I should have known that the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions. I plunged into this series with the good intentions of dissecting Episode 6 for the readers of Bitches, but now I’m regretting it because I just added more work for myself.
The title of this episode is “Mystery X.” It refers to several things.
One, it refers to Namsoon’s superpowers. Mystery X is the mysterious, mutant gene in the X chromosome that accounts for the strength of the women in Namsoon’s family.
Namsoon narrates, “The origin of my strength can be traced back to 1593, the 26th year of King Seonjo’s reign. (Hey!!! This is one year into the ImJin war that’s mentioned in “A Good Day to Be a Dog.”) During the battle of Haengju, one woman stoned a greater number of enemies than the number of stones given to her. That was my ancestor, Park Gaeboon. After hearing of her brilliant exploits, General Gwon Yul invited her to the palace one day. However, the valiant lady boldly roasted King Seonjo’s incompetence and turned down the invitation. And there’s a tremendous secret behind the super strength of the family. It’s the fact that it’s maternally inherited. This gene in the X chromosome becomes most active at the age of 22. As the energy in our bodies shifts at 22, it’s necessary to find a suitor. It’s a tradition of sorts, and just this year, I turned 22.”
Two, Mystery X can also refer to the mystery/not-so-mystery man she’ll choose to “mate” with. She’ll obviously end up with the police detective, Heesik. Her mother already paid him a visit to scout him as Namsoon’s future husband, and approves of him.
Note to those who watched “Strong Girl Bongsoon” —
In that kdrama, the heroine Bongsoon ended her long-term infatuation with her oppa (who happened to be a police detective) to marry the insanely rich guy played by Park Hyungsik. Well, the set-up is reversed in this sequel. Namsoon’s love interest is the police detective, and her soon-to-be opponent is the insanely rich guy. And I mean, literally insane.
Three, Mystery X refers to the mysterious white drug that a) becomes more potent in water, b) makes the user incredibly thirsty, c) causes the user to hallucinate, and d) boosts the user’s physical strength to superhuman level.
Just so we’re on the same page: Heesik’s team leader kept one of the masks seized from the drug investigation and used it to feed his addiction. Heesik says, “I noticed that a piece of it had been torn off.”
To me, Heesik displays his weaknesses in his interaction with his team leader. For one, he’s moved by pity to bring his boss home when the best course of action is to take him straight to a detox facility. For another, he refuses to defend himself with the knife even when he’s being strangled to death. Goodness gracious! I hope he won’t hesitate to stab the bad guy if it’s Namsoon’s life on the line.
Four, Mystery X can also refer to the mysterious blue vials that the Evil Guy ShiOn keeps in a suitcase. It’s the antidote.
The scientist at his lab warns him the white drug is lethal so it must be taken with an antidote.
Scientist: The drug affects the pituitary gland directly. Taking it without an antidote is practically self-destruction.
ShiOn: Still, you briefly get a taste of what you desire. Then, isn’t death a worthy price to pay? The person I truly wish to be. A stronger version of me. A glorified version of me. The drug turns it into a reality by affecting your hormones.
Scientist: That’s right. And then, the organ that controls your hormones is damaged beyond repair. You won’t be able to survive unless you take sea hare’s blood. The amount I gave you today was the maximum. We’ll need to import more of them.
ShiOn: And there’s no substitute?
Scientist: I’m afraid not. Their blood is the ultimate antidote.
In my opinion, ShiOn has become more obsessed with powering up after he saw Namsoon’s display of super-strength during the runaway airplane incident. He either wants to copy her or beat her.
Five, Mystery X can refer to Namsoon herself.
ShiOn’s clearly fascinated by her preternatural strength. She’s an unknown quantity that can enhance or hamper his ambition for world domination. If I were him, I would use her weakest link, i.e., her family members in Seoul and Mongolia, to coerce her to join me.
Six, Mystery X can also be the mysterious pill, purportedly diet pill, that a stranger handed to Namsoon’s brother. I hope it isn’t the same white drug that ShiOn is distributing.
And last, Mystery X is the unpredictable and unforeseen ripple effect of Namsoon’s interactions with other people, namely,
a) the homeless couple. The guy seems to want to go separate ways.
b) the coworker she saved at the conveyer belt. I’m counting on him to repay her rescue effort.
c) her warehouse boss who’s spying on her. I hope he’ll change his ways.
and d) the imposter Hwaja. This is a true mystery.
