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Gap-dong: Episode 9

Well this show took a turn in a direction I wasn’t expecting. Is that actually sympathy I’m feeling for our villain? It can’t be, right? Because he’s a terrible person, if you can even call him a person. And yet…

Despite being a crime-murder thriller, Gap-dong is turning out to be more of a psychological study of a criminal (and the damaged people out to capture the criminal). The lack of actual mystery means that it’s the show’s challenge to keep us on our toes, and while it doesn’t always succeed, I do think they’re working some nice character twists into these proceedings.

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EPISODE 9 RECAP

Mu-yeom arrives in the greenhouse to see that while he was saving Ji-wool, Tae-oh killed Victim No. 5, who is now buried in rose petals. Practically spitting in hatred, he growls that either he’ll wind up dead, or he’ll kill Tae-oh.

Maria’s misgivings prompt her to check on Gentleman Choi’s cell that night—where she finds him hanging from the noose he knotted of bedsheets. She and the guard rush to take him down, and we see that Poopy is his cellmate.

Tae-oh returns home that night and heads into his huge closet, which is stocked with essentially the same outfit thirty times. He pulls down a leather motorcycle jacket that looks just like the one he’s wearing.

Gentleman Choi isn’t dead from his attempted hanging, but he suffered severe oxygen deficiency to the brain and isn’t expected to make it. Maria hears this, and then shows up at Tae-oh’s door wearing a stern face. So while he keeps up his friendly act, she warns, “This is your last chance. Surrender yourself, if you don’t want to regret it.”

Tae-oh replies blankly, “I’m sorry, but I’ve never felt regret. I don’t know what that emotion feels like. Is it like self-pity felt by pathetic losers?” He sounds curious, not mocking, and Maria concedes that regret is for those with human hearts. She asks, “If I called it a threat, would you understand that?” She reminds him that she’s his assigned doctor, and if he doesn’t stop, she will act. Furthermore, when he gets tried in court, she’ll be the one to testify of his mental illness and psychopathy.

Maria orders him to explain how he killed the latest victim and also Choi, as well as the identity of the Gap-dong inside the prison hospital. Tae-oh laughs that he didn’t even talk when a gun was put to his head, and asks if she’s mistaken, perhaps thinking he likes her. “People like me aren’t able to like anyone or carry anyone in our hearts,” he says. Tae-oh briefly wonders whether that’s something to consider fortunate or unfortunate, but no matter: “I can’t feel the excitement in any of those trivial feelings.”

Well, that does explain why he kills, if he’s doing it to provoke feeling within himself. Not that we can be sure of that since it’s also possible he doesn’t care about emotion at all.

Tae-oh mulls over her words after she leaves, and looks increasingly bothered by them. So he goes after Maria and stops her in the street to ask her something: Is she the original witness, Kim Jae-hee? Why would she stick around, instead of fleeing like other witnesses do?

Maria is startled at the question but holds it together to retort, “You’ve met him—why don’t you ask Gap-dong himself?”

Tae-oh grabs hold of her arm threateningly, but that’s when Mu-yeom shows up to order him to back off. Brimming with rage, he storms up and socks Tae-oh in the face, knocking him down. He cuffs his hands together, but doesn’t stop there, squeezing the cuffs tighter and tighter like he’s trying to break Tae-oh’s wrists. Tae-oh’s face contorts in pain and Mu-yeom growls that this is the agony his victims felt before he killed them.

The cops find no evidence of the killer at the crime scene. Chul-gon is frustrated, to say the least, convinced of Tae-oh’s guilt but without the evidence to link him to it. And although Ji-wool confirms that Tae-oh’s clothing matches what he was wearing when he’d kidnapped her, there’s not even a grain of sand to be found on it. Ah, well now we know why he changed.

Tae-oh puts on the scared act in the interrogation room, denying all of Mu-yeom’s accusations and saying that he’s scared Mu-yeom will hit him again. He’s hooked up to a lie detector that monitors his vitals, and the readings indicate that he’s not lying, even as we see that he’s lying through his teeth. Profiler Han notes that if the subject doesn’t feel nervousness or fear, the lie detector isn’t effective. They don’t believe he’s actually innocent, but the failure of the machine to catch him in a lie creates problems for the police.

Ji-wool isn’t convinced Tae-oh’s all that bad a guy, telling Section Chief Cha that she doesn’t think he really meant to kill her. It isn’t until Chul-gon shows her the photos of the latest victim that it starts to sink in.

