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Liar Game: Episode 11

It’s nothing but the best for this penultimate episode, which delivers thrills and some legitimately frightening chills as our villain drops poisonous breadcrumbs to help our hero navigate through the repressed memories of his childhood, all while the competition rages on. Despite the huge palette of cash there to remind everyone what’s at stake, this show—which was once all about money and the corroding effect of greed—has managed to make that pile of dollar bills look like little more than a highly flammable afterthought. There’s much more than money at stake now. Or was it always that way?

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EPISODE 11: “Final Round I”

Woo-jin doesn’t get any more answers from Do-young, who hangs up moments after dropping the bomb about his mother. That’s when Da-jung comes out of the cafe to ask, “It’s not true, right? It’s a lie, isn’t it? You didn’t do that to my father… right?”

Her tone is heartbroken, pleading, but Woo-jin turns back to her and answers that it’s all true. He wants to stop her as she walks past him, but his hand only grazes her sleeve. Aw.

At least he keeps an eye on her after, if only from a distance.

Meanwhile, Dad watches the same broadcast as his daughter in horror, and runs to make a phone call once it ends. But a mysterious hand plucks the phone away and hangs it up for him. Uh oh.

Director Jang pulls some strings to meet with the chairman of Lloyd Capital (cameo by Ahn Suk-hwan), a conglomerate with a vested interest in jvN’s future.

He claims that he’ll be able to sway waning public opinion in their favor if Da-jung wins, or if Woo-jin wins and gives his money to Da-jung as he promised. Both of these outcomes have the chairman in fits—does he know why Woo-jin went to jail in the first place?

It wasn’t in his quest for revenge like he’d like everyone to believe, the chairman says. He shows Director Jang video testimony from others who claim that Woo-jin convinced them to invest in L Company before he took it down, which means he likely convinced Da-jung’s father too.

That’s all the chairman needs to prove that Woo-jin was in this with Do-young from the beginning and not by some strange happenstance. Either way, he wants Do-young to win, since he owes Lloyd Capital a lot of money.

All Director Jang wants is for Lloyd Capital to acquire the station, which they plan to do as long as ratings stay high. As to that, the chairman has a suggestion: What about a last episode surprise that’ll send ratings soaring? Something like, say, Da-jung betraying Woo-jin at a pivotal moment?

He claims he could care less about whatever past Do-young and Woo-jin have, and sends Director Jang on his way. Only then does he turn to a mysterious figure in a high-backed chair who’s been present the entire meeting as he asks what should be done about jvN’s stocks.

A deep voice rumbles from the chair, “Once the fireworks are over, all that’s left is smoke and garbage.” Then the chair turns…

…And it’s Do-young. Ah, so he’s even higher than the chairman of Lloyd Capital? As for the stocks, Do-young instructs the chairman (is he even the chairman?) to sell their jvN stocks when they skyrocket in the final episode.

In her next meeting with Woo-jin, Reporter Gu notes how similar the logos for Lloyd Company and L Company are, before asking Woo-jin what Do-young meant about him seeing the “true face” of his angelic mother.

She wants to see the USB dossier Sung-joon gave Woo-jin too, but he seems reticent to hand it over. “Why, do you suspect me now?” she asks. (Does he?)

Da-jung has a brief confrontation with PD Lee to ask about her father’s whereabouts, even though Lee claims to have tried to find him after the broadcast only to turn up empty-handed.

That doesn’t matter to Da-jung, since she’s sure she can find him anyway. PD Lee seems to genuinely feel bad about all this and apologizes to Da-jung, who answers back tersely, “Don’t say what you don’t mean.”

Even Jaime seems to be trying to cheer Da-jung up about Woo-jin, but Da-jung’s not being blind about why Woo-jin might not have wanted to tell her sooner. She specifically remembers when she told him that she would never forgive the person who caused her father to go into debt, and that he probably felt too ashamed to say anything.

Dal-goo pounces on the opportunity to try and mend the bridge between Da-jung and Woo-jin by claiming that he probably had no idea who he would hurt when he took L Company down.

“It’s not his fault,” Da-jung agrees, though her deadened expression may suggest otherwise. Her teammates are relieved—does this mean they’ll share the prize money as planned if Woo-jin wins?

Things are still icy when Woo-jin joins them, even though they’ve got to get their heads back into the game. The finals will be recorded live, and whatever reinstatement game they’ll be playing has been described as a Russian roulette sort of deal.

Since there’s been no word from Sung-joon, the reinstatement game begins without him, setting Do-young, Actor Gu, and Bulldog up in a game of poker with only seventeen cards. Sixteen of those cards will be made up of face cards, while the last will be a joker card.

They’ll each have thirty chips to play with worth ten thousand dollars a piece, bringing up their individual totals to three thousand dollars. They’ll follow the general rules of poker in being dealt five cards a piece, and pairs are ideal. Four of a kind is the best hand to get, of course, but I’d assume you’d lose if you had, say, four jacks and your opponent managed to get four aces. (I know nothing about poker, so forgive me if I’m off on any of this.)

As a special Liar Game twist, you can now exchange bad cards using chips—so for the low low price of ten thousand dollars, a player can get a new card. Also, the joker card is a wild card in this game, meaning that a player can make it into whatever card they’d like it to be. Whoever has the most money after five rounds will be reinstated as a contestant for the final game of the show.

From the sidelines, Woo-jin comments that the game isn’t at all like poker because of the seventeen face cards. The probability of getting a pair is much higher than in regular poker, which means that the joker card will be the deciding factor in who wins.

“But that might not be all,” he adds. Of course not. It wouldn’t be Liar Game if it was.

The players take a break after the first round, which has Bulldog in the lead. Do-young is the only one who stays at the table as cool as a cucumber, smiling as he shoots Woo-jin a text. Woo-jin’s eyes go wide when he reads it.

He shows the text to Dal-goo outside of Da-jung’s father tied to a chair. The text reads that he’s at “the place where you let go of your mother’s hand” and goes off to save Dad. “Alone?!” Dal-goo balks. “I’ll go with you!”

“No,” Woo-jin orders. “If I don’t come back, help Da-jung win.” I echo Dal-goo’s sentiment when he tells Woo-jin that he’ll kill him if he doesn’t come back. He better come back!

Bulldog has a fun time imitating Woo-jin’s famous “I have a way to win” line when he pulls Actor Gu aside before the next round, claiming that he can actually see the joker when the cards are shuffled.

When it comes time to play the next round, Bulldog does as he said he would by trading chips for cards until he gets the joker. Actor Gu just follows his lead, while Do-young watches the two of them keenly. The moment he smiles, we know he’s figured out their ploy.

