Circle: Episode 4
by Paroma
Hurtling along at breakneck speed, Circle keeps us riveted to the two timelines as Woo-jin and Joon-hyuk each find an answer to a crucial question. Woo-jin battles distrust and confusion about the girl who could be an alien, while Joon-hyuk seeks to understand why a perceived enemy might be helping them.
EPISODE 4 RECAP
Ten years ago. Little Bum-gyun sits in his room, timing himself as he solves the Rubik’s cube. Outside, Woo-jin is working on his homework on the living room floor. When their strange guest walks through the room and almost steps on his project, he shows her his chart of the planets and asks where she’s from: “Jupiter? Mars?”
Bum-gyun calls Woo-jin into his room to challenge him to a race to solve the cube’s puzzle. As the timer ticks the seconds by, Bum-gyun looks worriedly at Woo-jin’s progress, until Woo-jin wins. He tells his older brother gleefully that no matter his high marks in school, Bum-gyun will always lose to him. Then, blowing a raspberry, the little imp runs out of the room.
Bum-gyun chases him into the living room, where the sight of something stops them in their tracks. Then, Woo-jin’s face breaks into a grin as he tells his brother: “See? I told you she’s from outer space.” We don’t see what surprised them, but their eerie guest turns her head to look at the brothers.
Part 1: Beta Project
Woo-jin discovers the blue worm in a pot in Jung-yeon’s room, while the mysterious Jung-yeon stands outside a decrepit building called Eunsung Psychiatric Hospital. She gets a call from Woo-jin, and tells him exactly where she is. He tells her that he’ll come to her.
Woo-jin scoops up the blue worm into a plastic bag (is that secure enough?) and heads out. Jung-yeon tries the locked gate of the premises and thinks back to the text she got from an unknown number that simply said, “2 p.m. at Eunsung Psychiatric Hospital.” She gets another text that makes her look towards the building, then finds a way inside.
As she walks down the deserted corridor of the hospital, she looks around nervously, until suddenly, a hooded figure appears before her. The figure tackles her to the ground and tries to shock her with a taser. In the struggle, Jung-yeon manages to push the assailant off of her, and hears a distinctly female grunt of pain.
As she turns to run, the woman grabs her again, and this time manages to bring the taser right up to her neck. Just in time, Woo-jin arrives and pushes her off of Jung-yeon. The hooded woman gets up and runs, while Jung-yeon shouts at Woo-jin to go after her.
Woo-jin chases the woman through the narrow streets outside, until he loses sight of her. There’s no one in the next alley, except a woman in a black tracksuit, who walks past him while putting on earphones. Woo-jin gets to the end of the alley and finds a dead end. To the side is a discarded brown jacket, like the one the assailant wore over her black clothes. He looks sharply behind him, but the woman in a tracksuit has already disappeared.
When he gets back to the hospital, Jung-yeon shows him the text the hooded woman had sent her. She suggests that they go to the police with all they know now, but Woo-jin wants some answers first. He shows her the bug and asks why she has it. Jung-yeon tells him that it came out of her dead friend’s body, and that she’d held on to it without knowing what it was until now.
Woo-jin asks if she hadn’t trusted him even when they were working together, and Jung-yeon admits that because of Bum-gyun she hadn’t trusted him completely back then, but she does now.
Woo-jin asks her if she trusts Bum-gyun’s innocence too, and stresses that he’s not the criminal. Jung-yeon agrees to believe that since Woo-jin does.
They take the worms to Chief Hong at the police station and tell him everything. As Woo-jin tries to describe the assailant’s face, he comes up with unhelpful gems like “She has round eyes” and “She looks like a nice person,” which understandably frustrates Jung-yeon.
But it seems Chief Hong may be the Korean Sherlock after all, ’cause those vague descriptors are enough for him to come up with a sketch that matches Woo-jin’s memory of the woman. They are very impressed and ask how he got such details out of what Woo-jin said, and he tells them that it’s his sixth sense.
In flashback, though, we see him going through the CCTV footage from the day of Kim Nan-hee’s death. He zooms in on the face of the woman who had visited the student before Woo-jin and Jung-yeon. He gets a clear shot of her face, and his sketch today matches it exactly. Ha.
Chief Hong wraps up their interview and gets up, but Woo-jin stops him to add one last detail. He tells the detective about his last conversation with Bum-gyun, and how he’d said that the criminal was “Bluebird.” Jung-yeon frowns at Woo-jin, but stays silent.
Outside the police station, she smacks him hard on the head, observing that he’d doubted her as well. Guessing that the “bluebird” in her email address was what had caused him to search her room, she points out that his brother knows her name and wouldn’t use an alias when referring to “the criminal.”
Woo-jin still thinks it’s an odd coincidence, but Jung-yeon is focused on unraveling the mystery of that name now. Woo-jin notices a bloody tear on Jung-yeon’s jeans and suggests they go to the hospital. Jung-yeon coolly dismisses the cut and says she’ll be fine, but when the doctor puts some antiseptic on it, she starts whimpering like a child with a boo-boo.
While she’s being treated, Woo-jin leaves the outpatient ward and runs into Professor Han, who’s walking out of the elevator. They exchange greetings, and the professor says that he’s here to see his child, who got into an accident. When Woo-jin gets back with two cans of coffee, he sees Professor Han sitting with Jung-yeon.
His eyes widen as Jung-yeon introduces him to her dad, the professor. They explain that they’re classmates, and Woo-jin quickly takes his leave. He lingers close enough to listen to the professor teasing his daughter about Woo-jin, and asking if he’s the reason she’s been skipping her treatments. She denies it, but Woo-jin smiles to himself before leaving.
As he walks past the bakery near his college, he remembers Bum-gyun working inside and his face falls.
Inside the Psychiatric Hospital, Bum-gyun sits in silence inside a locked room. When he hears footsteps, he gets up and looks around wildly. As the steps come closer, he jumps up on the nearby stretcher and pretends to be unconscious.
Somewhere on a different floor of the hospital, Chief Hong and his partner look through the rooms. The partner clearly thinks this is a wild goose chase and says that Woo-jin — with his blue bugs and blue birds — is as weird as Hong is.
A man in scrubs walks into Bum-gyun’s room with a syringe. He prepares to inject something into Bum-gyun’s neck, when Bum-gyun grabs his hand and bites his arm. This makes the mysterious man scream in pain, but he manages to overpower Bum-gyun and inject the suspicious drug.
Chief Hong hears the sound and says they’ll search the place one more time. Meanwhile, the man in scrubs takes out a blue worm and positions it under the nostril of a now-unconscious Bum-gyun. Oh no!
The next day, Jung-yeon arrives at Woo-jin’s place and calls to tell him that she’s coming up. Just out of the shower, Woo-jin is thrown into a panic as he speed-cleans his room and puts on a shirt backwards and inside-out over his towel in his hurry.
Jung-yeon notices the backwards shirt, but suppresses her smile as she walks inside. Woo-jin belatedly realizes this and quickly turns it inside-out, as she settles down on the floor. She notices a pile of discarded clothes shoved hurriedly under a table, and sweetly puts a pillow against it to make it look like she didn’t see it.
He asks why she hadn’t told him about her father, and she retorts that she never asked about his dad either. He can’t argue with that, so he tells her to level with him, so he isn’t confused about her.
She asks what could be so confusing, then suddenly gets a coy look on her face. She gives him a flirtatious shove as if he’d said something forward, and Woo-jin falls over himself to make it clear that he wasn’t talking about that kind of confusion! She laughs at his seriousness and tells him to focus on organizing their findings.
Woo-jin’s sunbae speaks to Professor Park about convincing Professor Han not to take Woo-jin onto their team. When Professor Han arrives, he immediately mentions Woo-jin and how close he seemed to Jung-yeon. Professor Park exchanges glances with the sunbae and tells Professor Han that having Woo-jin on the team would make them uncomfortable.
Professor Han turns from genial to glacial, as he points out that he’s the head researcher and he needs Woo-jin on the team. Professor Park backs down and leaves, and Professor Han sighs to himself.
Our amateur sleuths set up Bum-gyun’s murder conspiracy chart on Woo-jin’s wall and look through all the pictures in his camera. Jung-yeon notices Woo-jin’s sober expression as he studies his brother’s notes, and she suddenly exclaims and points at a picture of herself. Woo-jin looks up to see what she found, and snorts when Jung-yeon waxes lyrical over how good she looks in the shot and asks him to send it to her.
Seeing him laugh, she tells him to smile more, and says that it’s not easy to smile in his situation. She promises that they’ll find Bum-gyun, telling him to “trust this noona.” He scoffs at her claim of being older and asks when she was born. She reveals it was April, which makes him tight-lipped about his own birth month.
Just then, Woo-jin gets a call from Bum-gyun’s number. The caller on the other side tells him to come to a certain park at 2 p.m., alone. Woo-jin tells Jung-yeon that it’s “that woman,” and they go to the park together. Jung-yeon hides, while Woo-jin waits out in the open.
Half an hour passes with no sight of the woman, until she comes up behind Jung-yeon with her taser. Jung-yeon’s yell brings Woo-jin running, and he manages to catch the hooded woman this time. Grabbing her by the hand holding the taser, he asks who she is and how she had his brother’s phone.
In a near manic state, the woman yells that he was supposed to come alone, and she won’t say a word in front of Jung-yeon. Woo-jin asks Jung-yeon to leave for a bit, and Jung-yeon begrudgingly agrees but tells him not to lose the woman.
After she walks away, the woman asks him why he’s hanging out with an alien. The conversation is frustratingly circular for Woo-jin, as the woman keeps saying that Jung-yeon is an alien and knows where Bum-gyun is. Finally, when Woo-jin yells that there are no such things as aliens, she shows him a picture of Jung-yeon standing on the road with a suitcase.
He asks what’s so strange about the picture, and the woman zooms the image in to focus on a star-shaped accessory on the suitcase. Woo-jin’s eyes widen, and the woman asks if he still thinks the girl is Han Jung-yeon. As he slowly looks up at her, she asks if he really even wants to find his brother.
Jung-yeon is waiting at a bench, some distance away, and just as she gets to the end of her patience, she sees Woo-jin walking towards her alone. She asks if he lost the woman again, but he doesn’t answer. Instead, as he looks at her, he remembers the yellow star attached to the suitcase that his dad carried out of their house, when he left with the alien woman.
Jung-yeon asks what’s wrong, and Woo-jin remembers running out into the living room with his brother after solving the Rubik’s cube, and finding the alien drawing a complicated chart of the star system on their window. The little Woo-jin in his memory smiles and tells his brother that he was right about her being from outer space.
Frustrated with his silence, Jung-yeon starts to walk past him, when he reaches out and stops her by the arm. He sighs and takes out his phone. Showing her the star, he asks how she got it. She says that she always had it, but Woo-jin wants to know how it came into her possession.
Looking defensive, she says, “Why do I have to tell you that?” And Woo-jin answers, “Because I gave it to you.”
In flashback, we see Little Woo-jin holding out the star to his alien. “From today your name is Byul [which means star].”
“Byul,” says Woo-jin, tears falling from his eyes. “You’re Byul.” Then taking out the old Polaroid picture from his pocket, he hands it to her. Jung-yeon pales as she looks at the alien woman with the two kids beside her. “That’s you, and that’s me, beside you,” Woo-jin tells her.
