Then we’re back in Dr. Park’s office, where Shi Ohn gets the text and then Dr. Park locks the door. Shi Ohn looks freaked out. Why, I don’t know, because YOU’RE A COP. You could club him with that nice huge name plate that he has on his desk. All she can think to do is: She hides the phone behind her back and calls Gun Woo. It connects so he hears her ask psycho doc why he’s doing this. Psycho Doc is perfectly psycho, picking up a really sharp pencil and stroking Shi Ohn’s face with it as he tells her it’s a pity she told the very person responsible for everything. Then, instead of stabbing her in the eye with it, like I expected, he snaps the pencil in half, because *that’s* more terrifying. Not stabbing someone with a sharp object, but breaking a pencil. Shi Ohn asks Psycho Doc what he’s saying and he replies that she *knows* what he’s talking about. He’s being a little slimy at this point, too.
Gun Woo finally gets the gist of their conversation and asks poor Kyung Min where his uncle’s office is. And it’s our hero to the rescue. Why can’t she rescue herself here? I don’t normally complain about this sort of thing, but she’s a POLICE OFFICER trained in self-defense at least. And the guy doesn’t seem to be wielding any sort of weapon. He’s well within range of a knee to the groin and then a knee to the face. Or a palm to the nose. Wow, she did finally do something. Shi Ohn punches his hard in the groin and drops her phone. Oops.
We saw Dr. Park open a drawer earlier and I guess it just happened to have a needle already full of tranquilizer, because even though he’s bent over in pain, he laughing and Shi Ohn has collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. Gun Woo runs for Psycho Doc’s office. As Dr. Park squats over Shi Ohn’s body, he notices her phone and takes off with her.
Gun Woo decides to radio in for backup. Now that’s different. The hero using his brain and calling for help, rather than just doing it all himself. Then he continues to run for Dr. Park’s office. And he runs by Dr. Park, pushing an unconscious Shi Ohn in a wheelchair. Her hair conveniently covers her face. Gun Woo doesn’t just run past them, he almost runs into them. But he misses them.
Gun Woo busts into Dr. Park’s office and finds it empty. He also finds her phone. The screen has shattered. Should have put a hard cover around the outside. All I’m saying. Gun Woo realizes that it was Shi Ohn in the wheelchair. He runs after the evil Psycho Doc. He narrowly misses their elevator, so he has to run down the stairs. And I appreciate that he’s *winded* but still running. Our hero isn’t super human. They’re in the basement, but it’s only the wheelchair.
A car is rushing through the parking lot and Gun Woo runs out in its path, causing it to stop. Is it our heroine? No, just someone leaving the hospital. Because Psycho Doc has commandeered an ambulance. He wasn’t quite paying attention, because the argyle blanket he used to cover Shi Ohn is hanging out the back, so Gun Woo knows it’s them. He runs after them but doesn’t catch them. Dr. Park is whistling as he drives, completely calm. He’s always calm it seems. Psycho.
Gun Woo calls and puts out a request for the location of the ambulance. He saw its plate number. And he’s sweating! Because he was running.
They’re at the police command center. Everyone’s scrambled to locate the ambulance. Gun Woo is with the Chief, who’s asking what happened.
Psycho Doc’s reached some abandoned warehouse and a homeless man sees the ambulance and thinks it’s strange.
The Chief finds out that Gun Woo works in the Lost and Found Division and proceeds to bawl Gun Woo out. A report comes that they got a tip. Gun Woo immediately rushes to Shi Ohn’s aid, even though the Chief just yelled at him for getting involved when he’s not trained for this type of thing. Moon Shik rushes after him to stop him and Gun Woo ‘borrows’ Moon Shik’s gun before running off. He doesn’t just borrow it; he twists Moon Shik’s arm to wrest it out of its holster.
Shi Ohn comes back to consciousness. Psycho Doc’s got her propped against a wall. He’s sitting like a king on a throne in a chair. That just happened to be in an abandoned warehouse. He compliments her on waking up so quickly. He gets up and the chair really looks like a throne. It’s back is very ornately carved. Has he brought other victims here? Why else would such a fancy chair be there? He tells Shi Ohn to stop trying to get up, since the drug is still in her system.
