Our leads did a couple of foolish things in this episode, but I still enjoyed it very much!

By now, I think most of us would have realised that every time Kwang Ho and Jin Woo have an encounter in the tunnel, Kwang Ho will time-travel. Thus, Kwang Ho jumps back to 2017 again.

In the midst of stalking about Yeon Ho, Jin Woo drops his ball when he realises that his memory has been altered – he now has a new memory of being chased by Kwang Ho.

Yeon Sook waits for Kwang Ho in the past while Kwang Ho in the present desperately runs through the tunnel again knowing that he has left her alone again. Ahhh I love Choi Jin Hyuk’s portrayal of desperation and guilt.

Sun Jae recalls what the other forensic doctor said, puts two and two together and finally accepts that Mok Jin woo is the killer he has been looking for all along. He remembers how Jin Woo has treated him so “kindly” and gasps in tears while punching the floor. Later, he turns up at Yeon Ho’s house with a bruised and bloodied hand awww.

Yeon Ho learns of what has happened and consoles him. Kwang Ho finally realises what causes him to time-travel and also that he has left the fountain pen in the past. I find it slightly amusing that he brought it back with him and then left it there. Like darn, where is that fountain pen when you need it?

Kwang Ho quickly returns to the station, much to Sung Shik’s shock. Sung Shik informs Sun Jae and when Yeon Ho hears the news, she tags along. Sun Jae reaches the station and shouts that he was really worried…HEHE what a strange and heartwarming kind of bromance.

Yeon Ho tears up at the sight of Kwang Ho and Sun Jae tells him that she has learnt the truth. “I was always alone. I thought I had no one.”

The father and daughter end up sobbing. Back in the past, Yeon Sook accepts that Kwang Ho is gone again, but she smiles sadly at her whistle, “Catch the culprit and come back. You know I’ll be waiting.”

Jin Woo thinks that Kwang Ho has returned to the past for real and is happy because he can now return to his daily life.

The father – daughter was talking somberly about the questions they had for each other but soon start bickering over whether Yeon Ho’s idea of catching Jin Woo is too dangerous. As Sung Shik puts it, “I was expecting you two to be crying and hugging and here you are, fighting.” HAHA. Kwang Ho indignantly protests, “Who does she even take after?” Well….it can’t be Yeon Sook right? HAHA.

After this brief comic relief interlude, Kwang Ho explains the meaning behind ‘Noel’ and the importance of the fountain pen. Yeon Ho thinks that Jin Woo must be quite anxious now, not knowing where his pen is. She adorably doesn’t know what to call Kwang Ho (Dad? Corporal Park?) but Sun Jae just cuts in with a Kwang Ho. It’s hilarious how Sun Jae just doesn’t feel the age gap between the both of them.

Mistake #1: somehow our male leads got into their heads that they could use the fountain pen as a leverage against Mok Jin Woo and get him to confess. I know they are afraid that he will kill someone in the mean time, but do you really think that letting him knows that Kwang Ho is back in 2017 is the best strategy?

In any case, off they really go to arrest Mok Jin Woo. Kwang Ho hauls him up first with a, “Did you really think I was gone” and Sun Jae slaps the handcuffs on him. I wonder how Mok Jin Woo’s memories actually are like – I mean won’t you be curious how this guy just suddenly drops out of the picture in the tunnel and he never came after you again? I also find it so fascinating that between that tunnel memory and 2017, Jin Woo’s memory has a lapse of 30 years but Kwang Ho is fresh from the tunnel chase.

Sun Jae insists on being in the investigation room because he wants to hear it from Jin Woo himself. I guess that’s too optimistic because Mok Jin Woo denies any form of knowledge or involvement. Even when Kwang Ho threatens with the existence of the fountain pen, Jin Woo is hardly shaken. Kwang Ho wants to (illegally) visit Jin Woo’s house and nags at Yeon Ho again when she wants to go with him.

Sung Shik reminds him once more that she takes after him and he lets out a proud smile, “Well, make sure you lock your door. Got it?”

