Beki returns as danger reaches Nogi's home
Nogoon Beki is alive. VIVANT's episode 22, broadcast on TBS on October 25, revealed that the former Tent leader survived being shot by his son, Yusuke Nogi, in the first season's finale. Played by Koji Yakusho, Beki is recovering in his birthplace of Okuizumo, Shimane Prefecture, alongside Batlaca and Piyo, who also survived the shooting.
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The revelation answers a mystery dating back to episode 10 of the drama, which first aired in July 2023. Public security officer Nozaki, played by Hiroshi Abe, and others helped keep the three men alive. Beki's return also gives Nogi a living connection to events surrounding Jamin, the girl now being targeted by the multinational private intelligence organisation Shinsi.
Episode 22 ends with a more immediate emergency. After Nogi's team rescues its captured colleagues overseas, Shinsi turns its attention to his home in Japan. Han Linshin threatens to begin killing people unless Nogi appears within five minutes, forcing him to choose between protecting his secret identity and reaching the people he loves.
The following account contains spoilers through episode 22. Episode 23 is scheduled for November 1 at 9 p.m., with the finale following on November 8.
What happened after the shooting?
Beki is Nogi's biological father, from whom he was separated as a child. His apparent death brought the first season's conflict between family loyalty and duty to a painful conclusion. Nogi, played by Masato Sakai, belongs to the secret intelligence unit Beppan, while his father led the international terrorist organisation Tent.
Near the end of that season, Beki dissolved Tent and was taken to Japan. After escaping custody with help from Shinjo, he sought to kill Uehara, a former superior who had abandoned him. Nogi intervened, shooting Beki and his close associates Batlaca and Piyo.
Episode 22 reveals that all three lived. Their recovery in Okuizumo replaces the apparent finality of the shooting with a continuing story: Beki can still explain decisions and events that Nogi and his allies are struggling to understand.
Batlaca is played by Yasufumi Hayashi and Piyo by Mitsuo Yoshihara. Their presence beside Beki matters because the survival revelation extends to the group Nogi shot, rather than to his father alone.
The clues left in the first season
Nogi's shooting skills had already given viewers a reason to question whether Beki was dead. The character can fire accurately enough to avoid vital organs, making survival a possibility within the drama's established action.
A conversation between Nogi and Nokoru after the shooting supplied another clue. It included a classical saying about heaven treating people fairly and helping those who act with virtue, followed by a remark about postponing an offering of flowers. In the context of an apparent death, delaying a memorial gesture left room for doubt.
Episode 22 finally resolves that uncertainty through Nokoru, played by Kazunari Ninomiya, who tells the others that Beki remains alive. The revelation gives a concrete answer to suspicions that began after the first season's ending.
Nozaki's involvement also binds the old mystery to the current crisis. The officer connected to Beki's survival is now in Shinsi's hands and has disclosed Jamin's location, placing him at the centre of both a rescue from the past and a threat in the present.
Why Jamin's identity matters
Jamin, played by Sae Homma, is the focus of Shinsi's pursuit. Episode 22 establishes that she is not the biological daughter of Adiel, the man associated with her care who died in the drama's opening episode.
The larger question concerns Prisha, the daughter of nuclear fusion researcher Elisha Mammadov, who is being held by information broker Tairan. Nuclear fusion is the process of joining light atomic nuclei to release energy. Within the story, the researcher's captivity connects a scientific mystery with the search for a child.
Prisha was two when Beki and a young Adiel took her away from Tairan. Jamin's possible identity as Prisha would connect her directly to that earlier intervention. Episode 22 leaves their identity unresolved, even as it confirms that Adiel was not Jamin's biological father.
Adiel and Beki knew what happened during that earlier period. With Adiel dead, Beki's survival restores someone who can explain why the child was taken away and what Adiel subsequently protected. This is why the return carries weight beyond the surprise of seeing a familiar character again.
A quiet scene in Okuizumo
Beki's return is shown through a scene of recovery rather than another confrontation. In Okuizumo, he reads about Noah's Ark, the biblical story in which Noah builds a vessel to preserve his family and animals during a great flood.
The drama presents the subject as an interest Beki developed during his university years. He encourages Batlaca and Piyo to read about it too, mentioning the different theories surrounding the story.
The scene places Beki in a quieter setting while the other characters face kidnappings, armed operations and an escalating threat in Tokyo. His reading supplies another detail for viewers to consider as the drama prepares to explain his past.
