Post by humblestudent2 on Sept 13, 2007 21:31:19 GMT -5
Episode 11 recap
Beginning Friday evening, Day 16
"The inquisitive reporter"
As you will recall, in Episode 10 reporter Seong Joon-p'yo had turned up a crucial piece of information: he has learned that the Jeong Tae-seong (the brother of Jeong Tae-Hoon, whom Oh-Soo killed in high school) is alive - and is practicing law under the name of Oh Seung-ha. Joon-p'yo has inferred, naturally enough, that Oh Seung-ha must be the mastermind behind the tarot cards, the murders, and all the events that are afflicting the people he holds responsible for Tae-hoon's death.
Now he runs into Detective Kang Oh-soo who has been staking out Joon-p'yo's own apartment and - he doesn't tell him any of this. He just takes the opportunity to taunt him obscurely, telling him he is fighting a dead man, and then calls him a murderer. He provokes Oh-soo to the point that Oh-soo actually slugs him, which just makes Joon-p'yo happy, because it supports his most negative prejudices against the entire Kang family. When Oh-soo says he's risking his own life, Joon-p'yo responds that "I'm more afraid of you than of him, because you've actually murdered somebody." He even denies that he received a tarot card - he claims that the package which Oh-soo has traced to him was empty!
Meanwhile, however, Joon-p'yo's recklessness earlier in the day has provoked Oh-soo's ruthless father, magnate/politician Kang Dong-hyeon, to take notice of him; as Joon-p'yo confronts Oh-soo in the corridor, Dong-hyeon has already gotten in touch with his old criminal buddy, Boss Kyeon. Seok-jin drives Mr. Kang to a meeting place on some road somewhere, and waits outside the car while Kyeon gets in and converses privately with Mr. Kang. He tells Kyeon that he has a problem that he wants watched - just watched, for now.
Accordingly, as Joon-p'yo, the next day, tries to find pictures of Jeong Tae-seong in the school records - they've been removed, of course - Boss Kyeon shows up outside his apartment, and two underlings go in to check if he's home - we don't see what they do, maybe they bug the place or tap the phone?
A night of memories
Shaken after his recent confrontations with Joon-p'yo and Kim Yeong-cheol (the previous night, at the subway station), Oh-soo goes out to a red-tent bar and communes with his flashbacks. He remembers how after knifing Jeong Tae-hoon he went to his father and told him that he was going to tell the truth and that it was an accident ("sago").* His father didn't believe it was an accident and wouldn't have any part of his telling the truth either - he ordered Oh-soo to keep his mouth shut and that he would hush everything up. Oh-soo remembers that he was at the point of throwing himself off a bridge, but couldn't do it.
Oh-soo then goes to Hae-in's place and hangs around outside for a bit, but doesn't bother her.
Meanwhile Oh Seung-ha (let's call him that) is sitting alone in his apartment with his thoughts, looking at a picture of his youthful self and the real Seung-ha, dead these 12 years under the name of Tae-seong. "I miss you, Seung-ha," he murmurs. Other thoughts come to mind too - thoughts of Hae-in (who, remember, he spent the afternoon taking care of at the hospital after she fainted while doing a reading on the Dante volume). He remembers her words about how the mastermind wants to be found, is waiting in a dark tunnel for his sister to rescue him.
However, suppose the brother in the tunnel doesn't want to be found just yet? Suppose he wants to stay in the cold and dark, to finish his work of revenge? Seung-ha goes out for a drive, apparently to stiffen his own resolve.** He goes to the scene of his brother Tae-hoon's murder. At midnight, surrounded by the old 12-year old trailers full of 1994 Hyundais etc., he has his own series of flashbacks:
- The day when he and Tae-hoon planned to buy a ring and a music box for their mother's birthday. Tae-hoon was also planning to buy a bunch of peppermint candy, which their mother uses as a digestive - she apparently has a medical condition - Tae-hoon intends to get her some medical treatment with the money from his part-time job. They stand in front of a music store and listen to Tae-hoon's favorite song, "Over the Rainbow", on the speaker.
- The night of the killing - a grim scene at the hospital - Tae-seong and his mother both distraught.
