One of the things that stands out for me in this drama is the use of flashbacks. I’ve mixed feelings about this. Too often, the director and editor abuse them by either overdoing the flashbacks to fill in extra minutes, or slipping them in to plug up a plothole.  Either way, the overuse of flashback is a sign of a weak plot.

In this kdrama, I’m not only tolerating the many flashbacks per episode, but also enjoying them. You see, the story unfolds from memory. There’s a complicated hero. And the only way to understand his behavior and to predict his actions is to travel back in time when an emotional moment or a physical information formed his character. The flashbacks remind us that there’s a cause-and-effect relationship between the past Do HyunSoo and the present Baek HeeSung.

We see this in the opening flashbacks of Episodes 2 to 5. These episodes begin with a nostalgic view of Jiwon romancing Heesung. But to me, the flashbacks serve as warning. They tell us that the idyllic love story of Jiwon and Heesung actually didn’t start out ideal.  There were red flags all over, and little hints that he was different, but JiWon missed them because she was so besotted with him.

Take for instance, Episode 2.

In the summer of 2006, Heesung (HS) buys beer, and Jiwon (JW) asks for his ID. That’s their first meeting and JW wants to find out this cute guy’s info and strike up a friendship but in an indirect and very coy way.

JW: Born in 1982? You look very young. (lol. because he is young) Did you move here recently?
HS: How did you know?
JW: Because this is my first time seeing you.

For others, this is an innocent statement. But for JW, it means that she notices him because he’s attractive. He does stick out among strangers; he looks avant-garde with his dyed hair.

HS: It seems like a good neighborhood to start anew. It’s quiet.

Later, we learn that HS was in a car accident in 2005 and the real Baek HS in a coma, so this quiet neighborhood is indeed a good place for HS to emerge with his new identity.  Note: the housekeeper at his fake parents’ house is conveniently mute. She can’t gossip about any suspicious activities in the house.

Episode 3 opens with another flashback.

It’s the summer of 2007. HS is busy at his metal workshop when JW drops by uninvited. She uses the same beer as an excuse.

JW: Oppa. I came again. (he ignores her) I thought you liked this beer, so I took some while my mom wasn’t looking. Where did you learn how to do that? (he’s making rings) I thought you didn’t go to college. Is there an academy that teaches that?

He learned this skill from his father. His chosen profession tells me that he didn’t altogether turn his back on his father’s memory since he chose to practice metal-smithing.

Also JW’s chatter shows her nervousness. She clearly barges in on him and she knows that she isn’t wanted there. Her behavior tells me that she’s very determined and SLY.  She’ll think up of an excuse to get what she wants. Here, she uses the “beer” as pretext to invite herself in.

HS: (still ignoring her)
JW: (takes a snapshot of him and smiles at the picture)
HS: What are you doing?
JW: Can I upload this to my blog? I’ll put “neighborhood cutie” as title.
HS: (angry) I said, what are you doing? (steps towards her and grabs her phone) Delete it. Now.
JW: Okay. I’ll delete it now. I didn’t know you didn’t like taking pictures.
HS: What’s with you? Why are you looking into my background?
JW: Me?
HS: Acting like it’s not much, but digging for information about me. Did you think I wouldn’t know? Asking about my blood type, zodiac sign, birthday, the food I like and dislike. I heard you even asked the boss next door for my phone number. Why? Did somebody make you do it? To look into me?

“Acting like it’s not much” refers to the beer. He sees through her act and knows that the beer was just an excuse to drop in on him. But he misunderstands her motive. He thinks she’s spying on him and doing it out of malice, when in reality, she only wants to be in his company because she likes him. Obviously, he misconstrues her action because he’s paranoid that his secret will be discovered.

On the other hand, she feels awkward after he calls her out like that. She’s feeling guilty that she annoyed him with her nosiness, as well as embarrassed that her infatuation was perceived as an invasion of privacy. It never enters her mind however that he’s acting strangely. She doesn’t question WHY he would think that somebody had put her up to it, and what he meant by that.

