There’s Been a Shift is the seventh episode of the Sunny Apple+ series.
Synopsis[]
Mixxy is sucker-punched by the realities of her friendship with Suzie. Himé confronts Jin.
Summary[]
Councilor Ito performs his daily exercise routine and, part way through, watches a newscast of himself delivering a speech about curbing the local yakuza population. As Ito walks up his stairway, he asks his homebot Hideki to prepare his shower and make some pancakes. A person in black clothing pushes Hideki onto Ito, causing him to fall down the stairs and break his neck upon hitting the floor. The person then erases Hideki's memories and leaves while Hideki prepares some pancakes.
Laying on her bed alongside Mixxy with Sunny standing unpowered beside it, Suzie wakes up and looks at her old photos of Masa and Zen. Immediately, Suzie tries to talk to Sunny and awaken her, but to no avail. Because Mixxy had to go to work and was going to wear the same set of clothes she wore the day before, Suzie lent her some clothing to wear. As Mixxy puts on the clothing, Suzie again tries to awaken, and after shaking Sunny, she restarts under rest mode. Alerted by this, Suzie calls over Mixxy to tell her what had happened and suggests they awaken Sunny, but Mixxy admonishes it, claiming they don't know what the Yakuza did to her. Mixxy insists that Suzie awaken Sunny until she gets back and leaves.
Laying in bed with a bottle of liquor, Suzie decides to wake Sunny, but when she does, Sunny awakens and acts coldly toward her. Their interaction is brief since Sunny wants to watch TV. In the living room, Sunny watches a comedy show, and as she watches this, Suzie tries to talk to Sunny, but she continues to act coldly toward her, not wanting to talk at all. Getting nowhere with her conversation, Suzie was getting hungry, and when Sunny didn't offer to make her anything, she left to make something herself.
Meanwhile, in prison, Noriko sits at a table with three other people playing Shogi against Yoko. She wins the game against her, and their table is informed that it's time for their virtual visits. Noriko decides to call Suzie and catches her as she eats snack foods. Hence, Noriko suggests that Suzie visit her house and get the takikomi gohan in her freezer. Their conversation then shifts to the real reason why Noriko contacted her, which was to speak to Sunny. Hearing Noriko's voice, Sunny agrees to speak to Noriko. Suzie then transfers Noriko to Sunny, and the two gleefully talk with each other. While Sunny talks to Noriko, Suzie looks through old family photos.
Suzie contacts someone named Dee, whose daughter answers a voicemail message. When Suzie leaves a message for Dee, Mixxy walks in on her as Suzie apologizes to Dee for being a bad friend. Amid this, Suzie realizes Mixxy is there, and a visibly upset Mixxy informs Suzie that she was fired. Apathetically, Suzie relays her remorse to her and offers Mixxy a drink, escalating into an argument between them about their relationship. Soon, Sunny arrives and asks that they tone down their voices, making Mixxy even more emotional than before, and disparages Suzie for liking a homebot more than a person. This causes Sunny to attack Mixxy, and Suzie makes Sunny go to sleep, leaving the two in complete shock from what had occurred.
Elsewhere, Hime stands beside the body of her deceased father and comments that he couldn't hold off dying for a couple of days. A female worker approaches Hime and tells her that her father died in a quick, painless way and that he wasn't alone either. Curious to know who it was, Hime asks and learns it was his nephew. After her father is wheeled away, Hime contacts Tetsu and, upon learning something from him, claims she'll be right over.
Afterward, Hime visits the Yakuza base where the mob bosses and 2nd in command, Jin. Hime accuses Jin of murdering her father, the boss, while visiting him in the hospital. However, Jin claims that the boss wanted to see him and give him his blessing so that he could become his successor. Pulling out her knife, Hime claims that Jin killed her father because she was getting close to reaching her goal. However, Jin claims that it's ironic she'd use a knife against her when she could use his homebot to kill him. From there, Jin claims that her father appointed him as the new boss to keep the order. On the other hand, Hime argues that the house isn't in order and is crumbling. She further claims that she's on the cusp of a breakthrough that'd help them all, but Jin claims that's why they're there... to vote on the successor.
Suzie and Mixxy wheeled a bagged Sunny on a trolly to the electronics store, where they talked to the owner's daughter to run diagnostics on Sunny. Nothing seems out of the ordinary about her. Still, they learn Sunny has a preinstalled tracker on Suzie, Noriko, and an illusive third person at an apartment building by a museum. Once Mixxy mentions "they", the owner's daughter demands to know who "they" are, and Suzie reveals that it's the Yakuza. The owner's daughter then asks them to leave, but not before performing Suzie's request to add the tracker locations to Suzie's device.
At the prison, Noriko learns from Yoko that there used to be a cool gal in her group named Rei, who was later transferred to Cell Block C for safety purposes. The reason behind this was that it was discovered that she got arrested on purpose, which didn't feel right with all of the other prisoners.
In Suzie's house, Sunny is put to sleep in front of the TV as it plays the psychedelic video. As Suzie tries to search for the tracker, Mixxy holds her device to see if she can locate it. The device receives a message from Dee that says they're no longer friends and never to contact her again. Suzie then figured out that the tracking device on her was her wedding ring.
From there, Suzie reconciles with Mixxy, and they decide to locate the person who the mystery third person is. Before they leave, Suzie puts her wedding ring inside Sunny's storage department, and as Suzie and Mixxy leave, one of Hime's cohorts reports this to Hime, who orders him to tail them. Hime looks over an old photo album featuring pictures of her father and her as Tetsu talks to her about what they'll do now, now that Jin is the boss. Believing that Tetsu favors Jin, Hime asks Jin to leave and say hi to his wife for her, but Tetsu tells Hime that he'd do anything for him, and Hime then asks Tetsu to fetch his gun.
On Suzie and Mixxy's side, they reach the apartment complex, where they try to locate the apartment ending in 8, which has the person they're searching for. However, their search ends cold. Taking the elevator, Mixxy sees a button for the basement laundry and presses it. There, they find Yuki Tanaka, the man who brought her Sunny. He claims they need to talk.
Back at her home, Sunny awakens.
Characters[]
- Takao Ito
- Hideki
- Hime
- Sunny
- Suzie Sakamoto
- Masa Sakamoto (Photo)
- Zen Sakamoto (Photo)
- Mixxy
- Noriko Sakamoto
- Yoko
- Dee (Mentioned)
- Tetsu
- Jin
- Rei (Mentioned)
- Yuki Tanaka
Episode Images[]
