Black Out: Episodes 12-13
by mistyisles
We’re nearing the finish line, which means some characters are finally uncovering the truth while others are finally facing down the consequences of their choices. But the real masterminds who kept the truth buried all these years are determined to wash themselves of culpability — and they’re very good at it.
EPISODE 12-13
After fatally shooting Min-soo’s father, Dong-min runs home and barricades himself inside with his gun. When the police arrive, he agrees to let Chief Hyun come in — but only if he comes alone and unarmed. Though Sang-cheol slips in through a back door to intervene if things go south, there’s no need. Chief Hyun plays on Dong-min’s guilt towards Bo-young and successfully convinces him to drop the gun.
At the police station, Dong-min expresses no remorse for avenging Bo-young. But he does feel immense regret and shame for how he treated Jung-woo’s family. He practically begs to be punished for pushing Geum-hee off the overpass. Later, at Bo-young’s funeral, Dong-min bows out early to relieve Jae-hee of the burden of his presence. Perhaps some people can change after all?
In stark contrast, Byung-mu’s dad shamelessly asks Jung-woo to write an appeal to spare Byung-mu from prison. Jung-woo looks him straight in the eye and delivers a supremely satisfying rejection to the tune of: “I also had a father who loved me.” Byung-mu can rot, thank you very much.
Speaking of shamelessness, Chief Hyun has found a new scapegoat in Hee-do (by which I mean he set up this backup plan from day 1). As more of the truth comes to light and it becomes impossible to deny that Jung-woo was innocent all along, Chief Hyun blames Hee-do for botching the initial investigation. Playing the part of a magnanimous superior looking out for his wayward underling, he advises Hee-do to resign honorably while he still can and let Chief Hyun clean up his mess.
Eleven years ago, Chief Hyun had used circumstantial evidence to convince Hee-do that Jung-woo must be guilty, and that if they couldn’t prove it, they’d be letting a murderer walk free. So Hee-do planted blood from the crime scene on Jung-woo’s shoes, sealing Jung-woo’s fate. Now, Hee-do realizes that Chief Hyun played him. He doesn’t dare tell Sang-cheol everything on record, but he leaves the shoes and a written explanation for Sang-cheol to find.
As for Chief Hyun, he continues to throw everyone but himself under the bus while making it sound like he’s humbly shouldering responsibility. When Assemblywoman Ye threatens him with Su-oh’s painting of him at the warehouse, he threatens her right back with Su-oh’s other painting of Hyung-shik murdering Da-eun — plus photo proof that Hyung-shik groomed Da-eun prior to the murder. They land in a stalemate: He agrees to wrap up the case (with the promise of a promotion once she’s elected governor) and she returns her “hostage” (Su-oh).
Meanwhile, Na-kyeom seethes with jealousy over Jung-woo’s growing friendship with Seol. When the CEO of her entertainment company confirms that Jung-woo doesn’t and has never returned Na-kyeom’s feelings, Na-kyeom throws an absolute screaming fit and refuses to go back to Seoul. Instead, she devises a scheme to turn things back to the good old days when she was the only person Jung-woo could rely on.
After luring him to her place with the promise of definitive evidence (the video she took of Da-eun’s murder), she tries once more to convince him to leave the past behind and come away with her. When that doesn’t work, she drugs him and enlists her unwitting manager to help carry him to Seol’s apartment. That’s right — she thinks that if she kills Seol and frames Jung-woo, she can put him “back into the bird cage” and have him all to herself again. Which, it turns out, was the reason she didn’t tell him the truth eleven years ago — because she was jealous of his feelings for Da-eun.
Thankfully, Sang-cheol has already discovered the tracking app Na-kyeom installed on Jung-woo’s phone. He reverse-tracks her location, beats Seol to the door, and grabs the knife out of Na-kyeom’s hands before she can hurt anyone else. Then it’s just a matter of finding where Na-kyeom hid her old phone’s SD card (in an old yearbook that she plastered with Jung-woo’s pictures like the creepy stalker she is) and turning the video in as evidence against Hyung-shik.
This is bad news for Assemblywoman Ye, who has been working round the clock to cover up her husband’s mistakes. Honestly, it’s almost comical how badly he keeps screwing up and how she keeps having to tell him to stay put, shut up, and let her do the thinking for him. Finally, when the news breaks that Hyung-shik killed Da-eun, she orders him to turn himself in. She has no intention of actually letting him go to prison, but he’s so distraught by the idea of her abandoning him that he decides to take matters into his own hands.