JW: (drinking beer to give herself courage) I like you.
HS: (in a trance. but his whole world distorted)
JW: (she waves her hand in front of his face) Oppa! “I don’t like you.” “I like you.” “Wait.” You should say something.
HS: You…
JW: My name is Cha Jiwon.
HS: Don’t come here ever again.
JW: What?
HS: Get out. Right now.
JW: What?
HS: Want me to drag you out by the collar?

This whole flashback shows that she was the one who chased him while he tried to fend her off. More importantly, it shows that even when he was enraged and looked menacing, he didn’t physically harm her.

Episode 4’s flashback is significant.

They seek shelter from the rain under the eaves. The rain doesn’t seem to bother her because she’s beaming. This indicates that she finds this whole experience of running in the rain romantic.

HS: What’s so funny?
JW: These clothes are new, so are these shoes, plus it took me an hour to do my hair. I’ve got no luck. What kind of first date is this?
HS: Date?
JW: If two people who like each other hang out together then it’s a date. What else would it be?

This tells me two things. One, she’s very presumptuous. Later in life, she always claims  that she only believes in what she sees. But here, her eyes were deceiving her. Two, he doesn’t consider this outing with her as a date but a gambit to get her out of his hair.

HS: I’m not interested in you.
JW: Then why are you hanging out with me? On a precious day off?
HS: That’s…(pause) I figured you’d bother me less if I hang out with you once.

His honesty would have hurt any other girl, but not JW.

JW: (pretending to put on a sulky face) I’m hurt.
HS: (looks at her, but doesn’t try to appease her) Let’s go
JW: (stops him) The owner of the chicken restaurant said that anytime I walk by, you stare. Fifth grader Seon Woo asked me while he bought a popsicle stick if I was dating the man from the workshop. Maybe you’re the only one who doesn’t know that you like me.

lol. She’s brazen, this girl.

HS: (just stares at her. He’s probably trying to figure her out.)
JW: Ugh! I’m frustrated. Let’s play rock-paper-scissors. Whoever loses gets rained on for 30 seconds. (She’s taking the lead…like a noona.)
HS: I won’t play. I don’t do useless things like that.
JW: (ignoring him) If you don’t play, you lose. Rock, paper, scissors!

I like the metaphor here. She throws a paper, and HS has a rock. He thinks he’s a rock when she’s wrapped him around her little fingers.   Even though he says he doesn’t want to play, he instinctively throws a hand. This tells me that subconsciously, he’s already opened himself up to her because he’s following her commands.

JW: (excited) You lost! What are you doing? Go!

Laughing, she pushes him and he stands under the rain. Though he’s getting wet, he’s transfixed by the smile on her face. He begins to grin back at her.

Snap! He realizes what he’s doing and his face turns serious. He looks away and spots the apparition of his dead father watching them in a corner.

HS clenches his hand.

This motion is intriguing: he’s either struggling for control or fighting the urge to punch his dad. Since this is the first time that the specter (good word here, @GB!) of his dad reappears while he’s in the company of JW, this tells us that his brief bonding with JW is an emotional milestone.

Note: I wouldn’t be surprised if the dog leash his father held in his hallucination was somehow connected to the pet dog he supposedly drowned in a well.

JW: (follows his gaze but sees nothing) Oppa! What’s wrong?
HS: (exhaling) You know, you’re really weird. Why do you like me? Why me? I really don’t get you. How could you like a guy like me? Never mind. What can I say to you? I’m leaving.
JW: (tears up as he leaves her behind)

From this flashback in Episode 4, it seems like JW is so in love with him that she doesn’t notice his odd behavior. She thinks he’s rejecting her because he doesn’t like her, when he’s pushing her away because he does in fact like her but knows that he’s not good for her.

But this flashback also forewarns us that should HS fall in love with her, he’s going to fall in love irrevocably. lol. Usually in kdramas, the one who falls in love easily, also falls out of love easily. And the one who resists love intensely, also endures it intensely.  That’s a kdrama rule.

Episode 5 has the most heart-warming flashback.

It’s winter, 2006. He’s buying beer and she pretends to study. As he pays for them, the lights turns off.

JW: (nervously) Oh, another blackout, and Mom’s not here. (she takes out a candle and mumbles) Where is the lighter…?
HS: (takes out his lighter and lights the candle for her. he doesn’t say a word)
JW: Excuse me. Last time there was a blackout, the fruit store in front of us was robbed.
But they haven’t caught the burglar yet.

