Train: Episode 7

by LollyPip

It feels like the more our hero learns about the true killer, the deeper the secrets are buried. There’s no shortage of suspicious people, but none of them quite fit the bill, though the discovery of a possible accomplice gets him that much closer to the truth. What’s most concerning is how attached our hero is getting to this world, and he’s about to get a harsh reminder that in fact, he’s an interloper who doesn’t belong here.

 
EPISODE 7 RECAP

While trying to stop Alt Jin-woo from killing the owner of the company that was indirectly involved in his grandmother’s death, Do-won and his team discover that the woman is already dead. She turns out to be Young-ran, Seo-kyung’s former stepmother, and she was killed in the same manner as the serial killer’s victims, with one of Seo-kyung’s mother’s stolen necklaces around her neck.

After examining the body, Alt Jung-min tells Do-won that Young-ran has been dead for three hours, which means that Jin-woo can’t be the killer. Do-won reminds her of Seo-kyung’s father’s murder and says that his father was framed, because he’s seen six other victims who were killed using the same MO while his father was in prison.

Jung-min asks why he’s telling her this, and he says that this is the first victim that was left where she was killed. He mutters to himself, to Jung-min’s confusion, “The train is damaged, and the passageway is closed.”

In the rail yard, that very train (Number 8210) sits, looming and silent. Although there’s nobody around, its headlight flares to life. In the pouring rain, the train travels down the track all on its own.

Seo-kyung hasn’t told anyone that Young-ran was her stepmother, so when Joon-young uses Young-ran’s phone to call her family by redialing the most recent number, they’re surprised that Seo-kyung’s phone rings. In a different tiny room, Jung-min notices that there’s a tear in the wallpaper, with a bloodstain on the wall behind it.

At the police station, Seo-kyung explains to Do-won that she only lived with Young-ran through high school but hasn’t heard from her since. Do-won just asks softly if it was difficult, throwing Seo-kyung off her axis for a moment. She says that he must have heard how awful Young-ran was to her, and blames his father for the fact that she had to live alone with her.

Again Do-won doesn’t respond, but he reminds Seo-kyung that he’s going to prove his father innocent, and that the real killer murders his victims the way her father was murdered, then leaves a piece of her mother’s jewelry on their bodies as a signature.

He questions Alt Jin-woo again about the black SUV he saw on the night that Kyung-hee disappeared. Jin-woo just cackles that he’s thankful to the killer for getting rid of Young-ran for him. Do-won asks if Jin-woo wants to see how easy it is to kill a person, then in a flash, he’s got Jin-woo pinned against the wall and is cutting off his air.

He growls that it only takes a minute to die this way, then lets Jin-woo go just before he passes out. He tells Jin-woo that he carries the blood of a murderer so he’s lived with the responsibility of taking a life, and that he doesn’t want Jin-woo to live with that kind of pain. He says that it’s Jin-woo’s choice whether to live in a world where he kills people, or a world where he saves people.

In World A, Alt Do-won makes his way back to his hospital room, where Jung-min is waiting with the file of this world’s Do-won’s father’s death. The file confirms that he died on April 8, 2008. Alt Do-won recalls that night, but in his version, he’d saved his father from being hit by the car.

He did, however, get a good look at the driver’s left hand, which had a large black discolored spot on the back. He realizes that two deaths happened that night in this world, a murder and a hit-and-run, and the culprits of both cases were never caught. He assumes that the driver who hit and killed his father in this world must be the same person who committed the murder.

As he’s being led to the bus that will carry him to the prison, Jin-woo hears a hum that sounds exactly like the humming driver he saw the night of Kyung-hee’s kidnapping. He hadn’t seen the driver’s face, but his left hand had been on the steering wheel, showing a black discoloration on the back. Jin-woo can’t see the hummer’s face now as he’s turned away, but his left hand has that same dark marking.