Grabbing her by the shoulder, he yells that she’s Byul. Looking truly shaken, Jung-yeon says that she doesn’t know who who she is either. “I…” she says, her voice trembling, “have no memories.”
Back at Professor Han’s office, he treats a bite wound on his arm. He gets a call from someone who says that Jung-yeon skipped her session again and that it would be hard to get her memories back at this rate. He promises to speak to her, and his eyes fall on his monitor, which shows a live feed of Bum-gyun in the old hospital.
In the park, Jung-yeon confesses that she has no memories of her life before she turned eighteen. Woo-jin looks shocked as this sinks in.
Part 2: Brave New World
Ho-soon yells at Joon-hyuk to stop looking into Human B, and asks him who he is. Joon-hyuk looks tormented as he admits that he doesn’t know who he is: Kim Joon-hyuk or someone else entirely.
In flashback, Chief Hong shows the detective a clip of the little Kim boys solving the Rubik’s cube and tells him that from this day, he’s Kim Joon-hyuk. Later, outside his hospital room, Chief Hong argues to the lady doctor, IN-YOUNG, that Joon-hyuk has the right to know.
Joon-hyuk overhears them and asks what he doesn’t know. “You told me that child died! Is he alive?” Seeing his distress at being unable to remember, Chief Hong hands him a suitcase and says: “This is the memory footage your twin left behind.”
In-young warns him against watching it, arguing that it could keep him stuck in the past, but Joon-hyuk needs to know. Alone, he watches the moment on the road when Woo-jin begged Bum-gyun to give up his quest to find the alien and stay by his side. We don’t see whose perspective this memory is from.
In the present, Joon-hyuk tells Ho-soon that bad memories are also part of life. “No matter how upsetting, cruel, or horrible they may be, they are still part of who you are. That’s why you have to accept it. That’s what I did.”
Conflicted but stubborn, Ho-soon says that the choice Joon-hyuk made isn’t necessarily the right one. He stumbles away and heads back to Smart Earth. Reaching home, Ho-soon begins to weep and starts to pull off his tie. Suddenly, he looks at it and realizes that it’s the same one his girlfriend had given him five years ago. He’d been wearing it all this time, without knowing why.
In Ordinary Earth, Joon-hyuk sits with his eyes closed for hours, making Detective Oh and Dong-soo wonder if he’s sleeping sitting up. Just to check, they tip-toe close and wave their hands before his face. But when Dong-soo puts a finger under Joon-hyuk’s nose to check his breathing, he gets his answer as Joon-hyuk chomps down on the digit.
Joon-hyuk berates Dong-soo for being unable to locate Bluebird, and they wonder how good Bluebird must be to be working for Human B. Joon-hyuk points out that they must find the hacker: “That’s the only way it’ll end for you… and me,” he tells Chief Hong and Doctor In-young.
Ho-soon visits the Human B building and asks to meet Deputy Chief Lee. He confronts the man about Human B blocking the citizens’ memories. When the deputy chief denies it, Ho-soon brings up Bluebird, and asks if he should go to the reporters to test how “technically impossible” his resurfacing memories are.
When Deputy Chief Lee asks why he came to him instead of going to the press, Ho-soon says it’s because there’s something he wants: “Please, block my memories again.” Lee’s cool smile drops away in surprise.
Secretary Shin walks in just then and whispers something in his ears. Deputy Chief Lee invites Ho-soon to come with him, since there is something he should see.
Back in Dong-soo’s lair, Min-ji’s uncle wakes up and looks wildly about. As his memories come back, he cries, “Why did I? Why did I?” He remembers what he did again and asks why he did “that” to Min-ji. Chief Hong grabs him by the collar and yells at him to confirm that he was an accomplice in the kidnapping.
Dong-soo points out how odd it is that all these memories are coming back now. Joon-hyuk thinks back to Ho-soon saying that he’s afraid of his memories returning, and frowns. He wants to reconnect the cable to Min-ji’s uncle’s chip to find out more. In-young refuses, since it could be dangerous to his health, but Uncle asks for it to be done. He says that he needs to know.
When Dong-soo looks up the memories of the day of the kidnapping, he finds the file miraculously unblocked this time. They watch as Little Min-ji is put into the car trunk by her kidnapper. She looks towards her uncle and asks him to save her. As the trunk lid closes, the video blacks out and Bluebird’s logo flashes on the screen.
Deputy Chief Lee and his entourage walk out of Human B, as the memory footage suddenly becomes accessible again in Ordinary Earth. They watch Uncle walk towards Little Min-ji in a warehouse, and every time the video blacks out, Bluebird’s logo appears and the footage resumes.
As they watch the uncle tie Min-ji up and gag her, Chief Hong shuts his eyes at her muffled sobs. Dong-soo observes that Bluebird wasn’t the one blocking the citizens’ memories, and Joon-hyuk agrees: “He was bringing them back.”
“But why?” asks Dong-soo, as the officials at Human B’s control room scramble to fight Bluebird hacking into their system. The logo flashes bright on the screen as Deputy Chief Lee arrives and thunders at his subordinate for not being able to stop the hacker from getting into their system again. His chips turns red, then green, calming Lee down.
The deputy chief tells Ho-soon in private that Bluebird is the one causing misery by bringing back blocked memories. He offers to block Ho-soon’s memories again, but asks for something in return.
Back at Ordinary Earth, Dong-soo wonders who the hacker really is. Detective Oh asks if he’s after justice, or if he has a grudge against Human B too. Joon-hyuk gets up and says he’s leaving to meet Bluebird. When Chief Hong asks how, he just says, “Smart Earth. That’s where we lost him.”
In a dark room full of complex computers, a woman sits at a console, a cap hiding her face. As she works, her eyes land on one screen and she plays the footage. It’s from Ho-soon’s perspective, and shows Joon-hyuk shouting, “Bluebird is Human B. Human B is blocking their memories!” As Joon-hyuk turns to look at Ho-soon, she stops the footage on his face.
Joon-hyuk is walking into Smart Earth’s terminal, when he gets a call from Ho-soon. He asks if he’s all right and guesses that Ho-soon’s care chip is making him feel better. As Ho-soon hangs up, he thinks of Deputy Chief Lee’s request. All he has to do is find out who Joon-hyuk was before he took on his current identity, and Lee promised to block Ho-soon’s bad memories again.
As Joon-hyuk walks through the terminal, a woman in a cap bumps into him, before walking away. He doesn’t catch her face, but as he keeps walking, he hears his phone ring. He takes it out, only to realize that the ringing is coming from another pocket. He finds an unfamiliar phone there, with a call from an unknown number flashing on the screen.
We see that the woman in the cap slipped the phone into his pocket as she walked past him earlier. He takes the call and hears a distorted voice ask, “Detective Kim, are you looking for me?” “Bluebird?” he asks. “Why are you unblocking people’s memories?” “Do you want to know?” she answers, “Then come out.”
A map pops up on the phone and Joon-hyuk runs back out to Ordinary Earth, following the blinking dot on it. Ho-soon, who was watching him from a distance, follows. Bluebird has him running through a maze of roads and tunnels, until he finally arrives at the imposing gates of Woo-jin’s old university.
Memories of walking through the gate flash in his mind, and he hears Chief Hong say that this is the footage that his twin left behind. He answers Bluebird’s call by asking, “What are you trying to do?” He gets another location on the map, and when he reaches it, it’s Woo-jin’s old apartment building.
He remembers Bum-gyun sitting in that apartment and promising never to go back to jail and never to leave Woo-jin’s side. In flashback, we see Joon-hyuk watching this footage on screen from Woo-jin’s perspective. Ah, noooo!
He gets another call and this time asks: “You know me, don’t you?” Bluebird answers: “I think you know me too.” Joon-hyuk begs to know where Bluebird is, and gets yet another location on the map.
He stops before the bakery this time, recalling Bum-gyun’s claims to Woo-jin that it was the alien’s hideout. The final location is the motel where Bum-gyun stayed after getting out of jail. He walks up the steps and recalls Little Bum-gyun telling his brother, “I’ll always find you wherever you are.” He also remembers Woo-jin swearing never to talk to Bum-gyun if he leaves now. Finally, he remembers Bum-gyun’s promise never to leave Woo-jin’s side.
He enters the room and his mind fills up the empty room with how it used to look when Bum-gyun stayed there. He looks around, when suddenly he hears Woo-jin ask if Bum-gyun killed those students. He turns around to see that scene replay before him, with the two brothers standing there. Then, the perspective shifts and Woo-jin is speaking directly to him: “Why do you keep living in a different world by yourself? Why?”
Joon-hyuk remembers all times Bum-gyun hurt Woo-jin because of his need to find the alien, and softly apologizes to Woo-jin now. Tearing up, he says, “I should have told you everything. No, I should have stopped.” The specter of Woo-jin vanishes but leaves Joon-hyuk steeped in memories of Woo-jin telling him that he’d had a hard time without him, that he needed him.
Joon-hyuk calls out: “Woo-jin. I’m here. It’s me, Bum-gyun.” He breaks down crying, and in a distant dark room, a Rubik’s cube falls from Bluebird’s hand. The camera pans up to her face, and we see an unchanged Jung-yeon staring at the screen in shock. Hoarsely, she breathes: “Kim Bum-gyun.”
COMMENTS
Is that disappointment I see in her eyes? If it is — I feel you, ageless alien lady. I wanted him to be Woo-jin too. And I’m still skeptical of this twist, since the reveal came a bit too early in the story. Joon-hyuk’s desperation to find the missing parts of himself make him a lot more interesting than the keen-eyed but one-dimensional detective of the first week. We now understand what drives him, yet, that in itself undermines today’s reveal. If he already knew he was Bum-gyun, then why did he need Bluebird’s running quest down memory lane to come to terms with it? Was it this easy to get his memories back?
The way I see it, Joon-hyuk calling himself Bum-gyun could simply be confirmation bias. He already believed that he’s Bum-gyun and his apology may simply be a reaction to the guilt and grief that both twins felt in that room during that argument. Also, note the way Chief Hong said that the memory footage was what his twin “left behind.” Did he really mean that the memories belonged to Joon-hyuk’s twin or did he mean that the footage was a file his twin left behind. We don’t know how Chief Hong came into possession of it or when.
There are other intriguing little questions cropping up now. Like, how does the footage of the little twins playing with their Rubik’s cube exist? Does Bum-gyun’s timer double as a nanny cam? Who was recording them? My theories about the twins’ dad is that he was involved in some kind of research as well, and when he discovered something dangerous about “Byul’s” existence, he took her away from his children to protect them. The interesting question is, how Professor Han came to have her, and what his intentions are. They don’t seem particularly noble, given that his worms have been killing campus students, but does he know what or who she is?
The show has done a good job in selling Woo-jin’s connection to Jung-yeon to me. Without going overboard, they hinted at growing feelings in the current timeline, while giving us a glimpse into the warmth Little Woo-jin brought into Byul’s emotionless world. Just as they did with Bum-gyun last week, they got me attached to yet another relationship in Woo-jin’s life. And while I sink in disappointment at the thought of Joon-hyuk being Bum-gyun, there is an epic poignancy to Jung-yeon teaming up with Woo-jin’s brother in the future to look for him.
