White Christmas: Episode 8 (Final)
by HeadsNo2
The end has finally come, and what an end it is. The question this series has been toying with all along – are monsters born or made – does finally get an answer, though you might not like the result. It depends on how you like your heroes, and if you don’t like them with a side of murder, you might end up going hungry.
But all told, this was a pretty satisfying end to a show that I wish would never have ended at all. White Christmas, flaws and all, still stands at the very top of my ultimate favorite can’t-live-without-it list of drama awesomeness. It’s just one of a kind.
SONG OF THE DAY
Joseph Arthur – “Stumble and Pain” [ Download ]
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FINAL EPISODE RECAP
At the regional police station, officers piece the clues together from Moo-yul’s call on Christmas Eve to Ji-hoon’s call earlier that morning, claiming that a serial killer with a scar on his left palm is at their school.
The police know immediately that it’s Doctor Kim and his patient, Jung-hye, and are able to pave their way through the previously-blocked roads to the school by following an enormous snow plow.
A gunshot rings out the moment they reach the gate, which we see as the shot Jung-hye took at the plexiglass. We cut to Doctor Kim as he levels an angry look at the boys who almost bested him before dragging Jae-kyu away.
The police set up camp outside the school gates, while one officer uses a megaphone to address Doctor Kim.
Doctor Kim uses the school’s PA system to communicate back, and explains that both he and Jung-hye have a gun but all eight students are safe.
Meanwhile, Jung-hye tries uselessly to break the bulletproof glass, while Kang-mo outside sardonically reminds her that if Mad Mi-reu couldn’t get out, then she doesn’t stand a chance.
Doctor Kim responds to police questioning with his list of demands – he wants to be able to finish the students’ counseling sessions and be able to speak to their parents. After that’s done, he’ll set them free.
So the police begin a mad scramble to get all the parents to the school gates, and helicopter in swat teams and snipers to the roof. Yoon-soo’s parents are the first to arrive.
Before Doctor Kim comes in, Yoon-soo has a vision of him as a child being held close by his mom(?). Outside, the police coach his parents on what not to say.
They get to hear Yoon-soo’s voice, but Doctor Kim isn’t going to let them off that easy. He wants to test whether they really are Yoon-soo’s parents, and suggests a pop quiz. “Yoon-soo’s mother. Tell me how you make pancakes.”
She grows nervous, and the police officer beside her does a quick internet search on recipes while Doctor Kim explains their significance to Yoon-soo, and how he’d told him that he was happiest in life when his mother would make pancakes for him. And even now, he misses her when he smells pancakes.
So he asks one more time: “How did you make your pancakes?” She seems extremely nervous as she speaks into the microphone, and lies as she uses the online recipe. Yoon-soo’s memories are black and white, as we see him hugging the legs of a woman who can’t be his current mother.
Doctor Kim even calls her out, and says that it sounds like she’s reading from a cookbook. Mom loses her temper and demands to know what the point of all this is, as Doctor Kim explains that he was able to prove something. “You just proved that you really are Yoon-soo’s mother. I will return your son to you.”
Yoon-soo couldn’t look unhappier about it, and we flashback to his memories to reveal him smiling and playing with the warm woman who took care of him. Or… not. The boy playing with her is the Monster in the Corner.
Ji-hoon’s been burning up with fever this whole time, caused by an infection in his leg. Moo-yul prepares an icepack and reassures the shivering Ji-hoon that Doctor Kim is keeping his promise and letting them go, so he just has to hang in there long enough to get out.
As Doctor Kim leads him out, Yoon-soo asks how he knew that the woman he talked about wasn’t his mother. Doctor Kim explains that he just realized it now, and we flashback to reveal police storming into his black-and-white memories to arrest the woman, who had apparently kidnapped Yoon-soo.
This part is honestly confusing because there are two boys, one with blue and one without, but the feeling I’m getting is that it really was Yoon-soo holed up in the closet, and the boy with blue was his imaginary self. But there’s also the chance that it’s another boy. I’m waiting for clarification on this one.
Now, Yoon-soo wonders why he thought that woman was his mother. Doctor Kim seems sincere when he tells him: “Memories sometimes work in funny ways. Some truths ruin people. Do you still want to know the truth?”
But Yoon-soo doesn’t, and walks away. As he heads toward the police camp a sniper gets spooked and accidentally shoots. No one’s hurt, but the sound alarms everyone. Especially Doctor Kim, who loses his composure at what he feels is a betrayal by the police for placing snipers.
The negotiator explains that it was a small mistake, and Doctor Kim fires back, “Mistake? Should I make a mistake? We could shoot by mistake too.” And with that, he has the police eating out of the palm of his hand. And by the looks of it when he closes the blinds, the anger thing was all an act.
Jung-hye is in the midst of a panic attack in the cell, and looks at the two bullets left in her hands when she hears Doctor Kim explain his location.
The police question Yoon-soo about the situation inside, but he can’t offer anything helpful since he was separated from the others in the clinic.
Jung-hye dismantles one of the bullets and wraps the gunpowder in paper, which she then stuffs into the door’s lock. She has two matches, and uses one to light the paper while she steps back. We’re all waiting for the big bang, but nothing happens.
Meanwhile, Doctor Kim sets the PA system to blast some haunting operatic music.
Even though Kang-mo can’t hear he understands what Jung-hye is doing, and urges her against it since she’ll get hurt too. She ignores him and lights the other match, and this time it works. The door erupts in flames.
Kang-mo watches in horror as she emerges from the door, looking unscathed from the explosion. She calmly gives his hearing aid back and walks away… but he notices the trail of blood she’s leaving behind her.
What a chilling sight it is to see her back stained with blood, indicating that she’d turned away from the blast but something hit the back of her head. By the time she heads up the stairs her torso is all but covered in blood. It’s so frightening in ways I can’t describe.
The visuals in this show! I swear, chills are going up my spine. She stumbles through the glass-enclosed bridge where dozens of sniper laser sights follow her every move while Mozart’s Requiem plays over the PA system. There aren’t enough words about how poetic this scene is.
She barely makes it to Doctor Kim, who looks shocked when he sees her covered in blood. She hands the gun over and collapses, with him to catch her. Interestingly enough it’s the first time I’ve seen Doctor Kim look frightened, as though he’s realizing that he truly did create a monster in Jung-hye. Or the monster he’s losing.
She smears blood on his cheek by accident, and in her hurry to wipe it off, she only spreads it more. She smiles till the end, cries tears of blood, and dies in his arms.
Ji-hoon starts seizing due to the fever, and Mi-reu finally loses his cool, screaming out uselessly for the police to hurry up and force their way inside.
Eun-sung’s parents are next to arrive, and Doctor Kim comes to collect. She nervously sets her gaze on Moo-yul, who offers her a pat on the shoulder and a reassuring smile. “I’m relieved that you get to go out first.”
While Eun-sung heads up to the broadcasting room, Kang-mo tries his hearing aid on, only to find that it doesn’t work. Eun-sung’s mom can hardly contain her emotions, so her dad takes over instead. Strangely enough, Moo-yul hears the exchange and clenches his fist.
Doctor Kim wants proof that Eun-sung’s parents are who they say they are, and Mom is eager to oblige… until he tells her to confess her greatest sin. “Confess the most shameful sin that you’ve committed, then I will return your daughter.”
