Mouse: Episode 11

by selena

Our dutiful cop finds it increasingly difficult to contain his dark desires. As he battles with his inner self, a familiar face appears and offers some advice. Everyone’s on high alert, afraid of what a criminal plans to do.

 
EPISODE 11 RECAP

In a vast meadow, a younger boy found Jae-hoon staring at a bloodied animal while clutching a knife, void of emotion. Undaunted, the boy took Jae-hoon’s hand and noted that the cut must be painful. He ignored Jae-hoon grumping at him to get lost and instead, applied mashed up pennywort onto the wound for disinfection purposes.

With less bite to his words, Jae-hoon asked if the boy wasn’t scared – everyone else avoided him ever since the rabbit incident. The boy firmly stated that he wouldn’t leave a wounded friend behind, but told Jae-hoon not to kill animals anymore. Jae-hoon wondered why he wasn’t born like him and desperately wished, “I want to be like this kid.”

Presently, Ba-reum freaks out about killing Woo Hyung-chul and adding to his horror, imagines Yo-han grinning at him. He asks how Ba-reum feels – isn’t it exhilarating killing someone?

Shaken by the night’s events, Ba-reum arrives at home and tells himself that it’s Yo-han’s fault. The former doctor pops up again and asks if Ba-reum feels better blaming him. No matter how much he denies it, he’s still a murderer.

Grasping at straws, Ba-reum claims that it was self defense but Yo-han snickers knowingly that Ba-reum enjoyed watching Hyung-chul taking his last breath. In denial, Ba-reum roars at Yo-han to get lost.

When morning comes, Ba-reum dutifully reports to the station to confess. Moo-chi and the Violent Crimes squad don’t hear him whisper it at first, but all heads whip towards Ba-reum when he booms, “I said, I killed him!”

A task force is sent to the warehouse to investigate but oddly, nothing’s askew and not a trace of blood is found. One colleague pulls Moo-chi aside and suggests taking Ba-reum to the hospital. After all, side effects of brain surgery are unknown.

Ba-reum insists that it really did happen, but the team is informed that Hyung-chul turned on his cellphone so they have his location. Back at the station, they review footage of Hyung-chul stowing away on a boat.

Ba-reum asks if Moo-chi already knew about Hyung-chul’s involvement with the recent murders. Moo-chi admittedly felt uneasy that Yo-han could’ve been innocent but after digging around, he confirmed that the murders were merely a copycat. Soo-ho was burned alive, but the high schooler Kim Jin-ah was burned after death.

Moo-chi sent someone to tail Hyung-chul but unfortunately, they lost track of him. The detective meant to fill Ba-reum in when he visited the substation but the video of Hye-won sent him running around busily and ultimately led Moo-chi to finding her and Young-hee’s bodies. Moo-chi notes that Ba-reum seems to desperately want Yo-han to be innocent.

Ba-reum drops by the hospital to check on Seul-gi and Dong-goo thanks him for his help. Although Dong-goo didn’t truly believe that Ba-reum would’ve killed Hyung-chul, he couldn’t help but think it was well deserved at first.

At home, Ba-reum receives a call from Moo-chi telling him to report to the Evidence Storage team for work tomorrow. His head splits thinking about Hyung-chul’s death, but a meow reminds him that it’s his cat’s mealtime. Phew, she’s alive!

Ba-reum hasn’t re-gained her trust yet but promises to never harm her again. When he moves the bird cage out of his way, the shocking memory of snapping Eo Bong-yi’s frail body and tossing her out of the window resurfaces.

The following day, Ba-reum learns that the bird was found dead outside his window and some kids had given her a proper burial. Ba-reum is now convinced that what happened with Hyung-chul was real as well, so he heads to the warehouse.

Nothing stands out initially but when he pulls a tarp off a mound of materials, Ba-reum finds a scorch mark on the ground in the exact spot where he remembered kicking down a barrel of fire – this is all the proof that he needs to confirm that it wasn’t just a hallucination. The question is, who cleaned things up?

