The thread is now open for spoilers and discussions.
I’ve almost caught with the entire series. I still have the last 20 minutes of Episode 8.
Let’s enjoy the show.
28 Comments On “The Uncanny Counter: Eps 9 & 10 Open Thread”
Comments are closed.
The thread is now open for spoilers and discussions.
I’ve almost caught with the entire series. I still have the last 20 minutes of Episode 8.
Let’s enjoy the show.
Comments are closed.
Hello Ladies and Gents!
Happy New Year with many blessings and health to all!
I am up to date with you guys! Waiting for today’s episode!
P.S. I will write some of thoughts about the Series so far later on!
Hi @Cleopatra and thanks @pkml3! It’s been a really long wait for Episode 9!
*Spoilers ahead for those they haven’t watched Episode 9*
Hey @GB and @packmule3!
I have just finished watching Episode 9 and I am utterly frustrated with Wi-Gen!
So, in the first place after Sung Gi-Ru dies, Wi-Gen tries frantically to find a Host. So, she was attracted by So Mun’s energy while he was walking with his friends. She is saved by him, but now she finds him a danger for her?
Jinja?
Seriously?
Because he has anger issues? He is a teen who was a witness of his parent’s murder. He has PSTD. What did she expect? Of course his emotional well being is not as a grown up’s person.
Why did she enter him in the first place? Because at that time, she had to survive – it was convienient! But now, nope. She cannot handle him.
And that Kim So-Ra is a lame creature for calling the Inspector on the Counters when Jungmin is a city full of evil spirits and they haven’t done anything about it.
I am so sick about the violation of the law card when the law is already violated on Earth. We get to see Evil beings a smart gang expanding its area and hurting people all the time on the Series, while the Good guys say: “Don’t violate the law or else we will strip you your abilities and you will die”.
*let’s clap our hands* – No, I am bored already!
Above all these we get to see on episode 10’s preview, a gathering of evil spirits, but now the counters are not four, but three because So Mun is stripped of his Counter abilities and he doesn’t remember anything while on the same time Ji Cheong Sin know his face and where he lives?
Bravo Wi-Gen and the rest of the Yung Gang you are so f***ing amazing. *Sic* – No, not really. –
You are not the ones fighting with 3 level evil spirits or less and endangering your lives. All we get to see, is you playing games in that Yung area, while some others being hurt and die for you guys.
So, you erased So Mun’s memories and let him be -for the time being- the scapegoat in order to attract the demons?
What an amazing thought! (sic)
Bravo to Wi-Gen for doing whatever she had to do to survive, then dumps the Host, when he is not easy to handle! (sic)
I am being prepared for the time when So Mun will return to the Counters, but I won’t be on the side of the Spirits any longer with the exception of Kwon Soo-Ho.
I hate it when some live only by the book, while others are breaking the rules and they are just fine. The same problem applied on The Tale of The Nine Tailed.
*Rant is Over*
Hi @Cleopatra, I too had it in my mind that the Yung Afterlife spirits are abominably foolish, and unbelievably inefficient, and that they apply ‘justice’ inappropriately. With so many evil spirits possessing humans, Yung should not differentiate between evil humans and evil spirits. Since evil humans can easily become hosts for evil spirits, the Counters should be allowed to take down evil in any form, as long as they are not doing it merely for revenge.
And while they’re at it, there should not be only 1 team of 4 Counters in the whole of South Korea (they had to travel across country for hours to get to goodness knows where!), but many teams of Counters in every city.
Being possessed by the Yung Spirits (who do nothing to help combat evil), is more a bane than anything else for their human hosts.
Okay I’ll let @Cleopatra and @GB in charge of being frustrated to Yung while me is still frustrated because I still am not certain if the Choi Jang Mool is really a counter or not
Update: ok, he really is. If so, then why is he not called to Yung too and be given a warning when he also joined the team when they ambushed/cause a scene at the media conference? Is he retired or something? But I recall he still has some counter abilities because he was able to stop the gang when they were in front of the noodle shop (if my memory serves me right).
