Are You Human Too: Episodes 7-8

by LollyPip

So-bong has been telling herself that it’s okay to sneak around and spy on Shin, despite his saving her life, because he’s generally such a jerk. But she’s beginning to see flashes of Nam Shin-III through his mask, and those glimpses of his kindness and gentleness start to complicate things. It’s easy for her to tell herself that a guy like Shin deserves what he gets, but what does she do when that guy turns out to be a lot different than she thought?

EPISODE 7 RECAP

Nam Shin-III sees So-bong drive away and follows her to the hospital out of curiosity. He sees his mother, Ro-ra, entering the hospital, and scenes from their life together — her teaching him to walk down stairs, running to Shin as he lies bleeding in the street, asking Nam Shin-III to go to Seoul and protect Shin’s birthright — rush through his mind.

Inside, he overhears Ro-ra’s conversation with Young-hoon and the doctor, and he realizes that Young-hoon lied to him about where he was going. He goes outside to think, which is when he sees So-bong hanging over the railing, gaping at the real Shin being wheeled inside.

He approaches her, and she asks if he saw the guy who looks just like him. He knows that he’s supposed to be human Shin right now, so he says it’s ridiculous that someone could look like him.

He asks what she’s doing here, and she explains that she overheard Young-hoon talking to someone about meeting here to see Shin. She claims that she came to guard him, and Nam Shin-III grabs her hand and declares her a liar again. She asks if he’s got a lie detector or something, and he’s all, “How did you know?” Hee.

Having seen their cars, Young-hoon finds them and sends So-bong home, taking Nam Shin-III to ride with him. When Shin opens the car door, Young-hoon slams it shut and asks Nam Shin-III why he didn’t alert him that So-bong followed him. When Nam Shin-III just stares, Young-hoon sighs that only humans can make judgment calls like that and apologizes for not explicitly telling Nam Shin-III what to do in that situation.

Nam Shin-III has other concerns — why Young-hoon lied about Ro-ra and Shin. He asks if Young-hoon is a human he can trust, and Young-hoon says coldly, “You must be mistaken. You are not the real Shin. I don’t care if you trust me or not. Just do as I say.” He opens the car door, but Nam Shin-III slams it, explaining that he copied Young-hoon because he’s not finished talking. Once he has Young-hoon’s attention, Nam Shin-III tells him that So-bong saw Shin.

So-bong is already calling Jong-gil about seeing Shin, but he’s more concerned about Ro-ra’s whereabouts. He sneers that Shin doesn’t even have a brother, much less a twin, and she admits that it makes no sense.

Jong-gil instructs her to call him if she sees Ro-ra again, and when he hangs up, Toady asks if he thinks Ro-ra returned because she misses her son. Jong-gil snaps that if that were the case, she’d be talking to Shin, not Young-hoon.

Back at the house, Young-hoon corrects Nam Shin-III for getting out of the car himself instead of letting Young-hoon open his door. Nam Shin-III nods affably and gets back in the car, and Young-hoon’s You have got to be kidding me right now expression is priceless.

He confronts So-bong about following him this morning. She says she’s nervous because she only has one month to impress Shin and keep the job. She says she overheard Young-hoon’s call and thought the other person wanted to see Shin, but when Young-hoon went alone, she thought she could win brownie points with Shin if she discovered what Young-hoon was up to.

She tells him that she was so flummoxed that she even thought she saw a patient who looked exactly like Shin. Young-hoon mutters that he wishes such a person existed so he could have him replace the troublesome Shin. He tells So-bong to just focus on guarding Shin from now on.

He immediately calls Ro-ra to say that they have to move Shin as soon as possible. The doctor complains that Shin is too unstable, but Ro-ra agrees with Young-hoon and they agree to move Shin tomorrow.

Nam Shin-III tries repeatedly to call Ro-ra, but her line is always busy. He wanders out to the pool, remembering when he was first created and Ro-ra took him swimming. So-bong goes to the balcony and sees Nam Shin-III floating peacefully in the water, and as she watches, he sinks under the surface.

