TV Recap: FX’s “Shōgun” Episode 5 – Lord Toranaga Strategizes for War, Subtly Training Everyone Without Their Knowledge

The fifth episode of FX’s series adaptation of Shōgun is titled “Broken to the Fist,” an analogy Toranaga uses for training hawks to hunt. The metaphor can be applied to multiple characters, while the fist is no doubt Toranaga’s. The quote is delivered to Toranaga’s son, Nagakado, to scold him for assassinating Ishido’s samurai at the end of the previous episode. But as you read this recap, consider how Toranaga is potentially manipulating many other characters, breaking them to his fist with the subtlest of queues.

Chapter 5 – "Broken to the Fist" – Written by Matt Lambert

Muraji (Yasunari Takeshima) helps clean up the bloody massacre of Ishido’s men on the battlefield. Blackthorne’s gardener, Uejirou (Junichi Tajiri), laments that their small fishing village didn’t ask for any of this. The ground begins to rumble, and it seems like a small earthquake, but then a samurai announces that Toranaga’s army is arriving. Sure enough, the thunderous crescendo is horse hooves as the army crests the ridge, Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) leading the troops. His son, Yoshii Nagakado (Yuki Kura), notices who is at Toranaga’s right hand. “Mariko, look who it is,” he tells the translator, stepping aside so Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) has a clear view. “It’s your husband,” Nagakado announces. “He’s alive.” Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe) stares at his wife from atop his horse, his face scarred from his harrowing quest for survival since he hung back to save Toranaga’s party.

In Osaka, the Council of Regents meets to discuss the upcoming arrival of Lady Ochiba, the heir's mother, who is on her way from Edo. Lord Kiyama (Hiromoto Ida), Lord Sugiyama (Toshi Toda), and Lord Ohno (Takeshi Kurokawa) vote to impeach Toranaga, but Lord Ishido Kazunari (Takehiro Hira) reminds them that they need a fifth member in order to vote. Some nominations are put forward to fill the vacancy, but each regent has a reason for not trusting the nominees. As each regent takes offense to a comment made against their suggestions, the meeting slowly disbands.

Mariko sits atop a horse next to Toranaga, whose Falcon is hunting the skies. “He’s a miracle, your husband,” Toranaga tells her. “It took him twenty days to return to us.” Buntaro was saved by ronin, who arrived just in time to help him fight his way out. They also escorted him to Edo, with many losing their lives to see him there safely. Mariko gives Toranaga the journal she’s kept of everything Anjin has said and done while he was away. Toranaga instructs her to remain at Anjin’s house, acting as his interpreter. “And my husband?” she asks. “I’ve instructed Buntaro to move into the Anjin’s house with you,” Toranaga replies. “That way, you can serve them both.” Nagakado calls for Toranaga’s attention, holding up a dead pheasant the hawk killed. Out of earshot, Toranaga asks Mariko if it was his son’s idea to murder Jozen. She tells him she doesn’t know. When Nagakado brings the pheasant over, Toranaga asks Mariko to gift it to Anjin. Mariko leaves.

Alone, Toranaga asks his son if it occurred to him that killing Jozen was exactly what Yabushige wanted. “You so easily fell into their trap,” he scolds Nagakado. “Broken to another man’s fist like a falcon, but without the beauty.” Toranaga talks about how falcons have to be trained, broken to hunt from the fist instead of waiting for a lure. “All men can be broken. Learn to fly them at the right time, and they will do your hunting for you.” Toranaga strips his son’s command of the cannon regiment until he can learn this lesson.

In Osaka, a messenger delivers a package to Ishido. He unwraps it to find the severed head of General Nebara Jozen (Nobuya Shimamoto). Ishido shakes with rage.

John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) returns home with the pheasant, excited by the gift. Usami Fuji (Moeka Hoshi) and the household staff rush to their garden to greet him. He monologues in English about how the meat must be allowed to mature, hanging it from a hook under the eaves. Mariko isn’t there to translate, so Fuji tries to ask Anjin if the bird will stink, miming a bad smell to get her point across. Blackthorne nods that it will smell, but that this is the best way to prepare a pheasant. He orders them not to touch it. To drive his point home, he insincerely says, “If touch, die.”

In the kitchen, Fuji asks the servants to order new knives and utensils just for Anjin to ensure whatever he prepares doesn’t contaminate what they eat. Buntaro arrives. “Uncle, it’s wonderful to see you’ve returned safely,” Fuji greets him. He asks where his wife is, and Fuji tells him Mariko is at Toranaga’s camp. He grumbles about how he and his wife have to live with Anjin. “How is it being consort to a barbarian?” he asks his niece. “Sorry, I am consort to a Hatamoto, I wouldn’t know,” she responds. He asks if they pillow, and she tells him Anjin prefers other women. He leaves, promising to return for dinner.

