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Shark: Episode 18

Some earth-shattering revelations about the not-so-distant past arrive just in time to haunt the present and catch up to some of our characters in the worst of ways. While our Big Bad struggles to save his sand castle empire from the incoming tide, our heroes are left to follow clues to find the truth behind their family ties—and none of those truths are pretty. Maybe the past is better left alone sometimes.

 
EPISODE 18 RECAP

Envelope Professor’s former therapist reveals that he was most afraid of the torturer called Shadow and the sound of a clicking ballpoint pen. But Shadow (who we know to be Yi-soo’s dad) wasn’t the one with the pen-clicking habit—it was the habit of the second torturer in the room who was always present. Clicky.

This is all happening as Yi-soo stares at the photo of his dad and Clicky together. When we cut back to the therapist, she tells Hae-woo that it’s a shame Envelope Professor never found his son. This is news to Hae-woo. “A son?”

Cut to: Soo-hyun, having been abducted and tied up by Clicky. I guess we know who Envelope Professor’s son is.

Clicky holds a gun to Soo-hyun’s head, having never imagined that he’d meet the son of the long-dead professor. But his intentions are surprisingly unlike him—he wants Soo-hyun to know the truth about who killed his father… and it wasn’t him, but Yi-soo’s dad. He saw it with his own eyes. (Clicky was hiding in the closet back then, remember?)

Soo-hyun refuses to believe that the father of his best friend killed his father and tortured him in the past, until Clicky shows him Picture 3.0 (the one of himself and Yi-soo’s dad) to prove that Yi-soo’s dad was once his pupil.

Then he pulls the trigger… but nothing happens. Clicky: “If my words were a lie, you would have died.” He leaves Soo-hyun with Picture 3.0 and throws either his phone or gun into the sea. It’s hard to tell since there’s just no light in these nighttime scenes. Or ever.

Soo-hyun struggles under the weight of these possible revelations and sprints to Yi-soo’s hotel, but he seems unsure of his next move once he gets there. Meanwhile, Hae-woo tracks down anyone who might have been arrested as an activist with Envelope Professor back in the day.

Yi-soo finally works up the nerve to call Grandpa Jo about Picture 3.0, even knowing that his room is still wiretapped by his not-so-loyal secretary. Grandpa Jo gloats over the fact that the photo came as a shock to Yi-soo and reminds him of what he said once: that no one is innocent enough to judge another.

So now Grandpa Jo gives Yi-soo his blessing to go and find more evidence supporting what he believes to be the truth, because he knows that he’ll uncover dirty secrets about his own father in the process.

Yi-soo opens the door when his doorbell rings only to find the hallway empty. We know it was Soo-hyun since we see him leaving the hotel, so apparently he decided not to confide in Yi-soo on this one.

Hae-woo finds out that the fact-spewing professor they met before, Robert Yune, was arrested as an activist with Envelope Professor. They plan a meeting with their very convenient lead.

Soo-hyun finds him first and asks him to identify his past torturer from Picture 3.0. With a shaking hand, Robert Yune points to Yi-soo’s dad. Eek.

Now Soo-hyun knows that Clicky’s story was true, and that Yi-soo’s dad tortured his own. He refuses a call from Yi-soo as he sorts this all out.

Our investigative duo shows Robert Yune a portrait of Clicky to ask if he’s the “Shadow” man who tortured him, and both are surprised when he says no. When asked if he’s seen Clicky before, the professor replies that he just did in a picture someone else showed him, and in that photo, Clicky was together with Shadow.

Soo-hyun shows up at Yi-soo’s house to ask for soju while Hae-woo and Detective Byun try to figure out who got to the professor before they did. She guesses that it must be Envelope Professor’s son, so Detective Byun volunteers to find his identity.

Hae-woo asks about Yi-hyun, worried about her current state, but Detective Byun doesn’t let her blame herself for it. “I know that you’re the one suffering the most. Honestly, if it were me, I wouldn’t be able to endure this like you are.” He gives her a supportive shoulder pat. D’aww.

The air is a little tense between Soo-hyun and Yi-soo, since you can see Soo-hyun weighing whether or not to tell Yi-soo about what he’s found, and more than that, whether Yi-soo already knows and has been using him.

We finally hear the story about these two as Soo-hyun recalls when Yi-soo first found him, after he’d run away from his orphanage and stopped going to school. Yi-soo literally beat some sense into him. “At the time, you said this: ‘Let’s find the truth together and put everything back where it belongs. To do that, we need to build up our strength. We’re bound together by the fact that we both lost our fathers to the same person.'”

So Yi-soo is the reason why Soo-hyun went to college, became a police officer, and became a different person all together. When asked if he regrets how he ended up, Soo-hyun cryptically replies that he doesn’t at all: “By finding the truth, we have to set things right again.” Curious.

Only when he’s leaving does he note how curious it was that his father was killed by strangulation instead of poisoning, which is Clicky’s preferred method. Yi-soo just shrugs that he might’ve wanted the case to look unrelated, not picking up on the subtle hint that his father was a murderer.

Then he asks about Prosecutor Oh’s health, wondering if he’ll be able to testify against Grandpa Jo once he regains consciousness… and wait, it just hits him that Grandpa might send someone to kill the prosecutor before that happens? When he’s in the hospital because they tried to kill him?! Are you kidding me.

Yi-soo calls Hae-woo with the startling news that Prosecutor Oh’s life might be in danger, since he’s the last remaining witness to Grandpa Jo’s crimes. He warns her to be extra vigilant, and she thanks him for the heads up.

It seems like Grandpa Jo is purposefully keeping Joon-young away from his father’s hospital room with some bogus talk about donating his fortune to the handicapped while he has an assassin posing as a police officer try to gain entry to Prosecutor Oh’s hospital room.

