I enjoyed Episode 3. These are my notes.
1. The opening scene
Two important things:
a. With YiHyun’s rescue of SaeBom and her colleague from the zombies, he’s paid back SaeBom’s crisis intervention when they were in high school. He pulled them out of the refrigerator truck with no fuss.
He just said that he was glad that he made it in time. He didn’t yell at her for acting recklessly.
b. LtCol Han’s mindset was starkly juxtaposed with YiHyun’s. Han was handed an assault rifle while YH asked for a stun grenade.
We know the difference, right? The firearms are meant to kill. (In theory, he should have also been handed an extra magazine in case he ran out of ammunition.)
The stun grenade is a non-lethal grenade meant to temporarily incapacitate and disorient people with its intense light and loud explosion. That’s why when YH banged on the truck, the zombies inside stirred up again.
The drama has set the two men apart. Previously, it’s virus-versus-drug debate. Now, it’s to-kill-versus-not-to-kill debate. YH has no viable countermeasures yet.
However, LtCol Han’s internal conflict is noteworthy. While he considers infected people as non-human and shoots them without compunction, he has an infected wife (she called him, “Yeobo!”) receiving military treatment. YiHyun incorrectly assumes that Han has no direct experience with the illness.
Han: How did you know the flare would be effective?
YH: Otherwise, there’s no reason for the soldiers to carry it around. It’s not as if they’re repressing massive terror and there are already multiple infected.
The military uses these stun grenades to capture enemy-combatants in situations where hostages and/or non-combatants are present as well. The grenades are thrown into an enclosed space like YH did.
Han: I found out when a few of the infected tried to escape the facility.
YH: So you just lock them up here and wait for them to die?
Han: Then what? They have no rationality, and the normal ones keep looking for fresh blood. Should we give them a live offering?
A live offering = a human sacrifice. Ugh. I can imagine the distaste in LtCol Han’s face if he has to perform a ritual sacrifice like the Aztec Quetzalcoatl.
YH: But they’re still living people. We have to hold out.
Han: This is holding out. We protect those with mild cases and isolate the severe cases.
YH: Listen here, Han TaeSeok. What if your family became like that? (whoops.) Be honest. You see them as monsters. You’ll shoot at them without a second thought if they come at you.
Han: (sighing) Do you know what we learned through COVID?
YH: What? We should wash our hands well?
Han: Eating and living are more important than a few people tearing each other apart.
Hmmm… I wonder what the screenwriter meant by this?
Han: (continuing) I’m holding out with all my strength to protect my family.
Then, SaeBom arrived.
SB: How much longer will you work in hiding like this? You have to announce it to the public and discuss what will happen to the infected.
Han: I will. The news media are already catching on.
SB: Hurry up. Or I’ll break the news. (walking away)
The weird thing is there’s no discussion on the best way to handle this crisis. There’s no inter-organizational cooperation between government, police, military personnel and public to form a crisis management TEAM.
It’s all LtCol Han’s mandate.
YH: Let’s not see each other again, if we can help it. Oh, one more thing. (bangs on the truck) These people are also holding on with all their strength.
2. @Growing_Beautifully asked,
I was dismayed that SB let the zombie loose. The bathroom door was not locked, so how was she contained?
Everything we know about zombies, @GB, we learned from “Zombie Detective.” 😊
The wife, Park MinJi, was contained in the bathroom because it’s a fact that zombies don’t know how to open doors with doorknobs or handles. The husband was stupid…he simply ran away, leaving the apartment door open, and the stairwell door open. He should have closed them.
Zombies couldn’t remove their face shields either. They don’t have finger dexterity.
I think I’m part-zombie, too, because most days, I can’t open safety-cap on medicine bottles.
Anyway, this is good to know when there’s a Zombie Apocalypse: don’t leave open doors.
3. Class divide
Since the gym appears to be the epicenter of the drug distribution, and the gyms were only accessible to the owners (i.e., the rich) and not the lessees (i.e., the poor), then infected people in the apartment would mostly be the rich people.
Additionally, I think there’s a sad commentary here about a society that has a physical dependence on drugs for stimulant, depressant, improved concentration, and diet.
