‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Season 2 Episode 1 Recap & Ending, Explained: Who Is Master Tengen?

Even newbies in anime must’ve heard the name Gojo Satoru at least once, and that’s because there haven’t been too many characters in the art form who come close to being as charming and freakishly strong as this white-haired sorcerer. Satoru is a part of the crazily popular anime Jujutsu Kaisen, which ran from October 2020 to March of 2021 in its first season but ensured a fandom that stayed loyal even when the show was on break. Largely thanks to the colorful characters, gripping story, and fantastic animation of Mappa, Jujutsu Kaisen, aka JJK, has garnered global fame, so when Season 2 of this anime was released, naturally, fans couldn’t control their excitement. Season 2 begins with a trip down memory lane as we explore the times when the ‘strongest jujutsu sorcerer,’ Gojo, was a student and the adventures he had with his best friend. If you’re familiar with Season 1, it might feel odd to find Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru being best friends as young men, but the second season is going to explain in detail what exactly went wrong for them to part ways with immense hatred in their hearts. 

Spoilers Ahead


The Present Day

A man walks through the alleys of Japan as he contemplates how there has been a surge in cursed spirits in the city lately. During his stroll, he notices a curse devouring a dead man, so the speaker enters the narrow alley and exorcizes the curse into a shiny ball and proceeds to swallow it whole. This man is none other than Geto Suguru, the main antagonist of Season 1 and the former best friend of Gojo Satoru. Geto thinks back to the time when he and Gojo confronted each other on the street, and things were never the same again.


How Do Mei And Utahime Escape The Haunted Building?

Jujutsu sorcerers Mei and Utahime enter a building that’s been famously haunted by a host of cursed spirits after the president of a famous food chain killed himself inside the house. The haunted mansion was the origin of several disappearances and deaths of people who’d tried testing their courage, which is why the sorcerers need to rout the evil that roams the cursed corridors. After inspection, Mei surmises that the spirit has trapped the two sorcerers in an infinite loop, so her underling Utahime comes up with a genius idea. Both women need to run in opposite directions faster than the spirit can put the parts of the corridor together, and sure enough, the building explodes, with the spirit unable to keep up with the sorcerers’ speed.

At this point, three new people show up, and the rowdiest and most carefree of the lot is a young Gojo Satoru, followed by his best friend Geto Suguru and another sorcerer named Shoko, who seems strangely similar to Kugisaki Nobara. Gojo doesn’t even flinch before exorcizing the cursed spirit and gets disciplined later by then-potential principal Masamichi for not setting up the veil. On the basketball court, the individual philosophies of Gojo and Geto are revealed; the former is tired of having to tweak his techniques to make life easier for weak humans, while Geto considers protecting the weak to be the sole purpose of a sorcerer. It’s extremely ironic how two of the strongest jujutsu sorcerers had completely opposite ideologies as students, so something severe must’ve happened for them to reverse their beliefs.


Who Is Master Tengen? Why Did He Summon The Boys?

Before Geto and Gojo take swings at each other, Masamichi arrives to inform the boys that Master Tengen has summoned them specially and that their task is to protect the Star Plasma Vessel. For the uninitiated, Master Tengen is the source of all jujutsu power in the universe, and he’s the protective barrier of every jujutsu school, so without Tengen, the whole order of sorcerers would collapse. Now, Tengen has specifically chosen a young girl as his Star Plasma Vessel, and she needs to be kept safe by the boys for the next two days until Tengen can merge with her under a full moon. So why does Tengen need this girl? Tengen is immortal, but that doesn’t keep his body safe from aging; instead, he needs to fuse with another body every 500 years lest he lose his human form and become something beyond. That way, he might even become a threat to the jujutsu world, so he’s personally chosen the Vessel with which he needs to fuse.

However, two groups, the Time Vessel Association, and Curse User Group Q, are trying to kill the Star Plasma Vessel, and each has its own reasons. While Curse User Group Q wants to kill the Vessel to just spread havoc in the city, the other group has a more detailed plan. They worship the real form of Tengen and don’t want any impurity to interfere with his perfection.


What Does the Time Vessel Association Plan To Execute?

Gojo decides to wait outside a building as Geto goes inside to fetch the Star Plasma Vessel, but later, the portion of the building where Geto was standing blows up. Gojo casually calls his friend to confirm if he’s still alive while the Vessel is falling off the building. Without breaking a sweat, Geto follows the Vessel and grabs her using one of his manipulated cursed spirits while a member of Group Q confronts Gojo. The trap had been set by Group Q, and they planned not to let the sorcerers foil their plan. However, Gojo is unfazed and just promises to show no mercy against his opponent.

Meanwhile, the whole fiasco is being witnessed by two men from a balcony, and the one in a suit offers the other a job with the Time Vessel Association. The employer promises a lot of money to this man from the high-ranking Zenin family, but the man clarifies that he goes by his wife’s surname now, Fushiguro. This man, the terrorizing former Zenin, is Toji Fushiguro, the father of Megumi from Season 1. Toji gladly accepts the offer, and it seems the Time Vessel Association wants the Vessel to die so that Master Tengen can keep his real form, even if it means he becomes a threat to the world order.


Indrayudh Talukdar
Indrayudh Talukdar
Indrayudh has a master's degree in English literature from Calcutta University and a passion for all things in cinema. He loves writing about the finer aspects of cinema, although he is also an equally big fan of webseries and anime. In his free time, Indrayudh loves playing video games and reading classic novels.


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