The assassin makes it past the policemen guarding the door just as Dong-soo walks into the lobby with gifts for his friend’s father.

And ohh, Prosecutor Oh is completely conscious as the assassin hovers near, unable to protect himself as the man reaches for his oxygen mask…

…Just as a drunken Dong-soo shoves his way past the guards and into the room, unknowingly saving Prosecutor Oh’s life. The assassin tries to have Dong-soo escorted out, and you can see Prosecutor Oh struggle to say something, anything, because he knows that man is there to kill him.

Luckily, the assassin has to give up when Dong-soo won’t. Hae-woo passes him in the lobby on her way up to her father-in-law’s hospital room, and Joon-young ends up passing him just as he’s calling Grandpa Jo to report the failed attempt.

Worried for Secretary Jang, Dong-soo tries to be vague when he asks Hae-woo if planting a bug on someone warrants a jail sentence, all the while asserting that the person he’s being vague about is good, she was just forced to do bad things because she’s an employee.

Hae-woo guesses instantly that Yi-soo was bugged, and Dong-soo’s efforts to deny it are futile in his state.

Joon-young is waylaid en route to his father by a reporter who claims to have evidence that his wife and Kim Jun are in a close relationship. Joon-young grabs the man by the lapels and threatens to hold him legally responsible if he opens his mouth again about his wife. Eek, he’ll be devastated if he sees The New Picture.

Hae-woo holds her father-in-law’s hand as she encourages him to get better, while adding in a lower voice, “I received the picture you left. I understand the message you were trying to convey with it. Thank you, Father-in-law.”

Joon-young is not happy to see her there, and is very clear about it as he sends her home. I wish I could feel bad for her, but she kind of deserved that.

While Soo-hyun does a background check on Yi-soo’s dad, Yi-hyun looks through her telescope and thinks of him. Aww. A sudden nosebleed ruins the moment, though.

Yi-soo has feverish dreams of his father and Soo-hyun’s haunting words wondering why his father wasn’t killed in Clicky’s usual style. (Question: Why does he always sleep on the couch when his bed is like four feet away?)

Someone slips a letter under Yi-soo’s door, and he opens it to find Hae-woo drunk in his hallway. Aww, Hae-woo, you had one job, but you went to Yi-soo’s place? Sigh.

She collapses into his arms after calling him a jerk, so he carries her into his bedroom to sleep it off. He seems ready to leave her there, but she grabs his hand before he can… so he takes that to mean that he can spoon with her on the bed while she uses his arm as a pillow.

He only seems vaguely uncomfortable when she snuggles further into his embrace un her unconscious state, and he wraps an arm around her to hold her close.

They fall asleep that way, and Hae-woo’s temporarily shocked later when she wakes up in bed with him. She gets over it quick enough and decides to enjoy the moment by running her fingertips over Yi-soo’s face while he sleeps as if she’s drinking him in.

In the morning though, Yi-soo wakes up alone and finally remembers the letter that was slipped under his door. Inside are records of his father showing that he retired from the police, which I don’t think Yi-soo was aware of.

Hae-woo returns home (this is what we call a walk of shame) to find that Joon-young came home from the hospital late last night. Luckily(?), Mrs. Park covered for her and said Hae-woo would be working overnight.

She finds Joon-young waiting for her in their bedroom, and though he looks heartbroken he acts like he buys the excuse that she was working. “I didn’t work overnight,” she starts, tears in her eyes. Now she’s being truthful.

“How can you be so cruel?” Joon-young asks her honestly. “Don’t you know how hard it is for me right now?” He acknowledges that he’s been trying to pretend like nothing’s happened between them so that they can put whatever this is behind them, but that she’s not helping. Well yeah, I think because she wants to end things with you and you don’t want her to.

Joon-young’s secretary is a spy for Yi-soo, and reports to him that Grandpa Jo tasked Joon-young with building a foundation with which to give all of his fortune back to society.

Yi-soo calls Soo-hyun to have him check up on a detective who would have worked with Clicky back when he was a cop. Soo-hyun seems a little less eager to help than usual while he shops for a rental car. No shortage of product placement in this show.

Dong-soo tries to do the right thing by looking for the bug Secretary Jang planted in Yi-soo’s office, only to get caught by the very woman he was trying to protect.

When she questions him, Dong-soo just decides to be honest when he tells her that there are things she just shouldn’t do, no matter what hold Junichiro may have on her. Aww, I love that he’s on Yi-soo’s side: “He’s a very lonely man—he has no friends, no family, and he’s gay, so he can’t even love easily. How lonely he must be!” Ha. I love that the gay joke is still going strong.

He’s very open about how bugging Yi-soo’s office was very wrong of her and adds, “I’m really disappointed in you, Secretary Jang.”

Yi-soo (as Kim Jun) pays Daddy Jo a visit to talk business, though his ulterior motives become clear when he purposefully mentions Grandpa Jo’s plan to create a foundation to donate his money to society, before he patronizingly offers to help Daddy Jo acquire any funds he may need for their future business plans since he won’t be getting help from his father now.

Daddy Jo runs straight to his father about the secret fund since it means his father is deliberately planning not to give him the hotel, because by donating his money he’ll becomes a hero of the people. He threatens to expose his father’s identity if he doesn’t get what he wants, and Grandpa totally calls his bluff. He knows he won’t do it.

His son stutters that he’ll so do it, no matter the cost, and Grandpa pretty much shrugs him off. If he’s willing to let himself and his daughter become the family members of a criminal and a fraud, then he can have a party.