Shi Ohn asks Psycho Doc what he’s planning on doing now. He pauses to ‘think’ and then tells her that he’s going to inject her with more of the drug, then remove her shoes and dump her body in the reservoir. He’ll leave the shoes so people will think it’s a suicide, because she couldn’t deal with waking up from a coma after 6 years. Only problem. Gun Woo knows you kidnapped her. No one’s going to believe that story, even if you tell it to them and explain it to them with your shrink-y terms. His patients aren’t the only ones living in a fantasy world.
Shi Ohn asks him why he’s brought her there, since he could have already done all that. He’s squatting by her now and move a little closer. He wants to know… He goes and brings his throne over to slam it down in front of her. He wants to know how she found out that Oh Reum’s death *wasn’t* a suicide. Although according to 'CSI,' they would have been able to tell that she was thrown from the roof based on how far from the building she landed. Psycho Doc just can’t figure out how, since he covered his tracks so ‘perfectly.’
Psycho Doc jokes that there’s no possible way she could have figured it out, unless Oh Reum told her. And it hasn’t occurred to you that her seeing ghosts might actually be real? I’m sure she probably told you from that incident in your office with the suiciding ghost. I wish we knew his story. But I do think it was a clue to this story, the ghost’s way of telling her what Psycho Doc had done. Shi Ohn tells him that he’s right; she heard it from Oh Reum. Psycho Doc laughs.
Shi Ohn tells Psycho Doc that he’s crazy. He should feel sorry for what he’s done. Because of his filthy desires, a beautiful girl suffered while alive and died! Psycho Doc sighs and asks Shi Ohn why she just thinks it’s just *one.* She’s crying as he tells her that this is his hobby. Touching that place that *no filthy hands have defiled.* That those words came out of his mouth is astonishing. Psycho Doc says that Oh Reum was special, exceptional, *because* she couldn’t say anything while he molested her. Her lips would move but nothing would come out, which made it all the more exciting. He’s getting off on remembering molesting her. I really want to throw up now. Shi Ohn’s got my expression and says what I’m thinking: is he touched in the head? Why that question? We *know* he’s off his rocker. She tells him that people like him should be eliminated, disappear.
Psycho Doc asks Shi Ohn how she knew. She motions him to come closer. He laughs and leans forward. She throws sand in his face and starts to run. Psycho Doc recovers and goes after her. Psycho Doc’s chained them inside, so he starts to walk like he’s closing in on his prey. Shi Ohn kicks the gate open, which angers Psycho Doc, because no one’s done *that* before. Because they were all kids, you psycho!
There’s a space in the floor for dumping things. Psycho Doc looks really pissed as he closes in on Shi Ohn. Shi Ohn jumps through the hole and isn’t badly hurt when she lands, so she can keep on running. She runs into an area with lots of things like furniture. So I guess that it explains the chair. It’s not abandoned, unless all this stuff was abandoned, too. Although, why have a complete floor that’s empty. Shi Ohn hides behind something.
Psycho Doc slides the door to the room closed and then picks up a pipe. Which would have been a good idea for Shi Ohn to grab, since it was *right* there. He’s laughing as he’s walking around, looking for her, dragging the pipe behind him. He offers to tell her a really interesting story. He makes this really weird taunting noise, like it’s supposed to freak her out into giving herself away. She’s just hiding, not looking around for something to club him with, just hiding. He starts whistling like he’s calling a dog.
Psycho Doc walks past Shi Ohn without seeing her and she decides to run for the door. Unfortunately she turns something loud on, so he turns around and sees her. He’s swinging at her and is about to club her to death with the pipe when Gun Woo shoots his gun into the air. Gun Woo announces that Psycho Doc is under arrest for murder and rape. He starts to tell him his rights, adding that he’s a bastard. Heh.
