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Shark: Episode 11

Some great developments in this episode really set the ball rolling, adding a few interesting twists to shape the second half of this vengeance fest—which isn’t as cut-and-dry as we might’ve thought it was. The Orpheus allegory finally gets the attention it deserves (take that, sharks!) as Hae-woo continues to steal the show—but really, how can we not love a heroine who can look into the eyes of her first love and promise to go to war with him?

With all the new premieres, Shark got the closest it’s been to double digits with 9.4%. Next week will be the big indicator, so it’s now or never.

 
EPISODE 11 RECAP

After an extended recap, we return to the gala as Hae-woo watches the hidden tape of her father threatening the late Detective Jung while everyone gathered gets to listen.

Hae-woo just absorbs what happened for a moment, but grows curious when one of the guards nervously pulls out a flash drive from another computer. Ah, so it wasn’t her computer that played the recording—Yi-soo must’ve bought this guy off to broadcast the recording to the party.

She doesn’t know what happened, and Joon-young calls to tell her to go straight home without returning to the gala. She starts following Yi-soo out, but a call from Soo-hyun stops her in her tracks just as Yi-soo pulls out his shark pendant. Did she see it? She couldn’t have.

Detective Byun and Soo-hyun are at the crime scene with Detective Oh’s corpse, and because of the blood circle, Soo-hyun wonders if it’s the same murderer from Detective Jung’s case. Our good detective is visibly shaken by the death of his colleague, so when Soo-hyun asks him if he’s all right all he can do is nod shakily.

But his problems are compounded when he gets a call about Daddy Jo’s blackmail scandal, and he can’t help but take out his pent-up frustrations on his car. No one blames him.

While Joon-young tries to find out how the audio file was broadcast, Hae-woo does the right thing by handing over the USB file of evidence against her father to Detective Byun. This is why she’s awesome.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor Oh sweats and frets to Grandpa Jo about how they’ll handle the fallout from this—he’s sure they can cover it up, but public opinion will be harder to control. Grandpa Jo laughs it all off good-naturedly, but inside he’s seething.

He does come to the correct conclusion right away, though. “Kim Jun… Han Yi-soo.” The cat’s out of the bag! (The shark is out of the tank? I tried.)

Yi-soo sneaks into a mysterious security room, dispatches the guard (“Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?”) and steals some CCTV footage. Is he looking for Clicky in the library?

Daddy Jo throws another tantrum at Joon-young, claiming that it wasn’t his voice in the recording. When his son-in-law doesn’t tell him what he wants to hear, he practically starts rolling around on the floor in hysterics. “Why is everyone always dying to stab me in the back?” I don’t know, maybe because you’re kind of awful?

Junichiro meets with Grandpa Jo & Co. to apologize for sniping their hotel deal, and offers a deal in exchange—if their hotels join hands, they can challenge the international market together. Grandpa Jo wants time to think on it.

Detective Byun takes Hae-woo out for some soju, but she’s not in the mood to drink for once. He praises her for making the tough decision to hand over the evidence before asking for her input on the case. Everyone thinks the murderer is the same, but Hae-woo disagrees. It was a copycat killing.

Yi-soo’s father and Detective Oh were killed the same way, but Detective Jung was murdered differently—so they’re dealing with two different murderers. Detective Byun agrees with her, and they both come to the same conclusion that whoever murdered Detective Oh did so to escape investigation (by making it look like the other murder) and to send a warning to Jung’s murderer. But why?

That’s when Detective Byun reveals that Oh had found the evidence in the locker that Jung tried to hide. But he doesn’t tell her that it was a photo of independence activists. Curious.

The only thing they don’t know is why Yi-soo’s father ended up with the incriminating documents that Envelope Professor had all those years ago.

Thanks to some fancy product placement, Yi-soo gets to watch the library CCTV footage he purloined around the time Detective Oh was there, and catches a glimpse of Clicky’s face hiding amongst the shelves.

Hae-woo finds Clicky (in his bookstore ajusshi disguise) waiting for her at home to deliver an old book to her grandpa. She takes it to Grandpa Jo instead.

It’s with hesitation that she finally breaks the news to Grandpa—it was her father that was responsible for the hit-and-run, not Yi-soo’s dad. And Detective Jung had been blackmailing her father for it all these years.

Poor Hae-woo. She has no idea that Grandpa was the one who freakin’ orchestrated all this, but you can’t blame her when Grandpa acts all scandalized and feigns guilt for the trouble they must have put Yi-soo’s dad through. Ugh, he’s so fake.

He asks her to speak plainly on who she thinks caused Detective Jung’s murder, and Hae-woo hesitates even more. Nooo! Don’t tell him about Yi-soo. Don’t tell him about Yi-soo.

Thankfully she listens to her gut, and doesn’t give Grandpa any more details. But she still trusts him wholeheartedly, and even tells him how much his presence gives her peace of mind, like he’s the white knight who’ll set everything right.

Mrs. Park tries her best to fish for what little information she can out of Hae-woo, but it piques Hae-woo’s curiosity that Mrs. Park was interested to know about Yi-soo in the first place.

Hae-woo returns to her room to find Joon-young working on scandal damage control, but he drops everything to comfort her since he knows how hard this must be. Gah, he’s so perfect and supportive—he didn’t even tell her family that she saw the blackmail tape at the same time it was broadcast.

