I love this episode! Lots of nice Hyon-Ji Ahn moments that just make me wanna hug something/someone and squeal haha.

Stalker S

“If it is Min, if this is really Min’s doing, what do I do?”

I feel so bad for Hyun – his bewilderment, anguish, feelings of being lost and helpless are all encapsulated in that one scene of falling beads.

 

Hyun confronts Planning Officer and asks if Min is really dead. Myung Woo eavesdrops outside but gets chased away by the chief. I think Hyun is angry at the Planning officer (and perhaps also himself) because he believed her that Min was dead, “She told me that he’s definitely dead so I gave up.” Chief enters the office and tells him that the planning officer really spent a lot of time searching for Joon Young and Min before coming to that conclusion.

Hyun is displeased – next time he will come with a better question and they better give him a better answer. Before he leaves, Chief asks if he believes that Joon Young and his brother are still alive. “Maybe.”

He leaves and the duo give each other a look. And they are probably in my immediate vicinity.

Immediate vicinity. Min stops him and asks if he is troubled by something. Hyun offers to have a meal with him someday.

Didn’t he say he wanted to get close to him? Since he hasn’t thanked him for defending Jeong Ha, he should express his thanks. “I also want to be close to you now.”

Min smiles as he walks away. Amazing scene – full of tension, but I feel like I could sense Min’s joy when Hyun finally offers to have a meal with him.

Ji Ahn laments that it’s her last night staying with Hyun but that it’s not bad spending it watching a movie. “But where’s the subtitles?” Hyun looks at her with no sympathies, as the movie (in English) rolls on. HAHA.

Ji Ahn knows that he’s worried after the interrogation and he answers her question with his own. Does she believe that her father is alive? She answers that she tries to believe in it. She guesses that the interrogation had something to do with his kid brother and assures him that he will definitely find him. “I believe it happens if you believe in it firmly.”

He gives a small smile but thinks to himself. No, right now I’m afraid that he might be alive or that my guess might be right. 

Before he leaves the table, he says casually, “Stay until we catch him.” “Hmm?”

“I am saying to stay here until we catch the terrorist.” “What if we can’t catch him forever?” Hyun doesn’t answer and walks away.

Say that you can stay here forever!<333

The next day, a woman goes out jogging but feels like she’s being watched. She stops and turns around, but it is simply Joon Ho and Hyun out running. Joon Ho comments that there’s a smell in the air, “In a damp smell like today’s weather, many corpses will visit me.” Hyun replies that his expression is a bit eerie but Joon Ho just dismisses his comment with another (suspicious and eerie) chuckle. I don’t think he’s Joon Young though? I mean, so far all the signs point to him, but for both Min to be the Attorney and Joon Ho to be Joon Young is too easy on the viewers.

Ji Ahn stumbles upon the drawings that Min drew last time and recalls the painting she sees in the first case.

Hyun returns home and she quickly throws the book back on the shelf, before pretending to be exercising. He tsks at her with a judging face of a fit, young man who has been out jogging.

“What’s for breakfast?” “Am I someone who feeds you food all the time?” Hehe.

While washing the dishes, Ji Ahn thinks of the recent conversations she had with Hyun and deduces correctly that Hyun’s brother might have something to do with the murders. She murmurs, “Can it be…”

Hyun pokes her cheek with his soap-filled gloves (CUTE) and Ji Ahn scolds herself for saying her thoughts out loud again.

“Tell me what ‘can it be’. Not in your head but out loud.” She claims that she’s just wondering if he found what he’s looking for and he answers that he’s not sure if he should even search for it.

Are you afraid your brother might be involved?

Hyun sighs (CUTEE) and pokes Ji Ahn harder in the cheek this time.

“I said to say stuff aloud.”

Ji Ahn retaliates by swiping his cheek with soap. “Look here.” Ji Ahn ignores him and comments, “Ah, look how pretty! Your face just brightens up!” I can’t get enough of this couple!!

Turns out culprit guy decides to ask Min to fight his case. Although Min initially asks the usual cursory questions that a lawyer asks his client, he suddenly drops his facade, “But…why did you open the box? The memory of allowing you to open the box…there isn’t any.”