I don’t think they would kill off Woo-jin in the 2017 timeline, but there is only one shadowy character he could be in the future. Many have theorized that Woo-jin is the Chairman, and he’d turned into this man after a loss that convinced him of the need for memory removal to cope with trauma. Perhaps he believes that Bum-gyun is dead. Perhaps he had his own memories removed. Whichever the case, must Future Woo-jin be irredeemable? The brothers have had enough distance and grief in their lives, so I’m rooting hard for them to find each other in the Brave New World and not die or disappear again.
This show is ridiculously good at sucking me in and leaving me with nail marks in my palms by the end of it. There are so many questions, so many possibilities to mull over! Is “Byul” really an alien, or the result of some kind of experimentation? How far will Ho-soon go to have his bad memories removed? How many other characters are hiding in the wings, ready to come onscreen and change the game again? Why is next week a whole week away? Some of those questions may remain mysteries forever.
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Tags: Circle, Gong Seung-yeon, Kim Kang-woo, Lee Ki-kwang, Yeo Jin-gu
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1 nerdy
June 2, 2017 at 12:38 PM
Well...at least now I don't have to worry that Bum-Gyun would die in Beta timeline
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kdramaskimchi
June 2, 2017 at 12:43 PM
yup...i was really freaking out that he would die like the others but thank god..i know he doesnt
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nerdy
June 2, 2017 at 12:48 PM
On another note, Ho-Soo lost his angel wings a little too fast. I understand his reasoning, but making decision for whole population and spying on a guy who is at least worried about him doesn't exactly give him good grades in my book
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kdramaskimchi
June 2, 2017 at 12:52 PM
yup...even tho i think it will be temporary...am sad ho soo went to the dark side in this episode.
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kiara
June 2, 2017 at 3:07 PM
Comment was deleted
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maryxiah
June 3, 2017 at 7:33 AM
I don't think they can take out the chip when the person is still alive because I remember the doctor said the chip is connected to the nerves. I'm guessing Joon-hyuk could still be Woo-jin because Beom-gyun already had the blue worm chip and didn't need another planted in him, it would make much more sense for Woo-jin to have it and then his memories were wiped/locked so he couldn't remember. Also, I feel like Human B's CEO might be behind the extraction of Woo-jin's memories so Joon-hyuk was left with none. And Judging by Jung-yeon's disappointment face, I think she thought Joon-hyuk could be Woo-jin too.
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Starry Knight✨
June 2, 2017 at 7:42 PM
So I guess one of Prof. Han's experiments worked although he ended up with unpredictable results ie. Bum-Gyun losing all his memories. Maybe he fine tuned the chip after observing Bum-Gyun . Though I wonder how Bum-Gyun escaped and ended up in the hospital. I am guessing Jung- Yeon came to know about the sinister experiments that her 'father' was conducting and rebelled to release them all after finding that she was the alien.
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 1:50 PM
Yeah ctually theorising that maybe the boys' father took the alien to professor Han all those yrs ago and maybe discovered that Han was cray cray and died trying to save her but still didnt succeed.
She may hv found out that and pretended to die/get missing and start officially rebelling as bluebird....maybe it was even smth she started with Woo-Jin.
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kurazo4
June 2, 2017 at 9:32 PM
yeah.. I really thought he would, with all those students committing suicide after what were done to them.. what the professor did to them is so creepy!!
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2 Adal
June 2, 2017 at 12:48 PM
Too many reveals that took me by surprise. I was convinced that Joo Hyuk was Woo Jin, for him to be Bum gyun was utterly surprising to me. And we've received confirmation that Jung yeon IS the alien from 10 years ago. But these reveals just generate more questions like what happened to Bum Gyun when the professor put the bug in his body? What hold does the professor have over the alien? Why can't Byul remember her past memories? Where is Woo Jin in 2037? Who is the Chairman?
Circle is just... so, so good! I can't wait for Mondays and Tuesdays. Ratings please be higher??so they can continue to invest in these kinds of dramas.
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UnapologeticAddict
June 2, 2017 at 1:10 PM
The show really milked the fact that Joon Hyuk might be Woo Jin to the point that I was sooo convinced. I'm curious over this one thing the most! How on earth does Byul STILL look the same? That threw me the most to be honest but I agree that I have too many more questions now!
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Miky
June 2, 2017 at 2:24 PM
If she is indeed an alien her outer appereance is just a shell that she took to blend with humans and approch them so she wouldn't actually age no mater how much time passes,and being an alien might age different that humans(if she is in her real form not what she choose to show)but if she doesn't remember herself who se is she harldy doubt she could return to her true form we saw in ep 1....
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Miky
June 2, 2017 at 2:21 PM
I think a big hint even if the writer wanted to play us that he was Woo Jin till this reaveal were the memories themselves...In many we see Bum Hyun and if u think that the left memories belong to his brother,that brother will show what he sees and mostly BH was the one shown in those little bits of left memories and not Woo Jin(who was the one looking at him)..I think their Dad brought the alien to The Professor(or their organization) and maybe they reserch on her and made her loose her memories and maybe killed the Dad to get rid of him in the process...Hmmm,i think the hint who the Chairman is might be who found BH phone,i think that's his,who he dropped when he was abducted...
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 2:37 PM
You know I was thinking along those lines too! That their dad took the alien to professor Han! And somehow died in the process.
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s9313071e
June 2, 2017 at 10:32 PM
So many questions, and so few answers! If I hadn't rewatched the episode i couple of times, it would be very easy for me to get confused with the unexpected twists and turns the story takes us. But I am interested to find out why the alien lost all her memories in the first place, and why she changed to become a chirpier character.
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 2:12 PM
Hhhmmmm,,, Theory Tiiimmmeeee!
What happened to Bum Gyun when the doctor put the worm in his body.
Ans- maybe it was a more modified version of the worm and our Gyuns body rejected it after it had caused so much harm....ooorrr it takes a while fotlr the body to assimilate it and he managed to get it out in time but the process was too stressful on his nervous system this causing him to lose his memories.
And for the hold that Han has on the Alien...i think we've seen that Han will go through crooked means to achieve what he wants...im guessing the boys dad may hv taken the alien to Han in 2007 trying to find out what to do and Han may hv used him as leverage over her (she may hv grown attached to the family) allowed herself to be a guineapig....dad got harmed still tho...probably died...and Han eventually managed to create smth that enables only "positive" emotions for her....as his daughter, those "treatments" shes been having in 2017 (the ones she missed cuz of woo jin) actually surpress her memories....that or "dad" has been drugging her food.
As for 2037 woo jin....idk why no one has speculated that he could be Ho-Soon yet. Ive actually been thinking this way since around episode 3....at first i also thought JH was WJ but my mind changed...i think HS running away frm pain is somewhat consistent with WJ having endured a lot of pain and fearing it....i was thinking the alien died but now we know shes alive...maybe she started the bluebird rebellion when JW either "died" or was kidnapped by the other side
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3 kdramaskimchi
June 2, 2017 at 12:50 PM
i had thought joon hyuk would be woo jin but am not disappointed that he isn't...we never get to really know bum-gyum in 2017 and all we got was this crazy guy who believed in aliens and had just gotten out of jail...but now..i like that i get to know the two brothers individually through the two timelines..i now know that bum-gyum has a funny and playful side which we see when he teases ho soon..haha (i like their scenes)....now i just wanna know what happened to woo-jin and yes..i would love if woo-jin is the chairman and the fight between the two brothers is resolved with a rubik's cube match (i hope for all of smart earth's people sakes that bum-gyum has finally mastered how to finish the cube)
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Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 1:53 PM
If Woojin is the chairman, a Rubik's cube might play a very important part in the recovery of his memories ;).
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Yuyuu, The Drama Queen
June 2, 2017 at 3:26 PM
Last week, I definitely thought that Joon-hyuk was Woo-jin, but also suspected the show might be playing us.
This week with ep 3 and the confirmation that JH didn't know his own ID, I was seriously doubting my thoughts.
In this episode, when Bum Gyun was injected with that drug and that bug *shudder*.... I went in Part 2 already thinking JH is Bum Gyun after all, and it turns out he is! Unless the show is playing us again and we might find out he's Woo-jin after all, leading us in (*gasp*) a circle.
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SuShin
June 2, 2017 at 5:05 PM
Yeah. The show is definitely leaving misleading breadcrumbs here and there. We can make our guesses but it's really up to them how they want it to be. The writing is so good that it can take any directions without introducing a WTH kind of feels.
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s9313071e
June 2, 2017 at 10:40 PM
Yea, we can't really trust what we see in the show. Some of the clues are so misleading, and can we know for sure that JH is BG? He says he is, but the memories he has are fed to him through the video, and even he has some memories, we can't tell whose they are. It's so confusing.
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CrimeFighter
June 8, 2017 at 11:09 AM
I am thinking the clip is it extracted from JH or the other twin....and that he was watching consist of both the brothers' scenes meaning that he must be either one of them but why did that clip (memories) not contain any scene of each of them alone? E.g. Woo Jin studying at university and his brother in jail. They should have separate and different memories. If there is some scenes of Woo Jin in Uni without his brother then that means Joon Hyuk must be Woo Jin. That's what I meant.
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4 fay17
June 2, 2017 at 12:55 PM
I am exactly being fooled like the writer wants us to be lol. First thought Jung-yeon is an alien, then not an alien, then again alien, then not an alien and now she 'is' an alien, except she has amnesia now. I don't care lol if this concept is an overused trope or whatever I am just so glad that a kdrama can pull off something so smart and clever and also balance out both parts so well. Like with 2017 and 2037 it seems like two different dramas in one package.
But what's far more exciting is that this is a saga of two brothers, who would ultimately always have the back of each other. The past and future are connected brilliantly, and not one scene is a waste, like we can tell that woo jin is the calculative and the non-emoting kind, while kim bum gyun still looks out for their father, both are opposite of each other, but then the concept of smart earth is so like woo jin that at past I had this hunch that he created it, but still had this doubt in mind, as we didn't know who jin hyuk is. The writer kept us in dark till now, but now can't wait to know what lies behind the facade of smart earth. I do think that the drama would try to show that the aliens are at the end, not the big bad evil, that it's us humans who try to deliberately ruin the peace and balance of nature-environment. That rather than being scared of aliens or UFO we should be more scared of our own kinds.
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fay17
June 2, 2017 at 12:59 PM
*joo hyuk.
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dee
June 2, 2017 at 7:24 PM
where is smart earth location for exactly? At 1st ep I think the location kinda in different island but in this ep when joonhyuk get out from smart district, it looks like just outside there.
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s9313071e
June 2, 2017 at 10:48 PM
I like how the drama makes us second guess ourselves and go round in circles without the entire thing seem repeated or old. Now that we have confirmed that the alien is indeed the alien, can we know how she has amnesia, and why the father left the house with her in the past? And what is her purpose on Earth? Surely, there must be a reason why she descended on Earth. Did she have a mission? What was her mission? How is she involved in the greater scheme of things in 2017, and maybe in 2037?
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CrimeFighter
June 8, 2017 at 11:11 AM
Makes us go in circles. That's why they named this drama as Circle. Haha.