She gets concerned when he doesn’t come back up for air, and she runs down to the pool. Nam Shin-III looks unconscious, so So-bong jumps in and pulls him to the surface, not noticing that her heart locket breaks and sinks to the bottom of the pool. Nam Shin-III stands up and stares at her, wide-eyed and perfectly fine, and So-bong yells that he worried her.

He grabs her hand, and this time he feels that she’s telling the truth. He gives her that sweet, unguarded smile, and So-bong’s heart starts to pound again. She snaps at him for staying underwater so long, wailing that he could die, but he says that she’s the one who will die — when her heart explodes. LOL.

Young-hoon finds them, and they obediently climb out of the pool and go inside, where So-bong can’t stop thinking about Nam Shin-III’s comment on her pounding heart. She checks the video feed from the bug she planted in Shin’s room, and just barely manages to look away (why??) before Nam Shin-III pulls his wet pants off. She feels her heart thumping again and orders it to stop.

She picks up the tablet again in time to catch a conversation between Young-hoon and Nam Shin-III. Young-hoon is upset that Nam Shin-III went to the pool after being told to stay in his room, and he yells at Nam Shin-III for not listening to orders. Nam Shin-III hangs his head, and Young-hoon tells him that he can’t get caught, pleading with him to act like Shin.

So-bong wonders why Young-hoon would tell Shin to act like Shin. She starts to think there might actually be two of them, so she calls Reporter Jo to ask for a favor.

Nam Shin-III has to attend a meeting at the company about the driverless M-car, and after So-bong drives him and Young-hoon there, she’s told to wait outside. The meeting is to discuss the M-car’s first test drive, and Aunt Ho-yeon is worried that the recent fire (and Nam Shin-III’s involvement) will draw the wrong kind of attention to their product, but Young-hoon says that at least Shin isn’t being blamed for the fire.

Chairman Nam bellows at all of them for focusing on the wrong thing when the company’s future depends on the M-car doing well. He barks that their time and money will be wasted if they fail, and Nam Shin-III pipes up, “And what if we succeed? I’ll succeed, so give me your position.” Young-hoon gives him an encouraging nod, so he continues to smirk at the chairman, telling him to take care of his health and leave the work to him.

Ho-yeon screeches her objection, but Chairman Nam waves her down. Nam Shin-III says he’s not the same old Shin, and he’s not willing to lose what’s his anymore. With another smirk, he adds that he must have inherited his grandfather’s greed. Chairman Nam actually looks approving of his newfound greed, and he tells him to covet his position after he’s succeeded.

After the meeting, Jong-gil Tells “Shin” that it’s nice to see him so confident. Ye-na chirps to Nam Shin-III that she redecorated his office, but he refuses to go see it with her, and she overcomes her disappointment to say that they have plenty of time to be together. Young-hoon tells Nam Shin-III he dd well and sends him home while he goes to the hospital.

Nam Shin-III asks Young-hoon if he’ll become CEO of PK Motors if Shin never wakes up. Young-hoon says they’ll make sure Shin wakes up somehow, and that he considers Shin more important than himself. Nam Shin-III grabs his hand to check if he’s lying, but instead of telling Young-hoon his finding, he says he was just trying to play a prank, only Young-hoon didn’t fall for it. Heeey… is he learning to lie?

While So-bong waits, she hears from Reporter Jo, who’s back at the hospital. She sends So-bong screenshots from the hospital’s CCTV, then calls So-bong from the VIP ward, reporting that Young-hoon keeps going in and out of a VIP room. She says that Ro-ra is there too, though she doesn’t know who the patient is.

So-bong tells Reporter Jo about the video she saw of Young-hoon asking Nam Shin-III to act like Shin, making Reporter Jo wonder if the guy currently in the house is a fake. So-bong quickly hangs up when Nam Shin-III is ready to be driven home.

In private, Jong-gil is infuriated by what Nam Shin-III said at the meeting about taking over the company. Toady tries to cheer him up with the photos So-bong sent of Ro-ra and Young-hoon at the hospital, and Jong-gil assumes Nam Shin-III’s little speech at the meeting is part of a plot between Shin, Ro-ra, and Young-hoon. He sighs that he needs to get rid of Shin’s brains (Ro-ra) and his arms and legs (Young-hoon).

