Shogun Episode 8 has the shady Yabushige being given an impossible task as he tries to figure out which side to pick in Japan’s civil war.

Trust is a hard thing to come by in FX’s Shogun. Hiroyuki Sanada’s Lord Toranaga is fully aware of this, hence why he keeps his inner-circle small. He knows the vindictive Lord Ishido and the other Regents in Osaka have spies in his Edo camp to help them further their sinister grip on the Japanese throne.

One of the people that Toranaga detests most for this very reason is the Lord of Izu, Yabushige. Still, he keeps Yabushige around for the sake of unity, optics, and because most of Yabushige’s people will follow the Toranaga army into battle. As Episode 8, “The Abyss of Life,” confirms, Yabushige has become an indispensable tool and secret weapon in the upcoming battle for Japan’s heart and soul.

Shogun’s Toranaga Uses Yabushige as His Trojan Horse

Throughout the show, Yabushige played both sides of the equation. He convey to Ishido Toranaga’s plans, while he ratted out Ishido’s plans to Toranaga. He always waits to see where the power tips to before informing. That is why many consider Yabushige to be the equivalent of Game of Thrones’ Littlefinger in this feudal-era Japanese story. He worms his way into many people’s ears. He lies and tries to placate things, all while furthering his own ambition.

However, Yabushige has gotten stuck in the Edo party after he tried to keep up appearances and make it seem like he was part of Toranaga’s alliance. It left Ishido thinking he was a traitor who wanted to acquire more assets like Izu in Toranaga’s territory. Toranaga manipulated things, so this would happen, making it seem like Yabushige was more loyal to him. Little did Ishido know, it was out of Yabushige’s hands and that his minion was becoming entrapped in Toranaga’s own political web.

Toranaga maxes out this opportunity by ordering Yabushige to head to Osaka. Once Yabushige is in the palace, he will negotiate terms of surrender to hand Toranaga over after the Crimson Sky plan flopped. This can go two ways: first, Yabushige can try to curry favor with Ishido and get back in his good graces. Given Ishido has partnered up with the mother of the heir, Lady Ochiba, Yabushige may want to be part of that winning team.

Secondly, Ishido will stand up for himself. The fact that Yabushige is coming as an emissary will surely upset Ishido. He won’t tolerate excuses, failure and this diplomatic insult. As much as Yabushige is an ambassador who won’t mind jumping back into Ishido’s pocket, a frustrated Ishido will only see a weak warrior who let Nagakado kill Jozen and other Ishido loyalists. This is very much a checkmate. Yabushige may never understand the game and how he is being used as a Trojan horse. Not for violence, but for something else.

Shogun’s Yabushige Has a Secret Purpose

It doesn’t matter if Yabushige asserts himself or if he tries to betray Toranaga. Yabushige will be a distraction. This is what Toranaga needs more than anything: time. It is why he has been using Nagakado’s death to his advantage, as well as his half-brother, Saeki, allying with Ishido. Toranaga just wants everyone to think his crew is broken. It plays into why he also let Hiromatsu commit seppuku — he needs the illusion of disarray and civil war to permeate into the palace hallways. Yabushige going there and backstabbing him adds to that fervor.

As viewers would know by now, Toranaga is letting Yabushige rant about what he has allowed the soldier to see. It speaks to how cerebral a manipulator Toranaga is. Should he flip to Ishido’s team permanently, Yabushige won’t even know his smear and slander are all part of a scheme Toranaga wants to let happen. Once Ishido is caught arguing, pondering or actually physically overseeing Yabushige’s torturous interrogation to seek out the truth, Toranaga will have windows of opportunity. It’s hinted he has sex workers from the Willow World as spies in the palace.

Toranaga has also secret assassins to deploy. He is the black-ops version of a samurai, who has known how to move in stealth since the fights with Korea years back. Only he could engineer such a military strategy, where Yabushige inadvertently gets Ishido to be concerned with trivial matters and take his eye off the ball. Knowing Yabushige is a sniveling egotist who will profess and protest his innocence, and that Ishido is equally arrogant, this will play into Toranaga’s plans.

Toranaga has long been positioning these pawns on the chess board, which now finds him evolving his Crimson Sky plan. Rather than rush in for a fell swoop, he is now invited to Osaka. As Yabushige’s credibility gets questioned over all this, whether he self-destructs or not, the impassioned Yabushige will be the fuse to light the bomb. It has cost many lives, but Toranaga’s dream of removing corrupt politicians from around Yaechiyo (the true heir) and the throne is one step closer.

Shogun’s Yabushige Has Hidden Partners to Aid His Redemption

Toranaga instructed Mariko to accompany Yabushige as a translator. The leader knows she shares a storied history with Lady Ochiba, Yaechiyo’s mother and the hateful wife of the last ruler, the Taiko. Once the cunning Ochiba is distracted, that makes the job easier. Ochiba’s father was the ruler before the Taiko; a king who went too far and whom Mariko’s father, Akechi, murdered.

Given Mariko’s family had to die in retribution, there will be drama in that confrontation. En route to that, Mariko’s sense of duty, dedication and justice could rub off on Yabushige and get him to do the right thing. Seeing as John Blackthorne won’t let his beloved Mariko go alone, Yabushige will have another voice in his ear. Coincidentally, Blackthorne saved Yabushige from death once and tried to educate him on being more wholesome. This paves the way for Yabushige to repay that debt and remember the samurai code of old.

Yabushige does like Blackthorne, Mariko and Toranaga as people. But it’s his thirst for power and coin that skews his better judgment. That said, the true blue heroes of the story exude selflessness. While Toranaga is a sketchy, flawed and selfish character of his own making, Mariko and Blackthorne are pure and genuinely want what’s best for the land. They can help Yabushige formulate an objective opinion to pick between the lesser of two evils, effectively subverting James Clavell’s titular novel and the original TV series.

Inevitably, time is running out. Yabushige will have to gamble on which leader offers him a better chance of coming out of this alive. It leaves him in between a rock and a hard place as he heads to Osaka’s lair. Hopefully, his moral compass kicks in, so if he dies, at least he’ll die with honor. But if he plays the role Toranaga set out for him, once he lives, he will maintain his lifelong goal: running Izu as a paradise of food, drink and concubines. Yabushige won’t care about being Toranaga’s secret device, as long as it leads to survival. All he needs to do is calculate probabilities and finally pick a side in the impending civil war.