Are You Human Too: Episodes 9-10

by LollyPip

Nam Shin-III’s secret only makes life harder for So-bong, who desperately wishes she could just forget what she knows and go back to her life. She’s torn between shock and the fact that everywhere she goes, he’s there, smiling that endearing Cinnamon Roll Smile at her. What can she do when she just wants to wallow in her bad mood, but she can’t shake the fluffy android puppy that seems determined to win her over? Oh well, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

 
EPISODE 9 RECAP

So-bong thinks about how Shin went from a guy who hit her in public, to someone who hugged her when she cried and saved her life, and how he said that he doesn’t have a heart or emotions. She thought it was strange, but she never expected to learn that he wasn’t even human.

After he stopped the driverless M-car’s wild behavior, So-bong had been frantic with worry, until she saw the damage to Nam Shin-III. His android insides had shown through where his human-like skin had been torn away, and she’d backed away, falling and screaming at him not to come closer.

Ro-ra drives up to them, and So-bong tries to run off, but Ro-ra sends Nam Shin-III to catch her. He tosses her over his shoulder with a cheerful grin and takes her to Ro-ra’s car, and Ro-ra drives away.

The paparazzi are busy shouting questions at Chairman Nam, asking if the M-car project will be scrapped. He refuses to answer and leaves in his limo, leaving Jong-gil, who masterminded the M-car’s hacking, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Nam Shin-III holds So-bong’s wrists so she can’t jump out of the car while he politely introduces himself. She screams that she doesn’t care, but Ro-ra says she’ll explain soon, instructing Nam Shin-III not to let So-bong go. So-bong spots Nam Shin-III’s metal insides again and mutters that it’s disgusting.

When they arrive at Ro-ra’s hideout, So-bong cries that Nam Shin-III is hurting her and he lets go. She tries to run again, only to be cut off by Young-hoon. Inside, Ro-ra fixes the damage to Nam Shin-III while he apologizes for getting caught by So-bong.

In another room, Young-hoon plays So-bong a recording of Reporter Jo confessing that So-bong is working for Jong-gil. He tells So-bong not to be angry at her friend, and she asks if he’s threatening her now. She admits that Jong-gil hired her, but says she had no idea they were hiding something so huge.

Young-hoon bluntly asks her not to tell Jong-gil what she knows, and to work for them instead. He offers to pay her whatever she wants if she’ll help them hide Nam Shin-III’s identity, but she’s still upset and asks where the real Nam Shin is.

She complains that she can’t believe any of this, but Ro-ra comes in and drags So-bong to Shin’s room, where he’s still lying in a coma. She tells So-bong that he’s her real son, and that he was hit by a truck right in front of her. She says that she believes Jong-gil may have staged that accident and the one today.

Ro-ra insists that Shin will wake up, and she begs So-bong to help them until that happens. So-bong asks how she could help, and Young-hoon says she can keep Jong-gil from finding out the truth. At the same time, Jong-gil calls So-bong, and Nam Shin-III comes in and looks at her innocently.

She answers, and agrees to meet with him now. When she hangs up, Young-hoon tells her that Jong-gil is a danger to Shin. She asks if they’ll make Nam Shin-III kill her if she goes, but Ro-ra stops her and sinks to her knees. She offers So-bong anything, even her own body, to help her and Shin.

Nam Shin-III walks to Ro-ra and hugs her because she’s crying. So-bong, confused and distraught, leaves the house with Young-hoon on her heels. She yells that they’re all crazy, but Young-hoon says that Shin is what matters the most to them. Nam Shin-III joins them, and So-bong shrieks that nobody would believe her if she told the truth, asking why they’d trust her just because she took their money.

Young-hoon grabs her arm and snarls that a person’s life is at stake. So-bong glares at him and Nam Shin-III in turn, then says she’ll pretend she didn’t see a robot. She tells Young-hoon to follow her if he doesn’t trust her, and that he’ll have to take that risk eventually, anyway.

Toady tells Jong-gil that he’s been asked to do a TV interview about the M-car’s test drive, and he says he’ll do it after meeting with So-bong. He instructs Toady to leak information about Shin to the press, painting him as a greedy brat with no experience.

Young-hoon and Nam Shin-III ride with So-bong to her meeting, and Young-hoon begs her one last time before she goes to speak with Jong-gil. She says sarcastically that they’re making her feel important, and tells them to wait for her.

