Okay, if you haven’t started on “He’s Psychometric” yet, I’m suggesting you carve out time this weekend to do so. It’s fun to watch.

I’m going to give you a few spoilers on the first 30 minutes of Episode 3 to show you how high school romance, work romance, mystery and fantasy all mixed together can generate an absorbing hour.

1. Erotic dreams

Nothing tells me that I’m no longer watching anodyne shows of KBS, MBC and SBS than an opening scene of a teenager having wet dreams. (Good try, tvN. It still isn’t as smutty as what I’ve seen on Netflix.)

Lee Ahn fantasizes that his classmate and neightbor, JaeIn, is seducing him to do “psychometry” on her with the most sensitive part of the body, his lips. SHE leans in for kiss and

he conveniently stumbles off his bed and wakes up from his dream. He takes out his frustration on his cute stuffed toy. “Why dream this kind of dream?! Are you in middle school? I’m so embarrassed…even though I’m by myself, I’m so embarrassed.”

Methink the guy doth protest too much because he jumps right back on his bed with his lovie, the bear, and ask for Gods of Sleep for the “Next part of the dream, please.” He purses his lips in anticipation of that kiss.

Puberty-schuberty. It’s hard to resist the charms of this clown. He’s appealing not because he’s handsome or witty, but because he’s trustworthy. He doesn’t put on airs and he’s fine being ranked in the bottom percentile (until the last test which he admits cheated on and which raised his class rank to #15). Since he’s comfortable being himself, even at his dumbest moments, he projects a semblance of trustworthiness and safety.

What you see is what you get.

2. Proving her father innocent

While he’s dreaming in his room, the female lead JaeIn is picking at her food at breakfast. She’s replaying the scene last night.

There’s nothing romantic or sexual in her thoughts of Lee Ahn. In fact, she wonders if Lee Ahn can help her out in proving that her dad was framed. But her aunt reasons with her that her dad’s been serving in jail for 11 years. What’s the point of that?

JaeIn bursts into anger, “Why isn’t there a point? If that happens, then dad can confidently say he’s not a murderer and I can also…stop running away for the rest of my life because I’m scared someone would recognize me as a murderer’s daughter.”

This is interesting because 1) she’s been fighting the stigma of being a murderer’s child for the past 11 years and 2) she chooses flight instead of fight. With Lee Ahn, it’s the opposite. He chooses to fight and that’s why he’s known as the “Legendary Lee Ahn” for the brawls he survived on his own.

lol. It would be funny if the real gift of his hands wasn’t the ability to “read” secrets, but the ability to punch people’s lights out.

JaeIn’s aunt then asks her what would she do if she found out that her father actually did start the fire. JaeIn has been so confident that her dad didn’t commit arson which killed multiple people based on the fact that he had been firefighter and the killer stabbed four (hmmm…I thought he killed three?) people.

But her conversation with her aunt shakes her confidence, and when she meets Lee Ahn outside her gate, she retracts her request for help from him.

3. The number of people killed

Now, we’re getting a better idea of the murder scene in Episode 1! There were four people dead.

Here’s what I can tell about that scene:

When the Mean Lady opened the door, she was stabbed under her right rib cage. (She looked down to her right side.) This suggests that man is a lefty. He stabbed her right side with his left hand. This is interesting because he wasn’t aiming for her heart but for the liver. There are other organs in the right side but aiming for the liver would cause hemorrhage and consequently, death, faster than aiming for the gallbladder and intestines. lol.

There were two other people in that apartment. The Mean Lady and her two friends were having tea when the attacker came.

The murderer came with a rolling luggage. He struggled to lift the luggage over the step so that tells me that fourth body must have been in it. He added the fourth body to the other three that he had killed in the Mean Lady’s apartment.

After that he laid down the fourth body with the others, he staged the death scene. He added another cup and saucer to the tea table to make it appear as if four people had come to drink tea together.

However, the problem with the killer (or the set director if HE didn’t notice it, lol) was that he took the wrong cup. Wrong design on the cup.

He also didn’t notice that everything there on the tea table was set for serving THREE people not FOUR, such as three dessert forks, three slices of the white, pink and brown savories, and three sitting mats. Then there were six strawberries and six sesame-encrusted sweet to be divided among three ladies.

The man meticulously rearranged the tea service which is weird as it is because the blaze would have burned all traces of evidence, except perhaps the cups and the dessert forks.

And no, the arsonist couldn’t have been JaeIn’s father because he had no time nor opportunity to set it up.

Not only that, he was on the seventh floor when the fire started. The whole point of the real arsonist and murderer using the microwave to start the fire was that he could be as far away from the scene as possible when the conflagration began.

But JaeIn’s father was still on the seventh floor helping to rescue little Lee Ahn whose elevator was stuck between the seventh and sixth floors.

