This extremely interesting installment of Jujutsu Kaisen was definitely my favorite so far from season 2 – and among my top favorites for the first season as well. Since Suguru is the villain I like most from Jujutsu Kaisen, I was excited to finally see the episode that explained his switch from morally upstanding to mass murderer. The events of this episode were not what I predicted, but I’m more than satisfied with them. Let me recap the episode and then I’ll share some thoughts about Suguru.

Note: Normally, I cover two episodes of this anime at a time on a biweekly posting schedule. However, since the 6th episode has been pushed back to August 31st, I wanted to go ahead and get my thoughts out about episode 5.

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Episode Recap

A bit of time has passed and Satoru is now recognized as the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer in the world. He’s constantly training and perfecting his abilities, so he doesn’t get sent out on missions very often anymore. As a valuable sorcerer who can heal others, Shoko is also not sent on any dangerous missions. This means Suguru worked alone for that summer. As he absorbed the disgusting spirits day after day, he felt bitter and alone. He started losing weight and getting into a bad mental space.

One day, Suguru met Yuki Tsukumo, a special-grade sorcerer who is a little wacky. She thinks outside the box, and her idea is to eliminate the ultimate source of cursed spirits, which is the cursed energy that leaks out of non-sorcerer humans. (Note: Jujutsu sorcerers are able to control their cursed energy flow, so they don’t create curses unless they suddenly die with regrets.)

Yuki’s original idea was to erase cursed energy, and Toji was going to be her example. He was able to completely get rid of cursed energy with his Heavenly Pact. However, Toji is dead now, and the prospect of erasing all cursed energy seems steep. So, Yuki’s second plan is to make it so all of humanity can control their cursed energy well enough to prevent the births of new curses. It’s at this moment that Suguru points out the easiest solution – just get rid of everyone who isn’t a Jujutsu sorcerer. Normal humans could be culled and forced to evolve into sorcerers.

After giving some advice to Suguru about choosing his own path, Yuki departs. She also mentions that Tengan is stable because the next Star Vessel has already been born. The scene then cuts to a morgue, where Nanami is frustrated because so many sorcerers died on a recent mission. The mission was supposed to be easy, but the cursed spirit turned out to be special-grade. The result was that many died. Suguru tells Nanami to get some rest, but he looks like he needs rest more than anyone.

The following events were told in a rather vague and disjointed way. Suguru went back to the village where the cursed spirit had recently manifested and killed those sorcerers. The religious villagers were keeping two young girls locked up, suspecting them of being involved in curses. Suguru released the girls and set the village on fire. According to the report that was released a few days later, residuals of Suguru’s cursed energy were found all over the burned village. He had finally snapped. Suguru killed 112 humans.

Immediately, the upper brass of Jujutsu sorcerers announces a death sentence for Suguru. Evidence shows that he killed his own parents and then disappeared. When Satoru hears all this, he’s enraged and confused. He goes looking for Suguru, and soon finds him in Shinjuku, thanks to a tip from Shoko. (Suguru and Shoko had a brief conversation wherein Shoko verified that Suguru was guilty of the charges.)

Upon catching up to Suguru, Satoru demands answers. Suguru explains that he will create a world where the only people are sorcerers. Satoru says that is impossible, to which Suguru responds, “You could do it.” He also says that his new cause wouldn’t be crazy at all if someone like Satoru backed it up. The point he was trying to make is that strength decides everything in the world of sorcerers. Suguru then walks away, and Satoru can’t bring himself to kill his old friend. He returns to Jujutsu High, defeated.

Suguru takes over the Star Religious Group by force, killing anyone who opposes him. The organization is now his. Meanwhile, Satoru realizes that the next generation needs to be stronger than ever in order to combat threats like Suguru. So he goes to see young Megumi Fushiguro, giving him the choice to either join him or join the Zenin clan as his father arranged. Megumi, of course, chose Satoru. In a few years, he would begin training with Satoru as his teacher. The episode ends with Satoru waking up in the present with Megumi, Kugisaki, and Yuuji.

