I read some of your comments on the Open Thread and will now give my take on them out here. I’ll start from the top.

1. @Snowflower wrote,

With so many reveals in these two episodes, I have one burning question: How did The Master and Psycho 406 meet?

Great question, @Snowflower! I’m glad you focused on the essential and weren’t distracted by that emotional presscon by SE at the end of Episode 10. 🙂

I think the missing link between The Master and Psycho 406 is SangWoo. I gave you my explanation here.

I also followed it up with a comment which I’ll copy and paste it here.

I was willing to give SangWoo the benefit of the doubt, but I had no choice but to deem him a liar by Ep 10. You see in Ep 10, we got the confrontation scene between Psycho 406 and his mom, Mrs. Paik. It was revealed that Chairman Paik died recently; it had been only a year since his death. His face was plastered on every news channel and that’s what triggered Psycho 406’s memories to come flooding back.

Well…Psycho 406 had amnesia as an excuse. But what was SW’s excuse? He didn’t have amnesia.

If he could remember the dragon ring — a small detail on the portrait of the old man — well enough to draw it in great details for his Youtube fans, then I don’t see why he couldn’t remember the face of the old man AND didn’t recognize him as Chairman Paik when the news of his death splashed on all channels.

See that? There’s an inconsistency there; it’s illogical. At first, I dismissed it simply as a plothole. But when I re-thought the whole thing from a different angle, I had no choice but to call it for what it was: a lie, a deep fake. SangWoo was faking his ignorance.

But why?

At the most elementary level, I attribute it to his unspoken, unrequited feelings for HJ. He must have found out who she was married to and plotted to replace the husband. But then, he also discovered SE’s family connection and went down the rabbit hole.

So yes, SangWoo is shady as an oak tree.

In addition, if we were to create a rudimentary timeline, then:

–Psycho 406 began his revenge scheme only about a year ago when he finally remembered everything. He and DoJae could only have linked up less than a year. Interestingly, too, HJ began working a year ago.

–DoJae must have searching for his brother’s killer for ages, but only found SE when he was an adult. That’s the reason he began working at the HBC TV station. He wanted to be near SE. This also means that he and SE were together prior to his marriage 3 years ago.

–SangWoo had been on the missing orphans’ case for 20 years. He fell in love with HJ in college, but then (allegedly) lost touch of her when she married 3 years ago. He recently joined the HBC TV station for a crime report special. Hmmm…how convenient was his timing? After 20 years, he finally determined that he could solve the mystery of the missing orphans just when Psycho 406 and DoJae had started their vengeance plot.

One final thing. If you watch the opening sequence of the kdrama, you’ll notice a marble dropping into the water and bouncing around smart phones. I interpret this to mean that the marble launched the revenge plot. But where did we first see the marble in the kdrama? In Episode 3, when SangWoo was recounting his first visit to the mansion. He was standing in front of Chairman Paik’s portrait when a marble rolled at his feet. And then another marble rolled. It was the young Psycho 406 calling his attention by tossing the marbles.

Hope that helps.

2. @Arihsi wrote,

As most of the internet agrees, the last 6 minutes of ep 10 showed raw, undone despair. If you compare it with how the show opened in ep 1 to show us who BSE was, the stark contrast was detailed. Including the fact that he needed a paper to read from because he was doused in grief. The slow movements, how he keeps the paper slowly in the pocket.

Yes, there were a few bookend scenes in Ep 10. You mentioned one, @arihsi,  the contrast between SE’s demeanor/appearance during the first and latest presscons.

I hope you also noticed his tone. In the first news conference, he was adamant that there would be no negotiations, no compromise with the terrorists. But in this latest conference, he was begging the public for any information for info on his HJ. I bet he was willing to negotiate and compromise with Psycho 406, or even with the devil himself, just to get HJ back. What a difference! Bad news hit differently when loved one is involved.

Also, back in Ep 1, when the phone rang, he ordered HJ’s abductor, Psycho 406, to call him back once there was a corpse. Here, I’m sure, news about a corpse was the last thing he wanted to hear when the phone rang. In fact, when Psycho 406 called him on the phone, he allowed Psycho 406 to rant as long as he wanted so he could get Psycho 406’s phone geolocation. Then, he spoke directly to HJ to reassure her.

SE: HeeJoo, don’t worry. I’m coming. I’m coming right now.

And this time around, it was HJ who told him not to come.

HJ: Don’t come. I told you. For once, I want to protect you. Just remember this. I love you so very much.
SE: HeeJoo.
HJ: I love you. (then speaking to Psycho 406) Once you start, you see it through the end. That’s what you said. Since I started it, I’m going to end it. I’ll make sure you never make him suffer again.

Her reaction now is the complete opposite of her reaction when she was first abducted. Back then, she was enraged to hear SE’s dismissal. She yelled at her abductor to call back SE because she had something to get off her chest. She wanted to tell SE that he was an a-hole. But SE didn’t pick up the phone.

That’s why the scene in Ep 10 sounded familiar. It was an echo of what happened in Ep 1. But this time around, She was able to tell him that she loved him and he stayed on the line.

3. @Cleopatra wrote,

P.S. I have read on MDL that the english translation about the DNA test and what it actually says, was not done correctly on Netflix. So, we are losing important facts and we are lead to believe that they are not blood related at all.

