Mouse: Episode 1
by LollyPip
Brace yourself, folks… Mouse, tvN’s new mystery-thriller is quite a wild ride from the very beginning. I’ll warn you now, this show is very dark and disturbing, but it’s also looking to be very, very good. It asks a chilling question — if society could reliably predict that a person would become a killer before they were even born, what would we do?
EPISODE 1 RECAP
A classroom full of children visits the zoo, and they gape at the size and power of a large black snake in a glass enclosure. One little boy, who seems empty around the eyes, slips a small rat from his schoolbag and into the snake’s enclosure. The snake focuses on the rat and strikes, causing the children to run away screaming.
Only the little boy stays to watch as the snake tries to catch the rat, only to have the rat bite it in self defense. The snake shakes off the rat, which turns and, eyes shining red, launches itself at the snake again.
Five years later, that same boy is a little older when he lets himself into an empty church to ask an important question of the stained-glass Jesus: “Do I seem different to you, too? They say it’s how I was born. They say I was born different.” But no answer comes.
Ten years earlier.
A young woman is dropped off by a taxi at the bottom of a very steep hill in the middle of a snowstorm. She uses a phone booth to call home, explaining that the road was too icy for the taxi so she’ll be walking the rest of the way.
As she hangs up, she hears a plaintive voice call out, “Unni!” There’s a small girl in the road, who cries that there was an accident and her father is still in the car nearby. The young woman approaches the car, but when she opens the door, the driver attacks her. She begs for her life in vain, as nearby, the little girl sobs at the violent scene.
A week later, a diver finds the headless body of the young woman in the ocean, with a series of letters and numbers marked on her hand. She’s identified as the latest victim of a serial killer known as the Head Hunter.
In England, one year later, a scientist named DANIEL LEE (Jo Jae-yoon) gives a lecture in which he mentions that he’s identified a gene that’s present in the DNA of psychopaths (a personality disorder characterized by lack of empathy for others). Daniel predicts that soon, we will be able to predict whether an unborn child might be a murderer based simply on the presence of this gene.
Daniel is called back to Korea by the president, who is determined to stop the Head Hunter’s 18-body killing spree. Daniel gives a speech about his DNA findings, including the fact that one percent of people with the psychopath gene become murderers. Unfortunately, his test only has a 99% success rating, with the other 1% of detected genes denoting that the person will be a genius.
The problem is that the genes for genius and psychopath are too similar for Daniel to differentiate. This means that, in the effort to eliminate psychopaths, potential geniuses would also be killed. The issue on the table is whether the government can force a mother to have an abortion if the psychopath gene is detected, and ultimately the proposal is shot down.
That evening, Daniel goes to visit an old friend, HAN SEO-JOON (Ahn Jae-wook), whose wife JI-EUN (Kim Jung-nan) is hugely pregnant with their first child. The couple appear very much in love, with Seo-joon doting on Ji-eun and Ji-eun clearly returning his affections, though Daniel looks a bit sad when he sees their wedding photos.
As it turns out, this is because Daniel’s sister, Jennifer, was Seo-joon’s first love, who died seven years ago and in a random mugging. Seo-joon looks sad when the subject comes up, but Daniel insists that he’s thrilled to see Seo-joon married and happy. Seo-joon drives Daniel to his hotel, promising to visit him in England soon.
At the same time, a family of four are traveling through the area, and after getting briefly lost and asking another driver for directions, they stop at a campground for the night. Unfortunately, the ceiling in the kitchen caved in from the snow, so the campground is closed. The family decides to stay anyway and just rough it.
The father steps away from the campsite to get water, and he hears his wife crying out. There’s an ominous-looking figure looming over her with a knife as she begs for her life, so her husband jumps at her attacker and yells for her to run. She races back to their van and tries to drive away with their boys, Moo-won and Moo-chi, but the van won’t start.
Mom spots her attacker walking their way, so she pushes the boys down to hide. She tells Moo-won, the elder boy, to hide with Moo-chi in a hidden cupboard and to protect his little brother, no matter what he hears. Then, after uttering a small but fervent prayer, she goes out into the night.
The boys hide, but moments later, the attacker reaches the van and tries to break in. Mom distracts him and leads him away from the van, only to get caught and stabbed several times. Despite her best efforts, the attacker quickly disables her and heads back to the van, where the boys are now out of hiding and screaming for their mother.
