Oh dear gracious! If there's one thing this show knows how to do, and do well, it is to keep me on the edge of my seat! Things have certainly picked up and I can't say I'm handling this new level of suspense very well. (There may have been a couple of ugly strings of profanity shouted at my computer as I watched...) On the bright side, being stressed out of my mind means we've got a lot to talk about so let's get to it!
Last week we left off with a Cho Rim/Jae Hee faceoff that had me wondering how the heck that poor girl was going to talk her way out. Turns out she didn't really have to say anything; Jae Hee just kind of let her do her thing and then invited her to join him for a cup of coffee. A deadly cup of coffee, that is. Okay, so we don't really know if that coffee was deadly but her dad drank Jae Hee's coffee last week and ended up passed out on his bed so it's pretty safe to assume Cho Rim was headed in the same direction. Thank the drama gods Moo Gak has done a good job of making good on his promise to protect Cho Rim. That man has saved this poor girl from one too many close calls and I've been worrying that this luck of theirs might soon give out. However their luck held this week and Moo Gak was able to get Cho Rim out of Jae Hee's house before it was too late.
Unfortunately, what little luck Moo Gak and Cho Rim have managed for themselves doesn't seem to be holding up for anyone else. The police now know that Jae Hee is the Barcode Killer but they're completely useless when it comes to bringing this man to justice. I guess it's not really their fault. They simply lack any hard evidence that Jae Hee is, in fact, the murderer they're after. Jae Hee is too good at covering his tracks and now that he knows the police are onto him, he's being even more cautious. It doesn't really seem wise to me to let a serial killer know that he's your prime suspect but that's exactly what the police have done. When the man you're tracking comes up to your car while you're on a stakeout, to tell you that he's going to be gone for the next few hours so you can take a break, you might want to rethink your strategy, just a bit. You might as well send the dude a fruit basket and wish him well because you know he's not going to do anything stupid while you're sitting right outside his front door.
The problem is, Jae Hee doesn't do anything stupid anyway so having the cops tailing him isn't going to make a darn bit of difference. If anything, having Moo Gak so emotionally caught up in this case is probably only going to egg Jae Hee on. Neither one of these men is going to back down. Jae Hee seems to be the type to be spurred on by a challenge and well... Moo Gak was just dumb enough to challenge Jae Hee to his face. Way to go Moo Gak! You might as well write your own eulogy. While you're at it, write one for Cho Rim because guess what!?! You're both on a serial killer's hit list! Way to go! Congratulations! You're gonna die! Oh, but wait! First your superior officer is going to die because she was dumb enough to put herself out there as bait and you're all too dumb to figure out where she's being held captive. Woohoo! (Pardon the sarcasm; it tends to come out when things reach a certain level of stupid.)
This is my biggest complaint with this show... The police possess an incredible lack of talent in their jobs. They're seriously some of the slowest people on the planet and even when they do get things figured out, they're completely incapable of making anything happen. They know Jae Hee is the serial killer. They know he has Lt. Yeom hidden in some secret room of his house. They know if they don't rescue her she's going to die. Yet, despite all of this, it still takes them a ridiculous amount of time and a stroke of sheer luck to figure out where Lt. Yeom was being held captive. What's worse is the fact that once they figured out where she was, they still arrived too late! (Or very nearly so.) I'm sure next week we'll find that Lt. Yeom is actually quite alright, despite the fact she nearly suffocated to death but cutting things that close just isn't good enough for me. Especially not now that Jae Hee has lost his next victim. Call me crazy but I don't think Jae Hee is going to take being beaten by Moo Gak lightly and to be perfectly honest, that scares the crap out of me. It's not that I don't think Moo Gak can handle himself against Jae Hee, it's that I don't think Jae Hee is going to go after Moo Gak. No, if Jae Hee really wants to make Moo Gak suffer, he's going to go after Cho Rim (which he wants to do anyway so this girl is pretty much toast). The scary part about Cho Rim being taken is that there's no one on the police force who'd be able to find her if she was taken. Lt. Yeom was found because Cho Rim can see smells. Who's going to save Cho Rim if she's taken? Moo Gak? How? Jae Hee isn't dumb enough to keep his captives in the same place once his secrets have been revealed. If he escapes the police after this week's episodes (which I'm betting he will because he's smarter than the average cop) he's going to disappear and no one is going to be able to find him. So where does that leave Cho Rim? Not anyplace I want to be, that's for sure!
While I was pretty stressed over Lt. Yeom's capture, it did provide us with some interesting insight as to who Jae Hee is and why he's taken on the role of a serial killer. He's a complex character and an exceptionally wonderful villain which means I both love him and hate him at the same time. (Or maybe I love to hate him?) There's a lot more to him than just a crazy man with a scalpel. There's a reason to his madness and a very complex and wounded individual hiding behind that very cool facade. Not that his sad history gives him any excuse to kill people. It's just interesting to see how much of a story Jae Hee really has. We already know so much about our hero and heroine, I like that we're getting a chance to learn something about our villain. Perhaps in learning more about him we'll learn why he's so dead set on killing Cho Rim. I have a feeling there's a whole lot more to it than just because she's the girl who got away.
But enough of my rambling... Now it's time for you to tell me what you thought of this week's episodes. How did you feel about the police constantly using Cho Rim for bait? Do you think Lt. Yeom is going to be okay? Do you think this is really the end for Jae Hee or will he find a way to escape? If he does escape, how long do you think it'll take for him to go after Cho Rim? Do you even think he will go after Cho Rim or do you think Moo Gak will be next on his list? You know I always love hearing from you so be sure to let me know what you're thinking by leaving me a comment below!
Content courtesy of Zombie Mamma - originally posted HERE.
Any opinions expressed are not those of KDramaStars, but are the ideas of the writer.
For more from Zombie Mamma, check out the links below:
ZOMBIE'S T-DRAMA REVIEW: Someone Like You Episode 18
TUNE OF THE WEEK: Kim Sung Kyu and Monsta X
EXPLORING CHICAGO'S KOREAN SIDE: The K-Pop Store of Chinatown