Gun Woo orders Psycho Doc to raise his hands. He obliges, dropping the pipe, but starts laughing, because, you see, he’s untouchable. Even if they jail him, there’s no physical evidence tying him to the crime. And Kyung Min’s not going to testify against his uncle. And even if he does, who’s going to believe someone who’s been in therapy for depression for over a year? Flaw in this logic: you’re the reason that he’s depressed. And since when does depression make you an unreliable witness? I really hate the implication that depression = crazy. Yes, it can make you irrational, but it doesn’t make you hallucinate, normally.
Gun Woo is tempted just to shoot Psycho Doc. Psycho Doc tells Gun Woo, as he presses his head into Gun Woo’s gun, that shooting him with make Gun Woo a murderer, because he doesn’t have any physical evidence to prove that the Psycho Doc did the crime against Oh Reum. Even though there’s lots of evidence and a COP’s testimony that you kidnapped Shi Ohn and attempted to kill her with a pipe. They could easily say that you crazily rushed them with the pipe and they were forced to kill you, idiot. You’re a chronic child molester. If it ever went to trial, no one would convict your killer because it’s good riddance. And even though you claim that it would get dismissed because of a lack of physical evidence, you’d get convicted because of all that circumstantial evidence, you slime-ball scumbag.
Shi Ohn can’t take any more and grabs the gun. Psycho Doc looks a little scared, because he knows that *she’ll* do it. Aiming at his head – a nice total kill shot – she shouts that what the law can’t take care of, justice will and pulls the trigger. But Gun Woo pulls her arm down as she does, so Psycho Doc gets shot in the chest. And he keeps her from shooting Psycho Doc again. Darn. Psycho Doc’s going to live.
Back at headquarters, the Chief yells at them for shooting him. And Shi Ohn missed Psycho Doc’s heart by *5 cm.* Shi Ohn apologizes, but the Chief yells at them about going off on their own. When Gun Woo starts to protest, Shi Ohn says that she’ll take responsibility for all of it, which doesn’t look like it sits well with Gun Woo. The Chief tells them that the disciplinary committee will be meeting to decide their punishment, but they should be prepared to be fired.
Leaving the Chief’s office, Gun Woo is dramatically complaining about what’s happened, hurling himself to pound the wall. Shi Ohn tells him she’ll try to get him out of it. He stomps his feet as he asks her HOW?!! She starts to walk away but he steps in her path and asks why she had to go and shoot. She tells him that he knows why and she would do it again if she had to do it over. He starts to bluster that it wasn’t because he didn’t know how to shoot that he didn’t do it… Moon Shik appears and asks Shi Ohn if she’s fine. Gun Woo sees him and grimaces at having to face the music with Moon Shik. He apologizes and Moon Shik grabs him in a headlock, calling him a jerk as he pulls him in a couple circles. Then he slaps Gun Woo on the head and tells him it’s okay and they all go get something to eat.
They’re at a restaurant, drinking. Moon Shik tells them about how he faced a situation where he thought he was losing his job. He left work early. His wife was really excited about the vacation they were going on: to Jeju Island. This must be some really awesome island, since k-drama people always seem to go vacation there… It was the first family trip in their 15 years of marriage. And they went on the trip and had a great time. In the middle of his lowest point, he realized the most precious thing.
Moon Shik gets a phone call and steps away from the table. Gun Woo tells Shi Ohn they should leave, since he only came for Moon Shik’s sake. He didn’t come to bond with *her.* Shi Ohn agrees to it. Moon Shik returns and tells them that it’s been decided: just a 6 month pay cut. After Gun Woo makes Moon Shik repeat himself, he jumps up and loudly starts celebrating being able to keep his job. Moon Shik and Shi Ohn stare at him. After a moment Gun Woo realizes they’re staring and stops, trying to act dignified. Shi Ohn raises her glass and Gun Woo meekly fills it, since he knows he was just obnoxious to his *still* boss. He asks her to toast, with worry on his face. She smiles; he’s relieved. Moon Shik’s happy they seem to be getting along.
Later, they’re hailing a taxi for Moon Shik, who is fall-down drunk. Gun Woo wants to know how Shi Ohn knew it was a murder, from just gym clothes. The case was closed and there wasn’t any indication that it was; what’s her trick? She just says she got lucky. The taxi arrives and they load Moon Shik in. Gun Woo asks her if she wants to go for another drink and she tells him there’s something she needs to do.