Moo-won locks little Moo-chi into a suitcase and shoves it under a bench, then tries to hide himself. It works too well — the attacker finds Moo-chi’s suitcase first and starts to break it open. Remembering his promise to protect his little brother, Moo-won comes out of hiding and tries to lead the attacker out of the van. But he’s caught, and the attacker hits him over, and over, and over…
Later that night, detective PARK DOO-SEOK (Ahn Nae-sang) is called to the hospital to talk to young Moo-chi, who is in deep shock. Both of his parents were murdered (though their bodies have disappeared), and Moo-won is gravely hurt and in surgery.
Detective Park, whose own daughter was taken by the Head Hunter years ago, tries to get Moo-chi to say whether he saw the killer’s face. When Moo-chi can’t speak, he yells at the little boy and scares him even worse. As he’s being pulled away, Moo-chi sees something that makes him scream… he points at a picture on the wall and yells, “It’s him!”
Ji-eun wakes up late, still alone in bed, and goes out to look for Seo-joon. He comes in with an armload of firewood, and Ji-eun smiles at the family of snowmen he’s build in the front yard. Seo-joon had earlier told Daniel he would terminate the pregnancy if their baby had the psychopath gene, but now Ji-eun says she’s not sure what she would do.
Suddenly, several police cars come screaming into their driveway. Detective Park orders the house searched and arrests Seo-joon at gunpoint, growling that he’s the Head Hunter. As it turns out, the photo that Moo-chi pointed out as his family’s attacker was one of Seo-joon, who’s a neurosurgeon at the hospital.
While Detective Park was getting the search warrant, Moo-chi had grabbed a scalpel from an accidentally discarded surgical tray and snuck into the patrol car. Now, in the confusion, he lunges out of the car and slashed Seo-joon in the face. He tries to stab Seo-joon again, but Detective Park stops him, knocking the head off one of the snowmen in the process.
The snowman’s head smashes to the ground, and inside is a black plastic bag. One of the cops looks inside, then drops it in horror. Moo-chi sees blood in the snow, and the barrette his mother was wearing, still clipped around a lock of her hair. Oh, no. From inside, Ji-eun sees this scene, and the truth hits her like a ton of bricks.
Eventually the bodies of Moo-chi’s parents are found in Ji-eun’s greenhouse, furthering the theory that Seo-joon is the Head Hunter. To the dismay of the families of the deceased, including Detective Park, Seo-joon continues to protest his innocence and wish for the real killer to be found.
Even Daniel assures Ji-eun that Seo-joon can’t be guilty because he obviously loves her, and psychopaths can’t love anyone but themselves. But Ji-eun confronts Seo-joon in front of reporters, saying that she knows it’s him. She saw him putting the head on the snowman that contained his victim’s head, and she even has a picture as proof.
Knowing he’s caught, Seo-joon drops the innocent act, and a flashback shows that he is the one who killed Moo-chi’s parents. Ji-eun asks him tearfully why he even married her if he can’t love her, and Seo-joon sneers, “I guess you could call it my will to reproduce. I needed offspring. Han Seo-joon Junior.”
Floored, Daniel grabs Seo-joon and flings him into an interrogation room to ask if Seo-joon killed his sister. Seo-joon says emotionlessly that she still hid from him after being stabbed twenty times, so he threatened to kill her mother and Daniel if she didn’t come out. He actually laughs at the memory of how she’d looked when she crawled to him.
He snarls that he did it because she killed his baby, then brags that he kept his promise not to hurt her family. He finishes his story with, “The pleading look in her eyes couldn’t have been sexier,” leaving Daniel sobbing on his knees.
Later, Daniel offers to run his genetic test on Ji-eun’s unborn baby, and she takes him up on it. When the results come back, Ji-eun can tell from Daniels’ expression that her baby has the psychopath gene. She freaks out and shrieks for an abortion, unwilling to bet on the chances that her baby is that one percent who’s a genius, but Daniel calmly reminds her that she’s too far along.
In the hallway, another pregnant woman approaches Ji-eun and explains that her husband worked with Daniel in England. To help, she’d volunteered to have her baby tested, and her husband had told her that their baby was normal. She’d found out that he’d lied to her, not wanting to scare her.
