The fifth episode of Jigokuraku is out now and it focuses on Sagiri’s dilemma to leave her duties on the island and return back to the Shogunate or to stay the course and risk her death.
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 5: Recap – The Samurai And The Woman
In the previous episode, the remaining killers on Shinsenkyo, the mysterious island, started to move towards its interiors and Gabimaru was seen carrying an unconscious Sagiri with him. This episode begins with Sagiri waking up from a strange dream where she is a child once again and is terrified by her father.
She wakes up and realizes that it was just a dream and that she is still in Shinsenkyo. The others wait for her: Gabimaru cooks the meal, Yuzuriha looks out for threats and the two Yamada’s prepare to restore torn clothes and gather medicines. Sagiri is a little embarrassed to have fainted like she did but is told by Yamada Genji that she was bitten by an island bug, and she fell unconscious as a result. Once Sagiri rejoins the group, they all plan ahead for the day. Yamada Senta puts forth the drawing given to the expeditioners; the only clue available to them for finding the elixir. Gabimaru and Genji had already scouted a bit to gain more information. Gabimaru explains that some of the flowers are the remains of the samurai who visited the island in the past. Aghast at this information, Yuzuriha asks whether he used any to prepare for the meal! Obviously Gabimaru hadn’t.
Sagiri is unsure of her feelings on the island. She couldn’t protect herself against the myriad threats present on Shinsenkyo. Genji appears out of the blue and verbalizes exactly what she didn’t want to hear. He commands her in lieu of some advice, to leave the island immediately. According to Genji, Sagiri’s life is in double jeopardy: Firstly, Sagiri has grown weak from the bug bite and secondly, she is a woman. Should she die on the island, she would not be able to dispense her duty of forwarding her clan by bearing the child of the clan’s chief. Genji gives off the impression that he is irritated by Sagiri’s presence as she is proving herself to be a liability: she lost her own sword in battling Gabimaru and now wields an inferior weapon.
Their conversation is interrupted by Yamada Senta. He raises an important question of his own. According to him, returning back to the Shogunate won’t be nearly as easy as Genji makes it out to be. Most of the Yamadas actually died while returning back.
As soon as Senta mentions this detail, the focus shifts to a rather peculiar prisoner who had decided to return back to the Shogunate, unwilling to participate in the hunt for the Elixir. Yamada Tenza who was assigned the prisoner’s monitor, takes a boat and tries returning back but gets stuck in a shipwreck. Sea monsters, unlike anyone had ever imagined, surround their boat and try to kill them. Yamada Tenza fights till his stamina is exhausted. He asks the prisoner named Nurugai whether he wants to fight for his life or has he accepted his fate to die young. Nurugai picks up the sword and fights till they both escape the shipwreck and return back to Shinsenkyo. There Tenza learns that the prisoner he thought to be a boy was actually a girl.
Meanwhile, the disoriented Sagiri gains some composure after listening to Gabimaru thank her for making him more focused on his aim to return and live a happy life with his wife. The dawn breaks and Genji seeing Sagiri still present on the island, tries drilling sense into her for the final time. Sagiri agrees that even her father didn’t want to wield a sword and indeed she is weak in battle, yet she would continue to do her duties on the island. This angers Genji, as she continuously refuses to comply with his command, and so he decides to kill her then and there. Sagiri’s recently gained lucidity helps her improve her focus as she manages to snatch Genji’s Yamada Sword away from him before he could strike the deadly blow. The episode ends with Genji being fatally attacked by Rokurota the Giant.
‘Jigokuraku’ Episode 5: Ending Explained : Nurugai’s Origin Story
Yamada Tenza had agreed to sail Nurugai back to the Shogunate and promised to plead to let her live as she deserved. The reason for this compassion was that rest of the people stuck on the island were killers, but Nurugai’s story was different. She was imprisoned for allowing her Sanka tribe to be located by a killer brigade who proceeded to kill everyone including Nurugai’s family. Tenza agreed to save her as she wasn’t a killer herself and out of all the prisoners, she deserved to live irrespective of whether she managed to procure the elixir.
Episode 5: Review
The episode featured a bit too much of Sagiri’s internal apprehensions, reducing the hunt for the elixir to an afterthought. Genji who was supposed to have been seduced by Yuzuriha leaves her unmonitored at most times, confusing us about his character as established in the previous episode. This episode, marked by very little discovery about anything else apart from Sagiri and Nurugai, might leave the viewer disengaged.