Arihsi, you raised good points. Let me answer you here so it’s easy for me to remember what I wrote.

I still don’t think he has ASD 🙂 we’ll have to see what he endured as a child to be sure. But couple of things jump at me.

I agree. By Episode 8, I’m seeing that he isn’t the psychopath that we were lead to believe by the show’s promotional teasers. Based on the flashbacks and his internal monologues/voiceovers, he isn’t.

He’s shown:

responsibility (e.g., taking care of his daughter’s daily need)
forgiveness (e.g., in the case of the cabdriver who tortured him),
empathy (e.g., especially with his daughter)
self-control (e.g., with MooJin and JW)
remorse (e.g., with JW and his fake father and mother) and
willingness to be a martyr (e.g., for his Noona).

Gifs from Thingskatenows’ tumbr:

credit: thingskatenows’ tumblr

1) the hints that his dad made him torture or kill animals. His dad might have had some sort of personality disorder or maybe he was plain evil. There has to be a reason he appears with a dog leash as a spectre and there are cages in his basement. A similar dad existed in another drama, come and hug me. I like this drama a lot because it shows that you are more than your genes. The dad is a psychopath. The son is not.

There is a term “conditioning” for responses that the brain can be trained for. If HS dad punished him each time child HS showed emotions, child HS would probably be severely traumatized (we already know he has PTSD because he sees his dad and he started hyperventilating in the basement) and loose his ability to express emotions due to the extreme negetive consequences that he’d then learn to avoid.

Yes, the rabbit flashback was interesting. That rabbit encounter could be the explanation as to why he “killed” the puppy. He could have been under duress or he could have been trying to spare the puppy from worse torture (like mercy-killing). Either way his guilt from killing the puppy weighed on him because he kept seeing his dead dad with the dog leash.

Agree with the conditioning or “grooming” as well. Noona told him to just agree with whatever his dad ordered him to do to escape the punishment. But the punishment seems “light” to me; I thought it would have been some corporal punishment. But writing lines from the proverbs all by himself in the basement?

It reminds me of Bart Simpson writing on the chalkboard.

But perhaps it’s the fact that he had to stay in the “basement” that’s worrisome. Was a person already being kept captive in the basement at that time? But then when young MooJi went to the basement to film it, why didn’t he stop MooJin from discovering the terrible secrets hidden down there?

I wish we knew exactly what MJ saw and filmed down there.

2) I want this drama to show that you can’t self diagnose a condition. Just because a person is different doesn’t mean he has a problem.

Just like MY of PBIO in the end didn’t have any disorder, it’s likely HS won’t either. These disorders need a diagnosis. One can’t randomly decide in absence of a professional analysis.

It makes me so sad that he lived for 14 years without therapy. JW should get him some asap. Does she know just what all he endured as a child?

Agree.

In as much that I like how “Psycho but It’s Okay” showed sensitivity to autism (thanks to the actor’s research, according to nrllee), I also worry that a sudden focus of kdramas on a specific psychological disorder would make the disorder trendy, and lead viewers to become in “armchair psychiatrists.” lol.

Remember? When I opened a separate thread on autism, I warned lurkers that none of us is a licensed clinician. Our discussions are purely for drama content, not actual diagnosis of a disorder. It’s similar to how this coronavirus turned everybody on TV and the social media into experts on virology (with a degree from University of Wikipedia. lol.)

Bottom line: seek professional help. I think that message should be incorporated in the resolutions/finales of any kdrama dealing with a psychosis.

3) this reason is much simpler. It makes for a more “heart-tugging” TV. Who wants to see a hero who feels no love use his wife for 16 episodes to his benefit ? He feels no hapiness either so the point of a happy ending would be moot. Oh no no no… One would much rather see a man tortured and abused endlessly to still find it in his heart to love selflessly and be loved in return.

Agree. If the writer and director don’t flip this story around for the heck of it (it’s been known to happen), the story arc seems to indicate that our male lead will endure all sort of torture so in the end, he’ll be revealed to have a heart of gold, and worthy of the heroine’s trust and love.

Aren’t all kdramas supposed to be like that?

4) He does things that are impossible to be motivated in absence of love. For example, taking the hit of that bag full of hardware so that JW isn’t hurt. Taking the blame for his sister and not holding her responsible for it. Knowing that JW is after him but still not hurting her in any way. This is the biggest point. If no one else he himself knows that he’s innocent. He also knows that JW will punish him if she finds proofs against him. He still only requests her. No violence at all even when she makes him realllllly uncomfortable. JW was counting on him becoming violent due to ASD too here. She was wrong. He feels remorse for her. He’s sorry she has to go through these things because of him.

Yes, that basement scene was sadistic. Also, she was trying to entrap him, to induce him commit an act of violence against her so she could prove and catch him as the accomplice.

And I believe he’s fully aware of what she’s deliberately doing to him. JW thinks she’s fooling him with her pretense. I thought that was the reason he chuckled when she said that she was easy to deceive and quite naïve.

JW: What’s my true self?
HS: Bright, innocent, laughs a lot, gets angry a lot, and sulks a lot. And also gets over it easily.
JW: And is easy to deceive and I’m quite naïve.
HS: (laughing) You? Hey, that’s not true.

He’s changed his tune. Back in Episode 1, he was telling his fake mother and father, “Jiwon only believes in what she sees. And I’m someone that shows her only what she wants to see. So for me, Jiwon is easy to handle.” And now, he was saying that she wasn’t easy to deceive and she wasn’t at all naïve.

This tells me that he knows that JW already discovered his deception, and that she was testing and punishing him for deceiving her all these years. That’s why he accepts whatever she dishes out at him, and can only hope that she’ll “get over it easily” and forgive him.

Gifs from iwillgotoyou’s tumblr:

credit: iwillgotoyou’s tumblr