“Thank you Oppa,” she says into his shoulder. “For being by my side.”

“Cheer up,” he replies. “Everything’s going to get better.”

Grandpa Jo unwraps the book Clicky delivered, which was a cover to hide the old picture of the activists/his father(?) inside. Grandpa Jo burns it, and then has a talk with his son we don’t hear.

Hae-woo and her husband find Detective Byun waiting outside the house for her dad, but what’s even more curious is that Daddy Jo called them and volunteered to go. Something’s fishy here.

Meanwhile, Yi-soo has a talk with his friend, sure that Daddy Jo is just making a move to sway public opinion in his favor. He asks if his friend checked something he sent, and gets a gleam in his eye as he admits that he’s been curious about “him” for twelve years. I wonder who he means.

Clicky wears a frightening wig to go knocking at a teacher’s door, and uses a fake badge to claim he’s a policeman. He just wants to ask the man a few questions since he met with Detective Oh previously. Uh oh.

Dong-soo calls Secretary Jang out to vent some of his frustrations and worries about what he heard at the gala—mostly that Yi-soo’s dad’s name was mentioned in the blackmail tape, and that Daddy Jo was accused of murdering him. I love that he’s trying to piece this whole mystery together on his own, and that he’s worried for the truth only because of how much it’ll hurt all his friends.

Secretary Jang mentions that she read an article claiming that the conversation was manipulated, but it does little to put Dong-soo at ease. If everything’s true, it’ll be problematic for Hae-woo, Joon-young, and Yi-hyun. He knows Secretary Jang has more connections than he does, so he implores her to use them to look into the matter.

Yi-hyun finds her dad at work to ask about the same thing, since she also heard everything at the gala. She wants to know whether it’s true Daddy Jo killed her birth father, but Detective Byun reassures her that that’s not the case.

Detective Byun is in charge of Daddy Jo’s interrogation, and Daddy Jo admits to causing the hit-and-run. But he changes his story a little on how Yi-soo’s dad ended up with the blame, first saying that he insisted on it, and then saying that he might have bribed him with money to do it on the condition that Daddy Jo would take care of his children.

He lies when asked if Yi-soo’s dad changed his mind about taking the blame, but does admit that he was blackmailed by Detective Jung over the matter.

“Is that why you murdered him?” Detective Byun asks, and Daddy Jo blusters that if he killed everyone who threatened him, there’d be a lot of bodies. Interrogation over.

Detective Byun updates Hae-woo via phone, growing a little concerned when she claims it was her grandfather who convinced her dad to turn himself in after she talked to him. But at least she only told Grandpa about the hit-and-run, and nothing more.

Hae-woo calls Soo-hyun to look into the late Detective Oh’s phone record right as Yi-hyun comes to visit her table, and she asks if Soo-hyun has been especially busy lately since he’s usually a regular customer. Hae-woo picks up on the vibe and assures her: “I’ll tell him you miss him.” Ha.

Yi-hyun can deny it all she wants, but it seems she’s got a budding crush. Either way, she moves the topic to the mysterious man they saw at the gala, and asks Hae-woo if she knows him, since Yi-hyun remembers him from his nice voice and handsome face.

You can tell Hae-woo feels terrible that she can’t tell Yi-hyun her suspicion that Kim Jun is Yi-soo, even when she admits that she does know Yi-hyun’s sporadic customer. Why can no one in this drama tell when the other person is visibly holding back tears? Isn’t it normal to pick up on these things?

Yi-soo finds Mrs. Park waiting for him in the hotel lobby, and she’s come only to give him banchan since he lives alone. Awwww! That’s such a sweet and motherly thing to do. She so knows he’s Yi-soo and she’s trying to take care of him, isn’t she? Mrs. Park needs a bigger part, stat.

Dong-soo is over the moon to see her when she emerges outside, since he’s the one who gave her Yi-soo’s address. She asks Dong-soo if “Kim Jun” contacted him about the job first, and he confirms that it was Secretary Jang. He doesn’t know why Mrs. Park is asking, but we do—there are too many coincidences, and she’s hunting for the truth.

Soo-hyun calls Hae-woo with the details from the murdered detective’s call logs—along with calling Detective Byun, he called a history professor (the one Clicky found), and the society for history correction that Envelope Professor was a part of.

So she joins Detective Byun on his investigation as a tagalong, since she’s basically out of a job until the disciplinary committee reaches a decision and has a lot of time on her hands.

Joon-young tries to talk Grandpa Jo out of a press conference, but he’s already made up his mind. Grandpa Jo outwardly takes the blame for not raising his son well, and “when you commit a sin, it’s only right to apologize for it.” O rly.

Detective Byun and Hae-woo question the history professor Clicky met, only to learn that Clicky actually impersonated Detective Byun specifically to ask about what Detective Oh talked to him about. The professor describes Clicky as a man over fifty, which surprises Hae-woo, since she seems to have thought it would have been Yi-soo.

But he shares what he shared with Clicky, which seems like a curiously loose end for the assassin to leave—Detective Oh had asked if he had any pictures from the independence movement as well as a family photo of Jo In-seok, Grandpa Jo’s father.

As for Grandpa Jo, he holds his press conference to clear the air regarding the rumors surrounding his son, and admits to everyone that his son did cause a car accident twelve years ago, and he did flee from the scene.