He asks the culprit what Hyun had asked him earlier and he answers truthfully.

 

Through a flashback, we see that Min used a bat to knock out Hyun, “I’m sorry, Hyung.” Hyun has obtained the bank deposit book and finds that the dates of deposit (and the delivery dates of the boxes) coincide with the dates when he entered Korea briefly. Coincidence?

He leaves the book in a box amongst other things and tells himself not to think these thoughts.

Myung Woo goes for a blind date and the girl turns out to be the woman earlier who thinks that she’s being stalked. She asks if it’s possible to get personal protection. While Myung Woo rambles on about how it’s his personal duty to take care of him, a suspicious man listens behind. Suspicious man turns out to be the art director who recognises Myung Woo’s face from the photographs that Hyun had given to him.

Myung Woo mistakenly thinks that he’s the stalker and confronts him at the washroom.

He guesses with much confidence that the art director was someone he had caught before and that he was a gigolo, “You were caught for fraud right?” Haha. Lady rejects blind date because she thinks getting a body guard would have been better. As Myung Woo sits sadly in the cafe, he doesn’t notice a man following after the lady.

Myung Woo is antagonised further because they placed Hyun’s desk opposite his.

What’s worse, Hyun interprets his action of calling him Dave as either a misunderstanding that calling him the wrong name is throwing a punch at him (thus immature and juvenile) or that his memory is so bad he can’t even remember three letters. Before Myung Woo blows up, the team gets mobilised because a corpse has been discovered.

Myung Woo shouts at everyone on scene, “Why aren’t you moving yet?!”

Ji Ahn looks up when Hyun repeats Joon Ho’s words that the corpses come to him. Based on Joon Ho’s analysis, the victim was still alive the previous night and that the body had been treated gruesomely. He had seen a similar corpse and Eun Bok had read a similar report before.

Hyun is delighted, “Serial murders…I like it!”

Ji Ahn prods him in the back and tells him to stop saying psychopathic things.

The team manages to narrow down to four murders who have been committed via the same modus operandi. Joon Ho informs Hyun that the latest victim has also suffered a blow to her head a week prior to her death. Myung Woo discovers a suspicious car on the CCTV but the license number is fake.

Blind date lady slumps on her floor and decides to turn off the tv. She discovers that there’s a camera in her room under the TV and hurriedly rushes out of her house while calling for help.

She also calls Myung Woo who doesn’t pick up initially.

By the time he picks up, Blind Date lady has been abducted by someone in a big, black car. Myung Woo talks happily into the phone, “If you called me, you should talk, Ji Hyeon Sook-sshi.” Hahaha.

Things get serious when Ji Ahn informs the team that the second victim had reported stalking. Myung Woo panics as he recalls that the Blind Date lady was scared of a stalker. He quickly obtains the address.

The team realises that the time span between the murders is shortened, signifying that the culprit’s mental state is deteriorating. Hyun looks at Ji Ahn and jokes that the stalker should know about the stalking profession.

Ji Ahn scoffs that she’s a different type from this stalker.

Kang is curious as to what they are talking about and Ji Ahn quickly replies that Hyun’s referring to the stalking level of a fan to her idol.

 

Kang nods, but realises belatedly that this means Ji Ahn is Hyun’s fan.

Blind Date lady wakes up and to everyone’s surprise (okay hers and mine), the person who descends into the basement is a woman.

By this time, the police has classified Blind Date Lady as the next possible victim. Seung Joo says that there’s no sign of breakage on the door lock and both Seung Joo and Myung Woo quickly look for the house owner (since she will have the master keys).

Ji Ahn prepares an energy drink for Hyun and asks him why he’s so diligent. He tells her that he’s running away from his useless thoughts. I love it that Hyun is opening up to Ji Ahn so readily!

Kang chances upon the scene and is displeased/hurt/jealous that the two are having energy drinks by themselves.

When pushed by the duo to recall if there’s any visitors who could have taken the keys or if she had left the keys somewhere, the house owner hesitates but quickly tells them that there isn’t such a scenario. At the same time, Eun Bok (based on the team’s earlier deduction that a person committing this level of stalking would have been reported for stalking before) finds that there’s such a stalker right in Blind Date lady’s building.