This sends Eun-sung into a rage, as she lunges at him with her hands in cuffs, kicking and screaming, calling him a devil. He slams her head down onto the desk and holds her still, practically cooing the words, “See how far your mom goes to save you.”
This puts Eun-sung’s mom in a precarious situation, and the few glances we’ve had of her driver are enough to tell us what’s really going on here. (Eun-sung talked to Doctor Kim about her mother’s affair before.) The negotiator urges her to lie, since Doctor Kim wouldn’t know what her sin was anyway.
While Mom starts going through a litany of her business-related sins, Kang-mo sneaks through the halls, staying away from windows. Doctor Kim eventually stops her: “I need a confession that will prove you’re her mother. The first sin you thought of when I asked you to confess.”
And Eun-sung, knowing what it is, cries pitifully. In the room with the rest of the boys, Young-jae murmurs, “He’s trying to ruin us. Totally ruin us.”
Doctor Kim wonders aloud to Eun-sung whether her mother will pick her daughter, or herself. He gives Mom till the count of ten, and as the numbers climb higher Mom grows tearful and nervous, but can’t bring herself to speak.
He reaches the end, and Mom still hasn’t answered. He tells the PA system that he’s left with no choice, and looks to Eun-sung as she cries, knowing now that her mother chose herself over her life.
As he begins to lead her out, Doctor Kim admits that he’d wished for her mom to choose to save her daughter, but explains that Eun-sung’s mom is just selfish. He seems to be reassuring Eun-sung that though there are some parents who’ll sacrifice for their kids, it isn’t the norm.
Doctor Kim: “Don’t feel upset about it. You’ll never slit your wrist again because of your mom, right?” Weird. Once again, it’s like he’s doing all this craziness to help them, in a weird, twisted, and sick way. Eun-sung spits out: “I hope you die.”
He affectionately pats her on the head, and sends her on her way. Mom runs out to meet her, and Kang-mo watches from the CCTV laptop. There’s a strange moment where Doctor Kim looks at Teach’s snow-covered corpse in the courtyard.
Eun-sung’s mom sobs over her, and she looks less than enthused to be in Mom’s embrace. The police probe her for information, and she claims that there can’t be more than three bullets left.
More parents arrive. The Negotiator plans on letting Doctor Kim continue the counseling, but Eun-sung desperately grabs his arm: “No! This isn’t counseling, it’s an experiment. He’s experimenting to turn us into monsters.” But the Negotiator tells her that as long as Doctor Kim keeps his word, they have to keep going.
While Kang-mo finds a hiding spot next to Jung-hye’s corpse, the loudspeaker announces that Young-jae and Moo-yul’s parents have arrived. Young-jae jumps to his feet and locks the cage door with a bicycle lock.
Doctor Kim is pretty laissez-faire about the lock, and tells them that they can stay in there as long as they realize that Jae-kyu will die in their stead. (We haven’t seen him yet this episode, but presumably Doctor Kim has him locked up as his trump card.)
“I hope you make the most of your time from now on,” Doctor Kim shrugs. “Especially seeing as you sacrificed a friend for your own lives. Moo-yul, you should know. You’re used to living that way.”
This is the line that gets Moo-yul to unlock the door, causing Doctor Kim to smile to himself like he’s won.
However, Kang-mo wasn’t hiding out in the broadcasting room for the hell of it – he manages to rig the laptop CCTV feed to the school’s jumbotron, so that the police can see whatever he does – and one shot is of the dead Jung-hye. Smart move, Kang-mo. You’re earning some serious cool points.
The police can’t figure out how to enter the fortified school until Eun-sung tells them about the window where Mi-reu outlined the secret passage. In no time at all, SWAT team members are crawling through the air ducts.
Kang-mo hides under the desk in the broadcasting room while Doctor Kim hosts his free counseling session with Moo-yul’s dad, congratulating him for raising a wonderful son. “I was confused at one point,” he admits. “But he’s the true leader among the students here.”
However, he thinks that Moo-yul’s heroic behavior points to a yearning for death, and knows that Moo-yul must feel guilty because he lived instead of his mom. He asks Dad if he raised his son to think that he had to grow up great in place of his mom.
“Sir, I really like Park Moo-yul,” Doctor Kim admits. “So please convince him. Tell him not to be so attached to death. Tell him not to think about dying for another person.”
The cop tells Dad to talk to Moo-yul like he normally does, but Dad is so flustered he can barely stutter. He’s shaking like a leaf as he speaks into the microphone: “Park Moo-yul. I never asked you for any favors. This is the first favor that I’m asking you as your father: Don’t die. Whatever you have to do, make sure you don’t die. Even if it’s cowardly, don’t die. That’s my wish.”
This scene really gets to me, because we see his father breaking down into tears and how it affects Moo-yul. And then, Young-jae’s mother shoves him aside to scream into the microphone – where’s HER son? (Like mother, like son.)
She screams about being unable to see her own son while she can see everyone else’s, which clues Doctor Kim into the fact that he’s being watched by the CCTV.
Only the sound of heavy breathing is heard as we cut to the SWAT teams closing in – saving Jae-kyu and Young-jae, while parents and police wait anxiously outside. Doctor Kim moves Moo-yul up to the rooftop, and we hear the sound of a gunshot.
Eun-sung breaks down, thinking that Moo-yul is dead. And Moo-yul lies still on the rooftop, clutching someone’s pant leg, though we can’t see who. I guess we’re to assume it’s Doctor Kim.
There’s an interesting shot where Moo-yul is mostly surrounded by darkness, where we can’t tell if he’s alive or dead as different news reports flood us with varying stories – the criminal has committed suicide, and the students are now being treated.
Slowly but surely, light floods the room and we discover Moo-yul in a hospital bed, attended by this father. He goes to check on the others, with Mi-reu and Kang-mo drawing on Ji-hoon’s shiny new leg cast. D’aww. Moo-yul is all smiles when he sees them.
Moo-yul must’ve been hit in the back of the head, and all the boys ooh and ahh over his head lump. Ji-hoon even gets out of bed to see, and when faced with curious glances, he’s all, “I can’t touch it? I’ve never felt a bump before.” Aww, Ji-hoon is learning how to be more sociable! Wuv.
The Negotiator comes in to congratulate them on being alive, and delivers some news: Their teacher is alive and being treated at the hospital. No one believes him since Teach was in the courtyard for several days.
But this is where the Negotiator gets to be incredulous – they didn’t find anyone in the courtyard, they found the teacher on the roof. Ji-hoon then asks if the doctor killed himself with a gun in his mouth. This seems bad, whatever it is.
Yoon-soo gets treated at his fancy home instead of the hospital, and asks his mother why his caretaker kidnapped him as a child. Mom explains that she fired her, “Because you thought she was your mom. You gave her the Parent’s Day carnation instead of me. You probably think that mothers don’t get hurt by their children.”
She leaves Yoon-soo alone in the room.
Police have set up checkpoints outside the hospital to make sure Doctor Kim doesn’t escape. (I know, roll with it for now.) The boys wonder if he really is trying to escape, but Ji-hoon comes up with another conclusion: “If I were him, there’d be only one thing I’d want. To confirm the results of my experiment.”
Yoon-soo sees the blue-faced boy, the Monster in the Corner, and avoids him by listlessly roaming his enormous house. He gets a call from Moo-yul, only the voice on the other end is Doctor Kim’s, as he counts up to ten. Is this another hypnosis method?
