School Nurse Files: loved the universe and the characters, but got the feeling that what we got was half a season, because there’s so much information missing. I’ve got questions! HELP:

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    ~Spoilery questions~
    Please, proceed only if you’ve already watched the whole season:

    -What do the ducks stand for? And the flying whale?

    -Minsu and Wansu’s connecting jelly: the whole “knot operation” went over my head. Can someone please explain?

    -Baek Hyemin’s story isn’t over yet, is it? Like, it didn’t feel like she really wanted to loose her purpose.

    -Hong Inpyo’s shield: is it artificial like, made by his grandpa? Why do both shady organization and Mackenzie leave him be? Is he needed to keep those energies under control?

    -When Ahn Eunyoung said she couldn’t see the jellies anymore, I totally thought she was bluffing, because buddy Kangsun was hanging out with her… But then, when he vanishes, she takes time out and it really feels like she doesn’t see the jellies anymore until she goes back to the stone, where she seems to recover her powers. So, what prompted her loss of powers? The dream? Or was she able to see ghosts, but not other type of jellies? (because ghosts are jellies too, right?)

    -They turn the stone around, and then give it another turn. Eunyoung sees jellies again and runs off like crazy. I thought she was getting her sword to fight whatever it is she saw, but she doesn’t even try. What happened there?

    -So, the school gets destroyed and they rebuild it? What the heck? And Eunyoung and Inpyo come back? Why? Doesn’t make sense at all, if they already know that that’s not a good place

    I enjoyed this – but there’s so much unexplained stuff that I’ve got the feeling that I only watched the half of a series

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      I feel like if I tried to answer these questions I’d only be giving you *my* interpretation. I mean I will but i’m sure others will disagree. To me this show was about repression, conformity and dealing with yourself and all your emotions, even the dark, negative and depressing ones. Others may have a different opinion. This is just mine.

      1.To me the ducks represent the conformity and social normality the school was trying to force on the kids. Follow the leader. Do what I do. The whale represented the freedom of being who you are.

      2. There was a point in the show where I went, “Ohhh, I get it! That moment of clarity is gone. Maybe I shouldn’t have shaved under my arms this morning.

      3. To me it is. For me personally, she was an example of a child who wanted more from life than society had dictated she was allowed to. She was literally boxed into a role that she didn’t want but she also didn’t want to disappoint anybody by leaving it. A good teacher helped her to embrace what she wanted in a way that didn’t make her feel that she’d betrayed anybody. She left the box society had put her into and was able to embrace her life on her terms. I feel like her arc is done.

      4. I don’t know where Inpyo’s shield came from but if you told me his grandfather used the power he gained from the pond to ensure his lineage’s succession by giving Inpyo the shield I wouldn’t be surprised. Everyone left him alone because he was set to inherit the school but also because they wanted to use his powers for their own benefit.

      5. Again, I can only answer as to what I think is happening. And I have some answers here
      https://www.dramabeans.com/2020/09/team-dramabeans-what-were-watching-227/#comment-3725380
      and here
      https://www.dramabeans.com/members/boughtabride/activity/1139785/#acomment-1139806

      Either way, IMO, Eun-young went back to the school to obliterate her own sinkhole of feelings so she wouldn’t have to deal with them anymore. She wanted it all finished so she could completely run away. But once she got there, she realised the emotional blow hole wasn’t something she could get rid of. She was going to have to deal with everything whether she wanted to or not.

      6. Assuming you accept my interpretation of that scene, Eun-sang realised that she couldn’t just close off the past and move on. She was going to get her powers back and was going to have to deal with her emotions. She still tried to run away from it though.

      7. The blowhole or breathing hole spat out all its repressed emotions. The school was rebuilt without the repression and strict conformity it had been using to trap and harness adolescent emotions.

      And that’s my interpretation of the show. Basically, be yourself even if you’re weird. Let your freak flag fly.

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        Ducks could well stand for conformity & follow-the-leader, but it’s more fun to interpret them as hinting that someone is a quack 🙂

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        Thanks, LT!
        1- Conformity and freedom! Now that you say it, it seems obvious.
        2 – Minsu and Ansu. They really rang a bell on me because I saw it as one of those teenage friendships where kids just feed off each other to do reckless stuff – like making elaborate plans to steal – and emotions get amplified – like their manic state when they open the locks. In that sense, their jelly makes perfect sense to me (I had my own jelly sidekick for a while as a kid, we did stupid stuff I regret to this day). What I don’t get is then whole hair knot theory. Is it maybe a Korean folklore callback that I didn’t get? And what’s up with the pillows? Were they thinking they would get better grades by using someone else’s seat?
        3. Ok, I see it now.
        4. Inpyo. The pond is a good point! So, according to the show’s mythology, ponds attract energy and become charged with it (the school was built over a pond, Inpyo got his shield from the pond that the Organisation sucked dry). The fish are an interesting element. The Fishmonger was literally ripping a fish’s guts away while talking to Eunyoung. Interestingly, it felt like Eunyoung was holding her guard up while talking to her.
        5 and 6. Ok, so you say Eunyoung lost her powers after letting go of Kangsu because of the conflict of her feelings for Inpyo and how burdened she was by her power (her dragging that doll around the school really brings it home for me). She just wanted to be peacefully alone, and came back to finish it off. Your interpretation makes her running off on Inpyo – after he made her promise she wouldn’t – heartbreaking! I don’t like that…

        7- Hey! I was writing this elaborate answer, and just had an epiphany! I was seeing the pond as something evil, that feeds off people’s emotions. But actually, then place itself isn’t bad – on episode 1 they specifically say that it was the animals who fed off corpses that turned evil. The pond is just dangerous because some people can’t fight the attraction to jump in, I see it as an energy vortex. Still, doesn’t sound like a good place to have a bunch of teenagers hanging out near… Just saying 😂

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          “Your interpretation makes her running off on Inpyo – after he made her promise she wouldn’t – heartbreaking! I don’t like that…”

          I didn’t like it either, I thought it was a moment of pure cowardice. And him dragging himself out of the basement broke my heart.

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          ‘Minsu and Ansu. They really rang a bell on me because I saw it as one of those teenage friendships where kids just feed off each other to do reckless stuff – like making elaborate plans to steal – and emotions get amplified”

          Yes this was the epiphany I had at one point but I’m like you, I don’t get what hair has to do with it and I don’t understand why tying hair would stop it. There’s clearly some symbolism here around hair – and around the cushions for that matter – that is probably obvious to a Korean viewer but is a giant mystery to me.

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    Thanks both of you. Now it makes much more sense. I watched the whole show and found it very confusing. It felt like show was trying to tell me something but I could not understand it at all.

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