his puddings. 

Haha!

Koniuku finally let up that there were three cases of people who all died after their livers failed on them, and the same chemical substances were found in them, so it's highly likely that it's not an accident, but deliberate attempts by someone to randomly, perhaps, kill people off by giving them pills that were poisonous. 

Reiko was excited and went back to report to the headquarters. They determined that it was a case, the news were let out to the public which garnered lots of attention. Reiko informed her team that they would be working alongside with Team 3 and other people, but their team would be the one holding the dominant power for the investigation. Later, she asked Kikuta about Team 3's leader, and he answered that he's one who would be quite okay to work with, and who would understand that their team was leading the investigation. 

She asked about another team's leader, and was told that he's investigating another case. Reiko started giving a constipated face, pulled her hands tightly in opposite directions and muttered, "Let it drag, let it drag."

And so sweet/funny, that Kikuta blocked her from others' view so that people wouldn't think she's…weird. 

She realised that her obstacle was still the Fifth Team and worried about their interference like the Strawberry Night incident. (I think this refers to the Tanpantsu style episode that was released before the drama…maybe I would watch that soon.) Kikuta told her that the leader of Team 5, Katsumata, just received another murder case and most likely would not be able to take part in the investigation. At that moment, Katsumata walked by with his team of people, and insulted Reiko about her skills, insinuated about Strawberry Night, and said that she shouldn't come to work in her cheap shoes.

What?? I dislike this guy already. 

The police force had their first meeting together. Hashizume was all 'airs', because it's really quite grand to hold such a big scale investigation in the headquarters. Imaizumi briefed them about the three victims and what they knew from the preliminary investigation. Reiko raised her hand to ask a question at the same time as the Team Three's leader, who allowed Reiko to ask first. She asked if there was any drugs to be found in all three houses, but the answer was no.

Koniuku was asked to offer his scientific opinion, and he kept going off the point. Hashizume almost blew his top, but Imaizumi managed to get Koniuku in being succinct —  he felt that it's a terrorist attempt at sneaking in either pills or substances into the mass public. 

Reiko took over the investigation of the three victims, while Team Three's leader took the drug lead. 

Katsumata investigated the murder, and when he turned to leave, someone found a packet of pills and handed it to him. Those pills were nicknamed Zebra, because of their black and white colours, and Asakura wanted to call back to Reiko's team to tell them, since they knew that Zebra might have been the pills that were used. Stupid/Sly/Cunning Katsumata stopped him, pocketed the pills, tipped the boy off and said that he would have glory by cracking both the murder case and the drug case (Reiko's). 

At their usual dinner, Reiko asked Kikuta more about the Team Three's Leader, and he answered that he was his senior last time, was really amiable, and his working style was by elimination, where he would eliminate suspects off till he got the right one. (I can't really catch the name of this guy, so let's call him Extra Guy for now, cos he's pretty extra) Extra Guy teased Kikuta, saying that the senior must have brought him to a lot of clubs. Kikuta denied angrily, and looked at Reiko. 

Aww. 

Reiko said that they would focus on finding the similarities between the three victims first. Later, when she went back to the station, she found Asakura looking at the files on their tables, but didn't say much except to express her sympathies about him working in Katsumata's team. Asakura almost spilt the beans about the drugs thing, but kept it a secret. 

After their investigation, Reiko presented what they had found — the three guys were all members of this online game called GaChi. She's very sure that the three guys must have been passed the drugs via this platform, but (ego and stupid) Hashizume put her down again by calling her with a demeaning, "Missy", and saying that she's just imagining things. To prove her point, Reiko asked the whole investigation room, about who played Gachi. Initially no one raised their hands, but Reiko told them to be honest, and looked pointedly in Hayama's direction. Hayama and Yuda immediately put up their hands, which caused many other police members to confess. 

Hah. I'm pretty sure it's just a ploy on Reiko's part to get people to 'fess up  It always feel so much easy to confess after you see other people do it, isn't it?

Reiko proved her point that many, many people played this game and made this a very good platform. On the other hand, Katsumata got people to investigate the components of the Zebra pills. Reiko got the information from the gaming company, where they found out that there were only four people that talked to all three victims. Reiko said that they would obtain permission to get information from the credit card company, then they would know who these four people were. 

By now, if you still think that Katsumata's just a nice, old guy…I don't know what you've been watching/reading. He rolled up a magazine and beat up this guy, forcing him to answer if the Zebra pills had anything to do with his mafia gang, (which I shall name White House).

