BAD NEWS FOR WHO ARE YOU SQUEECAP READERS: Due to circumstances (translate: stupid computer crash), gifs will be seriously curtailed. I will try to sneak in a few as I am able to kick my lappy into generating them. CMS
Shuk: The ghosts of the week wisp away as we focus on our hottie dead detective Ghost Oppa. Which is, really, what a lot of us have been waiting for. Shi-on is becoming aware that she has a link with this spirit deeper than that of his Hand of Justice. She is also aware of growing feelings for her loyal underling. Can we not break Oppa's ectoplasmic heart too badly, Show?
bcook: I refuse to even consider this 'growing of feelings'. Such a forced thing. Anybody have any examples of actors trying to convince us they belong together? Apart from Benniffer (Jlo and Ben Affleck). I'm very happy that Ghost Oppa is getting more screen time. Actually can the show just follow him around? I think it'll be much more interesting.
EPISODE EIGHT
Shuk: Shi-on is plastered against the archives by a hot ghost, and I couldn't be any more envious. Detective Choi senses someone in the room with him, but a fortuitous phone call from our puppy stops him from investigating further. Once he is gone, our Dead Detective breathes a sigh of relief. Yeah, I don’t know how he did it either.
bcook: Writer-nim probably figured since they haven't actually spelt out what ghosts can and cannot do...why not give him the power to hide people. Question though...how come Shi-on didn't see D.Choi walking past?
Shuk: She finally says his name, with no sense of shared intimacy, and asks why he is helping her. Instead, he leads her to the box with the Y6I records in it. Too late, of course, but when she looks up, he is gone. And our Lying Detective Liar has shredded it.
bcook: She has a clue though! And what's she going to do with it? Given her track record probably tell D.Choi. SMH
Shuk: Gun-woo calls her, but her phone is still at work. So he shows up at her front door. Aww, Retriever is worried. He yanks her out to have dinner, along with Detective Choi. Before the older man gets there, Shi-on returns his fakey gun, and he tries to impress her with his aiming skills. She’s not.
bcook: We're not either. My hangul's not great but I follow TC on twitter and i'm 75% sure all his recent tweets have been about how hard acting is and how much he's learning from his sunbaes....TC. You're not learning much.
Shuk: Our liar shows up for the next round of drinks , and Detective Choi tells her he was once a marksmanship champion. He pretends to shoot with the lighter, but it triggers her memory of Y6I, and she has a brief flashback of Hyung-joon’s shooting. And just when she focuses on the hand that held the murder weapon, she snaps out of it and drops her soju glass. She runs with her instinct and asks Detective Choi if he ever knew a Detetective Lee Hyung-joon. He says no, but we all know about his mouth. Gun-woo asks where she was before she came home, and she admits to being in the document storage room. Choi freak s a little at this.
bcook: dun dun. Jeesh lady! Can't you be paranoid? Somebody died remember?!
Shuk: The next morning she is running late, but as she leaves her gate, her faithful puppy stops by and offers to carpool in the interest of their economy. She hops in, but then asks him how long is he going to guard her. He doesn't miss a beat by answering by telling her that they need to solve things together.
bcook: Word. Listen to the puppy. He's smart-ish.
Shuk: At the office, Sung-chan is happy. The weekend is coming and he has plans. She tells them to finish the subway inventory, and starts her computer file snooping as soon as they leave . She finds the dead detective’s old address and decides to stop by there.
bcook: This show requires a large amount of suspension of belief. Agreed? Like...why go to his old address? To see what there is to see? Try and get into his mindset?
Shuk: In the storage room, the men are talking men things. Sung-chan flashes movie tickets for him and the fortune teller, and Gun-woo teases him by trying to steal them.
bcook: Cute moment. No snark for this one. I hope she says yes.
Shuk: While looking for the address, Shi-on get the feeling that she had been in that neighborhood before. She recognizes businesses, and as least one business owner seemed to recognize her. She finally finds the house, and something in her memory tells her where the keys are – in a unlocked mailbox with one piece of paper in it. Wait, hasn't the house been vacant for six years? Untouched, with the keys in the mailbox?
bcook: lol. That's what everybody on Viki was talking about. Its totally possible though. If say, he owned the house and had no family. Or nobody wanted to live in a house where somebody who was shot brutally lived. There's a house in my neighbourhood that's sitting empty.
Shuk: She doesn't use the keys to get into the locked house, but she peeks through the window, seeing various trophies and a little girl doll in a blue and yellow outfit. It seems to trigger something in her mind.
bcook: See don't get that. Why go all the way to his house and not go in? Aren't you supposed to be investimagating?