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5 Saner
June 2, 2017 at 12:57 PM
*dreamy sigh* Can I just say how much I love Jung Jeon or Byul? In all the time lines – 2007, 2017, 20137 – she’s badass, loyal and kind. I also love the fact that, in 2017, even with all the drama and crazy stuff going on around her, she sometimes acts like she’s in a rom com with Woo-Jin [“I look amazing in that photo!” HA!] She runs the full gamut of emotions and I’m with her every time. I agree with tineybeanie that the alien and the college girl must be the same person, as well as badass Bluebird. I think Bluebird must have been the name of her ‘dad’s’ company or the name of the micro-robotics/neurobiology ‘beta test’ they did on the college students, to let him know (wherever he is) that she knows about the past and she, unlike the citizens of Smart Earth, ain’t forgetting anything.
This also clears up my confusion about the banner – “Aw! Poor Bum Gyun! He didn’t even get onto the promotional poster!” Well he did, just even he didn’t know it.
I’m starting to fear that Woo-Jin in either dead or the chairman. I’m leaning towards chairman, because it would explain a lot but am not eliminating the fact he may be dead because I feel the writers would totally do that to me.
I don’t know if it’s a translation issue, but I thought it was fascinating how the pronouns could be misleading too. All the BlueBird pronouns kept saying ‘he’ and I thought, isn’t it weird? BlueBird could totally be a girl too.
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Ek Ladhki Thi
June 2, 2017 at 2:35 PM
Yes, I love Jung-yeon so much. She's cute and smart and when she cries I want to hug her so much. I'm so glad dramas are continuing this trend of absolutely lovable female leads. Not that it's ever hard for me to love a female lead, I usually have a harder time warming up to the dudes.
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Playstore, Okay Or Not Okay
June 2, 2017 at 10:07 PM
good point about the poster thing. makes sense that Woo Jin is the representative of 2017 and Bum Gyeon of 2037 in the posters.
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6 meganpg1
June 2, 2017 at 1:00 PM
This show is addicting and exciting!
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UnapologeticAddict
June 2, 2017 at 1:11 PM
Yes! I'm looking foward to Mondays and Tuesdays now.
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s9313071e
June 2, 2017 at 10:55 PM
Yes! And the numerous questions it raises keeps me wanting more! Mostly, I just want the answers. Heh.
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7 Kestrel
June 2, 2017 at 1:01 PM
Gosh, I'm loving this show. And not just in the "I love kdrama sense" but in the "I love a good well thought out story sense." This show is shaping up to be as good as anything out there. Ten bucks says the rights are bought up and we end up with a US remake?
I am consistently impressed with how good YJG is as an actor given his age. He's even managing the transition into adulting well. Props to him. Hope there's nothing salacious or Bieberesque about him outside of work.
I guessed right on the brother! Huzzah! I'm calling it now, YJG is the Chairman.
The YJG arc isn't called "Beta Project" for no reason. I actually wish they hadn't bothered to name these segments because in and of itself, it's a massive spoiler.
The way they keep teasing the girl in the 2017 arc - is she or isn't she an alien - is just like Homeland's first season when they kept teasing the audience with a is he or isn't he a terrorist question. We have to ask now is she an alien or was she abducted by aliens and returned with no memories? Are these scientists desperately trying to unlock her memories because she knows something about an alien threat? Or are the aliens sleepers working to quietly destroy the earth as saboteurs?
I actually believe cell phones will become transparent like the 2037 variants because we'll use them to look at things and see augmented reality (i.e. hold the phone up on a building and get an entire directory of what businesses are in it).
I love that kdrama is making me ask these crazy questions.
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Ek Ladhki Thi
June 2, 2017 at 2:37 PM
Lol, yes we should gloat. I was convinced Joon-hyuk was not Woo-jin even though the drama tried to confuse me a few times. I'm also thinking that the chairman is Woo-jin, perhaps the professor got to him and brainwashed him. Or, The Chairman is The Professor and that secretary guy is Woo-jin. Or gasp, Woo-jin died.
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Kestrel
June 2, 2017 at 3:18 PM
HAH! The ultimate gotcha - sorry suckas, Woo-Jin is dead.
I was thinking Woojin might be the short second in command at Human B, but I decided that was not a good guess.
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SuShin
June 2, 2017 at 5:20 PM
My guess is that the Deputy Chief Lee is that sunbae from the research team. I find the resemblance in those 2 actors.
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Kestrel
June 2, 2017 at 9:19 PM
It'd be a little TOO cute if all the 2037 characters were 2017 characters rehashed.
Shay
June 6, 2017 at 9:57 PM
have you watched ep5 yet?
Yuyuu, The Drama Queen
June 2, 2017 at 3:36 PM
I'm really hoping that the chairman is the professor and not Woo-jin. But it would create great dynamics (or so I hope) if he actually turned out to be Woo-jin
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Yuyuu, The Drama Queen
June 2, 2017 at 3:56 PM
You're right there are so many questions about Jung-yeon. I take the ending of Part 2 to be confirmation that she's an alien, since yet again she didn't change (and it was 20 years this time!) I'm curious if she managed to regain her memories in the 2037 timeline. If she can unlock other's memories, wouldn't she have done that for herself?
But I'm more curious about her in 2017. How did she end up with the professor? (I think festerfaster is right in suspecting that the twins' dad was involved in the research) Does the professor know who/what she is? Who blocked her memories? Could it be that she did it to herself as protection, when she realized she was falling into the wrong hands?
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Kestrel
June 2, 2017 at 5:19 PM
i love your last question here. Blocking her own memories would be an excellent touch until she somehow manages to get independent and go underground.
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circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 8:05 PM
About the twins' dad... I remember seeing a characters' relationship map of Circle way before the premiere of the show... and it pointed out that the dad and the professors are rivals.
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Starry Knight✨
June 2, 2017 at 11:16 PM
Maybe the professor got the idea of blocking memories from some technology or method Byul used on herself. That's why he is keeping her close in case she regains her memories.
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Starry Knight✨
June 2, 2017 at 11:21 PM
And she may have designed her memory loss such that she can regain her memory when a particular incident or circumstance triggers it. Like how Kira from Death Note forgets and later remembers who he is after touching the paper from Death Note again.
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circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 8:04 PM
YAY! I've always wanted to believe Woojin as Joonhyuk because it just would look amazing how these brothers are trying to find the other in both the timelines even if I didn't have much evidence from Ep 1&2, lo and behold, turns out they already foreshadowed it right at the very first episode! Both young Bumgyun and Joonhyuk said, "I'll find you wherever you are." And that is what Joonhyuk's character poster says too, so I'm sure it's not just a coincidence or another red herring. Hands down to all the amazing writers behind Circle.
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tummy
June 2, 2017 at 9:37 PM
They have (bought the show in the US, I mean) It is called Westworld. Slightly less facetiously, both these show play with the themes of memory and identity. With mystery layered on mystery. Westworld uses cyborgs but Circle has chips.
But very similar thematically and totally in many respects.
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Kestrel
June 2, 2017 at 10:50 PM
Westworld is more about agency than about memory, if you ask me. Very cold show though. Only Thandie Newton blazes on screen.
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8 Chandler
June 2, 2017 at 1:04 PM
Thanks for the recap! This show is just exploring everything I want it to and already has the potential to go beyond my expectations for it.
Ugh, I have so many theories and questions I want to discuss, especially about how "Byul" became Bluebird and WHY Bum-gyeon is already convinced she's the culprit. I just wish I wasn't being torn in a million different directions by all these dramas because now I don't have time to comment. I hooked a friend on this though and we'll be watching the first 4 episodes again tonight with ANOTHER friend. So maybe I'll come back to the recap after, with more theories and more time!
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Saner
June 2, 2017 at 1:15 PM
I kind of like that Bum-gyun is such an unreliable narrator. We know his theories and that some of them (like the student suicides actually being murders) are correct but that doesn't necessarily mean we can trust his other thoughts and (potential) biases.
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9 Jessi Bear
June 2, 2017 at 1:06 PM
I squealed so many times during this episode. Freaking adorable Woojin with his backwards sweater and spraying air freshener in his room lol
That scene where Joon Hyuk apologizes to Woo Jin, and the way it was directed so that Woo Jin is clearly not looking directly at Joon Hyuk...just brilliant. I bet HJY is thinking the same thing we are now, that if JH isn't WJ, then there really only is one other person he CAN be.
I was so stoked that JH turns out to be Bum Gyun. It meand that at least he gets saved, although I wonder if that means that whatever happened to him in 2017 is what happened to HJY and he completely loses his memory until that scene with Det. Hong 10+ years later. I hope not
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Saner
June 2, 2017 at 1:21 PM
Haha, I laughed so hard at his 'Oh no! Girl in my house!' moment, especially considering he went to that private room of hers with no issue but now he was like "I have to make it look like I'm actually as respectable as I act!" Hahaha, and her noticing the sweater and dirty clothes and not saying anything made me cackle to myself.
Me too! I understood Jung-yeon's disappointment - Bum-Gyun refused to believe in her existence when they first met, accused her of being a murdering alien ten years later... they don't really have anywhere as near as close (or as cute!) as the relationship(s) we've seen her developing with Woo Jin. But I love that even she was surprised - no-one has all the answers in the show and I love that. I also quite like getting the chance to know Woo-Jin's 'hyung', like the baking and the teasing of Ho-Soo and Dong-Soo. He always seemed 'hyung' ish to me, so I'm not surprised but I'm eager to dive deeper into his personality minus the crazed persona and deviant (kinda removed?) behaviours!
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s9313071e
June 2, 2017 at 11:13 PM
I enjoyed the scene where WJ wore his sweater wrong and how he sprayed the air freshener to freshen up the air. Most importantly, I like how he is always secretly smiling at JY for her dorkiness. Can they get together already? They are, like so sweet together when the time calls for it.
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10 UmbrellaMan
June 2, 2017 at 1:29 PM
All I am going to say this time is: I KNEW IT!!! I knew he wasn't Woo-jin!!!!
This show is great at double crossing our expectations. They lead us in one direction to then immediately throw us the other way. You never know what to expect. Red herrings left and red right. I love it!!!!
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pipette
June 2, 2017 at 1:44 PM
The red herrings are what I love the best about this show too. Keeps us guessing which makes watching and then thinking about the show really fun! :D
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 2:21 PM
Exactly!! Even b4 reading the ep.4 recap I knew he wasnt Woo-Jin!!
Who dyou think Woo jin is? Im honestly angling towards Ho-Soon...
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11 blnmom
June 2, 2017 at 1:29 PM
Thanks for the recap, festerfaster. I think the last drama I watched that you recapped was Squad 38, another twisty drama. Let's see if Circle can out-twist that one.
I still think Jungyeon is Byul and really is an alien, albeit one who has been made to somehow think she's human now. In any case, she and Woojin are super cute together.
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12 mianmian
June 2, 2017 at 1:33 PM
"Why is next week a WHOLE WEEK away?"
I ask myself that every day. Haha. Especially on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
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13 pipette
June 2, 2017 at 1:42 PM
The drama is so so good. I'm really enjoying the pace of it because everytime they solve something or reveal something, we have a new mystery to chomp on, which I really appreciate!
I did not expect Joon Hyuk to be Bum Gyun. I must say, the way they are playing with perspectives is really cool. It keeps you guessing!