As she drives Nam Shin-III home, So-bong mentions that he once hit her, but then he saved her life, asking why he’s changed so much. NC3 asks if she thinks he’s not Shin, and he complains, Shin-style, that this is the thanks he gets for saving her life. He offers to hit her again, then tells her to mind her business and drive. LOL, he’s got Shin down perfectly.

Reporter Jo calls right when So-bong instructed, as she’s dropping Nam Shin-III off at the house. So-bong acts like it’s her father calling and pretends he’s in the hospital, and she asks Nam Shin-III for permission to go. He even gives her the use of his car, and as soon as she’s gone, he drops the Shin act and smiles at Chingu the robot vacuum, who’s waiting in his room.

Before So-bong leaves, she checks her video feed of Shin’s room. She sees Nam Shin-III talking to Chingu, but she shrugs it off and heads to the hospital.

The doctor tells Ro-ra that now is a bad time to move Shin because of all the people in the ward, but Young-hoon argues that they have to move him as soon as possible. David says the medical equipment isn’t ready where they’re going, so they should wait.

He opens the blinds to let in some light, which allows Reporter Jo to snap a clear picture of Shin from across the street. She meets up with So-bong, and they compare pictures of Shin at the hospital with Nam Shin-III at home. It confirms that there seems to be two Shins, and that whatever is going on, Young-hoon is in on it.

EPISODE 8 RECAP

So-bong lets herself into Shin’s hospital room and waves a hand in front of his closed eyes. Suddenly he grabs her wrist and sits up to ask what she’s doing. Okay, this has to be Nam Shin-III. Young-hoon comes in, but So-bong is saved from explaining herself by her ringing phone.

It’s Reporter Jo, who says that the video from Shin’s room was frozen, and that there’s nobody there right now. So-bong pretends she’s talking to her father again, then tells the guys that she came to see Dad and heard a nurse say Shin was here.

Young-hoon takes her aside to explain. He says there was a car accident overseas, and that it’s made “Shin” act strange, like hugging people and holding their hands, so they’ve been having him secretly treated for trauma. It seems plausible, but So-bong clearly heard Young-hoon telling Nam Shin-III to act like Shin.

There a coffee cup on the table with lipstick on the rim, and when So-bong asks about it, Young-hoon admits that Shin’s mother was here. He asks her not to tell anyone, and So-bong says that’s a bodyguard’s basic duty. She leaves and apologizes to Reporter Jo for wasting her time.

Once she’s gone, Young-hoon asks Nam Shin-III how he knew So-bong was coming here to find Shin. Nam Shin-III says he knew her excuse to go to the hospital was fake, and he guessed she’d hidden a camera in his room. He hacked her tablet’s camera and saw her saying she was going to uncover Shin’s secret, so he froze the video feed, called Young-hoon to move Shin immediately, and sped to the hospital on Shin’s motorcycle.

Young-hoon is annoyed that Nam Shin-III made the judgment call by himself without first calling to tell him about the hidden camera. Nam Shin-III says that So-bong heard what Young-hoon said about acting like Shin, and that if she’d gotten to the hospital to find nobody there, she’d have grown even more suspicious. He tells Young-hoon, “My judgment was more appropriate than yours today. A human can’t compete with my cognitive abilities. If I had stayed home as you instructed, what do you think would have happened?”

Shaken by the realization that Nam Shin-III is right, Young-hoon says they should pretend not to know about the hidden camera to discover out who So-bong is working with. Nam Shin-III asks about Ro-ra, who’s in the ambulance with Shin, speeding away from the hospital.

So-bong makes her report to Jong-gil, who is annoyed that she wasted time trying to prove there are two Shins when his priority is for her to find Ro-ra. She tells him Young-hoon’s story about Shin being in an accident and his mother visiting him secretly. Jong-gil instructs her to use the hidden camera to figure out exactly what’s wrong with Shin.

Once Shin is safely settled at the new facility, Ro-ra talks to David about what Nam Shin-III did today. She says he impressed her with his ability to make a judgment like a person and avoided being caught, and David brags that he’s better than a person — he’s their son.

