Thanks, @nrllee! I’m posting this separately so it’s easier to find later. My comments are interspersed here and there.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Hovering over the dead body of Great Aunt, IJ mutters, “it’s all my fault. If only I hand gone after he money. If only I didn’t bring the orchid home.” Ya think? 😑. IK is dumbstruck, “what are you talking about?” (Come on IK, any fool can join the dots 😑). IK picks up the orchid flower conveniently placed in the pool of blood next to Great Aunt. Choi bursts into the room and surveys the scene before him. (I was half expecting him to yell, “I told you so!” because that was what I would’ve done. 😑. IJ locks eyes with him and then faints. IK catches her.

Three things, @nrllee.

1. I thought that this dialogue is a fine example of BAD writing for these reasons:

a) It was too melodramatic.

b) Nobody talks like that in real life. IJ should’ve been in hysterics when she saw the bloodied Great Aunt. Her focus should’ve been on the dead. She should’ve been asking the rhetorical questions, “What happened to you, Great Aunt?” and “Who did this you?” Instead, she was “me”- centered. “It’s MY fault.” “If only I had…” She was voicing regrets, instead of the normal shock and grief.

c) IJ actually didn’t say anything that we didn’t know already. She WAS egregiously dumb for bringing home the orchid and rebuffing Choi DoIl.

2. IJ’s fainting was cliched. But it was this screenwriter’s way of fast-forwarding through the nitty-gritty details.

3. I was annoyed by InKyung’s shaky hand as she reached out for the blue orchid. The tremor was too much and over-acting. It was like she had Parkinson’s disease. What did she think the blue orchid would do to her? Suddenly bite her hand?

Funeral of Great Aunt. Buddhist rites. Everyone at the funeral is muttering about the mystery surrounding her death. We hear their thoughts. IJ is the only witness and she refuses to talk. The rumour mill is spinning. Choi is standing in the background. We see IH arrive with Mrs Park. IK glares at them.

The aerial shot of the cemetery.

I just love how it clearly depicted the haves and the have-nots. Even in death, the rich occupied the bigger and more spacious rectangles (meaning, they had the bigger share of the cemetery) while the poor were separated from the rich and amassed on the periphery. It wouldn’t surprise me though if a “low-cost” columbarium in this cemetery was to cost more than the average one elsewhere.

Noteworthy: Oh InKyung was the designated chief mourner.

IJ and Mrs Park sit at a bench after the funeral. Mrs Park talks about how she knew Great Aunt. Great Aunt used to visit their home often. She was Mrs Park’s mother’s nurse and was with her till she passed. This earned her the strange moniker “Syringe Lady”. IJ (continues in dumb mode) asks, “why did you give me the orchid?” 😑. Flashback. IJ voiceovers, “I had a nightmare. I was terrified so I went to check on Great Aunt. (With the orchid flower in her hand? 😑🙄). And the next thing I knew was that I was crying with my Great Aunt’s body in my arms.” Mrs Park summons her best look of horror. IJ, “did my Great Aunt die because of the orchid? Why did you give it to me?” Mrs Park spins some sob story about how when her mom died, Syringe Lady was her rock and gave her words of wisdom which she is passing onto IJ now. What the hey? Why doesn’t IJ just slap her already? Mrs Park purrs, “the orchid has nothing to do with her death. It merely is a token of our friendship.” Like hell it is. Friendship with the devil maybe? 🙄 IJ reiterates that she doesn’t close the door on life and hide. She’s made of sterner stuff. She will get to the bottom of this. She tells Mrs Park she doesn’t trust her. (Then why take her orchid? 😑. Makes zero sense).

Three comments, @nrllee.

1. Do you know why Great Aunt’s moniker, “Syringe Lady”? Did I miss it? What did she administer to the Mrs. Park’s mom/General Won’s wife, anyway? The blue orchid in liquified form?

2. It struck me, while I was listening to her “closed door” coping mechanism, that the dollhouse is Mrs. Park’s symbol.

The reason she has many personalities (e.g., loving wife/grossed-out wife, loving mother, scheming lady/infantilized wife, aggressor/victim and so on) is that she has learned to compartmentalized herself. Metaphorically, her mind has many rooms with closed doors because she was burying her problems to survive.

