Terrace House: Opening New Doors came to the wildest, most explosive close you could imagine for a show so sweet-natured. It’s like the Karuizawa season of the Japanese reality TV mainstay waited until the verrry last chunk of episodes to give audiences a dose of American-TV-style tiffs and sex shenanigans. The sudden shift in priorities pushed Opening New Doors into borderline uncomfortable territory–and then came Masao Wada.

A 31-year-old bass player already famous for performing with the popular J-rock band Gesu no Kiwami Otome, Wada’s addition to the show in Episode 42 was like being thrown an anchor, grounding all Terrace House fans while a whirlwind of drama kicked up.

The truth is, Wada’s arrival could have gone either way. A bass player from a famous band known for scandal moving into the house? There’s another reality where Wada just upped the tension by being an extreme partier, a throwback to old rock and roll excess. His sudden appearance was at least shocking enough to cause a physical reaction in host Yoshimi Tokui.

From the moment Masao walked through the Terrace House doors, he was sweet, kind, and there to find love. Unlike the other two guys on the show at the time, Kaito and Aio, Masao was way more open. Within hours of moving into the house, Masao told Risako how beautiful she was and became smitten with her Kansai accent. Masao’s charms also worked on the hosts! Proud troll Ryota Yamasato called him his “avatar” on the show and the witty but reserved Azusa Babazono acknowledged her thirst for the bass player.

You want an example of how considerate Masao was as a roommate? After his snoring kept Aio and Kaito up, Masao spent Day 2 at Terrace House shopping for remedies. Talk about considerate! He then creepily told Risako that she’d been at his house before–and then revealed that he was really talking about her picture on the box of a corset he bought while on tour. He then tried the corset on over his shirt in front of everyone, much to Risako’s delight! He’s a superstar bass player, cooks a mean curry, knows how to poke fun at himself, and is a considerate roommate. Come on, this guy is great!

He was also romantic, giving viewers the most consistent string of sweetly entertaining dates since they courtship of Shion and Tsubasa. His first date with Risako came in Episode 44 when he took her to a waterfall, and then adorably negged himself in the selfie she took of the two of them.

He’s not wrong, though. I think Babazono would agree with me that Masao’s the first real Terrace House daddy.

That waterfall date delivered the kind of first-date flutter feels that was so common early on but was replaced by awkward moments like the whole Shohei/Seina thing. Thank god Masao was there, too, because then… the Minions Socks Incident happened.

What was the Minions Socks Incident? I’m going to attempt to sum up the Minions Socks Incident as clearly and linearly as I can, because it’s wild.

Risako bought Minions socks for her roommates Maya and Yui as well as Aio since he moved into the house at the same time as her. Also around this time, Risako and Aio started talking off-camera about cooking up a dating and rejection plot-line for the cameras. Also during this time, Aio and Yui got the impression that Risako only gave them Minions socks because they’re the only two people Risako trusts in the house. A date between Risako and Aio played out on camera as planned, but then something unexpected happened: Aio developed feelings for Yui. Instead of going through with the rejection plot, Aio told Risako that he had to call things off early because he wanted to ask Yui out. Risako’s response was, according to her, a joke about how she’s going to look undesirable. Then Aio saw Maya wearing a pair of Minions socks in the house and asked her about them. Maya told him that Risako gave them to her, and Aio responded by saying that Risako only gave socks to people she trusted. Maya’s like, “WTF?”

Okay.

At some point around this time, Yui and Aio hook up–like, hook up hook up. They do so off-camera and tell no one about it. On-camera, the two are still barely dating and Yui legit recoils from Aio’s touch. But off-camera, they’ve gone well past kissing.

So.

Risako goes out of town for a week (which Masao calls “devastating”) and this is when Yui drags Risako to Maya. Yui basically calls Risako deceitful. Later when Yui’s not around, Risako and Maya talk and realize that, actually, Yui’s been digging up misquoted grievances about her roommates in presumably an attempt to stir up conflict. That’s when Yui walks into the room, during this talk.

This was too! Much! Drama! For! Terrace! House!

All three girls hash it out, about who got Minions socks when and why and Yui dragging up old gossip and Risako scheming with Aio–they even bring Aio into the room. Even though Aio was an equal partner in all the plotting with Risako, he foists all the blame on her. He and Yui shame Risako for plotting off-camera even though both Aio and Yui are having an off-camera affair and lying about it to their roommates!

Finally.

All this comes to light over the next few days as Risako and Aio drop bombshells about what really’s been going on off-camera. Here’s Risako summing it allll up:

This is fully four episodes worth of drama, almost half of Part 6. It’s a rollercoaster, so complex that I could not sum it up more succinctly. And through all of that… there was Masao. That first long fight night occurred while Masao was away, so he had no idea what he was returning to.

But Masao was there for Risako when she needed someone the most. Masao–who talked like Risako had already told him all about her old storyline with Aio–gave her the support she needed, saying that he liked her and would be there for her. They went on a glass-making date, shared a meal, and decorated a Christmas tree together. That’s when Risako revealed how much Masao’s helped her through this whole mess.

Masao confessed his feelings to Risako, surprised her with a tub full of oranges, and kept the romantic settings coming (a holiday light display, a wharf). All of this was going on while Yui and Aio were continuing to “not date” and lie to everyone around them, indirectly messing with Risako’s head (if it’s any consolation, everyone owned up to their shitty behavior and apologized because this is still Terrace House).

It doesn’t really matter that Masao and Risako don’t have a happy ending. I mean sure, I would have loved for the season to end with these two getting together after all the drama, but the mutual respect, the genuine sweetness between Masao and Risako felt like enough. It was honestly the most Terrace House-y thing to come out of this last batch of episodes while everything around them crumbled into scandal. Through it all, even while she’s turning down Masao’s offer to be his girlfriend, Risako says she wouldn’t have been able to get through Terrace House without Masao. I agree with her.

Stream Terrace House: Opening New Doors on Netflix