Spoilers for Get Jiro episode five follow.
We’re halfway through Get Jiro now, and this week’s episode was a fittingly loaded one, even as it mostly took place within the confines of a single restaurant parking lot. Episode five, “Pressure Cooker” has Jiro making a meal to die for, Maria and Cam weighing their future, an action-packed climax, and a pretty big reveal about Jiro’s backstory.
After the violent finale of last week’s installment, a severely injured Jiro is rescued by Maria and Cam. Maria treats his wounds and learn that she had to drop out of medical school after the death of her father, who had a heart attack brought on by dealing with Bob. Jiro’s restaurant is filled with Bob’s men waiting to ambush him, among them Mr. Madison, and with the conditions of the Outer Ring, Maria plans to use an opportunity she’s been given to escape, hoping to take Jiro with her and Cam. However, Jiro insists on getting back his yanagiba knife inside the restaurant, something that practically guarantees certain death. To Jiro, though, it’s worth it.
Meanwhile, Bob and Rose have continued tying the knot with the shared animosity towards Jiro, but Rose is getting impatient. Back in the Outer Ring, Maria is driving away with Cam, who is reluctant to leave the small business owners antagonized by Bob’s crew behind. Meanwhile, Jiro holds one of Bob’s men hostage in exchange for Mr. Madison giving Jiro back his knife. Mr. Madison shoots the man immediately. It seems that Mr. Madison is something of a Japanophile, and Jiro is too big of an opportunity to waste. Mr. Madison gives Jiro a deal: he will give Jiro back his knife if Jiro can make a meal worthy of Tokyo. He might even hire Jiro should he do well. How does Jiro know he can trust him? “Because I know honor,” Madison retorts. “I have been to Japan.”
Jiro gives Madison a test: if he knows so much about Japanese culture, Jiro challenges him to correctly identify every type of fish he serves him. This was easily the highlight of the episode for me, even if I could tell where it was going. After a few correctly-identified pieces, as I expected, Jiro serves Madison a piece of Fugu, which he identifies immediately. Before he can kill Jiro though, he is told he was technically wrong the entire time: Jiro actually hid Fugu in every piece. “Worth it,” Madison chokes out as he collapses. No matter how much of this show I watch, the food-ification of every conflict in this story never gets old for me. It’s basically this scene from The Trip to Spain if it was in an actual action movie.
At The Farm, Freddie is furious that Rose is working with Bob after everything he did to them. “It used to be about food,” she says, “now it’s all about business.” She wants to run away from LA with Rose to Portland and start a new life. Rose gets a call from Bob, and Freddie tells her she’ll break up with her if she picks it up. Rose does so anyway, and as far as Portland is concerned, “the food scene is sh*t.”
Bob’s men prepare to kill Jiro in retaliation, but are promptly blown away by a flaming propane tank attached to a tamale cart that is thrown through Jiro’s window by Maria. Not only has Cam convinced her to stay, but she’s called in her relatives, her father’s friends, and angry food purveyors to take on Bob’s goons, partially to save Jiro, and partially as revenge for how they’ve been treated. This is their neighborhood, after all. An incredibly satisfying violent brawl breaks out, which the media frames heavily in Bob’s favor as a bunch of violent rioters attacking their own neighborhood. Cynda, recovering from the events of last week at the health department, sees Jiro on TV amidst the carnage and becomes worried.
Bob and Rose helicopter in, telling Jiro to surrender. To Maria’s shock, he obliges, giving Cam his yanagita to keep safe. Bob knocks Jiro out, and he awakens in Bob’s kitchen. Bob rips off Jiro’s robe and we get a pretty big hint at Jiro’s backstory….with emphasis on the “back” part. It turns out Jiro’s back is completely covered in yazuka tattoos. A shocked Bob asks what a yazuka is doing in LA, and when Jiro refuses to tell him, he proceeds to strangle him. However, Cynda arrives in the nick of time and arrests Jiro for the Ortolan murders, much to Bob’s anger. Prison, it seems, is safer than freedom at the moment.
The episode ends with Jiro in a police car, his future uncertain. What the second half of Get Jiro will bring remains to be seen, but if the first five episodes are any indication, things will only get crazier from here. For now, this was a great episode and I can’t wait to see what happens next. We’ll just have to tune in next week.