I'm kind of digging the fact that Jung Yeon is Bluebird. So her being in the future means is she on the lookout for Woo Jin. I'm assuming that they bond they shared means that she cares enough to shut down systems/ bring up repessed memories in an effort to look for him.
Another reveal that had me bugging (pun intended :D) was that of Profressor Han. First of all, SHADY. Second of all, what is he doing with Jung Yeon. The whole blue bug made me question his intentions so much!
Also, what treatments is Jung Yeon receiving? Are they to do with implanting memories in her?
And the revelation that Jung Yeon herself has no memories before 18 made me go :O:O:O. One thing I like that the show keeps making us question if she's human or alien. And if she's an alien, then how did she come to be so human-like in her behvaiours? Quesrions, questions!
One thing I absolutely loved in this episode was Woo Jin and Jung Yeon's budding relationship (I SHIP IT). The apartment scene was hilarious, as was the hospital scene. Clearly, Jung Yeon is getting under Woo Jin's skin! And if she's indeed the alien too, then it makes it all the more poignant and bittersweet.
I cannot wait for the next episode. Really, this drama is binge-watch worthy!
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Ek Ladhki Thi
June 2, 2017 at 2:41 PM
I ship it too, so much. At first, I was cautious because hey this is not that kind of drama, right? But then I thought, why the heck not?! Ship it in earnest.
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Namu 🐧
June 2, 2017 at 7:09 PM
Yess me too.. I love their relationship ?
I came for sci-fi, but sold for the romance too ahahahaha
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pipette
June 3, 2017 at 3:53 AM
Same! I was a little taken aback by the alien reveal, but then I was like, never mind. I'm just going to continue shipping it! :D
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circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 8:14 PM
Their relationship doesn't look forced at all... like how can anyone not adore these two together? I'm thankful that they just put in bits here and there, enough to make as go, "Aww you guys are so cute!" but still not let it take the center stage away from the amazing mystery and thriller.
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pipette
June 3, 2017 at 3:57 AM
Yes! A lot of natural chemistry between these two. Plus, it does not distract from the main mystery, since these are being detecting buddies and trying to solve it as well. I love a good ship, and even better when it does not overwhelm the main plot!
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Playstore, Okay Or Not Okay
June 2, 2017 at 10:14 PM
I'm shipping Ho Soon and his passionate love for Human B as well. Feel like he's gonna do something stupid for his blind love.
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pipette
June 3, 2017 at 3:59 AM
Omg yes! He's so desperate to forget and be wilfully ignorant, that I think he's going to endanger himself and Joon Hyuk. :|
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Playstore, Okay Or Not Okay
June 3, 2017 at 5:23 AM
Not to mention Woo Jin whom we're all trynna find.
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pipette
June 4, 2017 at 9:55 AM
Oh my gosh. I hadn't considered that. That would be the worst, if he endangered Woo Jin as well!
14 RoseTyler
June 2, 2017 at 1:43 PM
I love this show so much! It's so different, and the writing and acting is fantastic.
I actually really like the twist that Joon Hyuk is Bum Gyun, although I can see how people would still suspect he's actually Woo Jin. It's a nice parallel as both brothers are looking for each other in their timeline. I think Woo Jin being the Chairman is too obvious, but I find it extremely interesting that Byul thought Joon Hyuk was Woo Jin. I think the Chairman is the evil professor. It would make sense that he had the cell phone since he was the one who caught Bum Gyun at the mental facility where he dropped it.
I am super disappointed in Ho Soo, but I get why he did what he did, especially since his girlfriend had some kind of very tragic end (suicide or crime victim I'm guessing, based on how he supports the system). Hopefully he joins the rebels soon and becomes BFFs with Joon Hyuk.
But where is Woo Jin in 2037?! Why am I suddenly hoping for Monday?!
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Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 1:58 PM
Yes, my first thought was about the chairman being the professor, but he could very well be Woojin. It's half and half right now for me.
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UmbrellaMan
June 2, 2017 at 2:18 PM
I first thought the chairman was Woo-jin, but now that we know for a fact that the professor is behind the experiments (and basically looks to be the bad guy), he too is a good candidate for the chairman.
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Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 5:09 PM
LOL. I was the opposite: the professor was my first choice. But I guess it would be super dramatic if the chairman were Woojin. I wonder what new theories we all will come up after watching the next two episodes.
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UmbrellaMan
June 2, 2017 at 6:25 PM
I swear, this show has me going back and forth on everything!!! We don't really know until we know!! Haha
Peridot
June 3, 2017 at 9:19 AM
@umbrellaman
"We don't really know until we know!!"
I agree. I'm still holding onto the hope that the chairman is Won Bin ;).
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Omotoferankdrama
June 3, 2017 at 10:49 AM
I am freaking right now I hope he is not dead. please please please please I would not care even if woo jin is the the chairman because atleast he will be redeemable.right?
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nanabot
June 6, 2017 at 1:40 AM
Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! Do I spot A Kdrama-loving Yoruba girl here?
circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 10:16 PM
Wow, is your username a Doctor Who reference? :D
IKR this show suddenly makes me anticipate the unthinkable: MONDAY.
Same here, it just makes the story-telling way better with both brothers looking for another in different timelines. Plus, we get to learn more about Bumgyun as a character and not just as someone obsessed with the aliens and is perceived as deranged.
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15 Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 1:48 PM
I have been saving my thoughts for this recap, and after reading festerfaster's closing comments, I realize that there will be some overlap with what I write here.
So far, two of my theories were correct: Shady professor was, well, shady :). And experiments had been taking place on the college campus for some time.
It looks like hoobae professor is working with Professor Hwang. The question is, are their intentions evil? Or is it that they are so focused on whatever it is they are trying to achieve that the resulting deaths are seen as inconvenient side effects of something greater?
Who is the chairman? After the first two episodes, I felt strongly that he would be Professor Hwang. There is a very real possibility, however, that he is Woojin. If we accept the revelation that Joonhyuk is Beomgyun, then we can see some kind of symmetry here. It illustrates one way in which everything comes full circle. In part onw, Woojin is desperately searching for his brother and trying to get answers to what is going on. In part two, Joonhhyuk, or Beomgyun, is trying to uncover the dark secrets of Human B and find his long lost brother. I know festerfaster is questioning this revelation of identity and how quickly Joonhyuk recovered his memory. After watching episode four, I look at it this way: Joonhyuk knew who he was but couldn't remember being the person he was (if that makes any sense). He needed to travel down memory lane to add something concrete to that knowledge.
If Woojin is the chairman then Joonhyuk has his work cut out for him. Other Beanies have been analyzing the poster for this show and have talked about how the right side of Woojin--which crosses over into the 2037 timeline--looks computerized or not fully real. This has led to some thoughts that he might not be alive or fully human. I will say that the brief glance I got of the chairman (essentially just a black glove at this point) made me think of him as some one older than what the twins would be in 2037. If he is Woojin, could he have erased/covered up so many of his memories that, for all intents and purposes, he is not himself but a shell of himself (like Theoden of Rohan, a shell sitting on a throne, needing to be free of the spell that holds him)? At this point, these are all just speculations. We haven't had that much to go on as far as the chairman is concerned.
My last thoughts concern the twins' father. How does he fit into the story? For some reason, I think that he was a professor at the same university. He seemed to know about the alien's arrival in episode one (I believe I commented about that) and was on his way to meet her. How did the alien end up in the arms of Professor Hwang? (It's interesting that Professor Hwang is working to help her recover her memories).
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sirena
June 2, 2017 at 2:09 PM
You've brought up some great points. If Woojin is indeed the Chairman, then he has most definitely been altered by whatever experiences led him to conceive of Human B in the first place. If Woojin is the Chairman, then I do not believe that he will easily surrender what he's worked so hard to build.
Regarding their father, I do believe that he was aware of Shady Professor's experiments, he may have even helped. However, he could've experienced a change of heart when he realized that Shady Professor's experiments were going too far. This could explain the Beomgyun and Woojin's memories of their father 'running away' with the alien. I do not believe that he intended to abandon them. I believe that he was prevented from saving the alien. Perhaps even killed.
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Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 5:19 PM
Yes, there is definitely more to the story. It would be an interesting development if the father had indeed been working with "Shady Professor."
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SuShin
June 2, 2017 at 5:41 PM
The twins' dad looks like he's some kind of a professor himself. You know, he gives such academic vibes. I womder if the alien also one of their 'lab rats'.
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Yuyuu, The Drama Queen
June 2, 2017 at 4:15 PM
I had similar thoughts about the twins' father. I also think he was involved in the research. I'm curious if he could actually still be alive, I haven't ruled that out yet.
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Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 5:18 PM
He could be alive. If not, I hope that we get a flashback to understand what he was doing and why he left.
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Lin
June 2, 2017 at 4:29 PM
Omo, someone who thinks like me. i have this theory that 2037 Woo Jin has been turned into a super computer and he is literally the brain child, the CPU of Human B/Smart Earth and what keeps it running. In my head, if you watched the original 90's Power Rangers, 2037 Woo Jin looks like Zordon naked in a huge test tube/flask with tubes coming out of him/his head connected to all these computers. He holds all the memories, all the feelngs, all the workings of Human B/ Smart Earth and poor Bum Gyun has a breakdown when they are finally reunited.
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Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 5:16 PM
LOL, regarding the Zordon comment :).
The non-human/super computer theory was not my own. I do think, however, that if he is the chairman, he might be a shell of his former self. The super computer concept would be the ultimate sci-fi plot development :). I like your ideas :)!
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circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 9:51 PM
Nice LOTR reference <3 I think you're onto something with the father. Now that I think about it, how did he end up in the same place as the twins when the alien arrived? It didn't look like he was trying to find them.
I'm very curious as to what happened to Woojin. Where is he in 2037? I don't think he died, but like the poster reference, he probably didn't get older unlike Bumgyun. Maybe he became like Jungyeon in which he doesn't age?
And I'm totally with you. Joonhyuk knew he is Bumgyun but just couldn't remember his memories Bumgyun. And that trip down memory lane helped him recover his actual memories. I don't think he just wanted to believe he is Bumgyun... his guilt just speaks for itself. He truly felt sorry for making his brother undergo all the hard times while he got too obsessed finding out the alien's identity that he forgot about his own brother who was right there beside him.
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circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 9:52 PM
remember his memories as Bumgyun.*
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Kip
June 3, 2017 at 5:01 AM
I like this idea re: 2037 Woo-jin not ageing! That would mean he'd gotten a bit of alien in him, right? It'd make a cool twist if it were ??
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Peridot
June 3, 2017 at 9:15 AM
Thanks :).
It would be really eerie if Woojin did not age. LOL! All of these theories are just opening up so many possibilities.
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16 dramamama
June 2, 2017 at 1:49 PM
I had a feeling it was Bum gyun all along because I suspected Woo Jin had to do something with the creation of Smart Earth, given his statement that the best way to deal with trauma was to forget. Not sure if I'm right, but I look forward to finding out.