“Is hide-and-seek over now?” Doctor Kim asks, and the Corner Monster begins to count to ten in the corner, his back turned like he’s playing hide-and-seek.
Now we see the full scene of his flashback, where the police found him in the closet. His caretaker ran to what was probably her son first, the boy with blue on his face. All the more heartbreaking because young Yoon-soo thought she was running to him.
“Why did I lie?” Yoon-soo ruefully asks the Corner Monster, when he’s really asking himself. “Because she hugged you instead of me. I must’ve wanted to be you.”
And as he heads up the stairs, the Corner Monster follows him. Once in his room, he slowly shuts the door on the Corner Monster. Why is this shot so frightening?
Armed guards stand watch around Yoon-soo’s house, and are all startled when they hear a gunshot from inside. Oh no.
Strangely enough, a young man working at a gas station stares up at the clouds. When we see his full face, half is covered by a faded birthmark… So this must be Yoon-soo’s Corner Monster, all grown up.
All the boys (and Eun-sung) are gathered together in the hospital, but both she and Young-jae are lost in their own worlds. The Negotiator comes in with a grim face, and tells the boys that Yoon-soo committed suicide. Whoa.
The shock of this settles in with everyone in the room. We cut to Yoon-sung’s house, where a hunting rifle lies next to Yoon-soo’s body, with blood seeping out of his head. And half of his face painted blue. Oh my god. Oh my god. Please make this stop. I didn’t expect them to show the body, but it really brings it home in a bad way.
The officer tells them that Yoon-soo left a short suicide note: “The egg’s about to crack.” Young-jae recognizes what that means as he murmurs, “The monster’s egg.”
They know Yoon-soo received a call from Not-yul, and tell the boys that all outside contact is banned. Moo-yul wonders what it is Yoon-soo could have heard, and he and Ji-hoon lock eyes to hatch a plan.
The police station gets a call from Doctor Kim… only it’s not him, and it’s Ji-hoon’s voice. The police don’t know better (we’ll have words about this later) and think it’s really him, so Doctor Ji-hoon claims he’s finished with his experiment and is done with the kids.
After the phone call, Moo-yul throws the cell phone out the window. The police scramble away from guarding the boys, and we find Doctor Kim in plain sight, dressed as a doctor.
Mi-reu holds back the two remaining guards so that Moo-yul and the rest of the gang can go free.
In another part of the hospital, Eun-sung’s mom dogs her and follows her every move, until Eun-sung finally snaps. The first thing Mom does, of course, is look around to see who is judging her.
Mom claims she’s worried that Eun-sung might get captured again, and she fires back, “If I was so precious, why didn’t you answer?” Mom asks what she means, and Eun-sung says her greatest sin. Mom’s caught wide-eyed and red-handed, and has no retort to give as Eun-sung storms off. Well deserved.
The police are on a wild goose chase for Doctor Kim, and eventually stop a random truck for no reason when they think Doctor Kim’s inside. However, we find him on the hospital roof where Eun-sung has gone.
She turns to him and tells him: “You lost.” The camera pans around to reveal all the boys behind Doctor Kim on the roof. This was all part of their plan, since the police end up hunting down the cell phone they used in the garbage truck, miles away from the hospital.
Doctor Kim seems to gloat in the fact that Yoon-soo isn’t among them, and sarcastically claims he just said ‘Hello’ on the phone, “As well as the final keyword to awaken the monster.” I want to punch that smug look right off his face.
Eun-sung steps forward, reciting this: “The white laundry moves with the wind on the line. The rooster windmill goes round and round the neighbor’s roof.” This strikes fear into Doctor Kim as he asks her how she knows.
She continues, “It’s bad when it rains. The laundry must be collected.” Doctor Kim yells at her to stop, but she continues. She’s using the words he’d murmured feverishly in the clinic.
Doctor Kim lunges at her, but the boys all grab him and push him toward the edge of the roof. She tells him that he’s lost – the monster didn’t wake up. He asks how she’s so sure.
Eun-sung: “Yoon-soo is dead. Want me to say it again? Yoon-soo took his own life instead of becoming a monster. You wanted us to become monsters. You wanted to say that you weren’t the only monster, but you’re wrong. We won’t become monsters. Whether monsters are born or raised, you’re still evil. You’re the evil one. You’re the only one who’s dirty!”
The police arrive back at the hospital, and start rushing up to the roof. Doctor Kim regains his composure and reminds the group that one failed experiment (Yoon-soo) doesn’t mean the hypothesis is wrong. His experiment isn’t over yet, because what of the remaining boys?
Moo-yul leaves the group quietly, and as the police arrive, he locks the door to the roof with a chain. “It’s all over,” Moo-yul says, his eyes not quite focused. Doctor Kim seems surprised that Moo-yul would do this, and suddenly Moo-yul’s eyes become like daggers as he tells Doctor Kim, “You’re finished.”
All the boys, sans Eun-sung and Ji-hoon, grab Doctor Kim and throw him over the edge of the roof. He’s holding onto the edge with his hands, and looks into the faces of the group staring at him. A smile comes over Doctor Kim’s face, like he’s proud. Like he’s won.
And then, he lets go, and falls to his death only moments before the police break through the door.
Jae-kyu sits in a police interrogation room, and the officer asks him to explain once more what happened on the roof. He starts with this story, and we get a nifty montage of all the group telling what must be meticulously rehearsed stories about how they got to the roof, why the door was locked, etc.
Until finally, we stop at Moo-yul, who seems oddly vacant when he tells the officer that Doctor Kim just fell off the roof before the police came, and that he wasn’t able to do anything. The officer seems dubious but has no choice but to accept the story.
He asks Moo-yul one last question: Did Doctor Kim say anything before he died? We cut to a flashback of him hanging off the edge of the roof, smiling. “I won,” Doctor Kim had said, the moment before he let go.
But Moo-yul looks straight into the camera as he lies, “No. He didn’t say a thing.”
He’s freed, and the rest of the group joins him outside. Together they walk down the long hallway as the lights go dark behind them.
COMMENTS
This finale is a really confusing case, because I like the conclusions the episode got to, but not so much how it got to them. The scenes we got were emotionally and narratively fulfilling, but there was some serious glossing-over going on that affected my ability to purely enjoy the show.
Most of it is technical, and has to do with suspension of disbelief. Everyone’s meter is different, but I think we can all agree that a police force should be able to tell the difference between Teach’s body, which was frozen for eight days prior, and a supposedly freshly-dead Doctor Kim. That’s already hard to buy, but let’s say we did and moved on – if Doctor Kim shot Teach in the mouth to masquerade the body as a suicide, wouldn’t an autopsy or just a regular once-over reveal Teach’s week-old stab wound? That’d raise some suspicions, right?
So even if we bought the idea of a blind forensic pathologist, there’s the whole reason Doctor Kim killed Teach in the first place: Because his picture was released by news agencies, and Teach had a TV. It wouldn’t take a seasoned eye to hold a picture of Doctor Kim up next to Teach’s face and decide that they’re not the same person. The pieces just don’t fit, unless the police officers used their investigation time to make moonshine.
I can’t even say it’s a small flaw in the scope of things, since it’s a pretty gaping flaw, which impacted how the episode moved forward and how it ended. I can see why we needed Doctor Kim out of jail for those scenes to happen, but I’m still scratching my head over this one.
