Nothing stresses me out in kdramas as dealing with the stupidity of a writer. I don’t care how thrilling the actions scenes are, how handsome the actors are, or innovative the cinematography is. When the writer causes my brain to short-circuit because of stupid elements in the drama, I’m dropping the drama.

So, please kdrama gods, please deliver me from stupid writer and characters.

1. GuReum the Stupid

It enrages me that GuReum keeps trying to overpower the Assassin in a hand-to-hand combat despite being smacked down like a doll for the 100th time. She should have gotten a clue when her taser didn’t work on the guy in Ep 2. On top of this, after the hard blows from a metal chair, steel pipe and fire extinguisher had zero effect on him in Ep 3, she should suspected that she was fighting with an abnormally strong man.

Any male protagonist would have used his wits by then and adjusted his fighting style.

Just look at Tiger Park in “Space Sweepers.” He knew that he couldn’t defeat a cyborg in a physical fight, so he opened the airlock and allowed air pressure to do its magic. That’s a perfect example of using his brains.

Here, GuReum’s fighting style is still ridiculously at Neanderthal level. Meaning, All Brawn, No Brains.

When the Assassin again failed his mission to capture JiOh, his boss, Mr. Kim, reprimanded him. Per Viki subs, Mr. Kim said, “You better catch him this time. Repeating the same result isn’t a mistake. But a talent.”

Note: The word “talent” is used to say the exact OPPOSITE of its literal meaning. Mr. Kim was being ironic and sarcastic. This rhetorical device is called “antiphrasis.” It’s like exclaiming, “Oh. Great! This is just what I needed!” after finding out that this drama features a too-stupid-to-run-away heroine.

Mr. Kim was actually telling the Assassin that repeating the mistake was a sign of incompetence.

Now, if the Assassin was getting chewed out for incompetence, then I think GuReum also deserved to be bawled out by her Capt Choi for incompetence AND self-endangerment. How many times has SHE failed to handle the situation, and let the bad guys beat her up?

If the Assassin and his band of 2 are dumb, GuReum is dumber. Her stupidity is making me want to root for the bad guys.

She isn’t an MMA fighter so quit making her act like one, writer!

2. Capt. Choi the Sensitive

Capt. Choi may or may not turn out to be a bad guy in the end. But based on this veteran actor’s previous roles in kdramas, I’m giving Capt. Choi the benefit of the doubt. This actor’s specialty is playing morally ambiguous characters.

I like this scene when he spoke with GuReum one-on-one. Per Viki subs:

Capt: Something happened, right?
GuReum: I don’t know. I was unconscious.
Capt: Something happened to you. That’s why you’re trying to hide it. I’ll assign you to a female officer in charge, so make an honest statement. We’ll keep it confidential.

For sensitivity to this issue, I’m giving the writer kudos.

GuReum: Wow, you’re really letting your imagination run wild.
Capt: Am I wrong?
GuReum: Yes, you are.
Capt: I don’t think I am, though.
GuReum: Nothing like that happened, I’m telling you.
Capt: Then that’s a relief.

He was discreetly talking to her about sexual violence, of course. He was worried that she had been sexually assaulted or rape when she was abducted, and he wanted to make sure that she got proper attention.

That’s the reason I’m not convinced that he’d given her the cellphone with the tracking device. He was that concerned about her wellbeing so why would he give her a bugged cellphone and endanger her life?

I’m reserving judgment until we’re given a plausible motivation for his joining Mr. Kim’s minions.

Capt: Weren’t you kicked out of the Felony and Homicide (or “Major Crimes”) for insubordination? You were investigating your immediate supervisor. Lucky that you only got transferred because you were with Felony and Homicide. People like us at the bottom rung of criminal investigation will be terminated immediately. So don’t go around digging dirt. Just rest. This is a new phone for you from the police force. Report your old one as lost and broken. Then go home.

My take is GuReum investigated her previous supervisor for a possible connection with her parents’ disappearance. I’m hoping that the supervisor is Mr. Kim’s contact in the police department, and the source of the cellphone, not Capt. Choi.