Thank goodness Woo-jin’s employing the help of old friend Detective Cha when it comes to saving Da-jung’s father. Strangely enough, Detective Cha doesn’t need an explanation when he’s told to take them to the place “where mother died,” meaning that he already knows where it is. Was he an orphan too?

Do-young can’t stop grinning to himself as he watches his opponents play, but it’s only after Actor Gu is eliminated that he calls for a change in the shuffling method so that Bulldog can’t cheat—after all, he knows about Bulldog’s past as a boxer and about his exceptional eyesight.

He gets Bulldog all riled up when he mentions that he lost his title because he fixed a game, and succeeds in getting the cards shuffled differently for the next round. He even asks that the cards be shuffled twice.

Bulldog can still predict where the joker is in the deck and thinks he’s got this one in the bag, even going so far as to laugh at Do-young for exchanging four of his cards for forty thousand dollars in chips (leaving him with only forty thousand left). He happily turns over his three of a kind…

…Only for Do-young to turn over the highest hand possible: four aces. Similarly, he turns over four of a kind in the next round, too. Ruh roh. Do-young’s found a way to count the cards, hasn’t he?

Woo-jin and Detective Cha arrive at the building where Da-jung’s father is being held to find it under construction. They enter anyway, but Detective Cha gets decommissioned by a shady guy with a two-by-four. Woo-jin takes his gun and continues on.

Do-young keeps getting four of a kind, and instead of calling him out for possibly cheating, Bulldog takes Do-young’s challenge to go all in. What could possibly go wrong?

Instead of finding Dad tied up in one of the rooms, Woo-jin finds a dummy with a mask and a painting of three pairs of feet and a hole in the ground that looks oddly familiar… Wait! It’s the same painting he noticed above Do-young’s mantle the time he visited his house.

The image stirs other memories in Woo-jin, which play in a The Ring-like sequence of broken video feeds, flashing from the well at the orphanage to Da-jung saying “It feels familiar here” when they had their talk outside the dilapidated building.

Whatever breakthrough Woo-jin is on the cusp of sends him stumbling backward. Everything is starting to come together: Lloyd Capital and L Company having similar logos, the apartment with shredded papers from L Company Woo-jin “found,” the hole in the ground…

Woo-jin is suddenly faced with the three pairs of feet from the painting, like he’s been inserted into a freakish rendition of his own memory. In the room are three children, two boys and one girl, all facing away from the hole in the ground.

Flash back to a memory of the three children holding hands facing away from each other as they perched on the edge of the well. “It hurts,” the little girl had cried.

It seems like the game was some sort of dare, because when one of the kids had to go early, he’d told the two others, “It’s not over. Let’s do it again.”

Back in the room, the three children that had been facing away from Woo-jin are now facing toward him. (SO. FRIGHTENING.) The sound of eerie whispers turn to screams in Woo-jin’s head as he reels away from their glassy, piercing eyes, and drops the picture in the process.

The glass shatters, as does the terrifying illusion. Detective Cha comes in to find Woo-jin clasping his head between his hands as he whispers, “The well… The three of us… were there…”

After returning Detective Cha’s gun, Woo-jin seems to regain his wits as he heads for the door: “I have to end it.”

Do-young keeps getting four of a kind until he wins the reinstatement game. Only afterward does he explain his method to the two losers at the table, because while Bulldog was so focused on getting the joker card, Do-young was watching all the cards.

Because a new deck was used each game to prevent cheating, Do-young knew the cards would be in the exact same order each time they were shuffled. He proves this by naming each card he pulls—without looking—after a new deck is shuffled. I seriously keep expecting Bulldog to cough up a card. (Mind freak!)

Of course, Do-young’s explanations don’t change the fact that he won, while Actor Gu and Bulldog lost. Dal-goo starts to sweat a little that they’ll be facing Do-young in the final round, even though they’ll be facing him as a team.

Woo-jin returns to the station without Dad and asks Do-young where he is. When Do-young won’t tell him, Woo-jin asks, “Is a person’s life a joke to you?” Do-young: “I’m not joking.” He knows it won’t be easy going up against the four of them, but claims he might be inclined to give a hint if he finds himself cornered. Is he blackmailing Woo-jin right now?

Da-jung doesn’t know why Woo-jin was gone for most of the game, but pokes her head into the hallway moments before Do-young says, “I just want the three of us to play. Like we used to do.”

Time for the final round, aptly titled Last Man Standing. The game they’ll play is a very non-figurative version of Russian roulette, only the guns made to LOOK incredibly real are certified fakes filled with blanks. Again, what could possibly go wrong?

Each contestant is given a revolver capable of holding five blank bullets. When it’s their turn, each contestant must press a button as to whether they’ll choose to shoot at someone, add a bullet to their gun, or dodge the next shot fired at them.

It’s really unsettling to watch Director Jang demonstrating the rules as he aims for Do-young first, doesn’t fire, and then aims for Woo-jin. The gun goes off, and according to the rules, a contestant gets to keep firing after a successful shot until their gun misfires, which can happen unless they have five bullets in the cylinder.

If the contestant being shot at chose to dodge, they can not only avoid being shot, but can choose to send that shot to the next contestant. Similarly, if that contestant chose to dodge, they can send it to the next contestant, and so forth.

Each player has five hearts and only three chances to dodge a bullet. Each shot depletes one heart, and whoever loses all their hearts is eliminated—but, their gun will go to the last person who shot them, giving them an advantage in the game.

Do-young’s number comes up first, and he presses the “load” button so he can add a bullet to his gun’s cylinder, bringing his count to two. He chooses not to shoot Woo-jin until his odds are better, but Dal-goo takes his chances and fires at Do-young.

Nothing happens. Da-jung takes the same chance and gets the same result, even if she looks like a part of her soul just died at having to point a gun at someone. Jaime takes her turn to load, as does Woo-jin. He announces his tactic for his team to save their bullets and shoot all at once, on his signal.

Do-young just laughs, since he can just choose to dodge when they all shoot at him. Woo-jin attempts to trip him up by saying that they’ll shoot the next round, because he knows they have to do everything in their power to prevent Do-young from loading five bullets.

The problem is that they’re not allowed to talk amongst themselves, which means Woo-jin has to say what he wants to the whole room and not just his allies. PD Lee notes that Do-young would’ve been at a disadvantage had the No Talking Rule not been in place.

So it all comes down to strategy in the end, and the traditional Liar Game system of making bluffs and calling them. Woo-jin’s declaration that they’ll shoot doesn’t scare Do-young into dodging, since he chooses to load a fourth bullet into his gun during his next turn anyway.

The others have no way of knowing if he chose to avoid or not, but it doesn’t matter much when Dal-goo’s gun misfires. Da-jung declares her faith in Woo-jin before she fires, and… it’s a hit!