The professor admits that the family photo both Detective Oh and Clicky asked him about was destroyed in a fire before Jo In-seok was born, so that the only remaining photo is a solo portrait of him.

When Detective Byun asks if Detective Oh showed him the family portrait, the professor says no—and that Clicky asked him that same question over and over again. Detective Byun seems to realize that his former colleague saved this man from being murdered by not showing the photo.

Grandpa Jo’s eyes brim with tears as he delivers a heartfelt apology to the family of the hit-and-run victim as well as the nation, going for the take-pity-on-how-sorry-I-am route as he even bows for the cameras.

Yi-soo watches the news from home as they cover not only the apology, but Daddy Jo’s personal visit to the home of the victim’s family to drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness. Daddy Jo watches from home too, happy as a clam that he could fool people with his fake act of sincerity. It seems to have worked, for the most part, to swing public opinion back in their favor.

He then calls Grandpa Jo as Kim Jun to commend him for his courage in coming clean to the media, but Grandpa picks up on the fact that maybe Yi-soo just wants to rub it in a little that he had to embarrass himself so publicly. “I will visit you soon,” Yi-soo says with a menacing edge.

Junichiro muses over Grandpa Jo’s decision to apologize as he drinks with Secretary Jang, offering his view that life is about choices, and that those choices are what defines a person. I’m not too sure what he’s getting at, but he plans to stay in Korea longer to find out.

Soo-hyun delivers the hotel’s CCTV footage to Hae-woo, though he doubts she’ll find anything useful when the laptop was in a blind spot. She still looks through it anyway, and pauses during the point when Yi-soo was leaving first at the gala.

She notices a flash of silver in his hand, and zooms in to find a surprisingly high definition picture. She’s able to see the metal shark pendant clearly, and her eyes go wide in shock. Finally! Proof!

She rushes straight over to Yi-soo’s penthouse, and you can just see all of this starting to sink in for her during the drive. Yi-soo seems shocked when she shows up at his door, and downs a very unhealthy amount of pills before he answers. (Pro tip: Pills don’t magically work better if you take half a bottle at once.)

Hae-woo can barely eke out that she wants to talk to him, but hesitates when Yi-soo invites her inside. She automatically fingers her wedding band as if to remind herself that she’s married, and decides that it’s not a good idea to go inside. He has to come out to talk to her instead.

When he confronts her, she looks him dead in the eye. “Stop this, Yi-soo-ya. Please stop.” (It’s happening you guys! It’s happening!)

The use of his name visibly shakes Yi-soo’s resolve, and he tries to deny it at first. But Hae-woo doesn’t let that phase her. “You have to stop here. If you go too far, you can’t come back even if you want to. You have to stop, Yi-soo.”

He tries denying it again, but Hae-woo demands to know why he’s trying to become like “them.” She only wants to help him, so if he tells her what he knows, they can work together.

This is when Yi-soo’s facade melts a little, though it’s not quite an admission. “Society isn’t as just as those in power think it is. It never was.”

“I know,” Hae-woo says, her tone pleading. “I know why you chose to act this way. I do, Yi-soo.”

Yi-soo turns on her to warn her against claiming to understand what she has no idea of. Moreover, she has no proof—if she can prove without a doubt that he’s Yi-soo, then that’s who he’ll be.

When he turns to leave, Hae-woo calls after him, “What’s different between you and the people who made you this way? What’s different?” She’s trying to appeal to his humanity while at the same time offering to help him, even though he tells her it’s no use. “I decide when to start and when to end.”

Hae-woo: “I’m going to stop you. No matter what, I’m going to stop you.”

Yi-soo: “It won’t be easy. To stop me, you will have to follow me to hell.”

Hae-woo: “If it means that I can find Han Yi-soo again, I can follow you to the greatest depths of hell.”

 
COMMENTS

How I waited for this moment, and how it didn’t disappoint in the slightest. This reveal actually did what I wanted and more, and all of the goodness resulting from that owes itself to Hae-woo. I feel like the word ‘heroine’ is used pretty frequently for female leads in dramas even when the moniker isn’t always deserved, but Hae-woo is that word personified. She is a true heroine, not only because she’s carrying the action of the show but because she’s capable and willing to make the tough decisions and save the hero, even when the hero has been psychologically torturing her for much too long now.

This is where the Orpheus allegory works, and where its role reversal proves interesting—Hae-woo is the Orpheus to Yi-soo’s Eurydice, since she’s the one promising to follow him to hell and bring him back by any means necessary. This isn’t just a journey to save his soul, but one to find the Yi-soo she knew, not just for her sake, but for his. And I love that added layer of how her personal affection for him conflicts with her duty to do what’s right, because we know enough of her character by now to trust in her sense of justice and her moral compass. How that’s all going to play out when she finds out about her grandpa is anyone’s guess.

So what their final exchange adds is choice, which was consequently what Junichiro was philosophizing about in what seemed like a throwaway bit earlier. She’s giving Yi-soo the option of stopping his revenge plan now before it’s too late, or else she’ll have to stop him herself. That’s not something she wants to do, so it did feel like she was almost pleading for Yi-soo to just turn back so that they wouldn’t have to reach that point. And what’s awesome about her is that when he issued a challenge, she accepted it without hesitation. I completely believe in her and her determination, so even if my care level for Yi-soo is low, it’s like I have second-hand compassion for him if only because I really do care about what happens to Hae-woo.

