The Judge from Hell: Episodes 11-12

by DaebakGrits

Praise be unto the K-drama gods, for they have delivered unto us a penultimate week full of much needed answers. Even though there is a lot crammed into these two episodes, the pacing is consistently exciting and leaves no room for boring filler.

 
EPISODES 11-12

After last week’s cliffhanger, I think everyone was expecting at least one half of our OTP to get stabbed — or at least slightly maimed — by Paimon’s lance. Instead, Ah-rong shows up at the last minute to kick the flying weapon out of the way, and her act of heroism is the only thing that keeps Bit-na from tearing her limb from limb. It may be Ah-rong’s demon occupation to hunt down other demons who have become emotionally attached to humans, but Bit-na can’t forgive her for going after Da-on. For one, he’s an innocent (for now) human, and for another, that’s Bit-na’s man. So, while Bit-na may spare Ah-rong from her wrath, she also tells the lesser demon that she never wants to see her again, which is the ultimate punishment for Ah-rong, who stans Bit-na as though she was a K-pop idol.

And speaking of punishment, Bit-na has to face her own because she’s broken quite a few demon taboos (killing a fellow demon, falling in love with a human, etc.). Bael strips her of her powers, rendering her as defenseless as a human, which is going to make her mission to hunt down and kill unrepentant killers a lot more difficult — but not impossible.

Meanwhile, Da-on is questioned by the police about his connection to his new partner’s death. Since Da-on can’t tell the other detectives that his new partner was possessed by a demon, he plays the I-don’t-know-anything card. After he’s released, he’s both boastful and remorseful (in a what have I become? kind of way) that he’s a better liar than he’d thought — but I’m going to disagree with our detective on this one. He’s a very crappy liar, and his fellow officers are either really shitty detectives or willing to overlook Da-on’s obviously suspicious answers because he’s one of their own. Like, is no one going to comment on the cuts on Da-on’s face and ask if he fought with his partner? Inconsistent, shoddy detective work when it’s convenient for the plot has been a running issue with this drama, so I really shouldn’t make an issue of it this late in the game, but — c’mon!

Given the unreliableness of the police, though, it’s no wonder that Bit-na, who is practically human at this point, must go undercover to determine J and Satan’s identity. Still unconvinced that Deadbeat Brother has it in him to be a serial killer, Bit-na infiltrates his family’s home by brazenly showing up and asking the assemblyman for a second chance at being his daughter-in-law. This time, though, she surprises everyone at the dinner table when she asks for Deadbeat Brother’s hand in marriage.

Deadbeat Brother is so shocked by the outlandish proposal — and his father’s immediate acceptance — that he storms off from the table. Bit-na follows and discovers — along with a disturbingly large airsoft gun collection that’s completely incongruous with the rest of the polished decor — the door to a secret room hidden behind a bookshelf full of reference books. Finding out what’s on the other side of the door, however, will have to wait until her next visit. For now, she and Da-on try to assemble the few puzzle pieces they already have in hand.

Da-on and what’s left of his detective team are back to investigating Bit-na’s string of killings in earnest — completely unperturbed by the fact that they recently lost another member of their team and that Da-on was an initial suspect. You’d think Da-on’s teammate, who’s keen-eyed enough to deduce Bit-na is involved in the forehead killings, would take one look at Da-on’s cut and bruised face and be equally suspicious of Da-on’s recent behavior, but no, he’s laser focused on Bit-na.

However, he’s willing to concede — thanks to Da-on consistently vouching for her character — that she might not be their killer. Even so, he argues that they should still dig into her background, her recent stabbing, and the people connected to her — namely, the assemblyman and Bit-na’s ex-fiancé. Given that his teammate’s intuition partially aligns with his and Bit-na’s own investigation, Da-on doesn’t protest much over his teammate’s logic, and the two men reconcile after Da-on’s teammate breaks down in tears over his own guilt and inability to save So-young from her killer. And so, while their objectives align, they reinvestigate Bit-na’s stabbing, which was seemingly covered up by her ex-fiancé’s family.

When Da-on discovers that Bit-na’s own investigation has led her to go undercover as Deadbeat Brother’s new fiancee, he’s a bit pouty and jealous, which opens the door for Bit-na to take him out on a date. Given that she learned everything she knows about first aid from K-dramas, one can only assume that she also picked up her date ideas from the same source because this week’s dating montage features some familiar dating tropes. But, of course, Bit-na puts her own characteristic demon twist on them all.

Although the fluffiness of these scenes feels at odds with the overall tone of the drama, this OTP really needed more “couple time” to solidify their relationship status. Because, let’s be real — for a story that’s steeped in the mythos of a prophesied star-crossed romance, it’s been rather light in the romance department — lots of blood and gore with the occasional drunken confession, almost kiss, and heroic rescue. More importantly, though, this dating montage reveals that Bit-na, in addition to having feelings for Da-on, desires the normalcy of a human relationship, which really ups the stakes for Bit-na as she draws closer to fulfilling Gabriel’s prophecy. Yes, there’s a loophole that will allow her to spend eternity in hell with Da-on after he kills J and avenges his family, but that’s clearly not what Bit-na wants for either of them now.

