Burn The House Down – J-drama Episode 6 Recap & Review

Episode 6

Episode 6 of Burn The House Down starts where we left off with Shinji abandoning Nanami to talk to Yuzu. Shinji blames Yuzu for trying to reconnect with him only to get more information about the fire. He follows after Yuzu while Nanami is pissed. Shizuka is with Makiko at her photoshoot when Claire calls to tell her about Mujina and the hidden diary she found on the laptop.

Claire sends Shizuka the diary, warning her that Makiko’s thoughts are very dark. Shizuka goes through the diary and learns that Makiko had filled it with hate speech about the Mitarai, especially Satsuki. She learns that the woman was pretending to be Satsuki’s friend but spewed so much hate about her. Shinji follows Yuzu on her way to see Satsuki.

On their way out, Shinji recalls how Satsuki used to save him from being punished for skipping school. He tells Yuzu how Satsuki often took him in and covered for him because he was too slow in his studies. Satsuki reassures Shinji and asks him to come over to meet her when things are too overwhelming for him at school.

Shinji and Yuzu talk about Satsuki fondly and Yuzu claims that she was trying to keep up appearances in order to never remind her mother of the fire. Yuzu breaks down in tears and Shinji hugs her. However, Yuzu feels the tracking device through Shinji’s jacket and pushes him away.

Yuzu tries to instigate Shinji on purpose claiming that he’s trying to get rich and famous using her family’s connections. Shinji is upset with Yuzu for doubting him and gets back home. He tells Makiko that he’s done rebelling and is going to study harder than ever.

Meanwhile, Shizuka reads through Makiko’s diary and learns that the woman harboured jealousy for Satsuki and yearned for her life. Nanami, on the other hand, pretends to be nice to Shinji via text in order to secure her place as his wife in the future. The next day, Nanami pays Shinji a visit and goes to the Mitarai House.

There, she heats up some food for Shinji, who was unwell. Shinji dozes off and Nanami uses the opportunity to sneak upstairs when Makiko shows up all of a sudden. She asks Shinji to go back to his room and tries to kick Nanami out, warning her from trying to manipulate her son.

Nanami leaves the Mitarai house, upset with Makiko and decides to make the woman pay. She takes her phone out of her bag to see the voice note from her conversation with Makiko. Nanami posts a snippet of the voice online and fans are shocked to learn that Makiko is such an evil person.

Over the next few days, people on the internet start badmouthing Makiko, calling her names for her words from the audio clip. Reporters mob Makiko and she is worried. She puts Shizuka to work on trying to get the clip taken down. Shizuka meets Nanami and talks to her about the audio clip. Shizuka threatens to expose Nanami’s affair with an older, married man and forces her to take down the audio that defamed Makiko.

Pleased by what Shizuka had done for her and decides to reward her for it. That day, Kiichi and Shizuka catch up over a meal that he prepared at the Mitarai House. Shizuka gets emotional over the food and Kiichi awkwardly offers to help her find the real arsonist. The next few days go by smoothly, with Makiko working on one project after the other.

However, she receives a link from an anonymous account about an article. Upon opening the link, Makiko learns that Mujina had written an exposé, detailing a socialite named M. The article talks about a rich woman named Aliza (Makiko’s alias) who used to brag about her designer outfits, jewellery and shoes online, much before social media existed.

The article details how M had actually stolen the luxury items from someone else. Makiko is scared about the fact that Mujina, her loyal follower was back. Claire and Yuzu celebrate the fact that Mujina had come back to their rescue. Meanwhile, Makiko is haunted by the exposé article from Mujina as she checks the views on the article from time to time.

She looks up #mujina online and learns that the people had started catching wind of the article and were asking the poster to release more details about the socialite. Makiko recalls how she had started stealing Satsuki’s diamond earrings first and how she loved the attention she had gotten.

With time, Makiko kept stealing more and more of Satsuki’s things and made an online presence by posting those items. She then recalls how Mujina had asked her to meet her fans who gave her a lot of attention, something she had gotten so used to by now. Makiko is taken back to the day of the fire when she had last met her followers for a fan meeting.

Back then, Mujina had asked Makiko about how she had very few luxury goods in comparison to what she had bragged about online. Meanwhile, Yuzu gets a flashback from the day of the fire and she recalls seeing Makiko in her mother’s closet. Just then, Makiko reads a comment about Yuzu being behind all this and rushes to drag the girl to the Mitarai house.

Makiko scares Yuzu down and takes her inside the Mitarai house. Nurse Ichihara, Shinji and Mr Mitarai follow after the two. Makiko asks Yuzu for proof to show that she caused the fire. Yuzu tries to show her the exposé article but is shocked to learn that the article has been deleted.

Makiko tries to make Yuzu seem delusional but Shizuka shows up all of a sudden. She purposely interrupts the conversation and tells Makiko that she had taken care of Mujina for her. The group is shocked to learn about the fact that Makiko had put her manager up to get rid of the exposé article.

Shizuka claims that the post was fake and that the real Mujina did not care much about Makiko anymore. A flashback shows Shizuka/Anzu and Kiichi’s conversation from the day before. He tells Shizuka that they need to start a fire of lies by releasing a made-up article about Makiko addressed by Mujina.

The two also end up buying bot accounts to talk about the article to make it seem like it has blown up in order to scare Makiko. Their ploy works, and present-day Shizuka reveals that Mujina clicked a picture from the day of their fan meeting and shows the group that Makiko was indeed wearing the same jacket that day.

The episode ends with Makiko asking who Shizuka really is, and the girl confesses that she’s none other than Mitarai Anzu.

The Episode Review

This episode certainly stands out as the best of the whole show. Makiko is more delusional than she lets on. She is clearly moping around in the house, a house that is not her own. The way Makiko manipulates Mr Mitarai is audacious and I can’t help but feel sorry for Satsuki, who has to deal with a man like him, and for the fact that she loves him despite his negligence. 

Kiichi and Anzu are clearly in love with each other and it would be great to see them end up together. I cannot wait to see how their story ends and I hope Yuzu and Shinji find their way back together eventually.