At the training camp, Lord Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) brags to Toranaga about how well the training is going. Toranaga wants to see a training session from a distance, given what happened to Jozen. “Return to Osaka and pledge loyalty to Ishido,” Toranaga says, quoting the letter Yabushige received. “Since that sunrise in Osaka, you and I are bound by fate,” Yabushige responds, affirming his loyalty. Toranaga accuses Yabushige of manipulating his son into murdering Jozen and his men. Yabushige blames it on his nephew, Omi, who had saké with Nagakado the night before and gave him the idea. He says he will discipline Omi. “Why would I need to discipline such a promising young man?” Toranaga asks, shocking Yabushige by acting pleased and saying that they would lose a battle in Osaka, but if they draw the battle to Ajiro, they have an advantage. “Inform your nephew I’m giving him command of the Anjin’s artillery,” Tornanaga adds.

Yabushige is furious that Toranaga’s spy knew the contents of the letter Ishido sent him. In his search for the spy, he personally ransacks a home in the village. Nothing is found, and Kashigi Omi (Hiroto Kanai) tells his uncle that the home belongs to a hardworking member of the village. “He’s toying with me,” Yabushige complains about Toranaga, feeling like prey for one of his falcons. After calming down, he tells Omi that he’s been given command of the cannon regiment. Omi offers to relinquish command to his uncle. “How can you relinquish what already belongs to me?” Yabushige snaps, ordering his nephew to find the spy. Yabushige asks one of his top samurai, Igarashi Yoshitomo (Hiro Kanagawa), to go to Osaka to fix things with Ishido.

Flies buzz around the pheasant in Blackthorne’s garden. His gardener, Uejirou, tells Muraji that after the conditions he endured in Korea, this isn’t so bad. But Muraji is repulsed by the sight and smell, as is anyone who comes close enough to the garden to smell it.

“We’re both cursed,” Fuji tells Mariko as they dine together. She shares her own curse – Anjin contaminating the kitchen – and says Mariko’s curse is that her husband came back from the dead. She worries that Anjin is in danger with Buntaro around. They’re interrupted by Blackthorne returning home. “Is there anything you feel I should be preparing for?” he asks Mariko about her husband’s return. “Dinner,” she simply responds, getting up to go get ready herself. “And you will be a gracious host,” she reminds him.

After being dressed for dinner, swords and all, Blackthorne goes out to the garden to find Uejirou working hard to place large stones in the sand. “Without a good rock, a garden is just a place of growing,” he tells his lord, who can mostly understand what he’s saying. Buntaro arrives, and Blackthorne bows, welcoming him in Japanese and calling him “Lord Buntaro.” He is corrected to call him “Lord Toda,” and Mariko explains that Buntaro is only for those close to him. Blackthorne says he is happy Buntaro was able to see a demonstration of the cannon regiment. Buntaro responds that his bow and arrow are more effective than any cannon. Buntaro smells something bad and asks what died just as Fuji announces that dinner is ready.

Blackthorne has had the cook prepare an English rabbit stew for this special occasion. However, nobody is willing to try it, all looking repulsed by the sight and smell. It spoils Blackthorne’s appetite, and he sends it back to the kitchen, joining the rest in eating the Japanese cuisine. Buntaro mocks the way Blackthorne eats noodles, and Blackthorne asks Mariko to translate. “My husband comments on the way you eat your noodles,” she softens the intention, adding that the sound you make indicates the depth of your pleasure (Blackthorne was eating quietly). They get into a slurping match. And as Buntaro sips saké from a small cup, Blackthorne comments that where he’s from, only women drink from tiny cups. Mariko starts to explain why saké cups are small, but Blackthorne empties his noodle bowl and fills it full of saké. “This is how we drink,” he declares as he begins to gulp from his cup. Buntaro does the same.

Fuji goes to the kitchen, ordering the servants to pretend they’re out of saké if Anjin asks for more. The smell of the rabbit stew is still overwhelming, and she asks it to be dumped into the sea. When she gets back to the dining room, both Blackthorne and Buntaro are drunk. Mariko points out that it’s late and they should go to bed, but Blackthorne boisterously demands the tale of Buntaro’s heroism. “Heroism is for the dead, and stories are for children,” Buntaro offends in Japanese, asking instead for some of Blackthorne’s battle stories. “Please listen,” Mariko tells Blackthorne. “My husband is tired and has had a lot to drink. You must tell him a story, but choose your words carefully.” Blackthorne drunkenly refuses, speaking what Japanese he knows – “No. War. Talk.” He mimes a bow and arrow being shot, so Buntaro calls for his servant to bring his bow and arrow over. “Have him choose a post,” he instructs Mariko. She tells Blackthorne to choose the left or right post of his garden gate. Blackthorne argues that Buntaro can’t see straight. “Please, choose,” she commands. He chooses the right post. Buntaro pulls back his arrow, seemingly pointing it at Mariko’s head. Blackthorne tells her to move, but she doesn’t. Mariko barely flinches as Buntaro’s arrow whizzes past the bridge of her nose, piercing the shoji wall, making a hole in the paper. Buntaro pulls back another arrow. Blackthorne again instructs Mariko to move. She doesn’t. The arrow follows the exact same path, fitting through the hole without widening it. Blackthorne looks horrified as Buntaro sits back down. Mariko lets out a small, barely perceptible sigh of relief.