She’s obviously hinting that he keeps her company. But he stares at her, so she becomes embarrassed for asking for help.

JW: (backpedaling) Never mind. Goodbye.

They bow at each other, and he leaves. She closes the door after him, but she notices that he’s standing outside the store. She wonders what he’s doing out there when it’s so cold out, and watches him catch snow in the palm of his hand. When the light came back on again, he leaves his post and walks home. She realizes that he’s been standing guard because she mentioned that there was burglar around.

I hope she remembers this moment when she accuses him of being a serial murderer.

So overall, the flashbacks were interesting. The only time I considered the use of flashbacks excessive was in Episode 3. If I counted correctly, there were 10 flashbacks in that episode. lol. At one point, the editor embedded a flashback in a flashback in a flashback in a flashback. Flashback overload! 

p

It takes place when Jiwon (JW) goes home to check on her husband Heesung (HS). He said he was running a fever so she went home. She opens her front door as HS is coming. His eyes registers shock (and I don’t think he rehearsed this on the mirror).

That’s a close encounter. He and the “missing” reporter Moojin (MJ) are on their way out. Thankfully, MJ steps in and asks her what she’s doing there when they were supposed to meet at the station.

We have the first flashback to explain why they’re walking like good friends when a few moments, they had been wrestling like a pair of grizzly bears.

HS lets him go because the police was looking for MJ so MJ had to report to the police station. MJ thinks he has the upper hand now since he can report that he was held hostage by HS in the cellar for a couple of days, and that HS is the fugitive Do HyunSoo, wanted for murdering the village leader 18 years ago.

HS silences him by revealing that he’s seen the camcorder tape.

And that’s when we get the SECOND flashback. Earlier that day, HS went to MJ’s apartment to look for the video to blackmail MJ with. He was expecting to see a damaging video, instead he saw innocuous clips of MJ hanging out with his noona. That’s what he meant when he said, “You deceived me?”

But after HS ransacked MJ’s house, he found the video that proved that MJ had known all along about the gruesome secret in HS’s family basement.

That’s when the THIRD flashback comes in the form of the video. This is the video that MJ mentioned online back in 2011 when he pretended to be a budding screenwriter asking for advice.

Episode 3, at 9:16,

HS: Read it.
MJ: “I’m a female student who wants to become a screenwriter. In the past, the main character unknowingly helped a criminal commit a crime. The main character is preparing for a career in the press, but if his past is revealed, what kind of disadvantages would he face?”
HS: Keep reading. Read it.
MJ: “And what if a person died because of it?”
HS: Is that you?
MJ: No. It’s not.
HS: (scrolling through the comments) “There’s a video of the situation.” “I just did as I was ordered.” “I really didn’t know.” (asking MJ) Did you really not know?

This part is interesting: “I just did what I was ordered.” If this is true, then he knew who the murderer was. But MJ could have been lying here to deflect blame and to defend his action.

MJ: I didn’t know. I didn’t know. Really.
HS: That means there’s a video of you aiding a murderer.
MJ: What? (looking worried)

After finding the video, HS plays it back. And this is the fourth flashback. The content of the video was filmed before 2002.

Ep 3 at 35:27.

MJ: That’s dope! (panning the artwork in the studio)

HS’ Noona: Kim Moo Jin! We have to go. We don’t have time! If I get caught by Dad, I’m in big trouble!
MJ: Hey, Do Haesoo (that noona’s name), you look good on screen.
HS: (entering the film) Didn’t I tell you not to talk informally to my noona?
MJ: Hey, brother-in-law! Why are you so uptight?

This is noteworthy. MJ was dating HS’ noona, and he and HS were actually very familiar with each other. So the stoning incident in the forest (shown in Episode 2) suddenly takes on a different interpretation and MJ comes off as particularly despicable for stoning his friend and his girlfriend’s younger brother.