On the whole, the reveal itself was handled well and the methodical pacing of this show paid off (finally), in that we were shown enough of Hae-woo’s process to believe the conclusions she came to when she came to them. The fact that she didn’t waste five episodes angsting and beating her chest was an added bonus, and I love that she didn’t waste even a second before confronting him. That’s the Hae-woo I’ve come to really appreciate—she manages to be tough, thoughtful, and decisive without having to sacrifice her femininity (even on a superficial level) to prove it. No bowl cuts, just metaphorical balls of steel. Rock on, Hae-woo.

 
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Thanks!

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Thanks for the recap of to read!

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Thanks for the recap, heads!

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whahh love the last scene!
I have it for longgg

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I have been waiting for quite lonG!

KNG's acting grasp me..
But Son Ye Jin! it so raw..

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The last scene rocked me. When Hae-woo gut-wrenchingly addresses Yi-soo by name I was reminded forcibly of the scene in the Count of Monte Cristo when Mercedes lets the Count know she has penetrated his disguise: "don't kill my son, Edmond!". This show and TCoMC have so much in common, with many characters and scenes eerily parallel. I don't mean to imply that S is any kind of remake of TCoMC, but several of the basic setups are similar. The connection seems much more pertinent than with the story of Eurydice and Orpheus.

(The differences are fun I don't think there is a hash-stash pill bottle hollowed out of a gigantic emerald, one of three, the other two having been gifts to the Pope and the Sultan of Turkey; I sure hope there is no death-simulating sleeping potion. And TCoMC lacks a Detective Byun and a Clicky. And its odd to think of Yoshimura as an Abbe Faria.)

I've seen the next episode, and it's no spoiler to say things just keep getting better!

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Count of Monte Cristo is a good call.

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Count of Monte Cristo is a good call.

But who the heck is Clicky? Someone please explain: there's no way I'm re-watching this confusing show.

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Clicky is the arbitrary and admittedly silly name I assigned to the Bookstore Ajusshi Poison Pen Assassin, because that doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well.

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Oh, a poison pen assassin!

This show is so convoluted and confusing that I missed that one. Or blanked it.

Anyway, I'm also not surprised there's something like this, because, heck, why not? :-)

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Thanks.

I'm so glad there are no "staring at the painting" and "feeding the fish" scenes this episode.

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I loved how HW was lookng at YS's face when he opened the door, as if looking for anything left of YS in Kim Jun.

I always loved the encounters/dialaogues between YS and HW with only him knowing who she is. Now that HW knows for sure that Kim Jun is YS, I wonder how their future encounters and conversations will be....

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Also, I loved how SYJ and KNJ used their voice in the confrontation. The dynamics of their voice - from normal to just above whisper to loud whisper - in the course of their conversation is brilliant, I think.

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I'm a bit sad that it still hasn't broken the 10% margin yet. I just finished episode 12 and it was great. Everything is progressing really well that it's sad no one is paying attention to the quality this drama offers!

Anyway, I also loved the ending scene. I didn't expect that we'll get that confrontation early on. I'm getting chills from the brilliance this drama is.

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It is getting REALLY good!!! ep 12 is even better. KNG is becoming a SHARK!!!

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I do really love that this drama features SUCH a strong heroine. What a showcase for Son Ye Jin, and how she's truly rocking it.

Now that the cats out of the bag, I do hope that we'll get to see a more active Yi Soo. KNG deserves that, especially after the debacle that was Bad Guy.

That said, I'm realizing that this may be the first of the revenge trilogy to have a heroine as the protagonist rather than the hero. I felt as if the Devil (Mawang) featured a more active heroine than had Resurrection, and this third installment seems to take that further.

If this really is the case, this drama will be truly a rarity. There aren't many kdramas with the heroine who is truly the protagonist, even ones that ostensibly ought to be so in title. The closest one I can think of is My Name Is Kim Sam Soon, and even in that I couldn't get into the heroine fully.

Hae Woo, on the other hand? LOVE HER!!! What thwarting of expectations for Hae Woo to be the protagonist. Honestly, I did anticipate this to be KNG vehicle. I am delighted to have my own cynical assumption be checked.

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Well sttaed re having our own assumptions be checked. SYJ really is the first real center of a K-drama I've seen, and it's done so well that it pains me the ratings aren't better. I feel like that will discourage PDs from making more shows like this, which would be a shame. You're right. This is quality.

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Thanks very much for the recap, HeadsNo2!

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"No bowl cuts, just metaphorical balls of steel. Rock on, Hae-woo."

<3

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Definitely! <3

Don't get why (some) dramas has the need to degrade their lead female's appearances. Its like them saying in order for a 'heroine' to have a strong, plucky and righteous image/character they have to have ugly hair and look shabby.

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i just fin read recap on cyrano and shark
both recap-writer mentioned about PPL
lol

its like a contest, ''can you guest which one is ppl, and how many times the drama gonna show the product''

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Please do not harm Yi Hyeon! Writer-nim, pretty please, with a cherry on top?

There are a lot of grandpa-in-his-library-of-doom scenes... Or is it just me. I just roll my eyes whenever he is onscreen. I want him to fall from grace, hard!

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My fellow K-Drama Addicts,

It has come to my attention that dramacrazy.com is going to be out of commission soon (as per their website).

Problem is: that is my only source of KDrama, JDrama, HKDrama and CDrama episodes -- old and new.