“Please tell him that while I understand that in this country, like mine, a man’s wife is his property, but I believe strongly that his wife merits better,” Blackthorne tells Mariko. She translates for Buntaro, who laughs in response. “You of all people,” Buntaro belittles Mariko, ordering her to tell Anjin about her family history. “I am daughter of the late Lord Akechi Jinsai,” Mariko begins, revealing that her father murdered the corrupt ruler of Japan before the last Taikō. She explains that he did this out of love for his realm, but that, as a consequence, her mother, brothers, and sisters were all executed before her father was made to commit seppuku. “I was just married and not permitted to fight,” Mariko concludes. “Each year on the anniversary of my family’s murder, I ask my husband to let me take action against this injustice. But I can do nothing because my husband orders me to live.” Blackthorne glares at Buntaro. “I ask you to remember the eightfold fence,” Mariko asks Blackthorne (referencing the previous episode). Mariko excuses herself, ignoring Buntaro as he yells that she doesn’t have his permission to leave. She ignores him.

That night, Blackthorne is awoken by the sound of Mariko and Buntaro yelling at each other. He tries to ignore it and go back to sleep, but can’t once he hears their fight become physical. He rushes to their door to find Fuji guarding it, holding the pistol Blackthorne gave her to keep him at bay. He orders her to get out of his way, recognizing that she’s too frightened to shoot. He slides the shoji open and finds Mariko alone, kneeling on the floor with a bloody lip. She is mortified that Blackthorne has seen her like this. Fuji says she tried to stop Blackthorne from entering. Mariko yells at them both to leave.

Blackthorne rushes out into the night air with the pistol, leaving the garden and seeing Buntaro walking down the empty Ajiro streets. He orders him to stop, and Buntaro complies, taking off his sandals, pulling out his sword, sitting on the ground, and apologizing for disturbing the peace of Anjin’s home. He blames the saké for his behavior. Blackthorne returns to his garden, noticing for the first time the two arrows lodged perfectly in the right post of his gate.

The sun shines on the shores of Ajiro as Muraji walks through the rockiest parts of the beach. He gets to a canyon where Nagakado waits for him, escorting him the rest of the way to the secret pigeon coops. Toranaga is there, lamenting that the birds' feathers are too damp to fly. “Hiding the pigeons here was your idea in the first place,” Muraji reminds his lord. “Yabushige is hunting for a spy in your village,” Toranaga tells him. Muraji wants to surrender himself. Toranaga refuses his request. “Your real name is Tonomoto Akinao, my long-serving, prized samurai,” Toranaga reminds Muraji. “You will remain my spy.” Muraji asks for advice on what he should do about Yabushige. “Find him another spy,” Toranaga advises.

Blackthorne is groggy as he steps into the garden, finding Fuji and all of the servants having a meeting about the stinky pheasant. He asks where Mariko is, but Fuji asks if they can get rid of the rotting bird. He doesn’t understand her question and walks off in search of Mariko.

Snow flurries are starting to fall as Blackthorne finds Mariko on a cliff looking out at the ocean. “All of this is my doing,” she tells him. “Your husband’s brutality is no fault of yours,” he responds. Mariko says she and Blackthorne shouldn’t be seen together. He counters that he can see she doesn’t want to be with her husband. “You see so little,” she scolds him, telling him the truth of the swords he carries. Fuji thinks they were a gift of honor for her father’s bravery, but he died begging for his life. Her grandfather, Hiromatsu, bought the swords to save her from embarrassment because she didn’t deserve the truth. “I give my husband nothing, not even my hatred because that is what he merits,” she adds. Blackthorne asks Mariko what becomes of her. “My life is mine, and yours is yours,” he tells her. “If you can’t see that, you’ll never be free of this prison.” Mariko counters that he is the one who is imprisoned, doomed to never be free of himself. “I will honor my duty as your translator, but from this day forward, the only words we share will be from others’ lips,” Mariko says as she walks away.