Ro-ra gets a call from Nam Shin-III, looking for praise for how well he did today. She thanks him for helping them get out without being caught, but she’s surprised when Nam Shin-III says that he wants to go home now. She tells him that Shin is still very sick and she needs to stay with him, but Nam Shin-III protests, “I’m Shin too, Mom.”

She promises to take him home soon, and David calls out that he misses Nam Shin-III. He’s disappointed when he hangs up, but he tells Chingu that Mom said they can go home soon. Then he wonders just how long it is until “soon,” for humans.

On her drive home, So-bong gets a text from Dad with a picture of a memorial table covered in food. She calls to accuse him of joking that his daughter is dead, and he confirms that he has no daughter… oh no, she forgot her mother’s memorial day. Dad hangs up on her, and she reaches for her heart locket, only to discover that it’s gone.

Later that night, Nam Shin-III wanders outside to find So-bong hovering around the pool. She pouts that she lost her necklace when she jumped in to save him, and that it’s the one thing she has of her mother. Nam Shin-III can relate to her missing her mom, and he covers So-bong’s eyes with one hand.

While she can’t see, he remotely turns on all the outside and pool lights. He removes his hand and motions for her to look again, and there’s her locket, shimmering at the bottom of the pool. Gruffly, he tells her not to lose it again or her mom will be sad.

He saunters away, and So-bong calls out that she’s sorry, but she tells him not to ask what she’s sorry for. Nam Shin-III smiles and says, “I can tell without holding your hand that you’re telling the truth.” He drops the Shin act to smile and thank her for being honest. Aww, swoon.

So-bong rescues her necklace, and back in her room, she thinks again about “Shin” thanking her for telling him the truth. She picks up her tablet and turns off the video feed from his room, then tosses the tablet in the trash, looking a little disgusted with herself.

In the morning, the company gets ready for the M-car’s first test drive on an actual road. Toady brings Jong-gil a kid he found who can hack into the driverless car and control it, and Jong-gil explains that he wants to show that machines like driverless cars are dangerous to humans, and that unfortunately, people have to get hurt and die to prove his point. He gives the kid a photo of the person he’s chosen as his target — Shin.

The PK Motors executives sit down to discuss the upcoming event. Jong-gil kisses up, anticipating that the M-car will soon become their core product, and Ye-na asks Chairman Nam to let her and Shin get married before Shin gets busier. Ho-yeon quips that that’s a creative way of throwing herself at a guy as daddy Jong-gil winces in embarrassment.

The plan is for Nam Shin-III to ride along with the M-car during it’s first test drive, so he, Young-hoon, and So-bong are taken to the car first. Young-hoon hangs back when he gets a call from Shin’s doctor, who tells him that a reporter was asking nurses about the VIP patient just before So-bong showed up.

Young-hoon guesses who the snooping reporter was and confronts Reporter Jo. He asks if she was there on So-bong’s request or someone else’s, making it clear that if So-bong is doing this on her own, he’ll ruin her life far beyond blocking her ability to get a job. Reporter Jo tells him that someone hired So-bong.

The test drive begins, and the entire audience stands to clap. Ro-ra and David are there too, and David says that Nam Shin-III would have loved to know she’s there, but Ro-ra says she wants to see how he handles complex circumstances.

Nam Shin-III isn’t in his car yet, and Young-hoon calls to tell him that So-bong was hired by Jong-gil, but not to mention it to her before he tells the chairman. Nam Shin-III glares in So-bong’s direction then gets ready for the test drive. In the audience, Jong-gil signals Toady and the hacker kid on a nearby rooftop, and the hacker quickly links into the M-car’s controls.

The test drive begins, with the M-car rolling out to the highway surrounded by a PK Motors escort. In a car behind the M-car, So-bong tells Nam Shin-III that she’s quitting due to personal reasons. He asks if she’s just not curious anymore now that she’s seen everything with her hidden camera, and he grabs the wheel before she can drive off the road in surprise.

Suddenly, So-bong notices that the M-car is speeding up and veering erratically. There’s a PK Motors employee riding in the backseat, and he hangs on for dear life while the people back at the company try to fix the problem. Young-hoon is trying to get the chairman’s attention when the video feed shows that the M-car is out of control.

