Spoiler thread for "Lucifer"

[Soju]

Please post any and all spoilers (based on the Chicago airing) here/

[humblestudent2]

Episode 1/2 Recap

(This will not be linear or scene-by-scene - the idea is to help people catch up if they have missed the first one or two episodes. This post will deal mostly with action and clues and things. For stuff about 'who people are', please refer to the "Cast of Characters" post.)

The 1995 homicide

Twelve years ago, a schoolboy, 17 or so, named Jeong Tae-hoon, was found dead in an isolated industrial area with trucks and stuff. The child Seo Hae-in had a vision of the killing at the time. She saw a knife being taken from a pocket -- Tae-hoon struggling with another boy over the knife - Tae-hoon falling, mortally wounded, spilling peppermint candy from his bag. A schoolboy calls the police to report the crime. Hae-in was questioned first by some skeptical police, then by the friendly Cha Kwang-doo, then on the police force. (That's all we know so far.)

The Kim Soon-ki affair

Lawyer Oh-seung-ha is representing Kim Soon-ki on appeal. Soon-ki is apparently a friend of the Kang family; Oh-soo even says he's a "good guy"; but he has a long criminal history, and was involved in the case which caused Cha Kwang-doo to leave the force (that's all we know about it). He killed someone recently (we don't know who) in what he says was self-defense. But Oh Seung-ha puts together a defense which is basically that because he was harassed by peers in school, he developed a "defensive personality" and so anything he did was accidental. Key to the success of this appeal is a financial settlement to the victim's family, which is going to be paid by the Kang family. Na Seok-chin deals with Seung-ha on their behalf. Originally the family is unwilling to go along, but after the murder of Mr. Kwon they change their mind (I don't say there's cause-and-effect here). In episode 2, the appeal hearing takes place, and Soon-ki pleads tearfully for a second chance.

The murder of lawyer Kwon

Some tarot cards, I think three packs, were stolen from the Tarot Cafe, run by Hae-in's friend Gong Joo-heui. Hae-in paints the cards and gives occasional readings there.

Later that day, someone whom I will call Mr. X, "apparently" mute, walking with a limp, and disguising his appearance, gives two packages to schoolkids to give to an express service. One, for Oh-soo, contains a "Judgment" card and a note made of syllables cut out of magazines, reading "The truth will not set your friends free" and a reference to the section of the constitution that says that all people are equal before the law. The other, for lawyer Kwon, contains a second "Judgment" card and (unless I'm mistaken) a knife.

Mr. X then apparently leaves a keycard outside Lawyer Kwon's office.

Mr. Kwon believes the delivery is from Jo Dong-seop, who has been calling him about his old grievance.

Later that evening, Mr. Kwon is eating with Oh-soo's father and elder brother when he gets a call from Oh Seung-ha (who worked for him for six months in the past). According to Seung-ha, Kwon just said to call him back at 10 pm. But according to Oh Heui-soo, Kwon didn't say anything like that, and was very disturbed by the call.

Still later, Jo Dong-seup arrived at Kwon's office, picked up the key card, and let himself in (with Kwon present). We saw some of what happened in Ep. 1. Dong-seup apparently believed that Kwon had called him to come there, but apparently Kwon didn't. They get in an argument. (At this moment, Seung-ha calls Kwon and, when he doesn't answer, leaves a text message.) Kwon tells him to leave and picks up the knife; Dong-seup dares him to use it. That was all we saw in Ep. 1, but in Ep. 2 (through Hae-in's vision) we saw that they got in a physical struggle and Kwon was stabbed. Dong-seup leaves, and (we saw this in Ep. 1) encounters Seung-ha.

Then, around midnight, someone (unknown) calls the police to report the murder.

The police begin investigating Dong-seup; apparently he got letters in prison, but they can't find out from whom. Dong-seup is next seen (in Ep. 2) hanging around the church where Seung-ha is doing volunteer work; eventually he apparently tells his story to Seung-ha, and at the end of Ep. 2 he has surrendered to the police, but won't tell them anything, and Seung-ha appears as his lawyer.

Also, because of the connection between Lawyer Kwon and the Kang family, and because the card was sent to Detective Kang, Team leader Ban has Oh-soo check up on whether anybody has a grudge against the Kang family. He hasn't turned up anything so far.

The mysterious Yeong-cheol

We know very little about this guy, except that in episode 1 a third copy of the "Judgment" card was seen in his possession.

In episode 2, a shady old buddy of Oh-soo, Dae-shik, is trying to collect money on a debt from a woman. Just as he is calling her and telling her that it wouldn't be good for her daughter Sora's health to be obstinate, Yeong-cheol appears and finds the little girl sitting alone at the playground, tells her he's her friend, and gives her a stuffed animal. Creepy stuff.

The second tarot card

A second card is delivered to Detective Kang. This time it is the "Justice" card (not to be confused with the "Judgment" card). It has another cut-and-paste note: "All points form a whole. Each and every one of them move closely together."

