Golden Kamuy Season 4 Episode 2 Recap and Ending, Explained

In the second episode of ‘Golden Kamuy’ season 4 titled ‘Cocoon,’ Kadokura and Kirawus finally reunite with Ushiyama, who has managed to escape from his coffin. The former head jailer of Abashiri Prison soon finds Sekiya Waichirou‘s hideout and engages in a game of fate with the promise that Hijikita’s life will be saved regardless of whether he loses or wins. Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Golden Kamuy’ season 4 episode 2. SPOILERS BEFORE!

Golden Kamuy Season 4 Episode 2 Recap

Ushiyama manages to get out of his coffin despite his stupor from datura while Sekiya goes away. Chiyotarou is later found by Ushiyama. This young miner’s son is being bullied to eat grass moss by older children. They tie him to a tree and he promises Ushiyama to give him food if he helps.

Ushiyama follows Chiyotarou wherever he goes, while still in a datura-induced stupor. When Sekiya learns that he has escaped, he concludes that the datura will naturally not let him be his normal self for at least 12 more hours and even after that he won’t be able to recall the location of his hideout. Chiyotarou quickly realizes Ushiyama’s danger and decides that he must be eliminated.

Chiyotarou takes him along to the lake, and manages to get his foot into the hole in the ice. He hopes to drown there. Kirawus hides on the other side of the lake while Kadokura plans a deliberate blunder in negotiations with Sekiya to allow him to follow him back to his hideout. Even though things are going exactly as planned, Ushiyama emerges right in front Sekiya from a hole in a frozen lake.

Kadokura, Kirawus, and Kadokura are equally shocked to see Ushiyama in their midst as they attempt to figure out why he ended up in that lake. Sekiya, however, manages to escape believing that he has evaded capture. Kadokura, using information about cacoon farms, manages to track down the serial killer.

Season 4 Episode 2 of Golden Kamuy: How Does Hijikita and Kadokura Survive after Eating Poison?

Kadokura, Sekiya finally meet at the facility where the serial murderer has been testing cacoons. As always, the former head jailer invites them to a test of fate. They are facing each other while they rotate a rotating machine that has cacoons. Kadokura is told by Sekiya that half of them have been poisoned with potassium cyanide and strychnine. The other half are unadulterated. He continues to say that he is curious about the fates and motivations of people with strong wills.

Waichirou says that if Kadokura eats the poisoned cocoon, then he will inform Kadokura of where he had kept Hijikita. Sekiya can save Hijikita if Kadokura is indeed the one going to die. Although Kadokura knows that he always makes bad decisions in such situations and luck is never on his side, the guarantee of Hijikita’s safety in both scenarios is more than enough to convince him to participate in the dangerous game. Both of them end up eating one Cacoon, and Kadokura begins to sweat heavily and falls on the ground.

Sekiya claims that the poison kicked in after 10 minutes. This means that Sekiya must have consumed the cacoon laced wolfsbane. Sekiya follows through on his promise and immediately returns to the place where he buried Hijikita to save his own life. Surprised, Shinsengumi’s leader appears from his coffin, grabs Sekiya and hugs him.

Hijikita, who was a medicine seller as a child, deliberately consumed just the right amount laced with Wolfsbane. Kadokura in the other room picks another cacoon. By sheer luck, it turns to be the one laced fugu tetrodotoxin. Naturally, fugu and wolfsbane neutralize one another. This saves Kadokura’s life.

Is Sekiya Waichirou Dead? Are His religious dilemmas finally solved by his death?

After Hijikita finally emerges from his coffin, he attacks Sekiya’s neck with a butcher’s knife. He then grabs him by his collar and explains how he survived the serial killer’s trial of death and fate. Hijikita realizes that the cut to his throat is severe and could prove fatal, so Sekiya allows him to go outside in his awful condition. He realizes that his death is imminent as the serial killer falls onto the ice immediately he steps out of the facility.

A long time ago, Sekiya’s daughter was struck by lightning and died as they were just going out for a walk. Sekiya has been grappling with the fact that he somehow survived. He believed that God was not real. His trials were designed to help him find the answers to his religious problems. Sekiya, on the brink of death, was shocked to discover that Hijikita survived by removing poisoned cacoons from his body and eating the right amount to make it non-fatal.

Sekiya believes it to be a miracle that Kadokura emerges from the outside and ingests the neutralizing poison of wolfsbane. He sees his approaching death as God’s judgment as well and deduces that his existence can’t be doubted moments before he passes away. Sekiya Waichirou dies peacefully after he has finally found the answers to his questions throughout his life.

Continue reading: Watch Golden Kamuy Season 4 on Netflix Crunchyroll or Hulu.