House owner quickly calls her son, who is the man we see stalking the lady, “Did you do it again??”

She turns around and sees the duo, and her son who just enters the house.

 

“Son! Run away!”

Later, the duo search the room and find a wallet with Hyeon Sook’s photo (I’m alternating between two ways of calling her. Fickle-minded indeed.)

Hyun interrogates Son (it’s funny how they always leave the interrogation to him, because he can be eerie, aggressive, understanding and persuasive…and just being awesome) and Son reveals that the previous four women are all his ‘girlfriends’.

Hyun explains to the team that Son has De Clerambault’s Syndrome – the other person doesn’t share his feelings at all, but he believes that the other person is in love with him. It is a form of delusion. Just having eye contact, he believes that she’s in love with him. Even the meaningless smiles, he thinks it’s for him.

Hello.

The entire team judges Son, but he can’t be the one who disposes of the body since he has an alibi. Ji Ahn offers to interrogate Son since she’s a woman, “I’ll make him believe that we are in love.”

 

Hyun asks, “Will you be alright?” Kang is explicitly unwilling for Ji Ahn to put herself in such a situation and suggests that Eun Bok can dress up as a girl instead. Lol.

Ji Ahn puts on some lip gloss and perfume before entering the room. She offers Son a drink and Son/Soo Yong laughs at her attempt to seduce him, “You are not my type.”

Ji Ahn looks semi-insulted, while Eun Bok and Kang laugh.

ON THE OTHER HAND, Hyun looks slightly insulted on Ji Ahn’s behalf. Insulted and in disbelief. Like, how could you think of my woman as undeserving??

However, Ji Ahn persists in her attempts and brings her chair next to Soo Yong. She even holds his hand, as the three guys watch seriously. Ji Ahn reminds Soo Yong that his girlfriend’s life is on the line.

He hesitates and suddenly holds her hand, “It does seem like you are my type.”

Kang mutters, “That bastard” while Hyun touches his lips. In anger?

Ji Ahn coaxes Soo Yong to tell him that his girlfriends are in his room. When he shows off his girlfriends, a man in a big black car will take his girlfriends, “There was a star on the man’s head.” He leaks that the girlfriends are in his computer and looks away, “I shouldn’t have told you that.”

Ji Ahn turns his face towards her (EEW EEW HIBBIES JIBBIES GOOSEBUMPS) and he apologises, “It’s a sin for me to tell you.”

After the interrogation, Ji Ahn washes her hands thoroughly again…and again. She finds Hyun waiting for her and hides her hands behind her, “I’m still getting the chills. This feeling won’t go away.”

Hyun looks at her…then reaches behind to take her hand.

“The feeling will be lessened.”

MORE MORE MORE.

Eun Bok comes late to the data-retrieval scene (suspicious? or just red herring?) but anyway, the team discovers that Soo Yong has uploaded videos of the women on a porn site before. However, because there are tens of thousands of viewers, they can’t narrow down to any suspect, on the assumption that Soo Yong merely uploaded the footage but someone else is the murderer.

Min seems to be a bit sad or resigned (or is it with bittersweetness?) that Hyun is really just waiting for his call. He calls Hyun and tells him that he’s free that day. When Hyun seems to hesitate, Min seems a leeetle disappointed but Hyun asks him where he wants to meet up.

Min intentionally asks to be invited to his house. Hyun pauses for some time but promises to text him his address.

Min taps his phone while Hyun taps the table. No. I don’t want eerie, creepy, tension-filled brother telepathic moments. I want funny ones.

While everyone is asleep, Hyun does some profiling and guesses from the locations where the bodies are found that the murderer commutes regularly along a certain road. He is also financially well-off because he probably has a large house where he can confine and gag a woman one week at a time. He probably has a second car as well since he won’t be using his main car for abductions. But to Hyun, the method of abduction (knocking someone on the head) is a a bit weird and off because it’s usually used by people who are not confident. If one is financially well-off, the method overflows with confidence, like the Yang’s case.