On the night of the incident, a man had waited for Ba-reum to leave before taking Hyung-chul’s body and meticulously cleaning up the scene of the crime. Watching Ba-reum now, the man (who notably has an “OZ” tattoo on his finger) calls someone and reports, “I think he noticed. What should I do?”

Determined to do the right thing even if he’s deemed mentally ill, Ba-reum heads to the police station. On his way there, an elderly man trips and sends them both tumbling to the ground. When Ba-reum enters the station, he gets a call from a stranger asking, “Are you thinking of turning yourself in, Jung Ba-reum?”

Ba-reum realizes that his phone must’ve been switched during the collision earlier. The elderly man somehow knows about the brain surgery and the fact that Hyung-chul’s body disappeared, so Ba-reum agrees to meet up.

At their proposed meeting place, Ba-reum is knocked out with chloroform and wakes up in an unfamiliar place. The old man removes his disguise to greet him, and I’m just as shocked as Ba-reum to see Daniel Lee staring back at him. He’s alive!

Daniel brushes off questions about himself and directs the conversation towards Hyung-chul, whom everyone believes smuggled to the Philippines by boat. Daniel hints that they only made it seem that way – Hyung-chul did get on the boat, but is likely fish food right now.

What the professor really wants to know is how Ba-reum felt while killing him. Ba-reum claims it was self defense, but Daniel tells him to be honest, knowing that he felt a pleasure that he didn’t even know existed.

Yo-han’s brain is slowly consuming Ba-reum’s, and now that he has killed somebody, his murderous switch has flipped. The urge to kill will continue to grow, and treatment won’t help this addiction.

Daniel proposes curbing his bloodthirst by killing off the top 1% of psychopaths, which would save innocent lives. Ba-reum just needs to bring their DNA for Daniel to confirm their predator status. The cop yells that he’s crazy and vows to turn himself in, but Daniel points out that it’s hard to believe without a body or evidence.

Even if somebody ended up believing Ba-reum’s story about Yo-han’s brain merging with his, he’d just end up becoming a science experiment. Daniel returns Ba-reum’s phone and warns that the time between his murderous switch flipping will shorten, and he’ll end up killing his loved ones first if he ignores the urge.

The next day, Shin Sang finds Ba-reum in his new role while dropping off evidence. He looks particularly spiffy so Ba-reum assumes he’s going on a blind date, but he’s actually guesting on Sherlock Hong-joo tonight for the show’s return.

He gets an earful from Moo-chi after grabbing an outdated bill in a plastic bag to buy drinks with (didn’t he learn from that coffee mix incident?). The bill was given to Moo-chi by a child (Bong-yi) as a retainer fee to kill a bad guy.

The comeback episode of Sherlock Hong-joo wraps up smoothly and next week’s focus will be on sexual offences against children as the one year mark of Kang Deok-soo’s release draws near. As a child psychology major, Shin Sang offers to return as a guest.

He mentions that Moo-chi put Deok-soo behind bars and is close with one of the victims. Hong-joo realizes that she must’ve been the person Moo-chi wanted her to take in.

Bong-yi’s words seem to have reached the alcoholic mother, who sends her daughter Yoo-na to live with her father for now. Deok-soo lurks in the shadows as Yoo-na takes her mother’s phone and is told to contact Bong-yi if she wants to chat.

Ba-reum gets called to Bong-yi’s workplace and finds her drunk. She cups his face in her hands, then squeezes his cheeks and pouts, “You can’t even remember saying I should marry you, you idiot,” before passing out. Pfft. Bong-yi’s boss fills Ba-reum in – an old classmate appeared and taunted her about a case and calling her pitiful, which led to a fight.

He brings Bong-yi back to her place and gently tucks her in. While caressing her hair, Ba-reum feels the urge to wrap his hands around her neck. Ba-reum fights against it but spooked by his own actions, leaves in a rush. He’s beyond frustrated that Daniel’s words are ringing true.

