This post will be talking about suicide. If you are struggling with this issue, then this kdrama and my blog post on this episode may not be right for you. You may want to watch the show with a trusted and mature friend. Hugs!

What I like most about this kdrama is that it treats suicide like that diabolical murderer that it is. Suicide is a silent and invisible killer, like that Woman in Red. She works her brand of evil by whispering lies and distorting reality. And she seeks out the weakest and darkest minds, as Lee Dae-Il said.

The first suicide case that we saw was that of the teacher Lee Chan Mi. She was mentally ill. Not only did she hear voices to kill the noisy children, she also suffered from visual hallucination. For example, she imagined her superior, the school principal, twisting her neck 180 degrees to scold her for bringing in the noisy children.

She was so sensitive to even the slightest noise, that she was able to hear the sounds from the basement when the children and Lee DaIl were trying to escape, from all the way to the second floor bathroom. Her acute sensitivity to sound overloaded her mental faculties that in the end, the only way she could block off the noise was to cut off her ears. In the end, the Woman in Red convinced her to kill herself by hanging.

After LCM’s suicide, we witnessed the suicide of manager of the restaurant, who sexually harassed YeoWool’s sister. It was his guilty conscience that induced him to crash his car. When he failed to kill himself by crashing the car, he jumped off the building. The Woman in Red was the manifestation of his guilt. She appeared right in front of him to distract him from driving. Then, she appeared again to frighten him to fall off the ledge.

The third suicide account we encounter was Yeo Wool’s sister Yi Rang (YR).

As YW narrated the event, we could see how ambivalent YR was to kill herself.

Even when she stood there with the knife to her throat, she hesitated. She had picked up the knife, but the Woman in Red guided it to her throat. Her hands were trembling, and she was breathing heavily and unevenly. Her eyes looked scared then she closed her eyes as she slashed her throat, as if SHE couldn’t stand to see it.

She quickly regretted her suicide. She warned her sister to never listen to the Woman in Red and to run away far away from her.

From what I understand this ambivalence regarding suicide is felt by many who’ve considered taking away their life. Like YiRang, they feel like they’re in a trance, as if they’re acting on a command to hurt themselves.

For me, this kdrama is most effective because it separated the suicidal thoughts of YiRang from YiRang herself. In personifying suicide as a evil person, the Woman in Red, we the viewers can detach ourselves from emotional angst and observe suicide in action. We see that suicide, like the Woman in Red, is a vicious and manipulative enemy. Both the last words of the sister and Mother were pleas not to listen to the Woman in Red nor believe in her.

In YiRang’s case, there were many reasons that could have led her to decide to kill herself. To list some of them: she was being sexually harassed by her boss, she was socially ostracized by her coworkers, she had traumatic stress witnessing their parents’ death, she believed that she was a burden to her sister, she was suffering from a disability, and now, we just learned in Episode 4 that she had a bad romantic break-up.

The Woman in Red exploited her fragile emotional state and convinced her that suicide was the answer. After her action, she warned YeoWool not to fall for the Woman in Red. She was telling YW not to copy her.

In many ways, YeoWool herself is also at risk for suicide.

First, she hasn’t grieved properly over her sister’s suicide. It’s worrisome that she continues to project such a cheerful personality to the outside world (according to the older detective) when she’s obviously in pain inside. She’s repressing her negative feelings. I thought it was quite telling that the Woman in Red and the Girl pulling the wings off dragonflies asked her, “Are you angry?”

Second, she obsesses over the Woman in Red and relentlessly hounds Detective Park about the case. That’s why Detective Park wants her to take a break. He thinks that she’s emotionally distraught, and probably is at her breaking point, but is still in denial. He’s concerned about her mental health.

Third, she needs to sleep. She’s been running on adrenaline and skipping on sleep. But lack of sleep is a risk factor for suicide.

It also bothers me that she packed her camping gear away and resolved to stay until she caught the Woman in Red. I think it would be better for her mental health to have other social activities and to regain her pleasure in her former pastimes.

Thus, to me, of all the five characters left in kdrama, she’s the most vulnerable to suicide. The traumatic deaths of her sister and parents, when combined with her present state of mind, make her an easy target for the Woman in Red.

Fortunately, Lee Da-Il is aware of her condition and reminds her to take care of herself. In Episode 3, he told her to go home. “Go home and eat. Don’t think too much and get some good sleep.” She said, “I’m not tired nor hungry.” And he replied, “It’s necessary since you’re still alive.”

He’s right. And I think he’s a reliable source of advice because he too is a suicide survivor. I was surprised to learn that his mother also committed suicide but it explained why he went to court to fight for a soldier who committed suicide.

The death of his mother is a unique case of suicide because hers is a sacrificial death. She chose to kill herself so that he would live. Her suicide note for him on the bathroom mirror was very sad, “Dae-Il, Don’t believe what anyone tells you. Don’t believe what that woman tells you. I love you so much.”

However, if we were to analyze her death again, we’d see that it was clearly the Woman in Red who manipulated Dae-Il’s mother into thinking that she had no choice but to die for her son.

Woman: This is boring. So you won’t kill yourself? What will make you die? Your son can die instead of you. I’ll make him resent you and kill himself because you made his life miserable.
Mother: Don’t do that. (The Woman in Red laughs.) Don’t touch my son.
Woman: My dad died when I was 12 because he didn’t want to be a burden. Don’t you think that’s a right decision? So make your decision. Either your son dies or you die here.

The Woman in Red recognized her weak spot, her love for her son, and exploited that selfless, motherly love to convince her to kill herself.

Afterwards, the Woman in Red continues: No one will know what I did to you. Not even your son. Because I don’t exist.

She’s absolutely right. She’s the silent and invisible killer. She doesn’t exist outside the mind of a suicidal person.

That again is the beauty of this show. Since it shows suicide as an outsider, a dangerous and cold-blooded killer, we clearly see how she manipulates her victims to self-destruct. It’s when we listen to her lies, distortions, and hatred that we begin to internalize the destructive enemy within us.