- A dark city street the night of his mother's death (we know this to be four months later, the day of Oh-soo's own court appearance). Tae-seong is on one side of the street - his mother is on the other - she walks out toward him, apparently in a dazed condition, right into the path of a panel truck.***
- The young Tae-seong scatters his mother's ashes at the base of the tree that also marks Tae-hoon's resting place. A look of cold determination comes into his eyes.
The next day, Seung-ha goes by the library and invites Hae-in out for a nice lunch. She agrees, but insists on paying, and takes her to a nice restaurant. Afterwards, as they walk together on a cool day under the cherry blossoms, Hae-in rubs her chilly hands together. Seung-ha considers taking her hands in his. After some thought, he doesn't. He clenches his fist and puts it in his pocket. Then, as they part, she says "let's do this again," but he says, politely, "I won't eat lunch with you again." And he walks off, with his clenched fist clearly visible.
"Another intimate gathering of old friends"
Hae-in arrives at the library and finds Oh-soo sitting on the steps, asleep. She tells Oh-soo about her vision from the Dante volume: a second package, sent at the same time as Joon-p'yo's "moon" card, this one containing a photograph of a woman (Na-Heui).. She lets slip that she fainted and was taken to the hospital. Oh-soo orders her to go home and rest after work and not do any more readings, and gives her a police whistle for her protection.
Working from the details of Hae-in’s vision in the last episode, Oh-soo and Min-jae go around looking for street construction locales in front of convenience stores, and once again they hit paydirt - they find that the package was sent to Soon-ki. This time, the sender used his white hair and sunglasses disguise.
Meanwhile, Soon-ki goes to the hotel and barges into Heui-soo's office, over Seok-jin's objections, and, in front of Seok'jin, pesters Heui-soo for an introduction to his wife, whom he thinks he "may have seen somewhere." Heui-soo of course wants nothing more to do with Soon-ki and chases him off. But when Seok-jin catches up with Soon-ki outside, Soon-ki gets down to business: he tells Seok-jin that he knows about his affair with his boss's wife, says he has proof (so far as I know this is a lie, until/unless the mastermind sends him a photo to replace the one that Seok-jin destroyed), and he tells him he wants the Jeju casino job. Seok-jin accuses Soon-ki of being behind the pictures and taekbaes and Dae-shik's death; Soon-ki, who wants to pretend that he has more evidence than he does, doesn't deny it.
(Meanwhile, Heui-soo calls Na-heui and tells her he has cancelled his business plans for that evening and wants to go out with her to a restaurant. He then stares thoughtfully out the window for a while.)
Now Oh-soo arranges a meeting with Soon-ki and Seok-jin at the tarot café. They both show up and they both lie to Oh-soo and don't tell him anything useful about the red envelopes or the photos. Pressed by Oh-soo, Soon-ki angrily warns him that he saw the killing of Tae-hoon, it was not an accident, the statute of limitations has not expired, and so Oh-soo had better lay off. Oh-soo has learned one thing, though: Soon-ki clearly was unfamiliar with the café, which means that (despite Seok-jin's renewed accusations) Soon-ki cannot be the mastermind himself.
Meanwhile, Hae-in, coming by the café, sees Soon-ki on his way out and recognizes him as the man in her recent visions. Furthermore, she trails him from there as he goes to confront Kim Yeong-cheol. Soon-ki wants to satisfy himself that Yeong-cheol really is not the mastermind himself, and he does; he warns Yeong-cheol that "Oh-soo probably doesn't know why you never told the truth, but I do" (but we don’t) and reminds him that "Our mothers are pretty close - I'll visit her restaurant one of these days." Hae-in doesn't overhear this, of course, but she does see that Soon-ki seems to be threatening Yeong-cheol, and she reports all this back to Oh-soo, who figures out that it is indeed Soon-ki she saw.
"The Tower"
On returning to his office, after his lunch with Hae-in, what does Oh Seung-ha get? He gets a t'aekbae package himself. In the package is a yellow envelope containing a tarot card - "The Tower." Seung-ha coolly considers this development. He does not seem to have sent it himself.