3. In a way, she’s right. The Great Aunt’s death has nothing to do with the orchid per se. As I said before, the orchid is just a death notice, like a crow’s cawing is supposed to be an omen of death. The Great Aunt died, not because the orchid killed her, but because someone deemed it was time for her to go since she knew too much and was interfering in Mr. Park’s campaign. Didn’t she visit Mr. Park to talk about his father?

4. I think this discussion between Mrs. Park and InJoo was meant to be the pivotal moment for IJ. She realized that she was neither a scaredy-cat nor an ostrich burying its head in the sand. Unlike Mrs. Park, she was a courageous fighter, a seeker of justice, an Avenger.

Mrs. Park fooled her once with the orchid, but she wouldn’t be fooled again…at least, until Episode 8.

Reading of the will. IK receives all the stocks and the company. The rest of Great Aunt’s assets would be divided evenly amongst all the other family members. Then the lawyer reads out her liabilities. Turns out Great Aunt owed more than she had. All the other members bailed on the inheritance. Leaving IK to bear everything.

How convenient is it that IK is the one with the Midas Touch and she gets all the company? I’ve no doubts that she’ll turn the company around, and the other heirs will kick themselves for bailing out so quickly.

I remember that dialogue from Episode 2 (around the 8:00 mark).

IK: You refused to give me a loan for the tuition, so I gave up.
Great Aunt: I refused to give up your money, not mine. That money was in a bank account under your name.
IK: It wasn’t my money. You put the first five million won into the account. And you taught a 12-year-old kid how to trade stocks.
Great Aunt: You were the one who turned the 5 million won into 70 million over 10 years. I’ve never seen anybody who trades stocks as easily as you did.
IK: I just did it. I wasn’t trying to be good at it.
Great Aunt: I wanted to stop you from wasting your time studying. What was it you wanted to study?
IK: Economics. I wanted to know why some are poor while others are rich.
Great Aunt: It’s useless. If you continued to invest, you would’ve found out naturally.

This dialogue reminds us that the Great Aunt had money deposited in a bank account under IK’s name. I don’t think IK even bothered to look into the account. That 70 million won (around $50k) could have grown to 2 billion won after a decade. More importantly, it isn’t tainted money so IK won’t have any ethical concerns.

My other gripe about this screenwriter is the inordinate amount of time spent on red herrings. Take for instance, the mysterious plastic card.

When the Great Aunt’s executor handed IK the unmarked plastic card, I thought it was IK’s ATM card or bank card for the account made in her name. It was disappointing that the card turned out to be only a key card to unlock the secret room.

Like, how many more secret doors and secret rooms do we need in this drama?

I was also frustrated the screenwriter is making such a big fuss about the Butler’s blue orchid. We had to watch a grand detour:

beginning with the plastic card,
JoonHo’s discovery of the unusual dimension of the study,
IK’s search for the secret door,
the discovery of the secret room and the empty vault,
and finally ending with the discovery of the blue orchid in the drawer.

We went through all that rigmarole just to assuage IJ’s guilt that her blue orchid did NOT cause the Great Aunt’s death. The sisters confirmed that the butler’s blue orchid did Great Aunt in.

IJ confronts Choi in his office. Telling him he can keep all the money if he tells her who did this to Unnie and Great Aunt. Choi refuses. He says he won’t have time to secure solid evidence to put them away. And tells her to be ready to fly to Singapore with him.

@nrllee, I thought Choi DoIl showed unusual thoughtfulness here.

IJ: You warned me that night, saying I would be in danger. That’s how you could be there before anyone else. You knew something was going to happen, didn’t you? Now that I think of it, you were never startled by any of this. Don’t play dumb. We both know that’s bullshit.
Choi: I’m sincerely sorry about your loss. But I really didn’t know. To tell you the truth, I’m just as startled as you are.
IJ: Tell me who did it or I won’t go to Singapore. Will you call this a minor inconvenience and tell me to put up with it?
Choi: I already made plans for when you decided not to go. You don’t have to push yourself.

What he meant here was that he already made a backup plan in the event that she decided not to go. He wasn’t going to force her to go with him because he knew that she was still grieving over the death of her Great Aunt. To me, this solicitude is a sign that he’s thawing, that he’s beginning to care for her emotional well-being.

