Red Moon Blue Sun: Episodes 19-20

by odilettante

Trying to catch a killer is difficult enough, but trying to catch that killer when there’s little evidence they exist, while also secretly wishing Red Cry would seek vengeance once more before being caught, puts our detectives in a moral quandary. When all other systems fail, is it so wrong to look to a deadly vigilante to fix what’s broken?

 
EPISODES 19-20 RECAP

With urging from the mysterious Red Cry’s messages, Ha-jung throws herself off the bridge, much to everyone’s shock. Later, Ji-heon asks why Woo-kyung didn’t try to stop Ha-jung. Woo-kyung explains that she thought Ha-jung had just gone to use the restroom. She then grew concerned because Ha-jung said she’d been to that coffee shop multiple times before, and if that’s the case, then she would know where the restroom was.

Belatedly, Woo-kyung realizes that it was a signal from Ha-jung, a way to give Woo-kyung a chance to intervene, so that Ha-jung wouldn’t have to die. But Woo-kyung — whether knowingly or not — just let her go to her death.

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She wanted me to hold on to her

Chan-wook has figured out who the sender of Red Cry’s phone is. Well, he’s at least deduced that it’s the man who never faces the post office camera, his face hidden by a large hat, so they don’t really have much to go by. The phone didn’t leave any clues, either, so they still don’t have any leads.

The quirky coroner reveals that Ha-jung died due to the fall, thanks to fractures and internal bleeding. There was no sign of drugs or other interference. Ji-heon wishes they could see what messages Ha-jung received right before she fell, since the secret chat app was open on her phone, but of course the messages had disappeared before the detectives could read them.

Even though all the facts makes it clear Ha-jung took her own life, Ji-heon still isn’t so sure, and goes back to his evidence board to add in Ha-jung’s death to the list of others.

Meanwhile, Woo-kyung goes to pick up Bit-na, gently reassuring the now motherless teenager that if she doesn’t want to leave with Woo-kyung, she can find a family member to stay with the girl. Bit-na begins to cry as she says she never really wanted her mother to die.

Woo-kyung takes the girl to visit her psychiatrist friend, and after the consultation, he tells Woo-kyung that Bit-na feels responsible for her mother’s death, but he’s confident that with further counseling, Bit-na will be able to get over her grief and false sense of responsibility. Woo-kyung still can’t believe that Ha-jung would continue to make her daughter’s life so difficult, but the doctor is more concerned about Woo-kyung.

He asks if she’s still having hallucinations, and she dismisses it as something she dealt with due to stress. She then suspiciously asks if Min-seok wanted him to talk to her so he can turn-around and tattle to Min-seok. The doctor reminds Woo-kyung that even if Min-seok is his friend, he’s first and foremost a professional and keeps his patient’s information private. Sighing, Woo-kyung simply says that she’s fine.

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I didn’t want Mom to die

Chan-wook and Ji-heon think it’s odd that the first website Ha-jung looked at as soon as she got home after being released from police questioning was the horror film site. Looking through her internet history, they determine that her first log-in to the site was fifteen days before Ji-hye died.

Ji-heon goes to the children’s center to ask Bit-na what she knows about the horror site, and Bit-na admits she saw her mother on it a few times. She never asked about it, though, because she didn’t want to engage with her mother more than was necessary.

Bit-na continues to feel guilty that all this happened because she accused her mother of child abuse, but Ji-heon reassures her that her mother didn’t die because of anything Bit-na did.

As he leaves the children’s center, he’s startled to be stopped by Ha-na, who runs up to give him a hug. Her smile is huge, revealing the growth she’s experienced, but Ji-heon looks like a deer in headlights when she hugs him tightly. Cautiously, he gently hugs her back.

He notices Eun-ho sweeping away snow from the path, and asks if he knows Bit-na. Eun-ho says he doesn’t, and as Ji-heon continues to press the issue, Eun-ho insists that he’s never seen the girl before, irritably adding that he doesn’t spend all day spying on everyone.

Ji-heon returns to the police station, where there’s a court order for him to release Ha-na’s DNA results to her father. Ji-heon’s furious and asks Captain Hong to help him find a way to not give out that information, but Captain Hong points out that Ha-na’s father is perfectly in his right to ask for the DNA results, so Ji-heon should release them.

But Ji-heon knows that releasing Ha-na to her father would be the worst possible thing for her, except he doesn’t have any proof. Captain Hong reminds him that they can’t do anything without hard evidence that Ha-na would be abused if she’s returned to her father.

