Spoilers for episode seven of Get Jiro follow.
After a few episodes of plot development, this week’s Get Jiro was for the most part all action, entirely set within the confines of a prison. It’s an episode that brings to mind the best of single-location action movies, just, you know, with more food…and also a lot more evangelism.
We open at Butchers Block prison, surrounded by a crowd of protestors calling for an end to the arresting of chefs. Cynda arrives to speak with the warden about Jiro. Turns out the warden is not the stereotypical tough-as-nails iron-fisted prison leader, but a stereotypical megachurch-style pastor who also happens to run the prison with an iron fist. Butcher’s Block is a panopticon, so the Warden has a “God-like view”, and instead of lethal injection, death sentences are carried out with poisoned food to be more humane. Cynda arrives at Jiro’s cell, where he’s in the process of making ramen out of view.
Cynda hopes to get information from Jiro to bring down Bob and Rose, but Jiro believes that he brings only death and misery anyone he helps, feeling guilt over getting Maria involved. Cynda ultimately gives up and leaves, giving the Warden the giant cake Cam had brought for him (after the lock picks baked in were all removed), and relying on him to keep Jiro safe from harm. As she leaves, someone brings a pizza box into the prison. One of the guards eagerly asks if it has pineapple. Nope, just knockout gas. With the guards incapacitated, the intruder takes one of the guards’ key cards and heads for Jiro’s cell.
By now, Jiro has managed to create a system with the other inmates to get him smuggled-in ingredients. Again, I can’t get enough of stuff like this. Before he can receive a clove of garlic thrown to him, however, he is greeted by the intruder, who turns out to be food critic Alister Attenborough. He’s hoping to help Jiro escape, “on behalf of the larger culinary world,” but Jiro is hesitant. Regardless, Alastair brings him along, which the Warden immediately catches on to. This is not just a violation of prison rules. He considers the chefs false idols and plans to keep them in line, violently if possible.
The Warden is probably the most intriguing part of this episode. Originally the head of a megachurch, he found his flock deserting him in the wake of The Great Unraveling, as chefs became the new power. Running the prison allows him to retain some of his former status. It does raise a lot of questions about the film’s world. How does religion play into a setting where culinary sensory indulgence and gluttony rule the day? Obviously, that’s not the point of the episode, but it is something I feel is fun to think about.
Jiro and Alastair deliver a series of brutal beatdowns to the prison guards, before hiding in the kitchen. At the same time, Jiro is also dedicated to finishing his ramen, much to Alastair’s anger. Jiro isn’t too happy either. Apparently he had worked out twelve different escape plans during his time in prison, and Alstair’s arrival has ruined all but one. The Warden, sends the inmates to deliver Jiro and Alastair in exchange for a reduced sentence. They’re quickly taken care of with an exploding rice cooker. The ramen’s done, but Jiro still isn’t ready to escape. “Not before it’s served.”
Jiro and Alastair arrive in “Chef’s Row”, which holds the chefs given death sentences. In an amusing touch, Jiro and Alastair walk past a few real-life famous chefs animated into the show and voicing themselves, including David Chang and José Andrés. Jiro and Alastair come to a cell holding Jean-Claude, the chef Jiro was an apprentice for who helped him cook the Ortolan, and who was arrested in the midst of the gang war in the fourth episode. Sadly, he’s already been poisoned, having eaten a particularly unsatisfactory last meal. “No one should die with a bad taste in their mouth,” Jiro tells him, and feeds him the ramen, holding his hand as he passes.
A shaken Alastair tells Jiro that the reason he saved Jiro was because of his sushi. He felt a connection through it, like he could read Jiro’s entire life story though his cuisine. It’s a beautiful sequence that reminds you that this show and its source material were written by people who see food as more than just sustenance, but a way to bring people together. The two need to escape but need a fingerprint from prison staff. As Jiro prepares to cut off the fingers of the prison doctor, Alastair gives him the severed finger of a prison guard…though Jiro seems suspicious as to why he has it.
One final fight ensues, during which Alastair seems to run off while the Warden plans to break his promise to Cynda and have Jiro killed. Alastair, however, comes through by graphically smashing the heads of the Warden and the guards with weights dropped from above. The two escape into Alastair’s van outside, but he locks Jiro in the back and drugs him with knockout gas. He tells Jiro that he’s about to cook the meal of his life, as we see the back of the van says “Tanwood Catering”…the same company implied earlier to be linked to the mysterious cannibal in the city.
Easily the most action-heavy episode of the series, this was a lot of fun, while still finding time for really effective dramatic moments. I really did love how much use they got out of the prison setting, especially in terms of how food factored into it. Check back next week for more of my thoughts and recap of Get Jiro.
