The Drops of God

Marie's dad opening the bottle and finding Shizuku was exactly right. Not a single mistake. That moment where the skeptical old man just goes quiet and stares was better than any of the sniffing scenes

the barrel roll at the end sent me. these grown men chasing counterfeiters with a harvesting machine and wine barrels is the dumbest most fun thing this show has done

Yutaka feeding little Shizuku wine sorbet at dinner to build his palate before he could even read. That reveal reframed the whole show for me. The man was awful and also he was giving his son the only gift he knew how to give

Shizuku sniffing the whole vintage out of a sealed bottle is where I draw the line man. Thirty percent fakes and he nails every one. Issei doing the year-by-year weather memory thing was the actually believable part

So we get a full side quest one episode before the finale and the Eighth Apostle is still just hanging there. I liked the brothers cooperating but the clock is ticking and I'm getting nervous about how this wraps

I keep going back and forth on whether Yutaka was a genius or just a mess. Shizuku thinks the contest was rigged for Issei but Issei thinks the whole thing was about Shizuku. Maybe the old man was just playing chess with both of them

The airport scene was hilarious. These "wine thugs" out here catching hands from a blonde stranger in a van. And then Sarah begging them to save her family completely flipped the tone. This show refuses to stay in one lane

Issei being Yutaka's biological son too completely reframes every single episode so far. Dude really spent his whole life thinking he was the spare. The hug with Loulan hit way harder than I expected from this show

The wine mafia at the airport was so goofy. Blonde lady flying-kicks a thug in a suit and the boys just ride away in a white van. This show went from refined tasting rooms to some Hong Kong action flick real quick. I was laughing but not in a bad way

The half-brother reveal hit me like a truck. I knew Yutaka was a piece of work but pitting his own two boys against each other in a wine contest for his estate? That's next level cruel. Issei breaking down and hugging Loulan asking why he wasn't loved enough wrecked me

That poetic sequence when Issei broadcast the 8th Apostle description gave me chills. The barefoot runner in the fields collapsing then smelling the earth and finding the pink flower. Yutaka knew how to write wine descriptions like nobody else. No wonder Shizuku got his fire back

I keep thinking about Shizuku saying he never wanted to beat Issei. He just wanted to talk to his dad through the wine. And then he hears that same dad describing the 8th Apostle on TV and suddenly he's crumpling newspapers and shouting. That rage is so familiar. That's grief riding a boy hard

Nadia's dad real quick to call all Japanese people enemies but then he's all buddy-buddy once Shizuku saves his forest. The environmental subplot was a bit much for a wine show if you ask me. Still the Angkor Wat vision when Shizuku tasted his wine was gorgeous

Issei taking this one felt right. Amon-Ra was sentimental but Sine Qua Non actually answered the riddle about human will over nature. Shizuku's got fight left in him though that bar scene with the Amon-Ra bottle almost got me

That fire rescue sequence had no business being that tense. Shizuku sniffing out the cedar like some wine-flavored bloodhound had me laughing but also genuinely nervous they'd lose the whole forest. The payoff at the old vineyard made it worth it

The imaginary wine glass while sniffing out the arsonists is peak Shizuku. This guy treats crime fighting like a tasting note and I am completely here for it.

Shizuku losing to Tomine hurt more than I expected. But that bar scene with Miyabi going back to grab the Amon-Ra for him? That's the real win of the episode. She's been carrying this whole competition for him emotionally.

For all the melodrama of this series, and this episode in particular, it never quite got the passion for wine into me like I think they were going for. Maybe one of the live action versions will pull that off.

Looks like we might get a second season after a break or so?

Not sure where things are going from here with the gun toting mooks.