Waaah! Waaaaah! *Beats head on desk* Why was their only one episode of You’re All Surrounded this week? Yes, I understand real life, such as very important elections, can get in the way of things like television, but don’t these people know I’m dealing with an addiction here? That I’m jonesing for a fix and they are holding back that sweet, sweet elixir? Watching this fairly awesome episode (and please note the fairly as there will be a sizable rant coming later) makes me super ready for next week. There had better be nothing going on next week to get in the path of my two episodes. You hear that God’s of Kdrama? Do you hear me??
So, this episode. I’m pretty sure I’d called it last week when I knew that Dae Gu was going to wiggle out of getting immediately caught by Detective Seo at the beginning of the episode. Ugh, I hate this shows reliance on contrived conveniences. Of course, at that very moment, Ji Kook would come by on official business interrupting the conversation while giving Dae Gu a logical excuse for being there. *eyeroll*
I do like that, unlike other things that were just let go and passed by, Detective Seo continued to doubt and investigate–you know–like a detective. A person can’t wiggle past a positive DNA result. Hopping over the first confrontation scene to the other at the end, what a great scene that was!! Detective Seo doesn’t know why Dae Gu has chosen to hide himself, why he’s now shown up working for him under this assumed identity, and he doesn’t care. All he cares about is the fact that this boy who he’s harbored so much guilt towards, who he assumed was pretty much dead for 11 years was alive and thriving. As we all know as a kid without a family, without prospects, his future could have easily gone in the opposite direction.
When Dae Gu continued to protest that he was not that boy from the past, I was wondering why, as even he knows you can’t argue against the DNA–but that wasn’t the point of his protests–he didn’t care that Detective Seo had found him out now, that his plan would possibly be found out–no, he didn’t want Seo to have the satisfaction, to have the relief that came with knowing that the Ji Yong of the past was alive and safe. Dae Gu believes that Seo deserves to live believing his actions killed Ji Yong.
I wonder how this will effect the rest of the story. Yes, Dae Gu can go on pretending he is who he says he is, but can Detective Seo? I don’t think so, I think Seo is going to keep pushing Dae Gu for the truth, or will be overly attentive towards him, possibly trying to keep him out of harms way. We certainly don’t want to send the kid you thought was dead for 11 years, only to find out he was alive, into a dangerous situation where he could possibly be killed. For realz this time.
And it’s not just Detective Seo who knows the truth about Dae Gu now. While it took her a little longer than Detective Seo to figure it out–you know–not having the access to DNA testing that Seo does but I’m glad she finally knows the truth. Of course she didn’t need the DNA testing when she had the handy visit by her brother to say “Oh yeah, that’s totally Ji Yong even though I haven’t seen him in 11 years and is played by a different actor.” (Laugh.)
When she confronted him at the apartment, and the scenes after, so many feels! I want to say I wonder why he won’t tell her who he is and have her help him, but I can see why he doesn’t feel comfortable doing so. He wants to protect her from what is going on his life (and the very real idea that a killer may be after him) and he can see how she idealizes Detective Seo. While she means well, her idealism for him and the job itself, would get in the way of his revenge. I can see her not believing Seo to be a bad guy and spending her time trying to prove Dae Gu wrong, attempting to heal the wound between the two men. Which of course can’t happen until we’re at least 5 more episodes into the story when they will have their inevitable showdown and will start working together to catch the real killers.
Of course, what Dae Gu doesn’t realize is that by not bringing her in on the situation, not trusting her to help, he’s not going to be able to solve the puzzle as it is she who literally has the major puzzle piece (the medallion). When she went to his apartment, I honestly thought she was going to bring it to him and that would be what caused him to open up to her. But I currently am still liking the idea that he won’t be able to complete his mission without her help. Good job, writers.
We did get a bigger look into Dae Gu’s past and solved last weeks question of how he and the captain got together and whether she was a good witch or a bad witch–ummm–captain. It’s interesting how this show keeps throwing curve balls at us. A few weeks ago, she was a nice lady, last week with the reveal of her being Dae Gu’s partner, she, with a single look, turned bad, and now, when we get the information of Dae Gu’s past, we realize that she really is a good person there to help Dae Gu do what he thinks he needs to get over the past. She agreed to assign him to Detective Seo because he asked, but she also is hesitant to believe that Detective Seo is the bad person Dae Gu believes him to be. She thinks that by putting the two together, Dae Gu will eventually learn more about the man himself and will start to second guess himself and his convictions. So she is pro Dae Gu and pro Detective Seo.
I am officially a giant fan of the writing of the women characters in this drama. Soo Sun, the Angry Lady Detective and the Captain are all strong women who, while not the center of the story, are not cookie cutter characters and are willing to stand up for what they believe in. They all have layers to them, even more so than the male characters, and that we don’t see enough in kdrama. If only we could get the writers past their love of convenient plotting, inconsistent style, and exposition dropping, I would have a new favorite writer.
