Tetsu no Hone eps 4+5

Towards the end of ep 2, when Tokiwa Doken won the bid, I got really excited when Ogata proclaimed that their price was too low and Tokiwa Doken was basically ignoring profits. The boss of Ichitani-gumi then surmised that someone must have been backing them in order for them to be willing to take the project at a lost.

Here was Tokiwa Doken, proclaiming that they are clean and doing things above the law when in fact they are a front for someone else. I thought it would be just like politicians running an anti corruption campaign but using it get rid of opposition party members and rivals within their own party. I was enthused at the prospect of Tokiwa Doken and their anonymous backers being the true villains of this show.

Unfortunately, I was wrong and Tokiwa Doken were who they said they were. I understand the need for red herrings but in this case, the Tokiwa Doken red herring presented the possibility or a very layered story when in fact the story of Tetsu no hone turned up to be a much more straightforward one. Did I miss an obvious clue somewhere between the end of episode 2 and the ending where the suspicions of how Tokiwa Doken won the bid were cleared?

To say that I felt that the wind had been taken out of the sails is an understatement. I had at the end of episode two seen Tetsu no Hone for what it was not and paid the price for it. The question now is, why did the writer leave such a purposefully misleading ending for episode 2? Now that I know what Tetsu no Hone is, it is difficult for me to have an opinion because my expectations were completely wiped out.

If they had cleared out the Tokiwa Doken red herring in ep 3, I would not have minded the way the story went. Still, Tetsu no Hone will be remembered as the dorama that showed Koike Teppei could act and that is quiet an achievement.