The Renovation Wife
Episode 7 of Fishbowl Wives picks up where we left off, with Takuya forcing himself onto Sakura. Thankfully Haruto shows up and pulls him off her. Haruto refuses to hit the estranged husband though, and instead, takes Sakura and heads off. Just before he leaves though, he lets Takuya know that he’s already called the police. Alone, Haruto opens up and admits to Sakura that she saved Ran and since then, he’s been thinking about her a lot. He’s known who she is the whole time and it explains his excitement in seeing her again, given what transpired in the past. Haruto apologizes for not stepping up and saving Ran himself. However, he is confident when he tells her that he loves her, admitting that they’re meant to be together. He asks Sakura to stay with him and gives her the space and time to think this over. Sakura is determined to do this though and thanks to Masako’s influence and legal know-how, she talks her through the steps for divorcing Takuya. The couple we follow this episode happens to be Yuriha and her husband. With renovations coming up, he’s prioritizing his mum over her which certainly doesn’t sit well with Yuriha. It’s also worth noting here that Yuriha was actually Takuya’s mistress from before. While the renovations go ahead, she starts to grow closer with Momoki, one of the construction workers. He also has a bruise and while Yuriha has hidden hers, he’s nonchalant to his. However, he does visit Yuriha to have his tattoo sprayed over. The shaman soon shows up in the midst of this though, commenting how Yuriha has very different energy at home compared to outside the apartment. She tells her that neither is her authentic self, leaving Yuriha with a lot to think about. Yuriha clings to the idea of having her own bathroom, something she asks her husband for. It’s a place she can truly be herself, and she gets to design everything as her own. However, the impact of her mother-In-law is just too great to bear and eventually she runs into the arms of Momoki. The pair end up kissing and sleeping with one another; a passionate affair that seems to be as much about finding common ground as it is about romance. Meanwhile, Haruto receives a call from his father, asking what his plan is. However, he’s thorn off-guard by him offering Haruto a job and returning to the company. At the same time, Takuya finds his business failing, with the salon starting to go under and lose business. It’s ironic he wanted to control Sakura and take her away but she’s actually instrumental to the business’ success. Masako shows up with big news to cement Takuya’s place in this worlds. She has video footage of him abusing Sakura, which throws his reputation and image completely out the window.
The Episode Review
The situation between Takuya and Sakura continues to develop, with the former finding himself in hot water after the images of him abusing his wife. It’s a big blow for his reputation but hopefully something that sees karma come back and bite him for hurting Sakura so. Meanwhile, the renovation couple storyline is pretty underdeveloped and there’s really not a lot to this. We don’t learn much about the husband and the cheating here is almost encouraged, given the soft piano chimes and visual motifs used during this sequence. I’m not quite sure whether that’s the intention but it almost champions cheating, which is a questionable moral stance to take. However, the show does leave everything wide open for the upcoming finale, with plenty of drama and romance left behind to encapsulate this long chapter.