IJ: Be upset with me for once. Don’t you see that I’m upset with you?
Choi: (ignoring her)
IJ: Let’s split ninety-ten. No, hundred-zero. You can take it all.
Choi: (fidgeting, he was clearly bothered that she viewed him as this callous)
IJ: I’d give you all that money, so find who killed my great-aunt. Find out who killed Hwayoung and my Great Aunt. Once they’re behind bars, the money is all yours.

I found this scene actually romantic, @nrllee. It was the kind of argument that some married couple would have. She was spoiling for a fight, but he was making allowances for her because he understood that she was being emotional.

But then, she expected him to work a miracle and get her the murderer/mastermind at once. She was making an unreasonable demand on him because she believed in him. She viewed him like her personal Mr. Fix-it which is kinda cute.

Choi: I have a week before I fly out to Singapore. I won’t be able to find the culprit by then. Even if I did, we might not be able to secure any solid evidence. And even if we do find evidence, the money will still be split sixty-forty just as we promised before. I promised to keep you safe until I leave for Singapore, remember?

Here, he was being the rational one.

IJ: Are you saying that you’ll look into who the culprit is?
Choi: I’m telling you to be ready to leave for Singapore anytime.

And here, he changed his mind and decided to bring her with him. And this is why I found the scene romantic: no matter how annoying, demanding, and bothersome she was, he still wanted her beside him.

IJ and IK talk on rooftop. IK is going to put aside her grief and work to get the company out of the red (for Great Aunt’s sake. Of course.). Why does she always have this staccato choppy voice that clips? IK blames herself. IJ vetoes that thought and says she will bear the responsibility of all that’s happened.

IK is handed all of Great Aunt’s belongings eg car keys, house keys by the administrator of the will. She sees a card (with nothing written on it – key card?) which the lawyer has no record of. She feeds the parrot in the house. Visits her old room and sifts through old photos. Gets a phone call from IJ who tells her to turn on the news. Someone confessed to the murder of Great Aunt. Who would’ve thought? It was the butler! Wow.

Right, @nrllee? What a shocker. The butler did it.

He claims it was because he sunk funds into real estate on Great Aunt’s advice and he lost all his money so he wanted her to pay. IJ and IK have an epiphany. He couldn’t have done this on his own must’ve been hired by someone. 😑👏. IK asks IJ about the orchid. IJ says it’s from Mrs Park and it’s an induction gift in the JeongRan society (since when?). JongDo bursts into the house and tells the girls to watch the whole video of the confession. Right at the end, they see the butler with a spray of the blue orchid in one hand. JongDo states the obvious, “he must’ve brought the orchid to the scene.” Wait…what about the flashback of IJ with the orchid in her hand walking into the lounge room from earlier? That was a dream? Metaphor? She “brought death” into the household? (Creepy suspenseful music plays as the three musketeers exchange knowing looks).

InJoo did bring it in. It wasn’t a metaphor. We didn’t imagine Ms. Oh “Trembly-Hand” InKyung reaching for that blue orchid.

Our intrepid musketeers put their collective heads together…actually it was JongDo who works out architecturally the lounge room’s dimensions don’t seem to make sense. IK takes out the mysterious key card from earlier. Lo and behold, it’s the key to a hidden room with a safe which had been emptied of its contents. In a drawer underneath the safe, IK finds the second orchid. Ahh…so the butler left his calling card here? IJ breathes a sigh of relief…it’s not her orchid that’s responsible for the death of Great Aunt after all? 🙄. JongDo must’ve stayed too long with the sisters because he whispers, “how can an orchid be so scary?” Thereupon, IK proceeds to take a whiff of the death orchid…yes, the same IK who read all the research about how it has hallucinogenic effects. 😑🙄. JongDo and IJ just watch her? Dumb and dumber.

Right?! I swear the next sister who sniffs that blue orchid should have her nose cut off. I want her to look like Voldermort as a warning to the other sisters.