So Daddy Jo takes action, and enlists Joon-young’s secretary to secretly dig up all the money they have in overseas bank accounts and slush funds without letting Grandpa Jo know. Ha, good luck with that.

The very same secretary/spy calls Yi-soo with the information, since this is all apparently going according to Yi-soo’s plan.

Yi-soo tracks down a cop who worked with Clicky while he was a policeman, and specifically brings up their work during the Gwangju massacre of 1980 (a failed pro-democratic uprising against the country’s authoritarian regime). He recognizes Yi-soo’s dad from Picture 3.0 and remembers how he and Clicky were academy buddies despite being assigned to different stations.

More importantly, Yi-soo’s dad had wanted to quit the police force during the time of the uprising only to get beaten by his superior, Clicky, after which he submitted and changed dramatically, turning from a kind man into a viper.

Since the man knows nothing about Yi-soo’s dad’s life after he supposedly retired the same year as Clicky, he assumes that they were transferred somewhere more secretive together.

This is an idea Yi-soo can’t accept, but he’s beginning to doubt everything he knows. Meanwhile, Joon-young runs damage control over a leaked article regarding Grandpa Jo’s Secret Fund plan, still unaware that his own secretary is a spy.

Hae-woo finds the address where her paternal grandmother lived after she was kicked out of the home (thanks to Mrs. Park’s keen memory), and finds out from an ajumma still living there that she claimed to have no children, but she did have a young man who she regarded as her own son.

So Hae-woo finds that guy, and he’s yet another wealth of information. And what luck, he still has her grandmother’s final belongings to send her. In the meantime he gives her a picture of her grandmother. I know, the last thing we needed was another picture.

Joon-young gets ready to leave his father for the night, but the desperate look on his face stops him. He guesses dad has something to say about who did this to him even though he can’t say it, so he tells his father to blink once if the answer is yes and do nothing if it’s no. Haven’t you seen any movies, Joon-young? Tell him to blink twice for no.

He asks his father if he knows that Yi-soo is Kim Jun, and if he’s the one responsible. Dad doesn’t blink, so no. In order to find out who the criminal is (since his dad knows the perpetrator’s name), Joon-young starts writing all possible last names on a tablet to see if his father reacts to any of them until finally, he writes “Jo”. His dad blinks.

But when he writes Daddy Jo’s name, his dad doesn’t blink. Joon-young is stupefied for a while, having firmly believed Daddy Jo was behind it, until the realization slowly dawns on him… it’s Grandpa Jo.

Prosecutor Oh blinks a yes, and Joon-young’s eyes go wide with shock.

As Soo-hyun drives Hae-woo back to the city, she gets a call from Detective Byun about the similarities between Yi-soo’s dad and Clicky—namely that they worked on the same task force during the Gwangju massacre and retired the same year, likely to work together.

So Hae-woo asks the question on everyone’s minds, including Soo-hyun’s, “Are you suggesting that Yi-soo’s father was also a torturer?”

Yi-soo takes Picture 3.0 to Robert Yune, this drama’s equivalent to A.I. Artificial Intelligence‘s Dr. Know, in order for the man to point out his father as being a torturer nicknamed “Shadow.” Yi-soo can’t believe it. Surely he means that Clicky was that torturer, right?

But no, the man surely points to his father as the torturer of legend. Yi-soo literally suffers from the heroic blue screen of death as he realizes that he was seeking revenge for a father who was bad, just as bad as the people he’s been trying to persecute.

All the warnings Grandpa Jo gave him that he’d thrown away come back to haunt him, so much so that Yi-soo twitches and turns as though he’s hearing the voices of his past all around him. Eventually he clamps his hands over his ears and sinks to his knees in the middle of the sidewalk, yelling at the voices to stop.

Then he runs at full speed into a nearby tunnel, bouncing off the walls like he just got released into a life-sized pinball machine. Only then does he collapse in order to let out a long, horrible scream.

Hae-woo gets a call from Robert Yune that Yi-soo dropped by with the photo and realizes that Yi-soo must have found out about his father’s dark past. She knows the kind of state he must be in and rushes to his apartment, where Yi-soo pulls out his gun.

He ignores a call from her as he takes a long look at the Orpheus painting in order to remind himself: “Don’t look back. You have to end it, Han Yi-soo.”

Then he heads for the door, gun in hand.

 
COMMENTS

I’m not even sure where to start with this episode, because I didn’t care for any of it. It was about as eventful as jury duty and even less emotionally engaging, resulting in a laboriously slow march to the inevitable without a single payoff or surprise. By all accounts, the revelation that Yi-soo’s father was a secret government torturer should have been as earth-shattering as he played it, yet by the time we reached that point I was so thoroughly done with that plot point that I couldn’t be moved. And if the episode was hedging its bets on the emotional resonance that this particular reveal meant to Yi-soo, it failed. It went through all the right motions without any of the sincerity, and felt as hollow as the tunnel Yi-soo screamed into.

Having even one conveniently-knowledgable extra in an episode is already pushing it, but this episode was so crowded with them that it felt like we couldn’t go one scene without a character we’d never met (with the exception of Robert Yune, glorified an extra as he may be) suddenly spouting important, relevant information stemming from their near-perfect memory banks dating back to the 80s and beyond.

I gave points to the meticulous nature of the plot before, but there’s a limit, and this episode was it for me. If your plot is so intricate that you need to introduce a psychiatrist, professor, ex-cop, ajumma, and that ajumma’s able-bodied acquaintance in order to tell it, then something has gone very wrong. Yes, the tactic worked in the most basic sense, because we did get the information we were supposed to get. But in the week before the finale, this hour could have and should have been a lot tighter. Mostly, I’m just feeling a bit let down by it all, though I’m still hopeful enough that next week will turn it all around and bombard me with feelings and happenings and all that good stuff we tune into dramas for.