Shuk: At the office, the two boys are fawning over their new hero, Gun-woo, who shows them the photos of the recent marksmanship competition. Shi-on smiles at their antics until she sees the photo and realizes his trophy looks just like the trophy at Detective Lee's house. It's the National Police Shooting Competition. When the guys leave, she looks up past winners, and there it is: Detective Lee Hyung-joon. Smiling next to Detective Choi Moon-sik. Proof positive of his lying nature.
bcook: Liar Liar pants on fire! But riddle me this. In an earlier episode (no I'm not going back to look it up) D.Choi was looking at an internal affairs report that i'm pretty sure he authored with Ghost oppa ... so how come he's the bad guy? Also.... CALLED IT!
Shuk: Meanwhile, he's feeling the willies as he remembers her searching questions. A quick look at the broken watch and he heads out of the precinct. Team Leader Yang sees him, and it become a taxi race to see where he goes. It turns out to be a church. She quietly creeps behind him, too close when her phone buzzes and he hears the noise.
bcook: I would like to see some efficient creeping. Just once.
Shuk: She ducks when he whirls, trying to shut off her phone but answering it instead. The only thing Gun-woo hears is a tolling bell. He hangs up and calls his mentor, who tells him he is at a wedding at Yongsan Church. Gun-woo is puzzled because that is where he goes when he's depressed. Choi tells his to go play with his Team Leader, but finds out she left the building. Whups, she's been found out.
bcook: This is what happens when you don't share information with your partners. Let this be a lesson to everybody. There's no I in Team. *Half hearted advice*
Shuk: But there is a "ME". :-)
Shuk: Gun-woo sees that her bag is there at the office and walks over to her desk. He sees the competition photo on her computer screen, and realizes what Shi-on realizes. And realizes where she probably is. He runs to his car as we go back to our two sitting in separate pews inside the church. He walks out, she quickly follows, and gets caught.
bcook: GW is running again! "Run Devil Run Run!"
Shuk: She shows him the competition picture and bluntly asks him why he lied. He spins a fantastical tale in which he discovers that the younger officer is in cahoots with the smugglers and ultimately ends up pointing a gun at the older man's head. Oppa is too hawt to be evil in my book, but supposedly knocks Detective Choi out by shooting him in the foot. Geez, it even sounds like a lie when I typed it.
bcook: Erm...Yeah. O___o
Shuk: He doesn't have an explanation why Shi-on was there, though. She asks what kind of man the dead detective was. He describes him as family, then asks her what her relationship with him was. So Choi either doesn't know, or does know and is testing her. Either way, it doesn't matter, since she can't remember anything anyway. By this time Gun-woo is there and hears everything.
bcook: aww. Family shot you in the leg. I'm confused though. How did he end up dead then? Fight amongst thieves?
Shuk: Back at the office, she looks at Ghost Oppa's credentials while Oppa looks at the puzzlebox. She faces him and tells him she can't decide what kind of person he really was, and you can feel his heart breaking knowing her doubts.
bcook: Can't he point at the damn thing? Jeesh!
Shuk: Choi tosses the Reaper his watch back and tells him to be more careful in the future. The man tells him he should hear from somebody soon. Oh great, another crooked cop.
bcook: I have to admit. I was shocked when this happened. So blatantly bad. I thought we were going to be strung along a little bit more. What's up writer-nim?
Shuk: Our couple likes to spend an inordinate amount of time on benches. What about mosquitoes? Anyway, Gun-woo broaches the subject of Detective Choi, and says he's the most honest cop he knows. It kind of sounds like he's trying to convince himself too. But she knows Detective Lee has helped her, and Detective Choi lied. Her lack of response fires him up, until he yells at her for believing a dead cop over a living one. Ouch, that's gonna boomerang, puppy.
bcook: Mosquitoes wouldn't dare bite actors. Fans will declare war on them.
Shuk: He calls himself an idiot for worrying about her, and that Detective Choi is a father figure to him. After he leaves, she says out loud she hopes he's right.
bcook: Parents can be bad too you know. Look at every mafia boss and hitman and assassin and cruel dictator and and...you get my point.
Shuk: Sung-chan sidles up to Hee-bin, but she plays coy and tells him she doesn't like younger guys. He stomps off to drown his sorrows with Gun-woo, as they both whine about older women. They end up at their home-away-from-home, and Sung-chan is passed out on his desk as Gun-woo looks for and finds Lee Hyung-joon's address in the police records. Sung-chan gives him the movie tickets and wishes him luck.
