The Judge from Hell: Episodes 3-4

by missvictrix

And we’re back for more wild times with our demon-turned-judge, except it’s even more fun this week since we get backstory filled in, some wider plot intrigue — and a rather serious case of the butterflies.

 
EPISODES 3-4

We pick right back up with Da-on bleeding out on the ground and Bit-na having a grand time watching it. Except she’s wrong. Bael busts onto the scene in his spidery Shin Sung-rok glory to tell her that Da-on is innocent. Bit-na has made a huge mistake, and now she gets a very biblical double portion: she now has to nab 20 unrepentant murderers instead of a mere ten. But before we get to that, we watch Da-on’s stabbing in reverse, and when he next gasps, he’s very much alive. And pretty sure that thing that didn’t happen definitely happened: she killed him.

Off to the police station! Here, noona detective KIM SO-YOUNG (Kim Hye-hwa, cheers!) tells him he’s still drunk and the whole thing gets laughed off. But Da-on is a detective for a reason and he can’t let it go. He starts pestering Bit-na by way of getting in her space and calling her with a megaphone, until she’ll explain what the heck happened to him.

Bit-na has never tried to hide her demon nature, so it doesn’t take too much for her to outright tell Da-on that she’s a demon. She reveals her mystical dagger and even blows out the CCTV camera and though he’s startled, he’s still confused. So what does he do? Search “Kang Bit-na” and then “demons” (separately) on the Internet. LOL. Nice work, detective. Anyway, in Jane Austen terms, “the two are much thrown together” when they’re on the same case yet again and spend lots of time together investigating.

Here’s the backstory of the incident. A drunk man in the backseat was getting driven home by his new wife and his son (aka most adorable boy on earth). But when New Wife suddenly crashed all three of them off a cliff and into the water (that happened awfully easily), she chooses to rescue the little boy, while her husband sadly drowns. It’s awful, and the drama doesn’t spare the… drama.

Well, when the case turns up on Bit-na’s desk and in her courtroom, it’s because the boy’s grandma is making a big stink trying to “save” the boy from New Wife who “killed her son” and apparently killed her first husband too. Halmeoni is painted as a bit batty, while New Wife is grieving and delicate. But as Bit-na digs deeper (with Da-on~), some drawings from the little boy reveal a very different story.

As Bit-na comes to uncover (and later, Da-on), New Wife has been abusing the little boy. And as for the evidence of whether she killed her husband, Bit-na just needs to turn to her very convenient magic mirror. There, she catches New Wife acting all heartbroken, only to give the most evil smirk ever when her back is turned. And thus, Bit-na has her next killing project.

As with the case we saw last week, these unrepentant evil-doers are indeed just the worst of the worst. The things New Wife did to the little boy were deeply disturbing… and of course Bit-na takes perverse pleasure in reenacting each one with herself as the assailant and New Wife as the victim. New Wife also gets to experience the torturous deaths she designed for both husbands. Then, she’s stabbed, stamped, and sent to Gehenna — and Bit-na’s got her BOGO deal in the bag.

Last week we saw the completely charming clean-up crew from hell (Ha Kyung-min and Lee Joong-ok) and after this slaying they come back to supernaturally remove all traces of the crime from the scene — and Bit-na. But the body? Bit-na decides to leave it in a suitcase in front of the police station. Not really caring that the police will stitch these two killings together into a serial killing, Bit-na’s sole purpose is to get Da-on’s attention. You see, he inexplicably lost his interest in figuring her out. He might just believe her demon story, but no one believed him when he said he was stabbed and killed. (Indeed, the psychiatrist gives him the same diagnosis that she gave Bit-na last week). So for some reason, all his curiosity disappeared, and he promised to leave her alone.

But there’s only one problem with that: Bit-na doesn’t want him to leave her alone. Somewhere during their sniping and investigating, she’s developed quite a little crush on him. During the case with New Wife and the little boy, Da-on associated big time with the boy, and how the cops wouldn’t take his statements seriously. In his own childhood, Da-on experienced the same thing — in fact, this entire case was written just to pull out Da-on’s backstory (but that’s okay).

What happened was this: when Da-on was little, he came home one day to find his parents brutally murdered and the killer still in the house. The police never took his witness statement seriously, and that’s why when Bit-na does listen to the little boy in this current case (knowing he’s the key), Da-on cracks. And by “cracks” I mean stares at Bit-na with tears streaming down his face while they’re standing talking on a photogenic lighthouse pier. In that moment, Da-on’s dealing with 30 years of cathartic emotion after hearing Bit-na say: “I always believe children.” But as for Bit-na, she’s got some weird heart palpitations going on and has to look away from Da-on… (I told you, it’s those eyes!)

Well, what we learn of Da-on’s past gives us clues into why he’s so protective of victims — and maybe why he lives out of his camper. Which is fine and everything, but I hope this show doesn’t try to convince me that he can go on a police chase in that thing. I’m also not really sure if the show adequately explained Da-on’s on-and-off behavior here, but we’ll see how they rectify that next week.

As for Bit-na, the stakes are quite a bit higher. She knows she’s missing Da-on after he ghosts her, but her pouting around can’t be because she likes him or anything. Indeed, her demon minion GU MAN-DO (Kim In-kwon) and latest demon-hoobae LEE AH-RONG (Kim Ah-young) chat over how demons can’t fall in love with humans. Never! Cue: Convenient flashback to Bael back in hell telling Justitia that if she falls in love during her mission, she’ll experience a fate worse than death. And for some further foreshadowing, the lovely Kim Young-ok also lurks in Bit-na’s decrepit neighborhood, and when she sees Bit-na and Da-on together, warns that one of them will die if they remain together.

But there’s another thread too (because K-drama)! While Bit-na is looking for murderers with high kill counts so she can maximize her ROI and get back to hell, Ah-rong tells her there’s a serial killer who was never caught. The only witness was a boy at the time, and he’d be about 30 now… *wink wink*

The other bit of fun we get this week is around pre-dead Bit-na. Her almost-father-in-law is ASSEMBLYMAN JUNG (Kim Hong-pa, why can I never trust that you’re a good guy) and he wants to tell her “what she used to be like.” Cut to: fancy dinner at their mansion with her ex-fiancé JUNG TAE-GYU who we met briefly last week. Oddly enough he says almost nothing over dinner and his dad does all the talking.

Long story short, Bit-na was cued up to be dad’s political successor but uri Bit-na as she is right now finds that utterly ridiculous. In fact, she finds most everything utterly ridiculous (except Cola Z and Da-on), and it’s her total detachment and mocking demeanor that makes this character. It’s the life of the show, and I was just as impressed as I was last week with Park Shin-hye here — she’s even changing her vocal inflections for the role, and it’s just so much fun. Whether she’s blasting Puccini, dusting off crumbs from her fingers for her minion to clean up, or inflicting torment on those who arguably deserve it, Bit-na is queen.

But as our episodes end, said queen has just passed out. There’s a new neighbor in her apartment building, and when she begrudgingly goes into the hall, who is this new neighbor but Da-on? Cue the heart palpitations, and collapsing into his arms in her bathrobe. Oh boy, I’m just loving this. This might be the ~love next door~ I was waiting for.

 
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