I know that @phoenix, @rori0711, @goyangi posted questions (I hope they’re questions, and not paeans to HyunBin’s dimples, lol) but I’ll read them later, okay?

I self-identify as a pink flamingo today and I can’t focus well when you’re all raising good points.

Oli’s questions: 

Q: Why was Jin Woo a bug too & regardless of the answer why did he accept to be deleted as well since he got rid of the 3 previous bugs and had no NPC terrorizing him anymore? He could simply ask to shut down the server and live his life, no?

According to his voiceover (and his reconstruction of the events) the first recorded glitch occurred at “the moment Marco stabbed SJ with a real knife in front of Emma.”

Jinwoo couldn’t explain Marco’s death because he wasn’t there. Although SeJoo was THERE, he didn’t know exactly what happened and/or was too traumatized to give a truthful accounting now.

JW assumed that he too was a bug because he was the one who stabbed HS. As far as NPC Emma was concerned his action was a violent act between two users not allowed in the game … similar to what happened to Marco and SJ.

NOTE: JW = Zinu. But at the game level, Zinu is the bug carrier. Zinu was stabbed but if Jinwoo could have born the pain (at least, until the debugging was completed), then he could have survived the stabbing while the bug-carrier Zinu was erased. The problem with the other 3 bugs (HS, Prof Cha and Sec Seo) was that they only existed in the virtual world as NPC. When the bug was deleted, there was no body there anyway. With Jinwoo, when the bug-carrier Zinu was eliminated, the physical and real JinWoo was still there.

However, on  a real world/non-game level, JW considered himself, along with Prof Cha, to be bugs, too.

That’s what he told Prof Cha in Episode 15, that they were bugs because they caused problems. And he said this after listening to Prof Cha ridicule SuJin for not committing suicide properly. She was indecisive, he said.

For Prof Cha, it was all about his personal honor and glory. SuJin messed up his reputation with her scandal and now her botched suicide. JW knew that the blame game was on. Prof Cha was looking to blame, first Sujin and next him for the mess they were all in.

Now, remember what Jinwoo said to HyunSuk when they were about to duel to death?

He told HS, “Those who betrayed their kings had the same excuse as you. For the people, my ass. The excuses you’re making is proof that you’re a traitor. Traitors constantly spit out dirty excuses. Why? Because they want to hide how dirty and cowardly they are. That’s why you said when you tanked our company. You wanted us to have more vision, but you’re leaving because I’m the problem.”

And now, he was listening to Prof Cha, the man he had looked up to, blame others and play the victim.

When you think about this, that’s the reason Prof Cha chose JW over his own son. He thought JW was the “better”one who would take his responsibilities and duties seriously. lol. He picked loyalties or people based on who can achieve the best results as if he could apply economic theories on his relationship. Thus, he despised SuJin for her incompetence in self-termination, and he accused JW of failing his quest.

But JW corrected him. He said that he accomplished his mission but another bigger and unforeseen problem came up. Then, he self-identified himself as a “bug” (not a pink flamingo, like me.)  

He said, “Another problem surfaced…A very bad one. Something that will affect both our lives…I already told you. We will survive together and die together. We’re allies. That’s why I haven’t been able to decide. Whether I should die with you or survive with you. (“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” said Prof Cha.) I’m saying that we’re the issue. Both in reality and in the game. We’re like a bug in a game that causes problems. In order for everything to get back to normal, we must be eliminated first.”

As fastidious as Prof Cha was, I think it was a blow to his pride to be considered a bug. Jinwoo should have called him a “thief of joy” instead. Elegant and sarcastic at the same time.   

 

We could see how Prof Cha was a villain, but JW?!! How was he a villain?

Well, in his eyes, he was a villain. For one, the weight of guilt for his role in the deaths of HS and Sec Seo must bear hard on him.

For another, the way he lived his life hadn’t been squeaky clean. Remember? He wanted to avenge HS’ stealing his wife so badly that he he stopped at nothing to get that program. The acquisition of Hostel Bonita was legit but he entered that contract with the intent to fool HeeJoo. Then, when he already succeeded in signing a contract with HJ, he couldn’t leave well enough alone. He HAD to to rub his success in HyunSuk’s face and goad him into a duel. He even bragged about totally destroying HS. “How childish!” as HeeJoo said.

So yup, JW was a bug.

BUT why couldn’t he have fixed a bug like this?? Why???

Q: Why did he accept to be deleted as well since he got rid of the 3 previous bugs and had no NPC terrorizing him anymore? He could simply ask to shut down the server and live his life, no?

In terms of the game, the game wouldn’t reset as long as a bug remained. He knew he was bug numero uno when NPC Emma stabbed him or the primary virus that replicated and spawned the others.

In terms of life lessons, however, JW wouldn’t take the easy way out. He wasn’t a traitor. He wasn’t anything like Prof Cha who proved to be THE real traitor and backstabber all along. He wouldn’t be the one to walk away from his responsibility and to shirk his duties.

Remember in Episode 11 when he was branded by Prof as a traitor?

Prof Cha said, “You’re all taking turns turning my life into a garbage. I want you to stop giving orders to the employees. No one’s going to listen to you anymore. You’ll get fired soon, so no one will do as you say. Remember this. You’re the one who betrayed our trust. You’re the traitor.”

Back then, Jinwoo recalled Prof Cha also accusing HS of being a traitor. “You’re the one who’s leaving. Let’s make this one clear. You chose to leave the company. Do you understand? You’re the traitor.”

That was the reason he didn’t flee the country. He told HJ, “They want me to accept one of these: that I have gone mad or I had killed him (Sec Seo). But I can’t because both aren’t true. He asked me to leave but I don’t want to. Leaving would mean that I accept them. If there’s one person that still believes me, I won’t leave.”

