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United Effort to Accomplish One Thing: Episodes 5-6 Open Thread

Our pill-pushing quintet might have become a public sensation, but this week we learn that the truth goes far beyond the night of the murder. Has it all been an elaborate revenge scheme? Or is it a game of cat and mouse, played to the death? The more clues, the more questions, and the more we learn about our house and its secrets, the deeper into the past we have to go to find our answers.

 
EPISODES 5-6 WEECAP

If everyone gave In-ho a sleeping pill, and no one knew he was allergic, where does the true mystery lie? Our sleuthing cousins return to the start of the clues, and rethink the five letters that started it all. Was the letter-writer among the culprits? It’s the only solution the girls can think of, and they start suspecting their own parents in order to unravel the mystery.

Our household attends In-ho’s funeral mass, and it serves to provide one of many new tidbits of information we get this week: In-ho had previously suffered from an allergic reaction to sleeping pills, and guess who knew about it? Sul-young. And guess who purposefully left it out of his medical files, and common knowledge? Sul-young. Add in some scenes of her poking around her evil laptop at secret files, and I’m more suspicious of her than ever. And so is Bit-na.

Bit-na is pretty strong as she continues to confront Sul-young over her suspicions, and we’re following her every step of the way. However, Sul-young has lots of tricks in her bag, and every time Bit-na comes at her, she expertly turns the tables and goes right after Bit-na’s (pretty damaged) psyche. “The more you provoke me, the more pain you’ll inflict on yourself,” she warns Bit-na creepily — and we see it in action. We learn a little more about Bit-na’s childhood, and get glimpses of past incidents where her mother seemingly left her behind, or when Sul-young left her to struggle while swimming in the ocean.

The acting in this drama has been top-notch, but there’s something about the encounters between Sul-young and Bit-na — they have this edge to them that makes for an exciting watch! It’s also interesting how the drama takes this near-panic attack that Bit-na’s been pushed to, and uses it to lead to our second important reveal this week. The imposing grandfather clock at the end of the hall holds secrets, much like every door, painting, bookshelf (and person!) in the house. While the chances of walking up to a clock and uncovering secret CCTV might seem a little far-fetched, our drama makes this moment so strong and surreal that I believed everything I saw.

The grandfather clock holds our twist: the night of his murder, it was In-ho that tiptoed around the hallway and delivered the mysterious letters that were the catalyst for his own demise. Our cousins are naturally shocked and horrified, and interestingly, Sun suggests they share this news with their parents — not because she trusts her father, but because she doesn’t. His scam artist thinking could help them.

The girls uncover yet another secret, though, while trying to investigate Sul-young. They pounce when she finally leaves her room, and among the files on her laptop, find an image of the map to the safe that was printed on the incriminating letters. But how was Sul-young involved in the letters? She won’t say a word yet.

Onto the next twist! This time we dig into Hae-joon a little bit more, and again, I so appreciate the careful layering of this drama — what we thought was him wiretapping the house out of suspicion and greed turns out to be so much more. We’ve seen Bit-na’s past coming to haunt her, and now it’s Hae-joon’s turn. Fifteen years ago, we learn that he and his father (In-gook, of the mysterious In-Gook Foundation) visited In-ho. Little boy Hae-joon stays in the car; hours later, his father’s body is dragged out by In-ho and his friend Jung-wook. Ahh!

The evidence from this seemingly accidental murder is held on an old recorder that Hae-joon’s presumably been searching for. He’s pretty good at snooping around, and after nosing around Mrs. Park, discovers the secret room where she’s been stashing stolen goods for 20 years. Good grief, everyone in this drama has a dirty secret! Hae-joon finds the recording and learns the truth about what happened while he waited in the car that night: it was Jung-wook who killed his father. Hae-joon is broken, as expected, and runs off in a rage with revenge on his mind and a switchblade in his hand.