Tae-oh’s interrogation goes nowhere, so Mu-yeom switches things around and asks, “Aren’t you getting bored? Don’t you feel like quitting this game of playing with people’s lives?” Tae-oh’s expression changes a bit, and Mu-yeom adds, “You want to stop, don’t you?”

Tae-oh doesn’t give a straight answer, and Mu-yeom barks at him to answer the question, yes or no. Tae-oh yells back, “I want to stop!” A moment of silence as that hangs in the air, and then he finishes, “…is not what I want.”

But finally, the lie detector records movement, spiking to contradict what he just said. Mu-yeom smiles, “I learned something important today.”

That night, Chul-gon and Mu-yeom go out for a weary drink, both filled with regrets—Mu-yeom regrets leaving the greenhouse instead of staying behind to catch Tae-oh, and Chul-gon regrets trusting Mu-yeom and working with him. Mu-yeom wonders why they’ve failed to catch Gap-dong despite all their resources and efforts, and starts to say that if there’s absolutely no (legal) way to nab him, he might kill Tae-oh with his bare hands. Chul-gon calls him insane, and Mu-yeom freely acknowledges it, and goads Chul-gon to step it up and prove why he’s earned his fearsome reputation.

Tae-oh’s mother returns to Korea (she lives in the States with Tae-oh’s brother), and there’s clearly no love lost here. She’s either still afraid of him or disgusted by him (or both) and says he’s gotten himself tangled up in a dangerous mess, to which Tae-oh says their fancy lawyer should be able to handle it.

She says she’s tired of this and gets Tae-oh to agree that he went too far this time. Mom says she wants to put an end to it at long last, handing him a container containing two pills. Tae-oh registers them with surprise: “Are you telling me to die?” She doesn’t answer.

In the wake of the fifth murder, the Gap-dong investigation is taken from Chul-gon’s leadership and given to Section Chief Cha. It’s a blow, but hardly a surprise.

Chul-gon calls his daughter Seon-joo to tell her of the latest change, and promises to catch Gap-dong soon so he can return to her side. Seon-joo looks worse than usual and nearly nods off mid-call, and her nurse asks Chul-gon to come see her soon.

Maria receives news that has her bolting out of her office, not noticing that she dropped her whistle. The nurse holds it out, and it gets noticed by the inmates nearby.

Gentleman Choi regains consciousness, but only for a fleeting moment. Maria knows her time is running out and begs him to hang on, asking if Gap-dong is one of the patients of the hospital. But he flatlines, leaving her screaming desperately, “Who is it? WHO?”

(In her panic, she drops a file and we finally get to learn Poopy’s name: Park Ho-seok. I’m willing to bet that the fact that we see his name must be a tip-off that he’s about to become more important.)

After picking up Chul-gon at the station, Mu-yeom heads over to the hospital, and they arrive in the wake of Choi’s death. Maria is beating herself up for missing her last chance to find out the criminal, muttering, “I could have known..”

Chul-gon fills Mu-yeom in, saying that Choi had been his spy and left a clue before his death. Mu-yeom is incredulous that Chul-gon would keep this vital information to himself, but Chul-gon says he trusted nobody—he didn’t know if there would be a leak somewhere.

And then, Chul-gon receives a devastating call.

In Maria’s office, Mu-yeom blames himself for messing up the investigation despite his best efforts, having been so determined to prevent every murder that ended up happening anyway. Maria says there’s something she messed up too, and explains about the note Choi had asked her to pass along. She despairs of being unable to beat the criminal, but he vows that they have to.

Tae-oh’s fancy lawyer assures him that he’s in good shape now—he passed the lie detector test, and the police won’t be able to lay a finger on him without a warrant, as long has he wasn’t caught on camera near the scene, which Tae-oh confirms is true. All that’s left is for Tae-oh to go through the remaining steps, which he calls a wise decision made by Tae-oh’s mother.

Tae-oh is less convinced, asking if he really has to go through with it.

Maria looks over old photographs of herself and her childhood best friend—oh, so her BFF was Gap-dong’s victim? That explains a little more about her survivor’s guilt (not that it would have been unwarranted even if the girls had been strangers). The memory seems to trigger a pain in her chest, and Maria gulps down a pill.

