Episode 12 highlights.
1. Happiness is wearing your boyfriend’s shirt.
It’s oversized, too.
But how fashionable is Lee Ahn that he has a pink button-down shirt?
2. This is a sneak peek into their future.
She works late at night while he sleeps at her side.
3. Another sneak peak into their future.
Sharing a pet and having an aunt to babysit children.
4. Brava, Dasom!
While our eyes are on Park JinYoung for his acting, let’s not also forget Dasom (formerly with Sister) for her believable portrayal of Jisoo.
5. Ugh! Worst discovery
For me, the disturbing thing here is NOT that Sungmo’s been imprisoned for 9 years but that his mom was abducted when she was young.
Solved! It wasn’t young Jisoo. It was Sungmo’s mother when she was young.
6. Jisoo’s continuing saga with Sungmo
Jisoo had flashbacks of her confrontations with Sungmo for refusing to open up to her.
At the bridge. “Yah, Kang Sungmo. Why do you hide so much? For two years, you’ve been worrying and thinking too much on your own. I’m telling you that I’ll help you. Am I really no help to you at all?
He replied, “I know it would be regretful.”
“Who? Me? ” she asked. He answered her cryptically, “No. Me.”
I didn’t understand the VIKI subs here (lol. It wouldn’t be the first time. Some of the their subbers do shoddy work.) But if I understand this writer’s thinking, the better word is pathetic.
He didn’t ask for help because it would be pathetic. So she wanted to know who was pathetic. Was it her? Was she pathetic in his eyes?
And he said, no. It was him who was pathetic.
See that? Doesn’t “pathetic” make better sense? “Regretful” was a dumb word choice. And because of that error, the viewers missed the point. The point here is that Sungmo, that super-confident Sungmo who always acted as if he knew everything, felt he was in such a pitiful situation that nobody could do anything about it. For two years, he kept things to himself because he thought there was no way out. He was trapped.
Do you get it? He was the quiet bird.
In the elevator. “We have such a polar opposite relationship. You know everything I’m thinking but I don’t know anything you’re thinking, if you don’t tell me.
And I already explained this. I said that she missed the point. He sensed her dejection, and her unhappiness with him, and he tried to remedy by opening up to her.
lol. Visually and metaphorically, he opened the door for her.
So finally, Jaein realized how hard it was for Sungmo to open up.
7. Understanding Sungmo
Jaein: I know Prosecutor Kang is a bit clumsy with expressing his emotions but there’s no way he can’t express his emotions.
Look at Jisoo’s reaction after hearing Jaein say that:
She was dumbstruck that Jaein could so confidently say that. To her, it meant that Jaein had already seen a moment when Sungmo had expressed his emotions and she hadn’t. But Jisoo didn’t know about this:
he smiled at young Jaein. Many years ago, young Jisoo befriended him.
Jaein’s stuck in his head as a precocious kid. But it would definitely be creepy if Sungmo had fallen in love with young Jaein. He would be repeating his father’s history who fell in love with a young girl. To me, the reason Sungmo wanted to help Jaein was because he knew that Jaein’s father bore the brunt of his family’s dysfunctional relationship.
In addition, Jisoo didn’t know about this scene:
When Jaein reproached him, “You knew Ahn’s parents passed away due to the Yungsung’s apartment fire. How could you how could you ask me to help Ahn? What right do I have for Ahn to help me?” he coldly replied, “Officer Yoon, listen carefully to what I have to say from now on.”
He wasn’t moved by her tears. It was if he said, “Listen up, girl, and stop this whining.” This scene had a different feel from when Jisooo was reproaching him about his personality change. She said, “I think you’ve made a change for the better, but why do I feel uneasy about this. You’ve definitely changed. I wanted to be the one to change you. Now I think it began when you met Yoon Jaein again.” He was going to protest, “Eun Jisoo–” but she excused herself and left.
It’s quite telling that he addressed her by name for the first time.