The character moments of this episode were surprisingly carried by Joon-young, even though his coping mechanisms aren’t the most effective. Hae-woo is starting to really lose me in the romantic entanglement department, if only because when the marriage plot was introduced, I thought it’d be a rich source of conflict… but when Hae-woo isn’t all that conflicted about it (and very clearly on Team Yi-soo), we’re left with Joon-young pathetically trying to hold onto something he never really had in the first place. That has the curious effect of making Hae-woo out to be the bad guy even though she’s just following her heart, and it’s hard to blame her when she’s unable to resist her first love re-entering her life after twelve years—regardless of the fact that he abandoned her, mentally tortured her, and is actively out to ruin her life. I mean, Joon-young’s decade of dedication is just a drop in the love bucket compared to all that win.

 
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"Heroic blue screen of death"

HeadsNo2 wins the internet.

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At this point, I couldn't be bothered how Yi-soo handles his father being a torturer. And at this point I couldn't care less if Grandpa Jo's real identity is released and Hae-woo's life is completely destroyed...or if Joon-young drops her like a hot potato. The emotional beats that were pretty solid all throughout the drama have petered out by now and left me all dry and me feeling nothing.

Well, hopefully next week will leave me feeling something.

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I feel the exact same way. It's like f everyone but the side characters.

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thanks!

it's getting more interesting for me :D cant wait for the final ep. hoping there's no character died when this drama is done :) hoping each character will have there own resolution ^^

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Hurhh... just please don't let soo hyun fight with yi soo... arrgghh I feel so tense now.. another 2 ep.. can't wait for the ending... thanx for the recaps anyway

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i feel so bad for Joon-young, he seems like such a nice guy and wonderful husband.

love the "heroic blue screen of death"!

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ORANGE JUICE that SY gives to HW

me thinks there's something inside it
another thought is; it might be just another PPL

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Even the tablet Joon-young used to try and find the name of his father's enemy was sponsored, the phones are sponsored, the cars are sponsored, the juice is sponsored, heck, even the bedding is sponsored—I'd probably go with PPL on that OJ.

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The product placement in this drama is so obvious and getting ridiculous. The juice, refrigerator, tablet, shopping mall, car, oj; they really take you out of a scene sometimes.

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omg, i remember LOLing so hard when I saw the fridge...it looked so forced

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the fridge was like whaaaat? really Samsung, really!? (guess it worked)

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I just remember LOLing at the tablet part because he couldn't just mouth the damn words himself and instead had to write them all(which would take extra time and work, i tell you)
What's wrong with his mouth? Dad could hear perfectly fine if he was instructing him what to do.
And i doubt it was orange juice -- this show has been giving us mangos everywhere. Dried Mangos, Mango Juice, even Yi Hyuns favorite flavor is mango (as mine :))
The fridge from ep 17 was one of them too. He had to look through every drawer with the labels "Cheese" "Sauces" and others.

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I have a confession to make. I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S4, and I actually went out and spent $59 on that hot pink preview phone case in hot pink, because I saw Hae Woo using it and really liked it.

Oh, the shame of being so easily swayed by blatant product placement. Feel free to judge.

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I will ignore all the placement and overlook it if it takes the pressure off of the production companies getting into such horrible money situations that people feel desperate and suicidal. But I know it's probably only a drop in the bucket moneywise. A better business model is needed.

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i was confused by this too...i was like product placement or poisoning...?

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I was thinking about that, too. There must be something about that juice, otherwise why the filmed a close shot with it. I don't know what Soo-hyun is planing, but rather hope he doesn't pull any stupid move on Hae-woo or Yi-soo.

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I'm afraid I have to agree that these last two episode have really been nothing but the Show trying to pay da bills and cram as many product plugs in as they can.

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Well for one thing, Yi Soo is no longer ahead of everyone. It's nice to see him finally go what Hae Woo is going through to find answers, because Yi Soo's 'truth' is not even close to what we already knew. The revelation that his father was the Shadow really changed things up from his perspective. But I kind of think this episode was necessary, Yi Soo needed to find out somehow.

I am not looking forward to conflict between Soo Hyun and Yi Soo because of this because I like their friendship :'( And I hope Soo Hyun doesn't do anything to hurt Yi Hyun on an emotional scale, because even after she found out who Yi Soo was, he continued saying that he liked her. I thought he was pretending at first but now I think it's genuine...hopefully? They're too cute.

As for Hae Woo and Joon Young, I think they're relationship is over as husband and wife. Watching him trying to hang on and act as if nothing were wrong bothers me, and Hae Woo obviously is not hanging by that same thread. She wants to talk to him about it but I don't blame Joon Young. He married her after years of thinking that her love for Yi Soo was gone, no one was thinking that he'd resurface (except a few acceptions). For the most part, it was highly likely that he was dead. And Hae Woo voluntarily married him. She had to have liked him to some extent.

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I like the relationship between Friend and Friend definitely. Much chance there us to see if one guy can forgive his dad's (possible) murderer while other guy is unable to forgive his dad's (actual) murderer.

I like second lead suffering hubby as well but I do think he might be a might dangerous when he loses his temper. He has moments where we see him ordering her back home to the homestead. Good if he's just momentarily jealous but not so good if he has it in him to be a pushy husband. Am glad they aren't giving heroine an excuse to cheat on him by making him act like a jerk but...wondering if perhaps they might jerkify him a bit by the end...so heroine can leave him without us blaming her.

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Carole, I really hope they don't go that route. It would go against almost everything we've seen about Joon Young, and would be the cheapest of tricks. I've seen it done before in shows and movies and it never has the desired effect. It just makes me feel annoyed and manipulated.