She could still end the pregnancy, but sadly, her husband died recently in an accident. The woman tells Ji-eun that the baby is all she has left of him, and that he was a good man, so she doesn’t believe her baby is a psychopath. Unfortunately, Ji-eun doesn’t have that assurance of her baby’s father being a good person.
Seo-joon is sentenced to death, and as he waits for his sentence to be carried out, he lives out his time in prison. Five years later, he reads a news article that Daniel is back in Korea, and he mails his former friend two live rats in a box. Elsewhere, a little boy named JAE-HOON (Kim Kang-hoon) also has a fascination with rats, and he catches one to take to the zoo to set free in the snake enclosure.
When Jae-hoon is older, his teacher becomes worried for his mental health when he kills the class rabbit. He says that he wasn’t trying to kill it, he only wanted to see if it had gained weight or was pregnant. He’s scratching his arm to shreds, and when his teacher asks why, Jae-hoon says blandly, “I’m annoyed at the other kids but I can’t take it out on them, so I’m taking it out on me.” She mentions that the other kids aren’t there, and Jae-hoon says that the way she’s looking at him, like he’s weird, is annoying him.
The teacher calls in Jae-hoon’s stepfather, and she tells him that a recent IQ test puts Jae-hoon well above genius level, but that she’s worried about his mental state. She recommends therapy, but Stepdad takes offense. He drags Jae-hoon into an alley after school and slaps him, hard, then calls his mother to complain that Jae-hoon humiliated him.
Jae-hoon has two younger siblings, a brother named Jae-min and a sister named Jae-hee who seems to be mentally disabled. Jae-min sees Jae-hoon pouring ammonia into his stepfather’s fish tank and begs him not to kill his dad’s favorite fish, but Jae-hoon pushes him aside and continues. He takes his stepfather’s dog, Choco, and warns Jae-min not to tattle: “Tattletales are the worst people in the whole wide world.”
When Stepdad gets home, he finds his fish dead and Jae-min reluctant to say anything, only for Jae-hee to repeat her brothers’ conversation word-for-word. Stepdad goes looking for Jae-hoon, and when he arrives at the park, he finds his dog Choco floating dead in the pond. He finds Jae-hoon and drags him home to beat him, calling him an “evil bastard.”
Later, a bruised Jae-hoon asks Jae-min if he wants to go see Choco, then leads his brother to a small grave in a wooded area. While Jae-min is praying, Jae-hoon pushes him into a hole that he dug and accuses him of tattling. Jae-min wails that he didn’t say anything, but Jae-min intones that he needs to be punished and begins to shovel dirt into the hole.
Thankfully, their mother finds them in time. She shoves Jae-hoon to the ground, helps Jae-min out of the hole, then starts to choke Jae-hoon and tell him to “Die! Monsters like you need to die. You monster! I never should have given birth to you!” Jae-hoon looks up at his mother… and it’s Ji-eun.
Jae-hoon somehow escapes and goes to the church where we first saw him. He asks Jesus if he’s really different, and if he was really born a monster. In voiceover he tells us that he prayed not to become a monster, but fifteen years later, Jesus had never answered his prayer and he ended up a killer.
One last flashback shows Jae-hoon standing over his stepfather’s body, while Jae-min and Jae-hee hide. He calmly removes the knife from the man’s chest, then he slowly walks up the stairs, where his mother waits.
COMMENTS
Well, that was… a lot of violence. Even for a K-drama. But despite all that, and the ridiculous episode length — an hour twenty-five, are they trying to kill me?? — I really have a good feeling about this show. The casting, the dark and broody cinematography, and the richly-written characters all come together to make one damn compelling premiere (and yes, unlike my last two recaps, we will be recapping this whole show!). I have one major complaint, more on that later, but all in all I’m very excited about Mouse.
I love dramas that ask philosophical questions about the human condition, and Mouse asks a great one… If we could isolate a gene that’s shared by psychopaths, would it be ethical to (in some way) prevent those people from having the opportunity to commit crimes? Even if it meant erasing their existence entirely, and even if it meant losing out on potential geniuses that could help humanity. I think the big problem with this is that, just because a person may have the same genetic makeup of famous murderers in the past, doesn’t mean that person will actually commit murder. The majority of psychopaths never kill anyone. I do think it would be helpful to know what a person’s instincts are so that, for example, a child with the genetic makeup of a psychopath can be brought up to understand what behaviors are acceptable and which ones aren’t. But to imprison someone before they’ve done anything wrong, or even to terminate pregnancies with such genetics, is a very steep, very slippery slope.