That aside though, this episode was amazing. What I especially liked, and what I wish we could have gotten more of, was Doctor Kim’s parent confrontations. It speaks to a weird dichotomy I found in him where sometimes it seemed like he was genuinely working for the group’s well-being, even though he was holding them at gunpoint.
Like with Eun-sung and her mom; I was horrified when she didn’t speak up to save her daughter’s life, but at the same time, it was something Doctor Kim orchestrated to free Eun-sung of her mom-related issues. Eun-sung saw it as part of Doctor Kim’s monster experiment, but the forced parent/child conversations actually seemed like real counseling sessions (minus the guns and police and coercion). What I mean is, apart from Yoon-soo, Doctor Kim was helping to free Moo-yul and Eun-sung from the different guilts that had haunted them through the years.
I found Doctor Kim a fascinating character up until the end, where it seemed as though there was a mad dash to cement him as eeevil in case we’d forgotten, so he acted out of character for the first time while lashing out at Eun-sung. It’s believable that he’d react strongly to Eun-sung reminding him of his past, but I’m still pretty iffy. Something about his sudden change seemed cartoonish.
The situation with Yoon-soo was interesting, and I mostly wonder at Doctor Kim’s involvement. We all knew Yoon-soo was teetering toward the brink with more frequent occurrences of the Monster in the Corner, and we also knew that Yoon-soo reacted poorly to hypnosis. When Doctor Kim called him a failed experiment, everything fit together.
What I assumed was that Doctor Kim tried to ‘activate’ Yoon-soo’s monster by using hypnosis, but just like before, Yoon-soo woke up and decided to stop. Only this time, the only way he saw to do that was to kill himself, which was equal parts surprising and terrifying. It’s a sad end for Yoon-soo, and one that could have been prevented if Doctor Kim had never entered the picture. Or not. Who’s to say?
So now we reach the question of the series, the big enchilada: Are monsters born, or are they made? The answer to that will vary from viewer to viewer, and to really dig deep into the nature vs. nurture debate, we’d need a whole lot more space. But for what it’s worth, and in the scope of this show, I don’t think Doctor Kim was entirely wrong when he claimed he won.
We head into some murky waters with the technicalities of his death, namely that the boys threw him over the edge but he chose to let go. But, intent counts for a lot here, and I don’t think they threw him over expecting him to survive – they were honestly trying to murder him. With the police right behind them and Doctor Kim without a weapon, they weren’t being actively hunted or harmed. They could have let the police capture him (although with that level of police ineptitude, I can see why they were hesitant), but instead, they each made a cold, calculated decision to take his life.
However, depending on your favorite school of philosophy, I say Doctor Kim only half-won because human beings aren’t meant to be broken down into ‘monster’ and ‘not a monster’. Nurture plays a part in everyone’s lives but it doesn’t automatically preclude free will, and it’s important that we got to see our boys make that choice, and even more chilling to see them lie about it later. The interrogation scene was amazing, and the look in Moo-yul’s eyes was honestly chilling.
So while the act they committed was monstrous, it doesn’t make them all monsters. You can’t reduce people like Moo-yul down to that moniker easily. I will admit though that while it was satisfying to see their solidarity, what they did was wrong wrong wrong, no matter the reason behind it. And I suppose it works to bring people like Moo-yul, Mi-reu, and Ji-hoon to the point where they could kill a person. They became monsters to fight a monster. Does that make it right?
I’m inclined to think no, because the long and short of it was that our leads got away with murder. And while that’s endlessly fascinating from a narrative standpoint, part of me wonders if the murder would have been more fulfilling if Doctor Kim hadn’t died thinking he’d won. Because after all these trials, you end up hoping that good will prevail over evil. But it’s never that easy, is it?
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51 shepo
August 29, 2012 at 10:14 AM
HeadsNo2,,i have different opinion with you about what is happening on the rooftop
before I start,I want to confirm this statement below:
-HeadsNo2,you can not believe how can the police conclude that Dr. Kim kill himself,,while the fact that the body is the Teacher's..
That is what you are thinking, right?
well,,my opinions :
-They do know, that the body is Teach's.
When they find him, he is (amazingly) still alive, and then rescue him, along with Mooyul, who loss his consciousness and lies beside the Teach's body.
-At that time,,the police is also looking for Dr. Kim
But they can't find him anywhere. So,finally, Police Department release a forge statement, saying that Dr. Kim has committed suicide,,because the police dont want the public thinks that they are incapable to catch a criminal.
So
That's why a policeman said they dont find any body in the courtyard, when Mooyul ask about it. Because they find Teach's Body on the rooftop. Then Mooyul realizes Dr.Kim is still around.
Let me summarize what I am thinking :
-The news said that Dr. Kim has committed suicide.(people will assume that his body found on the rooftop)
-In the other side:
^The police said that the teacher is safe
^But they dont find anybody in the courtyard
^So,there is only one body,,when it should be two. (Body from the courtyard that should be Teach's and body from the rooftop that should be Dr. Kim's)
^Becuse he hears that Teach is safe,,Mooyul realizes that the body they find on the rooftop is not Dr. Kim's but Teach's.
THATS WHY
-the kids realize Dr. Kim is still around and watching them
-plan to lure him to the rooftop
-and kill him
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shepo
August 29, 2012 at 10:37 AM
another trigger why they believe Dr. Kim still around is when they hear that Yoonsoo has received a call before he shot himself
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52 Sonia
August 29, 2012 at 11:37 PM
I was personally a little disappointed with the ending. Aside from the glaring hole that was the extremely incompetent police department, I personally felt that having those kids commit such a cold blooded murder was a far stretch. Sure they were emotionally disturbed by the whole incident, but I do not believe that less than eight days with a psyco-psychiatrist is enough to turn one into a cold and calculating monster. You will have to already be a psychopath (or a sociopath) on the verge of losing it, to be such cold murderers.
No matter what we see in movies, I am sure it is quite difficult to kill another human being and the worse only comes after the act of killing. Any human being with the ability to feel guilt will be haunted with the killing. I, for one, do not believe that the kids were past the point of feeling remorse and pain. If they had at least killed the doc in a shuffle or shot him in a moment of panic then it would have been more believable. If the show wanted to end it with "Monsters are made" end-line, then you could just have the kids calmly deny any involvement in the murder and then perhaps turn a little "monstrous," whatever that entailed. That would be easier to digest.
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53 Yume
September 2, 2012 at 6:34 AM
Whoa, thank you for the recap!
I enjoyed this drama so much!! I guess without you recapping it, I wouldn't have "found" this drama ^^;;
I think this genre of drama is really rare in korea...
Can someone maybe recommend dramas that go in the same direction? If there are any good ones...
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54 Kiki
September 2, 2012 at 5:20 PM
Sooo..what you're saying is, outside of Chicago, handling something "The Chicago Way", like those kids did, is considered, like, morally wrong? Huh. In Chicago it's called pragmatic. ;-)
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55 Jeannette
September 3, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Woah. Woah, GREAT drama. Ji-hoon and Moo-Yul were my favorite characters for sure. The end left me a little flat mainly because the police were so stupid. I loved what the kids did to the Doc, but I must admit I kind of liked him. Sure, he was psycho but he certainly got results.