It surges forward, away from its escort, and starts driving crazily through the streets, side-swiping other cars and pushing them off the road. The experts at PK Motors figure out that the car has been hacked, and they instruct the employee inside to take control. By now the M-car is actually flipping other cars out of its way, and the hacker directs it to open a door and fling its rider to the street.

Nam Shin-III has been watching the events carefully, and he gets to work. So-bong screeches at him to stop staring into space and do something, unaware that he’s trying to re-hack the M-car and bring it under control. So-bong pulls up next to the M-car as the hacker counteracts Nam Shin-III’s efforts and makes the M-car start behaving dangerously again.

Nam Shin-III decides he needs to get in the M-car to hit the kill switch, and So-bong freaks out when he opens their car’s sunroof to climb out. She calls him crazy and asks if he’s scared, but he says, “I don’t know that stuff. I have no emotions.”

He climbs out of the sunroof to the top of the car, then leaps over to land on the M-car. He does a front-somersault into the M-car’s passenger seat, but he’s distracted by So-bong’s scream when her car nearly collides with another car. He leans out to check that she’s okay, then opens the M-car’s panel for the kill switch.

The M-car swerves, throwing Nam Shin-III outside of the car. So-bong watches as he grabs the edge of the door and holds on, his body throwing up sparks as he’s dragged along the pavement. Nam Shin-III pulls himself back into the M-car, slides into the driver’s seat, and hits the kill switch just in time to take control and dramatically avoid a fiery collision with a semi truck.

When it’s all over, So-bong runs over to Nam Shin-III, frantic to make sure he’s not badly hurt. She turns him around, which is when she sees his side that was dragged along the ground. His shirt and human-like skin have been burned away, revealing his robotic circuitry.

COMMENTS

I’m not generally a fan of car chases, but I have to admit that the one in this episode was pretty awesome. You could really see the pre-production in this scene, what with all the slick car-flipping and Nam Shin-III’s acrobatics. It also served as a unique way for So-bong to discover Nam Shin-III’s true nature, and I expect that things will get a lot more exciting now that she knows he’s not human. I’m much more interested in seeing her fall for the android knowing that he’s an android, because I’m hoping that the show has some interesting discussions in store about what it means to be human, and what happens when a human and a robot care for each other.

Until this episode, I’ve been worried that So-bong would develop feelings for the man she thought was Shin, not realizing that he’s actually someone else. What I mean is, that she wouldn’t like Nam Shin-III for his own qualities, but for the persona she believes is Shin. But then, during the pool scene, I realized that each time she’s reacted to his close proximity, it’s been when Nam Shin-III wasn’t pretending to be Shin. The first time was during the fire when he swooped her up in his arms, and the second time was when he gave her his patented Cinnamon Roll Smile in the pool, then a third time when he helped her find her locket and thanked her for being honest.

He may be a robot, but it’s already been proven that So-bong’s feelings kick up when Nam Shin-III turns those puppy-dog eyes on her and gives her that childlike smile of his. So that at least calms my fear that So-bong would fall for the Shin persona, because she’s very specifically only showing attraction to Nam Shin-III when he’s being himself. Now that she knows that he’s not Shin, and in fact isn’t even human, I’m looking forward to her feelings getting a lot more confusing. She’s about to be hit with some pure, unadulterated Nam Shin-III, without the cold unaffected Shin veneer, and Nam Shin-III without the Shin mask is some pretty potent stuff.

And despite his stating that he doesn’t have emotions (I call BS on that, he pretty obviously does), I think that Nam Shin-III is about to start developing feelings for So-bong as well. Even though she’s working for the enemy at this point, I can see how Nam Shin-III is going to get attached to her. The people in his life that he’s always counted on to be there for him, Ro-ra and David, are now focusing their energy and concern on Shin. To Nam Shin-III’s mind, he’s being pushed to the side in favor of the human, “real” son. But So-bong didn’t lie when she jumped in the pool to help him and wailed that she was worried, and she sincerely apologized to him later about spying on him, so Nam Shin-III has identified her as another human who does, in fact, care about him. It’s very important to Nam Shin-III to feel safe, cared for, and cherished, so if (he thinks) he’s losing Ro-ra in that way, he’ll quickly latch onto the next nearest person whom he knows cares about him — So-bong.

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