Han: I questioned a drug dealer, and he says he sold the drug at the basement gym. He sold them saying it helps you focus on your diet. Park Min Ji from the sixth floor was one of the buyers.
4. Anti-Christianity bias
It exasperates me whenever kdrama writers stereotype Christians and Catholics as proselytizing simpletons.
SaeBom and the apartment representative were arguing in the lobby when this old lady approached them to hand them a church flyer.
Old lady: Don’t fight. Come to church. God knows all.
Representative: The madame I suite 601 must be suffering a lot these days.
Old lady: She could be at ease if she leaned on Him in difficult times.
Representative: She has a husband, so she’ll be fine. (handing back the flyer)
Seriously? This is soft bigotry.
I think kdrama writers are more insidious than little old church ladies when it comes to promoting escapism. In every drama, these screenwriters preach, “Escape your boring life. Watch kdrama and forget your troubles. You can be at ease if you dream of oppa in difficult times.”
For many people, watching kdrama is a form of religion, too.
5. Societal breakdown
For me, what makes this drama interesting to watch is how the writer addresses the breakdown of societal order in times of catastrophic emergencies.
a. The message from the husband/killer story is that evil people will continue to be evil. They will use the madman disease to cover up their atrocities.
Same with that arrested man, brought into the police precinct, who pretended to feel the urge to bite somebody. YH flipped him over to check out the eyes.
b. The message from the scene when the apartment representative went to the grocery was that people needed a familiar and credible leader. Nobody heeded the alert on their phones, but everybody galvanized into action when the representative began shopping.
c. The message from that last shot of YiHyun comforting SaeBom was that law and order will have to take a backseat while families (and couples) regroup themselves.
d. The message from LtCol Han’s decision to cordon off the apartment complex is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
At least, he knew that the infected people couldn’t be slaughtered off like pigs infected with swine flu.
Han: As luck would have it, only residents are allowed to use the gym. And half of the residents are families, and the daycare inside the apartment hadn’t opened yet.
SB: You’ll block off the entire apartment building?
Han: Until we obtain the workforce and location to monitor all the infected.
Lol. I heard that zombies can’t swim. Maybe they should be put in an aircraft carrier…
SB: You should notify the apartment residents. So that people could prepare their hearts.
Han: They wouldn’t prepare their hearts but run away and spread the disease. You can get out, Yoon SaeBom. When it comes to work of this nature, we’re always in need of decisive people.
Ha. They also actually need her. They’re working on a cure and an antiviral drug so they need to continue drawing blood samples from her. If I were her, I’d stay inside the apartment complex since LtCol has no choice but to keep her safe.
Besides, they can’t be completely cut off when the helicopters can still land or hover on rooftop.
6. Romance department
Ha. I told you I was watching this for Park Hyung Sik, right? Who cares about quasi-zombies when my happiness is watching slow-burn romance?
There were six married couples in this episode.
a. SaeBom’s colleague worried about his wife and kids, and decided to do that whole “noble idiot” shit.
b. LtCol Han Taesuk is suffering from PTSD after watching his wife turn into a zombie.
c. The husband of the Christian old lady scolded her to eat rice then brought home hamburger for her anyway.
d. The parents of the little girl argued about the medical care for their daughter.
e. The husband, Oh Joo Hyung, killed his wife then used the virus as an excuse for self-defense.
YH: Your wife’s head was pretty much crushed. The part you beat her with a golf club, Oh Joo Hyung.
Husband: It was self-defense. She was trying to bite me. What else could I do?
YH: If only it wasn’t the madness disease, you could’ve done what you wanted to do, right?
Husband: What?
YH: She should’ve died when you hit her with your golf club. But Mark Min Ji suddenly developed the disease and didn’t die. If it weren’t for that, you could’ve disposed of the body and could’ve committed a perfect crime.
My problem with this whole murder case is that the husband cleaned the blood off the carpet, but he didn’t think to clean his club and the blood splatters on the coffee table and to change his shirt afterwards.
Husband: Perfect crime? What the hell are you talking about?
YH: It’s the NFS report on the blood found on that golf club. “A swing that requires the full power of a grown man.” “Shards of the occipital bone and brain tissue were found.” “The weapon was swung with intent to kill.”