A couple thoughts I had about this drama (completely superficial): everyone has cool names and I can see why they wanted tall boys. Tall, dark, brooding boys matched well with the building and mountain, and had a gorgeous and stark contrast to the snowy environment. I can't say enough about the gorgeousness of the cinematography. Just a beautiful drama all around. I hope to see more like these in the future.
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56 Faranak
September 3, 2012 at 2:26 PM
Great series! I've just finished it,it was both enjoyable and thoutfull,so, thank you sooo much headsno2 for your great recaps,you did a great job ;-)
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57 Tisnim
September 15, 2012 at 2:40 PM
thanks sooooo much for the recaps and for introducing this drama to me.
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58 zarink
September 29, 2012 at 5:53 PM
I will try to tell my friends of this drama so it will be better known.
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59 ladida
October 28, 2012 at 10:21 PM
2 and a half months later...*Squints* What was that? What did I just witness?
I don't think I've ever seen such inept, inconsequential police before. They were like comedic relief. And the idea of having families have therapy sessions in the open is so wrong on so many levels. One of the points of therapy is the safe space, the privacy. It's like a basic tenant. I'm pretty sure Mr. Serial Killer became one because he was such an epic failure professionally. Also, apparently all mothers are awful unless they're dead? Lol, ok.
I feel like this episode is a disconnect from the rest of the series narratively. It was like the writer had already planned this ending from the very beginning, but along the way the story turned into something else, but instead of following that something else to it's natural conclusion she stuck to the original ending. I don't know, does that make any sense?
The born or made monster question never really entertained me much, as I think it's not a valid question; I was way more interested in the characters presented and how the situation they were placed in made them react, which is why I'm so disappointed in the ending, because the way they were reacting seemed so foreign to who I saw them developing into. It's also why I was so bothered by the parents being there. Narratively it worked out for Yoon Soo, but for the rest I'm still scratching my head. I thought the point of the sessions was to see how the students reacted in this controlled environment, hence the emphasis on setting. Bringing the parents in made it seem as though it was about family dysfunction, when really their family issues simply informed the way they acted within the situation they were in, but that situation--i.e. a serial killer pitting them against one another--remained tantamount. And then we come to the doctor. I just really, really wanted him to kill one of the students. Like maybe Young Jae, because that would really bring the question of if one life is worth more than another to the fore. He was a coward and a fool and a traitor to the very end, and I would have liked to see how the others reacted to his murder. Hmm...I should probably rewatch the series, though. I marathoned it and maybe that's why this ending is so bewildering for me.
And I really wanted more Jae Kyung! Anyway, thanks for the recaps!
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60 MissyK
November 8, 2012 at 11:17 AM
Finally finished all 8 episodes, and what a ride it was finishing the show. It was everything I would have loved in a good drama, visually stunning, solid writing & directing, great acting (never felt emotions so raw before). Of course it wasn't without its flaws, but overall, this woud definitely be listed under my top ten k-dramas to date
My take on the show:
- The buildup premise had been good, climaxed at Ep 7 going into Ep 8. However, the 2nd half of Ep 8 feels a tad of a letdown for me. It feels like the story had so much more potential to stretch, yet the writers chose to wrap it up abruptly due to the time constraint.
- Agreed on the technicalities that marred the watching experience. The level of ineptness displayed by the police borders on the incredulous. While I would agree that the doctor needed to stay alive to round up the show, given his amazing amount of luck in escaping death, I'm sure he would have found an escape route even if he's arrested.
- I wished the show had the opportunity for the doctor to conduct and end his "theraphy" on all the students rather than focus on a selected few. Other than Moo Yeul, Eun Sang and Yoon Soo, the stories of the rest of the characters have prety much been neglected. Even Kang Mo and Young Jae had only touched first base in his "theraphy" session with no closure given in addressing their issues.
My thoughts on the show:
- I would certainly never want to meet a serial killer who makes a good psychiatrist. In a form of a psychiatrist, he always feel the compulsion to treat people's psychological issues, yet as a serial killer, he can be so deadly as well.
- I am of the belief that to a certain degree, the doctor's experiment had won. Reason being, while he had not literally created monsters out of them yet, he had certainly awaken the inner demons in them that could potentially push them down that path.
- It would have been a bonus to witness the aftermath of the doctor's death to see how much of the inner demons unleashed in the students had impacted them greatly in their daily lives at school or at home.
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61 Azerjaban
November 24, 2012 at 12:33 AM
For the best part of this drama was THE FILMING. How the camera moved from one person to the other in one shot made me feel like I was turning my head from side to side.
The filming is so different from other dramas I loved it.
THE OST was amazing too- haunting and perfect.
Without those two the drama would not have had nearly enough of a powerful effect.
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62 Azerjaban
November 24, 2012 at 12:48 AM
I have a few questions if anyone could clear them up for me:
Q: Why DIDN'T he kill Chi/Ji Hoon? He's a remorseless serial killer so what stopped him?
Q: Why didn't the students HEAR the gunshot when the teacher was killed- every other gunshot reverberated around the whole school.
Q: Why did Yoon-Su decide to finally kill himself? So he lied about his kidnapping umm apologize?
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Celery
August 10, 2013 at 7:00 AM
1. Because of his obsession with the experiment.
2. All reverberating gunshots were within the school, so that's one plothole half-closed. Teach's fight with villain was outside the school so gunshot occurred there - the school looked pretty soundproof to me.
3. I guess he just couldn't handle facing the truth when he has been semi-surviving on a lie his whole life. Teach's convo was the literal trigger to his suicide. I always saw him as a hovering ghost of a misfit - so perhaps, his suicide was inevitable.
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63 dahyeon
December 7, 2012 at 3:53 AM
I still don't understand why yoon-soo decided to kill himself.. can anyone explain?
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64 jennie
March 27, 2013 at 2:00 PM
thanks you!
I love this show and all the actors!!!!
Ji Hoon is my ultimate fave at the end, even though I was favoring Woo Bin (which isn't so bad)
This story was definitely different and complicated and intriguing. I hated the teacher, but his experiences somehow was for the good, he helped Moo yul and Eun Sung even though he did it sickly.
This does beg the question about creating monsters or breeding them. but i'm sure he had his answer from Jung Hye's character.
he made her a monster.
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65 Schoolers
April 7, 2013 at 12:16 AM
nahh, i dont think the Dr. won at the end. He probably said that just to satisfy himself.
Are monsters born or made? (me think - probably made)
well, everyone has their own evilside/monsters in themselves, it's just how u handle it, to gain control not to be bad, or losing control and be evil.
ex; Mooyul and Jaekyu has fight with their evilside, but still choose to be a good human-being,choose to save their friends,so being good or bad is definitely a choice!
I think the students killed the Dr. is NOT an awakening point of their monster, instead they DONT want to awaken their monsters, so that's why they make the Dr. go.
Judging from Yoonsu's situation, the Dr. might find any possible way and will continue haunted them after this. The Dr. has been MENTALLY and physically threaten them, and worst enough, provoke them to become a monsters, that's why they decide to vanish him. Even the most moral student-Mooyul make a first step,just because he cant take it anymore.
Mooyul has fight with his evilside once - about saving Jihoon, but this time he insist of killing the Dr.
That because there's different between Jihoon and the Dr.
