Burn The House Down – J-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

Episode 2

Episode 2 of Burn The House Down starts with Shizuka going back home after being kicked out of the job. She recalls how her mother was framed and thinks about how she can no longer avenge what happened to her family. Shizuka tells Yuzu about what had happened and refuses to talk to her sister about it.

She goes through Makiko’s social media profile and goes to the location she will be at the following day. Meanwhile, Yuzu visits Satsuki in the hospital. Satsuki is trying to recall how she and Osamu (Mr Mitarai) had gotten divorced. Yuzu distracts Satsuki to stop her from recalling the night of the fire.

She recalls how Shizuka took on so many responsibilities to fill in for their mother who was not feeling like herself after the fire. At the same time, Shizuka tries to muster up the courage to try and talk to Makiko but fails to do so. She gets back home tired as Yuzu watches her sleep.

Yuzu recalls how her sister was left to take care of everything after their family was broken by Makiko. The next day, Makiko is giving an interview where she lies about how she had the perfect household and how she always cleans around her house when things get tough for her.

Shinji’s friends tease him for having the perfect mother but he tells his friend Nanami that his house was far from perfect. Shinji asks Nanami for some advice about the girl he was talking to and how she had stopped responding to his messages all of a sudden.

Nanami asks if Shinji had feelings for her and the latter claims that he did want to get to know her better. The girl texts Shinji back, asking to meet up in person for coffee. As it turns out, the girl is Yuzu. Shinji recalls how they had met once two or three months ago.

A flashback shows Shinji seeing Yuzu at a social gathering where he had gotten drunk and started spilling secrets about his family to her. Shinji tells Yuzu that his family was all a lie. Present-day Yuzu tries to get Shinji drunk again in order for him to spill more secrets about his family.

Shinji confuses Yuzu’s ploy to be her concern and starts badmouthing her mother – Makiko. That night, Yuzu gets back home and tells her sister all about finding out Makiko’s secret. The next day, Makiko asks the journalist of her interview to redirect the questions about her private life and talk about her modelling career instead.

The interviewer claims that Makiko’s fans were not very interested in her modelling career and wanted to know more details about her personal life. With Shizuka gone, the Mitarai House is in a mess and Makiko has to do it all by herself. Kiichi is also not too impressed with the takeout meal left outside his room.

Shinji learns that Makiko was going to have an interview in the house and offers to help his mother with the cleaning. However, Makiko asks him to study for his test instead and goes to their storage unit. A woman spots Makiko throwing away her garbage into a storage unit and calls her out on it.

However, Shizuka meets her there and takes the blame for the garbage odour and offers to throw the garbage out of Makiko’s unit. Shizuka claims that she was in the area for work and found Makiko there. She also adds that she was now working odd jobs to pay for her family’s expenses.

Makiko recalls how she used to live like that in the past before she married Mr Mitarai. Shizuka apologises for going upstairs and offers to help with the house. Makiko claims that she was going to start cleaning up the house herself and will persevere in getting the things she wants on her own. She adds that she won’t be stopped ever but Shizuka tells Makiko that she won’t be able to hide Kiichi away forever.

Shizuka requests for a second chance to prove herself and Makiko agrees. That night, Makiko goes back home and thinks to herself how she needed to make sure Satsuki sees how she is doing better than she ever had.

Days go by as Makiko takes part in more interviews, bragging about her perfect life. She tells her interviewer that she was ready to start filming a series about her life. Shizuka continues to work her way upstairs again and tries to impress Makiko. That night, Shizuka wonders how she could go to the walk-in closet and get her hands on the jacket.

The next day, Makiko tells Shizuka how she will soon get a TV show appearance where she will discuss how one can snag a rich guy. Shizuka praises Makiko for her achievements and offers to help set up the house for her many interviews.

That evening, Makiko gives Shizuka a key to the house and asks her to lock it on her way out as she is going to be late. She warns her against talking to Kiichi and Shizuka promises to keep it a secret. After Makiko has left, Shizuka goes inside the walk-in closet and finds Kiichi following behind her.

The two talk about Makiko’s hoarding problem and how she had a problem letting go of things. Shizuka is about to take something out of one of the shelves when Kiichi stops her. She has a scratch on her hand and leaves the closet to tend to the wound.

Kiichi follows her to the kitchen and apologises for causing the wound. He then helps her dress the wound. They share a moment and Shizuka recalls their conversation from 13 years ago when Kiichi had promised to always encourage her.

Present-day Kiichi offers to help Shizuka with her work. Shizuka leaves Kiichi to do the dishes and the washrooms and gets to the closet upstairs. She looks through the boxes and finds her mother’s jacket there.

Shizuka breaks down after learning that Makiko was really the arsonist and had taken a photo of the jacket for Claire to investigate. She hands a pair of earrings to Claire that belonged to her mother and tells her friend that her next task will be finding the CCTV footage.

A flashback shows Shizuka stashing the chip with the CCTV footage into one of the folders in the archive room of the hospital. She claims that she will find the video and force Makiko to confess that it was she who started the fire so that Satsuki can finally stop blaming herself for everything. She wonders how she can get inside the hospital without asking her father.

Shizuka tells Claire that her father had abandoned Satsuki, her and Yuzu soon after the divorce and hadn’t contacted them since which is why she could never trust him. Meanwhile, Yuzu goes on a date with Shinji and the latter is swooning over her. He offers to introduce Yuzu to his father which leaves Yuzu shocked.

While drying out the clothes on the balcony, Shizuka realises that her way to get into the family hospital’s archive room is by using a keycard. Kiichi is helping out Shizuka with the house chores still and she asks him to be careful of being spotted by the guard who went into the hospital which was located right by the Mitarai House.

Shizuka rushes to the kitchen to look for a keycard but Kiichi follows after her. He calls her out for trying to talk to him about his interests and for trying to get close to him. Kiichi asks how Shizuka knew so much about him and the hospital but she tries to deflect.

Kiichi stops her and tells Shizuka how he had always doubted her. He calls Shizuka by her real name and asks why she was in his house as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

Aside from the scene about keeping garbage in a storage unit, this episode was interesting. However, we can clearly see that the show is very slow-paced. While J-dramas are different from Korean Dramas by nature, the pace is one standout factor that contributes to K-dramas’ popularity and the lack thereof in Japanese shows.

The plot of Burn the House Down is interesting but I wish the episodes were faster and to the point. I feel like Claire looks like an unnecessary addition and her job could have been easily done by Yuzu. It is interesting how Shinji and Yuzu are close and that she is using him in order to help Anzu/Shizuka.

The idea of Japanese men being shabby to show they are introverted is great in anime/manga but I wish the character of Kiichi was better dressed and had a different haircut.

It is clear that Shinji and Yuzu could be a thing while Kiichi and Shizuka/Anzu could get together. I hope that is not how this show ends. I would rather see the girls with totally different characters than them finding their potential love interests in their step-brothers.