Jujutsu Kaisen – Season 2 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Premature Death

Episode 5 of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 begins one year after the events involving Satoru fighting Fushiguro and retrieving Riko from the Star Religious Group. Satoru demonstrates the automatic selection portion of his jujutsu technique to Getou and Shoko. As Satoru explains his technique and its advancements further, Getou claims Satoru’s become the strongest (so far) and handles all his missions by himself. Getou claims he’s been completing tasks alone too. He confirms Shoko never gets the opportunity to tackle dangerous ones alone.

While on a train, Getou states cursed spirits have sprung up more after the events involving Riko and the two factions that were after her. He questions who he’s exorcising cursed spirits for. While showering, Getou admits he became a jujutsu sorcerer to save lives and tells himself not to waver. Getou bumps into Haibara, who says he’ll be going somewhere far for his next mission. He tells him to gather souvenirs while he’s there. Getou asks Haibara if he can keep going as a jujutsu sorcerer, and Haibara says he plans to give it his all.

Suddenly, Yuki Tsukumo arrives and interrupts Haibara and Getou’s conversation. Yuki introduces herself to Getou, and he criticizes her after recalling what he knows about her. Yuki confirms Getou’s claims and says she’d rather treat the cause than follow Jujutsu High’s policies and treat symptoms. She’d rather create a world where cursed spirits aren’t born than hunt them down. Yuki shares two ways to make this happen. One involves eliminating humanity’s cursed energy, while the other involves helping humans control their cursed energy.

Yuki feels the first option is better because there’s a model case for it, thanks to Fushiguro. She attempted to study Fushiguro, but he turned her down. Unfortunately, with Fushiguro gone, she must resort to her second plan. Since jujutsu sorcerers leak little cursed energy, Yuki suggests that turning humans into jujutsu sorcerers would be the way to fulfill her goal. Getou believes killing all non-sorcerers would help her complete that goal, and Yuki agrees it’d work. However, she’s not crazy enough to go through with that option. Getou admits his thoughts about non-sorcerers have wavered, and Yuki tells Getou it’s up to him to decide which path he wants to lead.

Yuki tells Getou that he doesn’t need to worry about the Star Plasma Vessel and reassures him that Tengen’s stable. Afterwards, Getou covers up Haibara’s lifeless body in the morgue. Nanami’s irritated about how everything should’ve been easier and not turned out like this. Getou tells Nanami he needs to rest and informs him that Satoru’s handling their mission. Getou contemplates if being a jujutsu sorcerer’s worth it if a mountain of his comrades’ corpses waits for him at the end of this game.

After tackling a mission involving two girls and a village of non-sorcerers, Getou gets sentenced to death for murdering the non-sorcerers with his curse manipulation technique. Masamichi tells Satoru what happened and informs him that Getou murdered his parents. However, Satoru doesn’t want to believe Getou committed the crimes. Getou bumps into Shoko in Shinjuku and admits he committed his crimes because he wants to create a world where only jujutsu sorcerers exist. Shoko calls Satoru and tells him she’s speaking with Getou in Shinjuku. Getou departs, and Satoru stops and interrogates him for his actions.

Satoru tells Getou his goals aren’t possible, but Getou claims Satoru could fulfill his goal if he wanted to. Getou says he’s not backing down from his new path and that no one will change his mind. Satoru fails to pursue Getou and gets questioned by Masamichi. Meanwhile, Getou purchases a space that belonged to the Star Religious Group. Getou plans to use it to gather money and curses. Getou declares his ownership of this organization to its new and remaining members. Though some object, Getou demonstrates his ruthlessness by murdering someone.

At the same time, Satoru meets Megumi, explains what happened to Fushiguro, and asks him if he wants to visit the Zen’in clan. Megumi says he doesn’t want to go if Tsumiki (his step-sister) can’t find happiness. Satoru asks Megumi to become stronger as he plans to handle things with the Zen’in clan alone. A year passes. Itadori, Megumi, and Nobara wake Satoru from his dream.

The episode closes with Megumi asking Satoru what he’s smiling about.

The Episode Review

At last Jujutsu Kaisen reveals what led Getou down his dark path. It appears Riko’s demise, a specific mission, and some convincing from other sorcerers led him to go astray. However, this episode is packed with a lot of content, which could make it difficult for viewers to follow the events unfolding before their eyes. Despite it’s slow-pacing, many would’ve preferred if this explanation was spread out between two chapters instead of one, making Getou’s change of heart feel more authentic and less rushed. 

Nonetheless, it’s great to receive solid reasons and see what led to Getou becoming the person we know him as in the present. Satoru’s reaction to the scenario was handled well as his voice actor did an excellent job at capturing his angst and confusion with Getou’s situation. Furthermore, Yuki’s probably a character to look out for down the line as she feels the most responsible for pushing Getou down this path with their discussion about non-sorcerers and cursed energy. 

This episode has some impressive shots and visuals too. They captured our character’s emotions well and provided viewers with some eerie imagery that’s certain to leave a lasting impression on them.

Overall, this was a nice conclusion to this arc of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. It gave viewers answers to questions they had about certain characters in the show. It appears we will be following Itadori and the gang in the next episode to kick things off for the following arc. I’m excited to see what happens next.