Jae-hyuk gives Do-won a run-down on the Young-ran of this world — she’d received a large insurance settlement when Seo-kyung’s father was murdered, which she’d invested wisely, then had gone into redevelopment. Do-won asks about her son, Sung-wook, and Jae-hyuk says that he’s on his way to the station.

Jin-woo borrows a phone to call Do-won and tell him that he just saw the driver that he thinks kidnapped Kyung-hee. As they’re talking, Do-won’s head rings loudly. When he can focus again, he looks up to see this world’s version of Sung-wook, in a suit but looking very disreputable with his scarred face… and the black discolored spot on his left hand.

Seo-kyung meets with the coroner regarding Young-ran’s body, and she’s confused that the cause of death is asphyxiation, not the blow to the head. The coroner shows her the marks on Young-ran’s throat and says they were likely made by a necklace, one much thicker than the one that was found on her body. There’s also an old bruise on Young-ran’s wrist, which happened when someone grabbed her several days ago.

Doctor Seok stops by the police station to tell Seo-kyung about his teenage patient, Dong-hyun, who saw his father running away from his mother’s murdered body. He asks if something is up with her, so she tells him that her stepmother is dead, possibly murdered by the same person who killed her father.

Sung-wook issues some very sketchy-sounding orders to someone over the phone as he’s leaving the police station. Do-won follows him out, and he notices a leg brace in the trunk. He tells Sung-wook that he thinks his mother’s murder might be part of a serial murder case, and that a witness told him the killer had a leg injury (in truth, he saw the Stranger’s mud footprints on the train, one of them smeared).

Sung-wook grumpily admits that he hurt his leg, and Do-won asks Sung-wook if he ever drives a larger car, like a black SUV. He tells Sung-wook that he’s going to catch the person who killed his mother, staring him right in the eyes.

Next Do-won stops by Section Chief Oh’s office, but she’s not there. She’s found where Seo Jae-chul is staying, but he doesn’t answer when she knocks on the door. It’s not locked, so she goes in and finds him on the floor in a pool of blood.

Do-won asks Seo-kyung if she believes him that her father’s murderer is still out there killing, now that she’s confirmed that Young-ran’s murder was identical to her father’s. She just asks if he’s really found a suspect and if it’s really Sung-wook.

She tells Do-won that recently, Young-ran had asked Seo-kyung to come live with her for a few days. It had offended Seo-kyung, so Young-ran had admitted that she was scared of Sung-wook. Seo-kyung says that she talked to Young-ran’s housekeeper, who said that Sung-wook lost a lot of money gambling and starting a business, and when Young-ran stopped giving him money, he started getting aggressive.

Do-won says that (if Sung-wook is the killer) it makes sense that Young-ran’s body was left in the house — she had to be found and her death registered in order for Sung-wook to get his inheritance. Seo-kyung says that if Sung-wook is the killer, then he’ll have the rest of her mother’s jewelry.

Also, Sung-wook does happen to own a black SUV. We see him slowly following women around at night, and that he had purposely slammed into Kyung-hee, then offered to take her to the hospital and put her in his backseat. Tonight, he takes the SUV to a junkyard and pays the owner to destroy it.

Seo-kyung wants to check out Sung-wook’s SUV herself for evidence, but Do-won reminds her that they only have circumstantial evidence so far. He says they have to wait, knowing that Jae-hyuk is already at the junkyard to seize the SUV.

The vehicle is thoroughly inspected by Jung-min’s team, and a fingerprint is found belonging to Lee Ji-young, the fifth body that was dumped in World A (the Lee Ji-young in that world was found alive). Do-won tells Jae-hyuk and Joon-young that this is one of the serial killers’ victims, and instructs them to cross-reference anything they find with the missing persons list.

Inside the car, Seo-kyung finds a key for a gym locker room. They check out the gym, and inside the locker is a duffel bag containing a hammer covered in gore, and a box with the rest of Seo-kyung’s mother’s missing jewelry.

This makes Sung-wook the number one suspect, and when she hears, Section Chief Oh calls Do-won to her office to apologize for her part in his father’s murder conviction. She hangs her head in shame for having ruined Do-won’s life, but he tells her that nothing was ruined.

