Burn The House Down – J-drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

Episode 3

Episode 3 of Burn The House Down starts with Shinji asking Yuzu if she would like to meet Mr Mitarai and tells her that Osamu had always wanted to meet his daughters. Shinji tells Yuzu that he could make it happen for her if she really wanted to see her father.

At the same time, Kiichi asks Shizuka what she was up to since she had come back into the house. He asks her why she had been snooping into the closet as he shows her a video of her looking for the jacket the day before. He tells Shizuka that she was wasting time as there was nothing to look for.

Shizuka claims that she was back to find her mother’s old belonging and tells Kiichi about Satsuki’s illness. She confesses that all her mother’s things had burned down with the house years ago and adds that she had seen Makiko wearing Satsuki’s old accessories and clothes on social media.

Shizuka claims that she was only back to take back the things that Makiko had stolen from Satsuki. She tells Kiichi about the hair clip and the heels. Kiichi is pissed off and threatens to tell his mother what Shizuka was doing. He claims that Makiko would end her life if she were to find out.

Just then, the garage door opens and Makiko gets back home. She notices that Shizuka looks sick and asks her to go back home to rest. Kiichi watches Shizuka from upstairs as she leaves to go back home. That night, Yuzu is shocked to learn that Kiichi had found out that Shizuka was Anzu.

Shizuka packs up her things and tries to leave the country and asks Yuzu to deny having any part in what her sister was doing at the Mitarai House. Yuzu offers to help Shizuka but the older of the two sisters leaves home. Later that night, Makiko calls Shizuka to work early the next day despite it being her day off as she has to chat about something important.

Shizuka is worried but Makiko asks Shizuka to teach her how to cook. Makiko claims that her followers complimented her cooking skills and that she had already booked a cooking show. Shizuka agrees to help Makiko out and offers to teach her how to cook.

However, Makiko rushes to go to the hospital after getting an urgent call. She asks Shizuka to work on some recipes by herself but Kiichi finds her alone and blackmails Shizuka. He tells Shizuka that she had to do as he says in order to keep the video of her rummaging through the closet a secret between them.

He calls her inside his bedroom and Shizuka keeps a blade with her to protect herself. She gets inside the room and Kiichi asks her to read up on how websites generate funds from advertisements. He tells her about the website he was an editor for and talks about how he makes money off of news articles about celebrities.

Kiichi tells her that she had to edit the articles in his stead and threatens to leak the video of her if she refuses to do so. At the same time, Yuzu shows the earrings that Shizuka had taken from Makiko’s closet to Satsuki. Upon seeing the earrings, Satsuki suddenly recalls a memory of Anzu’s school ceremony leaving Yuzu shocked.

Meanwhile, Kiichi is impressed with how Shizuka edited the articles for him. The two have an argument about how so many people were interested in the lives of celebrities who were in the public eye. Shizuka mocks him stating he hadn’t even been in the public eye for years but people were still curious about him.

Shizuka recalls how the Kiichi she knew was so different from what he was like today. Kiichi is pissed at her and yells at her but Shizuka flees away when someone enters the house. On her way out, Shizuka runs into Shinji and bids him farewell without introducing herself.

Outside, Shizuka breaks down into tears and forces herself to fight through instead of running away. She tells herself that she was scared but Yuzu finds her there and comforts her older sister. Yuzu takes Shizuka to the hospital and introduces her to their mother.

Shizuka is shocked to learn that the earrings had jogged their mother’s memory and Satsuki remembers Anzu and Yuzu as children. While alone with Shizuka, Satsuki tells her that just like she had been looking out for Yuzu after the fire, Yuzu too was looking out for her sister.

On their way back home, Shizuka finally shows her vulnerability to Yuzu and tells her sister that Kiichi was blackmailing her. She asks her sister to help her out of this mess and Yuzu is glad that Shizuka is trusting her enough to seek help. Yuzu learns that the CCTV footage from the night was in an SD card that she had hidden away in the hospital.

Yuzu goes to the hospital under the guise of seeing her father and asks Shinji to keep it a secret from Mr Mitarai as well. Shinji leads her to their father’s cabin and introduces her to Nurse Ichihara, the head nurse that looks after Mr Mitarai’s schedule. Yuzu introduces herself to her father and the old man is ever so excited to see his younger daughter.

Meanwhile, Kiichi sees that Shizuka is back at work. He wonders what Shizuka was hiding under the pretext of trying to regain her mother’s memory. Shizuka sternly asks Kiichi to stop grabbing her and tells him that she was not lying. Meanwhile, Yuzu meets her father and finds out that he only learned that she liked doughnuts from Nurse Ichihara.