Can anyone please share with me any other websites I can go to watch episodes? epdrama.com face the same fate.
Please help :(

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I recommend you watch it on viki the episodes are full,the quaility of the videos are better, and the timed comments are fun to read as you're watching.

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*quality

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Certain countries cannot access viki....so that's out too :(

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Really? Omg, that sucks! Do you know where I can check what countries can't access it? I live in Mexico and I can access it here but I'm going on an exchange trip to Argentina and I'll die if my Viki app doesn't work there :S

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Viki works fine here ^^

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I was totally heart broken when I found out DramaCrazy is shutting down too! since i cant access viki videos :(

But i was browsing around and found this new site: gooddrama.net for my daily drama fix again!

Hope this helps!

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Friends,
Thanks so much for the info... I will check viki and gooddrama.net...

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I currently live in N. America and watch dramas on Dramafever and Viki. While living in China last year I was able to watch Viki after I purchased a VPN for my iPad. The VPN was located in California so it gave me access to the shows available in America with English subs. The trick was to turn on the VPN, go to the Viki website, start the show, pause it, go back to settings to turn off the VPN, then back to Viki to continue the show. I watched Faith and Arang as soon as the subs were up for these shows in this manner.

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I understand your grief! I was at work when I read the news of dramacrazy shutting down and you can't believe how I freaked out, but luckily there's still other sites. Perhaps you can check out gooddramas.net, it's similar to dramacrazy and I think they upload fast. For example I just watch the latest episode of Cyrano Dating Agency and they had like 4 different options.

Other sites you can check out are Dramafever (don't know how good it is) and Viki.

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*there are

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Dramacrazy introduced me to kdrama, I am very disappointed that it shutdown. The site was fast, quality was good and the broadband it gave to my region was very good when compared to gooddrama or other sites. When I was in US i used to switch from dramafever to dramacrazy since they give us the episode without subs & then after a while subs .... I just hope this is a temp setup. I am hating every other site don't get me wrong you do the job its just that I am not satisfied by the way I am from South India !!

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You can watch some shows at gooddrama.net

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I came across drama fever, they are airing all Shark episodes and all other Korean drama as well. I've been using this site as my source of K-Drama for a good while now and it's pretty good, try it.

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"The fact that she didn’t waste five episodes angsting and beating her chest was an added bonus, and I love that she didn’t waste even a second before confronting him. "

Yes!! Exactly my thoughts. I was almost on the verge of thinking, well that was anti-climatic (only because i'm so used to big reveals being dragged out with a whole lotta angst in melos and whatnot) but then i thought this show is just so awesome and cuts right to the chase through all the bullshit. that's hae-woo for you right there. I love her so much. And it doesn't feel like show just threw this at us because the clues were dropped in each episode with hae-woo getting closer and closer to the truth.
So... pretty much the cat is out of the bag. I have been waiting for this moment, as i'm sure we all were. Hae-woo knows he's yi soo except there isn't that definite "i saw you in action" kind of proof. Reminds me of the time when prosecutor knew lee min ho's character was city hunter -- he just needed to catch him in action.
Speaking of action, i'm glad that yi soo was going all undercover dressed in black(although it was short), because i was thinking yay, he's not just a man with plans, he's a man with plans that carries out those plans, too. Anywho, it seems like alot of people are saying good things about ep.12 so will be starting it as soon as i hit "submit comment". Thanks heads!

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Just wanted to add that i so think that mrs.park knows that he's yi soo. it's that gut instinct telling her. why else would she be so interested and make side dishes for someone who's practically a stranger? the woman knows! And the disgusted looks she sends towards yi soo's dad's direction is priceless.

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towards hae-woo's dad***
definitely not yi soo's dad, LOL. she was probably sending him googly eyes.
btw is it just be or kim nam gil getting more attractive each episode? Maybe i'm just so used to the pornstache now that it doesn't really bother me.

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Mrs. Park is totally awesome. I love her and hope she has the opportunity in the future to do more than just glare at Daddy Jo, because someone as smart and fabulous as she is shouldn't be kept in the background.

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Viki.com has amazing fast subs.

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This story seems to be much more Hae-Woo's story and not Yi Soo's. Which I don't mind in the least, not because I don't like or care about Yi-Soo but because it fits him being dark & mysterious character lurking in the shadows, at least figuratively. And it's great to have a strong and interesting female protagonist every once in a while.

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Yea, don't like Hae-woo at all. Don't find her to be a strong heroine at all. She's rather weak. Not the Hae-woo I once loved. Just interesting that the same show can be interpreted so differently. Having horrible Equator Man flashbacks.

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I loved the conversation between Yi Soo and Grandpa Jo, with the one pretending he had no idea the other was a heartless bastard who had the other do his dirty work and the other pretended he had no idea the other was someone he'd tried to have killed twelve years ago. Convos like that are fabulous because it's all about what *isn't* being said.

The last scene was GREAT! I love that there wasn't any angsting or beating around the bush about calling him out on his identity, and that she didn't hesitate about saying she'd stop him. Great acting by them both, and how fabulous was it that he FINALLY had something to do in this episode other than stare at the fish and the paintings and look pensive? YAY!

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Yes! I was surprised to see Yi Soo doing something else, like emoting. First episode I don't find him dull and... angsty. Hopefully the reveal will allow him to loose himself and to show how he feels.