The Dramacool version is easier to understand that the Viki subs.
I think the point here is that the man could have used a less violent way of subduing his wife. Like YiHyun wrapped his shirt around the zombie wife instead of punching her.
Husband: I told you. I got scared. Her eyes turned white and attacked me trying to bite. If it were you, would you die being bitten by your wife? Do you love your wife that much?
This was a personal question, and irrelevant to the investigation. YiHyun was not obliged to respond.
However, there’s no doubt in my mind that had Saebom turned into a zombie, YiHyun would allow her to bite him before even raising a hand against her. As we’ve seen before, Saebom jokingly tried to bite him and he just held her. He isn’t frightened of her.
The standard trope for situations like this is YiHyun will want to be bitten by Saebom so they can die together.
All these five couples had awful examples of marriage. Only YH and SB’s marriage seem to be in a working well although they’re chill about it.
e. YiHyun and Saebom
These are the scenes that made my heart go “awwww” —
I like that YiHyun asks her if she’s okay.
Here:
And here:
He knows that she isn’t a weakling but he still worries about her. (But I do wish she’d stop rushing headlong into danger. It’s getting annoying.)
I like the elevator scene when he pulled her closer to him because he thought their #15 floor neighbor was wacko.
He entered the elevator in front of her to protect her. I do get the awkwardness here… How can he be protective of his wife, when she’s just as strong as he is, and isn’t the type to break down and cry in feminine tears?
I also liked how he made sure that his mother would see their couple portrait behind them when they were on Zoom. He sure is proud of that photograph.
He said he was okay wherever they went for their honeymoon.
With anybody else, I would assume that his disinterest was a sign of apathy. But with YH, he was fine as long as it would make her happy.
7. One final takeaway
This blog isn’t an airport so departure announcements are really unnecessary.
If you choose to drop this show, just go in peace. I’ll understand. 🙂
I am not accustomed to the characteristics about Zombies ie they can’t open doors. Learn something new every day. 😂. The fact that those infected can be killed sort of puts them more in the rabies category I guess? I thought zombies were the undead and couldn’t be killed unless you lop their heads off or something? So “mad person disease” is probably a better reference to them. It just so happens that they develop a penchant to try to infect others with bites on their necks. We’ll just refer to them here as zombies regardless? I am not breaking some woke rule am I? 😂
And yes to the segregation and class divide. That was the one thing (aside from the interesting matter of factly contractual relationship that our 2 leads have with each other) that kept me interested. It reminded me of the Titanic. Except here the writer has flipped it so that the class divide actually acted as a protective measure of sorts – none of the renters had access to the gym and they certainly wouldn’t have spare cash to buy supplements. So it would be the rich that are patient zeros in the complex. And it was interesting that the rich lady asked SB to keep quiet about the whole event because it would affect their property values. Now that they are all locked in together and “treated the same” (zombie apocalypses are great levellers 😂), aside from the fact that the rich could possibly afford to stockpile more, the zombies aren’t going to care who they bite.
I agree about getting increasingly annoyed with SB’s impetuousness and tendency to just leap into a situation without much thought. I think it’s the writer’s way of highlighting how SB and YH balance each other out? He’s more deliberate and considered. Reliable. But yes I like their dynamic. The fact that he doesn’t push her to change or berate her for acting with little forethought. He just accepts that’s how she is? And rolls with it?
I will see if I am in the mood to continue. I started Bossam on the side. Didn’t have time when it aired live. Love it to bits. Reading your thoughts in the old posts as I go along.
Four things I knew about Zombies, @nrllee. At least, the American ones.
1. They can’t swim.
2. They don’t zigzag.
3. They can’t open doors.
4. Aluminum baseball bats work better at whopping their heads off than wooden bats. (Aha! Baseball is relevant! Lol)
But these are quasi-zombies. They don’t eat brain matter but thirst for blood like vampires.
I haven’t watched Ep 4.
I think we were warned about SB in Ep 1 when LtCol Han read her report. Something about her curiosity and decisiveness. 🙄 I like YH’s character better. He was called “Sleuth” bec he consistently put two and two together.