Luckily, there’s that one percent chance that the gene Ji-eun’s baby carried is the genius gene and not the psychopath gene at all, though from Jae-hoon’s behavior, he sure seems to be a killer in the making. Of course, he tells us that he grew up to be a monster, but that doesn’t have to mean he’s a serial killer, though that dead dog was sure damning and he did try to bury his little brother. And I’m not unclear whether Jae-hoon is Lee Seung-gi’s character as a child, since their names are different, though it feels like that’s where we’re going with the story. I’m just very confused on that point — who is Jae-hoon, and is he a killer or not? The show leads us to think that Jae-hoon is Seo-joon’s child, but I’m just skeptical based on previews that he grows up to be Lee Seung-gi, whose character doesn’t seem to act like a secret killer at all. Regardless, there’s a lot we don’t know about Jae-hoon, so I’m very much looking forward to the next episode, and getting more information.
My only real complaint about the premiere of Mouse is a simple one — where was Lee Seung-gi?? I just watched an hour-and-a-freaking-half long drama premiere and the main reason I’m there didn’t even show up! I get that a lot of backstory needed to be laid down, but some of the scenes could have been shorter (did we really need such a graphic family-murdering scene??) and had one scene with our leading actor at the end. But seriously, it’s not a huge complaint because otherwise I was riveted. The casting is impeccable and I almost couldn’t look away, though I admit I’m confused about where this is all going and who Lee Seung-gi’s character really is.
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Tags: Ahn Jae-wook, Ahn Nae-sang, featured2, first episodes, Jo Jae-yoon, Kim Jung-nan, Kwon Hwa-woon, Kyung Su-jin, Lee Hee-joon, Lee Seung-gi, Mouse, Park Joo-hyun
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1 sal
March 7, 2021 at 5:58 PM
A scary part is that this is not that far off from what is happening in real life, even though the part about killer gene is fiction. In my country a new law came last year that said every pregnant woman have the option to do early ultrasound examination where they also can check for chromosome disorders witch can indicate if the baby have down syndrome or other syndrome (there is many variant of this). In my neighbor country this law have been there for some years and they say baby born with Down syndrom is decreased with 50%.... This is scary for me as a person with chromosome disorders because i have heard storys of doctors that recommend abortion to the pregnant woman... I mean I am not blaming doctors for not knowing every disorders out there, but this also show that we are starting to have an extraction society mindset.... Like in the drama. This just make you feel like an outcast where there is no place for people that are different from the perfect human.
What I am trying to say with this is that I hope in the drama they build some depth abut the ethical question surrendering this issues, and also the impact this have on the people and society.
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Yn00na
March 7, 2021 at 10:09 PM
I share your concern. While we can definitely agree that psychopath gene manifest differently than say Down Syndrome, the idea of eliminating those that somehow considered as 'inconvenient' to society is fundamentally the same.
We as society have somehow come out with standard of acceptance, deeming any misfits as somehow inferior and therefore giving us the false sense of justification in treating them differently.
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LemonyLite
March 8, 2021 at 3:04 AM
I immediately also thought about the termination of pregnancies where Down Syndrome has been detected... it's really abhorrent, especially when the doctors literally suggest an abortion.
Like, I am totally pro-choice in general but this is more about Eugenics than anything else. :(
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sirena
March 8, 2021 at 11:00 AM
@sal I agree with all that you have said.
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2 beffels
March 7, 2021 at 7:09 PM
Leaving aside the realism and accuracy of a “psychopath” gene test, I can see how an idea like this could get a lot of attention in the situation as portrayed in the drama (I was pleased to see the law didn’t pass). Easy, fancy fix for the vanishingly small proportion of crime that is vicious serial murder vs complicated wraparound solutions to prevent root causes of most crime? I’d expect the easy solution to get the attention every time.
I thought the first episode was well done, if creepy (my sister messaged me in the morning after watching it to say she could only watch in daylight from now, because afterwards she had to drive alone in the dark through the countryside to get to work and it was too scary 😄).
I’m curious to see who is who when the babies have grown up - I imagine there’s going to be a lot of keeping us guessing.