Ji-wool’s calls to Mu-yeom go unanswered, so she decides to go to Maria to ask some lingering questions about whether “Tae-oh oppa” is really a psychopath. Maria notes the use of “oppa” and asks incredulously whether Ji-wool is still confused about Tae-oh’s nature, and Ji-wool bristles at her censure, retorting that Maria should have known sooner if she was his doctor.

Ji-wool is stung by Maria’s sudden coldness and asks if it has to do with Mu-yeom, assuming that Maria is being mean because she likes him now. She storms off in a huff, muttering that she’ll figure it out herself.

Ack, so is that why she goes to Tae-oh’s cafe next? Her desire to know the truth is understandable, but I do wish she’d have more care for the fact that she’s dealing with a potential serial murderer here.

Tae-oh gets lost in thought over Maria’s warning to stop, but smiles to see Ji-wool at the cafe entrance. She bolts the minute she’s spotted, but he texts her to tell her that she was right: “Liking somebody is a difficult thing. And trusting a person is even harder. Right?” Ji-wool turns to look back at Tae-oh, who’s watching from a distance.

Mu-yeom hears that Chul-gon has been out of the office and incommunicado for the past couple of days. Turns out Chul-gon’s bad news was about his daughter, who has died, and he sits at her funeral altar alone—apparently his wife (ex?) refuses to come, and the funeral is a pitifully sparse affair.

Mu-yeom shows up and pays his respects, and the two men sit down for a somber drink.

As Chul-gon watches, we flash back once again to that fateful day his daughter fell, when he sees Mu-yeom’s father hurrying away. Later that night he catches up to him and demands an explanation. Mu-yeom’s father says he didn’t push her—she ran because she was scared of him—but Chul-gon’s more interested in why Dad was near his house in the first place. That’s when young Mu-yeom arrives to warn his father not to say a word, because if he incriminates himself he’ll die. Chul-gon threatens that either he or his son will die tonight—and so, at the sound of the approaching train, Dad dashes into its path.

In the present, Chul-gon speculates about the numerical clue Choi left before he died. What if it was a phone number? After all, Choi’s previous job had been maintaining pay phones.

Mu-yeom marvels that in this situation Chul-gon would think of the case first. It’s only now that Chul-gon fills him in on the backstory, about how he’d blamed Mu-yeom’s father for his daughter’s condition, even though he knew he hadn’t been directly responsible for her fall. And now that his daughter is dead, Chul-gon says he has only one job to do.

Chul-gon buries her remains in the woods, breaking down into regretful sobs.

Tae-oh returns to that pay phone to await his next call from Gap-dong. When he answers, the whistle lets him know he’s got the right call.

On the other end of the line, Gap-dong tells him the latest news that Gentleman Choi isn’t dead yet. That’s the latest tidbit the inmates overheard so they’re not quite up to date, but they do know Choi is probably on his way out soon. Meanwhile, Tae-oh tells Gap-dong he’s taken care of how to handle his prison discharge.

Hm, the next thing we know, the monk is arriving at the prison to oversee a craft session as the inmates work on assembling lanterns. The inmates gossip about Choi, having heard that he wasn’t suicidal but rather offed after trying to reveal something to Dr. Maria. They ask Poopy if he knows anything from sharing a cell, and he screws up his face like a dimwit and says that Choi used to say he wanted to die a lot.

The higher-ups hear the gossip that Choi left a clue behind, and call in Chul-gon to ask him about it. Chul-gon states that divulging that information would have caused it to spread, interfering with its usefulness.

Mu-yeom goes to the prison to check on the phone that allows inmates to call outside the prison, requesting to see the logs. He pulls over on the way out as Maria is walking home, and offers her a lift (kicking Hyung-nyun to the backseat to give her shotgun, to wifey’s displeasure. Seriously, he gets adorably pissy).

Maria has been trying to recall the numbers in Choi’s note, but can’t offer much more than a guess at a couple of the digits. Mu-yeom calls it progress, though, and then returns her whistle to her, which she’d thought was damaged when she’d dropped it. He has had it fixed, though, and tells her, “Broken things can be fixed, and smashed things can be put back together. Let me know if you’ve got a problem, since fixing things is my specialty.” He fastens the chain around her neck, telling her he’d replaced it with a nicer one.

At that point, Hyung-nyun butts in to remind them that he’s here, too. Keke. Then he slumps back and sulks that it’s sad being single.