Even though it’s late, she stops by Oh Reum’s house. She’s brought Oh Reum’s gym uniform. Oh Reum’s mother tenderly touches Oh Reum’s name tag as she cries. As Shi Ohn leaves, Oh Reum’s mother tells her thank you. Apparently her family had burned all of Oh Reum’s things to make her forget about her daughter. She calls the gym clothes the only evidence of Oh Reum and I can’t help but think of all those paintings she has in her house. Aren’t they evidence of her, too? Shi Ohn tells the mother that Oh Reum is in a good place now. There's a moment where the mother senses Oh Reum’s presence and Oh Reum smiles and waves before she moves on.
On the way home, Shi Ohn gets a text from Gun Woo. He apologizes for being a jerk and asks her again how she knew. It’s making him crazy not knowing. She smiles but doesn’t answer. Behind her, in the train station, some workers find a silver brief case.
Police Station. Gun Woo has decided to look through Shi Ohn’s record, determined to figure out who helped her with the case. A new police officer shows up. He introduces himself: Im Sung Chan. Gun Woo sarcastically tells him he’s hit the jackpot to be assigned there. Then he notices Sung Chan’s hair; he put product in it. Not that Gun Woo gets highlights or anything. Plus, Sung Chan has shiny nails. Apparently Sung Chan was a trainee that didn’t make it. Heh. Considering that Taecyeon is a trainee that *did.* Double heh. Gun Woo huffs that Sung Chan lived a life of luxury. Another heh comment, since a trainee’s life is *not* easy and Taecyeon knows that.
Gun Woo tells Sung Chan to go sit down and Sung Chan wants a different desk, because the one by the window has a lot of UV ray exposure which will cause rapid aging of the skin. Even though you need some sunlight in order to get sufficient amounts of vitamin D. Shi Ohn enters. Gun Woo tells her that Sung Chan needs some discipline to start out with. Shi Ohn instead tells him to go be seated, *at a different desk.* Sung Chan likes that the desk is away from the window and eagerly complies.
Shi Ohn tells Gun Woo he’s responsible for Sung Chan’s orientation and she’ll hold him responsible it Sung Chan doesn’t shape up. Heh. Gun Woo takes Sung Chan down to the storage area. Then he tells Sung Chan that Shi Ohn may look like the boss, but the real power around there is him, Gun Woo. When Sung Chan’s like, ‘yeah, right,’ Gun Woo makes sure that Sung Chan understands that he make Sung Chan’s life miserable.
They’re putting away new items. Including the shiny metal brief case. Gun Woo tells Sung Chan to open it, but it won’t open. When Sung Chan asks about busting it open, Gun Woo says, with a tone that Sung Chan is stupid, that they’re supposed to not damage things and it should be stored without opening if they can’t get it open; it’s in the handbook. When Sung Chan mutters that he’s planning on reading it later, Gun Woo grabs him by the ear and asks who told him he could speak so informally. Is it because he thinks he’s a celebrity (being an ex-trainee)? His punishment: organizing everything by himself. Not that Gun Woo probably wouldn’t have found some other reason to get out of doing it…
What’s really ironic about this whole scene is the fact that Gun Woo is so adamant about Sung Chan showing him respect, yet Sung Chan is acting the same way as Gun Woo acts with Shi Ohn. Pot, kettle.
Shi Ohn has changed into her official uniform. The division’s lights flicker and a door opens by itself. Shi Ohn rushes over to take some medicine that Dr. Park prescribed, which might work if it were hallucinations. And you’re still taking it when Dr. Park turned out to be Psycho Doc? Shi Ohn meets up with Gun Woo in the hall and tells him that they need to leave for the Public Security Divisional meeting (their division is a sub-unit). Gun Woo grimaces and then asks about the report they need. Shi Ohn’s done it and Gun Woo is at last happy that Shi Ohn’s his boss, because he doesn’t have to write things like that.