Kwang Ho and Sun Jae head off to Jin Woo’s house and find it is filled only to a bare minimum. No furniture in the living room, nothing in the drawers. Something drops in one of the rooms and they enter it, only to find that there are numerous portraits hung up on his wall. That psychopath has been killing old people and hanging their funeral portraits as a memory!!! And if you remember the old man’s death whom the young Park Kwang Ho was investigating, his funeral photo is up on the wall as well. Basically, “He’s never stopped killing.”

Yeon Ho scrutinises Jin Woo’s information and is sure that a clue is hidden in his past. She looks at the time and worries over Kwang Ho but remembers that he lost his phone. The next day, Tae Hee and Min Ha come back to find that Kwang Ho has returned and Mok Jin Woo is a suspect.

Sung Shik convinces Kwang Ho to tell the truth to our two clueless friends who are in denial, until they see the old photo of Kwang Ho and realises that he hasn’t changed a single bit. Sun Jae chips in that he was the detective of his mother’s case and affirms that Kwang Ho really came from the past. Tae Hee spits out his sweet when he realises this means Kwang Ho is 25 years older than him, and Min Ha struggles with the formalities.

They burst out laughing when they find out that Prof Shin is Kwang Ho’s daughter. At that moment, Yeon Ho visits with food. Sun Jae happily welcomes her but gets pushed away by the protective dad LOL and he even sheepishly puts back a coffee when faced with the dad-glare. When they see how Yeon Ho interacts with Kwang Ho, Min Ha and Tae Hee have no choice but to accept that she’s his daughter. Tae Hee asks the pertinent question of what happened to the young Kwang Ho and they learn that he was murdered. They try interrogating Jin Woo but he is confident, having deduced that they don’t actually have his fountain pen.

Conversely, he makes them anxious by asking questions about the young Kwang Ho. I find it quite interesting how during this interrogation, it’s Jin Woo who is placed in the light while Kwang Ho is constantly covered by darkness. It’s a subtle contrast given their roles. I also find that it is because right now Jin Woo has leverage and is seen by the public as the righteous, innocent one, while Park Kwang Ho is in danger of being accused of identity theft.

Yeon Ho finds an old granny who knows the young Jin Woo well. The young granny probably house-kept for the Mok family and tells Yeon Ho that Jin Woo’s mum went out to work when he was 11. She would bring back presents and sometimes the granny would even receive a pair of stockings. Oooh stockings! The mum worked at a place called “Town” where Jin Woo’s grandmother always said that she was doing the laundry for the prostitutes, but no one believed her. The mum always had a strong perfume on her and talked foully. Ahh, the picture is definitely forming now! I think Jin Woo’s mum was probably a prostitute and Jin Woo was psychologically affected by that! That’s why he punishes women who were not “good women”. Apparently, Jin Woo’s mum died of alcoholism and it sounded like she died before the grandmother did, so I guess the woman we saw in the past who came looking for Jin Woo was not his mum! Yeon Ho wonders if his mum’s death was the trigger.

The Lead Chief comes in, throws a fit about Mok Jin Woo being arrested and releases Jin Woo himself. Tae Hee and Min Ha immediately tag Jin Woo while Sun Jae sends Kwang Ho home. Kwang Ho immediately sees through him and deletes Yeon Ho’s contact from his phone HAHA.

They arrive at the same time as Yeon Ho does, so Kwang Ho immediately jumps into her car and instructs her to drive away.

He brings her to mandu restaurant and asks her if Yeon Sook brought her to a cruise. She recalls with a smile how Yeon Sook bought tickets for 3. Kwang Ho says that Yeon Sook was the kindest and prettiest woman in the world and must have loved her so dearly, including the love that Kwang Ho would have given. Yeon Ho doesn’t really remember but she can feel it that she was dearly loved. Kwang Ho nags at her (psycho) working style and wonders if she can change her job. Yeah till now, I still can’t believe that she lay a trap for Jung Ho Young but didn’t have a back-up a plan!! Is she crazy?? More importantly, Kwang Ho tells her that he disapproves of Sun Jae and that she should have taken after Yeon Sook for her taste in men, “You should look for a reliable man like me.” HAHA, I love this protective nagging side of Kwang Ho, which was also quite old-fashioned.