For instance, the #601 couple. SB only had to mention them and he got to work and solved it. He sensed that the wife wasn’t violent towards everyone. Just to her killer. Telling the wife that he’d pursued her killer was the right thing to do. He treated her as a person, although she’d already become a monster.
The rich lady was just protecting her property value. But it’s all pointless. Even if they survive this, do they really want to live there again? Others won’t either.
Actually, zombie apocalypse is great for Darwin’s evolutionary theory. Only the fittest will survive. Elderly, the infirmed, children, many women won’t survive.
In this drama, the gym users who took the pill were mostly women bec the drug pusher said it worked for dieting.
I’m still trying to determine where LtCol stands in all of this.
I wasn’t just annoyed at SB when she entered the truck and tried to pull her friend out, I felt so angry at her action. She meant well but it made me want to hit her on the head for being so careless.
If she was wearing a whole body protective suit and gear, her neck covered in thick layer I wouldn’t mind if she wanted to be female Rambo and push those infected back to pull the guy out.
Realistically, the soldiers would close the truck. She would be just another fatality.
I know that Saebom wasn’t written to be a shrinking violet, based on first episode she pushed the male lead to put an end to the scene.
But I would rather see the couple fight as a team than one rescuing the other all the time. It’s okay the first time, but once repeated it will just make the so called fearless female lead into a DID.
Show how awesome Saebom could be.
@M I agree about SB. So far, she seems to be the one who needs rescuing? Even though she thought she was “rescuing” YH on the rooftop in high school, he wasn’t actually intending to jump. He was just (as he has been consistently so far) getting perspective on the situation. But her pragmatism and chatter helped. And her unpredictability certainly made her unforgettable. Let’s see if our intrepid duo work better in a team. I feel like with YH’s steadying force, it will give her pause for thought so hopefully she’ll be less likely to just act recklessly.
PS the class divide also works in the LtCol’s case. His wife seemed to be in a zombie equivalent of a “private suite”? 😂.
@pkml3 says:
Thanks for your take on the situations @pkml3.
I was wondering about the same thing that your mentioned below.
Here is the other version of the subs.
YH : “What if your family was in there? Let’s be honest. You consider them monsters. You have no problem shooting them if they come at you.” (We recall that HTS actually hesitated and looked conflicted before shooting the zombie in the car boot.)
Han : “Do you know what we learned from Covid-19?”
YH : “The importance of washing hands?”
Han : “Getting by is more important than a few people biting and killing each other. I’m trying my best to survive this, so I can protect my family.”
My understanding of what Han means is that enabling himself and the majority to get by and to survive ie to contain and outlast the disease is all that he can aim for at present, because there is no cure.
This is similar to the Covid-19 situation in that the majority had to hold out long enough for a vaccine to be created. In the meantime, the infected could only be helped with what was currently available and had to be contained as best as possible, ie the infected or possibly infected had to be isolated and quarantined.
Covid was widespread very soon, hence whole countries/states/provinces etc faced lockdown, but with the apartments complex, Han has a more contained situation. He can restrict the movements of the possibly infected who are mostly all in one place, instead of the wider population as is still being done with Covid-19.
Will be back later!
For what it’s worth, there are no universal zombie rules. The walking dead stumble.The Kingdom zombies are speedy. The Shaun of the Dead zombies are cheeky. Zombieland zombies are found all over the place. And my favorite zombie, zombie detective lives on raw chicken and uses BB cream. So I’m looking for new zombie tropes here. What they all have in common is a certain amount of spasticity. So for me the most interesting zombie iterations come from S. Korea with speed and intelligence being unusual.
Also love the whole housing lottery trope. Who knew that a dream apartment would come at such great cost. And the dream unit would not be so great were it not for it’s location. Maybe living in the hinterlands in an old Hanock would be superior given the events of this drama.
Anyway, loving our leads. Friendship to me makes an incredible base for a successful marriage.
I agree @GB that Han’s main priority is “enabling himself and the majority to get by and to survive ie to contain and outlast the disease is all that he can aim for at present, because there is no cure.”
That’s why I said that the “message from LtCol Han’s decision to cordon off the apartment complex is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
However….
what I wanted to know was what the *screenwriter* himself meant by writing that Han’s comment. That is, where does the scriptwriter stand on this issue:
whether he supports LtCol Han’s worldview,
whether he agrees that survival of the majority is truly “more important than a few people biting and killing each other,” and whether he considers the problem of the monstrous few as trivial.