8. Is Sungmo a psycho?
Of course, Jaein had a better perspective of Sungmo because Lee Ahn had been filling her in on his psychometric reading on his Hyung.
Jaein: I know Prosecutor Kang is a bit clumsy with expressing his emotions but there’s no way he can’t express his emotions.
Jisoo: What if during that time, Sungmo was perfectly just acting?
To me, this brief exchange of words has two interpretations:
The first interpretation is about jealousy and I just explained that.
I said Jisoo was surprised that Jaein could declare with such great certitude that Sungmo could express emotions.
Remember now: Sungmo disappeared and didn’t tell her. BUT he showed up and talked to Jaein before disappearing. (Of course, she didn’t know that Jaein chased after him to get answers about Lee Ahn.)
So when Jisoo asked Jaein, “What if during that time, Sungmo was perfectly just acting?” she could have been saying, with a teensy-weensy bit of a jealous heart, “Are you sure YOU didn’t misinterpret his feelings?”
To me, Jisoo was carefully weighing her words because Jaein already made it clear that there was a misunderstanding.
From Episode 11. “He doesn’t like me or has feelings for me in such ways.”
Jisoo insisted, “That’s not a misunderstanding. The jerk figured out Sungmo.”
Jaein was confused but Jisoo continued, “Anyway, what’s for sure is that Kang Sungmo and that man know each other well. They can predict each other’s behavior and know each other’s weak points. That’s the reason why Sungmo wasn’t able to approach you himself, and kept Ahn by his side is probably because of that.”
Then, she finished it with, “He may have kept his feelings for you perfectly hidden but he cannot fool that man.”
I find her insistence that Sungmo had been masking his feelings for Jaein rather ironic. It’s obvious to me that she could have been talking about herself. That is, Sungmo had been masking his feelings for her because he was protecting her.
That’s why there were only two photos of her on the burner phone.
The photos were taken during her humiliation, and it was Sungmo who started the topic about their dating rumors.
Sungmo: There’s a rumor going around at the station that you and I are dating.
Jisoo: Only at the station? It’s spreading across the district. I mean, unlike the way you treat others, you treat me comfortably and we’re seen close together really often so people kept saying that we look good together. So I was thinking…with this opportunity…how about we not leave it as a misunderstanding and and just —
Sungmo: Sorry. We really did spend a lot of time together with boundaries, huh? I didn’t think this through. I’ll place some distance between us. You get back safely.
The stalker/dad saw him reject Jisoo in a very public humiliation so Jisoo wasn’t targeted after that.
The second interpretation is straight-forward.
It was slowly dawning on her that Sungmo could have been insincere from the beginning and had an ulterior motive to be nice to them. In other words, she wondered whether Sungmo’s alexithymia made him a psychopath (and therefore dangerous).
But I already told you that there’s a difference between a sociopath and a psychopath, right? Psychopath vs Sociopath It was good to hear Dr. Hong’s confirmation that Sungmo isn’t a psychopath and a person with alexithymia can change.
In the end, she realized that Sungmo must have felt that police betrayed him and his mother three times already.
First, for not rescuing them.
Second, for covering up their case after their escape.
Jisoo: I didn’t know why during this time Kang Sungmo hadn’t asked me to help me. That had always been a question. But now I know. He desperately broke off the chains and came out of to the world. Rather than helping, people were busy avoiding these two people’s wounds. I wonder whether the basement or the world was more horrendous to him?
And third, when her father refused to investigate the fire thoroughly.
The father covered it up.
9. Holding hands!!
Personally, I prefer this way of holding hands: fingers interlock together. Too often in kdramas we get the palm-to-palm kind which to me feels like the guy’s leading the girl.
But the way Lee Ahn did it, he did the interlocking fingers BUT his hand still ended up in front, leading the way. Go ahead and watch it.
Their hands should have looked like this. Side by side. Do you see the difference?
10. Ughhh. Minor drama.
Why are we getting this kind of drama from the minor characters? Can we award a couple of “Noble Idiot” trophies to Daebong and the classmate? If not, can I just slap the girl? Please?
