WOW!  What did I just watch?  In case you are wondering, my mind is totally blown and it is only episode 5.  I have to admit that I am a little intimidated to be writing this recap because no matter how poetic or concise I might be, there is no way to convey this drama’s awesomeness level.  But I will do my best on expressing my jumbled up feelings and I hope that you are watching this show.  Because if there was ever a show that deserves to be viewed and appreciated, it would be W-Two Worlds.

UGH… Did I mention I don’t know what to write?  Even if I went scene by scene I wouldn’t be able to do this justice.  So I guess I am going to just throw out my random thoughts and hope things make sense and you are entertained.  If not………..well, you can always ignore me and go watch Episode 5 again.  I know that I will be watching it at least once or twice more this week.

First, let’s take a moment and give a huge warm applause for the director and writer of this drama.  Not only am I in awe over the plot and how something so complicated makes sense, but the director’s ability to take the concept and bring it to life is amazing.  I especially love how intricate the lighting always is on Kang Cheol.  Regardless of whether he is in the “real” world, or the comic world, he stands out from his surroundings.  A truly masterful feat that could not be accomplished by acting skills alone.

Now that Kang Cheol knows the truth, that he is, in fact, the leading character in a comic, his world comes to a grinding halt.  Every person, save himself, is frozen and Kang Cheol is left alone to his existential crisis.

But never fear, there is always a way out for our determined hero.  A huge blue rectangle appears in the air next to him.  A portal into the “real” world and Yeon Joo.

Now we get to the Meta portion of our story.  And boy do they Meta the crap out of the story to the point where we viewers have problems figuring out what is real and what is fake….. as do the characters which is the whole point of meta-plots.

 

Kang Cheol literally is forced to face, well, himself when he comes across a giant picture (in webtoon form) of W on a bus.  Stepping out in front of traffic, and unaware of anything but that poster, our hero is slapped in the face with why he exists.

Finding a bookstore, Kang Cheol quickly skims through all the books that share the story of his miserable life.  It must be horrible to see every detail and despairing moment thrown out as entertainment.  Can’t even begin to imagine how that would feel.  Not to mention Kang Cheol’s devastated expressions hurt this blogger’s heart.  I just want to make everything better for the poor character.

There is one bright light among all of our Hero’s dark moments.  Kang Cheol wastes no time in hunting down Yeon Joo at her hospital, claiming to be her fiance.  SQUEEE!!!!  Kang Cheol takes Yeon Joo to the rooftop to thank her for thinking so much of his feelings.  Greatful that she would suffer to try and keep him safe and sad that he forced her to tell him the truth.

Worried over what Kang Cheol’s going to do, our sweet heroine offers him the use of her house while he is here since she knows how hard it can get, being somewhere you don’t exist.  You can tell that Kang Cheol is truly touched and he swoops in to give Yeon Joo a “real” kiss.  I love how you can tell that this is truly a kiss with emotions, unlike the previous two that had been done for manipulative reasons.

Yeon Joo get’s Kang Cheol to agree to wait for her to finish surgery, but I think we all knew that Kang Cheol wasn’t going to wait.  This was definitely a goodbye moment.

Indeed, the second Yeon Joo is gone, Kang Cheol makes his way to her father’s house to confront his “creator”.  Which brings us to the highlight of the episode…. at least in my opinion (and most of Korea’s since the ratings skyrocketed during this scene.)

It is too intense a scene for me to really give the same feel and intensity to a recap so I am going to break it down into several key points.

1. Yeon Joo is listening to the whole conversation.  Her father was in mid-call to our leading lady when Kang Cheol confronted him.  Yeon Joo is making her way to her father’s house while listening to the conflict.  Also, I would like to note that Kang Cheol managed to make it to her father’s house pretty quickly (If you guestimate the time she started her Surgery to the conclusion).  Yeon Joo, on the other hand, seems to be in the non-stop cab ride from hell.  It’s time to promise that driver an extra $20 to get him to put his pedal to the metal.
2. Kang Cheol is a wee bit upset with everything that has transpired.  And understandably so.  It is not every day that you find out your family was murdered for entertainment.  Or that you yourself are tortured day and night with the horrors of your life just so a writer can profit on your fictional pain.
3. Yeon Joo’s dad is all out crazy as a loon.  Also, a total alcoholic and jerk of the first order when it comes to his fictional characters coming to life.  But mostly he is coo coo for cocoa puffs nutso.
4. Was I the only one that was shocked when Yeon Joo’s dad stabbed Kang Cheol at the beginning of the drama?  Like literally screamed at the TV shocked?  I did mention that her dad is cray cray right?
5. Even after everything that happened, Kang Cheol is willing to let dad live as long as he writes an ending to Kang Cheol’s story.  One where he finds out the identity of his family’s murderer. But Dad, in all his jerk glory, informs Kang Cheol that the killer doesn’t actually exist.  He is only a narrative figment to make the story flow and give Kang Cheol a reason to fight for justice.  Man…. Dad is really sucking right now.  You should always have some sense of where your story is going to end.  But in Dad’s case, at least at this point, he has no clue who the killer is and it is just a plot device.
6. At this point, Kang Cheol still shies away from killing Writer Dad.  Until Writer Dad opens his big fat mouth, smirking that his development of Kang Cheol’s character makes it impossible for the hero to pull the gun’s trigger and kill someone.  In other words, Kang Cheol is even being directed now despite leaving the webtoon world.  That was the last straw for Kang Cheol.  He whips around and shoots Yeon Joo’s dad.

WOW!  Even just recapping this episode, I am impressed with how well the writers kept the various plot threads shifting.  It is rare that a complicated story, such as this one, manages to stay on point and not bogged down in plot.  Let’s just hope that this strong narrative continues to the end.

And now it is time for some Conspiracy Theories?  Did anyone guess this week’s plot twist?  If not, be sure to try again for next week.  Being at the beginning of the drama, I am sure we still have a lot of ground to cover before things get settled.

THEORY #1

This is the one I am sticking with… at least I have for the last 3 episodes.  I personally feel that there is a killer out in one of the worlds and my guess as to the identity is ………………………………………………. Wait for it ……………………………………………………… Cute Khottie resident.  When I was watching episode 1 for the third time (yes I know I have an obsessive W-Two Worlds problem) I realized that resident boy has a long standing connection with Yeon Joo and her father.  Not to mention Kang Cheol commenting on how Resident Boy seems jealous.  Yup, I totally think there is more there than meets the eye.

THEORY #2

Yeon Joo’s father keeps passing out because of his alcoholic issues.  This gives someone the perfect time to tamper with the story and be the real killer.  Yeon Joo’s father is only an attempted murderer so far since his “Kill Kang Cheol” plan has been a huge failure to date.  At least this way there will be no family issues that will have to be crossed before our OTP (one true pairing) can be together forever.

Til next time,

Kmuse