(Since Hae-in is not around to interpret this card, let me do what I can, drawing on Wikipedia. The traditional tower card shows a castle tower which has been struck by lighting and is aflame; two people are falling from it. Hae-in's version looks very 9/11-ish, at least at 56K - the tower itself looks like the Hancock building, only pink. "To some, it symbolizes failure, ruin and catastrophe. To others, the Tower represents the Paradigms constructed by the Ego, the sum total of all Schema that the mind constructs to understand the universe. The Tower is struck by lightning when Reality does not conform to expectation.")
Later in the evening, Seung-ha is sitting in the twilight, looking over the "Tower" card; "I gave you a choice," he murmurs, "and this is what you chose." Then, Seung-ha calls his brother Soo-gon**** and tells him that he has to put off his trip to bring Sora out to stay with him because some things have come up. This is okay with Soo-gon, who is still cleaning junk out of the guest room. (After he gets off the phone, he is moving some old magazines when he turns up a duplicate of the old picture that we saw in Episode 2 of himself and Seung-ha. Remember, he had thought the one he gave to Seung-ha (which Seung-ha burned) was the only copy. He stands this one up on a shelf.*****)
Seung-ha then calls Oh-soo and wants to meet him and tell him something. Now, after the café business, Oh-soo got a call from his father to come home and talk about the case. When he got home, his father ordered him to get off the case, quit the force, and go and stay with his mother in the country.****** "The more you try to solve it, the bigger a problem it is!" Dong-hyeon declared. Oh-soo wouldn't get off the case, and went off to get drunk.
So when Seung-ha arrives at the bar where Oh-soo is, he has already gone through three big green bottles of soju and is working hard on the fourth. Is this even possible??? Why isn't he dead??? "Why don't you get off the case?" asks Seung-ha, who actually seems like he might even be concerned for Oh-soo a little bit. Oh-soo tells him he wants to meet the guy behind all this and look into his face. "And what will you tell him?" asks Seung-ha. "That I'm sure he was born a good guy, but I made him a bad guy." Anyway, Oh-soo vows to find him and bring him to court no matter what. Seung-ha, in a philosophical mood, opines that people are brought down by their own strongest points, "like Oedipus" (another character from literature whom Oh-soo is unfamiliar with) who "could have prevented a greater tragedy" if his will had been weaker, "but he didn't give up. Just like you ... your persistent competitiveness is your strong point." Seung-ha then excuses himself, saying he has a trial date tomorrow. *******
Oh-soo then goes over to Hae-in's house, she comes out and tries to console him, but he is in a miserable state. But Seung-ha goes home and takes a shower, and if he is having doubts about himself as he looks at his reflection, he is controlling his feelings much more successfully. Then his doorbell rings. It's Joon-p'yo with a big, smug grin on his face.
"What are you doing here at this hour?" Seung-ha asks with great courtesy.
"I think we should introduce ourselves again - (Mr. lawyer) Jeong Tae-seong-pyeonhosa-nim!"
If this is supposed to terrify or impress Seung-ha, it doesn't work. He silently observes Joon-p'yo with a genuine-looking but not nice smile on his face, looking like a man who has successfully lured his opponent into a bad play.
End of Episode: Late Saturday(?) night, Day 17.
Well, nobody died this week, so you have another chance at the poll!
* It's interesting that Oh-soo keeps saying that it was an "accident", and was devastated when his father refused to believe him, because it sure didn't look like an accident in the flashbacks. But does the word "sago" mean something different than the English "accident" would mean? Maybe it means "unpremeditated action" or something? I wonder if the writers have read Camus' "The Stranger". Would the killing in that novel be a "sago"?
** In another great revenge story with similarities in structure, Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo", the hero visits his old jail cell with a similar motive.
*** I was entirely ready to see the mother get run down by Mr. Kang's limo. This scene was not readily understandable to me - I don't know if the mother was dazed, or ill, or trying to come to Tae-seong's assistance, or even deliberately committing suicide. What were other people's reactions?
**** We don't know enough about Soo-gon's position in the Oh family to start to answer questions like "how come he never noticed he had a different brother?" My theory is that he is a late addition, a stepbrother, and we know from earlier that they've had little contact for the last 12 years. Anyway there is plenty of time left for more flashbacks....