He remembers how his Section Chief Oh stopped him from telling his Seo-kyung that his father killed hers, and he tells Alt Section Chief Oh that she gave him a reason to live. He says there was a detour, thinking of his Seo-kyung’s death, but that he got it all back eventually. He asks if she’s found his father yet, and she can’t bring herself to ruin his good mood, so she says she’s still looking.

She had seen Jae-chul in the hospital and asked if he went to see Do-won because he’s dying. Jae-chul had begged her not to tell Do-won that he’s sick, not wanting to cause him more pain. Now Section Chief Oh asks Do-won if he knows about Seo-kyung’s connection to the Mukyeong Residential Murder and if he’s thought about why she joined his team.

Jae-hyuk brings Do-won a report of the other DNA found in Sung-wook’s vehicle, including Kyung-hee’s. The only person identified that’s not on the missing persons list is Lee Ji-young, and Do-won mentions casually that her grandmother is in a nursing home, earning a strange look from Jae-hyuk.

Seo-kyung has gone to check out a possible Sung-wook sighting, and Jung-min calls Do-won to her office. She says that an old bloodstain was found in a different part of the house from where Young-ran died, and that a DNA check found that the blood belonged to Seo-kyung.

Do-won walks the tracks and recalls the day he saved Seo-kyung from letting herself get hit by the train. In this world, he wasn’t there, and Seo-kyung was left alone to save herself. Do-won imagines her sitting by the track, sobbing loudly, then going home to the house where she was abused for years.

He steps inside the house and imagines a horrific scene… Seo-kyung forced to defend herself against Sung-wook, because Do-won wasn’t there to help her. She had used a broken lightbulb to hit him, blinding him in one eye and giving him the prominent scar on his face. This led to the scene we saw in Seo-kyung’s memory, of Young-ran screaming at her and throwing the broken glass at her.

In his imagination, Seo-kyung picks up a shard of glass and starts to cut her own wrist. Do-won whispers, “No, Seo-kyung-ah,” and rushes to her, but she’s gone, and he’s alone in a tiny, empty room. He finds a pile of Seo-kyung’s schoolbooks, and a diary in which she’d written that this is all Seo Jae-chul’s fault, and vowing to pay him back.

In World A, Alt Do-won visits Sung-wook in jail and angrily accuses him of murdering Seo-kyung’s father, then killing his own father with his car. Sung-wook starts repeating that he didn’t do it, then says to Alt Do-won, “It was you who killed.”

In flashback, we see that Sung-wook was driving the car from the house after killing Seo-kyung’s father, only he wasn’t alone. His companion had urged him to run over Do-won’s father, saying that he’s a witness. Sung-wook had yelped that his companion did the killing, not him, but he’d still hit Do-won’s father by accident.

Alt Do-won staggers back to the hospital and raids the pharmacy for drugs — whether he’s in pain or withdrawal is unclear. Just as he’s about to inject himself, someone comes in. Alt Do-won runs, and he ends up at the empty Mukyeong Station just as it begins to rain.

The rain reminds him of a picture he was shown at the prison that Sung-wook drew. It depicted a man wearing a baseball cap, crouched over Seo-kyung’s father’s dead body. Alt Do-won recalls seeing a second man in the vehicle with Sung-wook in his world, and that man was wearing a baseball cap. The old clock registers 9:35 p.m. and the train warning starts to ring.

In World B, Do-won is upset when he finds out that Seo-kyung went to the old marketplace to look for Sung-wook alone. He heads there, telling Jae-hyuk and Joon-young to follow him and not to call for backup. While they’re still on their way, Seo-kyung is attacked by Sung-wook, who tightens something around her neck.

Seo-kyung uses her marital arts skills to get loose (that was pretty badass, how she ran up the wall!), but Sung-wook just grabs her throat with his bare hand. She spits, “Why did you kill my father?!” and Sung-wook says that he only meant to steal the jewelry, but her dad came home early.