Division Meeting. The cultural monitoring team wants 350 officers to help with cracking down on summer shenanigans. The boss approves it, as long as it doesn’t become something oppressive. The boss turns to Shi Ohn and asks if she’s ready to get back to the normal duties of her job, what with that case that she cracked and all. Shi Ohn agrees that she’s ready to focus on her original mission. Then the boss grills her like she’s a child about what that mission is and how she should achieve it.
The scene fades into the office outing afterward, where every cheers that the Public Security Division is the best! The guy asking for the additional manpower comes down with one of his cronies to harass and belittle Shi Ohn. Gun Woo arrives and tries to dissuade them, but they brush him off. Jerkman says some insulting things about her spinning brain and how she should be dealing with her lost memories instead of coming back to work. His friend asks whether she’s really crazy and Jerkman replies, “How should I know?” Gun Woo is pissed that they’re being such jerks. Shi Ohn doesn’t do anything except hang her head and take it.
And it’s Gun Woo to the rescue again, although this time it doesn’t bother me. He yells down to their boss that Team Leader Bong (Jerkman) has said that he will treat everyone today. Bong has no other option but to go along with it. To complete the deal, Gun Woo shouts to the waiter that they need five orders of Korean beef, five skirt steaks , five short ribs and thin briskets for everyone. Plus beef sashimi. Bong just has to grin and bear it. Everyone stuffs their faces and Gun Woo orders more pork neck, cheek and butt for the table. Bong weakly says Gun Woo’s name, asking him to stop. Gun Woo tells Bong to try some of the lettuce. He stuffs some in Bong’s mouth and says that it’s better to chew on it than chewing on people. One of the reasons why I like Gun Woo. Hee.
Later, Gun Woo’s stomach feels like it’s going to explode. He’s laying on a park bench. Shi Ohn pulls out an acupuncture kit. She used to use it a lot when she was a detective, from eating fast and then doing a lot of running. Gun Woo protests he’s afraid of needles, even if it’s a little prick. Shi Ohn leans on, with Gun Woo leaning away. She tells him to stop being a baby, since they have a lot to do. She tries to grab his arm and do it, but he wrenches it away, with her ending up about three inches from his face. Staring commences with her squinting at him. He’s definitely uncomfortable. She’s not and sticks him when he’s not paying attention. And then sticks him again for good measure. She sure doesn’t leave them in for very long.
Gun Woo asks Shi Ohn about the accident; does she really not remember anything. No, during the last 100 days, she’s done everything she can to remember – interviews, documents – but no dice. He asks her if she was demoted because of it, because of a hole in her brain. Like that would be fair. It’s natural for anyone and doesn’t mean she’s incompetent. She tells him she volunteered. Gun Woo thinks she’s crazy. She says she felt drawn there, like there was something waiting for her. We all know that it’s the uncataloged engagement ring that was meant for her. He laughs and tells her she’s strange. She just gets up and goes, since they have a report to finish by the end of the day. Gun Woo complains about her never forgetting the work they need to do. And he wonders why she’s *his* boss. He looks at the medicine she gave him and realizes that the needles did the trick with his stomach.
Sung Chan’s organizing. He looks at the box with the engagement before tossing it down in frustration. He wants to know why *he* has to do this, since he’s supposed to have someone under him that he can foist these things off on. Later he finishes and goes and sucks up to Shi Ohn about it all. Shi Ohn tells him to go home.
Shi Ohn gets a phone call. A guy is calling about the briefcase. She tells them they’re done for the day but he urgently protests that he needs his briefcase. Gun Woo mouths at her not to do it, but she agrees to wait for another hour for the man. Gun Woo starts to grouse about it when she tells him to get back to work; his files are a mess and they don’t need problems from the audit team. Obnoxious ‘yes, yes,’ from Gun Woo.
Shi Ohn goes down for the case. And suddenly it’s very cold down in the storage area. See your breath cold. A ghost appears, a woman. She’s cold, too, with blue lips. She stares at the briefcase. Gun Woo comes looking for Shi Ohn and witnesses her having a ghost-fear moment.
Thoughts
So, with our first case, the bad guy wasn’t just a child molester, he was a Psycho Doc, who didn’t feel any remorse or shame over what he’s done. I feel like this is a reflection of some stereotype in Korean society – that men who do that sort of thing are really depraved with no consciences. I’m not saying that molesters aren’t depraved, but it seems like it’s a rare one who doesn’t feel any shame about their predilection.