Blackthorne notices villagers crying as he walks through the streets of Ajiro on his way home. Entering his garden, he sees that Fuji is crying, too, as are his servants. She points to the empty hook where the pheasant was hanging. “It was Uejirou,” she tells him. Blackthorne says it’s fine, asking to see his gardener. “Uejirou is dead,” she responds. He asks how. “Because you said it was forbidden,” she replies. Blackthorne is in disbelief. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he asks. Fuji takes the blame, begging Anjin to take her life, pointing to the swords. He backs away, ordering Fuji and all of the servants to go away. They go back inside the house as he grows more distraught in the peaceful garden Uejirou curated for him.

“Buntaro may do whatever he wishes with his wife, but right now, I cannot have my translator harmed,” Toranaga tells Mariko at the battle camp. Blackthorne arrives, interrupting their conversation, and Mariko takes her seat to translate. Blackthorne says he believes he has fulfilled his training duties, asking to be reunited with his ship and men so he can return home. “There’s a shadow on both of you,” Toranaga comments after Mariko translates. “He asks what troubles you,” she translates for Blackthorne, who says he’s troubled by the whole country. “Life has no value to you, only the meaningless rituals you are trapped in,” he tells her, saying Uejirou died for nothing. “He’s upset about a matter with his gardener,” she simplifies for Toranaga. “It is my understanding that you ordered no one to touch that bird,” Mariko says, breaking her promise not to speak to him without translating. She said his servants couldn’t disobey his order, but they also couldn’t allow the smell to ruin the peace of the village. He says the bird meant nothing to him. “Your words gave it meaning,” she reminds him. “I can’t be bothered with this nonsense,” Toranaga says, getting up to go observe training. “A meeting was called with Muraji,” Mariko tells Blackthorne, the head of the village who determined it was a house problem. Uejirou volunteered to take the fall because he had been sick lately. “He died for a greater purpose,” she tries to comfort Blackthorne, who is distraught, looking to the heavens for solace. “Lord, forgive me, I killed that old man,” Blackthorne prays to the sky. “There is no use dwelling on what cannot be undone,” Mariko tells him, to Blackthorne’s disbelief. “We live, and we die,” she says. “We control nothing beyond that.”

Toranaga watches as birds take flight from the trees, the first sign of an earthquake. From their elevated hill, they watch the earth around them begin to shift like an ocean wave. The ground Toranaga is standing on disappears. Blackthorne, Mariko, and Nagakado rush to try and save him as Toranaga slips beneath the earth in a landslide. Blackthorne, Nagakado, and samurai begin to search through the landslide. Blackthorne finds Toranaga’s fan, and they start digging. They soon find him, pulling the lord out of the ground. He’s not breathing, but a forceful hit on the back by Blackthorne resuscitates him. Toranaga seems shocked to find that Blackthorne is his savior. Mariko rushes in, recognizing that Toranaga’s swords are missing. She starts to dig with her hands, looking for them in vain. Blackthorne pulls his own swords out of his belt, offering the ones that Fuji gave him as a gift to Toranaga. Nagakado draws their attention to the battlefield below, watching as landslides continue to take out a significant portion of Toranaga’s army.

Blackthorne rushes through the rubble of Ajiro, running past destroyed homes, small fires, and dead bodies. On his engawa, Maids tend to Fuji, who has been injured. Blackthorne takes her hand, silently indicating that things will be alright. He goes to the garden and finds the rocks that Uejirou set up have been disturbed. He begins to clear the broken tree branches from the area, standing the rocks back up just as the gardener had, smoothing the sand around them.

“We only discovered these after the earthquake,” Omi tells Yabushige outside Uejirou's disheveled hut. Muraji is there, who “picks up” a scroll and passes it along, a message that implies Uejirou was the spy. Muraji tells Yabushige that the gardener died yesterday. “Lucky for him,” Yabushige grunts in disappointment, seemingly sad at the lost opportunity for torture.

It’s a rainy night in Osaka. A caravan is permitted entry through the castle's many protective walls. The litter finally reaches its destination. “Mother!” Nakamura Yaechiyo (Sen Mars), the heir, shouts as he is reunited with Lady Ochiba (Fumi Nikaido). “Glad you’ve returned safely, Lady Ochiba,” Daiyoin (Ako) greets her.

The fusuma of Ochiba’s ornate room slides open, and Ishido enters. She thanks him for putting pressure on Toranaga to send her back to Osaka, adding that she heard he paralyzed the council. “I will restore the Council,” Ishido promises, asking for her patience. “The time for politics has come to an end,” Ochiba says menacingly. “The Council will answer to me.”

Next Episode – Tuesday, March 26th, streaming on Hulu and airing at 10/9c on FX:

Chapter 6 – "Ladies of the Willow World" – Written by Maegan Houang

Lady Ochiba returns to Osaka in order to accelerate the Regents’ campaign against Toranaga. In Ajiro, Toranaga tests Mariko’s loyalty to his cause.