Hae-in's involvement

Oh-soo started talking to Hae-in while tracking the tarot card angle of the Kwon murder. It was Ban who told him about her "psychometric" powers and how she found a serial killer 6 years ago. At the end of Ep. 1, she is trying to "read" Kang's "Judgment" card, and she sees Mr. X in black gloves pasting up the message, and a man whose face is obscured. At the beginning of Ep. 2, she sees the man's face, and it is Oh-soo himself! This is not to say that he sent himself the note, but maybe it speaks to his deeper involvement in the case.

Hae-in doesn't want to help Oh-soo after that, because of his impolite manner, but he sends her a plant and wins her cooperation. She does a reading on the knife and has a vision of the struggle between Kwon and Dong-seop, and identifies him from a photograph.

The mysterious Seung-ha

He keeps turning up where Hae-in is. He has turned up twice at the library where she works, babbling about M. Scott Peck's book "The People of the Lie" and talking about how "EVIL" and "LIVE" are spelled backwards in English. When he shook hands with her in the first episode, she had a strong reaction, but we haven't seen the basis of this. Also, he has been doing volunteer work at Hae-in's mother's church.

The weirdest thing so far, though, is this. In Ep. 2 Seung-ha's elder brother comes in from the country, and they talk about the family, and the brother gives Seung-ha a picture of the two of them, from 12 years ago, which Seung-ha has asked for. They mention that this is the only copy of the picture. Later on in the episode, sitting in the dark, by candlelight, Seung-ha sets fire to this picture and smiles as it burns! Now, THAT is spooky.

[Soju]

I am downloading this show, along with subtitles, since the picture quality is a lot better than what WOCH broadcasts.

Anyway, last night I watched eps 8 and 9, and, just as in ep 7, for every question answered, two more were raised. One potential suspect seems to become a potential victim, a character who's kind of been in the background becomes suspicious, and another suspect is cleared . . . or is he?

As you watch this ep, you start getting the feeling, especially toward the end, that you're getting a handle on things, when suddenly, in the last scene, Lawyer O meets someone (his sister?) we haven't seen before. How will she figure into things?

It made me realize that this show is not even at the halfway point yet, and there's going to be lots more twists and turns as things move along. This is definitely a show where you don't want to miss a single episode!

[brenda]

thanks soju,

just when I thought I was getting close after episode 7! I can't, (but I have no choice to), wait.

where are, or I should say on what are you watching it that you're a week ahead of ch41?

[gpaul]

It seems to me that last nights episode answered a lot of my questions. Seunga-Ha is the younger brother of Taehoon (the boy that was killed), and the strange, quiet man with the glasses (I don't remember his name) was being bullied by Osu . Taehoon approached Osu to leave him alone, unfortunately the situation got out of control. In my mind I think that Seung-Ha is possibly the person responsible for the killings, but it is to early in the series to make that assumption.
By the way, I bought a set of the drama on Ebay because I feel like I am missing too much of the story. I hope the subtitles are good. When I get it I will start watching it again from the beginning and I will probably have it finished before everyone else. Don't worry I will not give away the ending.

[Soju]

Brenda -

I am downloading them from a Korean file-hosting service. You can read more about this on Soompi. The subtitles I get from D-Addicts. These "Fansubs" are done by dedicated amateurs (in the best sense of the word), and are very good. These are what humblestudent is using for his recaps.

The videos are apparently recorded by someone in Korea during the original broadcast there. Since they were from KBS-HD, they are in the wide-screen format, rather than the more square format that KBS-World provides. Note that the videos are not Hi-Def themselves, just wide-screen.

You can watch these on your computer, or, if you have a DVD player that plays .AVI or DivX files and a DVD burner on your computer, you can burn them to DVD-R and watch them on your TV. That is what I do.

There are a few negatives. To use the file-hosting system, you need to install a special downloading software on your computer. This is all in Korean, so it can be quite puzzling. It is free, though. There is a how-to on Soompi, which helps. The videos can take a V E R Y long time to download, and sometimes they aren't available, so you have to keep trying.

You can also get the files by using a Torrent, which I am totally clueless about. Maybe some young person can explain it.

I had a peculiar issue with episode 11, though. Since these are recorded as broadcast by KBS, this ep features Korean election returns running across the bottom part of the screen for almost the entire show. Oh well!

[brenda]

thanks a lot soju, but i'm worse off than you can imagine.

I don't even have a real computer. i'm using a palm treo for this. I can't add smilies like you guys can, hence the "in the dark".

I do appreciate all the info, though. I kind of figured there was a lot more to the recaps & posts, but I always loved it when someone would read stories & I would sit & listen to them.

thanks to humblestudent2 , I feel young again, (laughing smiley)!

[Soju]

Whoa!

Lots of big revelations and discoveries in eps 13 and 14. Then I think about how much more there is: six more eps. That's an eternity in this show.

This from ep 14 sums up my sentiments exactly:

[stacey]

OMG, I really enjoyed this show and could not have guessed the ending....keep watching by all means.