And with this case, we see saw some real illogic: the idea that this guy was going to get away with everything. (1) He CONFESSED, (2) to someone he drugged, KIDNAPPED, and TRIED TO KILL. (3) The person he drugged, kidnapped and tried to kill WAS A COP. (4) Even if his lawyer argued that she was unstable or loopy because of the drugs, Gun Woo wasn’t/isn’t and he’s another cop who saw Psycho Doc try to kill someone and heard Psycho Doc confess. (5) He discounted the jury’s belief in Kyung Min’s story, even though it was BECAUSE OF THE UNCLE that the boy was having to be treated for depression. (6) Publicity would probably bring forward other victims, probably many who were his patients, which would establish a pattern of behavior. All this would lead to a conviction, of more than one crime.
I’m wondering if the case that Moon Shik was talking about was the event which lead to Hyung Joon’s murder and Shi Ohn's coma. And when Gun Woo was looking up her record – which wouldn’t she have access to this? – why didn’t he notice that Moon Shik was her boss?
I still take issue with how weak Shi Ohn is being portrayed. Women who get that far up the ladder, especially in a highly patriarchal society, are not wimpy. Nor are they weak. And at times Shi Ohn seems both. Those times where Gun Woo has to rescue her. Why can’t she rescue herself? I don’t expect a woman never to have to be rescued, because that’s just stupid; in a partnership situation, sometimes you get in situations where you need to be rescued, regardless of your gender. It’s the general freaked out/broken mode that she takes on. She fought Psycho Doc, but both times she was terrified. Running away in the warehouse, she was making those sounds/faces that some random kidnapped woman would make, so something a cop would make. I think a cop might be scared but they keep their composure and their wits. I think of Bones’s Temperance Brennan or Rizzoli and Isles’s Jane Rizzoli. Both of these women have been in situations where they were terrified. But they didn’t become damsels in distress. And the situations that I’m thinking of, their male partners rescued (saved) them and they cried after they were rescued. But in either case, the women didn’t crumble into a pile that the hero had to put back together. The crying was a release, not a pity party where she was so scared. And in both cases, if he didn’t rescue her, she would have died. So I’m not objecting to a woman having to be saved. I’m objecting to how So Yi Hyun is playing the character.
Taecyeon, on the other hand, I’m glad he’s portraying Gun Woo. The amount of expressive reactiveness of him is what really makes me like him. He doesn’t hold back his emotions. I think if he was portrayed by someone like Hyun Bin I wouldn’t like him as much, because Hyun Bin is a much more contained actor. Even some other actors that I can think of that are more expressive, most of them would be too overpowering for this character or they would have made the character too wimpy. The only really expressive actor I can think of that might do it justice is Gong Yoo. But I still think I would have liked Gun Woo less, because Taecyeon brings a certain amount of naïveté to Gun Woo’s bluster. Gong Yoo can do innocent, but he never seems naïve. And I think that’s one of the things that really appeals to me about Gun Woo, this blustery confidence he has which is sometimes clueless about how clueless he is. I don’t find Taecyeon to be overacting – maybe his acting’s improved, this is the first thing with him in it that I’ve seen – that expressiveness is one of the things that I love about the character.
They had their second ‘uncomfortable’ moment, although Shi Ohn doesn’t seem to be very uncomfortable either time. It kind of reminds me of the Young Jae character in Full House who blustered every time someone implied he liked the heroine, because he was clueless that he liked her. But it seems more like an indicator of a lack of experience in Gun Woo, at least with dealing with women. From the very beginning, it’s been pretty clear that he sees her as a woman; it’s one of the reasons he resents her being his boss, because she *is* a woman. And Shi Ohn doesn’t seem uncomfortable either time, almost as if she doesn’t really ‘view him as a man.’ It’s not because she’s in love with someone else, because she can’t remember the someone else, but here, as compared to other places, Shi Ohn seems really confident and strong. Which seems like another place where the writers contradict themselves.
On to Episode Three.
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