Sitting in a chicken restaurant, Tae-oh attracts the admiration of the ajumma manager—who happens to be Ji-wool’s mother. Mom approaches to first check that he’s not a cop, and then grins at him approvingly. Ji-wool’s eyes widen as she enters and sees Tae-oh, but Mom grabs her before she can leave and scolds her for crushing on Mu-yeom when she could be with nice boys like this pretty one. Oh, if only you knew, Mom.

Tae-oh apologizes for the events of that day, and Ji-wool admits to being confused about him—she’ll think he’s guilty, and then think he’s not. Tae-oh says that the cops just want to arrest somebody, even if it’s not Gap-dong, and he made an easy target as an ex-con. His voice wavers and he looks thoroughly pathetic, which sways Ji-wool’s sympathies.

Mu-yeom surveys a map of all the pay phones in the area and narrows it down to a likely possibility. Not long afterward, Maria receives a call from a number, and seeing it there in front of her triggers her memory—this is it.

It’s Mu-yeom on the line, and she confirms that this was the number. Now it’s up to them to keep watch to see what happens. As Mu-yeom talks from the booth, Tae-oh zooms by on his motorcycle. It’s not clear whether he’s seen Mu-yeom, but he does call Maria that night to ask if they can meet.

Maria refuses to meet him anymore unless he’s going to turn himself in or reveal Gap-dong’s identity. Tae-oh says she’s won: “I’ll show you personally what I’ve chosen.”

Maria deliberates and ultimately decides to head out, although she reaches for her Vixen Maria getup this time, exchanging the whistle for her alter ego’s makeup and false bravado.

When she comes over, he shows her the pills given him by his mother and tells Maria it’s her turn to decide: “Whether you’ll save me or kill me.”

Tae-oh swallows a pill and tells her she’ll have ten minutes to think it over.

Mu-yeom stands watch over the pay phone for hours, ready to call it a day. But as he starts walking away, it finally rings.

Tae-oh slumps on the ground, feeling the effects of the pill. Maria struggles with herself, but finally picks up the phone to call for help, which makes Tae-oh smirk even amidst his pain.

Maria dials emergency, but pauses with her finger hovering over the send button… and now it’s her turn to smirk.

“You calculated wrong,” she says. His smile disappears.

“Die,” she orders coldly. “Go ahead and die. This is my choice.”

Maria walks off, tossing the phone aside, leaving Tae-oh writhing in his death throes.

 
COMMENTS

Is it possible to feel sorry for a killer?

Wait, let me rephrase that: Is it possible to feel sorry for a vicious, remorseless, emotionally vacant psychopathic serial killer?

Here’s the thing: I don’t think Tae-oh is a poor misunderstood soul who just needed the love of a parent, or a nurturing spirit, or a sweetheart to show him how to love. I don’t think he is able to be rehabilitated—at best, his killing can be stopped by incarcerating him, but he lacks the fundamental ability to feel any emotion and shows no inclination of stopping his murderous rampage.

He enjoys getting away with murder, but I don’t even know if he enjoys the act of murdering, which makes him even more of a cipher to me. If we’re talking about a sick mind that derives pleasure out of pain, at least I can see pathology of that. But that’s not Tae-oh, who is a complete emotional vacuum, which is especially dangerous when coupled with his hero worship of a criminal and his high intelligence and curiosity. Tae-oh seems to lack the wiring to rehabilitate, and that’s not something you can change about him. Of course, lacking emotional wiring on its own doesn’t make him irredeemable, but there’s also the little detail of him murdering a bunch of people in violent ways. And after that, I just don’t see any sort of way to humanize him or mitigate the atrocity of his actions.

Still, I can identify a bit with Ji-wool’s confusion, even as her indecision over his evil nature has me exasperated. Because there’s a part of me that wonders, too, if there’s another way to read Tae-oh’s character that I’m missing at the moment. Mostly, I have to attribute that (or blame) the actor for that, because I want to see that glimpse of humanity and am stretching to get it in the performance, when everything about the character indicates that he’s a lost cause. Worse than a lost cause, he’s an active menace to society who must be stopped. In that last scene, I feel a moment of triumph when Maria thwarts the evil genius by defying his expectation, and it’s damned gratifying to see the smirk wiped from his face… but then he just looks so sad, and that makes me feel sad, and then THAT really makes me sad.