Namsoon and her mother GeumJu both believe that Hwaja can be redeemed and Namsoon tells her so. She tells her, “Mom and I both get why you did it. We can forgive you once. But not twice.” Will Hwaja prove them right?
We’ll see this weekend.
@packmule3, oh gosh. I dropped this and now you’re tempting me back? 🤦♀️ Episode 6 must be a turning point. I’ll take another look.
I’ll be away until late on Halloween night, so am leaving my daughters in charge of the treats. Let’s hope there’s no ‘parents away’ party at home. Enjoy yours!
I watched up to ep6. Although disappointed, I take this drama a bit like trash TV. Fun if it continues to be outrageous and fast-paced.
4. Scene Scientist – ShiOn.
Clumsy exposition on the noze. They discuss things they’re supposed to know already. So, it’s information for the audience.
My hypothesis: he could harvest NamSoon’s blood to study her DNA. And thus improve the formula of his drug.
Conveyer belt: there’s normally an emergency stop button. And nobody uses it. No, really… Anything to force NamSoon’s intervention. Gasp.
Too many characters, who especially have long scenes. The drama becomes dilapidated. On the other hand, all these different situations allow episode 6 to have 5 cliffhangers!!!! Truly a record.
It’s a pity they don’t use split-screen like in 24. Here, I would have used a split-screen with cartoon panels to bring all the cliffhangers together at the end. After all, the tone of the drama is essentially cartoonish.
Lol, @Fern. I see that you haven’t installed one of those wireless security cameras for your front door. I swear it’s a gamechanger especially if you have teenage kids. No more worrying about those house parties while you’re away. You know if they’re taking the trash out daily as you told them. They can’t snog in the car in front of the house. The newspapers and packages from Fedex, UPS, and Amazon get picked up promptly and not left for days out in the porch/stoop/mailbox.
I’m not sure if Episode 6 is a “turning point.” From what I can see, the story’s getting convoluted. I don’t know how this screenwriter will tie everything together. But as long as I keep my eye on a) the title and b) the three main characters: Namsoon, her police officer and her mom, I can ignore the shenanigans of the minor characters.
True about the ShiOn. I don’t know what makes him tick, where he got the money to build that expensive lab to produce the white drug, why he wants worldwide hegemony. He’s just written as an archetypal Evil Guy performing nefarious deeds for his selfish pleasure.
Yes. I like your theory. He can “harvest” Namsoon’s blood for her DNA. I think he was already trying to do that when her mom, GumJoo. She left her lipstick on her wine glass and you can extract DNA from lipstick.
Use the conveyer belt? That would be too easy, right? It’s as if the workmen didn’t go through work safety training.
I find that I must suspend my disbelief to make this kdrama make sense. But I guess that’s to be expected since this is a fantasy/fantastical story about a girl who can stop a runaway plane???!
Yes. There are too many characters and each one given his/her own substory. I don’t know if this screenwriter can tie all of them neatly at the end.
I must say this, though: I dislike the way that men are emasculated in the story and relegated to a secondary inferior status. For example,
The missing grandpa (nobody thought to search for him?? I can’t blame him though if he ran away to escape his domineering wife and dominating daughter)
The ex-husband (what happened to his dreams of becoming a photographer?? Surely his ambition in life wasn’t to become a portrait/gallery photographer??)
The brother-in-law (a shadow of a man, he lost all will to try because it’s instilled in him that he’s useless)
The son (who has an eating disorder due to psychological stress brought about his own Mother Dearest)
The elderly barista (hasn’t the grandma been educated on workplace harassment??)
If I were the police detective, I’d be wary of joining this family. My future mother-in-law seems toxic.
The drama only looks funny because it’s a parody of a matriarchal society. But if the tale was reversed and the male characters treated women in a demeaning, subordinate, superfluous way, then the viewers would be in an uproar. And rightly so.
@pm3, I’d have things to say about your comment, but first I just thought of something about the drama’s unrealism. This might interest you, as it’s often the kind of detail you talk about in your articles.
In episode 1, Namsoon is in Mongolia, and she throws a bell into the sky… which lands on the head of the male lead in Korea!!!! This is completely absurd because :
– How could this object go into orbit and land in Korea without burning?