Daebong: Am I… giving you a hard time? If hanging around is sickening and disgusting, (watery smile) tell me. I won’t show up again.
Girl: Yeah. I hate it awfully.
Daebong: Right, I got it.
This is how I felt with that girl after she said, “I hate you.”
11. The bag that Sungmo packed
Sungmo probably doesn’t know that they’ve already been to his childhood home and that Lee Ahn knew of his father’s name from his psychometric readings. That’s why he left the bag with the metal chain and the picture for him to figure out.
Lee Ahn already saw this:
So Kang Sungmo left his bag with clues so Lee Ahn can read them.
And the chain here?
According to the detective, Sungmo took the evidence with him last year.
I don’t know what Sungmo has in mind when he packed the bag. So let’s wait and see.
12. More sunflowers
The sunflower on the pendant wasn’t shown again to us in this episode.
Btw, in Episode 9, there were sunflowers in one of those trees at the gravesite.
13. The bird chirps.
Finally! I’m sure you can all tell me what that means. (No, it isn’t singing Happy birthday to Sungmo.)
14. Loose ends
From Episode 9, I don’t know who created this painting behind him. It’s a seascape which probably foreshadowed his trip to the island to search his mother. And it shows layers of different colors. I think this painting is a good representation of his character. He also has many different layers.
Ugh! So many things I want to say about this episode but I am working still so just a few things!
1. ME TOO. The most disturbing fact wasn’t Seongmo was born in “prison” and captured until 9 (if that’s not already disturbing) but the mom who has been captured since she was only a teen!!! Oh my god. Besides that, almost everything revealed in ep 12 the director already hinted the audience and the characters finally catch up to the audience in what we know. But the mom being captured since so young was so shocking.
2. Seeing SM father’s flashback of the young mom, she had the same smile as what young Jaein gave Seongmo when they first met. I still think Jaein holds a special place in Seongmo’s heart as in she was the “first” (like how doctor Hong, Jaein and Jisoo talked about) that started Seongmo’s emotional journey to start having feelings. Be it love, cherish, whatever it is, Seongmo started having emotions because of Jaein.
The dad is probably stalking him to see if he would ever be like him who is obsessed over one woman only and ended up be just like him to prove the mom is wrong: what the mom said to him “I don’t want my son to be like you, a monster that’s obsessed with only one person”
3. Over the years, Seongmo developed emotions towards Ahn (as family and as brother) and Jisoo (as a cherish and trustworthy friend) so his life is no longer like SM dad who only have one person to protect (confirmed in SM dad vs Jaein when he kidnap her).
His feeling toward Jisoo is as a friend who he is willing to finally open up to her and let her be included in his life and his problem. Right now I don’t think there’s any signs that Seongmo is feeling romantically towards Jisoo but she is for sure a person he cherish a lot.
4. I didn’t watch Viki’s English subs but from what I can hear from the Korean conversation and in Chinese subtitles, Seongmo actually said he knows for sure he will “regret” letting Jisoo involves in the case in the future.
5. Daebong’s scene. I think she said Daebong is annoying wasn’t what she actually thinks. Her facial expression after Daebong left – she was holding it back of her sadness. So for whatever reasons, she does like Daebong’s accompany now (even if she didn’t before). Be it she thinks Daebong deserves better, or whatever. But that reason to me is such non-sense, being a single mom in Korea might be from a very low “society” ranking but she should know Daebong doesn’t think that way at all. If she’s willing, they can for sure make it work.
6. Jisoo refuses to believe she’s in danger is the fact that she’s insecure and lack confident that Seongmo cherish her. No matter how many people tell her she’s in danger, in her mind, she thinks they don’t know Seongmo. They don’t know Seongmo doesn’t cherish her so why would she be in danger.