IK walks out of the secret room as if in a trance, with the other 2 in tow – and everyone…yes I mean even the audience is expecting her to spout some pearls of wisdom in that hallucinatory moment. I mean why else would they build up the anticipation? But all she does is repeat her conviction to take down everyone involved. Drug fueled courage? Or just plain imbecility? No one knows. She will be the one to tell the whole world about the Secret Orchid society and how people are getting killed and get justice for Great Aunt. Did we not know this already? 🤔. Thus emboldened, IJ too has her own moment and promptly tells the other 2 about the 70bil in Singapore under her name. She reveals she will get the money, use it for all 3 sisters to hide away, then hand the ledgers over to IK to blow a hole in the whole slush fund fiasco to take down the baddies. Poor d’Artagnan JongDo decides to put his two cents in and whines in the background, “what about me? Aren’t I in danger too?” The poor man. The sisters totally ignore his pleas (which to me sound like the most rational thought thus far) and shake on the plan.

Two things, @nrllee.

1. We have to add something new to our information on the Blue Orchid. We know that they act like a business card from the murderer that he just had another victim.

But beginning with Episode 6, we’re told that the Blue Orchid acts also like a “truth serum.”

Mrs. Park: This is an orchid called Blue Ghost. Open the lid and keep it by your bed when you go to sleep. It’ll bloom tonight. This orchid has power. If you smell it all night, you’ll be able to see what you really want.

It works like truth serum in the way it shows the sniffer what she/he really wants.

That’s why InJoo felt guilty when she saw Great Aunt dead. She probably believed that her Great Aunt’s murder was something she secretly wanted, and her Blue Orchid somehow made her “dream” come true. When they found the butler’s Blue Orchid instead, she was relieved.

Now, when her sister InKyung sniffed the Blue Orchid herself, she discovered her real passion (just as Mrs. Park said), and that’s to expose the crimes of the Secret Orchid society.

2. Yes, JongDo looked like a lost puppy when the sisters were planning their escape and they didn’t even think of including him in their plans.

But should we be suspicious of this man JongDo, @nrllee? He’s so squeaky clean that I sometimes wonder whether he’s up to no good, too. Can he be a spy for Mr. Park’s bad assistant? Will he betray IK?

Oh nooooo, don’t be a bad guy, Laurie  JongDo!

PJS wins the primaries in his quest for Mayor of Seoul and makes his victory speech. The 3 musketeers watch his speech on TV. IK realizes it sounds vaguely familiar. He’s plagiarized it from Gen Won’s speech to the masses years ago. They watch Gen Won’s speech on a laptop side by side with PJS. IK spies a young Great Aunt (as a nurse) in the crowd listening to Gen Won. Gen Won is showing positive signs of recovery in hospital.

This part is so unrealistic that I was shaking my head. Who remembers speeches like that? (Wait, did I miss a scene when IJ listened to Gen Won’s speeches in a previous episode??)

To me, it’s possible for IJ to remember speeches if Gen Won’s speech was a famous one like Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you” speech or the Lincoln’s Gettyburg’s address, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

But it’s a bit of a stretch for IK to remember a run-of-the-mill type of military speech.

An aside: while we’re on the topic of plagiarized speeches, @nrllee. did you hear that our favorite ex-royal, Meghan Markle, plagiarized a quote from the former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt’s “It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it”? Ms. Markle changed the word “peace” with “equality.” Hahaha. Kinda like Mr. Park in the drama.

Back at Park home, Mr and Mrs P continue with their dangerous tango in their sham marriage. IH is awakened by HyoRin’s distress at night. They hear thudding and things breaking. HyoRin tells IH her parents are fighting again. IH opens the window to the room and sees Mrs P try to run away in her nightdress. Guards surround her to stop her and Mr P is seen holding her and dragging her back into the house. HyoRin hides under the covers. IH suggests they go to the place they weren’t allowed to go to before (Mrs P stopped them the last time they walked up the stairwell in HR’s nightmares). Wow. Great thinking IH. Just go somewhere even scarier. They head up to the attic. It is full of odds and ends. HR and IH pore through an old photo album of Mrs P. And find that someone had been cut out of some photos. As if to erase the memory? They are wondering who had been cut out of the photos. HR opens a wooden box she used to play with…it’s a doll’s room. They find a doll hanging in the closet with red stilettos on…and a blue flower below her. The box is called “the closed room”. They noted that the dollhouse room had no door.

So, did Mrs. Park’s mother aka Mrs. Won commit suicide or was she killed by the husband, General Won?

I’m betting that Mrs. Won is the person cut out of the photographs, and Mrs. Park was the one to cut her out.

