Sorry this took forever. Viki subs were subpar again. Some of the subbers either don’t follow the gist of the conversation or their command of the English language is very poor. I wonder why I even bother with Viki when there’s Kissasian which has better subs, FASTER, and FREE.

Grrrrr…

1. The “Icky” Factors

There are two:

First, when I mentioned in another post that leaving the ring behind was the mom’s way of indicating a “break-up” with Sungmo, I meant “break-up” metaphorically.

But this scene had me raising an eyebrow in mild disapproval:

Mom: What is this?

SM: This is the first gift I’m giving to you, mom. As long you keep this on, promise me that you’ll erase everything from the past.

SM: Stop having nightmares and don’t be anxious.

SM: Toss away the guilt as well.
Mom: Okay. I will…. I also prepared a gift. (hands him a rubik’s cube)

Okaaaay. Right now, I don’t want to entertain any thought that there’s something other than filial bonds between them. But as a mom of boys, and a sister to brothers, I felt squeamish at the sight of Sungmo putting a ring on his mother’s finger — as if they’re performing a wedding ceremony. But maybe it’s cultural but my menfolk don’t place single band ring, similar to a wedding ring, on their mothers’ fingers.

Second, when Sungmo’s mom wanted the dad to purchase a book for Sungmo, she put on lipstick.

From Ep 12

It struck me as “icky” because she had to use her “feminine wiles” to get what she wanted.

Now, I don’t know for certain that she exchanged sex for Sungmo’s dictionary. For all we know, the dad could have settled for a nonsexual act like reading “The Little Prince.” But I felt squeamish because Sungmo saw his mom degrade herself like that for his sake.

If the dad had demanded sexual favor from the mom, then Sungmo, who was seven? eight? years old, would have been witnessed it, since they were living in a one room cell.

For me, then, Sungmo’s comment that “he had to listen” to his father’s return favor could have obscene implications.

“My mother begs you for medicine every time I seem to have a problem with my body. I had to listen to what you wanted in return.”

By the way, there were medicine pills on the table.

From Ep 12.

2. The contents of the bag found at the ghost station

Viki viewers: ATTENTION! Whoever subbed this segment (from 9:10 to 10:30) of Ep 14 did an awful job. I had to go to Kissasian to get this dialogue.

Nam: What’s all this?
JI: I found them at the Saeki-dong station while looking for Kang Geun Taek. Did the NISI (Seoul’s Forensic) get anything?
Jisoo’s asst: They did, actually. You should see this.
Nam: They’re all Kang Geun Taek’s. He was all over the ghost station.
JI: That’s what I thought too at first. But Ahn said Prosecutor Kang left these there.
Nam: Prosecutor Kang?
Jisoo’s asst: How could he know that?

By “he,” Jisoo’s assistant was talking about Ahn. He wondered how Ahn knew that Prosecutor Kang left the evidences at the Saeki-dong station. But Jaein avoided answering him because she didn’t want to inform people of Ahn’s skill without his permission.

JI: What did NISI say? Did they find Prosecutor Kang’s fingerprints?
Jisoo’s assistant: These chains are evidence from the Ganryeong confinement (meaning Sungmo and mom’s captivity) and Kim Gab Yong’s murder.

Jisoo’s assistant: The knife is evidence from the Hanmin Care Home fire. We checked the evidence locker Prosecutor Kang had taken these items long ago.

Jaein: These are all evidence from past cases?
Nam: Is he trying to untangle the web or what?

Lt. Nam wondered what Sungmo’s motive was for putting all the evidences together in a bag.

In my opinion, Sungmo put all the evidence together and left it for Lee Ahn and Jaein to discover in the event that he didn’t survive the encounter with his dad. He wanted Lee Ahn to perform psychometry on it and Jaein to figure the clues, with the help of Jisoo.

But his plans fell apart when Lee Ahn was able to “read” the right place and told Jisoo go to the Kangkook station to stop Sungmo.

Nam: We’ll brief everyone tomorrow. Officer Yoon, set things up.
JI: Yes, sir.
Jisoo’s assistant: I’ll prepare for the meeting. I understand it well enough.
Nam: No. “Well enough” isn’t good enough. You must be clear.

Note: All the evidence except for the Yungsung apartment was there. But the writer is already setting it up that Daebong’s girl would turn in the jacket as piece of evidence. She said she would ask her dad again about the jacket.

In the narration of Commissioner Eun, (of course it wasn’t a flashback because he wasn’t there during the fire), Jaein’s father could be seen directing people to the exit. He wasn’t wearing his jacket so he couldn’t have handed it to Daebong’s girl.

