Bridges and buildings went up really fast too when you fed people into the grinder that was the construction industry in the late 1800s early 20th century. Then they discovered when you do things deliberately and with trained workers you can do both increasing productivity and increasing safety. Thats how we got to be…

They’re referring to the aerospace industry. They are most certainly not the only players.

I’m not sure the injury rate scales to the launch cadence in any meaningful way. It could scale to the number of employees, possibly, but if it scales to the cadence, that would imply they’re moving too fast to get the job done safely — which makes one wonder whether they are moving too fast to get the job done…

One can have a reduction of worker injuries while still having the launch cadence of SpaceX.

I think it’s a fever dream, because he’s holding Mariko’s cross in those scenes, but we know he leaves that in the water.

But that’s no excuse for allowing these injuries to occur, and it’s a possible sign that the company is launching too many rockets too quickly—or a corporate culture that doesn’t value safety.

I read them as a false flash-forward, a vision of what he’s ultimately letting go by accepting his place in Toranaga’s retinue.

We should be funding NASA, not paying SpaceX.

This is how you disrupt the industry and lower costs. It’s the same thing that happened at Tesla.

Yeah, but Yabushige is a sicko about death. He seems to have lots of weird ideas about it.

as with ep 3, i will once again shout out that this episode was written by Emily Yoshida, an AV Club alum from the site’s heyday

I thought we’d get more of a real battle than we did, but the more I thought about it, the more this finale felt appropriate, especially for the kind of schemer Toranaga is. Like Yabushige, I was expecting a great battle; like Toranaga, the show revealed that Mariko’s death was the true climactic action, and…

He appeared to realize that he had misjudged and  chosen the wrong side last episode.

Ishido was beheaded IRL after losing the battle of Sekigahara. he was captured by some villagers trying to run away 

Well, just that Yabushige had it right: Toronaga wanted to be shogun the whole time. So all his protestations that he didn’t were indeed just lies, and he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way. The “he has other sons” line seemed damn cold after Nagakado died... until Toronaga said the same thing this ep.

It’s odd to want more seasons of an adaptation of a book with no sequel. The episode ended so well with a sense of the surviving characters on the cusps of their next journeys. Toronaga with his new city and shogunate, Blackthorne in his new career as shipwright.

Oddly, I was just watching Dune 2... and both Paul and Toronaga... kinda the villains by the end?

After immediately hating and then quickly loving Yabushige, I was crestfallen at his outright villainy in the last ep, and I didn’t think they could bring him back. But his catfish-catching madness and his death poem... man, just one of the best characters in recent memory. They really nailed it, and as with much of…

He just sort of predicts behavior correctly in many cases by really getting to know the people involved. What do you think?

Exactly. He does not bend the wind to his will. He only studies it.

This was a very good finale. I loved the cliffside scene with Toranaga and Yabushige.