***** It'll be interesting if Hae-in gets hold of it, no?
****** This is the first I recall it being mentioned that his mother is even alive!
******* I hope not - tomorrow is Sunday by my calendar!!!
Beginning Friday evening, Day 16
"The inquisitive reporter"
As you will recall, in Episode 10 reporter Seong Joon-p'yo had turned up a crucial piece of information: he has learned that the Jeong Tae-seong (the brother of Jeong Tae-Hoon, whom Oh-Soo killed in high school) is alive - and is practicing law under the name of Oh Seung-ha. Joon-p'yo has inferred, naturally enough, that Oh Seung-ha must be the mastermind behind the tarot cards, the murders, and all the events that are afflicting the people he holds responsible for Tae-hoon's death.
Now he runs into Detective Kang Oh-soo who has been staking out Joon-p'yo's own apartment and - he doesn't tell him any of this. He just takes the opportunity to taunt him obscurely, telling him he is fighting a dead man, and then calls him a murderer. He provokes Oh-soo to the point that Oh-soo actually slugs him, which just makes Joon-p'yo happy, because it supports his most negative prejudices against the entire Kang family. When Oh-soo says he's risking his own life, Joon-p'yo responds that "I'm more afraid of you than of him, because you've actually murdered somebody." He even denies that he received a tarot card - he claims that the package which Oh-soo has traced to him was empty!
Meanwhile, however, Joon-p'yo's recklessness earlier in the day has provoked Oh-soo's ruthless father, magnate/politician Kang Dong-hyeon, to take notice of him; as Joon-p'yo confronts Oh-soo in the corridor, Dong-hyeon has already gotten in touch with his old criminal buddy, Boss Kyeon. Seok-jin drives Mr. Kang to a meeting place on some road somewhere, and waits outside the car while Kyeon gets in and converses privately with Mr. Kang. He tells Kyeon that he has a problem that he wants watched - just watched, for now.
Accordingly, as Joon-p'yo, the next day, tries to find pictures of Jeong Tae-seong in the school records - they've been removed, of course - Boss Kyeon shows up outside his apartment, and two underlings go in to check if he's home - we don't see what they do, maybe they bug the place or tap the phone?
A night of memories
Shaken after his recent confrontations with Joon-p'yo and Kim Yeong-cheol (the previous night, at the subway station), Oh-soo goes out to a red-tent bar and communes with his flashbacks. He remembers how after knifing Jeong Tae-hoon he went to his father and told him that he was going to tell the truth and that it was an accident ("sago").* His father didn't believe it was an accident and wouldn't have any part of his telling the truth either - he ordered Oh-soo to keep his mouth shut and that he would hush everything up. Oh-soo remembers that he was at the point of throwing himself off a bridge, but couldn't do it.
Oh-soo then goes to Hae-in's place and hangs around outside for a bit, but doesn't bother her.
Meanwhile Oh Seung-ha (let's call him that) is sitting alone in his apartment with his thoughts, looking at a picture of his youthful self and the real Seung-ha, dead these 12 years under the name of Tae-seong. "I miss you, Seung-ha," he murmurs. Other thoughts come to mind too - thoughts of Hae-in (who, remember, he spent the afternoon taking care of at the hospital after she fainted while doing a reading on the Dante volume). He remembers her words about how the mastermind wants to be found, is waiting in a dark tunnel for his sister to rescue him.
However, suppose the brother in the tunnel doesn't want to be found just yet? Suppose he wants to stay in the cold and dark, to finish his work of revenge? Seung-ha goes out for a drive, apparently to stiffen his own resolve.** He goes to the scene of his brother Tae-hoon's murder. At midnight, surrounded by the old 12-year old trailers full of 1994 Hyundais etc., he has his own series of flashbacks:
- The day when he and Tae-hoon planned to buy a ring and a music box for their mother's birthday. Tae-hoon was also planning to buy a bunch of peppermint candy, which their mother uses as a digestive - she apparently has a medical condition - Tae-hoon intends to get her some medical treatment with the money from his part-time job. They stand in front of a music store and listen to Tae-hoon's favorite song, "Over the Rainbow", on the speaker.
- The night of the killing - a grim scene at the hospital - Tae-seong and his mother both distraught.