Jaime lands a hit too, bringing Do-young down to three hearts. To their surprise, Woo-jin doesn’t use his next turn to shoot, but to load. He declares again that they’ll all shoot in the next round as well, hoping to cause Do-young to dodge rather than load.

Do-young does just that, but it doesn’t work in Woo-jin’s favor when he’s able to avoid being shot from Dal-goo. He turns the gun back on Dal-goo, resulting in our reformed loan shark losing a heart while Da-jung, Jaime, and Woo-jin choose to load.

Now Woo-jin has a fully-loaded gun with no chance of misfiring unless Do-young chooses to dodge. But Do-young masks his decision while asking Da-jung whether she’s heard from her father, even though she’s not allowed to answer.

“It must be hard,” Do-young croons with fake sincerity. “When you can’t see your parents even when you want to, it’s painful.” A lightbulb goes off over Woo-jin’s head: when Do-young texted him Dad’s picture and said he was at the place where he let go of his mother’s hand, Do-young wasn’t talking about Woo-jin, but himself.

A flashback reveals that Woo-jin and Dal-goo agreed for Dal-goo to be eliminated first, so that he could use the time to look for Dad. Dal-goo does his best to get himself eliminated, but the other contestants have no idea he’s not using a strategy and follow his lead.

Jaime thinks over her options, because if no one shoots they’ll have no way to know if Do-young chose to dodge—but on the other hand, if she shoots and he did dodge, then Dal-goo will be shot.

She takes her chances and successfully fires two shots… but Do-young dodges them. Minus two hearts for Dal-goo, even if that only helps him in his secret quest to get eliminated.

He gets his wish when Do-young successfully fires at him. Even though Do-young getting an extra gun seems like a step back for Team Woo-jin, Woo-jin mouths “the orphanage” to Dal-goo so he’ll know where to look for Dad.

The contestant order gets changed in the next round (the hearts are also reset), so that it starts with Woo-jin rather than ending with him. Of course, Do-young has now doubled his chances since he can load and fire two guns at once, so Woo-jin’s tactic will be to load his gun while the girls force Do-young to use up his opportunities to dodge.

He instructs Da-jung to shoot while Jaime loads, and she fires two shots successfully. (Woot!) Jaime is the next one instructed to shoot, and though both shots are successfully fired, Do-young dodges and she loses two hearts instead.

Woo-jin calculates every possible scenario and decides not to shoot while he doesn’t have the upper hand, and makes the decision to tell the girls to load even though he knows that if Do-young were to shoot Jaime, she’d likely be eliminated.

Do-young grins from ear to ear, knowing exactly what just went through Woo-jin’s head. “You must have thought I wouldn’t make a risky decision. You’re right,” he says, as he aims for Jaime and fires twice. “…If I was my usual self, that is.”

He aims his second gun for Jaime: “Now my chances have gone up to sixty percent. Actually, probability doesn’t mean much to me right now. I can already picture it in my mind. We three… facing each other.” He fires. Jaime is eliminated.

As she passes by her two teammates, she grits through her teeth that she and Dal-goo never had a chance and she doesn’t care that she died. “So you two better destroy that crazy bastard!”

Director Jang declares a small break before they move locations for the next round, before managing to sneak up on Da-jung in the bathroom.

“I’m trying to help you,” he claims, as he shows her the video testimony of the other people Woo-jin supposedly coerced into their financial downfall. “Don’t trust Ha Woo-jin.”

Detective Cha returns to the station to find his fellow officers glued to the live broadcast of Liar Game. He grows suspicious when someone comments that those fake guns sure look like real guns and inspects the one he took back from Woo-jin to find a bullet missing…

…Which means Woo-jin has a real bullet in his gun as Do-young aims for Da-jung, Da-jung aims for him, and he aims for Do-young.

 
COMMENTS

I can honestly say I’ve never been so creeped out by a drama before, even during that phase of ghost-seeing shows that actually tried to be creepy. But that entire sequence surrounding Woo-jin’s patchwork revelation chilled me down to the bone—and not just because children acting strange is a tried and true horror formula at this point (see: the ‘80s on)—but because what happened to those kids was left almost solely to our imaginations.

Of course the show wouldn’t give away one of its best reveals before the finale, but damn it if I didn’t want it to break form and just spill all its secrets already. We’d already been primed for a dark secret tying Woo-jin and Do-young’s fates together since childhood, but what I wasn’t expecting in any way, shape, or form was the reveal that Da-jung had a part in it. At first I was unsure on how to feel about it since she was already tied to Woo-jin through her father and L Company’s downfall, because it’s daunting to think of how heavy a hand Do-young’s had in shaping her current circumstances otherwise.

Depending on what exactly happened to the three of them as children, it’s possible that Do-young was responsible for what happened to Woo-jin’s mother, as well as for setting up what was essentially a front (L Company) in order to distract Woo-jin and orchestrate his downfall. But where it gets murky, and possibly even more diabolical, is whether Do-young accounted for Da-jung’s father to go down with L Company in order to bring her and Woo-jin together so that this exact scenario would happen. That would be insane… but that’s Do-young’s modus operandi, isn’t it?

I can’t wrap my head around what could’ve happened between those three to scar Do-young so deeply though, especially since Woo-jin and Da-jung don’t remember the event. The fact that Da-jung said the orphanage looked familiar was probably meant to be a throwaway line when it was said, which makes the team behind this drama just as devious as the villain they created, even if it’s in the best of ways. Because the introduction of a game changing mystery this late in the game could go one of two ways—we’ll either buy it and clamor for more or call shenanigans—and if nothing else, Liar Game has proven to be a shenanigan-free zone.

Now I’m questioning everything I thought I knew about Da-jung, because while the thought had crossed my mind when the orphanage was brought into play, I’d assumed she was safe from the boys’ childhood drama by virtue of having a father. But did we ever hear about her mother? It seems entirely possible that she was adopted, though I have to give props to the show for not giving us a reason to question that before. That’s how you do a reveal. This is how you do TV.

[I feel like this goes without saying, but just in case: NO SPOILERS PLEASE. Don’t let Do-young be right about us!]

 
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Thank you for the recap! This ep. was quite interesting, though, tbh, I expected KDY to win the Poker 17 game, since I (and many of us, I am sure), assumed or knew that he had to be the last one standing (in the Resurrection Game, so he could face HWJ and NDJ, which he does at the end of the ep.) BD and GIG are still bad actors, and they really can’t make it against KDY, when they are on their own.

And awwww… Puppy CSJ is really dead, then? We won’t see him in ep. 12? @ Shalini, you were right! The painting did show up in ep. 11 again, and that time, with the help of some projections (I am assuming), HWJ regained his memory of that event/moment he has been trying to erase or block from his mind. And it turns out that HWJ, NDJ and KDY knew each other at the orphanage… Shalini, you were right again. B/c of the pix, I already expected HWJ and KDY to have known each other back then, but not NDJ. Up to now, I thought that she was just someone KDY used to lure HWJ into participating in the LG, however as we know, with KDY, there is always more than meet the eyes.