So, kudos to Lee Joon for making the murderer a compelling persona, but also, dammit. I don’t think I ought to be feeling torn (it’s only a teeeeeny bit torn, but a little torn is more than wholly untorn), but there you have it. And now I feel dirty. Great. Well, I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything more wholesome out of a serial murder crime cable drama.

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Thanks for the recap Javabeans!

Honestly, I feel a teeny-tiny bit sorry for him too. But I won't be lying when I say that I loved to see that irritating smirk wiped from his face when Maria didn't call for help. Take that, sucker.

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Heol, I didn't knew it has been subbed, I still didn't found it :-/ On which site has it been subbed?

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I can't find any video which is subbed already. Oh, and by the way, Javabeans can understand Korean language. So, she doesn't need to wait for the subbed video. :-)

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Oh I see haha thanks for the info by the way!

And thank you Javabeans for the recap :-)

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Gabdongi has been subbed and the subs have been uploaded relatively quick like araound 12hrs from the broadcast. You can check various sites such as kdrama dramafire dramafans etc.

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Thank you for your reply! I still haven't found the eng-subbed video though I guess I'll just wait haha :-)

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Hello, kdrama is limited to US, and dramafire and dramafans are not as quick as dramabay. But I've checked dramabay and it's already subbed there.. (fellow engsub hunter LOL)

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Javabeans thanks for the recap. I feel the show has given a very big hint by showing us Poopy is gentleman Choi's room mate.. hmm but isn't he too young to be Gabdong?

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or, maybe poppy is gap-dong's lackey too?

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You guys can find it at drama.net ! It is not restricted to US only as I'm from Asia!

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Maybe you can watch it on gooddrama.net ? I Always watch it there

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Thanks for the recap Javabeans.

I don't know why but I suspect he didn't actually took the 'killing pill'. Maybe he just took a regular one to test Maria and will see his raging comeback next episode.

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yeah, me too...
i had a feeling that it was him testing maria. coz from his last encounter with ji wool at the coffee shop, he texted about trust...

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Yeah, I don't think he dies...or maybe i don't want him to. He's one of the main characters so I'd feel a loss if he dies.

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And there's 11 more episodes of this story that should wrap up now, so he'll probably live.

I'm just reading speedreading recaps now. I can't take giving this show another 11 hours of my precious life.

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i just saw that as well. So many episodes. Better be worth it.

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Thanks for a great recap!

Been enjoying your recaps for sometime now and I seriously enjoy all of them. It helps to understand the fuzzy little parts in dramas and also to catch a missed joke.

On to the topic of Gap-Dong. It seems to be a very refreshing drama and I'm loving it.
Mixed feelings about Tae-Oh's predicament. It's nice to see him feeling so helpless, but its kind of pitiful in a way.

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Lee Joon's acting is srsly GOOD. I think I understand how Ji Wool feels now...should I detest Tae Oh for what he has done or should I pity him? Ughh but his face at the end. I actually felt a pang of sympathy.

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Oh my gosh! He looked sad at the end. Does this mean he actually felt sadness? Was it because he can feel sadness for himself if not for anyone else --narcissism and all? And if he managed to feel sadness (because of rejection or whatever) does that mean he can feel some emotion -- at least emotion for himself? Is there a chance he could've been rehabiliated as a kid? Knowing about Gap-Dong as a child deviant muct've been good...because someone else in the world was like him. But what if he'd been really shown some way out?

I don't mind the fact that he supposedly has no emotions. Lots of folks have no emotions, especially on the extreme end of the spectrum. But if he kills to feel emotions, why does he want to feel emotions? Did he kill simply to imitate his idol n-- someone like himself? He certainly doesn't seem to kill in a rage against women...or because he feels women are the only weak thing he can control.

Thanks for the recap. I still haven't seen the subs yet.

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LOL Ji Wool's mom is hilarious hahaha she's practically clapping in Ryu Tae Oh's face LOL... the scene really cracks me up

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I wish there were more Ma Ji Wool and Ryu Tae Oh's interactions though :-/

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I repeated that part too.. It's funny. At first I thought she was applauding his face (something I might do LOLOLOLOL) but then she said "it's good then, be strong" or something similar.

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It'd have been easy to write off Ryu Tae's character as one dimensional. It is generally unlikely to feel any sympathy towards a killer psychopath after all, so it's difficult to create a character that would give rise to such feelings in the audience. But I'm glad the writer isn't taking the easy way out, and that there is some depth to Ryu Tae's character.