Yes, it’s possible that English sub on Netflix isn’t as precise or as comprehensive as we wanted. But it’s also possible that the screenwriter added her own spin to the source material. In this case, we can consider these scenarios:

a. SE – who we now know, actually sent the DNA report to get out of the marriage – could have sent somebody else’s DNA. A random stranger’s DNA. After all, he was under no obligation to send his own DNA because he was trying to disprove paternity.

b. SE and Paik UiHong didn’t have the same DNA because Paik UiHong wasn’t his father’s son, but SE was.

4. Now, @nrllee had a laundry list of plotholes.

Let me tackle some of them. (Hi, @nrllee, I didn’t know you were watching too!)

Plot holes 🕳️

– how were the orphans allowed to just freely wander away from Orphanage grounds and find their way to the villa? 🤷🏻‍♀️. We know that real SE killed all the children. Bodies were disposed of by fish dad at the request of grandpa. Only SW escaped out of there alive.

This isn’t necessarily a plothole, @nrlee. The villa could be a few miles down the road, and back in those days, kids were allowed to roam anywhere and everywhere as long as they were back home by dinnertime.

But yes, it’s curious isn’t it that only SW escaped the place alive. I wonder why. Did he and Psycho 406 have something in common?

– why the burial mounds? So obvious? If you wanted to hide bodies, you wouldn’t be mounding earth up like that in Korea? Unless you want the bodies found? 🤷🏻‍♀️

In SK, burial mounds aren’t unusual. Country folks do bury their dead in mounds, in the hillside or mountains. And since the graves appeared to be well-tended (there were flowers, right?), they wouldn’t raise anybody’s suspicions. Passersby would see them as graves for much-loved family members.

– how did DJ know that his twin was killed by SE as a child? All we see is him finding his brother’s other shoe outside the villa and his wailing. His brother was missing and never returned to the Orphanage but it’s a big leap to go from missing and presumed dead to “I know it’s Paik SE who murdered him”? I assume he never went into the villa himself? As far as we know nobody knew real SE lived in the villa as a child?

I’m purely speculating here. It’s possible that the young DJ learned to be wary of the place when other orphans started disappearing. It’s also possible that he didn’t begin to suspect that his twin brother was killed until he grew up and learned of the three other orphans’ disappearance. But certainly, the disappearance of his twin left a mark on him.

That’s also why I suspect SangWoo’s involvement. He was the only one still alive to talk about the real SE who lived there.

– how did Kidnapper (Real SE) know that HJ was fake SE’s wife (YYS) in Ep1? Did Master (DJ) know? I didn’t think anyone outside of family knew about HJ? Staff certainly didn’t? So who told DJ? Or how did he find out?

This isn’t really a plothole. For now, we aren’t given the information because the big reveal is being saved for the last two episodes.

Also, it seems like more than the immediate family knows about the bridal switch. Like SangWoo could have found out because he was in love HJ and HJ suddenly disappeared from his world. He would have investigated her disappearance doggedly.

– Did DJ just hide in the bushes or something and watch everything unfold? Otherwise how would he know that fake SE had arrived at the scene and was involved in the fire and was “lucky to be alive”? Nobody knew fake SE was injured except HJ and SW? Even the parents and the personal assistant only knew that he was “missing” because HJ confronted them the night before?

I don’t think DJ hid in the bushes while the fishing shack burned. Logically, he would have to move his car and get out of there BEFORE Psycho 406 left the shack. Why? Because he wouldn’t want Psycho 406 to know that he was there and to suspect that he overheard the conversation. After all, Psycho 406 didn’t know him from Adam. Also, DJ would want an encounter with Psycho 406 when he was ready with an equipment (like a metal bat) to kill his twin brother’s murderer.

And yes, nobody knew that SE was caught in the fire, too. If it hadn’t been for SangWoo who made a u-turn (why did he??) and followed SE back to the shack, SE would have been dead. Psycho 406 only intended the foster father to die in the burning shack.

– I find it hard to believe that Grandpa ordered a hit on Hong’s biological son just because he saw real SE’s face? Or that’s what we are led to assume so far? And somehow Hong was okay about it because real SE was dead too? Grandpa was so cryptic in the rain as the gun was pointed in his face. Let’s just call it even? I lost my grandson and you lost your son? And if you kill me you lose all the money you invested in the presidential campaign too? Everything was fine so long as the real SE was indeed dead? The boy didn’t drive the truck that killed Hong’s son though? It was grandpa that ordered the hit? And Hong’s outrage and anger only returned when he realizes that the real SE wasn’t actually dead after all? 🤷🏻‍♀️. Makes zero sense to me…

It is what it is, @nrllee. 🙂 They have no morals, anyway. Chairman Paik hired a hitman to kill Hong’s biological son. It’s Hong InNa’s theory however that her young brother was murdered because he saw Psycho 406’s face without the Mask. (I guess that’s one reason SangWoo wasn’t killed. His playmate never unmasked in his sight and always wore the Mask during playtime.)

But as I said in the other thread, Chairman Paik was willing to kill his grandson because he had his own issues with the boy. You could say, that Chairman was killing two birds (even three??) with one stone.

For Mr. Hong though, the death of the young Paik sufficed as compensation. An eye for an eye; a life for a life. Plus, if and when a Paik becomes president, he has something to control the president with. He used the death of his only son as a bargaining chip. But he was mad when he discovered that the young Paik was still alive because he thought he’d been double-crossed.

That’s it for me. Don’t kill me if I’m wrong. 🙂