But what she forgets is that, cherishing someone doesn’t mean it can only be love. Yes, Seongmo did go to see her, even they only get to talk because Jaein chased after him, the fact that he only went to see Jaein, not Jisoo and Ahn tells us how much he cherish Jaein. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t also cherish Jisoo, even if it’s as a friend. I mean, Jisoo is his ONLY friend.
Also, what she didn’t realize is that, YSS can also be the reason she gets hurt.
7. I really do have my eyes on both Jinyoung (GOT7) and Dasom (SISTAR) as Ahn and Jisoo. I can’t express how much I love them in the characters. Jaein and Seongmo are great too (though I do feel like Shin Ye Eun is a bit lacking when she’s doing the emotional scenes but afterall this is her second acting project ever and all 4 main leads are all very complicated roles). But I think Ahn and Jisoo’s characters have a lot of room for showcasing acting and development of different emotions.
I am very very surprised by Jinyoung though. I really didn’t expect him being so natural in the silly cheeky and funny scenes, but his emotional scenes in ep 10 really surprised me, considering this is his first ever full 16 episode role. (Though he did start back in 2012 and had a lot more different acting projects) He conveyed different ways of crying from different emotions.
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Gosh I said only a few things I ended up writing so long again – I just can’t shut up about this drama lol
Oh btw, I saw from pictures taken from people who saw them filming. Ahn is wearing all black and his hair down without any styling. Please don’t tell me someone die and he’s going to the funeral and if it is it better not be Jisoo’s 🤬
Oh but also yes the dad definitely stalked Seongmo cos he wants to find his mom. Lol seeing if he has become the same monster as him is just a side track lol
Once again i loved reading this. 💚💚
Also agree with what you said about the minor character drama. Its really not needed. I need daebong to be happy as well now. But i do sort of know how the girl feels. She likes him but she feels he is to good for her. Especially in that culture where single parenting isnt really common she probably just doesnt feel like he will be happy with her. I really want them to get together tho
I love how in this drama they dont usually follow typical kdrama scenes. Like you mentioned the hand holding. It feels really refreshing to watch. It makes you feel a whole load of emotions. Honestly one of the best i have watched.
Also i agree with how you explained seung mo feelings towards Jisoo. I never really saw his actions towards jaein being out of romantic love. Even though it is very hard to see he has always been considerate towards jisoo character the most in my opinion. He never wants her to misunderstand him. Like you said the first time he said her name was when she said he changed because of JaeIn. Im just really scared now. I saw a pic on twitter today where they were filming and Jinyoung was wearing all black. This could indicate a possible funeral??? 😢😢
Also I too was shocked when I saw how young the mom was when she was abducted. At first, I thought wait…. did he have an older sister. But then when I watched it again I realized it was the mom. I never expected it.
Hai you 🙋♀️
Really like your writing about this drama, and im glad i found you.
4 ep remain, cant wait to see what is the meaning of the sunflower. And hope jisoo is not dead.
Hope happy ending for everyone
Thank you again. Waiting your summary for the remaining ep. 😘😘
I don’t want Jisoo dead either. 🙅♀️ But what if it’s Sungmo who dies?
That sneakpeak into their future makes my heart flutters, jajajajaja.. i really hope a happy ending for our candy couple, please writer nims! 🙏🏻
Also agree with Dasom’s acting. I didnt expect much but she clearly exceeding everyone’s expectation, she can really bring Jisoo’s character alive naturally, esp in this episode 12, my heart literally broken for her 😭💔 but when Ian saw what kind of life Soengmo had in that dungeon also sadden me, couldnt imagine being him and Jisoo, knowing the person you love had experiencing such horrible life. 🙁 💔💔
The fact that SM’s mother been kidnapped since she was young also bothering me so much. I just can’t stand these type of story, thank God they didnt show any rape scene.
Lastly, tbh the Daebong-SoHyun story is what makes this drama A kdrama, lol, this is a very typical couple story, personally i dont think it’s necessary too, but we all know they will ended up together anyway..