I really like how this drama turns on a dime, and takes us along for the ride. Last week we had totally written off Hae-joon as a greedy lowlife — this week we learn that his “devotion” to In-ho was deeply rooted in heartbreak, and the need to uncover the truth about his father’s death. Suddenly, we have a whole new lens through which to view his story. Hae-joon isn’t the only example, and this drama excels at passing us notes under the door, so to speak, and then giving us a whole new something to think about.

We’re left with two more twists as our episodes close — first, that Bit-na was also up and about the night of her father’s murder. We haven’t been privy to this information before, and it’s like a giant question mark: have we been trusting Bit-na too readily? Gulp! Second, it’s confirmed that Sul-young and Jung-wook are in cahoots, and there’s some crazy plan that’s been playing out, and it seems mighty nefarious.

When we end our episodes this week, Jung-wook dresses up, goes on TV, and claims that he’s been In-ho’s ghost painter for the last 20 years. It’s quite the moment, and as usual, we’re left with more questions than anything. How involved has In-ho been in this entire plot? Was he trying to smoke people out with his letters and hoax, or was this all an elaborate assisted suicide scheme? In a final clue, we see In-ho in flashback stating that, “A true artist is made after his death.” While I’m sure there are more twists in store for us during the final week, I think that statement will have a lot to do with how our mystery plays out.

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Really fun show, and faster-paced than most kdramas. I hardly slept thru any of it. Not that I would want to sleep around that crew.

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Team Money Grabbers: Mistress / Ex-convict / Housemaid
-> They are greedy but certainly didn't have intentions to murder the Artist

Team Solo: Nephew
-> His motive and arc has pretty much been revealed already so it's not him who intentionally murdered the artist

Team Secret Plan: Ex-wife / Manager / Artist(?)
-> It feels like the ex-wife collaborated with the artist on the letters but she betrayed him and worked together with the manager, letting him in on the plan
-> At the same time, the ex-wife herself got blindsided by the fact that the artist and the manager shared a dirty secret which was the death of Nephew's father
-> I do think they predicted the reaction of Team Money Grabbers with regards to the sleeping pills and manoeuvred them into being pill pushers, but I doubt they did the nicotine injection since they would have expected him to be dead by then

Team Detectives: Female Lead / Helping Cousin
-> Judging by protagonist logic, unless we're going the unreliable narrator route, female lead can't be the murderer given what we've seen so far of her character (But I'm more than willing to accept it for an interesting ending, Show! We could easily pivot the perspective to the helping cousin to show what the female lead had intentionally not revealed to the audience)
-> The helping cousin is the biggest question mark as not much has been said about her: was her helping the leading detective (female lead) after the golf club attack (where the female lead would be seen the as most innocent since she was a victim) a way of concealing herself?

Conclusions:
- Need the vase dropper, golf club attacker and nicotine injector be the same person? It may very well be different people.
- The only person who is definitely not the vase dropper is Mistress (witness).
- The only person who is definitely not the golf club attacker is the Nephew (witness).
- The artist himself might even be the vase dropper / nicotine injector himself.

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Oh wow, what a way to break it all down! The preview implied the vase dropper/golf club attacker/nicotine injector were all the same person but it seems just as likely to be separate people to me too. My gut says In-ho probably did inject himself, but there would need to be someone to hid the syringe in the bathroom

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I somehow doubt In-ho is the suicidal type, especially now he is not terminally ill. I just wish we are totally sure he is absolutely dead!

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that's true, there's just something about all the games and his talk of an artist being made after their death that makes me think he had some part in it. There is a tin foil hat part of me that isn't 100% sure he's dead either lol

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Thank you for the recap! So much happening I'm still processing a little bit. It's interesting how the reveal of Bit-na being out the night of the murder came out of nowhere but I didn't totally feel like it did. Maybe because Episode 5 especially started hinting that Bit-na had her own biases? (understandable ones because it's increasingly apparent that Sul-young is a couple kinds of terrible but still). Ultimately I doubt Bit-na did anything but that'd be a hell of a twist!