He’s nowhere near as good at strategy as she is, though, so his plan consists of having a former patient sneak money out of his office for him so he can, presumably, make a run for it. Jung-woo interrupts and promises to hand over the money in exchange for answers, but Assemblywoman Ye’s minion gets there first. But the time Jung-woo identifies Hyung-shik’s car, it’s full of toxic gas and Hyung-shik has passed out from whatever the minion injected him with. Jung-woo smashes the car window and drags Hyung-shik out, but we’ll have to wait until next week to find out whether Hyung-shik lives to face proper punishment for his crimes.
In the meantime, we need to talk about Su-oh. As I mentioned above, he’s back home now, and spends most of his time in the basement of his greenhouse. And as I feared, Chief Hyun has not told him about Geon-oh — instead, he lies that Geon-oh went back to the States to do some more traveling. But the big reveal about Su-oh this week is that he has a secret room inside that greenhouse basement that only he knows about… and that’s where he keeps Da-eun’s body, which he carried out of the greenhouse after Hyung-shik killed her. In Su-oh’s mind, this room is picturesque and fairytale-like, and Da-eun’s body is perfectly preserved. (When I said Su-oh holds the key to the truth, I didn’t mean it like this!) It’s as sad as it is horrifying, and I can’t help wondering what, if anything, it will take to convince Su-oh to stop “protecting” Da-eun’s corpse from being discovered.
As for the two murderers, good riddance I say (assuming Hyung-shik is actually dead, of course). But poor Jung-woo getting so close to answers only to have them repeatedly ripped from him at the last second. Technically, those directly responsible for Bo-young and Da-eun’s deaths are being punished, but not in a way that’s truly satisfying. And the powerful people behind them — namely, Chief Hyun and Assemblywoman Ye —still manage to wiggle free of consequences. I think Chief Hyun’s most chilling moment this week was him pulling Jung-woo aside to “apologize” for “messing up” eleven years ago, because this kind of mistake just happens sometimes, my bad. He’s gotten this far because he knows just what to say to make himself look like a halfway decent person. But Jung-woo and Sang-cheol have caught onto his manipulative ways at last, and I look forward to seeing his downfall next week.
RELATED POSTS
- Premiere Watch: Black Out
- Byun Yo-han searches for his missing memory in Black Out
- Byun Yo-han tries to remember the truth in Black Out
- News bites: June 6, 2024
- News bites: March 16, 2024
- Uncle Samsik: Episode 1 (First Impressions)
- Cheat on Me If You Can: Episode 1
- Like Flowers in Sand: Episode 1 (First Impressions)
Tags: Black Out, Byun Yo-han, Go Bo-kyul, Go Joon, Kim Bora, Kwon Hae-hyo
Required fields are marked *
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
1 panshel
September 30, 2024 at 11:42 AM
OMG, this is why the title of the drama is "Snow White Must Die"?! But unlike Su-oh's fairy tale, Da-eun's body will decay and decompose, so has Chief Hyun known all along where she was? I think that Da-eun's buried in the greenhouse like Bo-young's backpack. I'm sad that Su-oh is involved because he was so repulsed by Director Park as the murderer only to be involved himself. Because of his mental capacity, he probably can't be charged, but honestly, it's a good thing Geon-oh "went back to America" than to know this horrifying truth. We still need to find out how Su-oh got to the warehouse that night.
"You can't win someone's love by throwing tantrums." This girl has officially gone off the deep end. Na-gyeom exhibits all the classic signs of an abuser by separating her victim from his friends and family, so he would have to rely on her. I'm shocked, but relieved that she didn't rape Jung-woo after he was drugged, although she did kiss him.
Selfishly, I don't want Ha Seol to leave Mucheon since I love our little found family, especially Ha Seol being Jung-woo's guardian at the hospital by using Sang-cheol's credit card, but I don't want Jung-woo to stay either, so it's best if our three leads leave this cursed village together. I'm waiting for Ha Seol to call Jung-woo "oppa" instead of "Go Jung-woo-ssi" like she called scumbags Byung-mu and Min-soo.
Good riddance, Director Park. I love watching the bad guys take each other out. Why was Bo-young's dad allowed to attend his daughter's funeral, but Min-soo wasn't for his dad's? Section Chief Kim Hee-do deserves to be scapegoated and arrested, but at least he kept the fabricated evidence shoes.
Black Out is still the best show on television. A huge thanks for the recap, @mistyisles!
Required fields are marked *
pliplipli
September 30, 2024 at 12:11 PM
I'm shocked, but relieved that she didn't rape Jung-woo after he was drugged, although she did kiss him.
same! I really thought she would try to have sex with him to get pregnant or something
Required fields are marked *
2 miso
September 30, 2024 at 12:01 PM
Thanks for the recap! The Snow White bit was SO freaky - 'sad but horrifying' is a good description. I feel like Geon-oh and Su-oh paid for/ are paying for their father's sins. The Chief is an absolute snake and I don't want him to get an easy out like the murderers. He needs to burn in
helljail for a long time 😤.Na-gyeom really took a dive off the deep end, huh? Now it makes sense why she was so chipper in the prison scenes. Captive, and fully-reliant-on-her, Jung-woo was her dream!