Ji-heon calls Woo-kyung, asking for her help to figure out how to protect Ha-na from her father. Woo-kyung’s annoyed that Ji-heon hasn’t followed through on his promise to find a way to arrest the girl’s father and send him away for life. Until he takes care of the father, she won’t be able to help him with saving Ha-na.

Outside, Ha-na happily plays with other children on the playground. Eun-ho takes his lunch break on a bench nearby, watching them play. Woo-kyung finds him there, and he cheerfully says that it’s wonderful to see how Ha-na has warmed up to the other kids. But his smile fades when Woo-kyung reveals that Ha-na’s deadbeat dad wants her back.

Shrieks from the playground get their attention, but it’s just a dead bird. Ha-na slowly advances and carefully picks the bird up in her hands, then solemnly buries it in the ground. This is not the first time she’s buried a dead body.

During their counseling session, Woo-kyung asks her how she knows what to do with a dead creature, and Ha-na simply says she just knows. When Woo-kyung brings up Ha-na’s father, Ha-na stops playing and tells Woo-kyung that she doesn’t have a father. That reminds Woo-kyung of the way Ha-na echoed the threat that if she said anything, her neck would be wrung.

Meanwhile, Ha-na’s father has cleaned himself up and also made his property more presentable to the child protective services representatives, who are there to confirm that Ha-na will have a decent home life. He proudly shows off the room he’s decorated and filled with cute furniture and toys.

Reassured, they leave with confidence that Ha-na’s father seems to be prepared to have Ha-na live with him. But his pleasant smile fades as their car drives away.

The detectives are still baffled by Ha-jung’s interest in the horror site, and despite the fact that there’s no history of interaction with anyone on the site, Ji-heon’s convinced Ha-jung used it to communicate with Red Cry.

Digging through the evidence boxes, he pulls out Doctor Park’s laptop for Chan-wook to look through. They discover Doctor Park was a member of the horror site, which confirms that the site must mean something.

Ha-na’s father calls Ji-heon to brag that he’s hired a fancy lawyer to take care of his legal rights to Ha-na, and that Ha-na will be living with him soon. He gleefully asks how he can thank Ji-heon for proving so clearly beyond a doubt that Ha-na is his daughter.

Furious, Ji-heon throws things around in the command center, much to Chan-wook and Soo-young’s shock. Ji-heon wonders where Red Cry is — not to catch him, but why Red Cry isn’t stepping in to take down Ha-na’s father. He orders his team to get a search-and-seizure warrant for the horror website sysadmin, while he goes to meet with Woo-kyung to see what he can do for Ha-na.

Sadly, Woo-kyung reveals that she believes Ha-na’s father is acting like this — like he’s the perfect parent, delighted to be reunited with his daughter — because he wants to make sure Ha-na doesn’t reveal a terrible secret. If they can delay Ha-na’s return, they might be able to figure out what that secret is and save Ha-na.

Woo-kyung goes to her boss, requesting that he make a statement that Ha-na was abused and should not be sent back to her father. But her boss is more concerned about the center making money than actually taking care of kids. Slyly, Woo-kyung points out that Shi-wan told her that his counseling, which was court-ordered as a disciplinary action, was finished early because his father — who has donated a lot of money to the center — specifically requested it of the director.

Shifting uneasily in his seat, Woo-kyung’s boss asks if she’s trying to threaten him. Woo-kyung simply says that she’s willing to make an official complaint if anything happens to Ha-na. She flips over her phone, revealing she’s been recording their conversation.

If Ha-na is harmed, Woo-kyung will testify that it was the director’s fault because he didn’t listen to her professional opinion. That kind of scandal would further destroy the center’s reputation, so he gives in and officially agrees that Ha-na was a victim of child abuse and shouldn’t be returned to her father.

That decision infuriates Ha-na’s father, who accuses his high-priced lawyer of not being able to fix the problem. But the lawyer says it’ll take at least a month to file an injunction to convince the courts otherwise. That’s not what Ha-na’s father wants to hear, and he goes to the center’s director himself to make his case.

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I’m blackmailing you for your own good

The center director points out that they’re just looking out for the child’s best interest, even when Ha-na’s father dangles the offer of money. The director maintains his “we’re doing this for the children” demeanor, despite his obvious greed, and reaches a compromise. Ha-na can go home with her father, but she has to attend regular consultations with Dr. Yoon, Woo-kyung’s psychologist friend.