I do agree that we've seen flashes of hidden depths in Joon Young - some dark glances, when he beat up Yi Soo.

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That route may even be possible now that JY knows her grandpa tried to kill his father.

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Right. Yi Soo is now completely behind the curve, and this is not pretty. If the drama chose to reveal his Dad's past before it exposed the grandpa Jo as the evil mastermind who surpasses his Dad's eviltry, that would have produced better plot effects.

About Joon Young, I am still not absolving him of playing his own self-interests when marrying Hae Woo and cannot feel much sympathy for his present predicaments. How shall I put it - it seems that Yi Soo's reappearance was a known, though remote, risk when he married her and, now that he did reappear, Joon Young's gamble is undone and he must simply man up. Remember, Joon Young knew that Hae Woo was Yi Soo's girl and Yi Soo's dead body was never recovered. And as they say in criminal trial, if there is no dead body, then is there a death?

The drama is foisting an original sin committed by his Dad on Yi Soo at this late stage in the game. While it appears to de-legitimize Yi Soo's avenging quest, the drama may have something else up its sleeve (another secret?) that will re-legitimize it. And the only way to get there might be a conflict-and-resolution between Yi Soo and Soo Hyeon. Will we all feel better afterwards? Stay tuned.

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I too think you have something there...about another secret which will somehow make legit again Yi Soo's quest to 'balance things up'. This episode making out Yi Soo's father as no better than Clicky have completely taken the wind out of poor Yi Soo......and if it just ends on this note, then that all the avenging righteousness of Yi Soo and the years of grieving of the little sister Yi Hyun are all in vain and ends up making them feel guilt ridden simply for having a monster for a father.

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First, I love 'The Most Popular Girls in School' reference you had. It was a surprise that gave me a good laugh. Second I for one have been emotionally disconnected/kind of strongly dislike Yi-soo and his whole reasons and methods of revenge from the very start that I feel nothing for him. I will not shed a tear and kind of hope he dies or is given hefty jail time for his earlier dirty deed.

Everything that has happened thus far is misery he brought onto himself and others (HW, JY, YH, perfect oppa). He could have had it all (HW his sister) and still got his revenge by revealing who he was on her wedding day (cause you know homegirl would have drooped my Joon-yong oppa like a hot potato at the alter). I honestly don't understand why the hell he ever had to pretend to be Kim Joon (other than bring pain and longing to loved ones) or how that even helped his revenge plot since err body and literally their grandpa figured it out on the quick and he was able to protect those his identity would have put in danger.

The whole bad daddy reveal felt empty cause I had that figured out by the end of the second episode. The conversation that his dad and gramps had before his death, the short flashback, his going to see that woman, and the phone call he made about forgiveness made it all so obvious. It was a big reveal that was no longer that big.

Lastly F HW and YS and their tortured-star-crossed-need-to-be-together-first-love cheating shits. Hae-woo pisses me off so much when it comes to that aspect of her character because she is being cruel to a loving, supportive, and understanding husband who does not deserve it. Even if she "can't control her feelings" she can control her choices and actions. She needs to stop calling Joon-yong oppa and telling him her feelings for him hasn't changed and that she is just helping YS out the dark cause her actions says other wise. Divorce the guy first and go be with the one who chose revenge over you if that is what your heart wants.

The drama failed for me in so many areas (especially in comparison to previous works like Resurrection and Mawang <3) that I only really care about the out come of side characters (JY,YH, appa, and SH).

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IMO, when she said her feelings for him hasn't changed. I don't think it had ever changed in that yes, she loves him, but she was never IN LOVE with him. It was always neutral from the start.

This is what I always hate about the cheating plotline. OK yeah, some people cannot control their feelings or attraction to someone else other than their SO, but they can CHOOSE not to cheat. I just hate it when it happens to character I like. I don't care if they're the OTP, it's still wrong.

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Yes, there are lots of convenient reveals in this episode and some left me rolling my eyes. I also didn't really connect with Yi Soo's uncovering of his dad's path. I think they should have downplayed or made his reaction more subdue. There really wasn't much emotional connection there.

However, in terms of plot, I am much less frustrated with the reveals than I usually am with characters missing the obvious in every episode (as in most dramas). In fact, I am thoroughly enjoying Shark because of how thought-out it is. It does need more emotional Oomph, but to say that the emotion is entirely lacking is also an understatement. At certain times, I was very moved. It was this episode that was more lacking, than to say the entire drama.

As to Joon young, I do feel for him. Heck, I am never a sympathizer of cheaters and hate it when circumstances are used as an excuse. But I don't think Hae Woo is using the circumstances as an excuse. I think she's actually embracing the fact of her emotion infidelity, and Joon Young is simply refusing to let her come clean with him. I think she would much rather come clean and go full steam ahead with Yi Soo. Joon Young knew this would happen if Yi Soo ever came back. Too bad things worked out the way they did for him.

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wasn't the envelope guy hit in the car accident and killed by clicky? am I remembering wrong or the writers forgot it?

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The guy I call Envelope Professor, or Kang Hee-soo, supposedly wasn't killed by Clicky, but by Yi-soo's dad. He was the victim Detective Byun found strangled in his apartment. The only person who died in a car accident was the guy Daddy Jo ran over at the beginning of the series. Otherwise, Yi-soo and Prosecutor Oh got run over by cars and lived.

What we know about that is: Clicky was the one who ran Prosecutor Oh over, but it's a bit unclear as to whether Clicky was behind Yi-soo's car accident or whether it could have been Junichiro. Does that help any?

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thank you so much

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Huh? Wait - so who ran over Joon-Young's brother? **sigh** Another plot point I've gotten screwed up in trying to follow these convoluted developments.