From the way I see it, the screenwriter is siding with YiHyun and SaeBom: that LtCol Han’s approach to this epidemic is a hard-line and uncompromising solution to a very nuanced problem and that his outlook will cause a humanitarian crisis.
Hence, we were shown the side stories of SaeBom’s colleague, and the murdered wife from Condo Unit #601. Through these side stories, the screenwriter gave a “face” to these monsters. SaeBom rescued her partner because she couldn’t leave him, and YiHyun wanted the zombie wife to know that her killer would be brought to justice. If SaeBom and YiHyun were of the same mindset as LtCol Han, then rescuing Saebom’s colleague and pursuing the killer of the zombie wife were futile and idiotic displays of courage.
If LtCol Han’s goal is to *just* hold on — or to just endure the atrocities happening to the “few” for the sake of the rest — then what does it say about our humanity? In effect, we’re NO different from the Apartment Representative. 🙂
Do you see it?
We think she’s crass because all she could think of was property values. She wanted the problems of the few (i.e., the poor renters and the couple #601) to be ignored for the sake of the many since their property values will go bust.
LtCol Han is not much different from her. He wants the problems of the few (i.e., the infected people and monsters) to be ignored for the sake of the many since their happy lives will be disturbed. He doesn’t want people to be troubled again so soon after Covid.
The “apartment” here is just a metaphor for what we hold dear in our lives, our happiness. For the Apartment Representative, happiness is material wealth. For LtCol Han, happiness is perhaps social order. We shall see….
@pkml3, that’s a great and profound take on what could have been dismissed an unbelievable plot. I can see what you mean by going for the actual message of the writer (Han Sang Woon), his attitude towards life and convictions, as portrayed by the way the story pans out. Watched through this filter, it will be easier to accept what seems short on being credible.
LOL about what we know about zombies coming from Zombie Detective. It’s probably true for me too, since I don’t watch zombie shows. Oh, but I did see some Chinese zombies in The Untamed.
@OAL, thanks for your listing of zombie traits. I have to admit that I’ve never thought of them. Spasticity did seem to me to be more common, and now, a loss in understanding how simple mechanics work. What struck me was that Sae Bom could easily hold back the mass of zombies by pushing them backwards with the bar, and none of them thought to duck and crawl under it. Of course with spasticity, it would have been difficult, I guess.
More later.
@packmule3 I agree about the writer siding with SB and YH when it comes to how to view patients/zombies. They act as the counter argument to HTS’s pragmatic approach. I knew YH was a principled man when he told the the zombie wife that he would ensure she would get justice. For him the fact that she was now incapable of understanding or appreciating his pursuit of justice did not diminish his fervor. A crime was committed, and he would bring the man to justice. Plus he also pulled his gun on HTS when he callously shot the zombie in through the closed car trunk. He yelled, “you just shot a human being!” or something to that effect. It didn’t matter that the human being was a danger to him, the zombie was still “human” and not some animal that you just put down. HTS also hesitated when he thought about taking his wife’s hand? He decided against it. Probably for fear of getting scratched inadvertently if his wife had an episode? YH would not have hesitated to take SB’s hand given the same circumstances.
Unnie. There is few delete scenes, that i like 😍
https://twitter.com/hyojoohasun/status/1459036865340735491?s=21
https://twitter.com/hyojoohasun/status/1459740240101314561?s=21
https://twitter.com/hyojoohasun/status/1459551703519272975?s=21
Dear @Packmule3,
Bravo for this post! I agree with you in every single word!
I wrote my thoughts about the Class Division in this week’s thread!
Now I have to read what you said!
Thanks @Lovebangwon. I didn’t know that deleted scenes could be found. I liked the last one best.
@growingbeautifully your welcome..
Thanks for sharing, @lovebangwon.
Finished watching Ep 4 so I could finally watched the deleted scenes. Frankly, I was expecting her to come out and join YiHyun after the little girl was asleep. That’s what tired parents do. 😂 I know my hubby and I did.
They’ve only been living in for a few days but they’ve already settled in to their married life like pros.