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17 crazyyo
June 2, 2017 at 1:56 PM
I'm kind of disappointed that the detective is bum gyun and not woojin but kudos to the writer for the plot twist. I 70% expected him to be woojin. But that means woojin is either dead or he is the chairman and I don't like both of these options :'( and I knew ittt! bluebird is the alien lady and the daughter of professor and the professor is the master mind of everything. And I' even more disappointed that the ratings are decreasing like COME ON! Circle is one hell of a drama
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crazyyo
June 2, 2017 at 2:07 PM
Also there is a possibility that it's woojin and he mistook himself as bum gyun hahaha. How would the writer explain woojin memories of police station
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circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 8:19 PM
Actually there is a tiny rise in the 4th episode and that it actually peaked at 5%, so let's hope for the best that the amazing plot twists this show has will make more viewers interested.
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18 rowanharper
June 2, 2017 at 2:15 PM
The writing is so good. The charectors are just so constistant. I mean even Bum-gyun/ Joon Hyuk becoming an investigator as an adult makes sense. He was the one who was started investigating the alien and his dad's disappearance. Also,the little consistencies are well formed, like Joon Hyuk kneeling dough in episode 3.
Byul is also very consistent in that she always will care about/ and be drawn to Woo-Jin as scene in all three timelines now.
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rowanharper
June 2, 2017 at 2:17 PM
Sorry about the gramatal errors. I can't fix them on my phone. Happy Friday/Saturday you all.
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rowanharper
June 2, 2017 at 2:20 PM
Oh my gosh- haha- I give up!
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Mango Juice
June 2, 2017 at 2:54 PM
I don't know whether you're on auto-correct or shocked from watching this show or you haven't slept for a few days. I understood your points though, and made me laugh out loud at the same time. ?
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19 sirena
June 2, 2017 at 2:17 PM
I found the scene where Bum-gyun's remembers the argument he had with Woojin very heartbreaking. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have your memories (good and bad) taken from you.
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sunnyxshin
June 2, 2017 at 6:31 PM
Yeah, i almost cried at that scene! ?
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20 nelly
June 2, 2017 at 2:26 PM
This show is just everything I want it to be. Every reveal leaves me breathless and I'm having so much fun speculating. I won't even try to write my thoughts down, seeing as I was completely fooled, believing Joon-hyuk being Woo-jin. Such a great and clever twist.
But this drama is not just clever, the emotions that are being portrayed here are so very well acted and thought out. I can connect emotionally to every single one of them so very well and I see their flaws, but these just make them even more intriguing. They are complex characters and I'm rooting for all of them.
Waiting for the next episode actually feels like torture.
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21 oosiee
June 2, 2017 at 2:28 PM
Nah! I think Joon hyuk Is Bumgyun! Infact from the very beginning I suspected him to be the hyung. Since the 'chairman' showed hyung's phone screen..instantly Joonhyuk had to be one of the twins...so as everyone I did think him to be Yeo jin goo's older version but then if you compare their personalities, Bumgyun is closer to him..like how Bumgyun did all detective research and findings on the 'alien' while Woojin is more of a tech-guy! Also Joonhyuk's teasings on Hosoo kinda parallels with Bumgyun's playfulness with Woojin..lets not forget baby Bumgyun's words from ep 1 to Woojin that he'll find him wherever he is!
It is most possible that Woojin made the Chip like he mentioned for the PTSD treatment and Joonhyuk once said that the chip was made by That kid so somehow he had felt that he's the hyung all along the way and while he went through all their older destinations it was his motel room that jostled his memory the most because that's the room where he secretly carried his investigation which probably led them to where they are and he feels the guilt for not protecting his brother.
Previously, I was assuming if Woojin was the chairman because that would explain why he didn't investigate Joonhyuk but someone revoked that idea in earlier recaps' comments. So, now the question is 'Is this the whole cast?'
I mean if we have Kim kangwoo as Bumgyun then who is Woojin's older version? YJG's older version must at least be in par of KKW right? Or is Woojin gonna turn up dead? Or will YJG somehow go all alien on us? *CrazyTalk*
Ah..also about the professor going all suicide-murderer on students, I think he's trying to hide Jungyeon's identity...1st victim JY's friend..no idea on 2nd & 3rd but the 4th victim worked under the professor..maybe these people somehow came too close to discovering JY's real identity..that is why Bumgyun too got kidnapped i think! but why not just kill them instead of placing that bug on them? Is he trying to learn what they know about JY and aliens on general? Augh!! The suspense is killing me!
P.S. JY did what Savitar couldn't...be in all Past, Present and Future! Hee!
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Namu 🐧
June 2, 2017 at 10:28 PM
Yeah thats why I really freak out about the fact that JH is BG, because that's mean all of lead cast already showed up right? There is no other actor who will play out adult WJ right? That means he is not exist in 2037 timeline right? *I sound crazy right now*
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 2:28 PM
Im actually theorising that Wj is ho soon!!!
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 2:30 PM
Comment was deleted
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 2:51 PM
Haaaa, im pleased that quite a few ppl thought that JH was BG.
For a while it seemed that so many ppl thought the opp...that JH was WJ...but who knows...maybe its still a red herring?
Im actually theorising that maybe the boys' father took the alien to professor Han all those yrs ago and maybe discovered that Han was cray cray and died trying to save her frm him or was killed by Han and sadly still didnt succeed in saving her...thus "leaving" his sons behind.
Han continued experimenting on her and developed the blue bugs.
Maybe they were developed to block human emotions and enable higher rationality (remember how emotionless she was?)
And when the worm was introduced to BGs body...maybe he or sm1 was able to get it out b4 it fully assimilated into him and the process was too heavy for his Nervous system and he started having memory issues?
The "treatments" that Dr Hans "daughter" has been missing actually help her surpress her memories and keep them in check. Theyre probably a sort of prototype for the 2037 chips.
I actually low key suspect that Ho-Soon is Woo-Jin....it clocked on me earlier that his twin was the detective (Im sort of surprised that everyone was shocked- at first I thought it was Woo-Jin that had been left behind on Ordinary earth too but it sort of makes sense that he (the educated guy with theories on how to treat ptsd by erasing memories) would end up on smart earth. Also, i feel WJ may hv gone through a lot of emotional turmoil - "losing" BG again and maybe smth happened to Byul too in the 2017 timeline...he may hv developed a need to just block out painful memories(?)...an Aaand the chairman may be Dr Han....who smhow developed them 2037 chips...
Just my theories haha
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22 mysterious
June 2, 2017 at 2:31 PM
MIND BLOWN! I totally thought Joon-hyuk was Woo-jin. He even looks like he could be the 40-year-old version of Woo-jin. But if he is Bum-gyun, that completely changes the game. WHERE IS WOO-JIN?! Or is this reveal just another red herring meant to mislead us? Whatever it is, I am loving this show to pieces. Yeo Jin-gu is just beyond amazing. I can't praise his acting enough (and my word, when did he get that body! Yum!). I love the mystery and while I'm keen to know all the mysteries of the two worlds, I am very happy to go on the journey with the show. Circle, You Rock!
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23 kiara
June 2, 2017 at 2:39 PM
Oh "Circle" you are the death of me! Great episode! I am equally invested in both worlds now.
@festerfaster Thank you so much for the recap <3.
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loveblossom🌸
June 2, 2017 at 4:46 PM
I agree. I felt like this episode was the one that connected both worlds well and had me on edge the whole time.
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24 undrama
June 2, 2017 at 2:50 PM
Well this drama definitely makes me walk around in Circles *baddum tss*
I certainly wasn't expecting Joon Hyuk to be Bum Gyum and to be honest part of me still hope he is actually Woo Jin. This would make the story so much more thrilling if it took him 20 years and a memory loss to actually figure out the truth. Plus, the cube, the way he take the eyebrow, all these little things makes me believe he is actually Woo Jin. Even when you are twins, you have your own, inimitable habits.
I particularly loved Erro's mental breakdown even though I found it frustrating that he decided for an entire "planet" to leave the truth hidden. I mean, yes he may not want to remember, but why should he stop other from doing so.
It was good to see Woo Jin with an accomplice! This guy is so lonely it breaks my heart everytime I look at him. You could definitely see him yearn for some affection and for me that's the biggest reason why he was trying to figure out if Jung Yeon was his alien noona or not.
I do feel that the twins' dad is key in this story, both past and future. Actually both dads are keys in the story and I wouldn't be surprised to see them related in some twisted way. I feel like they both worked on the same project but ended up having very different visions of it leading to the sad but usual break up/ruining the life of the other.
There are quite a lot of questions to be answered in both timelines and I am kind of thankful the drama only has 12 episodes but if each episode keeps being this good, it's going to be hard to let it go.
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nanabot
June 3, 2017 at 2:24 PM
Ya know I wouldnt be surprised if Woo jin is Erro....wj seems like he went through a lot of emotional hurt and it would make sense for him to want to avoid pain...
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25 littlecat
June 2, 2017 at 3:45 PM
Yeah, I was wondering about the recording of them doing the Rubik's Cube too... great theories, festerfaster! Can't wait for the next episode!!!
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26 blueribbon
June 2, 2017 at 4:31 PM
I still feel that he is woo Jin and the chairman is the other brother. I feel like memories can be planted and woo jin ended up with the wrong identity. I love this show and I feel that the plot twists are not over. Thanks for the recap festerfaster :)
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blueribbon
June 2, 2017 at 9:00 PM
Wow I used "feel" way to many times. I was on break at work and I was trying to write it as fast as I could...
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27 LIn
June 2, 2017 at 4:40 PM
That scene where Bum Gyun remembers everything and sees the argument from his own point of view and reaches out for his little brother (the one he is always suppose to save) I was bawling like a baby right along with him. I'm teary simply thinking about it right now. So damn heart breaking. When he reaches out and touches nothing, and then apologizes over and over again *bawls* These two brothers have to be reunited in the end. What a tragedy that in both time lines both are always search and longing for the other.
This drama is so well written, and thought out (the little details) and acted and executed. I got so many questions. Is the new girl (yass another female. Bring the count to 3. And she talks and maybe will have a name) Inyoung the doctor of 2037? Where did she and Bum Gyun meet? Will she eventually team up with Woo Jin and Jung Yeong? Is she the one who finds Bum Gyun and removes his chip? is she the chairman (no, chairwoman?).
I really want Bluebird to be not just one person. I want it to be an organization/group of hackers that have been working and continue to work to bring down Big Brother, aka Human B and Smart Earth. I don't trust Smart Earth at all, and need the show to go in deeper on it. Also will need detective Bum Gyun/Joo Hyuk to get his -ish together and remember their is a killer on the lose to catch. I mean find your brother, but also do your job and nab Min Jin (the drama is kind of sidelining that storyline and i no like it). I can't believe it's only been ep 4. The story is so rich, it feel like a normal dramas ep 15. Mondays are too far away (says a girl who once hated Mondays).
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28 SuShin
June 2, 2017 at 4:48 PM
Well, it's just a matter of time for the show to take another turn of twists, nothing is certain at this point. With memories be erasable and replacable, anything could happen. So I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy all my wild theories without pulling my hair from now on.
I kinda like it IF Joon-Hyuk turns out to be Beom-Kyoon because that would give a balance of the twins finding each other in their own respective timelines. I'd feel so sorry for Woo-Jin if he has to be the one doing the search for the whole 20 years without finding any truth, enen ending up losing his own memories. BTW, why did I find Kim Kang-Woo crying to be so hilarious? I know I shouldnt have.
