Warning: SPOILERS for the Shōgun “Chapter Five: Broken to the Fist” are ahead!
Shōgun Season 1 has hit is halfway mark, and it’s quickly cemented itself as one of the best Hulu TV shows. Whether they were already fans of the original James Clavell novel or newcomers to this saga, Hulu subscribers can’t get enough of this critically-acclaimed miniseries, including myself. I fall into the newcomer camp, having not even heard of the novel or the first 1980 miniseries until shortly before this new adaptation dropped.
While each Shōgun episode has been eventful in its own way, whether it’s for the action sequences or the forbidden romance between John Blackthorne and Toda Mariko, Episode 5, titled “Chapter Five: Broken to the Fist,” was an especially important chapter, namely because of three plot twists that were dropped on viewers. Now that we’re halfway through the season, I’m concerned about how these twists are going to affect the latter half of this run.
Toda Mariko’s Husband Is Back In The Picture
While it initially looked like in “Chapter Three: Tomorrow Is Tomorrow” that Toda Mariko’s husband, Toda "Buntaro" Hirokatsu, died, that proved not to be the case. Buntaro managed to survive the battle against Kiyama ukon Sadanaga’s forces in Osaka, make it to Edo, rendezvous with Toranaga and travel with him back to Ajiro. Unfortunately, if you got the impression that Buntaro is not a good husband, you were absolutely correct.
Putting aside all the ways he insults Blackthorne in this episode, it immediately becomes clear that Buntaro doesn’t respect his wife. During the dinner where he and Blackthorne get drunk from guzzling saké out of the noodle bowls, Buntaro angrily refuses to tell the story of how he avoided being killed and instead tries to prove his arrows are more effective than Blackthorne’s cannons by hitting a post outside Blackthorne’s house. He does his hit mark, but the two arrows he shoots nearly hit Mariko’s head.
Adding insult to injury, Buntaro then forced Mariko to tell Blackthorne how her father killed the corrupt Lord Kuroda, who ruled Japan before the Taikō, and as punishment, he was forced to kill his wife and Mariko’s siblings before committing seppuku. Mariko escaped this fate because she’d just been married, but Buntaro now forces her to live as atonement for her father’s crime. As if all that wasn’t bad enough, later in the night, Buntaro physically assaults Mark, and while Blackthorne tries to fight Buntaro in response, the warrior instead lays his swords down and asks for forgiveness for disturbing Blackthorne’s home, blaming his actions on the saké. The Englishman decides he can’t attack an unarmed man, calls Buntaro a “piece of shit” and walks away.
Given the glare that Buntaro gives Blackthorne as he walks away, it’s clear that the conflict between these two isn’t done. However, some damage has already been done, and I’m not just talking about Mariko’s wounds. The next day, when Blackthorne expresses his disapproval of how Mariko puts up with her husband’s abuse, she decides that she’ll only translate for Blackthorne going forward, not engage in conversation with him. No doubt Blackthorne will also hold that against Buntaro, and I can’t imagine it won’t be long until these two come to blows.
A Massive Earthquake Hit Ajiro
From the strife between Blackthorne, Mariko and Buntaro, Blackthorne accidentally condemning his gardener to death due to some poorly-worded instructions he gave about not touching a dead pheasant he hanged, the old fisherman Muraji being revealed as Toranaga’s spy and Toranaga dealing with the aftermath of his son killing Nebula Jozen and his soldiers, it’s not as though Ajiro wasn’t already overflowing with drama. Now on top of all that, the village has been ravaged by a massive earthquake that hit right as Blackthorne tried to convince Toranaga to let he and his men leave Japan.
The good news is that even though Toranaga was buried alive when he fell from the collapsing hillside, Blackthorne and others were able to dig him out just in time, and even though the lord lost his swords in the rubble, the Anjin gave him his own blades, which had been given to him by his consort, Usami Fuji. The bad news is that Ajiro is in ruins now, and it looks as though Usami was badly injured during the earthquake.
Toranaga was already facing harrowing odds having to fight against the forces of Ishiro Kazunari and the other regents, even with Blackthorne’s cannons as part of his arsenal. Now that Ajiro is in ruins, so if Toranaga’s enemies wanted to take him out of the picture, now would be the perfect time to attack. Of course, since this is 1600 Japan, it will take a while for word of the damage wrought on Ajiro to make its way back to Osaka. Still, Toranaga and his allies find themselves in an even more precarious position.
Ochiba No Kata Is Controlling Ishdio Kazunari And The Other Regents
Until now, Lady Ochiba no Kata, the consort of the late Taikō who bore him a son named Yaechiyo, has been a relatively minor player in Shōgun, but no longer. At the end of this episode, Ochiba returns to Osaka, and after reuniting with her son, she meets with Kazunari and expresses her gratitude for the Council for getting her released from Edo. The pleasantries end soon after, though, as Ochiba expresses her discontentment with how the Council has been outmaneuvered by Toranaga and doesn’t believe that Kazunari will be able to restore it. She’s sick of the political games, and as such she’s now giving the Council orders.
Before Ochiba showed up, the Council couldn’t agree on who should replace Toranaga as the fifth regent, and with each passing morning, another member skipped the group breakfast until only Kazunari remained. Now it doesn’t matter what each individual member wants; they’re going to have to follow whatever Ochiba demands of them. After all, Yaechiyo is heir to the throne, so if Kazunari and his cohorts are indeed loyal to the boy, then they have to prove it by obeying his mother. The squabbling between the regents could have kept them from properly retaliating against Toranaga for a while, but now that one person is holding the reins, this will surely speed up the timetable to go after Hiroyuki Sanada’s character.
There’s now five episodes to go in Shōgun’s run, and I eagerly await how these three developments from “Chapter Five: Broken to the Fist” will affect the event’s of next week’s installments. While we wait for Shōgun Episode 6’s premiere next Tuesday, remember to look through the 2024 TV schedule to see what other popular shows are airing right now.