Jong-gil makes a halfhearted attempt to seem worried about Shin, and he asks So-bong what happened during the test drive. She tells him that when the M-car went out of control, it reminded Shin of his car accident, and that he seemed traumatized. She says that Young-hoon collected Shin, and when Jong-gil asks if she came straight here from the accident scene, she remembers Ro-ra’s suspicion that Jong-gil may have staged it.

She hesitates, and Jong-gil asks if she needs more money. She says money is great, but she wants to know exactly how much she’s supposed to find out for his daughter’s marriage. Jong-gil chuckles that she should know by know what he’s after, and that he hired her for him as well as for his daughter.

He drops the smile and orders her to find out what he wants to know. So-bong says it’s nice that he’s being honest, but she asks why she has to go that far. He tells her that she’s already on his side, and that it’s too late for her to back out now.

In the car, Young-hoon tells Nam Shin-III to watch carefully, because this is what happens when he acts on his own. Nam Shin-III says that there would have been a huge accident if he hadn’t stopped the M-car, but Young-hoon says that if So-bong tells Jong-gil everything, then he, Shin, and Ro-ra will be in danger. He tells Nam Shin-III that humans make complicated decisions based on the situation, something that’s beyond Nam Shin-III, and tells him to just obey from now on.

Young-hoon sees Jong-gil leaving and goes inside to find So-bong looking glum. She sighs that she just refused enough money to change her life, and seeing Young-hoon’s face is making her regret it, ha. She asks why he’s so fiercely loyal to Shin, and he says simply that he likes working for Shin.

So-bong reports that she told Jong-gil that nothing happened, and that she’d continue spying on “Shin,” so she tells Young-hoon that he has to protect her. She sees Nam Shin-III getting out of the car, and he smiles at her cheerfully, making her wonder how she got fooled by him when he’s so different from Shin.

After being threatened by Young-hoon to tell him the truth about So-bong, Reporter Jo worries that she hasn’t heard from So-bong. She gets caught snooping around So-bong’s father’s gym by Robocop and Joint, who tell her that So-bong’s father disowned her.

Reporter Jo turns to leave, only to run into Dad, who throttles her and accuses her of being a bad influence on his daughter. She gasps that So-bong is working for Shin as his personal bodyguard, to repay his kindness, and Dad spits, “She’d never voluntarily repay anyone’s kindness!” Ha, he’s got a point.

She escapes by flipping Dad over her head. She gets a call from So-bong and peppers her with questions about whether she’s in trouble after Reporter Jo’s confessions. So-bong says that everything is settled with Young-hoon, and to act like nothing is wrong if Jong-gil calls her.

She hangs up, and thinks again about seeing Nam Shin-III’s robotic insides. It creeps her out, and she jumps ten feet when she unexpectedly runs into Nam Shin-III in the kitchen. He asks if she’s scared of him, and she denies it, but when he touches her, she jerks her hand back like she’s been scalded. Rather than being upset, Nam Shin-III says that it’s normal to feel unsettled or even repulsed by something that appears so human, but isn’t.

So-bong decides to leave, and she’s packing when Young-hoon comes to her room. He says he wanted to clarify that she can’t tell anyone about Nam Shin-III, not even her family or friends, and that he’ll blame her if anyone finds out.

He surprises her by thanking her for agreeing to keep their secret, and saying that he can finally sleep tonight because of her. After he leaves, she sighs that she can’t leave now.

During his TV interview, Jong-gil issues a public apology for the catastrophic test drive of the M-car. He says that safety and security are PK Motors’ top priorities, and obliquely blames Shin for not stopping the car from being hacked.

Chairman Nam watches the interview from home, with Nam Shin-III standing nearby contritely. Chairman Nam accuses him of running away instead of admitting his failure, but Young-hoon takes the blame and promises to make the next test drive a success. The chairman agrees, yelling that “Shin” will only make a mess of it again.

Young-hoon calls Ro-ra and tells her that the test drive failure has killed the chairman’s trust in Shin. She says she’ll check out the driverless car personally, then instructs Young-hoon not to let Nam Shin-III near the M-car until she arrives. Nam Shin-III wants to try tracing the hacking route, but Young-hoon tells him to stick with So-bong for now, since they can’t trust her yet.