Jihoon is his friend (well, sort of), even Mooyul is jealous of him but it's not a reason not to save him, but the Dr. is physco and evil,and after everything he's done, he deserve to die.
well, that's my opinion. this drama is sick and freakin awesome..!! definitely my top 5 favorite drama, or maybe my most favorite drama alongside with Ghost.
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66 Celery
August 10, 2013 at 5:54 AM
Late to the game but never too late to leave a comment. I was pretty much blown away by the depth that White Christmas presented (plus, indie music by Arcade Fire in a k-drama, that's a rarity) and the fluid and rich characterization that all the leads got. There's a lot more that I want to get off my chest but I'm too lazy to go into details so instead, I will just haphazardly list down what comes to mind first.
I have to say that I wasn't really intrigued by the Doc's question about monsters nature vs nurture debate because I have seen it dealt with over and over in several other mediums (the Monster manga is a great example) but I found the Doc's commitment to his experiment especially chilling, like a swan song of sorts. I personally felt that he would have found any justification to proclaim his victory at the end - the fact that there were people there for him to toy with was in itself his victory, by his own justifications. Not sure if that's clear.
In that sense, I was more intrigued by MY's statement at the beginning: Does one have to become a bigger monster, individually or collectively conforming, to defeat one? Also, the last scene of them walking together in the lone hallway reminded me of the conversation he had with Mireu when he was locked up - can't remember the details but something about surprises at the end of the light intersected with MR's snide humor.
All in all, I was bowled over by some of the actors' performances esp. Hong Jong-Hyeon's. His character was somewhat a beta-male wallflower but I always had the feeling that the was the unreadable wildcard (even more so than Mireu because it was predictable that he would do unpredictable things) and you never know what goes through his mind. The rest's assigned roles were more clearly defined; Mooyul the heroic do-good leader, Yoon-Soo, the lost soul, etc. He played the nuances very well when he was in the background and his emotional outbursts/monster at the seams scenes were subtle but yet so chilling.
Here are my favorites in terms of characters and performances (only listing the students and not Dr. Kim):
Characters (in order of preference):
1. Mi-Reu / Kim Woo Bin
The free spirit agent of chaos. Everyone loves a redhead clown who does whatever he wants.
2. Jae-kyu / Hong Jong-Hyeon
The quiet ones are always the unpredictable ones.
3. Ji-hoon / Sung Joon
I always have had a soft spot for the cool intellectual types who don't give a crapass about pleasing everyone. I.E., Naoki from ItaNaKiss. Where there's a situation, there's a solution and I like how he effectively saw MY as part of the solution.
4. Young-Jae / Kim Young-Kwang
It's nice to see a bully with a realistic backstory. I don't so often like the hot-headed jock type of character but his "hate-me-everyone-for-I-rather-that-than-be-unloved" speech was <3. Self-awareness, now that I like.
5. Moo-Yul / Baek Sung-Hyun
It's often the self-righteous, do gooder, insecure sort of characters that I especially dislike (because, very often they are clueless about the harm they cause, in their pursuit for justice) but I'd say, he did a fair job of including everyone's opinions and that he genuinely has a good heart.
6. Kang-Mo / Kwak Jung-Wook
I hate stalkers. But I liked the fact that he put his AV skills to good use in the last arc. I was worried that his disability would be put to contrived use in the narrative but I thought it was rather deftly handled with. I was all hell yeahs when his hearing aid malfunctioned at the end and that he went on to do the smart thing WITHOUT it.
7. Eun-Sung / Esom
As the only female character, I expected her to be... more interesting? I liked her insight towards the end about the Doc but otherwise, didn't really enjoy her character.
8. Yoon-Soo / Soo-Hyuk
I suspect ranking him last has much lesser to do with not liking his character than there's too little of him for me to feel an emotional connection with. They could have done more with him though, given his Death Poet Society-type suicide.
Admittedly, the acting is rather raw at times because these actors were greenhorns then but there were a couple of whom I thought did EXCEEDINGLY well despite their lack of experience. Strictly IMO and subjective.
Actors (in order of performances):
1. Jae-kyu / Hong Jong-Hyeon
He really did a lot more than he could with his character, and was the most consistent of the lot in terms of acting. His little tics and mannerisms... spot-on. Don't know much about him before, but am interested in checking out his career.
2. Young-Jae / Kim Young-Kwang
2. Mi-Reu / Kim Woo Bin
Mostly a tie between both of them but with an extra point going to KYK because I guess, he really had more material to work with. But the inexperienced (comparatively; it was his first series) KWB deserves a medal for playing the comedic relief without going over-the-top and his quiet moment with MY about JH's death was well-played.
3. Eun-Sung / Esom
3. Kang-Mo / Kwak Jung-Wook
Another tie. Esom is probably more consistent than JW but JW's character is sort of harder to play than Esom's.
4. Ji-hoon / Sung Joon
There's really little acting to be done in SJ's case TBH because his character is an unemotional robot. But that he did pretty well, so props for that.
5. Moo-Yul / Baek Sung-Hyun
Probably going to be an unpopular opinion but his acting was extremely stiff when it came to scenes of him playing the stoic and calm leader (and there were plenty of them) - and it wasn't even buyable as insecurity or some subtle character trait. His mouth freezes over or something like that which distracted me so much, until towards the end. And the f-ed up part is he had the meatiest role and so much room for characterization.
6. Yoon-Soo / Soo-Hyuk
Same reason so as to why his character was ranked last. There's too little for me to go on about his acting because mainly, he was just wasted in the background acting all spaced-out.
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67 Celery
August 10, 2013 at 7:31 AM
Oops, back for more.
The whole final confrontation with Teach made me think about his whole lion by the river/thirsty zebras analogy in his convo with KM, in which he talked about individual zebras sacrificing themselves for the sake of the general population. A natural order of things so as to speak, the weakest link saves the rest by well, doing what the weakest link have to do. When I first heard the analogy, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be better if the zebras/humans banded together to get rid of the lion?
I guess ES said the Doc lost because the weakest link, not KM but YS, decided to go against the grain by killing himself and not Doc (I recall Doc wondering where YS was when he was on the rooftop with the rest so I suppose that was his plan).
Instead, the zebras did the "right" thing by banding together and destroying the lion for good - if you can call it a right thing? If not, there will always come a time where everyone has to vilify themselves over and over by determining the weakest link/sacrificial lamb? Might as well be a "monster" (in Doc's words) once than for life, no?
Ah, the things we do to survive.
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68 mez
August 31, 2013 at 8:12 PM
a year and more than a hundred comments later...
I've just finished watching this drama, shed more tears than any other dramas I've watched.
For the police, really tsk tsk, aside from what have been mentioned here, I also can't compute how the police bodies still in the car days later and no one looking for them. Since they've been not reporting for days and with a 'dangerous' serial murderer suspect that never arrive at police station. But we'll never get our story if the police are competent, so.. *sigh*
About Mu-Yeol gripping his hand when Eun-Seong father talking.. My take is ES always knows/thinks her father is a bad person, she told MY whatever bad things her father do, but she can stay positive back then because of her faith on her mother, and maybe she praises her mother in front of MY too. So when her mother image tainted in her eyes, she just lost it.
As for Yoon-Soo, I never think he has any will power to continue living from first place. All the students are in the edge of mental breakdown, but I really think YS is the worst, worse than ES. So, when he remembers that he is the corner-monster's monster (for lying) and that he has no real good memories with 'his mom', that's his end.