I think, for Jinwoo, it had been ingrained that LEAVING meant being a traitor. Like when a soldier who deserts his unit is accused of treason, to leave his company in ruins and his “people” HS, Prof Cha and Sec Seo in that state is an act of a traitor. No matter how bad HyunSik and Prof Cha were to him, he deeply regretted what had become of their relationships, too, and his role in their deaths. And releasing the NPCs (or getting rid of the bugs) was his way of making peace with their memories.

Thus, despite eliminating the three bugs and (probably) being freed from zombie/NPC HyunSuk when the servers are done, I expected Jinwoo to complete the task and reset the game. He wasn’t a traitor who would walk away with his job incomplete and spare himself death when his friend and “family” had been the unwitting sacrifice to the game he played.

I call it noble of him.

Q: Where was he in the meantime?

This was @oli’s actual question. I understand that she was venting. hahaha. It felt like the open ending was there because the writer couldn’t think of a believable reason for JinWoo to come back from being deleted. Or make up one in 1 episode. Sure, we were led to believe only his character was deleted but.. that’s not really true either. He even had the guns when the servers got back online after a year. Where was he in the meantime? Could he see HeeJoo in the church coming so often to the place he disappeared from? That was his instance dungeon for sure, the church, the walls turned in the same way they did when SeJoo activated that feature on the train while being in danger of being killed by Marco. How did he come back? If like SeJoo he was stuck in the game for using the instance dungeon to avoid being killed by Emma when she was deleting the bug or something like that (?? I’m blabbering, I think..) and he released Master from the instance dungeon when he, JinWoo became the new Master.. how did he came back after a year?

@oli, I think he was hidden in this “instance dungeon” or fourth dimension or alternate reality or virtual escape zone/panic room (I don’t know what to call it!) that SeeJoo created when the game was reset. Remember, SJ said he created that space precisely for those times when the master was “in danger.” So definitely, the real Jinwoo (not the NPC Zinu) was transported there. Zinu got deleted, of course, but Jinwoo survived there in the same way that SeeJoo survived for a year in that no-man’s-land for a year.

MY FOLLOW-UP question: But but but how can anybody survive in that space for a year without eating???

Well, just think of it as a limbo or haven/heaven. A minute in heaven could be a year in real time. I wouldn’t be surprised if the writer used this concept of “relativity of time.” When you play a game, you can easily lose track of time, right? Hours could have passed in the real world, but for you who’s focused in the game, it feels like only a minute. So for SeeJoo and Jinwoo, being trapped in the dimension, where TIME does not exist, could have been a relatively short period BUT very prolonged duration in our time.

BTW, Jinwoo knew that SeeJoo had escaped that hidden place. He said so in his narration, “With Se-joo’s return, my long and lonely journey has come to an end.” However, he didn’t have opportunity to talk to Sejoo about what really happened in that alternate dimension of his.

When the new game was launched, he came out of the virtual escape zone and started trying to escape the game world.

I don’t know how he can level up though as he doesn’t have an ID/avatar as ZiNu was deleted. But I’m not worried because:

a. the original creator of the game SeeJoo is there
b. the Programmer is there too. Both of them can figure something out.
c. there’s no bug here to destroy.
d. JinWoo already has the advantage of going through the game once. He knows where the high-level enemies are. Experience counts.
e. with the lenses, HeeJoo and JinWoo can see each other.

Based on Seejoo’s experience, he couldn’t have seen HeeJoo in the church. Remember? SeeJoo didn’t know what was happening outside the real world when he was stuck in that alternate dimension of his. He didn’t know about his sister falling in love with Jinwoo or that Jinwoo was helping him in that span of time while he was gone.

Jinwoo came back when “Next” was launched. The name of the game is interesting. To me, it meant that JW is the next story and his new adventure.

Q: Did he come back? Is he just instanced in the game or is he real in that last scene? Because HeeJoo logged in I think the show was trying to make us believe she could only see him logged in? So he’s still in the game waiting to be released by some new Master?

Yes, in my opinion, he came out. He’s real in that scene. If he had been in that instance dungeon of Seejoo, he would have remained invisible. That’s how SeeJoo explained it, “No one could see me. It’s like we were in the same place, but in a different dimension.” Even if HeeJoo had her lenses on, she wouldn’t have been able to see him, just like JW couldn’t see SJ on the ground in front of him.

Also, the user said that HE saw Jinwoo.

However, since HeeJoo didn’t know what to expect, whether he was in the game or not,  she wasn’t taking any chances of missing him so she put on her lenses. At least that’s how I interpreted that scene. Whether he was stuck in a game or not, she could see him.

And finally remember that just like with Sejoo, the proof that Jinwoo’s alive is that his body is missing.

lol. Catholics should see the obvious reference to Jesus here. According to the bible (Matthew’s gospel, I think), a guard was ordered to guard the tomb so the disciples of Jesus wouldn’t come and steal the body and claim that he had risen from the dead. So, the tomb had a stone blocking it, and a seal placed on the stone, AND a guard guarding the tomb. But despite these precautions, the Jesus’ body went missing.

And since it was missing, he’s ALIVE!! Hmmm… I have to explain the other Christian images used here in this episode.

Like this one. (+100 points for anybody who can identify the image on this stained glass window.)

I don’t think this shot was a fluke. To get THIS particular shot with the sun on the halo, it meant the cameraman timed it.

Plus, this shot tied in well with the next scenes, and the scenes with the other ex-wives, … and the scene in Episode 1.

I’ll tell you later. This is getting too long.  But remind me, okay?

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@phoenix, you’re up next. Where are my cookies?? 😀