Nam Shin-III obediently gets in his car, flashing So-bong an angelic smile that unnerves her. When they get to the company building, Young-hoon sends her into the conference room with Nam Shin-III in case they’re asked questions about the test drive.

Nam Shin-III apologizes to the board members for being careless and causing harm to the company. One board member complains that by running away, he made the company look irresponsible and caused their stock price to drop, but Young-hoon defends that he was just shocked and needed to rest.

Jong-gil speaks up to say that Shin is merely inexperienced, and that he’ll improve with time. Chairman Nam says they can’t wait indefinitely, and that Shin will be reassigned. He tells Shin/Nam Shin-III to focus on his wedding plans, which thrills Ye-na, but So-bong is horrified: “Marriage, to this thing?”

EPISODE 10 RECAP

Chairman Nam wants Ye-na to sign a prenuptial agreement, which she’s willing to do, but Jong-gil stops her, saying that they need to read it thoroughly. The chairman says he’s right, but adds ominously that if Jong-gil objects to the prenup, he’ll wonder if he’s after something.

Jong-gil and Ye-na leave, but they run into Aunt Ho-yeon, who drops a bottle of pills. Ho-yeon claims they’re hers, but Jong-gil looks suspicious.

So-bong complains to Young-hoon that Nam Shin-III will get caught if he gets married. Young-hoon says he’ll stay and gauge the situation, and tells So-bong to take Nam Shin-III home.

Jong-gil sits with his board member cronies, who can’t agree on whether Jong-gil should sign the prenup, which is designed to render Jong-gil powerless. One of them argues that Ye-na will marry Shin with or without her father’s permission, and Jong-gil roars in frustration.

Nam Shin-III watches So-bong closely as she drives, then he chirps that he looks just like the real Shin and isn’t at all scary. She stays painfully professional, at least until he refuses to go in the house without her since they share a secret.

Inside, he pops up right in her face, then plays the video of the fight where she was injured on the television followed by the x-ray of her broken leg. So-bong gets upset that he’s digging into her life, but Nam Shin-III just tells her that the steel rod in her leg makes her a cyborg. LOL.

He beams at having found something they have in common, but So-bong snaps at him for being so calm when she’s going nuts worried about being caught. She stomps to her room to pack, again, but as she’s sneaking out, Nam Shin-III startles her again. She hits the wall and hurts her shoulder, so Nam Shin-III rushes over to ask if she’s okay.

So-bong shoves him, which is when Ye-na finds them. So-bong apologizes to “Shin” for being too sensitive, and Nam Shin-III picks up her thread and snaps at her Shin-style for not taking a joke.

Ye-na wants to speak to Nam Shin-III in private, but he pulls away and says he’s staying with So-bong. Oops. So-bong makes “you screwed up” faces at him as he looks mystified, and Ye-na drags him away to his room.

She says she likes it here and suggests she move in after they’re married, and when Nam Shin-III says he won’t marry her, Ye-na replies that she just wants to be near him, even if his heart isn’t in it. Nam Shin-III keeps staring at the door, worried that So-bong is trying to sneak out again.

So-bong finally makes it out the front door. Her dad calls to ask if she’s really working for Shin, but she tells him that she’s on her way home. Dad thinks So-bong got fired again, but she says she left even though they begged her to stay.

Dad calls her a liar, since “Shin” was just seen near the gym and she wasn’t with him. He goes off on a rant, so So-bong hangs up. She looks across the street, and there’s Nam Shin-III, smiling at her happily. She crosses, and Nam Shin-III meets her in the middle and tells her, “You can’t go.”

He says it again when she tries to pass him, so she promises not to tell anyone about him or take Jong-gil’s calls anymore. He stops her a third time, asking her to please help him, and she snaps, “Stop acting like a person!”

She orders him to freeze and forbids him to follow her, then continues on across the street. Nam Shin-III stands in place obediently as the pedestrian traffic light goes red, and although So-bong sees him and looks guilty, she keeps going.

Nam Shin-III stands still as cars pass and people yell at him, as he was told. Eventually So-bong returns and yells at him, “Aren’t you scared? What if you die?” He says he’s not scared and won’t die die, so she asks what if he’s in another accident and people see that he’s not human. He says that’s why he needs her help.