Reiko's team obtained details from the credit card company, and they found out that two of the four people were high school girls. Reiko and Extra Guy went to question her, but the girl was very uncooperative, and kept playing her handphone games. Reiko commented that it must have cost a lot, to keep playing, and the girl scoffed at her, saying that she would definitely get the money from her parents. She felt that Reiko was ridiculous when she asked about pills and left after calling Reiko an old woman. Ouch. 

Katsumata found White House's top leader and they had a 'chat', basically saying that he knew that the pills weren't distributed by White House, but he was sure that it's the enemy gang, Katagiri, with the intention of pinning the blame on White House. He tilted his head —

(not nice, this makes it look like he's a young girl, wanting to lean on his shoulders, and it made me laugh.)

and warned the White House's leader, that he should do something about it before the dragon tattooed on his back turned into cuttlefish. Asakura asked later why he would want to sow discord, and Katsumata said that it's definitely Katagiri who was distributing the pills. When White House and Katagiri got into a fight, he would be able to get his search warrant and he would use it at the moment White House won Katagiri. 

Extra Guy took a long time to pay up for the karaoke where the high school girl was, because he was trying to find his membership card. I find him a bit suspicious actually. 

Hayama called Reiko to inform her that he got the information of the last two people — another high school girl, and the last one was a him. Reiko listened to the identity, and her eyes widened in shock. She dragged Extra Guy off where they had a team meeting. Turns out that the identity of the last guy was a prominent person, and they would get a lot of attention and trouble for thinking that he's the culprit. Reiko asked for her team members' views, ending with Hayama's heated opinion that he should be brought in for an interrogation before any more people got sacrificed. Reiko said that she would consider their views. 

So it's the meeting again. 

Reiko dropped the bombshell by saying that they suspected this guy, (whom I shall call) A-san, who was a prominent public figure and a doctor. She listed the reasons why they felt it was possible to be him — other than the fact that he contacted all three victims before, he's a doctor, so it's possible for him to get the components needed in making the pills, he's the director of the anti-drug association…and they felt that his motive was to prevent more people from eating drugs, by scaring them with a few people's deaths. 

Hashizume scoffed at her once again,

but Reiko stared at him and Imaizumi unflinchingly and asked to bring in A-san for an interrogation. Imaizumi agreed, much to everyone's shock and Hashizume's distress. 

Kikuta had bento dinner with his senior who asked about Reiko, and commented that her flaw was that she tended to trust her instincts. He asked Kikuta if he liked her, or merely treated her as a supervisor. Kikuta hurriedly replied, "Just a higher up." Right(((:

Reiko saw Asakura talking to his wife on the phone, and when she went back home, she thought about calling her mum, but didn't. Next morning, the force prepared to take A-san in for questioning. Reiko and Extra Guy went into the house but were told by the mother and the daughter that he would be arriving home soon. Reiko turned to leave but Extra Guy asked the daughter if she used her parents' credit card before, to which the answer was no. When they left, A-san happened to walk home, and after a bit of a tug-of-war (Reiko: We would like you to come with us. A-san:But I'm a bit tired after working the night shift), A-san agreed to go with them. 

During the investigation, Reiko went from a soft approach to finally a hard one, asking him to explain about his interactions with the three victims. Kikuta's senior continued to investigate and found the boy that Katsumata had tipped off. A-san said that they had made a mistake, and that he had never played the GaChi game under the name of 'Cid' at all. He even gave them his phone to check. Reiko was then called out by Imaizumi, who dropped the bombshell that they just found out that A-san was overseas for the past week and that the GaChi game couldn't be logged in overseas….so it's definitely not A-san who's Cid. 

Reiko looked through the glass at A-san, who turned his head and looked at her (which was creepy because he couldn't see her. You know, those rooms where one side could see the other, but not vice-versa?)

-the end-

Wow, I didn't expect myself to write a full-length recap, but here you have it!((: 

It's definitely not a mystery genre, but a police one, and I don't mind, because police themed dramas are interesting (well, off the point here, but Hong Kong police dramas are awesomeee). I feel that I'm missing out a little on all that Strawberry Night references, and am thinking of checking out the TV Special. Not sure if I have time to do that though. 

Ratings are on the higher end of average to not bad to me, in the range of 16%. 

Heh heh, you know me. I search for potential romance plots whenever possible, and this means that I'm kinda really excited in an irrelevant manner about Kikuta and Reiko!(: Katsumata and Hashizume are just annoying people gosh. 

And I remain glad that I get to see Masumi-Chan act without his moustache and eh, wonderful hair. (His image in Nodame is classic oh my gosh.) 

<thoughtsramble

For recap of Episode 3: http://thoughtsramble.livejournal.com/93792.html