Hey @GB,
I really dislike double standards. I also dislike the frigid bureaucracy that doesn’t bend evem a little..
Seirously the UC universe is full of inconsistencies as you said. 4 counters for all South Korea as you said, without any “real” help from Yung Territory.
They got bullied because they are fighting Evil in its pure form, people who are likely to be Hosts to Evil Spirits.
We got to see plenty of them around breaking, hurting and killing innocents.
First of all, how come Cheong Sin was off the radar seven years ago when he ate the spirits of So Mun’s parents?
And now the same person / demon is a Level 3 that will go to aLevel 4. How the Counters are suppose to defeate him when he will become that strong?
So Mun couldn’t defeat him and his strength is growing every time he is fighting one…
Dunno, episode 9 made me dislike this Spirits bureaucracy.
Also one thing I forgot before is that Wi-gen broke her promise to So Mun about meeting with his parents!
She is not worthy of him. He is a bright young man, full of kindness and empathy. Yes, he is mad. But it is his lesson to understand why he is mad. And what to do with it…
Hey @LeeDale9198!
JCM was the first Counter, but now he runs the economics of the Counters. So far they haven’t given us any info about how he became one or what are his conditions.
Nice to meet you!
I waited for a long time to watch episode 9 since it didn’t air last week but oh boy I must say it wasn’t worth it.
Totally agree with you and @Cleopatra.
I believe that MOST kdrama writers have skewed (and screwed-up) notions of divine justice and the afterlife because they see the deity as a corrupt governing body in heaven very much similar to their corrupt political system on earth. They distrust the deities in the same way they distrust their political leaders. To me, the “gods” they created in their writings reflect their misunderstanding of omnipotence, omniscience, love and mercy. I’ve become increasingly aware that many kdrama writers don’t have the sophistication and insight to distinguish between God and Caesar, the religious and the secular, the sacred and the profane.
And I wonder if it’s because their primary exposure to religion, Confucianism, is a set of moral codes and their common practice of religion is still based on superstitions, spirit-worship, and ancestor rituals.
That’s MY take on why all the kdramas that dealt with gods have always left with me with a bad taste.
Same here, LeeDale9198.
I know know exactly what role and this Choi Jang Mool has in this Yung enterprise. Maybe he’s the supreme leader in disguise? lol.
I didn’t think much of Wi-Gen since Day 1 because she broke child labor laws. 🙂
She knew the occupational hazards of the job; she endangered a minor; she didn’t offer a compensation package commensurate to his skills. What the?? Meeting with his parents?
Dear @packmul3,
You are right! For the sake of the plot I have forgotten about that!
🙂 @Cleopatra.
We all tend to turn a blind eye or hold off our reservations for the kdrama so we can watch in peace. But sometimes, our misgivings come to the forefront. lol.
Let’s see how Episode 10 unfolds. If they’re planning a second season, then I expect the next half of this season to have more questions than answers to keep us glued to our screens.
Since Jang Mool also joined the quartet in ambushing the media conference, can’t he also receive some kind of repurcussion? Even if he’s not “countering” anymore and just in charge of economics? He just let them do what they did, even kind of encouraging them.
If he’s the supreme leader of the counters, then he should’ve disciplined our quartet while on earth and also the inspector to go directly to him because he’s supposed to be the leader.
Ahhh this old man really frustrates me sometimes.
[Nice meeting you too @Cleopatra, tho I already saw you around here when I’d be just lurking 😂😁]
I only managed a quick look at several parts of Episode 10, and while the going is dire for our Counter Team, there’s hope because Jang Mul did not erase So Mun’s memories (I’m glad someone had the sense to know that if he did that, So Mun would not even recognise the demon infested people and would get killed). For this alone my opinion of the Yung Spirits drops even lower. They use humans and then throw them away to take their chances, totally without taking any responsibility or having any care. Only Su Ho has a heart.
Back to the reason for the hope, possibly because Wigen can find no other host, So Mun becomes a Counter again and summons the Territory. At least that’s what I gather from a quick skip watch.