He explains that he’s not supposed to shock or scare people like she was shocked and scared by him. He adds she was disgusted too, and So-bong looks ashamed. Nam Shin-III apologizes for upsetting her, but he adds that she knows him, which is why she can help him stop shocking people like he did to her.

She holds her locket as she thinks, reminded of the night he turned on the lights to help her find it in the pool, and when he saved her from the fire. She makes a decision, and calls her dad to tell him she’s not coming home. She shoves her suitcase at Nam Shin-III, which he takes eagerly, asking if she’ll really help him. So-bong says that he’s helped her, so she’s repaying her debt, but she’s out if things get complicated.

Smiling, Nam Shin-III quotes Young-hoon: “A human’s judgment is always complicated.” He starts to cross the street, but So-bong stops him, pointing out that the signal is red. Nam Shin-III just turns the signal green, startling So-bong, and as they walk together, Nam Shin-III says that he can find her anywhere with her phone’s GPS.

Young-hoon asks Ro-ra why she insists on going into the PK Motors building to check out the M-car when Nam Shin-III can do it more easily. Ro-ra reveals to Young-hoon that she installed a kill switch in Nam Shin-III, one he doesn’t know about, because if Shin wakes up, Nam Shin-III needs to disappear.

She says only she can access it, and that she’s keeping him from the driverless car in case he sees its kill switch and realizes that something similar is inside himself. Young-hoon worries that he’ll learn about his kill switch and be shocked, but Ro-ra says that won’t happen — after all, he’s just a robot. Young-hoon doesn’t seem too impressed with her answer.

After dark, he helps Ro-ra sneak into the PK Motors building, and she finds a malware program that someone planted that allowed the car to be hacked. She fixes the car’s kill switch so that it can be activated remotely in case of a future problem.

As they’re leaving, Young-hoon starts to tell Ro-ra about Shin’s engagement to Ye-na. They’re interrupted by Jong-gil, who demands to know what they’re doing. Ro-ra calls him a dog who’s been latched onto the company for three generations, and he chuckles that she cries a lot less than she used to.

He says it must be nice to be reunited with Shin, and promises not to tell the chairman. Ro-ra says she’s not scared of them anymore and promises to visit the chairman soon, and Jong-gil says they’ll see each other often once they’re in-laws. Ro-ra is horrified to hear that Chairman Nam plans to marry Shin to Jong-gil’s daughter.

Meanwhile, Ye-na is still waiting at the house for Nam Shin-III to return. She sees him walking back with So-bong’s suitcase, playfully keeping it away from her when she tries to pull it herself. Ye-na frowns and storms off.

In Ro-ra’s house in the Czech Republic, Snake finally finds the room Shin was kept in, but of course it’s empty. He reports to Toady that he hasn’t found anything, but in the garbage, he finds the hoodie Shin was wearing when he was hit by the truck, covered in his blood.

Toady tells Jong-gil that Snake found evidence of Shin, but Jong-gil snaps that it doesn’t matter, when his mother is waltzing in and out of the company headquarters. He sighs that he needs to manipulate her and stop the marriage.

So-bong removes the camera from the robot model and returns it to Nam Shin-III. She asks if he’s capable of eating, and he says he can, though he doesn’t need to. He shows her his battery, the watch-like apparatus he wears on his wrist, and she marvels that he’s really not human.

Suddenly she throws a punch at his face and finds it cool that he doesn’t even blink. She pokes him in the eye and pinches his cheek, but he just smiles and says it doesn’t hurt. So-bong asks why he held her hand and called her a liar, so he explains that his hand is like a lie detector, and that he winks if the person is lying.

Of course So-bong tests it out, grabbing his hand and telling him to ask her anything. He asks, “Did you watch me take off my clothes?” and calls her a liar when she says no. LOL, So-bong drops his hand and changes the subject. Nam Shin-III says he also has x-ray vision and scans her body, then grins that he’s kidding when she covers her chest.

She asks how much he costs, but he says “Mom” didn’t make him as a product to sell. So-bong says it’s strange hearing him call Ro-ra “Mom,” then heads to bed, and Nam Shin-III mutters, “But she’s Mom. Mom made me.”

Ro-ra is upset that Young-hoon didn’t tell her about Shin’s engagement to Ye-na. David heads off a fight by sending Young-hoon to visit Shin, and Ro-ra vows that she’ll stop this marriage no matter what.

