Sunny – Season 1 Episode 1 “He’s In Refrigerators” Recap & Review

He’s In Refrigerators

Episode 1 of Sunny begins with a robot killing a Japanese man, leaving him in a pool of his own blood. 

We then cut back and follow Suzie Sakamoto, a woman whose life is turned upside down when she finds out her husband and son have passed away. They were in a plane crash for Flight 405 and unfortunately, they’re not alone in trying to find their loved ones. We seem to be in the near-future where robots and humans live alongside one another. It’s not as advanced as something akin to Humans, but the little droids roaming around are a clue to this fact.

Anyway, Suzie has no love lost toward robots given one killed her mother in the past. Suzie is a newcomer when it comes to Japanese customs, and she’s uneasy over the rui-katsu, a tear-seeking ceremony. This basically lets loved ones grieve while “The Handsome Man” wipes away their tears. In order to do this, the man gets each of the loved ones to phone those who have passed away on the plane and listen to their voicemails.

Suzie is a little uneasy over this but eventually she does shed tears. However, the phone continues to ring rather than going to voicemail. Could it be that the pair are still alive? Or did something happen? Well, it may or may mot be connected to news stories confirming that Councillor Ito is dead, having suffered from a fall inside his home recently.

After shopping, Suzie heads home and finds a mysterious man waiting outside. His name is Yuki Tanaka and apparently he used to work with her husband. Well, he comes bearing a gift. And wouldn’t you know it, it just so happens to be a top-of-the-line robot called Sunny.

This is something he’s been working on for years and apparently he’s been lying to her all this time. She apparently was led to believe he worked in the freezer division but that was relocated to Myanmar 12 years back. Sunny though has been crafted specifically for Suzie and it’ll only respond to her instructions.

When Yuki leaves, she immediately turns it off and puts the robot into the closet. It doesn’t last long though as the robot continues to turn herself on but her jovial mood contrasts Suzie’s. Suzie has enough and decides she needs to see Yuki.

She shows up at his workplace right in the midst of a Christmas party… and finds the wrong man. This Yuki Tanaka is much younger and he points out, in his drunken state, how Masa (her husband) was a pretty intense and horrible boss.

Suzie clearly doesn’t know everything about her husband and after doing some digging, stumbles upon the room we saw at the start of the series. The blood-spattered floor seems to be hiding someone who died – could this be the Councillor who appeared on the news who died? This though, coupled with the reports that Masa is super intimidating, seems to hint that he may be abusive.

At the cocktail bar, Suzie gets talking to the barmaid about her dilemma and, in particular, how bots may not be wholly safe and reliable. She believes the councillor was killed by a bot, and points out how Suzie needs to turn them off completely to make sure they’re safe.

As we soon find out, Suzie is being monitored by someone, who keeps an eye on her. When Suzie heads home, she leaves with Sunny and drops the bot off by a bridge.

In bed, Suzie looks over pictures of the Councillor and finds the same red tyre marks on the ground. It seems to hint that the robot was responsible for this. Unfortunately, when she wakes up she finds Sunny is back. However, the robot does the familiar kiss hand gestures from Masa, and points out, once more, that it was programmed for her.

The Episode Review

Sunny sets things up nicely with an intriguing opening episode and a mystery that looks set to consume this first episode. Suzie’s distrust and dislike of robots, and thrusting her in to work alongside this bot, is a nice conflict that’s surely going to grow and evolve over the season.

Quite what Masa was working on remains a mystery but it’s clear that he’s holding more than a few secrets. Whether he created this robot to protect or hinder Suzie remains to be seen but I’m leaning toward the former.

Thankfully, two episodes were released today so we don’t have long to wait to find out what happens next! So far though, Sunny sets itself up as an intriguing mystery-thriller.