Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you know where to look, Netflix can be a treasure trove of compelling and addicting shows you’d never see on traditional television. One of the streaming service’s latest partnered international acquisitions, Re:Mind, certainly falls into that category. Created in partnership with Netflix and TX Tokyo and starring the members of the J-pop group Keyakizaka 46, the first episode of Re:Mind starts with 12 high school girls bound to a dining room table with silk bags on their heads. They have no idea how they got there or why they’re there, but they have more than enough secrets to keep them busy as they try to figure it out.
Though the acting can range from compelling to campy, overall Re:Mind stands as a good psychological thriller. Instead of crazy kills and gore, the series focuses on exposing the many secrets between these characters, and from the first episode, it’s hard not to get sucked into these women’s drama and guilt about the treatment of their friend Miho. The show is a fun and often compelling one, but oh jeez, that ending is a headache. Who was behind the plot to tie up these women? Where did these hostages disappear to? And what’s the deal with the explosion at the end? Here’s your guide to what may have happened, thanks in large part to one dedicated Reddit sleuth. Spoilers ahead.
Who set up the room trap?
Almost everything from this point on was revealed in Re:Mind‘s next to last episode, “Episode 12.” At some point, someone financed and built the dining room trap, kidnapped 12 high schoolers, and locked them into fancy chairs. That’s basically the central premise of the show. By the series’ end, we really only know of one person who was definitely responsible for this horror — Kage (Yuka Kasayama).
Kage reveals that she is the secret older sister of Miho (Miho Watanabe), the girl who disappeared three months before the dining room trap. During her sinister final monologue, our hero Kumi (Kumi Sasaki) asks if the disappeared Miho’s dad helped Kage build the trap. Kage denies it, but admits she did ask him for money to help find Miho and that she actually used that money to build the trap. So if Kage was the mastermind and Miho’s dad was the unknowing financier, who was the brawn?
That was likely Mr. Hayashi, theses women’s crazed former teacher. Mr. Hayashi is the only adult character who seems to know about the trap and have sinister intentions. At one point, he even plans on killing one of the girls. However, he later changes his mind, deciding that these girls are repentant enough. When asked if Mr. Hayashi was her accomplice, Kage neither confirms nor denies it, but based on the fact he’s the only character we see who could physically kidnap and transport 12 young women, his grudge against his former students, and the fact that he veered from his “original plan,” it seems like he’s the most likely person to be Kage’s muscle.
Why did Kage capture her friends and classmates?
It’s all about Miho. Before we get into motive, it’s worthwhile to address Miho’s connection to all of this. All 12 of these women were responsible for bullying Miho at one point, including her best friend Yumi. After being bullied, Miho disappeared, which is when Kage decides to build her elaborate torture chamber to shame her former friends. Kage may be a crazy person.
As Kage reveals during the final episode, her original plan was to pressure everyone into remembering what they did to Miho to make her life terrible. In effect, she wanted to make them feel scared and guilty about how they treated her little sister. However, in the middle of the trap, the young women come to believe that Miho has committed suicide, which changes Kage’s plans. After learning about Miho’s death, she now wants to kill all of the girls and herself.
Is Miho really dead?
It seems like that’s a no. While revealing her nefarious plan to Kumi and sharing that she’s Miho’s unknown sister, Kage shows Yumi a picture of herself and her Miho when they were little girls. According to Kage, this photo was given to them by their father, and she’s never let it out of her sight. After she’s through monologuing, Yumi shows Kage a text she received during the brief time when they had WiFi; the message shows the same photo on a windowsill. Because of this strategic photo, it’s possible that Miho is actually still alive.
Though Yumi begs Kage to let her go and tries to convince her that the possibly alive Miho wouldn’t want them all to die, Kage is too crazed at this point to fully listen to reason. Kage and Yumi start crying, and Yumi repeats the phrase “I’m sorry” over and over again. It’s implied that she isn’t sorry for capturing her friends but for never being able to play on the beach with Miho like she promised.
Did Kage kill the other girls?
It doesn’t seem like it. At one point Kage mentions that the others are still alive before ominously adding “for the moment.”
How did all of the other girls disappear so quickly?
Honestly, I have no idea. Convenient plot device?
Where are is the dining room trap?
Based on Yumi’s comments about a brief spot of WiFi, a few outside noises, some key revelations from Mr. Hayashi, and the splash of water that appears toward the end of the episode, it seems as if the dining room trap happens on a boat.
What was with the explosion and black out at the end?
This is perhaps the saddest part of this whole series. After realizing that the friend and sister they love so dearly may actually be alive and that all of this torture was really for nothing, it’s implied that the boat crashes. The overly perfect beach scene at the end likewise implies all of the girls have died, unless Netflix and TV Tokyo are up for a Season 2.
What happens in the bonus episode?
“Special Episode – Re:Wind” takes place a year and a half before the trap and follows what a day-in-the-life for these high schoolers used to look like.