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3 Kurama
March 7, 2021 at 9:04 PM
It was very long introduction with a lot of murders... The scene with the snake was almost funny with the rat attacking the snake.
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beffels
March 7, 2021 at 9:24 PM
Yes, I’m sure it was meant to be Very Symbolic but it landed on kind of amusing.
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LollyPip
March 7, 2021 at 11:56 PM
I agree that scene didn't come across as intended due to the CGI, but it's a thing that really happens! I have four pet snakes (two ball pythons, a corn snake, and a bullsnake), and there's a reason I feed frozen/thawed prey. Live prey can and will fight for its life, and if the snake isn't a good hunter - one of my BPs has the WORST aim even though her prey is already dead, lol - the mouse or rat can serious injure or even kill a snake.
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Kurama
March 8, 2021 at 12:27 AM
It was totally the fault of the CGI, but it reminded the cute bunny in Monty Python's Holy Grail at the end.
May I ask why do you choose snakes as pet?
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beffels
March 8, 2021 at 12:40 AM
That’s really interesting, and yes blame the CGI. It makes sense that live prey would fight to survive (and is probably going to be a metaphor).
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4 Ayalynn
March 7, 2021 at 9:12 PM
I sort of like it.
The psychopath gene part is totally fiction but interesting enough to keep going at least.
I'm really curious who's who when kids have grown up too.
Maybe babies (of two pregnant moms) got switched....
Ahn Nae-sang is everywhere! He is a cop, not a mad scientist here.
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knewbie
March 7, 2021 at 9:39 PM
I love these random Ahn Nae-sang references!
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sumi
March 31, 2021 at 5:07 AM
Hopefully, they didn't add in a baby-switcharoo, given then the 2 pregnant women shown on screen (the two who talked to each other), where if different stages of pregnancy (one was probbly 32-34 weeks, and the other seemed "less" pregnant). HOWEVER, remember the woman who waylaid Daniel in the hotel lobby, and it seems like she gave her DNA (hair sample) for him to test? So, maybe there is another pregnant woman in the storyline. I am just starting the show, so will have to keep an eye out for all these various babies and connect them to their adult counterpart accurately!
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5 Lord Cobol (Kdramas, like water, flow downhill)
March 7, 2021 at 9:53 PM
Even if we accept the premise of a psychopath gene and decide to seriously address the question of abortions to prevent future murders and save lives, the logic just doesn't work for me.
You get different results with different starting numbers, but if 99 out of 100 people with the gene become psychopaths, and one out of that 100 becomes a serial killer, then if you abort or otherwise kill off the 100, that's 99 innocent (or at least non-serial-murdery) lives lost. To have a net gain in lives saved that 1 extreme baddie would have to kill more than 99 victims, which I think is more than most serial killers can manage before they get caught.
It gets a little "better" if you figure that 10 out of the 100 will become serial killers. Then it's only 90 innocent lives lost and the serial killers only have to average over 9 kills each for it to make sense.
If you DNA test everybody and can identify nasty genes, there have still got to be better ways to use that info. When bodies start piling up, at least use the DNA records to help identify suspects and focus the early investigation.
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beffels
March 7, 2021 at 10:11 PM
Let us not speak of logical things, I want to enjoy my thriller 😅
I’m currently taking the abortion thing as more of a starting point for the idea that there you can be genetically predisposed to psychopathy and hoping the drama will be more about what happens after they’re born to shape them into murdery murderers/upstanding citizens.
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Yn00na
March 7, 2021 at 10:21 PM
For me, canvassing certain group because of their DNA makeup is as ethically flawed as canvassing certain group for their race or socio economy status.
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knewbie
March 7, 2021 at 10:32 PM
I've got to agree that the show's grasp of statistics is a bit wobbly. Presumably, only 1% of X% (psychopaths) of the entire human population being serial killers is an attempt to create narrative uncertainty and conflict. But the number is relatively much less smaller than the show seems to think, as you've pointed out, and - most worryingly - the babies might grow up to be geniuses, not serial killers. IMO, Daniel Lee's research is simply unacceptable as a basis for any law or policy about abortion, let alone a 20-part series.
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Yn00na
March 7, 2021 at 10:55 PM
Agree. The premise of the drama is flawed as the number is so weak that there should not even be a dilemma. Frankly i also think the stipulation of 1% genius in itself is concerning. As if the potential of 99% non-serial killer psychopath is not enough to outweigh the 1% chance of psycopath turning into serial killer, they have to throw in genius into the mix to sweeten the pot.