Like Festervfaster, I started to question how much of this is in fact involved with extraterestrial creatures. Or everything is the mankind doing all along. Is what they're trying to do is evil or is it really for the greater good?
What a wonderful ride watching this amazing show.
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29 Mango Juice
June 2, 2017 at 5:06 PM
Why, of course! Joon-hyuk 'realizing' that he is Bum-gyun may still be a plot twist. The banters Joon-hyuk and 2037 Dong-soo do are similar to what Woo-jin and 2017 Dong-soo did (while they were tutor-tutee back then). Why did he say to Ho-soo that he doesn't know who himself is? The trip down memory lane that Bluebird did wouldn't have helped much should he really be BG. And the show has totally not shown any scene of BG's without WJ. Why did WJ leave those memories for Joon-hyuk? Maybe, maybe, WJ knows his memory would be swiped, so he saved those moments he had with BG. That way, WJ can still remember his twin, and BG can still live through his memories. I'd be happy to be wrong though, and Joon-hyuk is 100% Bum-gyun. I just need a little more convincing aside from Joon-hyuk's "I am Bum-gyun." And I dislike the thought that WJ might just be the chairman of Human B - it doesn't sit well with me considering his personality. (Sadly, he might be the chairman. The words he said in the interview with the professor is a proof. The one and only proof, however.)
I have a crazy theory on the girl with the taser. She is a subject of the experiments as well, but of a different kind. The subjects of the experiment, in this case Jung-yeon and the taser girl, transfer memories. This could explain why the taser girl thinks/knows Jung-yeon is an alien. A thing as little as the star young Woo-jin gave to Byul which the giver doesn't even remember at a glance can only be noticed by the receiver who holds sentimental value to it.
And what do I know, this wild guess I have fits with what Joon-hyuk is experiencing. What Joon-hyuk said to Ho-soo is very similar to what Jung-yeon said to Ho
-soo. It is also emphasized by how the episode's parts were cut - Beta Project ended with Jung-yeon saying it, Brand New World starts with Joon-hyuk saying it. These two may have been a victim of the memory transfer experiment. I do not, however, see any reason as to why this is done by the researchers. Maybe they want to a know the alien's past? Maybe Joon-hyuk/whichever of the brother he is knows something about the aliens and they like to keep it confidential?
Monday, I never liked you, but please come faster now.
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Peridot
June 2, 2017 at 5:27 PM
Yes, if memories can be taken away, we shouldn't ignore the possibility of them being tampered with or fabricated.
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SuShin
June 2, 2017 at 6:12 PM
I wonder how the memory-wake-up process really work. If bluebird can just bring them back with just a few clicks, why does Jung-Yeon has to send Joon-Hyuk litterally take a walk down his old neighborhood to get the answer.
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Mango Juice
June 2, 2017 at 6:16 PM
Joon-hyuk looks like his chip was removed, so technologically, Jung-yeon can't give back his memories to him.
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SuShin
June 2, 2017 at 6:46 PM
Ahhh, I totally forgot that part. He's not the Smart Earth citizen. Thanks.
kurazo4
June 2, 2017 at 9:29 PM
that is so true
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Mango Juice
June 2, 2017 at 7:39 PM
Third paragraph: *what Jung-yeon said to Woo-jin.
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kurazo4
June 2, 2017 at 9:28 PM
with the show always twisting its story, i think its normal we keep on doubting, until it is confirmed
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Mango Juice
June 2, 2017 at 10:41 PM
I think we're still going to doubt what the facts are until the end.
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30 Mungbeanie 난 딩동, 넌 땡 ;)
June 2, 2017 at 5:11 PM
OK, so I thought that he possibly had both twins memories...and then after a literal trip (thanks byul) down memory lane, he actually remembered their emotional conversation in the hotel room on his own and he realised which twin he is. Yeah? Yeah. Oh I don't know. Off to watch again. I am so thoroughly and happily confused! I love this show
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31 outofthisworld 不愧是我 🏍
June 2, 2017 at 5:18 PM
I have only one question. Why don't I look like Gong Seung Yeon?
Only my jawline is perfect.
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Mango Juice
June 2, 2017 at 5:28 PM
Metaaaaaa. Hahaha.
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32 Panda Power
June 2, 2017 at 5:25 PM
In the poster of this drama, half of woojin's body is in the 2037 timeline which could indicate that he's still alive and in 2037, but did not age like Jungyeon. In the poster where Jungyeon is the focus (year 2017), Junwook and Woojin are seen behind her. So I think, Joonhyuk really is Bumgyun. In the poster where Joonhyuk's the focus, Hosoon and Jungyeon are the ones behind him in 2037--maybe they would form an alliance in overthrowing the chairman? I can sense some humanity in Hosoon. Also, it's interesting that in the 2017 poster where woojin is the focus, behind him are Jungyeon and Hosoon. Is Hosoon's past intertwined with the 2017 characters? Did he have something to do with the disappearance of Woojin?
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Panda Power
June 2, 2017 at 5:32 PM
* Hosoo
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kurazo4
June 2, 2017 at 7:46 PM
that is a good theory there. I do hope Hosoo will help them out. it will be really sad if he's against them.
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33 Panda Power
June 2, 2017 at 5:37 PM
I dont think Jungyeon's a bad character. Even in 2007 when she was emotionless, she had the instinct to protect Woojin. In 2017, she became someone Woojin could lean on. In 2037, there's a look of disappointment in her eyes when she realized that Joonhyuk was Bumgyun, not Woojin. So she must be searching for Woojin. She's been monitoring Joonhyun with the thought that he's Woojin and that's why she tried to unblock his memories--only to find out that he's not Woojin. So what happened to Woojin? How did he disappear? Where is he now? I have a feeling that Jungyeon, Joonhyuk, and Hosoo would form a team to look for Woojin because Hosoo seems to be connected with the 2017 characters based on the poster.
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Panda Power
June 2, 2017 at 5:39 PM
Also, Jungyeon has become Bluebird and the enemy of the state because she's trying to unblock everyone's memories and make them feel.
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blubluskye
June 3, 2017 at 12:55 AM
It's ironic - an alien is helping the humans become human again, by unlocking their old memories.
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34 Melona
June 2, 2017 at 5:56 PM
Um.. the footage are memories, and not actual footage recorded by camera in the literal sense. They did mention that with Human B's supercomputer technology, memories can be converted to footage that you can play and rewind. I guess it's just one of the things that we need to believe can happen in 2037.
I've guessed that shady-from-first-sight Professor Han was the big bad behind all the suicides in 2017. He's doing dangerous experiments with his "volunteer students" who may or may not understand what they signed up for, and despite the fact that the experiment took so many lives, he just kept going. I predict that Bum-gyun will be the first one who could actually withstand the headaches/nosebleeds/suicidal tendency, and hence the first successful sample. The professor would then take out his bug (and hence creating his scar) to create more of the same prototypes. The blue bug then becomes the origin of the Smart Earth calming control chip.
It hurts me to say this, but I think Woo-jin doesn't make it to 2037. He must've died in 2017. The Chairman is Professor Han who created Human B from Woo-jin's sacrifice, and Jung-yeon as Blue Bird then decided to take revenge for Woo-jin against her fake dad by working against the company and giving the citizens their memories back to create chaos. Anyway, I'm excited of the possibilities.
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35 mischiefdreamer
June 2, 2017 at 6:28 PM
I feel this drama is setting me up for a heart break, I may not be able to recover from :(
At this point I just want Woo jin to not be the chairman but I could understand how he could be since the past 4 episodes shows us how desperate he was to help his brother and "forgetting" is the way he knows how.
Jung jeon is still a mystery to me, I am not sure if she is an alien or maybe a robot?
Great show!!! Can't wait for next week.
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36 jessanno
June 2, 2017 at 6:28 PM
Circle has been really good with taking my theories and smashing them to bits. I'm glad that one of my theories was right though. I had a feeling Joon-hyuk was Bum-gyum.
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37 Muzeeka
June 2, 2017 at 6:40 PM
It is gettin more interesting.
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38 michykdrama
June 2, 2017 at 7:09 PM
Ooh this Show!
Like everyone else, thanks to the fake outs it's done to me, I've questioned everything about it- to a point now there are more theories than actual certainties!
I blogged about all my theories, thoughts and questions (so many!) and it honestly didn't even cross my mind that Jung Yeon was shocked at the end scene because she was expecting Joon Hyuk to be Woo Jin- even though it makes total sense since she was trying to send him to places that were significant to Woo Jin's memories as well. I need to go back and check though, since now that I'm thinking harder, I somehow remember some of the memories Joon Hyuk had were more from Woo Jin's point of view. But I'm no longer sure...
So... Is it another fake out then? Gosh this show has got our brains twisted in a pretzel.
I'm in team Chairman is Prof though. I hope he isn't Woo Jin gone rogue. That would be too sad, if now Joon Hyuk/Bum Gyun had to be the one to save Woo Jin instead.
I'm also not 100% convinced if Byul became Jung Yeon (cuz there are too many hints both ways that she really is the same and yet not) or whether Jung Yeon truly isn't human, because right now I'd even believe the Prof created her in the likeness of Byul- some Alien and human hybrid he created in a lab. If Byul even is an Alien. I'm not even certain of that!!! ?♀️
The sky is blue and the grass is green right? I'm no longer sure of anything anymore. ?
https://mydramalesslife.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/circle-episode-3-4-trying-to-make-sense-of-it-all-spoilers/
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kurazo4
June 2, 2017 at 7:25 PM
me too! I believe Chairman is Prof :)
This show is sure amazing. They kept us always on the edge. We wanted to be sure of what we understood so far but the show keeps us doubting our theories. LOL
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39 giocare 🌻💛
June 2, 2017 at 7:12 PM
Do you think it’s better for someone to live with a tragic memory or have the tragic memory removed and lead a happy life ?
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kurazo4
June 2, 2017 at 7:22 PM
I still believe on what Joon Hyuk said: Your memories is part of who you are. Not knowing who you were, if it was me, will make me go crazy. If I were to be happy again after that tragic memory, then I am smiling with a purpose - I passed that tragic happenings in my life :)
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michykdrama
June 2, 2017 at 7:52 PM
Live with the tragic memory.
Humans should not have the power to play God. It opens up the possibility to abuse and error (because to err is human after all!). Also, unless the memory is of a death of a person, what happens to the other people in the memory? Do they all have their memories wiped too? What if they don't want the memory wiped?
Even if we assume that tragic memories could be magically taken away without any complications, and only truly truly tragic memories, I still think that so much of who we are is based on defining moments in our lives, of which many are not filled with sunshine and rainbows. Many times, we look back later and see how that moment of tragedy helped to mould us into who we are and helped us to cope or succeed in the future. And it's human nature to only appreciate things when we have experienced loss. So the answer isn't to get rid of the memory but to increase support for those experiencing tragedy so that we can help them stand up again and move on, stronger and better than better.
Strength in adversity. The strongest steel is forged in the hottest fire after all.
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blnmom
June 2, 2017 at 8:15 PM
I agree, but that doesn't stop me from wanting some memories to be erased even though I know they shouldn't be erased. Those things, because I lived through them, made me better and stronger, but I still don't like thinking about them.
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michykdrama
June 2, 2017 at 10:08 PM
When you put it that way, then yes, certainly! In fact I can think of some memories that make me cringe with embarrassment that I would love to have deleted from memory too. ?