If I were on this case, I would have checked the CCTVs outside the building. The criminal was most probably one of the spectators watching the blaze…AND admiring his work. The police should scan the CCTV for somebody in the crowd or for someone who left the building hurriedly (and using the fire escape, lol) before the fire started.

4. Rules, rules, rules

JaeIn is the one to set the rules. She tells Lee Ahn that her father’s existence is a secret she doesn’t want him or the others to know, in the same way that Lee Ahn wants his psychometric abilities secret. She orders him to:

1. Pretend that they don’t know each other’s secrets.
2. Not to reveal that they’re neighbors living in a rooftop homes. She’s got pride. She hates being looked down upon and being a topic of ridicule.
3. Not to lay hand on her to find out something or she’ll kill him.

But just as she’s ordering him to keep rule #4, the bus they’re riding on jerks to a stop and we have – bingo! another kdrama trope – she lands in his arms.

She’s worried that he discovers something about him so he reassures her, “Don’t worry. If our skin doesn’t touch, I can’t see anything.” But to me, it appears as if he’s more worried that HE’s beginning to feel something strange for JaeIn other than a mere object of his psychometry. He stares at his hand strangely as if he’s seeing it for the first time.

He senses that she’s feeling awkward so he makes a silly excuse to get off the bus. “As expected, buses aren’t for me. You go first.” And he walks to their school instead.

Awww. I couldn’t help noticing that children’s illustration posted on the bus. It seems to be a mashed-up story of Jack and the Beanstalk with Little Red Riding Hood. Jack extends a helping hand to Little Red Riding Hood. lol. Can you be more obvious, show?

I like guys who are considerate of the girls’ feelings…even if they’re the school dunce like Lee Ahn. He’s such a dumdum that he doesn’t even know that hydrochloric acid is bad. JaeIn warns him of HCl spilt on the counter and his ignorance cracks me up.

He says, “I know! So what??”

Then, a millisecond later, he asks, “Is it something dangerous?” Sigh…

4. Lee Ahn’s surrogate Hyung and pretend Unnie, Jisoo

I like the romance here. I THINK the Unnie Detective has a one-sided crush on his Hyung Prosecutor. But at times I think that he likes her too. They just aren’t connecting and I think it’s because the Hyung has a problem himself. He’s a brilliant prosecutor, and an honorable one, but he seems to have trouble reading social cues and has a limited sense of humor. It happened in Episode 2 when he tried to make a self-deprecating joke about his looks but it came out like he was being narcissistic. He admitted, “I’m really good with my words otherwise, but I can’t seem to manage my jokes.”

In this episode, he tries to crack a joke again when he picks up Unnie/Detective Jisoo. She jumps in his car all upset.

Hyung: Is something wrong?
Unnie: It disappeared.
Hyung: Who did?
Unnie: My silver ring.

lol.

The way she raised that hand! It seemed like she was waving a missing “engagement ring.” So the Hyung goes with the flow…

Hyung: You lost your ring in my car?
Unnie: (exasperated) Ah really! (she was talking about a witness who wore a ring.) The nursing home caretaker, Kang YiSook!
Hyung: (muttering to himself) It was a joke but my timing was off, wasn’t it? I’ll get going now.
Unnie: Let’s go.

I know the Hyung isn’t the arsonist because the arsonist was shown running down the fire exit to escape the building.

But I find it interesting that the show makes a point of suggesting that not all the Hyung’s dealings are above board. There are some things hidden about him, too.

For one, he’s the only one who’s impervious to Lee Ahn’s gift. In Episode 2, Lee Ahn said that it was probably due to physiology; his Hyung has a unique biology and chemistry.

For another, his brother suddenly left him at the orphanage. In this Episode 3, Lee Ahn tells JaeIn that his Hyung brought him to an orphanage one day and came back to get him when he was older. Like some sort of guardian angel, his Hyung reappeared out of nowhere.

He tells Jaein, “I don’t know what’s in my brother’s heart. He’s the one person my psychometry doesn’t work on. He said there was something really important to do. I didn’t even know that and just harbored a lot hate towards him.”

Further, after the Hyung sees JaeIn home and leaves her, the camera focuses ominously on the posters behind him. The posters promote “The Mask.”

In contrast to the sinister feel of the posters when the Hyung was in the picture, the posters look comical when Lee Ahn poses in front of them.

5. The Candy Crush??

I don’t know yet what the symbolism of the candy lemon drops might be and I hope it has a more relevant purpose other than to link the two leads during their childhood days.

He’s her crush and he’s giving her a can of candy = candy crush, lol.

Awww… did she use the container as a flower vase?

But if it turns out to be another stupid product placement (like that ubiquitous Subway), I’m crushing this.

So come on and join me while I blog about this show. The subs on viki are going slow but it’ll be worth the wait.