The Russian Roulette game/Gun game was confusing to me, and I was not surprised about that. So now, the next thing will be to find out (in the next ep.) if NDJ will trust HWJ. I loved that Jamie gave it her best, till the very end. I was relieved when NDJ’s dad was not in that room, let’s hope he is not hurt. I also loved that our faith in (and wish from NDJ) came through: she understood that HWJ was not (totally) responsible for her dad’s debt, and she forgave him (quickly, kind of). I did like that HWJ was still uncomfortable for a while, and kept his distance. It shows that he cares about how that might have affected her (the news). Awww… and DG tried to smooth things over between HWJ and NDJ. Does he want them to end up together as well? I am sure he at least wants them to get along.

WOW, Dir. Jang was played to the very end, and he didn’t even know it (not realizing that he went into KDY’s office). And PD Lee continued to be her caring self, so nice to see. The ending, such suspense… And one of them has a real gun (HWJ). And interesting that they mentioned a Season 2 in the drama, LOL.

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@ GB~
I left you a couple of responses on ep.10 recap, FYI.

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Thanks Heads!

Hi Ivoire
Oh goody! Will read soon.

What came to my mind as I read the recaps...
What could not be certain was whether WJ would go looking for DJ's father on his own or not. That he brought Detective Cha and that Cha had a gun was a serendipitous happenstance.

Himself who? - When DY was about to shoot Jamie he says he would have taken the less risky decision if he was his usual self. (My subs did not have this but Heads mentions this) Which begs the question, what is his usual self? Does he have a 'not-usual' self? How many selves might he have? Last episode a few comments noted that he is actually crazy mad. What kind of crazy is it?

The Game - When they were children, one says, "Our game is not over yet. Let's play it again". In the present WJ says "I have to end this (game)" and later DY says "I want the 3 of us to play like we used to do." So there is an unfinished game of childhood which someone (DY?) is taking great lengths to play again

So spooky that a childhood game of 3 children is represented in company logos and in a drawing where no faces are shown and where one child is only a set of footprints. The rest of him, hidden, not visible to us.

I wondered if Sung Joon was eliminated because the 17 card Poker worked better with 3 persons. But it seems that it was only with 2 persons, fresh decks and riffle shuffling that DY could get 4 of a kind every time. So Sung Joon was made to disappear, more out of revenge I guess. Poor Sung Joon.

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@GrowingBeautifully
I also did get DY's comment about not being the self. I did the math and found that DY had a 96% of hitting Jaime. Of course, DY couldn't be completely sure that she didn't press 'dodge' but WJ did tell her and DJ to reload.

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*did not get

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*not being his true self. I need to edit before posting lol!

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Nevermind. My math was wrong and I didn't consider the different combinations within the gun. The chances of DY eliminating Jaime was 48%, which isn't high, but I think it was his best opportunity. If the game went on any longer, WJ would have a come up with a plan to beat him.

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@ united
LOL! Better you do the maths than me. I suck at it and will just frustrate myself.

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@ Ivoire
Good morning! I hope you're have a fantabulous day!
Econ test in less than an hour, then I'm home free! Though my heart is with this show, throughout. xD I actually like that they sort of gave BD and GIG their time to shine. They were still awful actors, but the idea that they could temporarily outwit KDY, or even possess a skill he didn't have (comme BD) was satisfying nevertheless. Too bad they simply fail at covert operation xD

KDY and Jamie are honestly magnificent, and such scene-stealers! especially Jamie who's not even one of the leads yet manages to effortlessly command the screen with her combination of beauty and brains. I love how she was the only one who got HWJ's plan and kept yelling at the others xD and how she rose above money (again!) and said that she didn't care about losing and simply wanted them to "destroy that crazy bastard". HWJ and NDJ's awkwardness continues, though that one moment when she was super happy about shooting KDY and he smiled faintly, was adorable. Things are going to heat up, this final episode!
DG definitely feels the tension between them, like when he hurriedly left before that Dajung-ah (*squeals*) so I'm sure he wanted them to patch things up. And Director Jang, has honestly become my least favourite character in this show, I like KDY far better for some reason, though perhaps it's because of how brilliantly SSR commands the screen (I wonder how he sleeps at night after practicing those faces in the mirror).

And is there anything I do to help you with the game rules? I had replay that a few times to get as well (I was also trying to get this screencap of HWJ's face so it was all good).

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I'd have to disagree with you regarding Jamie being magnificent and a scene-stealer. I felt like she lost a lot of her spark and became bland in this episode. I wanted to see her pull tricks even if it was for trying to win for the good side.

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I feel like that's definitely a result of the 12 ep constraint though. These final episodes were meant to be all about our three leads, but Jamie definitely commandeered the action every second she was on screen, from her attempt to cheer DJ up in her usual brash style (that was super adorable) to each time she shot the gun. I would have loved to see some more tricks as well (some more Liar Game, period) but we'll just have to wait until the second season xD I really hope she's brought back as well! :D

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@ GB and @ Shalini~

I forgot to mention earlier (early this morning), that I had left you some answers/responses on this thread as well: http://www.dramabeans.com/2014/11/will-liar-game-produce-a-season-2/
Please do check when you have the time.

@ Shalini, I was thinking about you this morning, and I was hoping that you were doing well on your test. I DO hope it went well. So now, do you have a break? (Before your semester or quarter is over? Just curious.) Also, I am soooooo very sorry that I didn't get to your questions to me in ep.10, though tbh, I really meant to. I ended up writing quite a bit yesterday on the thread about a possible S2 for LG, and that took a lot of my time (b/c I had to read the comments as well).

I really wanted to respond before this recap was posted, to let you know what my assumptions were, before ep.11. I would still like to do that. Do you want me to do that here or on the ep.10 recap? I think it would still be interesting to find out what we thought might happen before this week's episodes, and how we felt AFTER the episodes aired. I definitely would love to continue discussing the drama with you, as I have many questions (still), and some comments left in me (to write).

And I would definitely LOVE your help WRT the rules of the games (all of them). I think I could kind of understand what happened with the Poker 17, though I would not mind some clarification, to make sure I actually understood. However, WRT The Last Man Standing, as I rewatched the ep. (fully subbed this time), I kept thinking (as I struggled to understand, and writing down question after question, as I watched the ep.), "I will just read the recap, I think Heads will help make sense of it. Oh and yeah, I could ask @ Shalini as well. She pours herself into this drama, and when it comes to the rules of the games, I think she gets it better and faster than I do, so I will have to ask her as well. That and I will also read the other commenters thoughts on the games and their rules [Poker 17 and The Last Man Standing]). So yeah, you and I could go over that, at some point.