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And i cant wait for ep 12.... shark!!! Im really into this drama... thanx dramabeans..

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Yeah, it got exciting this episode. Glad I hung in there.

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OMG, I want to be like Hae Woo when I grow up!!! I haven't seen the episode yet but I found myself screaming when the reveal happened.

This show is making me love and appreciate Sohn Ye Jin more than I already did, sorry to Kim Nam Gil but I couldn't care less about him.

The only thing that made me laugh was the surprisingly HD close up of the video, damn that must be a really expensive laptop XD

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"It’s happening you guys! It’s happening!" ~I loved that. I'm so grateful that to some degree, we're able to share these drama journeys together.

I'm excited that the Big Reveal has happened, but my heart goes out to poor Hae Woo. She's having to deal with one shockingly sucky situation after another, and she doesn't even know the half of it yet. It pained me to watch her interaction with Clicky tonight because the fondness she feels for him was evident, and that's one more person that she'll lose. (It's only a matter of time before she figures out that it was Bookshop Ajusshi! With a pen! In the warehouse!) We know that losing her heroic haraboji will be especially devastating for her, but I'm also worried about perfect hubby. When they were at the country house a few eps. back, didn't Grampa Jo call him and say something like "You'll need to keep a close eye on Hae Woo", causing us to wonder if they may be in cahoots with one another? And remember how Joon Young was the head bully when we first met him? I think there was a reason that we were shown his dark side, and that makes me really scared for Hae Woo.

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I'm really starting to lose all interest in this show. Yi Soo is just making it all so less interesting. He sucks at pretending he's not Yi Soo. It is so obvious it's dumb that he's even saying he isn't anymore. Why come back for revenge if your just gonna screw it all up by pretending to be a badass when you lack all badassery necessary to complete a revenge scheme. His feelings keep getting in the way and he keeps straying from his supposed course. Shark my foot. If the shark metaphor was suppose to mean cold, calculated, ruthless machine that never sleeps and just eats.... well you are more like a slightly larger goldfish eating food nuggets while sleeping in his aquarium castle. You suck at revenge. If there is a poll of who failed most in scheming and revenge-y things: HE WINS.

Ya know what could save this? If the friend on the phone is Yi Soo and he really is someone else posing as Yi Soo who is pretending to be someone else. I highly doubt it.

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I would allude his straying from the revenge plan more to the orpheus painting since it makes more sense. I think from the very beginning the writer has already intended to make this not just about revenge but of characters that are conflicted between love and emotions vs. the mission.
For me, though, i like when he strays and feelings get in the way because i feel more for characters that aren't just caricatures. They feel more human. If kim joon only thought about the path to revenge without looking back i'd lose interest way faster. Plans that work out flawlessly in k-dramas just don't cut it for me. I like for my heros to struggle. I'm a masochist.
If at this point in the story our characters don't start finding out he's yi soo, i'd burn out because the payoff would be too long to wait for.
In that last scene where hae-woo confronts him, if he had outright denied that he was yi-soo i'd just sort of groan. Like really, you have been dropping her so many hints and making it so obvious and then deny it? come on dude. I think the way the writers handled it as in 'you'll just have to follow me to hell' is so much better. And badass.
I do however, agree that my level of interest in this show is not as great as the other shows i'm following but i'll give credit where it's due

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I'm also a sadist

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KNG is putting in shark shoes now,and she is wonderful....

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This is realy a classical and pragon of a story. I'm not much in to it though being aware that these story writers are heart breakers. It won't surprise me that Hae-Woo may end up with much pain than that of his fathers death. He could end up a convict or something very bad and heartbreaking may happen to him. He is already a murder thus our so called "Hero" will soon face hell. I wonder where we are going with this man but um very much hoping that he will prepare us a very delicious meal that we gonna need toothpicks. It will be a useless drama if our hero end up in sorrow so writer give us something diffent.

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I'm wondering what it is Yi Soo "doesn't know." Revengers think they know everything...but..I suspect somehorrifying news awaits. I keep thinking divorced wife in Canada might know a few things. For all we know there is some super-bombshell coming that involves Yi Soo's dad and birth secrets or heaven knows what else!

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Wow, show. You went there. You did! I can't believe it, but I love you for it. Talk about Christmas in July. Typically, the K-dramas wait until the 11th hour for the characters to cop on to the big reveal - here they did it in the 11th episode! :) I appreciate not only that we have six episodes of Hae-Woo knowing Kim Jun's true identity, and all the interactions that will lead to, but that we saw a logical progression to her arriving at the realization. Three cheers for a K-drama heroine with a brain.

Props to the viewers who saw the identity switch coming from almost the very beginning. I wonder how that is going to play out, plot-wise. What did Grandpa Jo do that was so awful he had to switch identities? Was he a traitor who sold out the Koreans to the Japanese? And how does Junichiro's father play into this? Inquiring minds want to know!

As always, Joon-Young is practically perfect. If he and Hae-Woo don't end up staying together happily married, there's no justice in K-drama world!

Grandpa Jo, you crafty, betraying, murderous bastard. You're starting to get to me, because on top of everything else, you're fooling Hae Woo and you're going to break her heart, and that is unforgiveable to me. I liked you so much better when you were looking after kids in the clinic and mentoring Jan-Di.