Young-hoon sits by Shin’s bedside, remembering that Shin used to run away but he’d always find him. Once Shin had vowed that someday he’d run where Young-hoon couldn’t find him, and now Young-hoon asks if this was what he meant. He sighs and tells Shin to stop worrying him and wake up.

He gets a call from Ye-na, and agrees to meet with her. Nam Shin-III arrives at the same time, driven by So-bong, and Young-hoon can’t help but think about his kill switch. So-bong says that Ye-na asked Nam Shin-III to meet with her, and Young-hoon says they should go tell her there won’t be a wedding.

They go into the restaurant, and Young-hoon asks So-bong to wait outside the room. When Young-hoon and Nam Shin-III step inside, they find Chairman Nam, Ho-yeon, and Jong-gil also there. Chairman Nam asks Ye-na why she gathered them all here, so she passes him the prenuptial agreement and says she agrees to the terms: “Shin and I will get married.”

Jong-gil wants to speak to her privately, but she refuses, saying that she’ll marry Shin no matter what. Ho-yeon accuses her of being obsessed with Shin, but the chairman looks happy and tells Nam Shin-III to marry Ye-na right away.

Thrilled, Ye-na promises Nam Shin-III to be a good wife. He throws a “what do I do?” look at Young-hoon, who makes a gesture they previously agreed would mean to refuse no matter what. Nam Shin-III searches his database for a good way to reject a woman, finds several references to pretending you’re dating someone else, then scans the door to see So-bong eavesdropping on the other side. Oh noooo.

He thinks to himself that So-bong is the only woman who knows his secret and is willing to help him. He gets up and pulls her into the room, and right in front of everyone, he kisses her.

 
COMMENTS

Well, I was not expecting that! I certainly didn’t expect a kiss so soon, and I didn’t expect Nam Shin-III to make a leap from “avoid this marriage” to “I’ll pretend to date So-bong!” It’s actually not a bad plan, for one that Nam Shin-III had to come up with on the fly, but it’s hilarious that he took the drama route and made a spectacle out of it instead of just claiming to be dating her. Now they’ll have to keep up the charade, which should be a lot of fun to watch between her flailing in frustration and him just grinning at his brilliant plan.

At first I was annoyed by So-bong’s… well, her entire personality, but now I find her refreshingly realistic, and a perfect foil to Nam Shin-III’s over-the-top sweetness. She’s still annoying, but she’s also earnest and headstrong, determined to do what she feels she has to in order to survive. I’m so used to seeing dramas where the starry-eyed ingenue meets a cranky misanthrope and teaches him to be a nicer person, but here, the misanthrope is in a coma, and we’re left with a starry-eyed android and a girl who’s just trying to make her own justice in a harsh world. I like that neither our hero or heroine are typical characters — one is a robot who is just learning about the big world, and the other is a girl who could easily have been a Candy if not for her tendency to see everything as a personal insult.

I also found So-bong’s initial response to the fact that Nam Shin-III is an android to be realistic and understandable. She was horrified, even repulsed, at the fact that he appears so human yet isn’t even alive. What surprised me if Nam Shin-III’s reaction — I expected him to be upset, or to feel rejected by So-bong’s inability to see him as anything but a “thing.” But he’s actually pretty pragmatic about the fact that he’s not human, and he seems to understand that when people see him as an object, it’s not a personal rejection but just a natural emotional response. Still, it was cute when he knew he was making So-bong uncomfortable and tried to find common ground with her, calling her a cyborg since she’s got a steel rod in her leg.

I was particularly impressed with Nam Shin-III’s insight when he decided that So-bong was the right person to help him. Instead of avoiding her when she was shocked and scared of him, he realized that her reaction made her uniquely qualified to be the one to show him how to be more human. Since she’s felt the shock and disgust of discovering that he’s an android, she knows better than anyone how to advise Nam Shin-III on how to seem more human and avoid being caught. It shows that Nam Shin-III is capable of complex thought, and of finding a logical solution to an emotional problem. At least it worked with So-bong, and along with the fact that he’s helped her twice, convinced her to stay and help him pass as human. I love that she immediately started being fascinated by him instead of repulsed, and I can’t wait for Nam Shin-III’s human lessons — with a cranky teacher like So-bong, it’s going to be hilarious. And after that kiss, probably more than a little bit sexy.

 
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