As usual, I watched carefully, I paused (so many times) to make sure I read all the subs, I did the 10secs rewind (many times), and I still had more questions, than I had answers for myself. I quickly skimmed over your post (here), @ Shalini, however I will come back to it later. I have been working since 6am (DB time), and I only got a break not too long ago. I am glad there are no more episodes after this week, b/c we can discuss them ad nauseam :-) , and discuss previous episodes as well :-)

I have to go read the recap. So heartwarming (to me) how we often "look for each other," once the recaps are up, to know what we thought, and to continue the conversation (I know I do that). Now all we need is a cup of coffee, or some hot chocolate, (or the beverage of your choice) :-)

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Also, @ Shalini and @ GB~

I had been meaning to get back to ep.9 comments, but never got that far. @ Shalini, I didn't know that you had left me a couple of comments, and I just saw them. I will respond to them (eventually). Is it OK if I let you know when I do? So sorry about that.

@ GB, I remember that you kept telling me that you would go and check ep.9 recap, to see if I had left some comments (new ones). I always felt bad when I read that, b/c I wished I had actually added to my comments there, since I still have them in my notes, and I actually wanted to say more, LOL. Our days should have 36 hrs, instead of 24 (even then, would we have enough time? For dramas? :-) ) So sorry ladies :-( In my defense though, when I did write (ep.10 recap, and other recaps), I wrote a lot. So it's not like I don't comment, right? :-)

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Hi Ivoire
No need to feel bad... just let us know if you manage to add your comments (you can also email me) and I'll check then. :)

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@ GB, Hello~

Thank you for understanding. I think I get attached to these conversations/discussions we are having. It is more so that I am attached to starting a conversation, letting it run its course, and letting it be done, when we don't have any more to say on that topic, character, issue, etc... I feel that the conversations here can a natural arc you know: they start, they have a middle, and when one of the people(s) is done commenting or has no more things to say about it, it's over. That way, you get all your thoughts out, and you can see the conversation naturally come to an end.

I like that, b/c I often go and reread past comments (even of previous/older dramas), and I am usually taken aback by some of the depth displayed in some of the conversations (and I learn so much in the process). And I always think, "WOW! What if this commenter had not taken the time to write their thoughts on that scene, character, etc... I would have missed out, on a different way to look at things, or on realizing something I had not thought about, or did not see in the scene, or sth that was lost in translation." That is why, as much as I possibly can, I like to try and finish my conversations, so I can just have that sense of completion :-) (I hope I made sense).

And I will do as you say, letting you know by email, if necessary :-)

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“ I had left you some answers/responses on this thread as well: http://www.dramabeans.com/2014/11/will-liar-game-produce-a-season-2/
Please do check when you have the time.
Hey Ivoire! I did see your response! I’m currently busy watching EVERYTHING you mentioned and falling deeper and deeper into LSY xD THANK YOU! I was starting to get a little deprived there. My tests are over and I’ve but four days of university in December (two of which being final exams that I’ve already prepped for so woohoo!!) I’m essentially all done. And I’m super sorry that I keep getting to your answers so late! I always look at the wrong recap and get off track when stalking the LSY soompi thread xD
“I really wanted to respond before this recap was posted, to let you know what my assumptions were, before ep.11. I would still like to do that. Do you want me to do that here or on the ep.10 recap?”
That would be great!!! Are you watching Dr. Frost as well? That seems like another one good show we could both get into! :D

And I’m completely free to answer any questions regarding Last Man Standing so roll away :D
“I have to go read the recap. So heartwarming (to me) how we often “look for each other,” once the recaps are up, to know what we thought, and to continue the conversation (I know I do that). Now all we need is a cup of coffee, or some hot chocolate, (or the beverage of your choice) ”
I find it just as heartwarming as well! Feels super nice to have someone you know will get you and this show! *Insert giant hug*
And my email is hyukjaeismine@gmail.com so feel free to email me when you've replied! :D

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Hello @ Shalini~
Thank you so much for your response :-) I am currently trying to email you, however my email account is not connecting to Google :-( So I have to wait. I did send you a test email, with just my name, and the title of the message is "Liar Game and LSY." I will email you as soon as my email account can connect to Google. Fingers crossed that it will be soon...

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I am going crazy for this drama series and I hate that it has to end. PETITION FOR SEASON TWO.
Bring back Nam Da Jung, Jamie, Jo Dal Goo, Kang Do Young, etc. all the PDs the Meanie Director.
I am still hungry for mooooooreeeee. Smart thrills. So much win,

Most of all, bring back, Ha Woo Jin, our vicious loyal dog, who's really still a puppy that I wanna get in pocket size and keep forever.

Note:

It literally broke my heart when HWJ tried to get a hold of Da-jung's wrist. I know there's gonna be no loveline, but oh my OTP.
Nevermind, we still have Jae-Rim Ollah appa.

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I'll sign the petition too

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That scene broke my heart too. I literally gasped. We rarely get to see HWJ showing some vulnerability or desire to touch someone.

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Finally, the recap is here!

I've watched the finale so I won't spoil it. All I gonna say is that this is THE GREATEST KDRAMA OF ALL TIME BAR CITY HUNTER. ok mb third best after Pinocchio finishes, but for now, a definite second.

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"They’ll each have thirty chips to play with worth ten thousand dollars a piece, bringing up their individual totals to three thousand dollars.

Lol 30 x 10,000 = $300,000 not $3,000

You might want to change that.

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If you choose to Load and then shoot in that same turn, if a blank doesn't come out, do you have to take out all the blanks in your gun? If not, what's the point of loading and not shooting in your turn?

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You can't choose to load and shoot. You can only pick either one.

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Also, the point of loading and not shooting is that as you fill up the gun with bullets the chances of the gun actually firing (rather than pulling the trigger on an empty chamber) go up. So if you choose to load four times in a row, eventually you have a gun full of bullets and you're guaranteed to hit somebody, instead of just having the 20% chance you started with. By the way, all the bullets the show gave them were blanks—so either a blank comes out or nothing comes out, i.e. the gun doesn't go off at all.

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At first they only have one blank in the gun, so they choose to load so that their odds of a successful shot goes up.

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Thanks for the recap.

Frankly I thought they made the execution of the 2 games boring, 17 poker was my favorite game from round 4 of Season 2 because it was thrilling and intense in the dorama, and not so much here.

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The poker game was pretty boring for me too. The Last Standing Man was better even though still possibly the weakest after the poker game because we all knew who would be the 3 winners.

