Miraculous Brothers: Episodes 7-8

by quirkycase

Our superpowered teen has a lot on his plate this week as he makes a startling discovery or two about himself. While he has an existential crisis, his newfound writer hyung continues looking into the past murder case and catches the attention of a certain businessman who would rather the past stay buried. Adding to our duo’s problems, it seems there might be more to our teen’s abilities than meets the eye.

 
EPISODES 7-8

While Dong-joo runs around looking for Ki-jeok (which would be immeasurably easier if the kid ever answered his phone), the cops deal with the bewildering kidnapping case where the kidnappee planned her own “kidnapping” alongside her accused-serial-murderer friend. Poor terrified Myung-nam isn’t off the hook that easily, though, since the cops suspect him of the recent murder case too. Well, all the cops except Hyun-soo and Byung-man.

Based on his recent discovery that the pieces of wood in the victims’ mouths are pieces of a wooden cross, Byung-man devises his own test. He shoves a cross at Myung-nam like he’s warding off a vampire, and when Myung-nam’s only reaction is understandable confusion, Byung-man declares him innocent. Shockingly, this method does not convince everyone else at the station.

Elsewhere, Ki-jeok has had it with Dong-joo’s cageyness and takes it upon himself to find answers. He meets up with CHAE WOO-JUNG (Kang Mal-geum), his (unbeknownst to him) old high school classmate who recognized him in the hospital, and learns his supposed doppelgänger disappeared in 1995. The pictures she shows him unlock more of his memory, including his name. (PSA: the character formerly known as Ki-jeok will henceforth be known as Kang-san until further notice.)

Accepting he’s somehow from the past isn’t easy, and once Kang-san realizes Dong-joo has been in the know for a while now, he’s livid. When he next sees Dong-joo, he punches him square in the face, and it’s all Dong-joo can do to hold him off without hurting him. Kang-san is so desperate, he runs into the middle of the street on the off chance getting hit by cars induces time travel. Dong-joo runs after him and reaches him just as the car hits… thin air. For once, Kang-san’s haphazard teleportation comes in handy, and they end up safely back at home.

Although there’s still tension between them, it’s hard to stay mad at someone who dove in front of a speeding car without a second thought to protect you. Like true brothers, they be ready to kill each other one minute and risk their lives to save each other the next.

The mystery of Kang-san’s identity may be solved, but his powers are still an open question. Judging from the flashbacks, he didn’t appear to have them prior to his time travel. We do get a clue in the form of a rock. Yes, a rock. When Kang-san’s powers are activated again, there’s a kryptonite-looking rock that lights up on someone’s desk (maybe Kai’s?). So there’s that.

Making things even stranger is the fact that not only is Dong-joo immune to Kang-san’s empathy reading, but he’s now being affected when Kang-san experiences blasts of glowy power. Kang-san gets one of his migraine-inducing memory flashbacks, and across the city, Dong-joo’s hands start glitching. As in, they flicker and go almost translucent, which is naturally rather concerning for Dong-joo.

Meanwhile, Dong-joo leaves another coded message for Kai, this time letting him know that Kang-san is alive. That gets Kai’s attention, and he shows up at one of Dong-joo’s book signings where he sends a girl to deliver a message asking to meet. It turns out that Kai knows exactly who Dong-joo is, having met him at the bookshop when he was a cute, innocent toddler with no penchant for stealing others’ work.

Now that Kai is hanging around, his identity may not stay secret for long. There’s this hilariously intense, dramatic scene of Kai passing by former classmate KANG HYE-KYUNG (Seo Jae-hee), now the owner of the club Fortuna where Tae-man and his lackeys hang. Hye-kyung seems like a reluctant friend of Tae-man and co.’s, likely for self-preservation – she also witnessed the 1995 murder. Honestly, all Tae-man’s “friends” seem like they’re just with him to avoid being on the psychopathic murderer’s hitlist.

Unfortunately for Dong-joo, Tae-man is taking a strong interest in him given the uncannily accurate description of the murder in his novel. Tae-man assumes Dong-joo got that info from the videotape, so he sends someone to steal it from his mom’s house. It’s not there, but it’s not the first time someone has assumed that – Dong-joo’s mom says a pastor (who just so happened to run that children’s home) asked about it once many years ago. Now we’ve got corrupt cops, businesspeople, assemblymembers, and pastors involved in the ever-growing 1995 situation.

While he’s not a major character, I’m really enjoying Myung-seok and his plethora of exasperated faces whenever he has to deal with Dong-joo. The two are so ridiculously petty and get such joy from irritating each other. Dong-joo usually wins on that front, though. Myung-seok’s most recent headache? Getting Dong-joo to show up for the meeting he arranged with his older brother Tae-man.

The three have a very tense meeting at Fortuna where Tae-man and Dong-joo feel each other out and Myung-seok sits confused. Tae-man casually mentions the similarities between Dong-joo’s writing and that of his old “friend” (something tells me Ha-neul wouldn’t like that description) and then gives the veiled warning that people who don’t do as they’re told often have a “sad ending.”

Meanwhile, Kang-san goes to see Woo-jung again. He’s now remembered Ha-neul and asks if she knows what happened to him. His unprompted mention of his brother and desperation to find him are what finally convince her he’s actually the Kang-san she knew. We end as he apologizes for not being able to take that photo with her to commemorate the new millennium, and they both cry.

Okay, Dong-joo and Kang-san really need to have a conversation because they’re both operating separately at this point, which is just making everything harder. Kang-san has already figured out who he is and when he’s from, but he really needs to be clued into the whole murder business before he gets himself hurt running around asking too many questions. Plus, Dong-joo needs to come clean with him about his suspicions that Kai is Ha-neul — because Kang-san deserves to know, even if that requires an uncomfortable conversation about how Dong-joo is involved in all this.

 
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