Required fields are marked *
panshel
October 1, 2024 at 12:37 AM
I wonder if "Snow White" was a figment of Su-oh's imagination since Da-eun was wearing a white lace dress when she died. I hate to imagine that he undressed her and changed her clothes, but where would he have gotten her school uniform?
Required fields are marked *
miso
October 1, 2024 at 5:56 AM
The appearance must be his imagination - I mean how would he even preserve the corpse like that. I'm scared to find out how different the reality will be from the way he sees it.
Required fields are marked *
3 Kurama
September 30, 2024 at 1:31 PM
Now, we know who were the killers, it makes it very frustrating to watch the good ones trying to catch all the villains but they're powerful and have no conscience...
I'm really impressed how Jung-woo is not bitter neither furious. He deserves to be happy.
Required fields are marked *
4 hacja
September 30, 2024 at 2:10 PM
I feel the same way as @mistyisles that even though Jung-woo might be exonerated, the "justice" here is ultimately going to be unsatisfying, but that is what makes this show more complexly written than the average wrongfully accused suspect show.
Also, I really do like how this is directed--what scenes are made tight closeups and what zoom out. It just adds to the sense of corruption and manipulation that is the theme of the story.
There are frequently stories in the U.S. of suspects wrongfully accused (often, given the racism of the U.S. justice system, black men) who are exonerated, and released after decades of imprisonment with an apology, but they have lost the best years of their lives to corruption and incompetence, and so their only "reward" is recognition of their innocence. Here the wrongdoers will be punished (and of course, one of them already was with death) but aside from the death, maybe not in a retributive way. We'll see at the end.
This might be far fetched, but knowing that the director Byun Young-joo's first film was a documentary on Korea's comfort women, I wonder if she chose this story because of the way it resonated with the comfort woman's story--they too were imprisoned and brutally exploited by evil, self interested forces, had their lives ruined, and lived in shame for decades despite their innocence. Again, that might be too much of a stretch, but I for one see some parallels regardless of whether she did or not.
Required fields are marked *
5 ys
September 30, 2024 at 2:51 PM
After every episode, every cliffhanger, I feel like this show has chewed me up and spit me out. Like the first half of Your Honor.
The actress who plays Nagyeom did a great job. The shrieking when she was getting handcuffed was entirely appropriate. It was the only time she became unhinged and we never got crazy-eyes in her performance.
The finale will be very serious and intense and there is absolutely no room or need for romance, but I just want Jungwoo and Sangcheol to kiss. Hanbunman!
Required fields are marked *
panshel
October 1, 2024 at 12:47 AM
If there won't be a kiss, I'll settle for Jung-woo calling Sang-cheol "hyung" instead of polite "Detective-nim." I squeed when Sang-cheol called him "Jung-woo-ah." Their bromance is my favorite!
Required fields are marked *
6 Scottie
October 1, 2024 at 2:55 AM
I have to admit that I am hanging on to every word and facial expression of Chief Gu-Tak. Kwon Hae-Hyo is outperforming everybody here, which says something, because the whole cast is good. His creepy apology to Jung-woo was a very chilling highlight! As an actor, he did not mess up.
I did wonder about the title, why 'Snow White'. The reveal makes sense in a very freaky way, now.
Required fields are marked *
7 Kafiyah Bello
October 1, 2024 at 3:51 AM
Su oh was a PLOT TWIST, I kept wondering where Da On's body was and now we know. Su oh sees poor Da On as a painting, forever preserved, smh. What a drama, just top tier work by everyone.
Required fields are marked *
8 minnie
October 1, 2024 at 11:23 AM
Comment was deleted
Required fields are marked *
9 minnie
October 1, 2024 at 11:34 AM
To everyone asking themselves: why "Snow White Must Die "?
The original title of the mystery novel adapted for this drama is "Schneewittchen muss sterben" = "Snow White Must Die".
In the novel, the two girls compete for the role of Snow White in a school play, which was promised to the Bo-young-equivalent of the novel first and later given to the Da-eun-equivalent (DEE), because DEE has a fling with the teacher directing the play. DEE happens to look exactly like Snow White: black hair, dark eyes, white skin, deep red lips.
There is a reason why DEE ends up with the Su-oh-equivalent, but this would be quite the spoiler, plus: the novel IS different from the drama, and I do not know how they are going to explain.
Hope this is not too confusing.
Required fields are marked *