I did love the mind games but I have to say this whole show now feels very overrated to me. The suspense music was so cheesy in ep 11 I was laughing instead of caught up in the story. The acting bothers me too, not SSR of course, he is pretty great but for NDJ she has a kind of one note character and the actress could not do anything beyond what was written. I don't blame her. The one really puzzles me is the Ha Woo Jin character, this actor shows nothing but a vague brooding expression and everyone here seems to love it.
Ok, don't get mad at me, it is just an opinion. :)
Wait, I forgot Jamie! I did like her very much, I remember that actress from White Christmas and she seems very good, I hope she gets more roles after this.

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card games are always boring to me. it s just such a childish abiding by some nonsense rules someone once made up

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They're also boring to me but the way it was played in the JPN version made it very exciting and even toe-curling.

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"The one really puzzles me is the Ha Woo Jin character, this actor shows nothing but a vague brooding expression and everyone here seems to love it."

MTE. The character is interesting but the acting is really bland same with the actress, she wasn't given a lot to work with and if it wasn't for SSR and Do Young, I wouldn't have finished this drama.

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human version of grumpy cat. somebody make a gif!

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I agree with you on the characters. Liar Game was always about the games and not the characters. I personally came to like it because of these games that require deception and wits. Both the j-drama and kdrama are like the manga and have 1 dimensional characters. The kdrama seems to have given DJ a little more personality while it took out some from HWJ.

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Hi Lixie!
The vague brooding expression is kinda hard to project; and if it's done wrong, it just makes you look uninterested. An example is what we saw on the lead's face in last year's most famous drauma! Lee Sang Yoon did a great job here projecting his character's outlook toward people and life :)

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"A lightbulb goes off over Woo-jin’s head: when Do-young texted him Dad’s picture and said he was at the place where he let go of his mother’s hand, Do-young wasn’t talking about Woo-jin, but himself."

Does that mean that Doyoung was the one who was holding HWJ's mum's hand before her death? If Doyoung hated her, why was he crying doing that scene? And why did he look like HWJ with the glasses and hair?

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No it was hwj holding his mom's hand. Do young told hwj that he hid dj's dad at the place where his mom let go of his hand. So hwj thought he was talking about his mom letting go of his hand on that rooftop. However, DY was actually talking about himself; how wj's mom let go of his hand when she let him go to the states with the philanthropist. He thought of her as his mom too.

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It's here!!! Woohoo!! I am honetly so deeply in love with this show, it hurts to say goodbye, even if for a little while!
The painting returns in full force as our beautiful vicious dog is subject to a serious blast from the past. And KDY has a whacked sense of humour (though I think we all new it, I swear it gets worse here). That doll tied up with that painting, and those eerie voices and children *shudders* no way did I sleep after watching that. I love NDJ. It's as simple as that, the way she forgave HWJ so quickly and continued to have faith is him just gives me the fuzzies and HWJ's attempt to hold her was the cutest thing ever (though the man is far too strong and silent for his own good, at times). I've honestly written so much about these two and this show, it feels like I know them personally or something (well except for KDY, no one loves you).
Thank you so much to everyone who's read my thoughts (and fangirling) on Liar game (and HWJ) so far! I love being able to just go on and on about the deft skill with which this show is executed and how much I adore the characters and it makes my day when others enjoy reading that xD.
Extended thoughts: https://anunstoppablesun.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/liar-game-episode-11-a-matter-of-trust/

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well except for KDY, no one loves you
Me! Me! I'm here! I adore him!

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Shalini,

I LOVE Ha Woo Jin and Nam Da Jung too! I'm glad that the writers are giving little hints here and there about a possible romance. I heard that KSE said in an interview that she would like a love scene between NDJ and HWJ in the next season (if there is one); and LSY seemed to agree with it :) I hope it comes true! SSR did a great job too but like you said, KDY is not someone I can love. I feel pity/sympathy; that's all.

(Btw, I wasn't able to find the interview video. If you come across it, could you please post it? Thank you).

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I just saw that you have a link to the video on your blog. Thank you!

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I thought the scene with Da Jung struggling to shoot the gun was hilarious in light of how well Kim So Eun shoots in real life ;)

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Oh yes! I kinda forgot that. She beat hubby SJR hands down at the shooting range.

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Hellyeah she's so cute and I was like really? Come on gurl you can do better than that!!

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I also let out a chuckle seeing da-jung hold that gun all meek-like only just after seeing kim so-eun firing the gun like a badass at a shooting range just a few weeks before. reel vs. reality. Oh the stark contrast.

http://i.imgur.com/vB5OUIN.gif

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LOL dang I never knew that. Thx for sharing the gif. xDDDD

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I seriously feared Dal Goo and Jaime would actually be shot. havent watced the finale yet but I think Da Jung will stick to her trust towards Woo

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*Woo Jin.

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Was i right or was I right? HWJ was part ofor the experiment. Actually I don't know if I was right my downloads keep getting interrupted, I've only managed to watch part 1of 4 of this episode. Damn you Internet connection *screams while pulling hair out*

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So sad, cannot reply... it will be a spoiler.

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Awww, thanks.hopefully tomorrow the connection will be better.

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Welp, that seals it for me. Bulldog and actor are not smart. The moment I heard "a new deck will be changed each round" and when DoYoung asked for the shuffle to be changed to the "Hindu/Riffle shuffle", I expected those four-of-a-kinds to appear. When he asked to shuffle them TWICE, it was my confirmation... Is that why he tried to off Sung Joon? Because he's (probably) waaaaaay smarter than those two and was a possible stumbling block in his plans? Cruel, Do Young, sly.

I was smirking when I saw the "Last Man Standing" game. Kim SoEun must have thoroughly enjoyed shooting that gun what with her love of shooting...*smirk*

Also, I think I must be a pervert or something, because I adore DoYoung. I must be sick!

But this show is superbly well done. The original didn't have the back-story (right? I'm not sure because I've never read the manga or watched the J-Drama) but I love that there is one here, and it's the running focus! *squeals!*

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The j-drama did explain who was behind Liar Game, but the manga, which hasn't finished yet, didn't explain it yet.

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Given how things have turned out in ep 11, I also think Da Jung will definitely end up siding with Woojin. She doesn't trust the production crew, we've seen that with Lee PD, so for sure she'll choose Woojin over the director's words.

But the new piece of info about the linked past of the 3 characters is really fishy, and something tells me there might be a sudden revelation about Da Jung in the last episode. I mean, how come nothing about the past was ever mention for her, but the past seems to be all that Woojin and Doyoung talk about? Does she really not remember that weird/terrible thing that happened to them?

Anyway, loved this episode, even the freaky part. Loved the other hint of a love line (I'll take as a hint, ok?), when Woojin tried to hold onto Da Jung. I'm hoping for an all-kill final, and then, for a second season!

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I thought it was weird too. I haven't seen the last episode so I can't say where it's going but it's highly unlikely two if the three forgot. I'm also confused because it's an orphanage and only one seems to be an orphan. Also, I'm pretty bad with ages but I thought she was a fair number of years younger than them but as children they look pretty close in age.