Trying to keep this straight is as futile as herding a bunch of cats.

Thanks for the recap, HeadsNo2!
It's almost over.
:-)

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I honestly don't think Joon-young's brother's hit and run has any real significance to the plot. He was dead at the start of the series, and unless they pull some major bull***t, it'll just stay that way.

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I don't think it's Junchiro. Ethos- and pathos-wise, that would not make sense. It would also be a very weak plot point. How can someone who has had their parents killed by Grandpa Jo, do the same to a teenager, merely to make him his overt accomplice? Though it's dramaland and anything can happen. Shark will turn into an absolute ridiculous farce if it takes that turn. And to that end, to prove what kind of a point?

It is very unclear who killed Envelope Professor. Aside from Clicky's claim, the dramatic points surrounding the Professor's death is not very revelatory. Yi-soo's dad was in absolute, somewhat horrific shock that his past came crashing into his present, more serene, ho-hum chauffeur life. His search for clarity, absolution and forgiveness the day after the Professor's death doesn't coincide well with him as the supposed Professor's murderer. Before his demise, he had gained clarity, peace, and resolve for closure, which is not a state of one who reopened old wounds and retraced his wrongs as a professional torturer by killing the Professor.

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If I recall right, Detective Byun later discovered a the mark of a pen poison, which shows that Kang Hae Soo was killed by Clicky. I think he was also shown in the vicinity of KHS's house when Yi Soo's father brought him home from Chairman Jo's place.

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i love this drama!

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Thanks for the recap!

One thing I find really weird was SH giving HW the drink. The way he looked, how disappointed he was when HW didn't get a chance to drink it.

OMG is he trying to take HW into hostage, and to blackmail YS or something??? NOOOOOOOOOoooo

Poor YH, is she going to die, because that nosebleed is there for a reason, and it ain't good. *sigh*

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I don't know if the writer will explore this or not, but I wonder what Yi-soo's conclusion was in this episode. His father was a former torturer, but that doesn't mean that his father killed Kang Hee-soo (Soo-hyun's father). So what broke him down was the realization of the "torturer" part, or the "killer" part, or both? And how did his father and grandpa Jo get involved?

And when he grabbed his gun, did he want to "end" it all with Grandpa Jo, which means he would give up on the original plan of revealing the Fake Chairman Jo to the world? I certainlly hope that Yi-soo recovers from his emotional shock soon enough to not let himself sink in the guilty ship by killing Grandpa Jo. Yi-soo and Hae-woo didn't do anything wrong. His father and her grandpa are the one who did. With that reason, I hope the writer will not turn Soo-hyun into a revenge machine without logic. He has been acting suspiciously since he learned about the past of Yi-soo's father.

And Joon-young, oh, I've got a soft spot for him. Now he knows the truth, I hope he will join Yi-soo to bring the evil grandpa down.

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Thanks for the reacap HeadsNo2!

This show, really has gone prom interesting to downright boring. I don't even care about any of the characters anymore and I found this episode crazy boring. Thanks for the recaps, because while I'm too lazy to watch, I do kinda want to just know what happens at the end lol :)

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What I liked: THe Soo Hyun Yi Soo conflict although it saddens me that the bromance and romance with Yi Hyun might be affected.
What I've always hated: How Hae Woo treats Jun Young!
Gotta say overall I hated this episode.

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I just had a bad thought. The nose bleeds seem like cancer but what if they turn it into something else and she ends up getting saved by organ donation from her dead brother. I have a hard time thinking positive about drama's anymore.

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Wow! I thought it was me. I really didn't care for much of this episode either. Something felt kinda off or missing. Ah where to start?

Secretary Park: All she does is hover. I think this character is being wasted.

The love story: I am not invested in Yi-Soo's love at all. Maybe it's my misunderstanding, maybe I thought this was a love story and didn't realize the past of the loving couple was merely being used to push the plot along. I would be willing to go without a love story but I can't see heroine with anyone now. What is second-lead noble hubby going to do when he realizes her grand-dad tried to kill Prosecutor? Chairman is his boss, for heaven's sakes! How are they gonna get over that...let alone jealousy issues?

The constant NON-telling. Oh my LORD!!! It got silly after a while. Everyone not telling someone else about some important issue.

And what's with that ending? Okay, I understand he is all traumatized by this news..but stumbling around like that? NO!!! Yes, his entire plan is now messed up...and he has to justify killing a baddie who killed his dad although his dad probably helped kill tons of folks in the massacre... but really? A GUN? He is NOT that emotional. Bitter, yes. Distrustful of his mentor, yes! But going off half-cocked ready to take matters in his own hand??? I trow not.

If the cliffhanger had him with the gun -- without aiming for "going to the end of the line"-- then I might be a tiny bit more patient...maybe I'd be afraid that he would kill himself...but noooooooooooooo. Yes, yes, yes, I know it's all personal now. It has always been personal and not really about the communal horror done by Rich Gramps. But the writer messed up for me somehow. I have to wedge myself back into caring for Yi-Soo's grief...and worrying about Yi-Soo's immortal soul. And dang, they should've done that better! I am simply not worried about his choice of going down the end of the line. I don't care what happens to his love or his soul or his business or his sanity. I know i should..but i don't "feel" the worry or the care.

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Carole, as usual you manage to encapsulate much of what I am thinking. I can't believe they wasted the actress they have on Secretary Jang's part. She's so good and expressive and looks potentially shifty -she should be doing much more than dancing attendance on Junichiro and Yi Soo.

