The Uncanny Counter 2: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

by Unit

The final battle between good and evil is upon us, but our counters differ in their strategy of choice for approaching this battle. Still, one thing remains certain. To defeat the enemy, they will need to put their individual emotions aside and work together as a team.

 
EPISODES 11-12

Now that Joo-seok’s soul has been seemingly consumed by Pil-gwang’s spirit, Yung’s biggest nightmare has finally come true: the famous “complete evil spirit” has emerged. With the emergence of this spirit — whom I’m going to call PIL-SEOK (Pil-gwang’s soul + Joo-seok’s body) — there are no holds barred, and summoning it is pretty useless at this point. Hence Yung gives the counters a single order: to eliminate Pil-seok on sight!

As expected, Moon is against the idea of killing Pil-seok. He cannot bear the thought of bringing bodily harm to his beloved ahjussi, I see. But also, because killing Pil-seok means that all innocent souls trapped in both men will disappear without ascending to Yung. I feel bad for the innocent souls, but I stand with Mo-tak’s reasoning that eliminating Pil-seok is the lesser of two evils. Especially now that Pil-seok has begun to play around with the territory and fantasize about ending Moon’s life with the uncanny power of the territory.

Moon opines that Joo-seok’s soul hasn’t been totally consumed, and to test his theory (or desperation), he steps into the stream of darkness that is Pil-seok’s mind, to find Joo-seok. Recklessness or bravery? I go with recklessness. Pil-gwang welcomes Moon into the darkness by means of strangulation, and Moon is almost overpowered until a light shines through and he hears Joo-seok’s voice telling him to leave. Ah! It seems Joo-seok’s soul is still alive in Pil-seok after all.

Moon reports his findings to Yung, and for a moment, there’s a glimmer of hope. Because if truly Joo-seok’s soul is still in there, he can help fight Pil-gwang from within, meaning summoning Pil-gwang rather than killing Pil-seok is a possibility. But the risk is too huge for such a small possibility, hence Yung maintains its elimination stance.

Despite being in support of the elimination plan, Mo-tak muses that Joo-seok would want out of Pil-gwang’s hold on him, and he shares this thought with hoobae detective KANG HAN-WOOL (Lee Kyung-min) on their way to Pil-seok’s hideout. But why oh why would Han-wool mention his upcoming marriage out of the blue? Didn’t anyone tell him that in dramaland, sharing such happy news enroute the lion’s den is ominous?

Anyway, guess who’s not invited to Han-wool’s wedding? It’s Pil-seok! Because the first thing Pil-seok does when our detectives arrive at the hideout is to mind-control Han-wool to point his gun to his own head. But for Mo-tak’s quick intervention, Han-wool would have made his fiancée a widow before their marriage. The detectives’ bullets have nothing on Pil-seok, and soon, Mo-tak is designed with stab wounds. Before Pil-seok can read his memory to know where the other counters are, Mo-tak gets ready to off himself. “I won’t tell anything to an evil spirit,” he says, with his gun to his head. Then a gunshot rings out, and I scream myself hoarse.

But it turns out that Mo-tak didn’t pull the trigger — it was Han-wool who distracted them by shooting at Pil-seok. Unfortunately, my relief is short-lived because Pil-seok directs his anger at Han-wool, and Mo-tak is urged by his Yung partner to save himself. So he reluctantly escapes, leaving his dying partner behind. Han-wool is really going to ghost his own wedding, isn’t he? *Sniff*

Whatever sentiments Mo-tak feels towards Joo-seok are gone now, and he doesn’t care for Moon’s sermon about summoning and not killing. “Do you know what that evil spirit has done, you bastard?” Mo-tak rages after punching Moon. “He killed Han-wool. He didn’t hesitate… How many more deaths do you need to wake up?” Sigh. The fight is supposed to be against Pil-seok, not against each other.

As always, I’m team Mo-tak. Because how is it that Moon went through a coma, almost got killed by Joo-seok and Pil-gwang several times, and yet he’s still anti-elimination? I get it. In my head, I do. I understand how grateful he is to the fireman who saved his grandmother’s life, and how much he wants to keep his promise to protect Joo-seok in return. But from a viewer standpoint, it’s quite frustrating to watch.

Hana is also anti-elimination because Pil-seok’s existence proves that complete evil spirits can emerge at any time, and they need to succeed at summoning since they cannot keep killing these hybrid spirits — and losing trapped souls by extension. But the difference between Hana and Moon is that she knows when and how to pass her point across without coming off as emotionally attached as Moon.

