Painless (2015) Episode 4

The Eye for Signs. That is the translated meaning of Mieru Me of the title. This episode really focused on some background information on Dr. Takashima who turns out to be a counselor/therapist. Plus we got to learn all about her stalker. Man has some severe issue. (For cast and synopsis information see Episode 1)

---

Episode 4
Aired October 24, 2015
Tameyori Eisuke is asked by Detective Hayase Junichiro (Atsushi Ito) to treat his “criminal intent” disease. Unfortunately, Tameyori doesn’t believe the symptoms can be corrected. Dr. Tameyori suggests trying spiritual advice. Of course,Hayase doesn’t believe that he is incurable.

A new case comes to Detective Hayase. The victim is Ryo Nonomura (Okuno Eita), a convenience store clerk. His head was beaten in brutally with a stone. Dr. Takashima Nami-ko (Anna Ishibashi) knows the victim as she saw him last night. She is surprised at the news of the murder and even more surprised when she receives pictures via text message from Sada Yozo (Kato Toranosuke) with a message that “he deserved what he got”. Nonomura was the friendly clerk at the convenience store and always kidded around with Dr. Takashima. This causes Dr. Takashima to become very frightened.

We get a flashback of 2 years ago when Sada and Nami-ko were dating during the time she was in charge of the counseling of a girl named. Ai and it was through Sada’s suggestion to Nami-ko that Ai began to respond to treatment. However, Sada gradually starts showing an extreme possessiveness and eventually becomes violent. This leads to their relationship breakup.

Meanwhile, Dr. Shirakami witnesses a commotion at the hospital with Satomi and decides to review her medical records and also visits Satomi, hoping that she will, in the future, also text message him when she contacts Dr. Takashima.

My Thoughts
I think everyone watching this will wonder as I did “Why doesn’t Dr. Takashima contact the police about her ex-boyfriend?” It really makes no sense as she can no way ‘take care of it herself’ and she is endangering not only herself but the other people around her. As we see at the end, just because Dr. Tameyori spoke to her, he is now being targeted by Sada! The man is crazy and he is definitely not someone she can take care of herself.

The episode didn’t focus too much on the case which turned out to be not who we expected but really spent time on Dr. Takashima and her interactions with not only Satomi but Ibara. Am I the only one who thinks Ibara just might have a secret crush on Dr. Takashima? At first I thought it might be Satomi but there is something about the way he is stalking her just as much as Sada to the point where HE even knows that Sada is stalking her. I’m looking forward to next week as Sada has now signed up as a patient at Dr. Tameyori’s clinic….definitely will be interesting. In addition, the mystery of Satomi and the connection to the family murder that Detective Hayase has now bombarded into each other as he has found the picture that Satomi drew which mirrors how the family was found.

Side Note: I am on a roll! I really do like this drama. Not only for Nishijima Hidetoshi but also for Ito Atsushi. This is the 4th collaboration of these two actors together. I’m really liking these two together!!