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gumgum
June 2, 2017 at 9:09 PM
It's kind of a cheat to have tragic memories removed, so I'd rather live with the tragic memory. I don't think you can know true happiness if you haven't felt pain or sadness. Those on the stable care system live in a straight line with occasional surges of emotion and blanks of their life, as opposed to living with ups and downs (like we do in the real world lol). As a person I'd like to feel the whole spectrum of emotions haha.
Maybe blocking memories was their cure for PTSD like Woo Jin suggested to his Professor, that forgetting would rid a person of the trauma. I see the intention, but overcoming it is much more effective should the memories come back.
(For a while before the reveal I really thought Woo Jin would be Joon Hyuk but after remembering this, it makes sense that they aren't the same person as they have different opinions on what to do with tragic memories. Also kind of supports that Woo Jin could be the Chairman, but not solid enough proof. Am I still making sense haha)
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40 kurazo4
June 2, 2017 at 7:19 PM
I've got it all wrong. Dad is not her dad.. but at least it wasn't a bit surprising to me that the Professor
is the culprit (what's his name again?), though I was sort of flustered by it.
And this is new: She doesn't have memories. This leaves me with more questions:
-Who is the Professor?
-What happened to Dad if Jung Yeon is Byul?
-How did Jung Yeon end up being the daughter of Professor?
-Was the 'treatment' for her is for her to forget her past, of who she really is? Who is treating her?
-Does Professor knew that Woo Jin is Beom Gyun's twin brother, that's why he kept him near him as part of the research
team?
-Who is that girl who knew Beom Gyun and all about aliens?
Ugh! So many questions!
Not only that, we have Brave New World with more revelations!
-Joon Hyuk is Beom Gyun! With that scar in the back of his head, he was surely experimented.
-Bluebird is Jeong Yeon of course! Is her memories back? Is she also looking for Woo-Jin?
-But, where is Woo-Jin? All along I though Joon Hyuk is Woo-Jin but he never was! What happened all those years??
Wow! This episode has a lots of twists! Full pack of revelations!
Now (again) I have a new speculation. I can't not have one!: Professor is the Chairman. He is surely hiding both Dad
and Woo-Jin. Hopefully I am right this time, but I don't mind if the show will still surprise me. Bring it on!
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41 circulate9oo
June 2, 2017 at 7:22 PM
Finally, Circle recap is here! Thank you so much, festerfaster!
First of all... a party dance because Joonhyuk is Bumgyun~ YAY!!! I went to rewatch episode 1, and turns out they already established it right at the very start. In the very first scene, Bumgyun says to Woojin, "I told you. I'll find you wherever you are." Then at the end of the episode, we have Joonhyuk thinking, "Wait for me. I'll find you wherever you are." I'm pulling out my hair for missing out that foreshadowing.
That scene in the end, when Joonhyuk finally remembers he is Bumgyun, was just so heart-wrenching. I totally cried watching him confront an imaginary Woojin, apologizing and telling his brother his regrets. Ugh. Kim Kangwoo was so awesome in that moment and the way that scene was directed was just really, really well done. Is it too much to hope for more YJG x KKW scenes?
So what happened was Woojin left his memories - and that's the reason why Joonhyuk remembers things from both the POVs of the brothers. The Woojin memories were all just based on the stuff WJ left behind, and the Bumgyun memories were all from his own.
Gong Seungyeon is totally slaying the role as Byul and Han Jungyeon. And she's so adorable too everytime she tries to tease Woojin. They're soo cute, they do have a great chemistry! I'd like to know more about her 2037 part too. Looks like she herself isn't aware which twin Joonhyuk was until JH said it himself.
And Woojin... :( I wonder what happened to him. That scene when he is watching Jungyeon and her dad was so sad. It just looks like he's trying to imagine himself with a dad he doesn't have. He's terribly worried and is missing his brother so bad.
The professor is a total creep. It was so scary the way the professor said he needed Woojin. It almost makes me think what if Jihyuk's death was to lure Woojin into the research team. Anyway Bumgyun!!! Poor Bumgyun, but damn, good biting skills! And it looks like the instinct to bite never left Joonhyuk! Somebody save Bumgyun pronto. And Woojin. Creepy Prof, stay away from my twins >:( Based on the teasers, the angst is already soaring high when Bumgyun gets taken away.
Can't wait to learn more about the Taser Girl. Her character name is actually Park Minyoung iirc. I wonder how she and Bumgyun met, they seem to be good friends.
I swear this show just keeps getting more and more exciting as it goes. The plot twists are definitely mind blowing and the thrill just keeps escalating at every moment. It's sad there's only a month left.
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42 elric
June 2, 2017 at 7:54 PM
I'm not disappointed that Joon-hyuk is Bum-gyun. I was always open that Joon-hyuk could be either of the twins but leaning towards Bum-gyun because he has the same crazy obsession and determination. He will do anything in finding out the truth.
The reveal was not just a confirmation about his identity. Joon-hyuk told Ho-soon he wasn't sure who he was and that was driving him. So when he said, "Woo-jin, I'm here", I saw it as him coming to terms with who he truly is.
Besides it being a good twist, it also balances out the show. I always saw Circle as a drama about brothers. Beta Project is about Woo-jin looking for Bum-gyun and him coming to terms with his brother's theories. Brave New World is about Joon-hyuk/Bum-hyun finding Woo-jin and saving the world. Both brothers just want to save each other but in different timelines. It just completes the plot, or in this case, the circle.
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43 gumgum
June 2, 2017 at 8:59 PM
Wow this show is something else. I'm not particularly drawn to sci fi because of the lack of sleep all the questions I have cause, but Circle deserves the eyebags. I read through this recap and as much as I can through the comments to see beanies' theories on Byul or the Chairman or the twins, some speculations seem likely! I'm thinking Joon Hyuk and the Chairman are the twin brothers - before JH/Bum Gyun reveal I felt it could go either way, but now that leaves Woo Jin as the Chairman I guess? Why would he have BG's phone from 20 years ago?? Although the Chairman could be the Professor as well. At least we've also confirmed Han Jung Yeon is Bluebird - I'd really like to see how or why that happened. Why is she ageless, was she always good with computers, how did the Prof find her?? Is she really an alien?? (Her 2017 character is such a breath of fresh air from the usual tone of the show haha I like her a lot)
Also Woo Jin where are you what happened to you pls dont be the Chairman but if you are pls at least have good intentions and if you are the Chairman I'd be at ease if you knew JH was BG and secretly trying to protect him from Human B hahahaha
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44 Playstore, Okay Or Not Okay
June 2, 2017 at 11:05 PM
* I refuse to believe that Joon Hyuk is Beom Gyun although my brain knows for sure they are * At this point, I feel like I am Ho Soo ? My logic why BG=JH is: Beom Gyun had the bug in him in 2017. He has a scar behind his ear in 2037 because he removed it.
Thanks to festerfaster for the recap. It's an interesting point about the chief's comment regarding the twins' memory. I am wondering the same thing.
In the preview for ep5/6, Woo Jin saw Beom Gyun being abducted in a bus. I gotta feeling that the shady professor took BG, wiped his memories and then released him as a person w/o past memories. As WJ saw it the professor took him away and forced him to work for him. Then he created Human B using WJ's theories and hid him somewhere (cue scenes from Yong Pal where sedated Yeo Jin is Woo Jin) . But before WJ became a veggie he sent the memory file to the chief.
Can't figure out how our "Byul" escaped all this. After emerging on earth she may have become a guinea pig in the twin's father and the professor's research. So far the drama has released very few info about her.
I don't care whether I'm right or wrong. All I care about is next Monday. Which needs to come as fast as the times flip in Circle!
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45 mai-mai
June 2, 2017 at 11:09 PM
WOW!!! Just wow!!!
I am not yet solved that Joon Hyuk is Bum-Gyun. He might say that he is Bum-gyun just to trick Bluebird. JH knows he is being followed. Maybe he just set up a trap for Bluebird.
The chairman could be Prof. Han.
Twists always comes here and there so who knows.
My heart is already racing just thinking about Mondays and Tuesdays. This drama is so good to be missed.
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46 winter
June 3, 2017 at 12:08 AM
I agree with you that we are not sure yet that the policeman is Bum-Gyun. And I think that the detective got the memories out of one of the twins to show him, it's not a camera footage but part of a "memory cube", just like they could access the kidnapper's memory, there's this technology where they could get the memory out of one of the twins' head and replay it on a monitor.
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47 blubluskye
June 3, 2017 at 12:45 AM
This show just keeps getting better..!
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48 Elle
June 3, 2017 at 1:32 AM
Ugh this show is SO, SO GOOD!!!!
After the end of this episode, I'm worried Woo-jin died in 2017, and now Bum-gyun and Jung-yeon will have to find justice for him.
But what if he's the Chairman? Did he join the dark side or is he going to destroy Human B from within? Did he inherit Human B from Professor Han?
I read in the character profiles that Professor Han was dad's rival in the field of neuroscience. Perhaps he got wind of the fact that dad was sheltering an alien and went after him, and then killed him and kidnapped Jungyeon. But why does she not have memories of her past? Is it a kind of defense mechanism she used to keep Professor Han from using her for his evil plans?
UGH I CANNOT WAIT until the next episode!!!
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Elle
June 3, 2017 at 8:56 AM
Ok I just rewatched with my mom and noticed that the loading screen for the Human B memories interface is a Rubik's cube, which makes me think Woo-jin was involved with the creation of the Human B care chip system.
O_O
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49 Playstore, Okay Or Not Okay
June 3, 2017 at 2:30 AM
Oh my gosh beanies! I just had a thought. What if Ho Soo is Woo Jin ? ??
I was going through the poster description earlier and Lee Ki Kwang's poster says 'Not feeling harmful feelings is logical' which is similar to what Woo Jin said to the professor. Oh My Gosh! What am I thinking! ?
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Mango Juice
June 3, 2017 at 4:16 AM
Hmm. There's still the mystery of who Ho-soo is in 2017. And look at the posters, they're facing the same way!
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Mango Juice
June 3, 2017 at 4:18 AM
Lol nope, they aren't facing the same way, but WJ and HS are both looking away from the camera..
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Playstore, Okay Or Not Okay
June 3, 2017 at 5:16 AM
also in Yeo Jin Goo's poster Lee Ki Kwang is staring at him from behind. And Yeo Jin Goo is behind Lee Ki Kwang in his white poster. Oddly in LKK's poster, both the brothers frm 2017 & 2037 are present. I feel like it's indicating Beom Gyun's dialogue 'I'll find you no matter what'. Either Ho Soo is WJ or an important character to finding WJ.
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Elle
June 3, 2017 at 8:57 AM
Ho-soo looks considerably younger than Joon-hyuk, and his character profile says he's in his mid-20s so it's impossible.
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50 zentro29
June 3, 2017 at 3:10 AM
What I like in this revelation is both brothers are searching for each other in their respective timelines.
I think Jung Yeon(aka Byul) is the beta project. Just want to know what happened to the twin's dad and how did she end up with Prof Han.
The CEO/Chairman of Human B System is either Prof Han, the other Professor or Woo Jin. I hope it's not Woo Jin though, I don't want him to be the bad guy.
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