IK and IJ going through Great Aunt’s stuff and find dog tags. She fought as an American in Vietnam. JongDo finds out that all the people in JR society fought in Vietnam and met at a hospital there. They work out that apart from Gen Won who is in a coma, there is only one other person left “alive” – Choi HeeJae who disappeared in 1998. IK vows to find him. Turns out his son is none other than Choi Do Il. Wow…what a coincidence. Who would’ve thought? IK decides to find Choi’s mother first and talk to her.

Seriously, all these serendipitous findings attest to lazy writing. They’re “dei ex machina.” Look: I can tolerate one or two of them for the entire run of a kdrama. But I’ve never seen a kdrama writer before cobble a whole episode with one deux ex machina after another. This writer makes the story gimmicky, artificial…and laughable.

Breakfast at the Ps. HR and IH eat and Mr P says he needs to talk to HR. He tells her mom is sick (with a bad headache) and needs to stay in her room by herself. HR looks scared (this young actress is impressive – her face is very expressive and it’s very easy to read her – much prefer her to the deadpan faced actress who plays IH) and in a trembling voice asks, “mom is staying in a closed room (eek just like the box they found in the attic) by herself?” Mr P assures her she’ll be fine and they should “help mom out by enjoying each day regardless”. HR looks away and picks at her food. Mr P instructs IH to “help” HR do that. IH nods her head obligingly. How is this normal? Is she HR’s friend or Mr P’s pawn? 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is giving me “Rebecca” vibes. Have you read that gothic novel by Daphne du Maurier, @nrllee? It was so sinister when Mr. Park just told the girls that the housekeeper was instructed to take a day off, and the missus was going to stay in her closed room for a while.

But what struck me as creepier was Mr. Park and IH’s rooftop conversation later. I thought Mr. Park was propositioning IH!!

IJ and IK visit Choi’s mother. Who is in prison? Did I miss that detail somehow? 🤔. Turns out no. We are told the backstory as IK interrogates the mom about the apparent murder of an old man back in 1998. IK is pulling apart her story and insists the murder makes no sense. Yet the mom is adamant. She did it. IK believes she was instructed to kill the man in exchange for her son being provided for in future (he got a scholarship to study overseas). IJ interjects and tells her Choi’s life is in danger. She breaks down finally and gives them a cryptic message (why is it always so cryptic?) to pass on to Choi. That her answer to his question is “no” and provided them with some directions (coordinates to somewhere?) where he will find the evidence he needs.

Mean lady tells Mr P that IK and IJ visited Choi’s mother in jail. She asked if she should get rid of them. Mr P says they aren’t the problem. Have the men tail Choi instead, much to Mean Lady’s delight.

Here’s when I began suspecting JongDo as an accomplice of the Mean Lady, @nrllee.

IJ tells Choi about their visit. She reveals her plan to him. Turns out Mr P’s dad was the one who killed the old man. Not his mom. IJ says plan is 1. Withdraw 70bil from Singapore. 2. IK uses the ledgers to reveal the slush fund. 3. They can use the evidence to reveal Mr P’s dad is the real murderer and take Mr P down. Choi hands IJ a usb. He tells her with the evidence there (relating to Great Aunt’s death?) her life will be in danger. He no longer cares about her safety. Yeah Choi. Just tell her “stupid is as stupid does” (even Forrest Gump knew that). You can’t protect people from their own stupidity. IJ comes back with, “I knew I was in danger from the beginning. Call me.” 🙄. Choi gives her a searching look before walking out of the restaurant.

What I like about this scene is when IJ told him, “I’ve been risking his life, galloping on a horse. And I still believe that my horse can jump over the fence.” This tells me that she was still bullheaded and determined to achieve her objective.

But I don’t know if she was subtly telling Choi DoIl that he was still her faithful steed, and that she was depending on him to come through for her.

Choi is being followed by Mean lady’s henchman…and IK/JongDo? Wae? Choi loses the henchman and heads to the coordinates given to him by mom. It’s a house deep in a forest. IK and JongDo are close in pursuit. Why they didn’t use the info provided by his mom from earlier and had to tail him is beyond me. 🤷🏻‍♀️. Guard dogs bark. A man appears out of a ramshackle hut.. Is it his dad? Looks to be the right age. The man missing from 1998? The only one left in the JR society that is still alive? IK tries to film the pair on her phone.