The other point I noted is that grandma with her Alzheimer’s, also does not seem to have her memory erased. That will be interesting if her memory works when she regains her faculties, especially at a crucial time. I’d like grandma to play a bigger role in SM’s life other than mistaking him for someone else and stealing his stuff. LOL.
Arrrrrrgggggghhhhhh I’m so angry with Wigen. Also Motak’s partner. I’m just so angry and frustrated with them.
They forgot to erase Mun’s friends’ memories tho. It really broke me when they saw Mun limping again.
I can’t believe I would rather take comfort at the fact that our evil duo finally join hands and are now together with their own evil army! What a powerful couple they’re really are. Ship! 😍😂🤣😭
Now Yung will suffer even greater damage. Now I’m angry again because Mae-ok’s in danger next ep.
I know how you feel @LeeDale9198 I sighed and deliberately FFDed the parts where SM was going to get violently bullied again. I was glad though to see that he is able to stand up to the head bully, demon son of Mayor Shin. I expected the demon red light to appear in his eyes and for him to try murder. Perhaps when his friends are not around, he might.
What a good joke to want to sit back and watch Yung fall apart, out of annoyance. Let them have their just deserts! However that would mean that our Counters are also torn apart.
Hey @GB and @LeeDale9198,
Yesterday I was mad, today I am sad.
So, Wi-gen said that So Mun is an evil spirit?
I think she doesn’t know what evil spirits look like. She is up in cloud number 9.
I also saw Episode 11’s preview.
So, So Mun gets his powers back when all the counters are in grave danger!?
What an amazing Job Yang Territory. You are the responsible for this.
You endangered the whole Counter Team because you are childish like… (sic)
And these are the Good guys? *facepalm*
@Packmule3 yes, we turn a blind eye in order to watch in peace.
What I really like about these Series are the Counters because they are a family. They accept the other as they are. Ahjumma is my favorite character in this one. Her motherly figure to So Mun is amazing. Her love for So Mun must be a help to our favorite boy.
I will wait for Episode 12 to show us more…
Hi @Cleopatra, Ep 10 was pretty tough to watch in places, wasn’t it?
My interpretation of what Wigen said was that she could feel what So Mun feels, and so she had felt his burning desire to take revenge by killing. She warned that if he did kill, then he would be no better than (a not so good translation is “the same as”) an evil spirit.
I feel she said that to shock him and as a warning so that he’d be more aware of the dark path down which vengeance could lead him, so I didn’t get upset at her saying it.
I feel her warning did work too, since when he was accosted by Shin Hyeok U, he showed that he could still take the upper hand and ‘kill’ him, but that he chose not to. He wanted to give Hyeok U a different model to follow. And he gave sage advice for his age and I think they were the words that Wigen said to him:
So what Wigen said, had shocked SM to take it to heart. He still retained his memories and knew that with all the training that he’d had, he would have been strong enough to kill the guys, but he told them that he refrained from it so as not to stoop to their level. But they still had a chance to change and be better.
You know what I’m hoping for? That after SM is abducted, Wigen gives him another chance and he suddenly becomes a super strong Counter again and saves himself from his kidnappers. That would be so cool. What a shock for them when they thought that they had the crippled boy securely in their hands.
Yes, I really like the family dynamics of this Counter Team. I like all the characters about equally, but So Mun is so well acted that he’s stolen my motherly heart and I just want to bring him home and feed him, and give him a safe place to rest in. I also like the tortured Ha Na, and hope that getting rid of her uncle’s demon has laid some of her own demons to rest. She must have suffered survivor’s guilt for ages. I really want Mo Tak to remember more of his past and have a good chance with Jeong Yeong again (I hope they don’t ever erase her memories) and of course I’d love for Mae Ok to have some arc as well, but she and her son are both dead or brain-dead. All she has is Su Ho safe in Yung as long as she’s alive. If she dies, he dissipates or has to find a new host pronto!
