Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode 9 review: “The Shibuya Incident – Gate, Open”

Yeah, that happened. Let’s talk about Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode 9, “The Shibuya Incident – Gate, Open” and just cry it out.

Ummmm. Yeah, where do we start with this one?

At first, when the episode first opens, we see the question “What do you think of Satoru Gojo?” pop up on the screen, and every single character that has ever interacted with Gojo responds with anything from “he’s a teacher!” to “He’s an idiot.” That made me smile and I quickly realized this episode would be all about Gojo! … But not in the way I had imagined at first.

Episode 8, “The Shibuya Incident”, ended with Geto, Jogo, and Hanami preparing to attack Gojo and potentially bring him down. Hundreds of innocent humans ended up trapped in the Shibuya Station and were consequently attacked, eaten, and turned into minor curses themselves. In short – it wasn’t pretty. At all.

Before I start blabbing, here’s your mandatory SPOILER ALERT WARNING!

Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode 9 review: “The Shibuya Incident – Gate, Open”

The way this episode is set up definitely made my stomach turn.

We see Gojo fighting Jogo and Hanami, but mostly focusing on Jogo, while using minimal cursed energy and mainly melee attacks (aka martial arts – yep, this man does it all). It was a glorious victory as we see Gojo press Hanami against the wall with an incredible amount of contained cursed energy and basically explode him just like that one chick in the first Cloverfield movie when she’s in that tent.

Yes, it was awesome! But… Then we realize that the real plan is to contain Gojo to the point where he can be tucked away – or maybe even killed – whichever happens to come first. We get flashbacks to Geto and crew making their plans about the Prison Domain, and how it’ll be used to potentially put Gojo out of sight for a really long time, if not an eternity. At that point, we knew something bad was on its way to my beloved anime husband to Gojo. We just didn’t know what.

Meanwhile, we switch to Yuji – who’s in the station, surveilling the damage. He talks to a choked-looking woman, and she explains that everyone just got on the train and started turning into monsters and that she “wasn’t needed” because they had enough monsters on the train. And then she promptly turns into a horribly disfigured monster and dies. It’s at that point that we as viewers and Yuji had an oh, crap moment – that train is on its way to Gojo and the innocent humans.

To nobody’s surprise, when the train does pull up and folks are blindly celebrating their ticket out of that place, the monsters come out and just go on a rampage – eating, chomping on, and killing every single human in sight. It was pretty disturbing.

Personally, when situations like this happen in a movie or show, I immediately start to quietly panic for the innocent souls tangled up in this cursed mess (pun intended). Left and right, innocent humans who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, celebrating Halloween in costumes and having a good time at first, were completely decimated by Mahito, a random Death Painting curse that decided to pop up to say “hello”, Jogo, and the previously human monstrosities that still roamed around the platform.

Can we just pause here and say that my obsession with Gojo is completely justified in this episode? What can’t that man do?! He is incredibly talented, strong, and intelligent – making calculations that would be impossible to wrap our minds around in the smallest amount of time while weighing the pros and cons of his choices.

The fact this man whipped up a Domain Expansion in that platform for 299 seconds and killed ONE THOUSAND transfigured humans to save the other ones is INSANE. The fact he did it that quickly to save the minds of the survivors is even more commendable. Gojo may act silly, cold-natured, and matter-of-fact at all times, but he truly cares and knows what it means to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer – he’s there to protect the innocent from Curses, whether they can see them or not. And he does just that.

But.

Ah, yes. There is a but.

Geto, or the Curse using Geto’s body (Gojo killed him himself in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 – easily the best anime movie to date), reveals himself and catches Gojo off guard – just as he had intended. That is all he needed. Gojo paused, and in that pause, Geto unleashed the Prison Domain and completely immobilized Gojo. And then, he sealed him.

I don’t even know what’s next. Though Gojo did mention Yuta – the main character in the incredible movie Jujustu Kaisen 0, which I can’t recommend enough – and how strong he is. Will older Yuta make an appearance? Will we also see Rika – the curse that follows him around due to his tragic backstory? That would be amazing.

For now, speculations will have to do. This was one of the most disturbing and heavier episodes in the series, and it was excellently paced and executed. I will definitely be chewing my nails while waiting for next week’s episode.