You hit the nail on the head with one of the show's major problems - Yi Soo. Intellectually, I know I should feel for him and his revenge quest, but mostly what I feel is boredom and disgust. I believe the writers and PDs have part of the blame for that, but not all. I know Kim Nam Gil has lots of very ardent fans, but sorry, he is so overrated. I've sat through "Bad Guy" and "Shark" and I just can't keep giving him the benefit of the doubt. KNG is incredibly skilled at conveying suppressed but simmering emotion, but he doesn't do as well with actual great emotion. IMO, you need to do both to be a compelling lead.

Hae Woo may be very flawed, but she's very compelling and holds my attention. Even Grandpa Jo is more interesting to me.

Maybe I should have had lowered expectations at seeing KNG in a revenge drama. Haven't I learned anything from "Bad Guy?" :)

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That teetery walk thru the streets was SO bad guy it left a really bad taste in my mouth. It looked fake then and worse now as a retred cliche and a really BAD Memory. no faith in the ending to come.

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I know right. I prevented myself from comparing this show to Bad Guy but he's making it inevitable. Even the gun thing at the end is so Bad Guy. If KNG is trying to redeem himself from BG Fail he should have steered clear from that street walk because i hated it the first time i saw it in BG.

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We found out Soo-Hyun's identity and how he fits into everything, which was good. Other than that, the episode was sort of a wash. An hour dedicated to Yi-Soo finding out his father was a criminal? Who cares. We already knew that. I've been a big defender of the show's slow, deliberate pacing, but we're at the finish line here and things need to happen.

As for the love "triangle," I know I've said this before, but the show really messed this up. In the first 2 episodes we saw genuine love, trust, and like between Hae Woo and Joon Young. I'm all for good, juicy conflict, but there really was no compelling story here, was there? The minute Yi Soo appeared on the scene, it was like Joon Young and the marriage never happened. I used to love at least two of these characters, but now Yi Soo just looks like a psychopath who cares only for revenge and, perhaps, a little for hia sister; Hae Woo seems like a faithless woman with no respect for Joon Young (who was also her friend, let's remember; and Joon Young looks like a chump who's in major denial. Characters don't have to be likeable -some of the most compelling ones aren't- but the show took three great actors with loads of potential and made them downright slapworthy. Congrats, show (sarcasm).

Maybe the show would have done better with 16 episodes. They've already ruined many characters; hope they can conclude with a compelling plot, at least.

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I didn't feel bother with ppl.. I actually like HW's fashion and thinking to get those online if I can find them. I like the phone case too :) .... Thanks for recap... I love everything about this drama...more than 2 previous ones done by the same writer (rebirth and devil)... I never finished these because I lost interest after awhile but I didn't even pass forward any scene in this drama...eagerly waiting for last 2 eps, hope the writer doesn't disappoint me in the end.

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Even though I like this series, I like it because it mimics one of my all-time favorites, "The Devil," so clearly: sets, lighting, theme, cast (police) etc.

And I have a sneaky feeling the ending will be similar too.

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Oh yes, bodies will be hitting the floor. I have no doubt.

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The eye-blink q&a method used by Prosecutor Oh and Joon-Young is almost identical with the eye-blink q&a with old Noirtier in the Count of Monte Cristo, down to closed = yes.

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When this is all over, if YS survives and HW decides she wants him instead of JY, she and YS are going to have to basically go back to Square One and start again as if they'd met again after twelve years apart, because everything that's gone on so far in their adult years has been grounded in deception and deceit. I think she'd be a complete idiot to throw aside JY, who's a solid, stand-up guy who loves her and is willing to forgive her. He really is the best husband ever, and he's really good-looking as an added bonus. I adore him and if HW doesn't want him, I absolutely do.

I loved the "heroic blue screen of death" when YS found out about his father's past. Kim Nam Gil totally sold YS as someone whose whole world had just been shaken by a massive quake and reduced to rubble. The dead expression in his eyes afterward really sold it, and when YS went into his desk for the gun, I wanted to scream, "PUT IT AWAY!" Bad things happen when you combine emotional trauma and firearms. You don't have to end it now, YS. Really. Go talk to a therapist, work through the fact your dad was a torturer, and then go deal with the evil bastard known as Chairman Jo.

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LOL about the therapist thing. He's crossing the line to straight jacket level.

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come to think of it,most korean dramas began with a few amazing captivating impressive first few episodes but suddenly became so pathetic with does-not-make-sense final episode just because they were running out of time.am watching this only because of Kim Namgil.that's all.this man is a good actor.am not suprised if my favorite Kim Jun dies in the final episode.it's possible.had seen such an ending in BIG,The Slave Hunter and a few others.Phew!

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hahaha.. Yeah, dramas those days almost always have a great start, then falter in the middle towards the end. But I feel bad for Yi Soo.. He's someone who seek justice and truth and now he has to confront the truths

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i can't find any sympathy for any of the 3 main characters

hae woo's hubby comes off as a spineless in denial dude. no wonder hae woo is stepping all over him.

i don't find anything romantic or compelling in the love scenes between hae woo and yi soo. i want to slap her and i want to punch him.

i don't like yi soo for his cruelty. on top of that kim nam gil's over the top acting is so laughable. i end up laughing my head off every time he flashes that "look" that seems to mean that he's up to no good.

i care more for the secondary characters - detective dad, sister, dong soo (he is so cute!), soo hyun. even grandpa jo and daddy jo are more compelling and engaging than hae woo, yi soo, and hae woo's hubby.

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Great recap!

"when she’s unable to resist her first love re-entering her life after twelve years—regardless of the fact that he abandoned her, mentally tortured her, and is actively out to ruin her life. I mean, Joon-young’s decade of dedication is just a drop in the love bucket compared to all that win." - made me laugh so hard

This drama doesn't have my heart but I have to say it's exciting and I just want to know what happens next...