3. Why did Sungmo request for Jaein to interrogate him?

He trusts her to solve it. He must have overheard her conversation with Lee Ahn.

She said in Episode 4: I hated the police since my dad was framed. Come to think of it though, I only made a faulty generalization.
Ahn: A faulty… right. (he didn’t know the word) So that’s what it was.
JI: (continuing) That detective you know. Detective Eun. She came to see me right after that math teach was let go. She looked out for me and had you be my bodyguard. That’s when I realized that not all detectives are bad.
Ahn: Is that why you took the police exam?
JI: As a police officer, when a suspect insists his innocence, I’m going to check and double-check the facts, and make sure that no one else suffers like me and my dad. Even if I don’t prove my dad’s innocence, that alone will be worthwhile.
Sungmo: Are you finally thinking about your own life regardless of your father?
Office Yoon JaeIn.

4. Good lesson for Daebong

“If the person you like is disgusted with you, then you should walk away.”

I thought this was a good moral lesson for all the viewers and would-be stalkers.

But I’m sure the writer will change her mind and make it so that Daebong’s girl (what is her name anyway?) only rejected him out of “noble idiocy.” Ugh!

5. Kang GeunTaek lies.

In Episode 13, GeunTaek told the mom that he intended to kill the women in the Yungsung Apartment, but when he got there, the women had already been killed.

No.

Remember the killer prepared the tea service.

With Sungmo’s dad closing on him, there was no way Sungmo would have so calmly laid out the table setting. Why would he?

Also, in Ep 13, when Sungmo confronted his dad in the boiler room of the station, he told his dad, “No matter how terrible your life has been in the past, murder isn’t justified.” If he had really murdered the women in YungSung apartment, then the dad should have laughed at his audacity lecturing him on murder.

6. He hired Kim Gab Yong but he didn’t order the killing. 

KGY didn’t want to lose his Special Client, his VIP.

That’s why he didn’t kill Kang GeunTaek when he could have because killing him would mean that Sungmo’s mom didn’t have to hide anymore.

And that could be HIS reason for killing the homeless women. He would do anything to keep his VIP customer.

7. Star post-it

I like those little star post-it notes. It’s just right for our little prince, Lee Ahn, and it tells me that Jaein really likes that “little boy” in Lee Ahn.

Remember how amused she was at his bedhead and she had to stop herself from fixing it?

From Episode 2.

And remember how she left those post-it notes all over him while he was sleeping?

From Episode 6.

She wrote, “Aren’t you going to study?”

She could have just whacked him on the head to wake him up. But, in her own no-nonsense way, she WAS sweet on him.

So, yes, the little stars made a good arc here. She was “navigating” him through rough seas with those little stars. I like the imagery.

She’s his lodestar.

And true, she serves as the anchor in the story, as @nrllee commented.

In a way, she and Jisoo are similar; they’re both tenacious. However, Jisoo operated mostly on her hunches and keen intuition while Jaein relies on logic and information.

Hmmm… perhaps SHEET anchor is the better term for Jaein.  Here’s what a sheet anchor is.

Here’s a term you don’t hear much anymore, but which has its keel laid firmly in 19th century seamanship. This is one of those seaman’s terms that grew to have a double meaning, one practical and the other symbolic.

The practical meaning of sheet anchor is a reference to the main anchor, the biggest and heaviest of the ground tackle available. This was the anchor of choice when the wind was blowing hard and the seas were heavy and the ship just had to be secure. Lowering the sheet anchor required nearly all the crew at the windlass, and demanded a heavy load of chain to be payed out. Setting this anchor was a big job, but worth the trouble to safely ride out a storm.

How interesting that the term should spring to mind when describing a booklet for young sea officers. These educated lads came on board with no practical knowledge of the workings of a sailing ship with all its complicated lines and halyards, sheets and blocks, knots and hitches, compass directions, rules of the road…it was all new to them, and they had to learn it all quickly.

So the ship owners came up with booklets that would give these ensigns a fast, practical understanding of how the ship works. Why sheet anchor? Probably they decided on that term because the booklet was an encyclopedia of reliable information which would keep the young officers from drifting. Whenever they needed help, they could pull out their sheet anchor.

source: http://seatalk.blogspot.com/2005/11/sheet-anchor.html

lol. That’s our trivia for the day.

Jaein serves as the sheet anchor because she provides the most stable and secured grip on reality, based on hard facts and the information Lee Ahn provides her.

You’ve got to hand it to this writer. She did the same thing in the last drama she wrote, Moorim School. Her female lead there was also the guy’s moral compass. She wasn’t the too-stupid-to-live kind of heroine we often see in kdramas.

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I’ll try to finish uploading my notes before my trip.