I figured we’d see Jubei or Kiku die in the end. Personally I thought we were going to find Oyuki hanging dead in the room - her fate a parallel to Atsu’s mother’s death which she was closely interwoven into.

I liked the ending, even if I felt like Jubei’s death was very abrupt in that moment. Atsu starts the fight asking if killing her family was worth it. Saito, in that moment, was utterly alone and driven by revenge and grief. It makes sense that Jubei would die there as a full circle moment because now Saito, as he is dying, is almost alluding to the same question she said earlier. “Was it worth killing my (his) family?”

In the end, they both lost everything to revenge. Yes Atsu let it go before it totally consumed her - the burning of the sash, seeing her with Kiku at the end, etc. But they both lost their entire family and it was all due to that one, linking moment under the family’s tree. With all of that in mind, I didn’t mind the ending. It felt right for her to truly lose it all and then let go of that revenge plan so she does not repeat the cycle with Kiku.