@lovebangwon,
Those deleted scenes were great! I liked the first and last one best 😀
As it seems Joe Layne is responsible for the soundtrack. All of those are his songs.
@M, I thought I’d do some research before I asked you the meaning of DID. Are you referring to Dead is Dead, or Died in Disgrace? I saw them both listed as abbreviations used in government>military, etc.
I also thought I’d look to the internet to see if there’s any consensus about traits of zombies. This article by Britannica summarizes the rise of zombie culture, although it doesn’t say a peep about South Korean zombie fare. https://www.britannica.com/topic/zombie-fictional-creature
It seems to me that this show is taking the characteristics of zombies a step further. Whereas the Britannica article mentions loss of free will as being a hallmark of zombiism, the affected people in this drama seem to have a measure of free will, at least for awhile after their symptoms manifest. The murdered wife, Park Min Ji, remained animated after she received a lethal blow to the head only because the affliction kicked in right at that moment; in her zombie state she could still listen to SB then refrain from attacking her. When HTS talks with the drug dealer in the refrigerated truck, and the dealer realizes he’s being held there because he’s infected, HTC responds to the dealer’s plea for help, “If there’s something you desperately want, you won’t give in to your thirst. So think about…what you really want.” The final moments of Park Min Ji’s life: “At the end she didn’t attack people. She was just spaced out.” I think she understood when YH told her he’d bring her killer to justice, believed him, and was able to die peacefully because she let go her drive for vengeance.
We still haven’t learned all the elements that contribute to the madness disease. In HTS’s press conference he says it is a variant virus, but he privately acknowledges the pharmaceutical Next plays a role in it. I have a theory that strong emotions spark the onset of the symptoms: the SOU medic was upset he’d been docked points on his training because he’d “killed” a comrade, Seung Young was horrified by what he encountered in the refrigerated truck, Park Min Ji was angered by the injustice of being murdered by her husband.
I’m gonna stop here so I can go watch Episode 4!
@Welmaris I was thinking that DID was Dissociative Identity Disorder, as in the brave female suddenly changes personality to become the weak female in need of rescue. 🙂
The thought that getting upset sparks the onset of symptoms (like the Hulk) occurred to me too. The elderly Mum Ji has not yet shown signs of being thirsty. If she does, then the next thing would be if she gets upset.
She has so far borne with her husband’s and son’s indifference towards her without rancour, but there might be a straw to break the camel’s back, to get her angry, before we see the virus activate in her.
The gym guy too, seems thirsty, but innocuous. He accepted SB’s orders without protest, but sneaked out to his car. If left alone, he may not manifest any other symptoms.
I believe SB’s training in anti-terrorism will come in useful. At least the zompires can’t plan a unified attack.
Those wake up scenes actually for romantic purpose, the director keep asking them to do more romantic act, on behind the scenes video
but this two actor keep making it too realistic and immature😂
https://youtu.be/H73tu285K74
@pm3 @cleo your welcome 🤓
Awww that hug when SB realised that YH was in the building too.
I’m glad SB finally bought groceries. 😁
Annyeong,
@PM3
regarding Romance Dept. slow burn indeed. YH is so cool. 😎 No fuss. Always present 💗 in saving her just in time. that was a crazy scene though. can’t believe the guards closed the doors on SB in the truck. good thing YH came just in the nick of time, like he said. wow. i was surprised too that he didn’t scream at her. never. that makes him sooo cool. and SB is crazy! she’s a loco moco.
i did LAUGH OUT LOUD at the closing of Ep 3 though. SB thought that YH is not in the building and she was so relieved when she saw him, she ran to him and hugged him even though he was holding on to the murder suspect 😂. and then YH tapped SB’s back for comfort. i feel this is unique to Kdramas. the tapping.
anyhoo, when the suspect ran away and YH wanted to run after him, SB’s response made me laugh… HAHA yap, the guy has nowhere to go coz the military has cordoned off their area. we got ourselves a lockdown, folks!
@agdr03
yes, SB knew they were going to need food after she read the alert. good for her for not waiting or disregarding it like the other people. gosh.
@lovebangwon
didn’t know there are deleted scenes either. thanks for sharing. this couple is so natural. no drama haha.