Bong-yi is woken up and cringes in embarrassment when she remembers her outburst. Ba-reum forgot his phone so she runs out to bring it to hi, but he’s too lost in though tto hear her across the street. Deok-soo passes her at the crosswalk and whispers something into her ear.

Hong-joo witnessed this while stopped at the light and runs out to help Bong-yi up. Ba-reum happened to see, too, and remembers that Halmoni trusted him to take care of Bong-yi. He decides to wipe up Deok-soo’s spit with a handkerchief.

After escorting Bong-yi home, Hong-joo is accused of exploiting victims for a good headline. The PD clarifies that she’s not here to cover a story and was just worried about Bong-yi because of Moo-chi, who suggested that they live together.

Bong-yi explodes, “Why should I do that?” Deok-soo’s the criminal here, so why should she keep running? Exhausted, Bong-yi kicks Hong-joo out and claims she’ll take care of herself.

Hong-joo visits Moo-chi the next morning to inform him of what happened, providing the dash cam footage. He’s enraged but the probation officers claim that Deok-soo’s acting lawfully, and that a victim’s restraining order doesn’t apply to him.

Ba-reum wipes Deok-soo’s spit all over a brand new toothbrush, then gathers his colleagues’ toothbrushes and presents them all to Daniel as a test to see if he can find the psychopath gene.

Daniel picks the correct one and asks, “Who is it?” He warns Ba-reum that he must be stopped, because somebody who’s a psychopathic predator will commit the same crime no matter what, and they’ll get worse as they evolve.

Ba-reum digs up Bong-yi’s case from the database and watches a video of her making a statement as a child, battered up from the assault. She was sent on an errand to get more makgeolli for Halmoni and the restaurant is where Deok-soo first laid eyes on her.

Deok-soo left ahead of Bong-yi and on that rainy night, Bong-yi came across an abandoned puppy and tried to help it. She was attacked by Deok-soo, and Ba-reum recalls how Bong-yi had cried about the puppy in Halmoni’s arms last year.

Moo-chi had saved Bong-yi and arrested Deok-soo but in court, the sex offender claimed that he was too drunk and would never commit such a heinous crime.

Kang Deok-soo was sentenced to ten years of prison and the court recognized that he had reduced emotional and physical capacity, which made Halmoni extremely angry. Ba-rem sheds a tear reading about it, upset by the situation.

Ba-reum drops by Bong-yi’s place to check on her. She uses up her energy to box while thinking about what Deok-woo whispered to her: “I think about you when it rains.” Moo-chi thinks about the young Bong-yi who’d given him the 1,000 won bill and decides to make good on his promise to kill Deok-soo upon release.

Both men head to Deok-soo’s place, but Ba-reum arrives first. Watching Deok-soo through the window, Ba-reum recalls Dong-goo mentioning that he thought killing Hyung-chul was a good thing because the bastard deserved to die. He leaves just as Moo-chi arrives.

The detective wastes no time and punches Deok-soo who feigns ignorance about why he’s here. Deok-soo quietly shares what he said to Bong-yi that night. Whatever it was causes Moo-chi to be even angrier than before, pinning the criminal down and sticking the barrel of his gun to his head. At this moment, Deok-soo’s mother gets home and Moo-chi gets locked behind bars.

Deok-soo puts on an act and claims that he lives in atonement, so Team Leader Bok sends him home first. The criminal secretly smirks at Moo-chi before leaving and the detective realizes that he’s been played. He tells Shin Sang that Deok-soo purposely provoked him to separate him from Bong-yi and asks him for favor, since nobody will release him.

Meanwhile, Ba-reum stocks up on tools like hammers and chains, dressed in black and working out to prepare. He waits until midnight to make his move but when he gets to Deok-soo’s place, the convict is foaming at the mouth with a suicide letter next to him. Ba-reum brings him to the hospital and figures that his atonement letter is proof that he’s not a psychopath, believing that he has reformed.