First things first, though. Bit-na needs to take a look inside that hidden room in the assemblyman’s house. On a day when she knows Tae-gyu and his father are out bribing other politicians golfing, she shows up extra early for their scheduled dinner to explore Satan’s secret lair, which consists of three rooms: a fancy lobby area with its own reflecting pool, a rustic looking bedroom, and — the most important — a bonafide demon dungeon hidden inside a painting that’s accessible only to demons, including the powerless Bit-na. It’s here that Bit-na finds the murder weapon and the severed body parts belonging to J’s victims frozen and on full display.

The other two rooms in the lair, however, can be accessed by humans, which is how Deadbeat Brother catches Bit-na in the act of stealing the murder weapon. He knocks her unconscious and when she wakes, she’s bound — but her vulnerability gives Deadbeat Brother the confidence to monologue a bit and provide Bit-na (and the viewers) with some much needed backstory and explanations.

We flashback to the night human Bit-na was stabbed and accidently sent to hell. Before she died, she innocently took herself on a little tour of Tae-gyu’s house while waiting for him to arrive home. This is how she accidentally discovered the hidden lair and a video of Tae-gyu torturing Deadbeat Brother’s mother — a textbook lesson in why you should never invite a bibliophile into your home if you have a secret demon dungeon hidden behind a bookshelf. Horrified by what she’s seen — and the menacing look on Tae-gyu’s face when he catches her in the lair — Bit-na flees, promising to never tell anyone about what she saw on the tape. Yeah, like Tae-gyu’s going to let her live after witnessing his dark secret. But instead of getting his hands dirty, Tae-gyu makes a deal with his brother: go kill Bit-na, and I’ll reward you with some drugs.

In the present, Deadbeat Brother intends to finish what he started in the past, but Da-on shows up to rescue Bit-na, with a little help from Ah-rong, who remains loyal to Bit-na. In the chaos, Deadbeat Brother escapes with the murder weapon, but despite his past and present attempts on Bit-na’s life, she’s more positive than ever that he is not Satan. He was not able to open the painting’s hidden room, so Satan must be either Tae-gyu or his father.

Now that Bit-na is close to catching Satan and finding the Kylum, she contacts Bael and barters this information in exchange for her powers. Once she’s restored to full power, she and her friends — including Ah-rong, who’s rejoined the team — set into motion a trap in order to identify Satan. Their plan begins with them hunting down Deadbeat Brother and faking his death. This allows Bit-na and friends to point the police investigation towards Tae-gyu and his father (thanks to a fake suicide note) while buying them the time they need to spy on their suspects via magic mirror. At just the right moment, Deadbeat Brother miraculously returns from the dead and hands the murder weapon over to the police.

Through her magic mirror, Bit-na watches as a panicked Tae-gyu retrieves the Kylum from its hiding spot, but Tae-gyu isn’t Satan. No, his father is Satan, and Tae-gyu is merely a psychopath doing Satan’s bidding in exchange for the power and success. You see, twenty-five years ago Tae-gyu (who is a lot older than I thought, BTW) murdered his father after he refused to acknowledge or provide for Tae-gyu, his illegitimate son. Satan (cameo by Park Ho-san) moved into his vacated body, and since then, Tae-gyu has been killing and dismembering people so Satan can collect the body parts he needs to Frankenstein his own immortal flesh bag.

As for the whole redevelopment plot, that was so Satan could demolish and dig up the area where he lost the Kylum, which, unbeknownst to Satan, Tae-gyu had already located. Tae-gyu offers up the Kylum in exchange for a get-out-of-South-Korea-and-jail free card. He’s fearful the police will find forensic evidence that ties him to the murder weapon, but then he goes and mucks it up by trying to backstab and kill Satan… in the mirage world that Satan conjured to see his innermost desires. Tae-gyu flees, bleeding profusely from the stab wound Satan gave him, but Satan doesn’t bother following him. He’s got the Kylum, so off to the demon dungeon he goes.

Bit-na, however, is not far behind him, so before he can insert the Kylum into his new, some-assembly-required body, she puts a pause on the whole satanic ritual. What ensues is another epic demon-on-demon battle — with a brief intermission while Satan uses his powers to reveal Bit-na’s innermost desires. While under his spell, Bit-na imagines her wedding to Da-on, and once again, I’m thankful for the brief dating montage in Episode 11 that set the groundwork for this particular fantasy. Given they’ve only gone on one official date, it’s still rather surprising that she’s already thinking about marriage, but, hey, who am I to question the speed at which a demon falls in love — especially when it’s fated?