In a surprising turn, Mo-tak gets a call from the emergency room, and we learn that our groom-to-be will actually live to say his vows. Phew! On reading Han-wool’s memory, Hana sees that Joo-seok took over his body midway into Han-wool’s strangulation, and saved Han-wool. Unfortunately, Pil-gwang is not pleased with losing control over Joo-seok’s body albeit temporarily, and when he regains control, the first thing he does is to read Joo-seok’s memories — which leads him straight to the counters’ hideout.

Pil-seok arrives at the hideout to meet Ms. Chu, Jang-mul, and Jeok-bong (the physically weaker counters) all alone. Ms. Chu and Jang-mul take turns to distract Pil-seok while Jeok-bong is sent to activate the self-destruct button that’ll take the warehouse down. Their plan is to escape and trap Pil-seok in the destruction, but Jeok-bong hesitates, and he’s flung away from the switch. Tsk.

Thankfully, Moon shows up in time and gets his team to safety, but despite their protests, he doesn’t go out with them. He intends to end this fight even if it means sacrificing himself. And with that resolve, he activates the self-destruct button and the five-minute countdown begins. Recklessness or bravery? This time, I go with bravery — even though Moon is forgetting something: his family isn’t going to abandon him to save themselves.

The other counters re-enter the arena, and Mo-tak announces a change of plans from Yung’s. They’re not killing Pil-seok, they’re going to summon Pil-gwang out of him! Mo-tak asks if four minutes is enough to carry out their plan, and Moon replies that it is, “Because from the start I never once gave up on him.”

With a joint force of psychokinesis, the counters restrain Pil-seok to give Moon the opening he needs to go into Pil-seok’s mind — because they need to find Joo-seok in order to summon Pil-gwang. Moon is initially hesitant because he needs the territory to perform this stunt, but summoning the territory will also strengthen Pil-seok. Nevertheless, he chooses to trust that his family will have his back, and off he goes into Pil-seok’s stream of darkness.

The counters do their best to keep Pil-seok at bay, but he puts up a strong fight and overpowers them. Moon, on the other hand, has it worse because as Pil-seok strangles him in the physical, Pil-gwang also strangles him in his mind’s realm. In all of this, Joo-seok is nowhere to be found. “Please come out, ahjussi.” Moon pleads, with what’s left of his strength. And as a lone tear falls from his eye, light blazes into the stream of darkness. Joo-seok regains control of his body, and Pil-gwang loses his hold on Moon!

To take Pil-gwang down, Joo-seok impales himself, and in the mind realm, Pil-gwang begins to disintegrate. Moon summons Pil-gwang — the first ever summoning of an evil spirit from the mind rather than in the physical, and what a glorious summoning it is. The self-destruct timer even stops! Moon is really the uncanny counter whose speciality is performing miracles as if they’re nothing. He’s an icon, he’s a legend, and he is the moment.

Now unconscious, Joo-seok refuses to wake up because he has nothing left to live for. But Moon encourages him to stay strong and live on, with the promise of seeing Min-ji again. Ms. Chu wipes all of Joo-seok’s memories from the time he was possessed, but he’s still going to jail. Moon keeps his promise by allowing Joo-seok to meet Min-ji in a dreamlike state, and I liked the shot of the couple on a bench beside their childhood selves at the orphanage.

Up in Yung, the Chinese counters are finally reunited, and Moon is rewarded with a European tour. Just kidding — he’s asked to teach his skills to the other counters abroad. There’s still a bit of time before we hit the standard one-hour episode mark, so we get PPL-infused fillers as everyone lives out their happily ever after.

In the six months since Moon has been gone, the show teases a potential rekindling of friendship between Hana and her crush. To Ms. Chu’s delight, Jae-yul sits for and passes the GED exams. Mo-tak still complains about having to balance detective and counter duties — but he clearly loves both jobs. And Jeok-bong has found satisfaction in humoring Moon’s grandmother.

Moon’s last assignment takes him to Germany where he meets Wi-gen’s daughter, and Wi-gen is ever so grateful to see her daughter again. By the way, I didn’t know I needed to see Moon rocking a ponytail until now. Moon has always been good looking, but ponytail Moon was a revelation! I’m mad at the hairstylists for: 1) keeping this goodness from us till the very end, and 2) bringing him back to Korea with dyed and short hair. I mean, they could just have given him his original hairstyle back. Tsk.

The curtains fall on the show with our counters doing what they do best: fighting evil spirits. As they promised in the beginning, they didn’t lose any team members and for that singular reason, I am grateful.

The Uncanny Counter 2 was ambitious and it actually had potential. Sadly, unlike the first season with much tighter and well-developed storylines, Season 2 didn’t have a meaty enough story to back up its ambition. There’s only so much excitement that can be generated from “big bad villains” and flashy action scenes before things start getting repetitive and boring. And while I genuinely enjoyed covering the drama (it was such a fun experience!), I’m ready to summon myself out in style.

 
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