Jin learns that the samurai he met earlier and thought looked so familiar is the legendary Sakimoto Ryoma. I'm not up on my Japanese history so I had to Wiki him. He's the (future) leader of the movement to overthrow the shogunate. Right now, though, he's just ambling around Edo. Jin wonders to himself if Sakimoto is Father of Creepy Baby in a Jar who somehow time traveled forward to 2009. (At this point I still think it is Jin himself. How would Sakimoto know what to pack in a medical kit?)
A cholera outbreak begins.
Sakimoto has a meeting with some other samurais who want to kill Battleship Magistrate Officer Katsu Rintaro. Sakimoto eagerly volunteers to join in on the assassination. That night as he's walking along the streets, Sakimoto comes to the rescue of an old man. The guy turns out to be the owner of an expensive brothel. As a thank you for saving his life, the man offers Sakimoto one of the ladies. He ain't turning the offer down. It is here that Sakimoto spies Nokaze (who isn't walking oddly like she did in the last episode. What was up with that??)
Next morning Saki is asking Jin technical questions. She's wanting to be his assistant and learn all she can. Mama T breaks up their lesson. She asks Jin why doesn't he get his head shaved and look like a respectable person. It's just a suggestion. (And you know what it means when a mother makes a "suggestion.") As Jin goes on a stroll through nature he starts to worry that he shouldn't be practicing medicine in this time period. What if he saves the life of someone who was meant to die, messing up the future?
When Jin returns to the Tachibana household it is to find he has some visitors. Ogata Kouan, a Japanese doctor who has studied Dutch (Western) medicine, has heard about Jin's medical skills and has come to ask if Jin knows how to cure cholera. Our boy is feeling conflicted and cops out, saying he doesn't know the cure.
Jin and Saki go to check up on the woman he operated on in the first episode. She's doing fine, but her cute little boy, Kiichi, suddenly comes down with cholera. His mother begs the doctor to help him, but again Jin denies knowing what to do and tries to duck out. Saki, who looks like she suspects Jin does know what to do, refuses to abandon the boy. She confronts Jin, asking what possible reason could there be for a doctor to allow a young child to suffer? You go, Saki! Use the Power of Shame.
Saki's superpowers work and Jin advises the neighbors on preventative measures and basic sanitation. Jin plans to stay with Kiichi, who has been put into quarantine. Saki wants to stay as well but Jin orders her away, gently reminding her to think about her mother. Saki reluctantly returns home but is feeling useless. She wants to be actively fighting against the cholera. Saki starts to leave when the formidable Mama T stops her, threatening that if her daughter leaves this house she'll never enter it again. Saki defiantly states she will go fight in the memory of her father and rushes past her mother. Saki! Saki! Saki!
With the help of the neighborhood making homemade ORT's (oral rehydration therapy - sugar and salt solutions), Jin works himself ragged to treat Kiichi as well as other new patients in the quarantine area. Saki has gone to beg Ogata Kouan to come help Jin.
Tachibana is on his way to check up on his sister when he stumbles upon Sakimoto and his co-hort starting to attack Katsu. I'm sure this isn't good, but when Tachibana starts to cry out a warning he suddenly grabs his head on the side where Jin had operated last time. Just as the co-hort is about to slice his victim, Sakimoto trips the man up. Co-hort (I'm too lazy to go back and find out what his character's name is) realizes that Sakimoto never intended to kill Katsu and turns on his former partner. But again, just as he's about to slice, he gets a case of the squirts. (With unfortunate sound effects. I don't wanna hear it!) It's the dreaded cholera. Tachibana is about to draw his own sword and execute the man when Sakimoto has the gall to ask for a doctor. Tachibana waffles for a moment before he finally puts his sword away and tells them where to find Jin.
Jin is about to collapse from exhaustion when Ogata and his medical staff show up. However, since Jin lied to him earlier about not knowing how to treat cholera, Ogata needs his trust to be regained. Suddenly one of Jin's patients, an old man, dies, making Ogata and his people doubt that Jin knows what he's doing. They all start to leave despite Jin falling to his knees and begging them to stay. Just then one of Ogata's people falls to the ground sick with cholera. None of his fellow doctors will touch him. By now Sakimoto has come upon the scene, his shitty friend on his back. Sakimoto says he sees which doctor won't touch a sick man and which doctor will stay until the bitter end and goes over to Jin, asking for help. This finally gets the old man to unbend and he carries his sick colleague over to Jin as well. Is there anything greater than the Power of Shame?
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