Ep 3: Okizari no Ai (Left behind love)
O.A. 19 Jul 05
Ratings: 12.1%
Senzaki and Kanna are at a loss on how to handle their relationship. Although Senzaki has feelings for Kanna and wants to regard her as his girlfriend, Kanna is unsure of their relationship due to being apart for 1 year at different places. However, Kanna decides that it is best to talk things over with Senzaki and leaves a voice message on his handphone but he's not sure how to respond to her.
The divers team head for training in a 40m pool where they have to exchange equipment underwater with their buddy. Ikezawa tells Shimokawa that he intends to do something different to train Senzaki and the latter has a hunch that something might happen. When Ikezawa and Senzaki reach the bottom of the pool, Ikezawa deliberately removes the oxygen pump and and empties his oxygen tank. As Senzaki is only left with 20% of oxygen, he would have to share this with Ikezawa and take regular breaks along the 10m markers so as to make it safely up to the surface. However, he panicks and does an emergency surfacing which causes him and Ikezawa to be hospitalised due to lack of oxygen. In actual fact, if Senzaki had remained calm, the two of them would have managed to surface safely. If he had not pulled Ikezawa with him during the emergency surfacing, they would not have been hospitalised.
Kanna meets Senzaki's colleagues at Ocean and hears from them about Senzaki's injury. Yoshioka asks Kanna to visit Senzaki at the hospital.
As a result of this incident, the HQ thinks that if Ikezawa and Senzaki cause any more trouble in future, they would have to be taken off Nagare but Katsuta defends them and says that Ikezawa did nothing wrong to test Senzaki during training.
Ikezawa's wife, Naoko who is 8 months pregnant comes to visit him and calls him "Ma-kun" which makes him blush. Senzaki is stunned by this and tries to stiffle his giggles at the thought of Ikezawa's nickname. When returning to his ward after seeing the doctor, he sees Kanna who has come to visit him. Kanna says that they should start from as friends again. Although Senzaki is disappointed, he agrees to her suggestion and feels that it is better than Kanna avoiding him. Senzaki also happens to see Naoko crying outside the ward because she's worried for Ikezawa.
Ikezawa and Senzaki return to Nagare after a few days and Katsuta reminds them that he would not interfere in their training as long as there's no casualties. At night, the two meet in the bathroom and Ikezawa makes Senzaki swear not to tell the others about his nickname.
On the off day for the Nagare crew, Senzaki and Kanna go for a date at the aquarium while Shimokawa comes to his ex-wife's shop to pick up his daughter, Yui and plans to go to the amusement park with her. Ikezawa goes home to spend time with Naoko and suddenly feels that his eyesight is distorted but he does not tell Naoko.
However, the holiday is disrupted due to a urgent mission to save a ship which has hit the rocks. As such, the crew is recalled.
Shimokawa has no choice but to let Yui take the train home alone and can only look helplessly at her disappointed face. Ikezawa cannot eat lunch with Naoko and leaves her behind, looking very worried. While Senzaki and Kanna are kissing, his handphone rings and he has to return to Nagare.
Kanna is unable to accept his sudden departure and insists on finding out the reason. She even suspects that he is two-timing her but Senzaki tells her that he has to rush back for a mission. He says that this will happen very often if they are to continue seeing each other which makes Kanna thoughtful about whether she can bear this...
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The action scene for this episode is the training scene which can keep you at the edge of your seat. Well, although Ikezawa's action seemed like a prank initially, when you finally see why he is doing this, I have to applaud him for his thinking. Yes, there is a chance that you might have to share the oxygen supply with your buddy in case something happens to the oxygen tank. Being able to keep calm underwater is a prerequisite to keeping yourself alive despite the circumstances. It's clear that Senzaki still has a long way to go and he should be able to learn a lot from Ikezawa. However, seeing Ikezawa having some problems with his vision, this is a sign that something is wrong with his body and his career might be prematurely ended.
The highlight this episode is more on the emotional aspect as compared to the earlier episodes which focus more on action. Being left behind because your husband/father/boyfriend is recalled...I think I can see how upset their family members feel. However, it's a tough choice and extremely difficult to balance work with family so the anguish really gets to you.
Ratings-wise, this is going on a downhill ride but I guess it should stablise around the 12-14% mark by mid-season. However, the point now is to keep the plot engaging or else it might just fall below the 10% mark despite the massive budget for this drama. Personally, I think action works better for Umizaru so they can do more about that rather than focusing on the emotional aspect.
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