And for the ending, I don't know. I have inner conflict about it. I totally understand why they do that and glad the doctor really dead in front of their (and my) eyes.. But, I do have bitter 'aftertaste' about that too.
Overall, I enjoy this drama much. Love all the characters for their layers. And I am glad for not peeking the recaps a year ago and read it just now. Totally worth the experience!
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69 lostinit
September 8, 2013 at 5:51 PM
why didnt the police question the 2 gaurds that were supposed to be looking out for kids at the end???? surely they wouldve thought they were acting suspicious
i liked this drama but there were so many flaws in it, i usually suck at guessing plot lines but the first half of this drama was too obvious, at the start some how even though they kept showing the Kang Mo to be guilty, they were playing it on too much making it evident that it wasnt him, also they showed Jae Kyu playing with his collar out of nervousness too often, just once wouldve been a subtle indication but twice just made his guilt glare in your face
also the fact that they kept showing what Kang Mi Rue was up to after he left for his trek made me realise he would probably return to the school as some sort of hero. When the doctor supposedly killed Choi Chi Hoon, just from the fact that they didnt show him lying dead on the floor covered in blood just made it clear that he was still alive.
The last episode was my favourite but as you pointed out in your comments, nothing made sense about how the police acted. this drama could definitely be put together better with a bit more thought, but over all i did enjoy this drama.
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70 monsterinc90
December 3, 2013 at 8:34 AM
All the students are equally guilty of murder. The intention and the act were present, even in case of Ji-Hoon and Eun Sang. Even the right to private self defense would be denied to them. They did prove that they became monsters, they broke down. One cold, not remorseful act is sufficient. The retributive theory of justice brings anarchy.
Dr.Kim bought out all the insecurities of all the students, which is no reason to kill him. He did manage to prove that they are 'monster' , given the power, ability and a flimsy motive they would attack. ex- Jong Jae bashing Mong Wa head, Mong Wa's witch hunt, Jae Kyu attacking Jong Jae, pushing Dr.Kim with intent to kill, fabricating a story to cover their act(another offence).
Also I did not find Dr.Kim's psychological game to be that persuasive as compared to the lack of structure and coping mechanism of the students. The students had suppressed their feelings, hatred, envy, lack of control leading to the wakening of the 'monster'. All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way-Tolstoy. Moo-Yul, Jong Jae, Eun Sang and Yun Soon were already on the border line. Honestly their issues were not even that big. Everyone silently competes for the leadership position, many parents ignore their children and your mother having an affair is no reason to cut your hand (although the mother not confessing to her sins was horrible). Ji Hoon, Jae-Kyu and Merui did not have reason to kill. Moo-Yul, does not know himself yet. In the first episode he mentioned that the criminal knows his actions and consequence following it is justified and he should therefore be punished. Yet given a motive, Moo Yul would opt to kill.
I don't know why and how the students are responsible for Kim Soo's death. Should every girl you like welcome your advance? Shouldn't her friends take actions to stop her stalker? Should every winner remember the names of the ones he defeated? Should I be friends with one who makes reminds me of my liabilities? And why only these 7? All the other kids in the school seem to be equally responsible for showing disinterest in him. Kim Soo was mentally weak, could not handle pressure and intense competition and needed people to blame.
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71 August
January 11, 2014 at 4:11 PM
Open Thread #324 - January 3, 2014
#2.4 August January 3rd, 2014 at 7:19 AM
I just finished watching White Christmas over the holidays and enjoyed it immensely. Thanks to all the beanines that continuously recommend and spread the word about White Christmas in the Open Threads!
Open Thread #325 - January 10, 2014
#1.2.2 August January 10th, 2014 at 7:04 AM
I recently watched and enjoyed White Christmas like you did. I have a few questions for you or others that have seen White Christmas.
SPOILERS**
What conclusion did you reach regarding the character Yoon-Soo? In your opinion, what was the actual truth about Yoon-Soo and his “Mother” memory/issue?
- If Yoon-Soo was happiest in life when his mother would make him pancakes…
- Yoon-Soo’s current Mom tells him that she fired the maid/caretaker because as a child he thought the maid/caretaker was his mom which as a parent hurt the current Mom…
a) Did the parents swap/switch children?
b) Was Yoon-Soo actually the maid/caretaker’s son and therefore, he was adopted by his current parents?
c) Yoo-Soo said, “Because she hugged you instead of me. I must’ve wanted to be you.” Yoon –Soo admits that he lied. Did he lie about the maid/caretaker kidnapping him or that the maid/caretaker was his mother?
d) Was the child with the blue birthmark on his face (“The Monster in the Corner”) actually the child of his “parents” or the child of the maid/caretaker?
e) For Yoon-Soo, did his problems boil down to denial/avoidance of dealing with a false image of his parents and coming to terms with the illusion of the maid/caretaker as a mother figure for him?
f) Are we to take away that Yoon-Soo actually felt like he was “The Monster in the Corner” once the truth came to the forefront… (1) for lying about the maid/caretaker kidnapping him, (2) only having memories of the maid/caretaker as his mother, and (3) not really having any good memories with his mom?
Open Thread #325 - January 10, 2014
#1.2.2.1 Patch January 10th, 2014 at 7:55 AM
I think the maid did kidnap him but when the police came she ran to her own child ignoring Yoon Soo which created both his desire to be the other kid and his hatred of him. Because of his drug use, isolation growing and other factors in Yoon Soo’s mind the boy with the blue birthmark became the Monster In The Corner.
No I don’t think the kids were swapped the birthmark is too distinctive.
Open Thread #325 - January 10, 2014
#1.2.2.2 Saya January 11th, 2014 at 1:04 PM
Hi August! Sorry, busy weekend keeps me from coming back to OT (sigh).
WHITE CHRISTMAS SPOILERS
To be honest, I wasn’t 100% of what exactly happened with Yoon Su, but I wonder if that ambiguity is part of it. I read every single comment of the last ep recap trying to get a handle on it, but all everyone else had was speculation as well – that perhaps he wasn’t kidnapped at all, but went along to that ahjumma’s house missing her, and afterwards, when he was found by the police, little and frightened, he had lied.
I would say the parents didn’t switch kids, there’s no evidence of that, but at one point, Yoon Su must have thought his nanny was his mother. The birthmarked child was his nanny’s real son.
I also can’t say for sure what Yoon Su’s ‘monster’ was for or about. I think it’s the realisation that he’d built his subsequent life on the lies he’d told as a child — and which he came to believe as real. Which you...
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August
January 11, 2014 at 4:12 PM
Open Thread #325 - January 10, 2014
#1.2.2.2 Saya January 11th, 2014 at 1:04 PM
I also can’t say for sure what Yoon Su’s ‘monster’ was for or about. I think it’s the realisation that he’d built his subsequent life on the lies he’d told as a child — and which he came to believe as real. Which you wonder if it was just so he could live with himself, live with the rejection from the nanny whom he felt was more his mother, and also that he certainly had psychological issues which may have caused him to have heightened responses to things other people handle (more) easily, i.e. his exile to and confinement in the school, his reaction to how his peers treat him, and so on. Maybe he’s always felt like an outsider, but not in a normal, manageable way, but a really extreme, unbearable way – a nail that sticks out no matter what. And he didn’t want to be that, so he took his way out.
In conclusion: I really don’t know. But I think that’s the point.