Shuk: Outside the Lee residence, she wonders why she keeps stopping by, and ends on on the stoop. Inside the walls, Ghost Oppa steps forward, but then stops and just stares at her through the gate. She's getting ready to leave when Gun-woo shows up, and we have a Triumvirate of Stares.
bcook: You use such big words Shuk *admiration* The 'love with gate in between' scene was beautiful but kinda funny for me because I'd just finished The Marriage Plot (you should totally watch it if you haven't already) and they had the exact same scene. Writer-nim is a copy cat.
Shuk: The alive guy takes her home, and apologizes for giving her a harder time the night before. She gets out, and he decides to invite her to the movies. They share popcorn, cola, and amusement. It seems couple's night out; well except for the ghost against the column.
bcook: It seems forced is what it does.
Shuk: We get a flashback of the happy couple at the theaters, where he tells her to only smile in front of him from now on. Awww, popcorn confession, and she calls him "Oppa". My heart gets a tug at his expression on his face in 2013.
bcook: But oooh! flashback! Do guys actually say stuff like that in real life? If yes, where can I find them.
Shuk: We get a little comic relief of our puppy trying to work up the courage and put the moves on his boss. He doesn't quite make his arm around her shoulder. He doesn't quite make his head on her shoulder, either. Smooth move FAIL.
bcook: The look on his face when he realises that everybody in there is in a couple. But yeah. I'll say again. There is a lack of chemistry and eyeloving build up that makes this scene ring false! false! false!
Shuk: Outside her house, he doesn't get the goodbye hug either. She goes inside as he heads for the car. Inside though, she notices the blue-and-gold boy doll on her television, but heads to her room to change. We get a flashback - the University of Tulsa dolls were shared between Hyung-joon and Shi-on, and witnessed at least one flirty, cute kissing session. The heavy-handed imagery is, of course, they are now separated. The lazy writer might as well have added a doll with a gun pointed at both of them.
bcook: Flashback! Is this going to become a tool? Shall I change the drinking game rules?
Shuk: As he's driving, he finds her cellphone in his front seat. He heads back, and she opens the door when she sees him hopping up and down in front of the CCTV camera.
bcook: I just want this show to be over. That's the problem! It's like 15 minutes too long.
Shuk: He identifies himself as Inspector Cha Gun-woo of the Seoul Police Lost and Found Department, and asks if she is the owner of this white cellphone. There's a tug-o-war that pulls her towards him, and she awkwardly lets go and steps back.
bcook: *gag*
Shuk: He demands identification before release the phone, and she teases him by offering a kiss. This time he releases the phone as she smiles in triumph. It's short-lived, though, as he turns around, frames her face with his hands, and plants one on her lips. She drops her eyes, suddenly unsure of herself. The second time he goes in slowly, giving her plenty of time to refuse. Which she doesn't.
bcook: *blink* *yawn* Ok. TC appears to be a good kisser. The female "I'm frozen and I've never kissed anybody before in my whole life. eww! lips!" reaction was less visible than normal. I did not squee.
Shuk: Poor Ghost Oppa! He sees the exchange, and turns his face away from the pair.
bcook: Poor guy. It was bound to happen but to see it happen with him?! I'd cry too.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Shuk: We knew this was where the writer was going, but it still pains me to see Hyung-joon not only left on the outside forever, but watching his love fall into someone else's embrace. Now he's stuck being the noble second who protects the canon couple and bows out in the end. And I can't help but compare the happy kissing of the past, with this clumsy, unsure stuff now. Sure, the Shi-on has just recently copped on to Gun-woo's feelings, but they still don't have the chemistry needed to make this work perfectly.
bcook: Second! Second! Second! I tried to find out the ratings for this show and it's looking like 1%? This show needs deliverance.
Shuk; There's now suspicion in both Shi-on's and Gun-woo's mind regarding Detective Choi. But we still don't know who the Big Bad is, and the writer hasn't given me enough information to feel even the tiniest ort of sympathy for the older detective. Sitting in a church for a few minutes doesn't make up for years of murder and manipulation. Now that the kiss is over, let the angst begin! It's time to earn that happy ending.
bcook: I don't think he was sitting there feeling bad about what he's done. I'm pretty sure he's just worried about how to cover his a$% . This has got to be the slowest build up for a show I've ever watched. I can feel my snarks get meaner and meaner and I can't do anything to stop it!! They need to give us one whole episode of Ghost Oppa. Send GW on a male only MT.