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in spite of all this devotion you and h2h refer to she never loved him hes just a glorified place holder which says something about her more than it does him heres a quote from dramaland which explains hae woo and jy relationship perfectly ""someone likes the other person first or one person could like the other person more in this situation its easy for the one who asks for love first to become pathetic and for the one who is loved to become cruel"
"girls/women fall in love with what they hear and boys/men fall in love with what they see"

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I was also shouting to Joon Yong that not blinking will be too hard for his Dad. We can't help but blink naturally, what if he does blink to rest his eyes, so what's gonna happen then? Imagine the whole line of surnames that he wrote, all wrong and his Dad didn't blink, not even once. Even I who's healthy will have my eyes cry due to dryness caused by non-blinking. The writer did not thought of that.

what i'm also thinking is that, maybe, Clicky remains the torturer and part of his torture was to mess their mind and point daddy-shadow as the torturer. But who can say it, ahhh maybe the Psychiatrist? Ok, i'm the one being tortured now.

Soo-hyun, I still want you to remain the love interest of Yi-hyun. We don't need another Yisoo and Hyesung

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Despite all the bad comments about this drama, I still love it and will follow it until the end. I thought all actors act very well. I care for all characters. KNG is not overrated. His acting is better than in "bad guy". YS character is not as interesting as Bidam in QSD but one can only do so much to show internal pain/thought/conflict. What else would he do to show a "mean/cruel" look other than what he did in the drama? All characters are very unique and the writer did well to creating them. About YS/HW/JY relationship, I feel their pain deeply and I understand why they act the way they do. Maybe one needs to go through such relationship to understand? I don't know.... I love this show and I hope they win a lot of awards. I appreciate KNG and SYJ for taking parts in this dark drama. It is do complex that not everybody can understand the contents.

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I've read most of the comments in this post and I honestly could understand why most of you guys have been frustrated with how the drama unfolded with this episode. The heroic 'blue screen of death' and KNG's actions thereafter were a bit of a stretch in believability. Otherwise, however, I thought the episode was all right.

Maybe I'm just a callous guy, but I believe that YS didn't want to drag Hae-woo into the fray because he still loves her. Of course, that failed because one can't fool one's heart - and of course, she gets sucked him. Many times during the series he keeps on pushing her away, and yet she keeps on chasing for the truth. She only really loved Yi Soo and that never had changed through the years. You can hide that stuff with the passage of time but you can't help but love who you love: I think that's what merely happened. YS still tries to push her away consistently. He even only capitulated with kisses and hugs. If YS was really a bastard he'd have laid with HW by that time: he didn't. He still keeps his distance but couldn't really help loving her, so he tragically drags her in.

I can understand YS not telling HW about her grandfather's bullshit as it's pretty consistent with him not wanting her to find out more. Of course, she still digs the truth for him, which makes his silence useless.

The not-telling is pretty stupid but these are people who want to keep the truth for themselves and want to protect the people they care about from learning the truth. So I can honestly dig the silence.

The episode could be tighter but the only bad part in it, at least to me, was the overacting of YS's blue screen of death. That's it. The rest is pretty believable and while expected, has to be stated for the less observant viewers to understand.

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You can debate whether Yi Soo truly loves Hae Woo or not, bit it is in arguable that he wanted to drag her into this. Remember all the clues and cryptic messages he left her from the very beginning? His entire plan was to drag Hae Woo into this and have her bring down her own family. And to hell with the consequences.

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He wanted her to know the truth behind what happened, for herself, as what she probably desired (she became a prosecutor for his sake and it doesn't really take a genius to figure out) but there were also countless times where he told her to pull away if she couldn't take it.

'Walk away.' 'Please walk away.' He said that quite a number of times. So he's a bit torn between wanting her to know the truth and destroying her life: he still is.

He also vacillates, like many people. I don't think he deserves that much contempt, though. If anything, the breakdown was bathetic, but the rest of the series was all right, at least for me. The interviews are really one staple of finding out the truth and the slowness of the reveals are also, at least for me, quite normal.

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But it's not that he force her to do it. Countless times... he let her to make a choice.... But she choose seeking for the truth.

I know it sounds weird... But one of the part we can't understand YS it's due to KNG's acting who fail to convey much deeper emotions.... Countless times.... the show seems want to convey how torment he is doing all this for HW. How he want to destroy HW's family without involve emotion for any member in jo's family but I know he actually can't... But he thinks she should know the truth about her family bad deeds....what the reason he still not reveal the document and still holding back this case until now if not due to HW herself? He would reveal that document to public and doesn't care about HW position and life as a prosecutor.

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I'm enjoying the show. Wish there was more to the story, though. The fallout seems a bit lackluster after all the buildup. Hope it all ends well. Don't understand all the hate for the main characters. I care for them and the actors do a good job making me care. Shark...fighting!!

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I have a bad feeling that both YS and HW will end up dying thanks to some leacked pictures of the next episodes that got published, sort of like a Romeo and Juliet thing and if that's the case the drama will totally be ruined, not that I care much for their relationship, but that's over-done and so not fitting to this kind of drama. Either way I see little future for YS, I'm more hoping for a happy ending to his sister.

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I don't care about yi-soo at all,whether he succeeds in his revenge or makes it out alive.I just don't care and that is a big problem since he IS the main character.
Right now I am even more emotionally invested in Lee soo hyuk's character and he only has a small role in the drama.
and I don't think it's the writers fault.It's just I don't think KNG is good at making you care or feel for his character,I think he would be better at portraying an actually evil character.
Anyway by now the only characters I care for by now are hae-woo and her hubby,and yi-hyun+young detective.I would gladly have the writers sacrifice yi-soo if it meant saving any of them.

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