Mr Mitarai apologises for not reaching out to them sooner and claims that he was too occupied with work. Yuzu excuses herself and sneaks to the archive, looking for the SD card. She somehow finds the SD card but Nurse Ichihara spots her leaving the archive room.

At the Mitarai House, Makiko uses the recipe that Shizuka had prepared and posts a video of herself online. Makiko gets a lot of positive comments about her skills and thanks Shizuka for curating the recipes for her to use at the TV Show she was going to feature in. Just then Makiko gets a call from someone asking to interview her and her sons.

From upstairs, Kiichi overhears as Makiko tells the person on the line that Shinji will be glad to do the interview but adds that Kiichi was abroad and could not take part. That night, Yuzu hands the SD Card to Claire who plays the video on her laptop.

However, the video cuts off before showing Makiko’s face and Claire claims that it would be scrapped off as circumstantial evidence. Shizuka claims that she wanted Makiko to apologise to her mother. Claire asks her to wait out a little longer and gather conclusive evidence to prove that Makiko was really behind the fire.

That night, Makiko reads an article talking about her impoverished past but her friend tells her that people were just chasing clout. However, upon reading more into the article, Makiko realises that details about her children’s father being her high school teacher and her husband cheating on her while she was pregnant were all true and were being leaked to the public.

Makiko gets back home and tells Kiichi all about the article. She claims that people who were jealous of her were sitting behind their computers and writing all these negative things about her. Makiko tells Kiichi that he could take all his time and adds that she will make sure their family has enough money to live by.

She tries to gaslight Kiichi and claims that he was too introverted to hold a stable conversation with people and claims that the outside world is far too scary for someone like him. Makiko claims that she was always watching him as she leaves the food behind.

Kiichi opens the door and finds a takeout meal from ‘The Eel Restaurant’ and recalls seeing a comment on Makiko’s article from a user with “eel” in their username. On her way down, Makiko is happy that she finally got to him as Kiichi throws things in his room.

The next day, Makiko yells at Shizuka for having redundant menus lately and asks her to be creative with her recipes. Shizuka asks if Makiko was okay. The woman claims that Kiichi always ends up doing something stupid. She leaves to go out while Shizuka goes into Kiichi’s room and sees that all his computers had been destroyed.

Kiichi tells Shizuka that his mother had found out about his websites. He tells how she was toxic and was trying to control and manipulate him and despite knowing this, Kiichi could not escape. Kiichi tells Shizuka that he feels useless because he cannot get a job and adds that Makiko puts on an act, pretending to support him when she really does not mean it.

Kiichi tries to force himself onto Shizuka but she runs away and hides in the pantry. He starts investigating Shizuka as he claims that Satsuki had burned their entire house down. However, Shizuka/Anzu gets defensive and attacks him. He forces her to name the person that caused the fire and Shizuka/Anzu names Makiko.

Shizuka/Anzu tells Kiichi that she knows Makiko was behind the fire and that she had been suspicious of his mother for 13 years. Kiichi refuses to believe that Makiko was the arsonist and asks Shizuka/Anzu to forget about the things of the past.

Shizuka/Anzu tells Kiichi that this was her mother’s only way to protect her mental health and adds that Satsuki took the blame while Makiko watched and laughed. Shizuka tells Kiichi that she won’t let things go because the real arsonist needed to take the blame for the incident. Kiichi asks why Shizuka had to come back when he was trying to forget everything.

A flashback shows Makiko telling Kiichi the truth about who caused the fire. The episode ends with Kiichi telling Shizuka that the truth about the incident still haunts him and asks her if she can handle it.

The Episode Review

This episode had me confused because we saw that Kiichi had gone into the closet on the first day Shizuka joined work at the house. The is clearly nothing the makers did about that detail and I wonder what the purpose of it was. What I really love was Shizuka finally standing up for herself and asking Kiichi to back off instead of grabbing her as it pleases him.

The fact that both sisters are using both brothers for their benefit is smart to me. Mr Mitarai really is a bad father and I would not be amazed if it turns out that he cheated on Satsuki. The show, as slow-paced as it is, is really interesting. I would love to see Shizuka and Kiichi working together to find the real arsonist but I worry that he would be misleading her.

I can see the control Makiko holds over Kiichi which shows how toxic and manipulative she is. It is possible that Mr Mitarai was the person behind the fire because he possibly edited the video to hide the face of the arsonist. I can’t wait to see how the show ends to find out who the real arsonist is!