Speaking of which, Sul-young seems to be just as much of a mastermind as In-ho but now that Mr. Moon seems to be going rogue it'll be interesting to see how she reacts. She told Mr. Moon to hid but she also gave Hae-joon information (or mis-information?) about how to kill Mr. Moon? I'm really interested as to her motivations at this point.

I noticed that Sun also seems to be present in Bit-na's drowning flashback but either doesn't remember it or doesn't think it noteworthy. I do wonder if we're treading on unreliable narrator territory, but then it's also mixed in with Sul-young creeper watching Bit-na in the dark? I need more context!! Can we get Bit-na some therapy? Also Hae-joon because he's still on my shitlist but yikes poor kid.

I did feel like I missed something with the letters: In-ho set up the game with the will but then it was suggested that it was Mr. Moon who moved the will to the safe and potentially Sul-young who added the instructions for the safe? But how did they tamper with the letters to that extent and when? Or is this still information to come? Lots of questions for the final week...

On the side, the small moments of comedy have been a lot of fun, especially the ultra childish Ji-hye/Dokko Chul/Mrs. Park trio lol

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Actually thought Jin-sook was going to take off with her hidden lot, can't believe she's that naive. LOLled every time Ji-hye dropped ahjumma and used unnie!
Thingking about the letters also hurt my head...

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Last episode, I was thinking that all of them seem to have forgotten about the nicotine injection so it’s better when they finally brought it up.
I don’t trust anyone except bit na but that’d be one hella twist if she’s involved somehow!

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I've had my suspicions of Bit-na here and there but only because she's the protagonist and the one basically feeding us the clues. I really don't want her to be but there's always that back-of-the-mind thought that tells me it's still possible for her to be behind it all.

As far as where I'm at which who I think did it, I'm focusing more on the Mr. Moon and Seolyoung. Those two give me the creeps (Seolyoung more so, however). They both have the motive and if this is just some elaborate ploy to get material for her book... that's messed up. I'm very curious to see how Mr. Moon's TV appearance is going to rattle the house and specifically, Seolyoung and what that's going to reveal about our suspects.

I love how the pace isn't staggering and everything is flowing really well. This finale week is going to be the big reveal and I'm excited but also hoping they don't mess it up by introducing an outside character or making it so that Inho just killed himself and all of this was for naught. I will accept that second scenario if it's tied to someone else but it just seems like a cop-out at that point.

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I love this show!
It's short and sad but also great that there are only 8 episodes. So the script and plot have to be tight.
I'm so looking forward to Wed-Thurs (I'm watching Into the ring and Flower of Evil so I'm super busy on those days!)

I hope more of this kind of Kdrama will be made in the future.

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This has been a fun show to watch. Right now my biggest question mark is Sun. She can't be the only one in the house without a secret, can she? We now know Bit Na has one or maybe two, actually, since there was a folder labeled Bit Na's assault on Sul Young's computer.

It would be a good twist if Bit Na was the Big Bad but I don't think she is though she may have done something.

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I feel the same about Sun. Purely guessing, but I've been wondering if she wasn't responsible for the vase (even on accident) given that she likes to camp on the roof?

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Sooo.... who can they kill off for a sequel?

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why would you put that out into the universe 😂

(...Ji-hye. what's a kdrama without a fridged mom)

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Bit Na is really going to be busy... Poor her😂

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Wowza, there are so many schemes, planned or sabotaged, that my head is reeling. First thing first, really need to confirm that In-ho is totally dead, yes? Right now I think I will probably believe show if it reveals it was In-gook's dead body in the coffin and In-ho + Sul-young has been planning everything all along ._.

Have totally written Hae-joon off as one unscrupulous money-grubber, but knowing he witnessed what In-ho's did to his dad, he probably thought he was very justified in leaving Bit-na bleeding on the floor.

Am hoping it won't be a case of an unreliable narrator, because Bit-na and Sunny sleuthing duo are just too cute to end.

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Called it with Dad being the one to send the letters! But from here on out I'm totally clueless - I liked the extra layer to this revelation in that Ahjussi potentially changing the location of the will changes who we think is responsible for this.

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