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Kurama
March 8, 2021 at 12:29 AM
It would give a remake of the movie Divergent :p
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6 Meep
March 8, 2021 at 2:34 AM
I thought the way this show set up its central premise was... less than ideal. If you want to bring genetic science into whether you can determine if someone might turn out to be a serial killer you should put it on more solid ground. I'm not saying that you need to follow science absolutely, but to put forward the notion that a single gene is responsible for Charles Manson/Edward Kemper/Ted Bundy is uhhhhhh. And to have it suggested to us that this is Nobel Prize worthy science?
Not to mention the fact that Charles Manson had *other* people kill Sharon Tate. Are you saying psychopaths can now also magically influence other people thanks to their gene?
Also the fact that the decision about the abortion (which is clearly a human rights issue) was decided by like an 8 person panel about to put it into law? I don't know Korean Lawmaking but surely that's not how it works. I also take issue with the fact that the man who was the deciding vote got told "You just robbed your child of living in a world free of crime and wars." and he didn't say anything afterwards. That's not how crimes or wars work.
I also thought the scene with the snowmen reveal was ludicrous, because they wanted me to believe that a heavily traumatised 5 (6?) year old is capable enough to 1) nab a scalpel 2) stowaway in a police car bc he 3) knows they're going to catch the killer now and 4) tries to stab the murderer?
How incompetent is the police in this drama. But I guess the courts are equally laughably dumb because apparently "Oh idk who put the snowmen there" is enough to get you out of jail when you're a suspect in a serial murder.
So unless the writing really turns this around the writer hasn't earned my benefit of the doubt.
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sirena
March 8, 2021 at 11:05 AM
@meepthesheep The entire first episode had me rolling my eyes in disbelief. I especially hated the scene when the cop shakes Moo-chi and demands to know if he recognizes the killer. Also, why didn't his colleagues try and prevent him from further traumatizing Moo-chi? And the whole build a snowman/family aspect was also ridiculous. How in the world did the serial killer have time to leave the murder site and build three snowmen before the police arrived? Hopefully, the show will improve.
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Koreanloverrr
March 8, 2021 at 1:48 PM
oh I felt somehow about the police doing that to the little boy. But it happens in practice, cops that are emotionally involved in a case do that. They are basically not acting in their right senses. that is why they do suspend some cops from handling cases that are connected to them. but those cops still find a way to get involved.
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sargevee
March 9, 2021 at 5:51 AM
The professor lived in England since he was young and yet he didnt pick up the accent? They could have just said he's been in England for long rather than implying he grew up there. That would have been more believable. Apart from this though, Im liking the actors portrayal of their caractera including the professor. Just wish the director paid a bit more attention to the small(er) details.
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7 Scottie
March 8, 2021 at 4:18 AM
Ha, Ha. Why just stick to one psychopath, if you can have 2, 3 or even more? The cast is good, particularly the younger ones. It will be interesting to watch this one. The gore is borderline bearable, but not as bad as in Neighbours from Hell. That one really made me feel sick and I had to stop watching.
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coffeeowl
March 8, 2021 at 5:36 PM
Neighbours from Hell? Do you mean Strangers from Hell? I personally thought that drama was a masterpiece.
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owl 🦉 🫰
March 8, 2021 at 5:54 PM
Well hello coffeeowl, if I didn’t know better I’d think you were me! I am owl, lover of coffee! So your name caught my eye! Night owl, perchance?
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Scottie
March 9, 2021 at 4:24 AM
Agree, it was really good, but for the second half of the drama I could only stomach the recaps.
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8 Zora
March 8, 2021 at 8:32 AM
Comment was deleted
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9 Zora
March 8, 2021 at 8:34 AM
I don’t normally watch this type of genre as I have low tolerance when it comes to murder scenes and dead bodies. But for some reason, the murder scenes in this drama does not bother me. I am more curious to find out how will the babies with the ‘monster gene’ and the other kids turn out as adults.
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Ayalynn
March 8, 2021 at 10:13 AM
Yeah totally!
I want to know if kids who have a psychopath gene will be a murderer no mater what or how they raised (in different environments) will make a difference.