So how much I "buy" the backstory will depend on the last episode I guess.

This round was the most boring of all the games and I didn't try to follow the odds/rules of the gun game even though I understood the other games.

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She did say a few episodes back that she felt that the orphanage was familiar and since then they dropped subtle hints.
Maybe it's just me but I thought it was obvious they had a past connection but had no idea how or why.

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I knew they'd all tie together somehow but I didn't think it would be....all three kids together. Like I didn't think they should necessarily all remember him. I still think their ages throw me off too.

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Thanks for the recap!! Haha I have been refreshing the whole day . Omg seriously the first time i got creeped out by a drama. That whole children sequance made my hair stand. Kang Do Youngah..who the hell are you!!

And seriously drama !! You gonna do the same thing in the K version!!! So much chemistry and such a hot OTP and no romance or even a kiss or a hug or even a touch!!!!!! Thank god for Jae Rim for making full use of his ;)

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cmon, does every drama have to be the same? you get flooded with romance even in dramas that promise mystery and action. for once, a drama shows something refreshingly subtle. maybe it is time to learn to appreciate it?

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I know right! Set aside SRR I will watch this drama cause there is no romance!... No romanceee!!! yay

I was excited about MySecretHotel and when I understood it was becoming one of the other boring love stories and triangles, I did not even bother with it.

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My Secret Hotel, had so much promise but was derailed. Another sad tale.

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Agreed! Not every drama has to have a love line. These days I actually find it refreshing to watch dramas that don't, just because it's such a change of pace/focus.

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I wasn't prepared for the "Ring"reference/imagery. If they had shown that little girl climbing out of the well towards my tv, I would have flipped some furniture. Touché "Liar's Game" for the last minute creep factor.

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When DJ focused her gun to HW I was surprised, because, the entire drama she trusted everyone, even people who betrayed her more than once, so her betraying him in the last seconds of episode 11, seemed like a forced plot twist/out of character. It would be better if they Threated her " him or your father" it would work more for me. Because if you have to pick HW or DY, who is the best option?

I started to watch the J-drama and... I think, the problem isn't what is original or a remake. The problem is which drama you watch first, because you grew fold of the characters and prefer them over other cast.

I prefer the leads in the Kdrama, maybe I'm KSE biased, and LYS also exudes this trusting and security vibe that the j-drama actor doesn't, maybe because one is a student while the other is a teacher.

I would say one enjoys to play the game (j-actor), while the other doesn't (kdrama). Plus the J-actor seems to smirk too much, making him a bit egocentric and not trusting.

Jamie character works much more than the X man from J-drama, and etc :o

Also J-drama seems like Saw, prefer DY as host ^^

Though I agree the j-drama is more suspectful/scary because it isn't a tv show... and they don't know who is behind it. Making it more scary.
Some camera work and lighting, also make the j-drama interesting.

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When I first watched the j-drama, I thought it like Saw too, but the difference has to do with pain that isn't physical.

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This is the penultimate episode for a reason! It is brilliantly good and has taken me to heights like it hasn't before. And that is saying a lot from a drama that has generally and steadily high highs.

Last night, episode 11 left me dizzy with feelings and ideas I just need to discuss with you beanies asap. Sadly the recap wasn't up yet and the final episode already caught up with us. (Of course, this is not saying anything against Heads - I love you, and your work, I think you're all awesome, and I greatly appreciate what you guys are doing for us!)

Alas, I just finished watching the finale and cannot discuss ep 11 on its own merit anymore as it's already been influenced by the finale. So, see you in ep. 12's recap guys!

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See...i always had a liking for Do Young because he never seemed evil for evil's sake...or even evil for fun's sake..or even evil for money's sake. From the start he had that bitter vengeance thing going that made me think he'd been hurt personally by something in the past. So in that way, he is the hero's mirror....and all that split screen stuff in the opening credits just made me think these guys were each other's shoulda-coulda-woulda beens.

So I'm kinda not fully on to Do Young getting punished because I'm thinking his older self is trying to redress the harm caused to his younger self by hero's mom. And it's possible mom killed herself out of guilt. I'll have to go back to her dying words to see if there's some kinda double-entendre happening.

Off to the finale. Thanks for the recap!

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We totally have the same feelings. I, too, had this great liking for Do Young since the beginning because I always felt that there was more to him and he had a really big tragedy that made him the way he is. Kudos to Shin Sung Rok for bringing that sort of extra layer to the character that is not apparent otherwise. Do Young is evil but you can't but have these feelings for him. Or does this just mean I'm into creepy sinister guys? Lol.

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DY is evil because he did a lot of nasty things including murdering innocent people. However, I do feel sympathetic towards him because he is the product of an experiment, someone turned him into what he is today.

I understand you saying that you can forgive some evil. A lot of times our liking of a character has to do with the actor/actress who plays him/her and the way he/she is presented. I loved Choi Young Do's character in The Heirs even though he is the bully I want to be as far away from as possible in real life. Lol. It had a lot to do with Kim Woo Bin's acting and charisma. SSR is also very charismatic.

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I should not read recap and even comments! I should not read recap.. I should not... I must not... I must... I...

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@SSR
So did you or didn't you?

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haha.. no didn't... I think... well, maybe a little.. just a little from comment part :X

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:D

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Did anyone notice that the 17 poker's rules was slightly different in this drama? In the j-drama, this game was only played between two people, it used 5 card hands like normal poker, and used more hand combinations(flush, straight,...). Also, there was no Do Young. It was HWJ's character who controlled the game by changing the type of shuffle and getting 4 of a kind each time.

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Also, I really like this variation of the Russian Roulette game, Last man standing. In the j-drama, this game was only played by Jaime's character and someone else. One thing I didn't exactly understand was why it 48% success for DY near the end of the game. I get where this number comes from. It's the chance that DY can hit Jaime with at least with one gun 96% cut in half because Jaime could have pressed 'dodge.' But, HWJ told Jaime to reload this turn, which means she didn't. Unless, DY has to question if Jaime followed his directions or not.

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Oops 48% came from the ways to eliminate Jaime with 3 shots from two guns.