Yeon Ho simply smiles and reminds him to be careful for the stakeout tonight. She does seem a little sad when he promises that he will go back to the past to make things right. The moment Yeon Ho bestows her dad with a new phone, Sun Jae calls. Hahaha. They change shifts with Tae Hee and Min Ha, who once again struggles with the -nims and the -yos. After a while of stake-out, they feel something was wrong and check the office, finally realising that the shadow in the room belongs to another doctor. Mok Jin Woo’s car is still in the lot and he’s not at home…then we see an unsuspecting woman on the phone and for the first time in the show, we see Jin Woo killing. That delight on his face, that intention to kill…UGHH.

In the morning, the team visits the crime scene and Kwang Ho yells in despair. There’s no dots on the victim’s leg because he doesn’t have his fountain pen. Kwang Ho rushes to Jin Woo’s office and they find that he has already prepared tea for their impending visit. He beats Jin Woo up and strangles him. Sun Jae who is filled with inner angst as well simply stands by, until the security comes and hauls Kwang Ho away.

Jin Woo throws a chess piece at Sun Jae and notes, “The game is not over until you catch the king.”

A student drops his pen during Yeon Ho’s lesson and she suddenly recalls a new memory – of finding the Noel pen in the drawers. She immediately meets Kwang Ho and a flashback shows us how she spelt out the N.O.E.L letters, before Yeon Sook took the pen away from her and offered to hide it as a treasure hunt game for Kwang Ho. The thing is, she can’t remember where she hid the pen exactly. Kwang Ho returns to the station and updates Sun Jae while Yeon Ho goes back to her office. She obtains an old photo album from Dean Hong and sees a teddy bear….and that’s it! Bam, a memory hits her and she remembers that she hid the pen in the bear.

She calls Kwang Ho and tells her that she will head over to the station, but her door gets opened by Jin Woo.

A series of flashbacks show us that Mistake #2: there was actually a tapping device in the chess piece which Sun Jae brings with him back to the office. By listening in to the conversation, Jin Woo heard Kwang Ho telling Sun Jae that Yeon Ho may have the pen.

When night time falls, Kwang Ho worries over Yeon Ho’s absence and rushes to her university, only to be told that she had left some time ago. He calls her phone and finds it under her car. He picks it up while it rings continually, and he gasps in horror that his daughter has been kidnapped.

-the end-

Yeah I think it’s pretty stupid of the police to have arrested Jin Woo without any form of leverage, instead of waiting it out until they have something more concrete. But that’s just drama for you right? If they had written in such that something happened while Mok Jin Woo was roaming around, we would have said omg they should have just gone and arrested him while they could. This is a kind of gamble which you can’t really look back and said it was the worst decision ever but I do find it frustrating that no one even doubted the viability of this proposal, not least because this is a smart psychopath who has evaded justice for 30 years. This guy would not crack at the slightest threat of the fountain pen, and you guys actually let him know that you don’t have the fountain pen!! Conversely, I guess it’s also fortunate that Yeon Ho did not tell Kwang Ho where the pen is or they might leak it again! This is a rare thing to happen in kdramas – where the lack of disclosure is actually to the benefit of the leads hahaha. Usually we would be tearing our hairs out now and be like, UGH why didn’t they just SAY WHERE THE DAMN THING WAS?

I think the interaction between the leads and the supporting cast is really adorable. I like how Sun Jae attempts to get into Kwang Ho’s good books because he likes his daughter but at the same time, treats him as a co-partner when they are working. I like how Tae Hee insistently calls Kwang Ho a kiddo while Min Ha struggles with the formalities hehe. Finally, we get to see the father and daughter interact and that last scene where it shows that Yeon Ho names Kwang Ho as ‘Dad’ on her phone while he names her as ‘My Daughter’ on his has so much impact. Love it!

Can’t wait for the next episode, but it’s also the second last!

<3thoughtsramble