I want to know which baby Lee Seung-gi was... Is he good or evil?
I don't care about murders or dead bodies either. I think that's not the point of this drama.
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Zora
March 8, 2021 at 11:48 AM
I know it’s too early for a theory but I think LSG’s character is not the murderer and that he is the Headhunter’s real son. We shall see if my hunch is correct!
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beffels
March 8, 2021 at 12:47 PM
I’m very curious to see if Lee Seung Gi’s character will be good or evil. I’m expecting him to be evil but they’ll decide making him evil would be too obvious. They must know everyone will be super suspicious of his character.
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sargevee
March 9, 2021 at 5:44 AM
I dont mind a similar character as Lee Jun Ki's in Flower of Evil. I love that drama. And im lookibg forward to enjoying this one as much as I did that. Lee Seung Gi, fighting!
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10 Koreanloverrr
March 8, 2021 at 1:42 PM
okay wow! what a first episode. I am in love with this. wow! never expected the identity of the head hunter to be our favorite ahjussi from 'five children'. I mean look at his shy smile. He really did a good job.
I appreciate the wife coming out to accuse the husband, that took a lot of gut. some people might ignore it and pretend it did not happen. and in what world would they deny detention of a criminal on the basis that he did not build the snowman, when it is literally on your front steps. what kind of prosecution do they have, that they cannot defend their case. this is clearly an evidence with proof.
Also, the child actor, Kim Kang Hoon really did a great job. wow I can't believe a child acted that way. If he can act like this, then he would definitely go a long way. kudos to him.
the character background was also eye opening. but are Psychopaths really born and even if they are, can they be changed through love and care.
okay I am definitely on the look out for this.
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beffels
March 8, 2021 at 2:43 PM
I also appreciated the wife coming out and saying that he built the snowmen, I wasn’t expecting that.
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11 nigirisushi
March 9, 2021 at 10:18 PM
Haven't started watching, but with this recap, I think now I'm going to pick it up. The premise reminds me of the anime Psycho-pass. Same sort of dilemma but at least I suppose psycho-pass suggests a more "nurture" element to crime while this is "nature".
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12 Cloy
March 10, 2021 at 11:04 AM
Thanks so much for recapping this drama. As an English-speaking viewer reading the subs can get confusing. And there's so many characters to keep straight! Your recap answered some of my questions.
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13 dramalover4ever
March 17, 2021 at 4:51 AM
Two random snarky points:
1. Those were not mice in the box. They were fair dinkum rats. I will allow that the one that stood up to the snake was a mighty mouse though.
2. Was any effort made to make the pregnancy bump look real? Or is the birth rate in Korea so low that people have forgotten what it looks like to look pregnant.
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14 dramalover4ever
March 17, 2021 at 5:08 AM
I wasn't going to say this, but I will. The whole idea of forced abortions is not novel and has in fact been practiced on women who had been diagnosed with what were considered hereditary diseases. An example is when woman were diagnosed with leprosy. This happened in Japan and would have also happened in Korea and Taiwan when they were under the Japanese. It continued in Japan into the mid- twentieth century. There were "voluntary" sterilizations too, if couples wanted to cohabit. People have launched and won compensation cases against the responsible regimes. And this does not even touch on what happened in the concentration camps. Eugenics has been bubbling away in European countries since the nineteenth century.
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15 AsiandramaAddict
March 21, 2021 at 9:27 AM
I know a family that I went to church with. The mother was told her baby had severe medical issues. They said the baby would be deformed and not live long after birth and encouraged her to have an abortion. She refused and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She grew up to be a beautiful and talented young woman who is now a teacher.
I have never commented before but I just want to say thank you so much for all your wonderful recaps you do an amazing job!
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16 sumi
March 31, 2021 at 5:21 AM
I have to say that I was really hesitant to start this show since I was still reeling from the "Vagabond" effect (don't think about it, don't think about it). But overall, I am liking it - and the whole debate of whether a serial killer is born or made reminds me of the Netflix show Mindhunter, which is based on actual FBI agents who interviewed Ed Kemp, Ted Bundy, Son of Sam, etc. (watching these serial killers talk about why they kill is really chilling!). Am so glad that the first episode is so full of clues and interesting set ups for the identity of the new serial killer. I just hope they don't mess up any of the clues and forensic details, since I have a high bar for those aspects in a show like this!
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