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hi, mind explaining how did you get 48% and 96%? i dont get it. thankyou :)

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Ignore the 96%. It's wrong, but 48%, which was mentioned by WJ, is the chance that DY can eliminate Jaime, who only had 3 lives left. In other words, it's the probability that DY can shoot Jaime 3 times with 2 guns, which had 3 bullets in each one. To get 48%, you have to assume that all 3 bullets are put in the gun next to each other. This is the only way to shoot 3 times in a row with one gun. In order to do this, the bullets have to be in a certain order. I labeled each of the 5 bullet chambers as a,b,c,d,e. C is where the gun shoots first and the chambers move from left to right. So, b and a would be up next. I found that the bullets can be arranged in a 5 ways. (abc *3, bcd *2, cde *1, dea *0, eab *0). (*how many shots in a row) If DY got abc, he would have shot 3 in a row. Also, you have to consider that there's another gun with the same 5 combos. So, you have to pair each combo with the 5 combos. So, there is a total of 25 ways to shoot with 2 guns with 3 bullets each. In order to find how many you can shoot 3 times with 2 guns, you look at the combos that add up to at least 3. For example, bcd and cde is 3. DY got bcd with the first gun since he got only 2 shots. You'll find out that there are 12 ways combos that lead to at least 3 shots. So, 12 is 48% of 25.

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@ united

i can't find the reply button. thankyouu so much for your explanation! i get it now :)

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"I can honestly say I’ve never been so creeped out by a drama before, even during that phase of ghost-seeing shows that actually tried to be creepy. But that entire sequence surrounding Woo-jin’s patchwork revelation chilled me down to the bone—and not just because children acting strange is a tried and true horror formula at this point"

Aaaahhh exactly! My sentiments for that creepy hostage scene with the appearance of that creepy kids! I had a hard time sleeping. Huhu

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Same! The one time I watched this drama super late at night is the one with the creepy scenes.

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O. M. G! What an episode! So tense! So heart stopping! So wonderful! The writers of this show are just brilliant! I never suspected that Da-jung could have a part to play in Do-young and Woo-jin's past. I thought she was just a pawn to Do-young to use to make Woo-jin act how he wanted him to act. But it makes a certain sense to have her part of it. It ties everything together that much more cohesively! I love it!

Thanks for the recap! I can't wait for the finale and hope there is a second season with these characters!

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WOW!!! Just saw the finale!! And feeling so happy that i never really lost my trust in Do Young. ::sobs of joy in these parts:: I always believed in him. Some folks' evil I tend to forgive.

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Yet another great episode even if I thought the games did not have as much oomph to them as I wanted. Probably the best game was the President one as it held more thrills. At least the backstory holds up the drama very well. And Kang Do Young, the best villain ever to grace my screen. Love every moment of his; the smirks, the poker face, the creaky laugh, the beautiful high cheekbones, and the evilness. Ha Woo Jin does nothing for me even though I do think Lee Sang Yoon looks his best in this show.

Already saw the finale and so will wait for the last recap to discuss.

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I haven't watched the finale yet, but couldn't help visiting this thread for ep 11 anyway. Hoping to not see any hint of spoilers. x3

I really liked Jaime's makeup and hairstyle in this episode. It made me smile when she begrudgingly gave Da Jung a compliment during the gun game. :)

Card game was pretty boring. It was predictable that Do Young would be the winner.

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At this, the penultimate episode, I hereby delurk to announce to one and all - I LOVE THIS SHOW! (Better late than never.)

I have never seen a kdrama like this. Thank you for selling the show to me. In the beginning it was alien and took a while for me to adjust to the different genre. But now, I love the three main leads and almost all of the secondaries - from Dal Goo, Jaime, Sung Joon, the PD. Excellent plotline, execution, acting... I salute you show!

I am so excited for the 2nd season.

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Did that kid in the elevator died? Hope not

I love Jaime she exits the game with grace.

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I thought Bulldog was super super super stupid in the poker game. Like, if you keep doing the same thing and Do Young keeps getting 4 of a kind game after game after game, then obviously (even if you don't know how he's doing it) you need to switch up your tactic! I couldn't believe Bulldog just kept doing the same thing over and over and over again. What an idiot.

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There was no way for Bulldog to win unless he could have figured out out what DY did. All he could have done was fold until he had no money left. DY did a great job of deceiving him making him think that he changed the type of shuffle to make harder for Bulldog to find the joker.

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Obviously Bulldog couldn't win because outsmarting Kang Do Young is beyond his capabilities. But even if he couldn't figure out what Do Young was doing, after the third or fourth time the four-of-a-kind happened, it was obvious that he was doing something to take advantage of Bulldog's pattern, and so it would have been common sense for Bulldog to change his pattern, at least to see if doing something different would make a difference to the outcome. It would have at least changed up the game a little bit (and made Do Young have to find a new trick). But no, Bulldog just kept doing the exact same thing, and losing in the exact same way, every freaking time.

There's that old saying that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of madness. In Bulldog's case, it was the definition of stupidity.

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I don't remember exactly, but didn't DY get 4 of a kind twice a row before DY won? A normal person could have thought that DY was extremely lucky with his hands. Also, Bulldog had a really good hand, 3 aces.

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They showed two full games that he won and then had a time lapse to the final game. He didn't get Bulldog down from 800 million Won to nothing in just 2 games. If Do Young had wagered all his chips every game, it would have taken 4 games. But actually it took more than that, because he had to keep some of his chips aside each round to pay for the 4 card swap, and he kept back some of his other chips as well in the first two rounds that we saw. So it probably took at least 6 rounds of the 4-of-a-kind trick for him to win.

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everyone asking question "did he or did he not?" please just go watch the finale. Not point asking since none of us can spoil it here.

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Haven't gotten to ep 12 yet but I agree with a few comments here that the games were a smidge on the boring side.

Half the time, I was wondering why Woo-jin didn't show the police the text of Da-jung's dad which obviously came from Do-young. I mean, accuse him of something. Then again, it's Do-young so we don't really know what he'd do. Lol.

And then during the Roulette game, I was wondering why Woo-jin just didn't kill Da-jung or himself. I mean, the entire point is Do-young wanting them to get to the final round. THE THREE OF THEM like they were near that creepy well. Ugh. So creepy. Must think happy thoughts. But I mean, really, that's why DY was aiming for so not sure why WJ couldn't figure out DY's intentions on getting DG and Jamie out. He was obviously going to do that. That's his M.O. COME ON WOO-JIN. COME ON.

But half of me thinks Woo-jin is in it for the thrill too...secretly. He needs and wants to know why so he doesn't do sensical thing. I hope that's the case because if it isn't, then WJ isn't as smart as he turns out to be. Lol.

Regardless, still enjoying the show. That scene with Woo-jin and the kids though. Hecka creepy. Lol. And as mentioned, things are left to our imagination so it's just a lot more creepier. Whatever. Thinking happy thoughts now. Puppy face. Puppy face. Puppy face.

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Finished both now, late at night.
Completely freaked out, lol.

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I thought reading the recap will help me make better sense of the game in this round, but I'm just as confused LOL

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The episode is really SYMBOLIC.

Young Woo Jin, Da Jung and Do Young back-faced each other, similarly, the three ghostly children did the same in the room too.

At the end of the episode, three of them faced each other in the show, just like the ghostly children.

the similarity is uncanny.

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great!

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