Now this is something I don’t understand. In this drama-verse, instead of being able to head on into the Afterlife and reincarnate, spirits like Wigen and Su Ho are stuck doing immigration and if their hosts die, they dissipate and cannot just go into reincarnation? What a lousy set up for them. What did they do that they have to do immigration work with so little security, that they don’t even know if they can reincarnate?
Hey @GB!
I remembered that part well and also the scene you transcripted.
The thing is that Wigen is not trustworthy any longer in my eyes.
She might had a good point to tell him that, but she did it in front the Inspector and all the other Spirits, plus the Counters.
Yes, it was a shock for So Mun, but as Choi Jang Mul said his grandparents are the reason So Mun is such a good boy with a golden heart.
We have already talked in TOTNT about the Good wolf and bad Wolf. I feel that his Team / the Counters would have taught him which wolf to feed by their example and not reverse psychology.
Mae Ok loves So Mun with such a love that made her lose a year, while her hair became grey because she wanted to heal him when the level 3 demon hit him so badly, while she was singing to him a child’s sleep song she improvised at that time.
Also, Ha-Na opened up about her past when So Mun was around. And that eased indeed her pain and survivor guilt as you said above.
Mo Tak is like a fatherly figure, even though he is not that talkative but expressive with his actions. He doesn’t remember how close was with So Mun’s dad, but he has decided to be an example to So Mun and taught him some things, Mo Tak feels are important.
As I said above I dislike double standards.
I do hope I am wrong, but I don’t think the reason that So Mun will get his powers back will be something like that.
My take on episode 11 is that Wigen will see that all the Spirits in Yung will be likely ready to disappear = be dead and she will enter the unstable So Mun in order to bring the Yung Territory back because of the same EMOTIONS she pointed in Episode 9.
So Mun will be heartbroken and in so much pain, watching his family being ambushed and tortured from the Evil Spirits Gang, Cheong Sin gathered and they have the Mayor’s Blessing of course!
And from those EMOTIONS, So Mun will summon Yung Territory and somehow save his team. I don’t know how he will fight all these demons though.
We already watched that they have recruited several Levels 1 and with the crazy lady we have two Level 3 demons.
So the Counters are outnumbered. I don’t think he can beat everyone when Mo Tak, Ha-Na and Mae Ok will be hurt.
I do hope that Mae Ok will be okay because we got a glimpse of a scene where she is in MICU and unconscious with severe trauma.
I seriously don’t know what really happens in this drama-verse.
I wanted to ask if someone has seen the Webtoon at all, in order to see if they have follow the script Jang Yi has written or they took liberties on the Tv-Series.
@GB,
I forgot to answer to your question. Yes, episode 10 was pretty tough to watch.
At the same time, though, I am watching Doctor John and I am kinda sad because of the story. Still, I am waiting for the Catharsis !
Echoing everyone’s thoughts here. Ep9 definitely brought to light the major issues with how the counter universe works.
The Yung spirits are so useless, I remember being really annoyed in ep7/8 when they were busy playing games whilst the counters were risking their lives. What exactly are the counters getting from this, especially So Mun 😕 Risking their lives for what? The only thing So Mun has gotten from this is his healed leg- which he no longer has. Or does he? I feel like his leg might be fine but he’s limping to suggest he’s back to his old self, not sure it makes sense for his leg to go back to being broken just because he is stripped of his title.
It was so silly for them to tell Hana to erase his memory and yet we have the students at school who knew he was once different. They’d seen him walking without a limp and challenge the bullies. With SoMun back to limping the bullies were obviously going to be on his case again. And how would he survive in the streets when evil spirits know his face!!!
Really hoping no one from the counter team dies in the upcoming episode. I love Ms Choi, her motherly love to So Mun is beautiful to watch. I won’t be surprised to hear that she’s in the coma because she tried to save her son or something.
Oh btw not sure if anyone know this but SoMun actually means rumour. The Korean title translated is “Amazing SoMun/ Amazing rumour”. I can understand the amazing part of it because he is a special counter who has great abilities but not sure the show has given us a rumour to work with.
Really? His name means “rumor”?
Hmmm… I have to make a mental note of that. Thanks.
