Blink and you’ll miss the shot of the book “Contradictions.”

This book was displayed as Dark Hole and the Detective Kwon were having their conversation in the forest. Dark Hole told him, “Are you afraid of me? When the one next to you is more frightening?”

The camera then cut away to a book on Grandma GoBum’s bed table. “Contradictions” by Yang Guija.

Dark Hole continued, “You don’t see its true self because it has lost its memory.”

Then the camera switched from SangUn to Hwal hiding the old family photograph. Hwal stood in front of the ancient painting of Lady in Red.

From these camera shots, we could guess that Dark Hole was busy trying to cast doubt on SangUn and Hwal. He was insisting that he was nothing compared to these two individuals.

He wanted to Detective Kwon understand that “it murdered its victims in cold blood. But I only kill because I have to. I have my reasons, so don’t think of me as some evil monster. And tell Hwal that I can’t wait any longer.”

He was gaslighting the Detective.

If we tally the number of murders he committed, his body count surpassed Hwal’s and SangUn’s combined.

So, what’s this “Contradiction” about?

Here’s the summary of the book from Amazon.

Contradictions is a coming-of-age tale that explores the paradoxes and contradictions of the human condition and delves into the meaning of personal happiness. The book opens with a moment of epiphany as the main character An Jin-jin awakens to the realization that her entire energy must be devoted to her own life. She struggles over whom to marry with an awareness of consequences gleaned from seeing the divergence in the lives of twin sisters―her mother and her aunt. A host of binary oppositions is also presented in the lives of the men around her: a wannabe gang boss brother, an Ivy League cousin, an alcoholic schizophrenic father, a steadfast but rigid uncle, and her two suitors. Yang skillfully develops these characters in increasingly complex threads as the novel unfolds in a series of surprises.

We already know about “binary opposition.” Here’s what I said about it in an old post:

I didn’t coin this term “binary opposition.” The French anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss, did. He observed that in many stories told in books and films, the plot is driven by characters, values and/or concepts that are directly polar opposites.

Think of Batman vs. Joker, hero vs. villain, rich vs. poor, religious vs. secular, engineering vs. feng shui, war vs. peace, crime vs. punishment, individual vs. society, science vs. superstition, objective vs. subjective, good vs. evil.

Binary opposition is the theory that we can understand one character, value, or concept better when we juxtapose it with another character, value, or concept. We can see details better when there’s contrast.

I think contradiction or binary opposition is the main subject of this drama. We’re constantly seeing the binary opposites of the characters.

Here’s a partial list:

1. Monsters vs humans
2. Bulgasal vs humans
3. Bulgasal vs monster
4. Hwal vs the Lady in Red
5. Hwal vs Dan Sol
6. Dan Sol, the woman Hwal married, vs the Red Lady, the woman he kept remembering
7. Hwal vs the General’s jealous army commander (btw, he’s been reincarnated as the Detective Kwon’s colleague in the police station)
8. Past monsters vs their new reincarnations

9. Hwal’s biological father vs General Dan
10. Hwal’s reborn father vs Detective Kwon

11. Fathers vs sons
12. Mothers vs sons
13. Hwal’s mother who supposedly died to kill her son vs Dan Sol who died protecting her son
14. The villagers vs the nameless boy
15. The shaman vs the nameless boy

16. The powerful Dark Hole vs defenseless SangUn, but Dark Hole’s great weakness is her
17. Dark Hole vs monsters who want SangUn for their own
18. Hwal vs monsters who want to kill SangUn’s soul
19. Hwal’s soul vs SangUn’s soul

10. SangUn vs her Unnie twin, SangYeon. One has the soul, the other the memory.
11. SangUn vs her donsaeng SiHo. Were they after the same man in their previous lives?

12. SiHo vs DoYoon: they were mother-and-son in the previous life, but they bicker like a couple in the present. I hope the writer isn’t going to force a romance arc for them. My takeaway here is that the souls’ unending rebirth and transmigration will eventually lead into chaos. Your grandmother’s soul can end up as your grandson’s girlfriend’s soul or something. Icky.

13. The crazy Unnie, Kim HwaYeon vs her younger sister Grandma GoBum

14. The shaman Gapsangoe who loves to burn things vs the ex-shaman/Ahjumma Lee who’s now become Hwal’s ally
15. Ahjumma Lee who has the power to prophesy the future vs SiHo who has the power to read the past
16. Hwal’s mother/Ahjumma Lee vs Hwal’s foster father/Detective Kwon
17. DoYoon’s two Hyung: Hyung Hwal vs Hyung EulTae. DoYoon calls them both Hyung but one ignores him and the other one is just using him.
18. The cautious General Dan vs the reckless Detective Kwon: it’s no wonder Hwal gets exasperated with Detective Kwon. He’s nothing like his previous reincarnation.

19. Hwal vs Dark Hole
20. Hwal vs monsters
21. Hwal vs SangUn
22. The Man in Blue vs the Lady in Red. Notice their colors and body positions?

To me, the painting can also represent yin-yang. Yin-yang is an example of binary opposition or duality.

Also, the mirrors are handy props to convey this duality of the individual. We see both the real person standing in front of the mirror and her reflection in the mirror.

In Episode 8, the mirror was frequently seen in the background.

As for the last scene, SangUn’s face in mirror reminded me of the mirror belonging to Snow White’s Wicked Stepmother. I thought it was fair comparison since in the next moment, Dark Hole was handing a red apple to Detective Kwon.

As we all know, those are the two props of the Wicked Stepmother: the enchanted mirror and the poisoned apple, too.

It would be interesting to find out the true relationship between Dark Hole and SangUn. I doubt they were lovers, but they could have been siblings.

To me, that’s one possible reason Bulgasal killed the little daughter, but spared the older son of the serial killer, Kwon Seun-In. The Bulgasal identified with the older brother.

What a coincidence, right? The older brother grew up to be Detective Kwon.

Anyway, eight more episodes and all shall be revealed.