The next day, he comes across his aunt struggling with a whining child and learns that he has a cousin named Hoon-seok. Hoon-seok throws a tantrum because his mother won’t buy him a cat, so Ba-reum treats him to some food. His aunt watches from afar as the cousins interact, and Ba-reum promises to show him his cat when she gives birth.

Shin Sang visits Bong-yi and hands her a taser as instructed by Moo-chi, and informs her that he’s in jail for attacking Deok-soo. Bong-yi learns that it’s forecasted to rain this weekend and shudders – Deok-soo had whispered to her, “When it rains, I’ll come to your house.” When Moo-chi learns of the weather, he begs to be let out, knowing what Deok-soo said to Bong-yi.

Ba-reum gets home and grins to see that Butterfly has given birth, immediately calling Hoon-seok to share the good news. Since his aunt is visiting “Jeju Halmoni” and the ajumma that Hoon-seok is home with is sleeping, Ba-reum decides to pick him up and gets his address. He finds it odd that they live in a different neighborhood than he’d originally thought.

Shin Sang heads out to film another episode but finds Deok-soo’s mother lingering outside the station. She apologizes for not raising Deok-soo well and came with a statement asking them to release Moo-chi. Shin Sang hands the statement to Detective Ki from the Violent Crimes team since he’s running late.

As the Sherlock Hong-joo show begins, Bong-yi solemnly purchases a new knife and Ba-reum picks Hoon-seok up after leaving a note for his aunt. Shin Sang explains that the police force can monitor those who are at high risk to be repeated offenders individually. Everybody’s alert when a criminal is released, but when a year passes, people begin to relax and assume the criminal has rehabilitated.

He goes on to explain that this is actually the most dangerous time, because they’re waiting for the boundaries to lift so they can commit crimes again. Sure enough, Deok-soo’s getting a quick workout in and chuckles while hearing these statements, preparing to head out. Deok-soo watches Bong-yi walking home in the pouring rain, smiling. He takes a call from a probation officer who checks in, claiming that he’s just out at the pharmacy.

Hoon-seok loves the kittens and notes that Butterfly doesn’t seem to like Ba-reum, judging by how she hisses at him. Ba-reum decides to cook a meal to change topics and during the meal, Yo-han appears behind Hoon-seok with his hands tightening around his neck. Ba-reum freezes in shock.

The probation office gets notice that Deok-soo’s anklet is damaged and that he’s on the move. This is reported as breaking news and Bong-yi, who was prepared with her new knife, lets out a breath of relief thinking that Deok-soo ran away.

She grabs snacks from the convenience store and catches part of Sherlock Hong-joo. The shopkeeper tells her that Yoo-na dropped by earlier, and Bong-yi realizes something when Shin Sang claims that pedophiles never change and will always target children.

While Ba-reum fixes a clogged sink, Hoon-seok hounds him to play without realizing that Ba-reum’s demeanor has gone cold. Eek, his switch must be on. Hoon-seok runs off to play hide-and-seek and Ba-reum complains in annoyance that he’s noisy.

Moo-chi begs Detective Kang to let him out now that nobody’s around, yelling that Bong-yi’s in danger. He pleads with him to turn a blind eye, and is willing to report that he stole the key himself.

Detective Kang tosses it over to him but warns that he’ll lose his badge the moment he opens the door, so will he choose Han Seo-joon or Oh Bong-yi? Moo-chi only contemplates for a brief second before zooming down the stairs, past Detective Ki (who never turned in that statement, tsk).

Ba-reum starts seeking while clutching onto a wrench and as it thunders outside, he sings a creepy rendition of the hide-and-seek song. Meanwhile, Bong-yi enters Yoo-na’s place where her mother is passed out and checks the phone that was left behind.