I too have felt a tiny spark of sympathy towards the guy. I think it may be the fact that he doesn't seem to take pleasure in killing itself. If he doesn't enjoy the act, then it's not self-gratifying -one of the main reasons why psychopaths are known to kill. It could be because of feelings of dominance that arise from killing (which doesn't always lead to self-gratification, but rather gives them a purpose, or reason to continue killing). But it's hard to say this is the case here. In his encounters with women, Ryu Tae didn't necessarily act superior to his victims, or act as if he was seeking a way to feel dominant. He doesn't really demonstrate symptoms of god complex, although he certainly is well aware of his intelligence (and *cough* good looks *cough*)

So, if it's not for self-gratification nor dominance (or a mix of both) then why does he continue to kill?

My personal conclusion is that he's doing this out of: 1) a twisted kind of respect towards his hero, Gap Dong (or as a favour); and 2) he has got no other purpose in life. Nothing to lose. Nothing to live for.

Which is why his recent discovery about his feelings towards Maria would overturn everything he's believed himself to be, or more precisely, not to be. At the very least he'd be very confused. This is also why I'm inclined to believe that he did really take the pill that would kill him. I don't want him to die at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

If they do kill him off, I'm not sure if I will continue watching.

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To make his life dependent on someone else' care/love for him? Would he do that really? Or would he just seem to do that? For effect? If he did really really take the pill, it'd be so life and death important to him. ah gee...that existential grasp for life and meaning. Aigoo, i'm feeling so sorry for him.

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The main reason why I think it's possible for him to have taken the pill is so that he'd allow himself to become vulnerable. Without vulnerability, I imagine it'd be extremely difficult for him to get in touch with his humanity, or whatever is left of it. He would need to embrace the emotions that are arising from within in order to become human, and so letting himself be completely vulnerable is the best way to go.

Thing is, psychopaths are extremely adept at detecting vulnerability in others. They hit you when you're down. When choosing their potential victims, their main criteria tend to be the who they perceive as weak, needy, etc. Ultimately it'd be self-destructive for them to become vulnerable themselves.

It's very likely that the whole thing is just staged though, without a drop of sincerity mixed in. As you said, it could be just for effect. He could have easily calculated what Maria's reaction would be, and could have devised some sort of a manipulative plan yet again.

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I think he realized he isn't cut out to be a psycopath and he probably doesn't want to be one..that his god and his ideal of himself from youth was messed up and he wanted to maybe go out on his own terms without totally admitting how pathetic he was.

I'm thinking he either died or will be majorly messed up physically. And being ill will definitely protect him in his trial. I wonder if most of us don't really feel as connected to the search for original Gap Dong as we are to copycat.

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I think Ryu Tae Oh knows himself too well that he would have calculated Oh Maria's reaction. I want to know what his mother and lawyer meant by "next step"; maybe not for him to literally die but acting dead as part of a plan? Aaarrghh.. this show is sure for the clever, it gives me headache.

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Thank you for recapping. I love to read your recaps.
Frankly speaking i dropped gapdong on episode 7. Therefore your recap is my only source to find out what happened next.

Few things that irked me were, how the victims were so easily killed. They were all running in 5 inches heels, therefore they all fell, instead of fighting back with something which is 2-inch away from them(thus leaving DNA evidence) they choose to cry and beg. The murder scenes were silly and improperly orchestrated. Also i couldn't stand ji wools spoiled bratty self. I agree with Maria, her brain really is bad.

Tae-ohms death really didn't have much impact on me. I doubt the show would kill him off so early, but then again if he dies, I'm sure he has cooked up something ahead.

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I had the same problems with the murders, like nobody even got in a single scratch much less tried to fight back.

But of all the characters, I find Ji Wool the most annoying. She is beyond just dumb and totally immature. And apparently her mom is somewhat birdbrained also.

And while I am enjoying the mystery of it, I am not really connecting with any of the characters.

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I know he didn't intend to kill Ji-wool by the time he got her to the boarding house, but she's literally the only girl he took who even had a reaction that wasn't screaming and cringing in fear. The girl put a clue in her webtoon, for goodness' sake! And he let her go even after seeing it. That said, grow up girl! At least she knows to fear him somewhat now and try to avoid him even if he makes her uncertain about his guilt.