Based on episode 13 preview is possible that Ji Soo(and/or Ahn) will get hurt. At first i thought that she was fighting Sung Mo dad but i took a closer look and saw that that person had a white stripe on their shoes and from the last scenes from episode 12 i saw that Sung Mo and his dad had fully black shoes. So i think that in that scene she is protecting Ahn. I hope that neither gets hurt.
oh noooooo!!! Not Jisoo.
I don’t really like watching previews because they give me unnecessary anxiety attacks.
But it makes sense that Jisoo’s out (temporarily, I hope) because Jaein was doing the interrogation of Sungmo’s mom in the preview.
Besides, Lee Ahn didn’t look hurt when he was flipping Sungmo’s table over in anger in the preview.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I think including Daebong’s story arc in this episode isn’t really unnecessary because it has the “feel” or “theme” of the whole episode—which for me is ‘discovering the truth’ (or in daebong’s case, discovering a lie lol). Episode 12 is all about knowing everything, and the writers didn’t forget about Daebong (and I’m completely fine with it). I didn’t find it unnecessary because I think that this drama is more of not having loose ends by the end of the drama, which is, to be honest, a rare sight in dramaland lol
Yes, I agree. I pointed this out from the very beginning when I TOLD YOU ladies that this kdrama was about secrets.
lol. I guess you don’t get when I’m being sarcastic and when I’m saying things tongue-in-cheek.
And please only post once. I already deleted your other post as spam.
Whoops, sorry about that multiple posts. Internet was a bitch, and I thought it didn’t send. And yeah, sorry if I didn’t notice that sarcasm too, I’m not really uhhhh, well-versed with your posts, this is actually my first time to check out your posts. 😅
Howdy! I’ve finally watched episode 12 and so the young lady was Sungmo’s Mom. That was horrible being kidnapped and locked up for years and to have your baby there. 😟
I prefer that type of holding hands too. It’s more secure. 😍 I liked that LA still drove JaeIn home. Handsome points for boyfriends who does that all the time.
The bird chirped because it wants to be free and just like how Sungmo is making moves now to once and for all settle the score with his Dad.
I agree that Dasom was great in her portrayal and crying scene. I felt her pain.
You’ve pretty much got everything correct in your analysis. Let’s see what happens tonight. I can’t believe we’re down to 4 episodes. That went quick.
Hmm…I have a different interpretation of point 6. The conversation between SM and JS about him refusing her help. I think ‘regretful’ is the right word. Remember the scene where he talks to the priest (I think Ep 10?)? Bear in mind that he has Alexithymia which means although Dr Hong says he can ‘learn’ emotions and adjust, it’s often rote learnt. Similar to how autistic children learn to relate to their world…it’s robotic…it’s rigid. They miss social nuances and little cues that other people will pick up. Anyway, the conversation SM had with the priest, to me he had the guilt of the deaths of all the people on his shoulders. People who were kind to him or offered to help him – JI’s dad who bandaged his foot, LA’s dad who passed him his card. So in his mind then and up to that point, he had rote-learnt that people who offered him help died…hence as PM3 implied in point 7, SM actually has feelings for JS. He rebuffed her and all her offers to help because he didn’t want her to die (he didn’t want to feel ‘regretful’). He was protecting her. He was more open with JI ONLY because he knew LA would be by her side and protect her. Same with LA when he was stabbed. Remember how SM never even visited him in hospital? And LA was annoyed? He distances himself from LA to ‘protect’ him.
I would like to pause for a moment to say how much I LOVE JiSoo’s character (and the actress’ portrayal of her). To be adult enough to look past the fact that the only man you have eyes for appears to ‘like’ another (not to fly into some jealous green eyed monster tantrum/rage which clouds judgement and detracts from the pursuit of justice and truth 🙄), think rationally (she only paused momentarily when her father dropped the bomb about his involvement and trying to heap the responsibility of his negligence on her tachycardia/heart problem) and launch herself back into action again? Exemplary! She’s a big picture gal and I love her!! I’d want her working on my case if ever I was in trouble. 😍