- A dark city street the night of his mother's death (we know this to be four months later, the day of Oh-soo's own court appearance). Tae-seong is on one side of the street - his mother is on the other - she walks out toward him, apparently in a dazed condition, right into the path of a panel truck.***
- The young Tae-seong scatters his mother's ashes at the base of the tree that also marks Tae-hoon's resting place. A look of cold determination comes into his eyes.
The next day, Seung-ha goes by the library and invites Hae-in out for a nice lunch. She agrees, but insists on paying, and takes her to a nice restaurant. Afterwards, as they walk together on a cool day under the cherry blossoms, Hae-in rubs her chilly hands together. Seung-ha considers taking her hands in his. After some thought, he doesn't. He clenches his fist and puts it in his pocket. Then, as they part, she says "let's do this again," but he says, politely, "I won't eat lunch with you again." And he walks off, with his clenched fist clearly visible.
"Another intimate gathering of old friends"
Hae-in arrives at the library and finds Oh-soo sitting on the steps, asleep. She tells Oh-soo about her vision from the Dante volume: a second package, sent at the same time as Joon-p'yo's "moon" card, this one containing a photograph of a woman (Na-Heui).. She lets slip that she fainted and was taken to the hospital. Oh-soo orders her to go home and rest after work and not do any more readings, and gives her a police whistle for her protection.
Working from the details of Hae-in’s vision in the last episode, Oh-soo and Min-jae go around looking for street construction locales in front of convenience stores, and once again they hit paydirt - they find that the package was sent to Soon-ki. This time, the sender used his white hair and sunglasses disguise.
Meanwhile, Soon-ki goes to the hotel and barges into Heui-soo's office, over Seok-jin's objections, and, in front of Seok'jin, pesters Heui-soo for an introduction to his wife, whom he thinks he "may have seen somewhere." Heui-soo of course wants nothing more to do with Soon-ki and chases him off. But when Seok-jin catches up with Soon-ki outside, Soon-ki gets down to business: he tells Seok-jin that he knows about his affair with his boss's wife, says he has proof (so far as I know this is a lie, until/unless the mastermind sends him a photo to replace the one that Seok-jin destroyed), and he tells him he wants the Jeju casino job. Seok-jin accuses Soon-ki of being behind the pictures and taekbaes and Dae-shik's death; Soon-ki, who wants to pretend that he has more evidence than he does, doesn't deny it.
(Meanwhile, Heui-soo calls Na-heui and tells her he has cancelled his business plans for that evening and wants to go out with her to a restaurant. He then stares thoughtfully out the window for a while.)
Now Oh-soo arranges a meeting with Soon-ki and Seok-jin at the tarot café. They both show up and they both lie to Oh-soo and don't tell him anything useful about the red envelopes or the photos. Pressed by Oh-soo, Soon-ki angrily warns him that he saw the killing of Tae-hoon, it was not an accident, the statute of limitations has not expired, and so Oh-soo had better lay off. Oh-soo has learned one thing, though: Soon-ki clearly was unfamiliar with the café, which means that (despite Seok-jin's renewed accusations) Soon-ki cannot be the mastermind himself.
Meanwhile, Hae-in, coming by the café, sees Soon-ki on his way out and recognizes him as the man in her recent visions. Furthermore, she trails him from there as he goes to confront Kim Yeong-cheol. Soon-ki wants to satisfy himself that Yeong-cheol really is not the mastermind himself, and he does; he warns Yeong-cheol that "Oh-soo probably doesn't know why you never told the truth, but I do" (but we don’t) and reminds him that "Our mothers are pretty close - I'll visit her restaurant one of these days." Hae-in doesn't overhear this, of course, but she does see that Soon-ki seems to be threatening Yeong-cheol, and she reports all this back to Oh-soo, who figures out that it is indeed Soon-ki she saw.
"The Tower"
On returning to his office, after his lunch with Hae-in, what does Oh Seung-ha get? He gets a t'aekbae package himself. In the package is a yellow envelope containing a tarot card - "The Tower." Seung-ha coolly considers this development. He does not seem to have sent it himself.