Deok-soo carries a child over his shoulders – he’d used pliers to remove his anklet earlier that night. When Yoo-na was sent to live with her father, Deok-soo overheard Mom telling her to contact Bong-yi if she needed anything.

He looked up the phone number and sent her a text disguised as Bong-yi, lying that her mother is sick and that Yoo-na needs to come home. Bong-yi realizes that she was never the target – Yoo-na was. She reports this to the police. Officers respond to Bong-yi’s call but Yoo-na’s mother tells them that her child isn’t missing, mistaking a pile of blankets for her daughter.

Moo-chi and Hong-joo both speed off to Bong-yi’s neighborhood, realizing that she could be in trouble. Moo-chi’s car crashes on the side of the road and the man with the finger tattoo knocks him out from behind.

Ba-reum’s in predator mode and finally finds Hoon-seok hiding in the closet, fast asleep. Hoon-seok’s phone lights up and only classical music is heard as Ba-reum emotionlessly hits something repeatedly with his wrench.

Deok-soo brings Yoo-na to an empty field but Bong-yi sneaks up and pounces on him. The convict fights back but Bong-yi is unrelenting, hanging on for dear life. She takes quite a beating until Ba-reum arrives – Bong-yi begs him to save Yoo-na before passing out. Ba-reum takes Daniel’s advice and attacks the pedophile to protect his loved ones from himself.

 
COMMENTS

It’s so ridiculous to me that the police would even approve Kang Deok-soo’s request to live in the same neighborhood as Bong-yi. Even if they somehow weren’t aware before, Moo-chi made it very clear when he confronted the probation officers, yet they claimed that everything Deok-soo is doing is well within his rights. He manipulated the court to receive a lower sentence and is out on the prowl again. Ankle monitors and phone calls aren’t going to do anything to protect the children that he sets his sights on. With such despicable criminals not receiving more severe punishment, it’s no wonder that people like Moo-chi are so frustrated with the system. Han Seo-joon literally has the entire prison facility at his beck and call – he’s living a life of luxury, not a life of atonement.

I’m glad that Daniel Lee is back so that we can learn more about this psychopath gene that seems more common than you’d think. It feels like Daniel is the only person who can truly help Ba-reum work through his current predicament, and we’ve reached a very interesting territory of the story. If Ba-reum begins to choose the top 1% to kill off, does that make him a good person, or every much as punishable as other murderers? This is an interesting twist and adds another layer to his character, if he becomes a vigilante enacting justice on his own terms. I just wish he’d accept that he has a problem and stop creating opportunities for himself to slip up. Why bring a child into your home when you have a murderous side to you that you can’t quite control? Even if he’s in denial, it’s his responsibility to protect others from his murderous counterpart. Daniel detected the psychopath gene from the correct toothbrush, but what if the psychopath gene he detected wasn’t from Deok-soo’s DNA but Ba-reum’s, since he used his handkerchief to pick up the spit? I hope it doesn’t take long for Daniel to realize that Ba-reum himself was born with the psychopath genes.

I’m most curious about Ba-reum’s family backstory. It was odd to me that his aunt quickly glossed over his mother’s death after Ba-reum was released from the hospital, only saying that she died in an accident on a rainy day. I considered that there might’ve been something sketchy about her death that his aunt might’ve been hiding, but I never thought she could still be alive! Knowing that Hoon-seok lives with an “ajumma,” could Ba-reum’s mother still be alive? And who is this “Jeju Halmoni” that Ba-reum seemed to be so confused about? The most glaring red flag that something’s wrong is that Ba-reum’s aunt lied about where she lived. Ba-reum moved to Pyeongan-dong to be closer to his aunt after his surgery, but she lives in a different neighborhood, Mujin-dong. Was that to put some distance between them? She seems to genuinely care about Ba-reum, so what could’ve happened? Did Ba-reum hurt his mother without realizing it, like how Woo Hyung-chul killed his?

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