The illusion Satan cast over Bit-na is broken as the sound of him chanting a spell breaks through and a raging storm interrupts the wedding ceremony. She returns to reality just in time to watch Satan reanimate the frozen corpse of Deadbeat Brother’s mother. After fighting off the zombie mother, Bit-na steps up her game, defeats Satan, and puts him and the Kylum on an express train to hell.

With the demonic villain defeated, that just leaves one baddie: the human psychopath and serial killer Tae-gyu. Still bleeding from his leg and unable to legally leave the country, Tae-gyu hires a boat captain to ferry him out of the country, but mid journey, the boat “breaks down” in the middle of the bay. Out pops Da-on, who proceeds to beat the absolute crap out of his family’s murderer. Da-on’s rage builds as Tae-gyu taunts him with the tragic details of So-young’s final moments.

Like Da-on, when So-young had thought she’d found his family’s killer, she’d told him that she’d waited twenty-five years for the moment she could face him down. Unfortunately, she’d cornered Deadbeat Brother in the alley, and Tae-gyu had caught her by surprise and shot her. After the brothers moved her to another location, she fought gallantly to the end, going so far as to carve Tae-gyu’s name in her arm with a rusty screw to help her fellow detectives find her killer. Unfortunately, her defiant behavior and confidence alerted Tae-gyu to her actions, and he took a sadistic pleasure in dismembering her arm while she was still alive.

Upon hearing these words, Da-on is on the verge of killing the unrepentant Tae-gyu and upholding his end of the bargain he’d made with Bit-na, but then we flash back to earlier in the night. Bit-na had given Da-on the freedom to choose what kind of justice he wanted to give Tae-gyu. He could follow their original plan and kill him, at which point Bit-na would become his protector in hell — or he could arrest Tae-gyu, and Bit-na swore she would ensure he was punished harshly according to mortal laws, as So-young would have wanted.

Unsurprisingly, he spares Tae-gyu’s life, but we end this week’s episodes with concerns that Bit-na might betray Da-on. You see, just as she’s about to enter the courtroom and begin Tae-gyu’s trial, Bael pays Bit-na a surprise visit and issues an ultimatum: either she releases Tae-gyu and sends him to hell, or he drags her to hell and destroys her.

At this point, I think it’s safe to say she will defy Bael, whose motives grow increasingly suspect with each cameo. Even Satan, in the final moments of his battle with Bit-na, warned her to not trust the spider demon, and lest we forget, Bael ordered Paimon to kill her. However, it’s still to be determined whether or not the writers have given him a purpose. Is he our story’s final boss, or is he just a guy who pops in and out whenever the story needs to introduce a new obstacle to Bit-na and Da-on’s relationship?

Someone with equally mysterious motives is our drama’s lone angel, who is not above manipulating our characters in a very unangelic manner. Turns out, Gabriel straight up lied to Bit-na when he told her that he could no longer watch over and protect Da-on. Supposedly, it was a test — presumably for the greater good — to see how Bit-na would react, but once again I find myself questioning the portrayal of this singular character and what — if anything — the writers are trying to tell us about religion.

In my opinion, this drama’s original intention was to entertain — not provide social commentary, one way or the other, on religion. However, in the process of exploring themes of morality and justice through its oddball assortment of demon and human characters, The Judge from Hell feels like it accidentally made a wrong turn and somehow ended up taking a strong stance against religion when it (ironically) introduced its token angel to the plot.

Prior to Gabriel’s identity being revealed, the demons were both the good guys and the bad guys of our story, and the absence of angels didn’t feel like an oversight. The demons were simply taking care of demon business and collecting on a few hell-bound souls early, and there was no need for heavenly beings to interfere. However, Gabriel’s introduction and subsequent portrayal have since only highlighted the angel’s passiveness in a way that makes him less appealing than our proactive murderer-killing demon.

And this suggestion that our demon is perhaps more worthy of idolization than our absentee angel was never more apparent than in this week’s episodes. When Bit-na’s religious landlady collapses on the street, Bit-na carries her (and her Bible) home. Religious Landlady is distraught that her son’s killer has resurfaced, and she confesses to Bit-na — not a priest — that she failed to forgive the killer. Instead, wants to see her son’s murderer ripped apart, and because we know Bit-na can and will find justice on this woman’s behalf, we continue to root for our story’s demons instead of its angel.

I have every confidence that this drama is going to spin Gabriel’s passiveness as being part of some divine plan that includes Bit-na’s redemption and possible happy ending, which is why I believe this drama’s negative portrayal of religion is entirely unintentional. Plus, you know, Gabriel’s main identity has the face of one of dramaland’s favorite halmoni’s, so there’s no way the team behind this drama wanted us to dislike her or question our angel’s motives. Instead, they want us to trust the drama and our angel’s process. There’s just one problem: dramaland has taught us to be mistrustful — especially when we’re approaching the finale.

 
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