The detectives arrive at the horror site sysadmin’s dump of an apartment and confiscate the server. But after investigating it, Chan-wook doesn’t find anything particularly strange about the website — it doesn’t look like it was even hacked. However, a joke gift starts Ji-heon thinking, and he realizes that a container can disguise the true contents, and orders his team to look deeper into the website for something unexpected.

Ha-na meets with Dr. Yoon, and when she shows interest in a music box, he turns it on and plays it for her. She stares at the ballerina, mesmerized as it slowly spins around while the music plays.

After the counseling session, Woo-kyung meets with him to get his opinion. He believes that Ha-na is a difficult case, and that she must have been put under a strong hypnotic suggestion. Woo-kyung’s determined to have Dr. Yoon help her find out what Ha-na’s father did to Ha-na, but Dr. Yoon reminds Woo-kyung that their first concern is for Ha-na’s emotional well-being.

Dr. Yoon gently tells Woo-kyung that her determination to get Ha-na to talk about what happened is not beneficial, and suggests that Woo-kyung is too close to this case, especially now that Ha-na is no longer her patient.

Captain Hong gives Ji-heon a GPS-enabled wristwatch for Ha-na, where at the push of the button alarms will go off and the police will be immediately dispatched to wherever she is. Ji-heon argues that the watch isn’t enough to save her, but Captain Hong points out that just because they’re police officers, doesn’t mean they’re heroes. They can’t save everyone — they can only provide tools so that there might be fewer crimes.

In her last session with Ha-na, Woo-kyung makes sure the girl memorizes her phone number in case she needs to call Woo-kyung in an emergency. Ji-heon waits outside, watching Ha-na’s father arrive to pick up his daughter. Eun-ho, signing off some documents in the maintenance room, notices the men via the security cameras.

Ha-na’s father is annoyed to hear that police will be making random checks on him and Ha-na, and that Ji-heon will also be following up with his own phone calls to make sure Ha-na is okay. But there’s still nothing to prevent Ha-na from being delivered to her father. Ji-heon gives her the watch, telling her press the button if she’s ever scared, worried, or just wants to talk, and he’ll come running.

Neither Woo-kyung or Ji-heon look pleased to see Ha-na being escorted away by her father, but there’s nothing they can do about it. Eun-ho suddenly runs out of the building and gives Ha-na a lollipop as a going away present. The three of them watch helplessly as Ha-na, no longer smiling, being driven away in her father’s truck.

On the drive home, Ha-na’s father reminds her that he was the one who threatened to wring her neck if she said a word. He’s pleased by her curt, terrified answer, since it means that she hasn’t told the police anything.

Woo-kyung goes to pick up Eun-seo from Mom’s, and Mom asks if she hates the fact that Min-seok took Eun-seo away on a trip. Woo-kyung admits she wants Eun-seo to hate her father and his new girlfriend, but she’s accepted the fact that Eun-seo enjoys being with them.

Cautiously, Woo-kyung tells Mom that she looked into her birth mother’s family, discovering that her grandmother died years ago and that there’s no one left to ask about her childhood. Mom is at first irritated that Woo-kyung is doing this all because of her hallucinations, but is relieved when Woo-kyung says that she’s giving up her search for answers about the little girl in the green dress. Woo-kyung says that she’ll focus on Eun-seo now, so there’s no reason to tell Min-seok anything that would make him worry.

In her room, Ha-na is stiff as a board, pretending to sleep in her new bed as her father comes in to turn off the light. Her drunken father also rips off her watch, telling her she shouldn’t wear it at night, then puts it in his pocket and leaves. Quietly, Ha-na gets out of bed and locks the door.

She crouches next to it, reciting Woo-kyung’s phone number over and over. She eventually falls asleep, curled up against the door, but the sound of a ruckus outside and a dog barking wakes her up.

Meanwhile, Woo-kyung sits with her sleeping daughter, and notices the little girl in the green dress standing across the room, staring plaintively at her. Woo-kyung tells the little girl that it’s pointless — she’s not going to see the little girl anymore.

Her phone buzzes with a message, inviting her to join a website, courtesy of Ha-jung.

Chan-wook discovers some funky code in the horror film website, and realizes that at a set time, a hacking code takes over. You can log-in at that time, but you need the correct code. Woo-kyung clicks on the link to the website, which brings up the same screen that Chan-wook has found on the horror film site.

