The second installment. I think I’ll have to add a third one.

1. The new passcode = Lee Ahn’s birthday = his parents’ death anniversary

Sungmo changed the passcode on the day before Lee Ahn’s birthday. 051203. But I don’t think Sungmo thought this through. Would Lee Ahn really want a reminder of his birthday knowing it’s also his parents’ death anniversary? Would he really want to punch in the date every time he entered their house? It would make sense if Lee Ahn just used the key card each time.

It’s interesting that only Lee Ahn is oblivious to the date. Earlier, Jaein was having a bad day because she wasn’t looking forward to commemorate the sad events. SungMo also knew what day it was because he bought the cake. But the day totally escaped Lee Ahn’s memory.

Then, when he texts DaBong the following morning, he only informs him that it’s his parents’ memorial. He doesn’t mention his birthday. “Thirteen years ago, I barely survived from death. Today’s my parents’ death anniversary.” I don’t think Dabong knows it’s his birthday.

As for Jaein, she lights six candles for the people she knew died that night. She doesn’t know of course that Lee Ahn’s parents died in that fire. She later has an episode. She tells her aunt, “I don’t think my dad did it but how come my heart hurts every time this day comes around, Aunt?…But the family of those who died that day, they’ll probably be hurting a lot more than I am, right? Those people will probably live the rest of their lives hating my dad, right?” And her aunt consoles her, “That’s not your fault, not yours, Jaein.”

In a flashback, we can see Jaein’s memories associated with that fire. She and her father were window-shopping and her dad bought her what looked like a musical Christmas tree. She was saying that her father’s the best.  Then police came and took away her father. She chased after them but she tripped and dropped the Christmas tree musical toy. It broke into pieces.

If we recall, this scene was read by Lee Ahn during their first encounter in Episode 1.

When he accidentally grabbed Jaein’s leg to avoid her kicking him in the crotch, he saw the vision of the musical Christmas tree.

Meanwhile, Lee Ahn sits in his room remembering various moments of that night of the fire: his mom with the puppy she made for him, his dad giving him the candy, playing with his dad’s badge and being trapped in the elevator.

The only one whose memories of the night aren’t show is SungMo. He swallows a pill instead.

2. His birthday also marks the start of Lee Ahn’s psychometry training.

Again, his brother is acting like the marionettist here. He’s pulling the strings to make the Jaein and Lee Ahn move closer to each other.

He tells Jaein to help develop Ahn’s powers. Jaein is surprised that he overheard at the rooftop her telling Ahn two years ago that she desperately needed Ahn’s to help her. Meanwhile, Ahn is surprised too that his Hyung is enlisting Jaein’s help to develop his power and wonders why.

Jaein asks for time to think, and Sungmo doesn’t seem so happy about that.

Ahn also asks for time to think. Probably he doesn’t want to sound as if he’s too eager for her help if she’s not willing. Tit for tat. If she’s snubbing him, he’s going to rebuff her as well.

His brother stops this act with a gesture of a hand and tells him, “Leave the thinking to me and Officer Yoon.” Ouch!

Sungmo  then sweetens the pot by offering to assist her transfer to the Violent Crimes Unit if she does him the favor of helping Ahn.

Lee Ahn studies her reaction.

I say the two of them have different reactions to Sungmo’s new “project” for them.

3. Different reactions

After Hyung’s offer, Jaein attends the promotion ceremony of a fellow police cadet. She’s advised to collect some points in order to get promoted quickly.  On the way back from the ceremony, she mulls over this. Why would she want crimes to happen so she could be promoted? But she can’t help begin to see the people in her neighborhood as “cases” to solve and earn promotion points. As Lee Ahn said in the previous episode, there are points to move up quickly.

Here’s the list in Jaein’s head:

Pickpocketing: 10 points
Organized Crime: 20 points
Arson: 20 points
Murder: 50 points
Robbery and Murder: 70 points

Here, I love how the director combined the graphics of a comic book with real scenes to stress a point. Jaein is tooling about town and doing her round in her slow scooter. But from her different “mindset,” she sees every action as a confrontation between a superheroine (her) and a supervillain (her community). The ordinary kindness of individuals is overblown as a nefarious incidents, i.e., an accidental bump is pickpocketing,

a visit to a funeral is organized crime;

and a surprise birthday celebration is arson.

The graphic art emphasizes how removed from reality her perception of events will become, simply because she needs to gain points for her promotion.

She’s come to conclusion that she can’t do that as a police officer.

lol. I hope that she’ll realize too that she can’t use Lee Ahn to promote herself into the Special Victims Unit. As tempting as the Hyung’s offer sounds, she’ll be taking advantage of him for her gain.

On his own, Lee Ahn also considers his Hyung’s suggestion to team up with Jaein.

He stands on a footbridge looking at the yellow police tape in the distance. That’s a nice symbolism going on there. At one level, the tape is just that: a police tape. It secures the crime scene and cordons off individuals who aren’t sanctioned to be in the area.

But in a deeper level, the tape is a reminder of the boundaries that he, Jaein and his Hyung have placed in their lives that are off-limits to the outside world. Just the previous night, he told off his Hyung for the surprise birthday cake he bought for his birthday. He didn’t want to be reminded of his birthday. There was a metaphorical and mental yellow tape around that day and those memories of that day.

His Hyung is unwilling to share his past, too. Jisoo already told him that she thought SungMo wanted Lee Ahn’s help on something. But since he was the only one that Lee Ahn couldn’t help, he was lonely.

Then Jaein is also hesitant to let Lee Ahn know her secrets. While they’re both sitting in that crime scene area, she asks him how much he’ll know of her secrets.

JI: If I take your hand, how much of my secrets will you know?
Ahn: I don’t know. A person’s memory is like a messed up medicine cabinet. Whether I pickup a poison or an antidote, I can’t tell until I swallow it.

She doesn’t shake his hand so he puts his hand away.

Ahn: We don’t have to make physical contact to improve my ability.
JI: I just haven’t decided whether to do it or not. (that is, help Ahn train his psychometric skills) I’m not avoiding physical touch with you.

Ahn: Okay. Let’s say that’s it.
JI: Even if we have a million reasons to do it, I have not clue how to help you improve or why Prosecutor Kang wants me to help.
Ahn: If you were me, what would you investigate? Think about that. I’ll do what must be done.

Awww. At this point, I thought Lee Ahn looked cool and dependable.

4.  Living a crime scene

When you think about this, the three lives of Lee Ahn, Jaein and Sungmo can be considered as a crime scene. All three individuals were part of an unsolved crime and their memories are evidence to be preserved. They have put up yellow tapes to block off other people from entering and messing up their safe spaces without permission.

And now, the Hyung is asking Lee Ahn and Jaein to breach the line and help each other.

When Lee Ahn ponders about his Hyung’s odd request, he thinks he’s figured out his Hyung’s motive. He remembers Sungmo’s words to him about his psychometry. “With your ability, you can see the knife. However, you can’t see if the stabbed someone or if he’s holding it to cover up for someone. You just don’t know. All you see are a few pieces out of thousands, so don’t let it get to your head.”

He thinks that Jaein is meant to match up the pieces he gives her to see the big picture.

I think, however, he and Jaein are meant to be the two puzzle pieces to interlock together. Lee Ahn already commented on how well they work together in Episode 4.

He said, “When I’m with you I get better at reading things.” Jaein tried to brush it off saying it was probably just his perception of things but Ahn said, it happened too two years ago at the teacher’s office.

But physically, too, they fit like a puzzle. It was a cute move when he caught her and stopped her from landing on her back, without his hands. Pervy thoughts aside, I’d love to see what else he can do without his hands. lol.