HS’ noona: Shut up and let’s go quickly.
HS: I can’t stand this guy. Hey, how could you think ghosts are real?
HS’ noona: I definitely heard something.
HS: Then tell Kim Moo Jin to go alone.
HS’ noona: You’re scared, right? (I think she’s addressing HS)
MJ: (bragging) Hey, you just wait! I’ll interview a ghost.
HS’ noona: Be careful.
MJ: Reporter Kim Moo Jun will be right back. Let’s go!

And he filmed these:

This is interesting because the father seems to have a smaller version and a bigger version of this sculpture of a woman in fear.

Judging from the conversation, HS’ noona asked MJ to investigate some weird sounds she was hearing in the basement while their Dad was away. This tells me that HS and his noona had no clue what was hidden in the basement. MJ went alone.

Then, judging from HS’ reaction as he watched the video, he was shocked to see what was in the basement.

The videotape was enough to prove that MJ had been aware of the atrocities done in the basement long before HS did. Had HS and his noona known what was down there, they wouldn’t have allowed MJ to discover it.

That’s the video that MJ was referring to when he pretended to be a screenwriter asking for advice. HS found it.

At 25:22.

MJ: You saw it?

HS looked at him. To be honest, I don’t know how to interpret this look. Was there pity? Revulsion? Disgust? Blame?

HS: I’ll keep the tape. If that video gets released, do you think you can still be a reporter? No, do you think you can live in Korea? If you chose differently back then, it would have ended at a serial killing right there. How many more people did you kill?

MJ has no answer to this.

Note: This is one of the themes of this kdrama: do-overs. If the characters could go back in time and change something in the past, what would they have done differently? So far, both MJ and the cabdriver have realized (a bit too late) that they made wrong assumptions and wrong decisions. They regretted what they did. Meanwhile, HS — who’s supposedly the bad guy here — hasn’t done anything in the past that that he’s regretted.

HS: (continuing) It seems like you watched that video often. Why? Does reflecting on the situation make you all excited? (implying that MJ has voyeuristic tendencies)
MJ: Do you think I’m a monster like you?

It’s ironic that MJ still clings to the idea that HS is a monster solely because he was the son of an alleged serial killer when he seemed to have aided and abetted in the murder himself.

HS: So? Do you want to do as I say or should we throw bombs on each other’s life?
MJ: What do I have to do?
HS: First, I’d like to hear a genuine and polite apology.

I thought HS has an odd sense of humor. That’s how the two of them decided to cooperate with each other.

See that? That was the flashback-within-a-flashback moment in this kdrama. It’s the drama equivalent of a Russian matryoshka.

But there was a scene in Episode 6, at 33:01, when I thought the director and writer seamlessly connected the past with the present without needing flashbacks. JiWon watches a TV reporter giving a walk-through of HS’ childhood home. The reporter said that the room was left in its original state.

Reporter: The place where the victims were kept imprisoned is the basement in the storeroom next door.

This info about the basement must have chilled JW’s blood. Her husband also has a basement in the workroom.

Reporter: (continuing) This is the basement where Do MinSeok imprisoned the victims. It feels like the dungeon is dozens of meters below.

It’s disturbing how HS’ dad’s basement resembles HS’s basement.  MJ must have been petrified to find himself bound and gagged in the basement. He would have seen this layout of HS’ basement before and imagined himself as a victim.

Reporter: (continuing) As soon as we get in, it’s walled all around. I see a huge cage. I will attempt to go in there myself. No matter how much strength I use as a male adult, all I can feel is apprehension. It seems that this is a cable tie that was used to bind the victim’s bodies.

Hmmm…I wouldn’t be surprised if MJ was asked to buy the cable ties 18 years ago.

Reporter: (continuing) 18 years have passed but the traces of this terrible nightmare still remain intact here.

I like the contrast here. In one scene, we view the reporter pretending to be imprisoned in a cage in a dark dungeon.

Then, in the following scene, we see JW listening to the reporter on tv in the airy and well-lit lobby of the hospital.

She isn’t trapped behind steel bars, but glass windowpanes. Visually, I think the glass windows foreshadow how fragile her life with HS is. Like glass, her marriage can easily shatter, and like the dark reflection on the glass, HS’ mysterious history casts a shadow on their future happiness.

