Episode 5 starts with Jiro stumbling to his restaurant injured, before he eventually collapses, and is rescued by Maria and Cam. Jiro insists he needs to go to his restaurant, but Maria shows him that Bob’s men are waiting for him inside. Maria then cauterizes his wound, and gives him some food, and tells Jiro that she is leaving because she can’t take it anymore. She has a cousin in Vegas, who bribed an official to let them in, but it’s only open for a few hours. They offer to let Jiro come with them, but he refuses, because he needs to get his knife back, so he goes and heads to his restaurant.
We then see one of Bob’s men head out to smoke, when Jiro knocks him out. The goon then yells to Mr. Madison (the head thug) saying to give Jiro his knife back because he’s going to kill him. The goons then head out, where Jiro has the thug tied up. Madison just shoots him in the head to remove Jiro’s bargaining chip. Jiro demands the knife back, but Madison says the knife (yanigiba) is his unless they make a deal. Make him a meal worthy of Tokyo, then he’ll get his knife back.
Madison then brings Jiro into the restaurant, where Jiro remarks on Madison’s knowledge of Japanese culture, and asks about his palate, saying he’ll make him 5 pieces of fish, and he’ll have to say what’s what. The games begin, and Madison guesses all of the fish, but he doesn’t eat the last one. This is because he can tell from looking at it that it’s fugu, which has a fatal poison called tetrodotoxin that can kill you if not prepared properly. Jiro then reveals that he actually put fugu in all of the dishes, and Madison dies right there from the poison.
Bob’s men then draw on him, and call Bob, who then calls Rose to tell her that his men have Jiro, and that he’ll pick her up on her roof at ten. Jiro is then saved by Maria, Cam, and the other vendors along with some of Maria’s and aunties from the neighborhood. Jiro asks why she didn’t leave, and Maria says that it’s their home, not theirs, so why should they leave, so she called some of her father’s old buddies, along with some new ones.
Suddenly outnumbered, Bob and Rose arrive, and Jiro hands himself over to Bob and Rose to save everyone. Jiro is then brought to a kitchen, where his shirt is ripped off to reveal Yakuza tattoos, and Bob demands answers. Jiro doesn’t answer, so Bob starts strangling him, when Cynda and the health department burst in, and arrest Jiro for the Ortolan murders. After bringing him out, Cynda tells Jiro he’s safe for now, meaning she only did that to get him out and save him from Bob and Rose.
This was a pretty good episode. The moment with the fugu was actually kind of cool, especially when you know what fugu is beforehand (you wouldn’t have to know since it does explain what it is). It also did seem like Jiro was going to die, but you know he isn’t, especially because Cynda saw the whole fight on the news, so you knew he would be saved. This episode also had a bit of the tension in it as well.
Rating: 7.5/10