Now that I’ve gotten the good stuff out of the way, lets talk about the bit that made me really freaking angry. This may be just me, as I am one who holds a grudge, but I was pretty po’ed at Ji Kook this episode. First off, is it going to be a running gag that he keeps getting taken hostage? That I’m okay with, that’s kind of funny. What I didn’t like was when he decided to freak out because of his inferiority complex to Tae Il then announcing his secret to the group. WHY? I think I’m going to have to partly blame this on clumsy writing. The whole scene, his freak out, then him attacking Tae Il just rang false. Why would he, at that moment, feel resentful towards Tae Il? Why would he think the the rest of the group freaking care that Tae Il was once a doctor? For that matter why would Ji Kook? Does it even matter to anything? Its like the writer needed to get the information out, wanted to give the Exposition Fairies something else to do besides dole out plot information, and drum up this fake controversy.
Then we move onto the next scene when he tries to explain himself to Tae Il and Ji Kook was jealous because he was usually the lauded one? What does that have to do with anything? How is that an excuse for his behavior since he found out? Tae Il was nothing but nice to him from the very start and for him to betray his confidence, one that Ji Kook himself had pushed him to reveal, was a real asshole move.
And that wasn’t even his first betrayal of the episode, he easily let Detective Seo into the house and showed him Dae Gu’s tooth brush–his only worry was that Dae Gu would be mad at him when he lied about throwing away the tooth brush. There was no pause, no second guessing Detective Seo, he easily threw his teammate under the bus. Yes, I understand that Detective Seo is the boss and he couldn’t actually refuse, but aren’t they supposed to be becoming a team? I think it was the lack of hesitation, the not telling Dae Gu after the fact that irritates me the most. These two incidents reveal his lack of character and I wish him to go away. Now.
</rant> For now.
All in all I like where this story is going. The easy flow of the episodes. Each reveal brings with it new questions. For the last few episodes the cases have been small, or just showing us bits of them in order to reveal information or push our characters further (the hostage scene with the doctor reveal–grrrr–and the suspect chase and the shoe tying scene–squeeeee!). I’m sure eventually we’ll get a big involved case, but honestly? I’m not really looking forward to it. I like the tone and pacing of these episodes which seem different from the first few. I hope it continues on in this vein for a while.
Notes
Cutest date ever? Probably. I love where this couple is going. Or I should just say, I love this couple. They had this horrible thing happen to them in the past and their relationship was ripped apart, but now, despite knowing the worst of each other, have decided to try and let go of the past and try again. In the world of Kdrama, if your couple gets together too early, it usually means that they are going to be torn apart in the very near future, but where the plot isn’t really about them, I’m crossing my fingers that the writers are just going to let them be. The upcoming stories and what it reveals and does to Detective Seo will be the test if he’s actually able to change as he promised her when they restarted the relationship. I like Detective Seo, and I like the change Detective Seo is making on Angry Lady Detective so I hope that, this time, they can make it work.
Bring on the squeee’s! We have a backhug! I love that Dae Gu didn’t push her away. I think he needed that bit of comfort that she was offering to him. For that moment, needed to be Ji Yong again. While he was a lot luckier than a lot of orphans, he was lucky to have a champion in the Captain, he’s been alone for a lot of years and that bit of physical comfort, a touch of another person took a chunk out of that wall he keeps up around himself.
And did anyone else notice that he subtly rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand before he dropped his? Yep, squeeee!
Don’t ask again or I’ll kiss you! Okay, this irritated me a bit. First off. Yes please Seung Gi! Second, why bring kissing into it? Would you have said that to one of your other co-workers? It’s not like he was actually, by saying, Don’t ask again or I’ll kiss you, saying “Ask me again so I can kiss you!” That I can get behind. No. He knew she’s chosen being a detective over personal relationships, so she’d stop asking. What I’d liked for her to do would be to ask him again, he’d kiss her, and then she’d drop a sweet judo move on him. Now that I could get behind. Kisses are for enjoying, kisses are not for threats.
Obvious bad guy alert! Now that we know who Dae Gu’s partner is, know that said partner is not the bad guy, it’s time to get get working on actual bad guy and head bad guy. Which brings us back to this guy. Of course he was bad guy. Pretty sure that’s why they hired this actor. I wish they’d cast out of type for this character so it wasn’t so obvious. And if head bad guy knows Dae Gu is alive and possibly knows he’s a detective (unless bad guy henchmen kept that information for a further reveal) bad things are coming for Dae Gu. Which we all knew would happen, but I’d hoped we’d been able to get a few more of these awesome episodes under our belts before bringing in the badie.
No Comments