JW claims that she believes in what she sees. If she’s looking at the evidences in front of her, for instance –

her husband’s wristwatch left in the greenhouse where she was attacked,
his association with the cabdriver,
his unexplained absences from the workshop,
his delirious raving in the hospital, “Noona. Noona. Live a normal life. And never, never come looking for me. I, from now on, won’t live as Do HyunSoo.”
and the bloodstains on the floor of the basement,

then it’s clear as glass that HS is involved in the past murders: either the Yeonju City serial murder case, the Gakyeongri Village foreman murder case, or both.

For now, I don’t think she’s still holding on to hope that he’s NOT involved in the murders. She’s already convinced that he’s involved, and she’s seeking to know the extent of his involvement.

Widow: It horrifies me to think that such a heinous criminal is still out on the streets.
JW: There were no eyewitnesses.
Widow: Sorry?
JW: I checked the criminal investigation report, and no on actually witnessed Do Hyun Soo doing the unthinkable.
Widow: But my husband said he wasn’t like other people. He told me that he wasn’t normal, and he could do anything. That’s why he was scared.

But her husband assumed wrong. It was the cabdriver who was harassing him every day on the phone for the last two months so he’d reopen the investigation on the murder cases. I hope that JW realizes that Do HyunSoo wouldn’t have called up the husband because he was happily living his new life with her as Baek HeeSung.

JW: Psychopaths aren’t capable of taking care of lives that are weaker than them. But DHS had a dog for about 10 years, and he even took care of its puppy. That’s a fact.

Note: According to the psychiatric report, though, DHS threw a puppy into the river. But the father might have something to do with this since he keeps appearing with a dog leash in HS’ hallucination.

Widow: But he killed someone and is on the run. He’s a murderer and that’s a fact.
JW: Yes. That’s also a fact. But I want to know more.

She knows that Do HyunSoo is on the run. She also saw the blood and the plastic ties in the basement, so she also knows that Baek HeeSung had recently done something that resembled the actions of the murderer in the Yeonju City serial murder case.

JW: (continuing) People should only get punished for the crimes they committed. Whether it’s criminal punishment or a personal grudge. So I need to gather a lot more facts in order to give Do HyunSoo the punishment he deserves.

The “personal grudge” is significant here. To me, that means she bears him ill will for his deception. Even if he isn’t complicit in the deaths, she feels he’s wronged her.

Widow: Judging by the stuff that’s on the internet –
JW: Let me tell you how I investigate things. I only believe what I see.

The real murderer is still out there, and I hope she finds him soon. This is what I know about the murderer:

He’s the one who had given HS’ noona the wooden keychain with the fish. According to HS, someone gave it to his sister at their father’s funeral. And she had given it to him because “goldfish is a sign of good luck.”

Note: HS clearly told the cabdriver that the keychain was given to his sister by somebody at the funeral. But I find it strange that, after being the keychain, the sister would then turn around and hand it to him for good luck.

He’s also the one who intimidated the witness to the abduction of the cabdriver’s wife. He left a message on the eyewitness’ answering machine. “Lady, don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. You’re not the only one who saw me. I saw you too. You drive a red compact car, and I also know where you live and work. You should be careful for your kid’s sake.”

And he’s the one who killed the Village chief because he was snooping around. He admitted it to the eyewitness. “Anyway, ahjumma, did you hear of the Gakyongri Village foreman murder? Do you know why he died? Because he got nosy. The good-for-nothing old man didn’t know his place.”

Of course, there’s another flashback in Episode 6 which may or may not connect the real Baek HeeSung to the unsolved murder mysteries. That’s the scene when the real Baek HS was talking on the phone shortly before he ran over Do HyunSoo. But we’ll have to wait and see how that develops.

If you were to ask me where this drama stands right now, I’d chose this picture as representative of the story line.

We’re following JW but her life is at a standstill. She doesn’t know whether to go up or down with Hyunsoo, that is, to side with him as his loving wife, or to side with the law as a police detective. And again, there’s that wall of glass in front of her. She insists that she only believes in what she sees. But the fact of the matter is, what she sees is always interpreted through a kaleidoscope of memories, information, and emotions.

That’s it for now. Gotta run and do my other drama analyses. 🙂