3. Ha YoungJae the real creator 

Remember this word: RETCON.

I dislike it when writers “retcon” the viewers. To “retcon” means to give a different spin (or interpretation) to the story by introducing a new set of facts. The new facts will alter the plot’s continuity and change the course of the story. Retcon comes from the words “retroactive continuity.”

One (in)famous example of a retcon is the death of Sherlock Holmes. He plunged to his death, taking along his killer, Moriarty, with him. However, due to readers’ clamor, he resurrected Sherlock by claiming that Sherlock’s death had been faked.

From Episode 1, the audience were led to believe that the mad scientist Ryu Joong Kwon had created JiOh (or Z-O). There were a couple of times when Mr. Ryu claimed JiOh as his personal success:

To his head researcher: Are you telling me that my success was a mere fluke enabled by God’s blessing?

To Mr Kim: I’m the one who started these experiments and I succeeded first.

Per Viki subs, Mr Kim replied, “And you blew it. Of course it wasn’t your fault. You succeeded once, as you said. Losing a researcher makes things that difficult for you?” Then, he ordered him to make something like JiOh one more time.

To me, the “retcon” happened in Episode 3, when the writer revealed that JiOh was actually the creation of the Mr. Ryu’s “co-researcher” and not Mr. Ryu himself. JiOh was created by GuReum’s father. (Hey! Does this make them “spiritual” siblings, then?)

Mr. Kim explained to the Assassin (Ep 3, 28:27) that the co-founder and co-researcher of Mr. Ryu was Ha Young Jae. He was “the very man who created JiOh” but he ran away with JiOh and his research material.

Thanks for that bait-and-switch, writer.

4. GuReum the Investigator

Who the heck are these people GuReum has been investigating?

In Ep 1, GuReum went to the research lab seeking for info about:

a. a woman named Kim Jisuk
b. a man named Kang YeongSu

According to her, Kang YeongSu received some money from Kim JiSuk. Looking through the woman Kim JiSuk’s bank account, she found out that the money was deposited by Human Tech.

At the police department, GuReum was investigating her supervisor. She was demoted because of insubordination and transferred to Capt. Choi’s department.

At the Yeochun convent, she asked Sister Stella about:

a. Jang Jae Woo
b. Hwang Eun Gyeong

According to GuReum, they were church members. They were going to a mass on the day they disappeared. Sister Stella denied knowing them. She said she would have remembered their names had they gone missing because the police would have questioned her about missing church members.

I find this interesting because GuReum really should have talked to the priest (or chaplain) of the church regarding members, not the nun. If they were church members, they would have gone to confessions regularly in order to receive Holy Communion. Only priests hear confessions.

c. Ji Oh

Sister Stella said he just appeared one day standing before the Virgin Mary. When he was asked if somebody brought him there, he only replied, “Jioh. Jioh.” That was twenty years ago, too, around the time that the Jang Jae Woo and Wang Eun Gyeong disappeared.

d. Ha Yeong Jae, GuReum’s father

GuReum asked if Ha Yeong Jae had been one of those people who adopted JiOh. According to Sister Stella, she never heard of that name before. GuReum looked puzzled. She assumed that her father had brought JiOh home that fateful night directly from that orphanage.

Note: When she saw JiOh for the first time, (Ep 2, at 11:57), she asked her mother whether JiOh was her younger brother. I thought this was odd, given that, at her age, she should have known where babies came from. That is, her mother would have to be pregnant first. To me, GuReum’s innocent question indicated that she was open to the idea of adoption, and she would welcome the young JiOh as a sibling.

In a way, GuReum is taking care of JiOh as if he was her “donsaeng.” I hope that the writer doesn’t force a romance on us.

5. Sister Stella the Shaman

Stella isn’t a Catholic nun. She’s a shaman pretending to be a nun.

If this writer had done his research, then he would have known that nuns cannot do exorcisms. If he had checked the code of Canon Law, he would have read that:

Can. 1172 §1. No one can perform exorcisms legitimately upon the possessed unless he has obtained special and express permission from the local ordinary.
§2. The local ordinary is to give this permission only to a presbyter who has piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.

source: https://www.vatican.va

The key points:

A. Only ordained priests
B. Must have the expressed approval from their superior, the bishop, and
C. The priest must be spiritually holy.