And this bratty part of her is getting exhausting because Kim Ji-won can do SO much better (and did) when she had something else to do.

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Omoo TVN has released too much spoiler for ep10. It's gotta be an interesting episode tonight

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Thanks for the recap!

I..... Don't understaaand Ahahahahahahah~
Lol but seriously like, I can't connect emotionally to the characters, so I often don't understand why they do whatever they do.. But I have give up to understand anyway, since i found a few episodes ago that try to analyze characters in this drama made my head hurts. Now I simply enjoying the ride~

It's shocking when Maria goes "lolnope go and die kthxbye" but I can't say I'm not happy at the unexpected.
Doubt Tae oh will die that easily tho. There are 2 pills rite? Maybe the other one is the antidote or something..? Then when he survive, angry at Maria's 'betrayal', he gets even more ruthless and goes to kill her and everyone..............okay now I making up story where a psychopath get even more psycho I think I need sleep..

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I think the doctor part of Maria couldn't be cruel to Tae Oh because he was her patient. So there's the oath to take care of him and the guilt for not having recognized what he was. This is why she put on the darker stronger vixen type persona who can have the luxury of not caringfor or sacrificing herself. IF you understand cruel people and why they hurt you then you can't hurt them back and you end up belittling your own pain. There's a point where one has to psychologically choose not to commiserate with or comfort the oppressor...and by putting on her other persona she could put off the doctor patient relationship.

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Oooh that makes sense I do wonder what's the point of her so called other persona.

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does anyone know what the ratings have been for the last couple of episodes?

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Gahh I love this show! Poopy you more and more suspicious but I still think Gap Dong is a team effort and one or more of the cops are in on this.

And Ji Ul, girl I used to think you were dumb but I see what is really going on. You are slowly becoming psycho oppa's confidant. By acting all "I don't know if I should trust you.." you're making psycho oppa converse with you more and finally you gonna get him right where you want him right? I see you.

Still waiting for Ji Ul and psycho oppa to bake dem temple cookies.

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Dang, I just saw it! I think Tae-oh realized what pain and emotions were and what a loser he was. His suicide was a cry for help and to see if anyone cared for him or the tiny worthless loser that he felt he was. A redemption of sorts...to die knowing your utter lack of worth.

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I fully understand what it's like to not know why you're put on this earth and so to a limited extent, I understand why TaeOh is trying to feel something and if that means killing people, to him, so be it. I just wonder if there was any way it could have been prevented. Therapy when he was a child? I don't know. All I know is that his mom handled it terribly.

Who in the world declares that there's something psychologically, terribly wrong with their child within the child's hearing distance? It just leaves the child scared and feeling like a monster and unwanted, all of which just exacerbates his disconnect from society and instills a heightened sense of survival-by-any-means, even if it means killing others.

And his mom effectively told him to die? Psychopath or not, ouch.

I'm not saying that the mom is completely at fault for TaeOh turning out this way. It's evident that his brain is not wired the same as the rest of us. I'm just saying that there's just a lot of unfortunate mishandling of his situation while he was still a malleable young child.

Now adult Ryu TaeOh is roaming around, smart, good-looking and unhinged - what a scary combination.

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I don't see where the mom is any less psycho than he is. She has apparently known for years that he is a killer, yet she has been protecting him all that time.

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finally!! a website not talking about exo's lawsuit.

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"Because there’s a part of me that wonders, too, if there’s another way to read Tae-oh’s character that I’m missing at the moment. Mostly, I have to attribute that (or blame) the actor for that, (...)"

I feel like a proud Mama bear reading your description of Lee Joon - not another pretty-face idol or idol-turned-actor, but a plain actor. Thank you.

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Thank you for the recap!

I commend Lee Joon for his performance. He is good at acting as menacing, nasty, and fully psychopathic. I thought I was the only one who felt sympathy for him in this episode until I read this recap and the comments here. I know he deserves to be executed; I can't forget/forgive how much he enjoyed hunting down and killing his innocent victims; but still I'm feeling a tiny bit of sympathy for Tae Oh. Like Javabeans said, that makes me feel terrible about myself. Lol.

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I am usually not a fan of terror, but this drama is gripping.

1. Mom needs to be in jail - instead of giving him a death-pill - how about turning him in ...stop paying money to the lawyer for keeping him out of prison ...just my thought.