A newly released promotional visual also places Beki at the centre of attention. It shows him staring intently ahead, with a large number two marking the two episodes remaining before the conclusion.
The rescue overseas leaves Nozaki behind
Nogi and Nokoru succeed in rescuing Kurozu, played by Tori Matsuzaka, and the other captured Beppan members from Shinsi. Their escape from Golbad resolves a major operational objective of the second season, but the danger spreads to people outside the rescued group.
Chinggis is detained by Golbad police before his status as a diplomat from the Republic of Balka secures his release. He then follows coordinates sent to him by email to the prison holding Nozaki and Drum.
Drum has attempted to escape in order to help Jamin. Ryu shoots him, leaving him critically injured, and orders that he be buried alive. Chinggis eventually rescues Drum, who passes on information about Nozaki's situation to Nogi's group.
Nozaki remains captive. His disclosure that Jamin is staying at Nogi's home gives Shinsi a precise destination in Japan and turns the overseas rescue into a race to protect her and Yuzuki Kaoru.
Shinsi brings the confrontation to Japan
Nogi returns to Japan with Nokoru and Chinggis to reach Jamin and Kaoru, played by Fumi Nikaido. The pair are sleeping at his house, unaware of the immediate danger approaching them.
Nokoru and Chinggis act inside the property while Nogi directs the operation from a nearby van. Keeping him out of view protects a secret central to his relationship with Kaoru: his membership in Beppan.
Shinsi then overturns the apparent rescue. A sniper wipes out the Special Operations Group watching the residence and uses an infrared scope to target Chinggis and the others. The armed protection around the house collapses just as Nogi's allies appear close to securing the people inside.
Han Linshin, played by Kyoko Miyashita, issues the ultimatum that ends the episode. Speaking to Nogi while he directs the operation nearby, the Shinsi figure gives him a deadline:
If you don't come within five minutes, I'll kill one person every minute.
The threat compresses Nogi's choices into minutes. Remaining concealed leaves his allies exposed, while appearing in person risks capture and the loss of the identity he has maintained around Kaoru.
Nogi asks to go
Nogi turns to Commander Sakurai, played by Midori Kimura, for permission to intervene. His response to Han's demand is brief:
Please let me go.
Sakurai warns him that Kaoru will learn his true identity if he goes. She also tells him that Shinsi will kill everyone except Jamin, describing Kaoru as facing particular danger. The warning makes clear why Jamin's value to Shinsi offers no protection to the people around her.
Sakurai ultimately orders Nogi to go. Episode 22 ends at that decision, leaving the confrontation at the house for the remaining episodes.
The ending brings the drama's central conflict into one place. Nogi's work requires secrecy, yet protecting Kaoru now requires an action that could expose him. Beki's return offers answers about his family just as the operation at home threatens another intimate part of his life.
What episode 23 is set to reveal
Episode 23 is scheduled to uncover a truth from Beki's past and the secret Adiel protected before his death. The preview connects those revelations to Nozaki's betrayal and the kidnapping of Kurozu and the other Beppan members.
Those connections give the next episode two linked tasks: explaining the older events surrounding Beki and Adiel, and showing how they feed into the present struggle with Shinsi. Jamin sits at the meeting point of those stories because of her relationship with Adiel and her possible connection to Prisha.
The schedule places the remaining developments close together:
- July 2023: VIVANT's first season begins, later ending with Nogi shooting Beki, Batlaca and Piyo in episode 10.
- October 25: Episode 22 reveals that all three survived and ends with Han's threat against the people at Nogi's home.
- November 1, 9 p.m.: Episode 23 is scheduled to reveal more about Beki's past and Adiel's secret.
- November 8, 7 p.m.: A special programme is scheduled before the finale.
- November 8: Episode 24 is scheduled to conclude the season.
The series began with an expansive international setting, including about two and a half months of filming in Mongolia across a reported travel distance of 1,000 kilometres. Its closing stretch now draws those far reaching operations into a more concentrated struggle over one child, one family and the secrets connecting them.
Key Points
- Beki survived Nogi's shooting and is recovering in Okuizumo with Batlaca and Piyo.
- Nozaki and others helped keep the three men alive.
- Jamin is not Adiel's biological daughter; whether she is Prisha remains unresolved.
- Nogi's team rescues the captured Beppan members, while Chinggis saves the critically injured Drum.
- Han threatens to kill one person every minute unless Nogi appears within five minutes.
- Episode 23 is scheduled for November 1, followed by the finale on November 8.