@Esst3 Yup, the Yung logic is terribly flawed and skewed mostly to the benefit of the Yung Spirits. Seems like they’re the dead who still have jobs to do before they can head off to the Afterlife.
They do face a strange unfairness though … even after being stuck in Yung, if a Counter dies, they may dissipate if they don’t find another host at once. And, if in the case of the new hosts that now Gi Ran and Wigen are ‘interviewing’ *eyeroll* they do not get permission, they are stuck without a host. SO … QUESTION… why is it that Wigen is still fine and not panicking about not having a host now that she’s booted herself out of So Mun??? Big Logic Fail.
Also, in the beginning when she possessed So Mun, did she get his permission? All I recall is that he was charged with a job to do and if he rejected the job, then she’d have to get out… but the tone of that was NOT like they were asking nicely for his permission, because she REALLY needed him. She was desperate and that’s all the excuse they had for making poor So Mun a Counter.
Yes… about that limping… does not make sense. Other people were healed and retained their healed bodies, why should SM lose the healing given to him just because he is no longer a Counter. Just treat him as one of those other humans and let him keep the healed leg.
The total disregard for human life and safety when it does not involve evil spirits directly is what annoys me the most about Yung. They seem to be much worse than the humans, just because they’ve died and left the worldly life behind.
Thanks for the information on the meaning of So Mun’s name. ‘Amazing’ and ‘Uncanny’ are not exactly similar enough in meaning, but we can still understand them used interchangeably. But ‘Counter’ and ‘Rumour’ seems in English to have no connection at all. I went back to @pkml3’s expose on what ‘Counter’ could mean in her Episode 1 First Impressions, and only 2 of those 5 possibilities seem to fit.
Nothing comes really close to what we understand by a rumour/hearsay/report of doubtful truth. However I do feel that Yung uses our trusty Counters like chess pieces/game counters in the fight against evil. They are also there to counter evil forces and be grim reapers leading good, trapped spirits to Yung (and only then Wigen and Co. lead them to the Afterlife).
So why the Korean has SM’s name as ‘Rumour’ is still a mystery.
Aside from the word 소문 meaning rumour, I believe SM’s name comes from his parents (his father’s surname of course So and his mother’s first name’s syllable Mun from Munyeong).
Haha. I wish everything about this drama is just like a rumour. Just something that doesn’t exist. Yung is so ridiculous beyond imagination. This world is better off without Yung.
Kalimera for my part of the world!
@Esst3 what you said is rather interesting but as everyone said above the knowledge is out of context for us at the moment.
I am trying not to be mad any longer @LeeDale9198, so I am busy watching W: Two Worlds Apart. *smiles*
@GB you’ve hit the nail on the head about the Yung have little regard for human life. Like I said earlier we’re really seeing how illogical the Yung world is with certain timings.
Yep guys I’m spun about the name too. I’d heard the word 소문 translated as rumour and thought “isn’t that the name of the character in UC” . Went to look up the title at Asian Wiki and saw the literal translation.
With the word “rumour”, I can’t help but think about Umbrella Academy (a comic series recently turned Netflix show). There’s a character- Allison- who has the ability to control people by telling them “I heard a rumour (xyz)”, the person she whispers it to does what she says. In the case of Uncanny Counter it’s the same phrase but used in a different more literal sense. So it’s the evil spirits who say “I heard a rumour” and they are talking about; So Mun, his powers, the Yung territory and whatever it is they know about the counters. So Mun becomes something of a dread to them (when he gets his powers back😪). Lol at this point I’m definitely speculating and drawing at straws but it just came to mind from the snippet of the next ep where we see Cheong Sin building an army.
@Esst3
I like your conjectures about where the ‘rumour’ is being spoken about. It’s true that the spirits seem to speak in whispers to each other, like they are telling secrets or spreading rumours, LOL. Cute idea. Yes, what they are discussing, is how to figure out what the Territory was and how to avoid it, and trying to identify more of their kind. They are spreading the word around to all of their own kind.
And the ‘rumour’ is mostly about So Mun, so maybe it’s not so far-fetched after all!!