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Episode Thoughts

My thoughts in this section will naturally be about Suguru. My general reaction to him and his actions was a feeling of intrigue and captivation. Suguru is a fascinating character and his development was well written. There was also some disappointment in Suguru, because I would have also been fine with him continuing to be a “good guy.” On a similar note, Satoru is usually not emotional at all, but he was clearly so angry, confused, and upset in this episode. Since I empathize with Satoru, I got second-hand upset at Suguru, if that makes any sense.

I recently watched Jujutsu Kaisen 0, and it was interesting seeing the evil version of Suguru. Ever since then, I had been thinking about it a lot and wondering exactly what would cause him to change so much. What I predicted was that Suguru would fall in love with a sorceress who would somehow be brutally killed by non-sorcerers, resulting in Suguru losing his mind and starting to hate regular humans. I thought I was on the right track when Yuki Tsukumo appeared – surely, she would be the tragic love interest.

Of course, this idea ended up being completely wrong, but it was still weirdly fun to try to predict things. So, what was the actual source of his change? It wasn’t just one thing. To make this kind of character arc more realistic, there were multiple factors involved. I thought of ten different issues, which are listed below. Clearly, Suguru was going through a lot. All of these reasons deserve discussion. Due to limited time, however, let me just quickly provide some details on factors 4 to 7.

Factors Involved in Suguru’s Change

1) Tiredness and physical stress
2) Work-related pressure
3) Isolation from friends
4) Feeling existentially alone as a curse eater
5) Experiences with the Star Religious Group
6) Personality of wanting a great cause
7) Encounter with Yuki Tsukumo
8) Encounter with the two girls who were locked up
9) Hatred of curses and misguided desire for justice
10) Dissatisfaction with own position and envy of Satoru

Suguru is the only known user of the ability that lets him absorb curses into himself. It’s possible that this ability throws off one’s internal cursed energy or something like that, but I think it’s more psychological than a jujutsu magic thing. As Suguru pointed out, nobody else knew what curses tasted like, and they were disgusting. This young man felt terminally unique – existentially alone. There was nobody who could understand his perspective. I’ve been there, too – and such feelings truly darken one’s mental landscape.

The recent experiences with the Star Religious Group (which I’ll just call Star Cult from now on) were also factors in Suguru’s change. In particular, I mean the murder of Riko and the way it was celebrated by the mindless Cult members. Interestingly enough, at several points in this episode, Suguru’s thoughts about hating humans are matched with the background sound effect of clapping hands – the same applause given by the Star Cult when Satoru presented the body of Riko.

It seems that the unjust death of Riko was a significant event in Suguru’s life. He did see her die right in front of him, so it might even have been a trauma response at play. As someone who grew up in a very cult-like community and had to work hard to escape, it’s easy to hate Cults and overzealous religious groups. Their brainless woship and the way they often celebrate abuse and tragedy would make anyone furious, even if they were not part of said Cult. I think a large part of Suguru’s hatred of non-sorcerers actually stemmed from his hatred of the Star Cult – which is also probably why the first place he went following his decision was the Star Cult to rule over and kill at least one member as an example.

As for the sixth and seventh factors, they are somewhat interrelated. Suguru has an innately strong drive – a desire to change the world. That’s his personality. He needs a “great cause” to work toward. One of the reasons Suguru was struggling was that he doubted his cause of protecting humanity, perhaps at the cost of his own sanity, even while they continue producing disgusting curses every day. Suguru needed to find a cause he could truly believe in. The person who inadvertantly gave him that idea was Yuki Tsukumo. The encounter with Yuki was a crucial part of Suguru’s change, even though she meant no harm.

I think most of the other factors on this list make enough sense for anybody who has seen the episode. I don’t have time to ramble on forever, as I’m trying to finish this post in time to continue my streak of writing every day. To sum it up, Suguru’s decision to work against the good of humanity was caused by many different factors, many of which were outside his control. That doesn’t excuse anything he did, but it does help make sense of why everything unfolded this way. Suguru is a fascinating villain and I hope to see more of him in the remaining second season, which will pick up on Aug 31st.

Thanks for reading~

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PATREON