But this writer didn’t need to go to the Vatican site. Wikipedia (the lazy man’s encyclopedia) would have sufficed.

Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the Church, can be exercised only by an ordained priest (or higher prelate), with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcism_in_the_Catholic_Church

Note: A medical examination is necessary to rule out extenuating circumstances like physical, psychological or psychiatric illness.

I get that many kdrama writers are ignorant of the Catholic faith and traditions. It wouldn’t surprise me if this writer followed another religion like Buddhism, Confucianism, or atheism.

But his religion doesn’t interest me. I don’t demand that only Catholic kdrama writers be allowed to write about Catholic themes or use the Catholic churches as their setting. And I don’t require this specific writer to become a leading authority on exorcism.

All I’m asking is that he does his research. It’s unforgiveable for a screenwriter to write about something he was too LAZY to read up on and half-ass his job.

This Stella is practicing shamanism. She’s a shaman in a nun’s habit.

The prayer to St. Michael she recited sounded like that mumbo-jumbo a shaman chants in a trance. That crucifix she held up to JiOh’s face was like that talisman a shaman uses to ward off the spirits. And the water she was spraying on the young JiOh? Ugh.

Holy water shouldn’t be treated like salt that a shaman throws over her shoulder to get rid of bad luck. Holy water is sprinkled on the possessed person to remind him of his Baptism and Christ’s saving grace. In the story, however, Stella didn’t even know whether JiOh was baptized or not, so basically, she was splashing him with water because to her, the water contained magical powers.

But last of all, the writer didn’t think this whole exorcism through.

The reason why the exorcist is required to be someone with “piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life” is because he’s summoning the devil. If Shaman Stella succeeded in calling the devil out of JiOh, where would the demonic spirit go after that? Back into hell? I don’t think so.

I bet it’ll seek the soul of a person it can possess — someone who’s susceptible to evil, like Shaman Stella. With her heart full of anger, fear, and hatred, Shaman Stella would have been a prime candidate. She should have been worried about her soul being assaulted by the devil.

Sigh. This writer failed to do his research on Catholic tradition and relied on sensationalized tropes.

6. GuReum’s old professor

He’s one of the few characters I like. He reminded me of JiOh’s old friend who was tossed into the incinerator. They both understood that the importance of adhering to ethical norms and conduct in scientific research.

I hope this old professor remains trustworthy throughout the kdrama and he doesn’t get killed somewhere along the way.

BTW, if this actor looks familiar, it’s because he was in “The King: Eternal Monarch.” He was the bad uncle’s right-hand man.

As for the animals DNAs found in JiOH’s system, it’s easy to guess the reason Mr. Ryu picked these animals.

The electric eel for electricity. We’ve already seen its effect.

The jellyfish (or medusae) is for immortality. This is the special feature of a certain kind of jellyfish.

In response to physical damage or even starvation, they take a leap back in their development process, transforming back into a polyp. In a process that looks remarkably like immortality, the born-again polyp colony eventually buds and releases medusae (scientific name of jellyfish) that are genetically identical to the injured adult. In fact, since this phenomenon was first observed in the 1990s, the species has come to be called “the immortal jellyfish.”

source: https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/on-exhibit-posts/the-immortal-jellyfish

This could partly explain why JiOh remembers nothing every time he powers up. He injures himself because he releases more electrical charge than his body can take. He’s “frying” himself. Because he’s injured, his jellyfish DNA kicks in and reboots him from the start. But the side effect of his “rebooting” is that he forgets everything like a newborn baby.

The fly for its sight and reaction time. This could explain why we sometimes get his point of view during the fight scenes. The director purposely shoots the scenes from his perspective.

I hope neither Mr. Ryu nor Mr Kim is thinking of creating a super-soldier with these designer DNAs.

7. JiOh

I think I’ll discuss JiOh in the next episode…