Not an original thought, but Hae Woo is a *boss.* The drama isn't trying to Mary Sue her by any means - she's got her faults -but she's intelligent, principled, has integrity, and will get the job done and go after what's right, even at personal cost to herself and her family. I couldn't ask for more from a heroine of any drama, and I hope K-drama producers take note and give us more like her.

Finally, from the very beginning, the Orpheus painting analogy troubled me because of Orpheus's inability to rescue his wife from the underworld. I really hope this is not paralleled in "Shark," and that Hae Woo isn't consigned to figurative perdition because of Yi Soo. She doesn't deserve it.

On the other hand, I wonder if the drama producers are staging a switch here. Maybe Hae Woo is supposed to be Orpheus and she's trying to pull Yi Soo out of the underworld, but she won't be able to. Intriguing!

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Hae-woo is so good, and such a sufferer...and a victim who doesn't act like a victim. After seeing so many revenge dramas, it's so fascinating to see a revenge drama where --as of this point-- only the innocent folks seem to be suffering. Talk about collateral damage! The baddies are stressed, perhaps. Shamed, perhaps. But those who are really suffering from Yi Soo's desire for vengeance are his old best friend, his old girlfriend, Detective Oh (okay...not so innocent.) Which is a very very very cool way of writing the story.

I don't think Yi Soo will let his sister suffer so maybe rescuing her from sickness (bone marrow, anyone?) will be the flute he hears to bring him back from the underworld.

I still don't see why she needs to save him from trouble. She can save him from his own cruelty and from losing himself but so far he doesn't seem to be doing anything truly Yakuza like to get jailed. Or am I missing something?

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Carole, we should be in a book club or something together because we always seem to zero in on the same things when analyzing dramas :). I agree that one of the most compelling (and sad) parts of Shark is that Hae Woo is the one who will suffer the most, both due to Yi-Soo's planning and because of her finding out that her beloved Haraboji is evil, when she's done so little to deserve that suffering. Maybe that's a message the show is trying to make about evildoing -- how much collateral damage it causes.

In terms of her needing to save Yi-Soo from trouble, to me that could be referring to 1) the consequences of the murders he's already committed and 2) pushback from the person he's ultimately trying to get at. Even if she doesn't consciously know it's Haraboji, I think Hae Woo senses it. There have been a few references to her family being involved in this, and coupling that with her methinks-the-lady-doth-protest-too-much professions of love and admiration to Grandpa Jo, I think somewhere in her subconscious it's jelling as to who is behind all this. Even Hae Woo must realize that he may be vicious and heartless, but Daddy Jo's just too dang stupid to pull off anything as complex as long-term cover-ups and plotting.

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Yes, we SHOULD belong to a book club together! And the collateral damage innocent-suffer is such a great subtext!

Was there ever such a great and noble grandfather?

I'm glad we finally know that second lead-also-suffering-hubby is a good guy. Is one guy's reparation of past troubles worth all the hell everyone is going through? Not that i want to forget the past or forget how much one single person has suffered but at times like this it's like... so grand-dad was a traitor to the South Korean people? I can understand that that's worth old rich ahjussi doing anything to save face. But is uncovering an old injustice worth making hew generations suffer? And can't Yi Soo just suck it up? Who is being hurt NOW? No one was being hurt and murdered until Yi Soo starts uncovering the evil?

Just very stressing. Yes, you suffered Yi Soo, but let it go. Let it gooooooooooooooo.

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ahh shark.. you breaking my heart....
you breaking my heart...
I have no idea how this revenge will end..
But I know perhaps it won't end well...

so many people getting involved.... so many innocent people have become a victim.... the more YIsoo get deeper into his revenge, the more innocent people will get hurt.. even if some circumstance are not a part of his plan ... he still indirectly responsible...
Maybe that's one of the reason HW beg to YS to stop... the only she knew is YS take apart from all of this tragedy...

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I dont know but when im watching this drama im rooting for Han Yi Soo, and for the first time since i start watching k drama im hopefull for sad ending, i just can relate with yi soo

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I am loving every little expression of Han Yi Soo when our heroin called "Yi Soo ...Just Stop" blast from the past... Our hero gets so little to express so I m up for the grabs ... I believe the grandpa Joe was a driver/helper and he replaced the real son ... thats why he is hiding and killing everyone ... I m rooting for this drama more and more coz how many dramas do you get where the heroin is no nonsense, strong, brilliant comes straight to the point and address the issue instead of hysteria. Way to go Hae-Woo !! I wish there will be more beautiful scene between these two ... rooting for hae-woo's kiss next :) :) LOL

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I must just be to, to jaded, because I don't see HW as this shining ray of good that will save YS. I see a woman that want's to do the right thing but the realization that her family is involved makes her hesitate. When they were still in their teens she heard YS accuse her father of the crime, so current day should have been disturbing but not a shock.

In the end she did the right thing but even that left her little choice, because others knew that she was the one with the recording. I'm not saying that she doesn't want to do what's right, but it's her family that is involved and she shouldn't be anywhere near this case.

How can she help YS or try and stop him, he has every right to expose her family for what they are and if she stops him that for me means she is only protecting her own. If she wants to help him then she first has to accept the kind of people her own family is, and I don't think she has done that yet. The people that need to be stopped is her own family, but she talks as if they are just being bratty kids.

I guess I just don't see her as a heroine I see her as an innocent that's in over her head.