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72 moofubaby78
March 4, 2014 at 6:12 AM
Thank you HeadsNo2 for the recommendation and recaps of this AMAZING drama! It completely blew me away with its awesomeness and really worked my brain over (but in such a good way!). Thanks to all the Beanies for the comments, as your theories and insights provide even more enjoyment of White Christmas. Aw, now I need to watch it all over again to catch all the clues...love when the engagement with a drama keeps going and going!!
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73 Fabuluv
March 31, 2014 at 2:11 PM
I thought this would be happy i mean with a name like " WHite Christmas" but i t has to be th e most chilling drama i have come across! I watch to the end to make sure the Kim Woo Bin's character wasnt killed because i love him. But whoosh they did become monstars. Needless to say i would never and i mean NEVER send my kid to a Korean high school. Maybe in real life they arnt like that but why take a chance? plus it been ruined because of drama like this one and heirs and even school 2013 oish!
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74 cleona
May 3, 2014 at 4:01 AM
This is definitely the most outstanding K-Drama i've ever watch. I've already watched it for 3 times in arow.. It so sad that tis dramaonly have 8 episodes :(
Though that it will have second season *which is just in my dream.. -.-*
The casts were awesomee.. *cough* *PLAYBOYZ* *cough* and the storyline is sooo addicting and made me wanna quickly watching for the next ep. But in this last episode, i have to admit that there's some missing link, like how did the doctor survived, and what really happened in the kids mind after all of this *kills the doctor forsho
Still.. i love this drama soo much.. ^^
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75 annabaam
December 21, 2014 at 6:00 AM
Wow... first, thank you so much for making this recaps.. and also you add some comment below..
I know it's very late to know about this drama, it was on 2011 And I watched it on 2014. And I just know that bunch of hot model-actor friend starts gather around in this drama.wow.. the cast just awesome..
I watched it through broadcast on kbs world this 2 days, maybe because it will christmast day soon.
I'm very curious to know wht will happen on the next episode, so I tried to lookfor some sinopsis, and bump on yours. It really help me. Because I still cannot fink link to download the drama since it was a bit old. It must be on kbs world tv channel on youtube, but i doubt it if still exist.
There's a lot of twist and make me to think hard. Its very psycological. Everyone has their own problem, and own way to let it slip or solve it or being explode become a monster , its rather a choice.(sorry my bad english)..
Actually I interested in lee soo hyuk since he was a model who is look so cold and chic. I want to know his act. And in here he also still look like that,. But poor him at the end, he choose to end his life by suicide..T.T..
i like the cast, the location nd all. Love it..
It will become one of my favorite drama.
thanks again :)
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76 Manpreet
May 12, 2015 at 11:04 AM
Thank you you so much for writing this. I was really having a hard time dealing with the ending ...but I'm fine now Thank you soooooooooo muuuuuuuuch <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
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77 stardust14
July 15, 2015 at 1:26 PM
i rewatch this drama and realize that the narrator voice in the opening episode 1 &2 is Jae Kyu, not Mo Yoel. and he narrate the story about kim jin soo in final ep 2 which means that he knew about kim jin soo. so that u'd knew that jae kyu who sent the letter.
in ep 3 where eun sung were sitting at the park and mo yeol saw her, why she didnt recognize the pile in front of her that later at night she found out that the teacher's body?
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78 ObsessedMuch
October 13, 2015 at 12:36 AM
Oh I finished this mini series now! It seems I am really late! :P Still, I wanted to write about how good this show was. I mean, it could have been awesome but it did really well for the limited time it had. And the actors are quite good. I have seen their more recent shows and they are obviously more mature now, but I can see the potential in all of their acting :)
I have to say that I caught this drama accidentally and I was so surprised that Kim Woo Bin was in it. I just had to continue with it after discovering him! :D
Perhaps no one will read this now. But if someone does come on this thread to see how this show was, I really would recommend them to watch it.
Its not perfect but it's quite good.
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ObsessedMuch
October 17, 2015 at 10:58 PM
Adding a comment so that I can rate this episode :)
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miselpo
May 22, 2017 at 12:35 AM
I just finished this show yesterday and ha I'm reading your comment now ;)
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79 Rbaird40
October 18, 2015 at 12:08 PM
Love this drama!
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80 miselpo
May 22, 2017 at 12:53 AM
So glad I watched White Christmas, definitely my kind of show. I was in denial at first merely because I knew it's KWB acting debut and I worried he might be bad in this so I was like 'don't wanna see it', but it's totally the opposite, he did well! Happy to find out many ppl fell for his character.
I'm curious why they change the title from Monster to White Christmas? Anyway I hope there'll be more K-drama like White Christmas and The Devil. Dear @headsno2 could you please recap The Devil/Mawang? It's a very riveting drama similar to White Christmas. Pleaseeee ^.^
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miselpo
May 22, 2017 at 1:09 AM
and the cast were all amazing! They're completely immersed in their characters, good job for such rookie actors. More excited to know that the five of them remain best friends until now.
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81 Derma Mira
November 2, 2017 at 8:59 AM
What's up friends, pleasant post and good urging commented here, I
am truly enjoying by these.
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82 Bellaire Skin Cream Review
November 2, 2017 at 5:05 PM
I rattling glad to find this site on bing, just what I was searching
for :D likewise saved to fav.
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83 greenfields
January 14, 2018 at 11:07 AM
Plot and logical fallacies aside - like why the police failed to get access to the school's CCTV system - I loved this Show. ^^
Happy welcome to Dramas in 2018, even though its an older drama!
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84 kdramafan
June 8, 2019 at 9:45 PM
This show was by far the one of the best I have seen in relation to crime and thriller. I watched this show long time ago, I recently came back to watch some of the episodes. Before I would have argued that monsters can be made or born. But I think people are all born evil. One might call it instinct for survival. Whether you are an atheist or God believing person, you know people have fight or flight system. People in the old times used to survive whether it is attacks from other species or providing food for their families by killing. As time went on the need for hunting has become small. Most of us don't need to do it or live without the fear of being harmed. So these instinctual ideas are suppressed. But for people who are monsters this has resurfaced and they usually have situations that lead them into this types of situations. People who are monsters have both the nature and nurture components of a killer. This is why not ever mentally ill person or people with bad family become a murder. Bad situations or the nurture aspect are not always obvious, it can be extend from bad family situation all the way to fascinations with guns. This means given the situation anyone can become a monster. The likelihood or the extent depends on how developed our nurture and nature aspect to being a master is. On the grand scheme of things he has won. He has made them awaken their killer instincts. But I wouldn't call them monster as he has wanted them to be. For example, in society we don't call people who kill their bosses who has made them suffer terribly monsters. We usually reserve it for people who kill people unrelated to them, children/ people with little cause of harm to them or/and people who kill in a gruesome way. So in that sense I don't see them as monsters.
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85 Jezz
July 16, 2020 at 9:05 AM
My overall: 8/10
It was a great miniseries. Fantastic but weird. My best and most exciting ending about the main teen cast walked out from the darkened hallway.
An Sung-hoon played as a child but after this miniseries, his last appearance was 2017 epic TV drama, Saimdang but I think he will be the next big star of this decade (2020s) so I can't wait to see his next project will be.
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86 💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
December 21, 2020 at 2:13 AM
There are so many ways to view the ending of this show lol.
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