history, huh?

we know from tkm that browning is not above cutting deals with with criminals to further the case he is trying to build:

not only that, but his team gave the butcher’s location to stuart knowing that it would likely result in nathan’s death. if nathan was the lynchpin of the criminal case they were pursuing, it seems pretty hard to believe they would disclose his location to a rival gang and risk losing him before they could take him to trial. it seems evident that they stood to gain something else from nathan’s death and stuart’s cooperation.

this is, after all, the trial browning describes as ‘the biggest case of [his] career’:

jean is surprised that browning is so interested in him as a witness - which is understandable considering that this is ultimately meant to be a trial to bring the butcher’s operation and his associates down. when they question jean and neil in TSC, the point browning pushes the most in their fake story is how the wesninski and moreau families knew each other:

during the interview, they seem to accept jean’s vague account of his parents’ arms dealing with little comment. but they try to ‘poke holes’ at the wesninski-moreau connection for four hours, as though they know there is more to it than what jean and neil are saying.

jean can’t really understand why his testimony is so important to them when it’s clearly neil they really want for a trial orbiting nathan wesninski. he says as much to browning in TGR when the FBI offer him witness protection and a new apartment:

browning knows that jean is the most important witness he currently has in bringing down the moriyama family, even if he can’t yet push him there. he knows that keeping jean safe is paramount, and keeping a close eye on him with cameras outside his apartment is the best way to do that and gather the further evidence they need. with the upcoming trial, jean’s recent disastrous interview, and the fallout of the ravens, it’s as though they suspect a member of the moriyama branch might try to visit him.

jean knows something is off, but he can’t turn down browning’s offer in his current circumstances:

i think this is going to ‘come back to haunt’ jean once he realises how deep he has gotten himself embroiled in the case to bring down the family to which he still feels his life to be tied. not only that, i think browning knows the only way out of this for jean is to testify against the moriyamas, which puts his life - and his friends’ lives - in danger.

as of the end of the TGR, laila hasn’t yet heard back from her father’s digging into the arson incident and the FBI’s involvement. i think there’s a good chance that the dermotts (who have connections in ‘the CIA, NSA, DHS…’) will find out about the sprawling mafia case that jean is implicated in before he tells laila, cat, and jeremy himself. i think his hand will be forced to confess to them and testify in court.

tetsuji’s disappearance also speaks volumes. if the moriyamas even slightly suspect that the FBI is on their trail, there’s a good chance they’re planning on throwing tetsuji and his crumbling team to the wolves.

if i’m right, then it’s not just neil’s and jean’s testimonies that browning needs. in tkm, neil promises lola that the moriyama’s riskiest asset will not betray them:

unlike jean and neil, kevin has no ties to any criminal activity outside of the moriyamas. in theory, there is no reason for the FBI to be interested in him at all. and in fact they can’t show any interest, not without laying their cards bare and risk losing all three of them. which would be to tip the moriyama family off and scatter their case.

my best guess is that they have to follow the moriyama’s bait of bringing tetsuji down to have any hopes of getting at the larger operation. i think the main problem is going to be getting kevin to testify - not only because he would be completely terrified to do so, but because, like he tells jeremy, he has ‘no reason to fight’ and no interest in ‘justice’. he doesn’t have the leverage that jean has of protecting his friends. if he were to testify, he would be doing it solely for the wrong that was done unto him, which is not something he has gotten even close to really confronting.