(Since Hae-in is not around to interpret this card, let me do what I can, drawing on Wikipedia. The traditional tower card shows a castle tower which has been struck by lighting and is aflame; two people are falling from it. Hae-in's version looks very 9/11-ish, at least at 56K - the tower itself looks like the Hancock building, only pink. "To some, it symbolizes failure, ruin and catastrophe. To others, the Tower represents the Paradigms constructed by the Ego, the sum total of all Schema that the mind constructs to understand the universe. The Tower is struck by lightning when Reality does not conform to expectation.")
Later in the evening, Seung-ha is sitting in the twilight, looking over the "Tower" card; "I gave you a choice," he murmurs, "and this is what you chose." Then, Seung-ha calls his brother Soo-gon**** and tells him that he has to put off his trip to bring Sora out to stay with him because some things have come up. This is okay with Soo-gon, who is still cleaning junk out of the guest room. (After he gets off the phone, he is moving some old magazines when he turns up a duplicate of the old picture that we saw in Episode 2 of himself and Seung-ha. Remember, he had thought the one he gave to Seung-ha (which Seung-ha burned) was the only copy. He stands this one up on a shelf.*****)
Seung-ha then calls Oh-soo and wants to meet him and tell him something. Now, after the café business, Oh-soo got a call from his father to come home and talk about the case. When he got home, his father ordered him to get off the case, quit the force, and go and stay with his mother in the country.****** "The more you try to solve it, the bigger a problem it is!" Dong-hyeon declared. Oh-soo wouldn't get off the case, and went off to get drunk.
So when Seung-ha arrives at the bar where Oh-soo is, he has already gone through three big green bottles of soju and is working hard on the fourth. Is this even possible??? Why isn't he dead??? "Why don't you get off the case?" asks Seung-ha, who actually seems like he might even be concerned for Oh-soo a little bit. Oh-soo tells him he wants to meet the guy behind all this and look into his face. "And what will you tell him?" asks Seung-ha. "That I'm sure he was born a good guy, but I made him a bad guy." Anyway, Oh-soo vows to find him and bring him to court no matter what. Seung-ha, in a philosophical mood, opines that people are brought down by their own strongest points, "like Oedipus" (another character from literature whom Oh-soo is unfamiliar with) who "could have prevented a greater tragedy" if his will had been weaker, "but he didn't give up. Just like you ... your persistent competitiveness is your strong point." Seung-ha then excuses himself, saying he has a trial date tomorrow. *******
Oh-soo then goes over to Hae-in's house, she comes out and tries to console him, but he is in a miserable state. But Seung-ha goes home and takes a shower, and if he is having doubts about himself as he looks at his reflection, he is controlling his feelings much more successfully. Then his doorbell rings. It's Joon-p'yo with a big, smug grin on his face.
"What are you doing here at this hour?" Seung-ha asks with great courtesy.
"I think we should introduce ourselves again - (Mr. lawyer) Jeong Tae-seong-pyeonhosa-nim!"
If this is supposed to terrify or impress Seung-ha, it doesn't work. He silently observes Joon-p'yo with a genuine-looking but not nice smile on his face, looking like a man who has successfully lured his opponent into a bad play.
End of Episode: Late Saturday(?) night, Day 17.
Well, nobody died this week, so you have another chance at the poll!
* It's interesting that Oh-soo keeps saying that it was an "accident", and was devastated when his father refused to believe him, because it sure didn't look like an accident in the flashbacks. But does the word "sago" mean something different than the English "accident" would mean? Maybe it means "unpremeditated action" or something? I wonder if the writers have read Camus' "The Stranger". Would the killing in that novel be a "sago"?
** In another great revenge story with similarities in structure, Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo", the hero visits his old jail cell with a similar motive.
*** I was entirely ready to see the mother get run down by Mr. Kang's limo. This scene was not readily understandable to me - I don't know if the mother was dazed, or ill, or trying to come to Tae-seong's assistance, or even deliberately committing suicide. What were other people's reactions?
**** We don't know enough about Soo-gon's position in the Oh family to start to answer questions like "how come he never noticed he had a different brother?" My theory is that he is a late addition, a stepbrother, and we know from earlier that they've had little contact for the last 12 years. Anyway there is plenty of time left for more flashbacks....
***** It'll be interesting if Hae-in gets hold of it, no?
****** This is the first I recall it being mentioned that his mother is even alive!
******* I hope not - tomorrow is Sunday by my calendar!!!