Still angry at how she blinded him in one eye, Sung-wook snarls that he’s going to return the favor. Seo-kyung shocks him by putting her gun to his forehead, and she says that she didn’t come to catch him, but to kill him. Sung-wook changes his tune, swearing that he didn’t kill her father… and Seo-kyung shoots.

As she stands over Sung-wook’s body, all the fight seems to drain out of Seo-kyung. She raises her gun to her own head, but Do-won reaches her just in time to grab her hand as she pulls the trigger. Deeply shaken, Do-won whispers, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I’m sorry I left you all alone. I’m sorry.”

They’re both crying as Do-won wraps Seo-kyung in his arms, and she bursts into loud, anguished sobs. When she’s finished crying, she says that she’s gotten her revenge and that her career is over. Do-won counters that what matters is that she’s still alive.

They turn, and OMG, Sung-wook’s body is gone. They split up to look for him, and Do-won gets a call from someone who says that Sung-wook is just the real killer’s accomplice. The caller is Alt Do-won, and he urges Do-won to catch Sung-wook and make him confess the real killer’s identity.

Behind Do-won, something falls from the sky. Do-won turns, and he sees Sung-wook’s body on top of the now-smashed car.

 
COMMENTS

We’re just a little past the halfway point of Train, and I’m kind of glad that Sung-wook turned out not to be the killer, because I feel like it’s just too early to know who the true culprit is. There’s no doubt in my mind that Alt Sung-wook is (was? I wonder if he’s even dead, and if not, if he’ll end up impaired like World A’s Sung-wook) one Very Bad Dude, and it’s certainly criminal that he was in the car that hit Do-won’s father in World A, but he’s innocent of that death in World B. And the duffel bag in his gym locker with the bloody hammer and jewelry just seems too convenient, as if someone planted that evidence.

I think that it’s natural for Do-won to assume that Alt Sung-wook is the killer based on the information he has, especially since he knows that the Sung-wook from World A assaulted SJ, and then later said, “I’m the killer.” But as a drama veteran, I’m not convinced, this early still in the show. I’m guessing that Alt Sung-wook was helping the killer, maybe by disposing of the bodies using the train, which would be how World A’s Sung-wook saw him. I just think that having Sung-wook be the killer, and learning it this soon, is too easy. This show is written better than that, and I feel confident that there’s a big twist in store for us (I have a theory, but I’ll keep it to myself for now — and no, it’s not Doctor Seok, lol. I could be wrong, though!).

I think the clue lies in the victims… at the moment, we only know the identities of three of them (Lee Ji-young, Jung Kyung-hee, and now Young-ran). Once we learn who the older bodies are, I’ll bet it all starts coming together. It’s no coincidence that the stolen jewelry is showing up on the victims’ bodies, and even though Jae-hyuk said that the victims all seemed very different, I believe that Do-won will find that the victims themselves also fit a pattern.

I’m still not sure what Doctor Seok’s role is in all this… he’s not someone that Do-won knew in World A (that we know of), yet he seems very prominent in Alt Seo-kyung’s life. They seem more like colleagues or even friends than doctor and patient, so I’m guessing that Seo-kyung actually isn’t Doctor Seok’s patient. It looks as if he works with victims’ families to help solve murder crimes, and that he and Seo-kyung have gotten a bit close due to their professional relationship. I know there are a lot of theories that Doctor Seok is the killer, which is possible, but I’m still not ready to form an opinion on what little we know of him. He does seem to have more screen time than a simple extra, but I’m still not sure what he’s there for.

What I’m really interested in is the fact that Alt Do-won is back in his own reality, and now we’ll get to see him and our Do-won interact. They both have the same goal — catch the real killer — but their methods and reputations are so very different, I’m not sure if they’ll be able to work together. And now that Alt Do-won is home, will Do-won have to go back to his own reality and leave Seo-kyung, the only person who’s holding him together?

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