– By what incredible coincidence would it land on the male lead?
– With the kinetic energy of such a fall, why wouldn’t it shatter his skull? (just watch a video of falling objects on a building site, enough to pulverize a head).
And yet!!! This object is going to be used as a serious plot-device, since we see that the ML has kept the bell in its drawer. The object is meant to be used later when it’s impossible to be here. It really makes no sense.
The bell is actually a signal (ringing the bell) that the drama will be unrealistic and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. It’s cartoonish and assumed as such.
From there, the heroine can stop a plane, and leave with her plastic boots intact! (super strength doesn’t preclude elementary laws of physics, thermodynamics and the fact that her boots would have overheated from rubbing the ground while braking the plane, while digging a trench, if such a trick is even possible).
Any other foolishness allowed!!! Caricatural villains too!
The writing is better than it seems at first glance, once you accept the presupposition. Of course, it’s not easy, as many viewers have memories of the previous drama, which was a more reasonable mix of reality and goofy moments.
I usually prefer to binge-watch dramas, but this one is the perfect drama to watch from week to week. To get my weekly dose of outrages and laugh at the grotesque. The only mistakes the scriptwriter could make are slowing down the pace, or straying too long into uninteresting side scenes.
Yes, @Wenchanteur, the ML would be well dead from the bell; and not only would the jet stopping cause the problems you mentioned, but since she was holding onto one of two rear wheels and not the front one at the centre of the plane, the plane would logically spin with that wheel as an axis rather than continue in a straight line. The FL’s super abilities seem to be tacked on as needed to explain her feats of strength.
@pm3…
Parody of matriarchy: It looks like it. You’ve found one of the drama’s themes! It’s funnier and more interesting than the cliché of the “badass strong woman”, unlovable, rigid, unfeminine and emotionally flat. This in all seriousness. Oo!!! (used in a lot of Western series that thankfully I don’t watch, but there are probably kdramas using this too.)
The mother and grandmother are presented at first as positive characters, but gradually their bad aspects are shown. And they turn out to be unlikable and unbearable. The screenwriter respects the logic of her scenario, since this creates problems for them: their relationships fail, their men run away from them. And now their son, too!
For the mother: there’s the famous scene where she calls her son a pig! It’s harsh enough to show just how bad a mother she is to the males in the bloodline.
Although some events are absurd, the screenwriter has good narrative logic and takes them seriously, and that’s the main thing. The mother’s bad attitude leads to something more dramatic. Her son takes the “magic slimming pill”, probably the villain’s drug. And perhaps the mother will pay with her son’s death. I expect that at some point, the mother and grandmother will lose their super-strength from acting so badly. And Samsoon will be alone to fight and save the family’s honor.
As for the grandmother… Mmmh, she seems to think her barista is a man-object. But a funny scene: they stop at a luxury hotel, and he just wants to take a piss. Wooooaaahh!!! 🙂
There was a cameo with the two characters from the previous season (remember: written by the same writer). It was loud, noisy and tasteless. I didn’t like the scene and would find it hard to watch again. However, my impression after that: the couple from the previous season is also on the road to perdition.
Yes, @WEnchanteur.
That whole throwing-off-the-bell stunt is plain ludicrous for the reasons that you mentioned. But I knew then that this screenwriter was going to play it fast and loose with science, and would dispense with facts to gain laughs. The screenwriter repeated the stunt when Namsoon hurled the scammer’s leather bag into the stratosphere and the bag landed in Mongolia.
What bothered me in Episode 1 was how the dad could have lost his daughter in the Mongolian steppes. It was never explained.
I agree, @WEnchanteur. That cameo appearance of Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Sik was painful to watch. He looked like a hen-pecked husband and she, a bad-tempered shrewish nag. “Road to perdition” indeed. Let’s see if there’s a course correction for these women.
@packmule3, I can see how the child may have become lost, but not why she wasn’t found soon afterwards. I can’t remember if there was some reason why her parents or the adoptive couple couldn’t report her lost to the local authorities? There was internet (although not universal) as well as word of mouth which is pretty effective even among nomadic peoples. The couple she stayed with were honest and would have given her back. The girl would have been recognised once she became famous for being strong. But of course, we wouldn’t have had the same story.
Another mystery is the nice penthouse apartment the police officer has. Han River view, in the city if you please. He must be a chaebol.