Hyun tells Ji Ahn that he’s expecting a guest and she answers that she won’t be going home. Myung Woo wakes up sleepily at this but falls back asleep. Which means a possible future confrontation (hopefully funny) that Ji Ahn is staying at Hyun’s house.

Ji Ahn is sad that she can’t even wash her hair now haha. She tells Kang that she has done some research based on Hyun’s profiling and found that the husband of the first victim fits into the description. While they have no warrant, Kang suggests that they can simply visit the husband on the pretense of getting information from victims’ families.

Kang tells Ji Ahn that he feels ashamed when cases like this where guys assault girls happen, and that he would catch the terrorist who attacked her once this case finishes. He’s being so sweet but Ji Ahn recalls Hyun’s offer of letting her stay till the terrorist gets caught. She mumbles that Kang doesn’t have catch the guy so quickly but he’s like, “I’ll catch him as fast as I can.” Hahaha.

Husband is reluctant to talk to the police because he was already treated like a suspect when his wife died. His world fell apart after his wife passed away.

In the meantime, Min arrive at Hyun’s house, who invites him to have a seat first. Min looks at his old house and as he turns away, Hyun turns around.

Min’s eyes fill with tears and he turns back to look as his brother.

Who turns back at the same time. This synchronisation is beautiful and sad. It’s as if the brothers will never face each other but will only gaze at each other’s back. Misunderstandings, unresolved questions and urge for reunion.

While watching Hyun prepares the food, Min imagines a small Hyun smiling at a small Min.

Great acting from both actors! Poignant scene filled with bittersweetness and maybe even pain.

Ji Ahn feels so empty that they leave with no evidence but notices a car in the garage behind. Kang requests for a license plate check while Ji Ahn sneaks under the door. She notices that there’s a star decal on the hood and knows this is the car Soo Yong is referring to. The licence plate is fake as well.

 

Turns out Hyun has invited Joon Ho for this meal. Oh dear dear.

Hyun smirks and tells the two to have a seat while he brings out the food. He’s surrounding himself with the most suspicious people! Injured Min.

Ji Ahn takes photos of the car for evidence while Kang calls for back up. Before he gets to talk to anyone, a guy opens the garage. Uh oh. Kang tries to fight the guy but he’s buff and strong. Even Ji Ahn can’t really match his moves since he’s basically just using his brute strength. As the guy takes out a knife, Ji Ahn fires a warning shot into the air. Guy smiles because the next thing we know, Ji Ahn gets whacked on the head by the Shushing Lady we saw earlier.

Kang gets knifed and watches helplessly as the couple takes Ji Ahn’s body.

-the end-

I need to control myself and the screenshot button seriously. There are just so many amazing scenes today – the you-can-stay-forever scene, the dish-washing scene and the hands. The hands is the best(: He’s filled with doubts of himself, but he brings warm and comfort to Ji Ahn. Through the smallest actions, he makes her feel better. Am I obsessed with him? Even if his smallest gestures like a pissed-off tongue in cheek motion makes me so amused. Yes, protect Ji Ahn like what your heart is telling you to do!

I don’t know if Joon Ho could really be Joon Young though. Would the scriptwriters be so kind as to let us guess not one, but two, key characters so easily? I know some people say that Kang and Eun Bok are quite suspicious…but I don’t know. It seems like Kang really just likes Ji Ahn at this point in time. However, in the preview, someone is revealed to be an orphan. Could that be Kang or Eun Bok? Eun Bok cannot be Joon Young because of his age though.

The scenes with the two brothers are amazing as well. The first one is full of tension and the second one is just brimming with yearning and questions. That synchronisation between the two is lovely to watch and it makes me want to keep watching the duo, even if I think a happy ending will be the most unlikely (given that Min has probably killed all of the people personally). Park Bo Gum’s acting is really great – I can sense his playfulness, creepiness, longing, hope and sadness in all the scenes.

At this point in time, I’m not too sure about the significance behind this particular case (since all the previous cases either teach something or have something to do with the greater scheme of things). Maybe we will get to see Hyun being insanely worried in the next episode, and watch him save Ji Ahn!! *Contain excitement*

<3thoughtsramble