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I see your point and feel the same way.. But I still believe she is genuine willing to help yi soo when she said so.... But apart from that, the feeling denying your own family's crime is very rational and a human nature.. Who in this world want to face your own family misdeed?

It's the same case for yi soo, too... He want to proved his father's innocence, thinking his father as innocent as he thought he want to, and trying to find evidence to clear his father's name from hit-run car accident, which it wasn't the case, because his father commited a different crime, but YI SOo doesn't know it yet... (?)

"someone always want to believe want they want to believe" I think this quote is fit!

ohh from the preview for ep 13.. it will getting more heartbreaking, ohhhh >.<

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You said, "I see a woman that want’s to do the right thing but the realization that her family is involved makes her hesitate."

But that's what makes Hae Woo awesome, because she's human. If she was some superhero type who thoughtlessly jumped into the fray and didn't even have two seconds' hesitation about the impact on her family, she wouldn't be at all human. And to me, what is so great about "Shark" is they're going for relateability with her character, at least. She's not a caricature at all. In real life, who among us wouldn't at least stop and think about the impact on our family? But in the end, despite the ramifications, she does the right thing anyway. To me, overcoming your internal struggles to do the right thing is rather heroic.

I really don't see Hae-Woo as an innocent. She's aware of what's going on, and becoming more aware all the time. And she's not going to sit back and let things happen to her. She's taking the wheel here.

Yi-Soo has the right to expose her family, and that's not what she's trying to stop. But he has no right to murder people as part of his revenge spree; he's lowering himself to the level of his tormentors. That's what she's trying to stop him from doing. I agree with you on one thing, though: she can't save him. In the end, nobody can save you if you don't want to be saved or help yourself. And as inscrutable as KNG is, one thing is clear - he's willing to take everyone down in flames with him as part of his revenge scheme.

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i agree!

HW is totally believable!

Thanks for the recap, HeadsNo2!

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I see her more as Oedipus. Or maybe the story is more like Oedipus. Why research the past, Hae Woo? WHY? She's been warned not to look into the past and she keeps searching and searching....so not a good idea. Because the nearer one comes to the terrifying truth, the more one simultaneously wants to not know and know.

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Ah, what a great episodes this week. I feel like I waited so long for this drama to get this good. And that last scene really exceeded my expectations. I had to pause to make sure I could take it haha *breathe in and out*

Definitely agree with Heads, I love Hae-woo. She's such a great character and Son Ye-jin is rocking this role. The fact that Hae-woo cares about Yi-soo makes me care about him too. You don't have to do this, Yi-sooya!!

With Shark and Heartless City, I'm finding it really hard to get through my rom-coms these days

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If it wasn't raining I'd feel the need to climb up on the rooftop and shout to the world, "Yes! Finally, finally an episode with some zing in it. One that didn't make me keep checking to see how much longer I had to go."

All it took was half the drama's run for it to finally kick in.

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Wow....I was crying and cheering at the same time, what kind of love would compel a person to go to the depths of hell for another...wow, great job everyone!!!!!

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Too little too late. I don't care at this point how many times he would stare at the shark pendant or try to catch poor goldfish. Clicky seems to have more depth and more screen time compared to our Nemo who did not want to be found for 11 episodes.

Now what? She will try to rescue him from hell and he will generously offer a shortcut to hell with the grandfather as a greeter by the hell gates.

Also, really upset about dramacrazy shutting down.

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I know, that was my main source for watching kdramas! I was never into dramas until two years ago when I came across this blog. Then I started watching them on dramacrazy, and now I'm hooked! Why would anyone want to shut down a site that serves as an advertisement for many dramas?? I found this site http://www.gooddrama.net/ from the comments in another thread. At least I can still keep up with them here! (I live in the US)

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“If it means that I can find Han Yi-soo again, I can follow you to the greatest depths of hell.” yayyy ... that is "Hae-woo" .. I love you Hae-woo

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I don't think Yi-soo murdered anyone. It's highly possible that he didn't kill the corrupt policeman. Until it is shown, I have 100% faith in the goodness of Yi-soo's heart. The fact that he is revealing the evil deeds of the perpetrators is natural. The search for justice should be commended. We label his actions as revenge but I bet if we are in his shoes, me might even do worse.
In what way is Hae woo suffering? She admitted to YS that she has become a person who couldn't smile until she found comfort in alcohol. It means that she has been suffering since YH disappeared, not only now that her family is being revealed as evildoers. She has coped pretty well but it doesn't mean that she was not suffering.
YS is right. It's coming to a full circle.

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I'm finding the chairman Jo secret subplot very interesting.
He doesn't recognize a vase that supposedly belonged to his "father". He's going to great lengths to hide any pictures of his "family" from back then. That murdered cop dude mentioned that the person in the picture didn't look like who the caption said it was...Me thinks there's an element of stolen identity within the Jo family....either Chairman Jo himself or his "father".

Also its very refreshing to have an actual female protagonist/heroine in this kind of show...

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"Yi-soo seems shocked when she shows up at his door, and downs a very unhealthy amount of pills before he answers."

Yi-soo said he has OCD, so he probably also has anxiety and takes a couple of pills for that. Plus his surgeries left him with a lot of pain, so he probably takes a bunch of painkillers. When you take painkillers, sometimes they are really strong, so you have to take anti-nausea pills. I can see how people see this amount of pills unhealthy, but for some people they really help them cope and get through the day without pain.

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