They didn’t use the info provided by Choi’s mom because a) they didn’t have the precise start point, and b) they didn’t know what “evidence” Choi DoIl was looking for. All Mrs. Choi said was, “Tell him that if he wants to find the evidence, he should start at Baramjae and head northeast by 23 degrees for one kilometer.” From what I googled, Baramjae is a hill.

We still don’t know what evidence he was looking for. Or was he simply looking for his dad, and not an item?

HR and IH back in the attic. The box with the closed room is actually an art grad piece for the NY School of Theatre. Submitted by Won Sang A (Mrs P) in 1985. Surprise! 😂. We saw this a mile away. HR is terrified that her mom would die in the exact circumstances. IH assures her that she won’t because they know about this and will stop her. How though IH? She may already be dead?

IH walking outside in the garden of the Park residence heading to art school maybe? Someone (captive Mrs P?) tosses a crumpled piece of paper out a window from the second floor window near her. She picks is up. It’s a message for IJ. IH sends a pic of the note to IJ. Note reads – I am a captive. Mr P is very dangerous right now. I’ll escape no matter what. Withdraw some money for me in Singapore and I will meet you there with the girls. Camera pans back to Mrs P staring out a window and taking a whiff of a blue orchid.

Mr P asks IH about her allegiance again. He tells her there are many things that will happen soon which will test which side she is on. IH is worried? This actress is so hard to read.

Let me talk about this scene because it find it interesting.

First, I like the location. They were on the roof top, overlooking the city.

This reminds me of the Bible passage when the Devil tempted Jesus. He made Jesus stand on the parapet of a temple and dared him to throw himself down because the angels would come and save him anyway. But Jesus replied, do not put your God to the test. Then the Devil took him to a high mountain and showed him all the magnificent kingdoms of the world. He enticed Jesus, saying worship and serve me and I’ll give you all these. Jesus ordered him to go away because you should only worship and serve God.

Here, Mr. Park was doing the devil’s temptation…with a twist.

Park: This building will be demolished soon. It’s safer to rebuild from scratch after everything’s been demolished. I wanted to show it to you before that happened.
IH: What for?
Park: I was hoping you could imagine how this run-down building will be replaced by something much more magnificent.
IH: I’m not smart enough to understand what you mean.
Park: I will never hurt Hyorin or her mother under any circumstances. I can give up everything for the two of them. And you can also be a part of our family if you decide that’s what you want. But you must understand that two buildings can’t be built in the same place. This old building must be completely demolished. Only then can we build something much more beautiful. Many things will happen in the next few days. I’m curious to see how well you will endure them.

Second, I agree @nrllee the actress playing IH has an inscrutable face.

Third, I understand his reference to the run-down building in two ways:

a. The Oh family. He intends to destroy the Oh family (the metaphorical run-down building) so he can become president and help so many poor families (the symbolic magnificent building). He’s telling IH to prepare for her sisters’ deaths.

But we already know this.

b. His own Park family: his wife and daughter. He technically won’t hurt them, but he can lock them up like in a psych ward, and make them “comfortable” elsewhere, like in a cemetery.

If his wife becomes too much of a liability for him in his presidential campaign, he can make her disappear and use “mental stress/breakdown” or “suicide” as an excuse. Likewise, if his daughter sides with her mother, he can have both of them killed under the guise of  a murder-and-suicide pact. He only needs one witness by his side to testify that his wife and daughter were unstable. And that’s IH.

To me, he was offering IH a chance to be by his side in lieu of his wife and daughter Hyorin.

You see, the problem with Mr. Park’s assertion that he’d never hurt Hyorin or his wife is that he already once declared to IH that he was capable of betraying the person who loved him the most. Mr. Park was fooling nobody, least of all IH, when he claimed to be willing to give up everything for his family. He only worshipped and served himself.

Anyway, this second interpretation raises the stakes.