2. JW needs to grow up - after the detectives telling her that she was hanging out with Mr. Fine-but-Crazy - she still confuse??? Hmmmm after Mad Monk expressed his craziness that she was with Mr. Handsome-Nut-Job - she doesn't tell her Mom that he was the person that abducted her??? Hmmmm You thought you were going to die - yes, you did ask him to make your death honorable...and now you are still obsessing over Maria and Mad Monk's relationship...grow up!!!

3. Why did my heart turn towards Mr. Killersmile-Pscho? Was it because of his pscho-mom? Was it because even though I hate the fact that he can kill, I can not support suicide? He is crazy and I wanted him dead, but at the end I was praying for Maria to save him...maybe I am the one who needs to grow up!

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Hi - can you gals tell me where you are watching this one? Neither Dramafever nor Viki seems to be showing it.

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dramacool, gooddrama, tivee

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Thank you! Found it on DramaFire.

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I liked the backstory of Mad Monk finally learning what led to his father's death. But what were the father and son trying to hide from Detective Yang?? Seriously.... I think if they opened up their hearts and revealed the secrets, they might be able to piece the clues up better.

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My understanding of it is that young Mu Yeom thought his Dad had actually killed someone. So he tried to stop his Dad from "incriminating himself" by talking to Detective Yang. His Dad was probably just going to prove his innocence by telling him about the chicken.

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Oh, I would say there mustn't be any mercy shown to
the brutal, if the villain is given empathy, how about the
murdered gals, the innocent ones coming soon to become
the next victims? There might be a list of them, aren't
their lives worth nothing for the sake of mercy given to
the slaughterer ?

Mercy is only given to the ones who are appreciative of
the value of survival on earth, as God has made it very
simple :" Nobody has the rite to take away anybody's life
Psychopath with killing record has entirely distorted the
normal functioning of our societal life, do we need some
more imbalance-minds to move our lives on ?

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the thing is though that in art, as well as in life, we give mercy to those people we know. We weren't shown the victims' lives so we don't know them. We live day in day out with TAe-oh..so we empathize.

In addition, it's pretty much human nature to immediately judge the guilty. When a story is created where we see guilty people up close then we stop thinking of them as monsters and we see that they are like us...and that we are like them.

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He killed innocent n made himself the innocent, gosh ! From gap Dong the psychopaths learn tricks by placing the vulnerable heads on the chopping board while getting themselves off scot free, what kinda logic is that ?

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If there is empathy looking for any loopholes for the killers to get easy hand, why isn't there any concern looking for whatever reasons for the faultless ones to enjoy their privileges to survive?

Shall murderer be pampered with coffin in his hand as a game? Forgiving them pulling the trigger aims at those hurdling in his way of reveling in strangling his preys till the last breath ?

Let the wrong to kill the unwrong, is it what we call white black and black white ?
Ah, if we are human, compassionate and having feelings, showing concern for the misfortunes, we are !
Psychopaths engaged in human-life game never care about gut feeling of quilt nor showing a bit of human instinct, they are cold-blooded animal.

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When one has a psychological pressure, there're many ways sorted out to vent your anger, frustration and depression.
I punch sand bag when unfaithful aura sieges me once a blue moon, releasing tight nerves which are full of bountiful sap.
A mental illness multiple personality can lead to the level of schizophrenia, more seriously can be up to rampaging the street with high tech devices.

Are we waiting for 4 more victims to lie down on the altar of Azrael until then we call it game over, merely to satisfy the delusion of psychopathic hedonic glands ???

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Good Recap! I don't feel bad for TaeOh b/c its a set up. 1) He called her to be a witness b/c he just KNEW she would save him, she didn't act according to plan (Boo-freakin-Hoo) 2) He only took 1 of the mysterious death pills, when last time he tried this it was a whole bottle of something. Hesitation or Calculation? 3) The Hula-Girl? camera could still be filming making him look like a weak,troubled but innocent young man.

Thing that bugged me: Why mention when the monk started coming to the clinic? Whatssoimportantabout1yearagoHuuuuuuuuummmmmm? #dontletitbethmonk

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I like this drama but I'm so so so annoyed by maria and ji wool.. without them I would love this drama :/

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i think this drama is about stupid detectives vs alien-like criminals.... and there are stupid high school girl too...

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I liked JW at first, but her character is getting insufferable and utterly grating. Every time she calls for her Mad Monk, I wanna slap her bratty face.

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