Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: Perfect Preparation Explained

Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 episode 4 delivers one of the darkest and most brutal chapters of the anime so far. Titled “Perfect Preparation,” the episode focuses almost entirely on Maki Zen’in and her violent break from the clan that rejected her.

The episode aired in January 2026 and adapts a pivotal arc from the manga. It reshapes the power balance of the series just as the Culling Game begins to escalate.

In jujutsu kaisen season 3 episode 4, Maki Zen’in returns to the Zen’in clan compound with a single purpose. She needs cursed tools from the clan vault, access granted after Megumi Fushiguro becomes clan head. From the start, hostility surrounds her.

Naoya Zen’in openly insults Maki, mocking her scars and calling her worthless. Maki ignores him and presses forward, showing how detached she has become from the family that abused her.

Inside the compound, Maki encounters her mother, who desperately begs her to stop. Maki continues to the vault, where the situation turns tragic. She finds her twin sister Mai gravely wounded, attacked by their own father, Ogi Zen’in.

Ogi reveals the clan’s plan to eliminate Maki, Mai, and Megumi. He blames his daughters for his own failures and leaves them to die in a chamber filled with cursed spirits. This betrayal becomes the emotional core of the episode.

As Maki lies near death, Mai uses her cursed technique one final time. She creates a powerful cursed sword and transfers all remaining cursed energy to Maki. The sacrifice completes Maki’s Heavenly Restriction.

Mai’s final request is simple and devastating. She asks Maki to destroy everything.

With Mai gone, Maki awakens transformed. Her strength and speed now rival Toji Fushiguro, a sorcerer feared across the jujutsu world. She effortlessly exterminates the cursed spirits that once trapped her.

Ogi attempts to fight back but is killed instantly. The Zen’in clan responds by mobilizing its elite forces. Maki cuts through the Kukuru unit without hesitation.

The clan’s strongest sorcerers, the Hei, attempt to stop her using cursed techniques. They fail. Maki defeats them with pure physical power, showing the terrifying result of a completed Heavenly Restriction.

Naoya Zen’in confronts her last. Confident in his speed-based cursed technique, he attacks relentlessly. Maki calmly counts each movement, now able to see every “frame” of his technique.

When Naoya commits to a final strike, Maki ends the fight in one blow. His defeat symbolizes the collapse of the Zen’in power structure.

Consequences for the Culling Game and the Series

The episode closes with quiet devastation. Maki encounters her mother one final time, and the cycle of abuse within the Zen’in family ends in silence and regret.

Maki carries Mai’s body out of the compound, entrusting her to Momo Nishimiya. She then walks away to finish erasing the Zen’in clan’s influence.

This episode permanently alters Maki’s role in the story. She is no longer a struggling sorcerer. She is a force capable of reshaping the Culling Game.

Jujutsu kaisen season 3 episode 4 stands as one of the most important episodes of the series. It combines emotional loss with irreversible change, setting a darker tone for everything that follows.