IK and JongDo pretend to be lost hikers and talk to the man Choi met living in a hut in the forest. They try to engage the man in conversation but he isn’t interested. He’s dressed in camo pants? Dead giveaway. He gives them directions to get out of the forest. IK tries to be Dr Dolittle/Croc Dundee and befriend one of the guard dogs…which of course bites her…so this is how she’s going to engage him? 🤔🙄 She succeeds and man takes her inside the hut and bandages her bleeding arm. JongDo is looking around the hut with some weird glasses on and finds a war medal and paper evidence of him fighting in Vietnam. Who would leave incriminating evidence out on a table like that? 😑🤷🏻‍♀️. IJ calls him by his real name Choi HeeJae. And then introduces herself as a freelance reporter trying to uncover all the dastardly deeds of Gen Won. CHJ tells her dog may have rabies (yeah and goodness knows what else). And she could get tetanus. He sends them on their way. Turns out the glasses JD wore had some tiny camera installed so IJ views the footage on her phone as they drive away. JD can’t believe she led the dog to bite her (yeah we can’t either). IK brags about her suffering worst fates…like covering typhoon stories. 🙄 JD sighs, “one day you will be the death of me”. Uhoh…don’t say that JD. Foreshadowing alert.

Three things, @nrllee.

1. Unfortunately, reporters don’t get hazard pay. Provoking the dog was dumb but, in the grand scheme of things, it’s far less risky than a female correspondent going to a war zone or a no-go zone.

That said, I’m glad that the dog just went for her arm instead of her neck.

2. The spy cam was too gimmicky. Again. I knew something was up when JongDo was peering too closely at the artifacts in the hut. But I also found it weird that Mr. Choi displayed his wartime souvenirs out in the open like they were museum pieces. Like, what kind of fugitive does that? Tsk tsk tsk.

3. Oh…I forgot about JongDo saying that she would be the death of him. I agree, that’s definitely a foreshadowing.

IJ talks to IH at her art school. She reveals the plan to go to Singapore. IH has to join her with IK later. IH asks about HR and Mrs P. IJ assures her they will join them later. IH then passes an SD card to her (because it’s IJ’s birthday that day). Presumably we are suppose to believe that it’s the dash cam footage from Mr P’s car of the night of Unnie’s murder? IJ goes on a shopping spree. Celebrating her “last day of poverty”? Buys a similar frilly pink skirt she wore when she dined with Unnie. Dons the diamond studded shoes and eats at the expensive restaurant Unnie took her to. Happy birthday to me.

Yes, it’s the SD card with the dash cam footage. I thought she and Hyorin buried it? Is she already betraying her best friend? I guess, blood is thicker than water.

Mr P in the basement orchid room. Choi confronts him about the tail. Then hands him coordinates on a piece of paper. “My dad is here. Do what you want with him.” Scene change. Men in black approach the forest hut. IK is talking to someone (someone who knew CHJ). He recounts how CHJ is special forces. Think Korean Seal. Man voiceovers extolling the prowess of CHJ as the camera pans on the MIB trying to ambush CHJ at his forest lodgings. Where are the dogs though? They get into the hut. It’s a trap. Explosion. MIB are no more. CHJ surveys his work from a hill above with his guard dogs. He lives another day.

I wonder what Choi DoIl told his father. He must have known that two cars, and not just one, was tailing him.

Choi enters a vault. Opens a locker. Unzips a bag. Takes out a bloodstained hammer in ziplock bag. Presumably the murder weapon for the old man that his mom was accused of doing away with? Puts the hammer in there for safe keeping. Looks at his phone as he walks out. Scene change.

Is Choi DoIl tracking InJoo’s whereabout on his phone?

IJ eating her steak at the expensive restaurant. Choi turns up to her surprise. Scene change back to when Choi confronts Mr P in the orchid room. Turns out Mr P asked him to get rid of IJ ASAP as a test of his allegiance. Scene change back to restaurant. Choi shows her an article on his phone about the International Orchid Festival recently. Where a Ms Oh InJoo was in attendance. A pic of her from behind is snapped. IJ gasps. As she enlarges the photo, she clearly sees the tattoo of an orchid on her ankle. It’s Unnie! Choi asks if she’s really dead. IJ assures him she saw her body. She can’t be alive. Choi tells her that the paper company he set up for her is being investigated and he’s now worried that this fake OIJ may just beat them to the 70bil. IJ is shaken. Could Unnie really still be alive? Choi says he’s headed straight to Singapore to find out.

Unnie is dead. At this point, I just feel like playing whack-an-Unnie to make sure she stays dead.

But the bigger question here is Choi DoIl’s loyalty. Is he going to kill InJoo or is he going to make her “disappear” like he did with his ex-Girlfriend?

Will end here because this is getting too long. Sorry, folks.