But she’s distracted from going further with the site when she suddenly gets a call from Ha-na, tearfully repeating Woo-kyung’s name. But the call is cut off when a mysterious hooded person grabs the phone from Ha-na and unplugs it.

Worried, Woo-kyung gets into her car and heads to Ha-na, calling Ji-heon on the way. The detectives also race to the dog farm. Ji-heon also gets a notification that Ha-na’s pressed the alert button on her watch — or at least someone has pressed the alert button.

Woo-kyung arrives at the dog farm first, but there’s no sign of anyone in the house. She heads to the barn, where Ha-na’s father does his butchering. Shining her flashlight around, she sees flesh blood dripping from tools on the table. She starts to scream for Ha-na, but someone grabs her from behind, covering her mouth with chloroform-soaked rag.

The mysterious hooded man drags the unconscious Woo-kyung out of the barn, flipping on the light switch as he does so. With the lights on, it’s revealed that a body is tied above the butcher’s table — not Ha-na’s, thankfully — but her father’s. Carved in his back are lines of poetry: “Everybody consumes crimes, but feigns innocence. Living like a dog. Save a person.”

 
COMMENTS

Ohhhhhh, Red Cry is getting more bold. Or maybe we’re just getting closer to Red Cry’s orbit. At least we can be reassured that Red Cry has taken care of Ha-na’s truly awful father when the legal and justice system weren’t able to do anything about it. Which continues to give credence to this vigilante — even Ji-heon at one point wanted Red Cry to step in and save Ha-na. While we might not agree on the methods, Red Cry is providing a service for kids whose lives would be irreparably ruined by their abusive parents. Except… murder can’t be the only answer, can it? But what else can you do when the system allows parents to abuse their children without punishment?

I’m assuming Red Cry is our mysterious hooded man — since that was also the figure that set the fire in the car, and was at the other end of the horror site chat room when Ha-jung was desperate to make sure nothing would happen to her (little did she know how the tables would turn). From the glimpses we get of the hooded figure, I’m still convinced it has to be Eun-ho — the build seems to fit his height and weight. Plus, he knows so much! He knew that Ha-na was going to her father’s, and he could have overheard Ji-heon explain about the watch (since I’m assuming he was the one who pressed the alarm button after unplugging the phone, alerting the police to come to save Ha-na — but only after he finished his body carving). Despite what he told Ji-heon, Eun-ho knew Woo-kyung took Bit-na to the counseling center. Knowing how lax the director is with his master key log-in, Eun-ho could have seen Woo-kyung’s notes about Bit-na’s injuries. Everything continues to point to Eun-ho — the sweet, quiet boy who just wants to see children’s smiles return — being Red Cry. So why am I still somewhat reluctant to believe it?

As infuriating as it must be to realize the limitations of your job, I’m pleased that Ji-heon doesn’t give up. I can’t fault Captain Hong for essentially shrugging his shoulders and being like, “We’ve done all we could.” You can’t save everyone. It sucks, but it’s true. It does make me a little nervous that not of all our main cast will make it to the end. Even though Woo-kyung keeps saying that she refuses to engage with the little girl in the green dress, I can’t believe that she’ll ignore the little girl forever. Woo-kyung’s obsessions may mean she neglects her family, but she’s also been saving other children’s lives because of it. Although I’m not so sure that’s a trade Red Cry would approve of — what would he say if he knew that Eun-seo was being neglected by her mother, even if other children were benefiting from it? Is there a cost-analysis Red Cry goes through to determine if someone’s neglect is worthy of fatal punishment or can escape with a slap on a wrist, or is it totally black-and-white?

And what if that person has been abused themselves? Because I feel like the small hints we keep getting about Woo-kyung’s mysterious childhood — especially the fact that everyone seems hellbent on making sure she doesn’t find out what happened — means that she’s gone through some serious trauma. Was her mother’s death an accident? Or was she a perpetrator who became a victim due to someone not approving of how she treated her children? Has Red Cry always been around, in some form or another, like a secret society, or did he spring up only recently? Ji-hye might have been the most visible perpetrator of child abuse, but she certainly wasn’t the first (even if she was the first for our story). Now I can’t help but wonder how long Red Cry has been quietly acting behind the scenes, curating secret chat rooms and convincing terrified and/or abused mothers that the only solution to their problems is to kill — or be killed.

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