Ok, so I ended up getting frustrated with the slow subbing pace and missing subtitles at Viki and ended up subscribing to Kocowa for the month. So thanks for being patient with me and my delayed recap, drama fans. If you find yourself frustrated also, it’s $7/month for Kocowa and you don’t have to be locked into a contract. Just FYI.

But boy oh BOY, While You Were Sleeping is worth the frustration and extra streaming service!! Let’s jump into this episode, shall we?

Scum sticks together

We open on Kang Ki Young (That Guy In That Thing!) as Kang Dae Hee, dumping a buttload of money into a duffel bag. Hmmm, after his wicked smile during his brother’s cremation, paired with his feeding of the kittens and their deaths, I’m starting to think he might be up to something. He goes to see our favorite snake, Yu Beom, to get himself through the legal system. And I loved that even Yu Beom is completely disgusted by our nascent serial killer. Whaddya know — Yu Beom has some morals.

But he still takes on Dae Hee’s case. SIGH. This is not going to end well.

Skinship Dreams! …. Oh, and important killer stuff as well

Then we move to our Jae Chan’s next dream. He and Hong Joo are sitting in this very clean apartment (like, astonishingly clean!) watching the news about the takedown of Kang Dae Hee. The dream includes some obviously romantic moments, as well as some details about the case. But more importantly, it was clean! (You’ll see why this is important later. Heh. Trust me.)

Big Bang fan 4Ever

Anyway, the next morning, Hong Joo is having a kpop soloist moment in front of her foggy bathroom mirror, and thoroughly embarrasses herself before opening the door and realizing that Jae Chan and Seong Won have come over for breakfast. It works out though, because Hong Joo reveals that she’s seen all of Jae Chan’s embarrassing habits in her dreams.

As frustrated as they get with each other, Jae Chan still escorts Hong Joo to work, following through on his promise to her and her mother. Such a good boy!

Hong Joo picks up her job again, making contacts with the local prosecutors, police, etc., so that she has her network to draw on for stories. And guess who one of her contacts is? Our Woo Tak! He has some street cat deaths for her to investigate, which doesn’t sound appealing until she realizes there’s 100 of them.

Lawyers doing lawyering stuff

The action moves back and forth between the courtroom, where Prosecutor Shin takes on Yu Beom, and Hong Joo’s job. The trial seems to be going well, until Yu Beom points out that the circumstantial evidence that Prosecutor Shin has put together could paint her story, or it could paint his, one in which Dae Hee was involved in a tragic accident, yes, but that his brother died BEFORE the accident. As Prosecutor Shin’s face falls, I could tell that Yu Beom had neatly put the case in a box and sealed it off. The chief judge could do nothing but acquit Dae Hee. In the meantime, Hong Joo is reluctant to take on the story of the street cats’ deaths, but her senior rightly points out that animal torture and death is the beginning stage for a serial killer. He tells her to go sniff it out and suddenly I got very nervous.

A scum with morals?

After the trial, Yu Beom shakes hands with Dae Hee and sends him off, then makes a beeline to the bathroom, where he scrubs his hands until they bleed. In spite of the disgust he feels, though, he clearly draws the line at helping Jae Chan and the prosecution team bust Dae Hee on something else, refusing to break client privilege. I can respect that, I suppose. If I have to.

NO!!!!!!!! Not Woo Tak

Jae Chan is bothered by this, and he keeps thinking about his dream. Woo Tak and Hong Joo are conferring about the cats, and suddenly they all come to the same conclusion — Dae Hee has been using poison. Jae Chan figures out how to prove it, while Woo Tak and Hong Joo go to check out Dae Hee and see if he might be the poisoner of the street cats. This is when things take a sudden turn — we see Dae Hee threatening his little sister in the restaurant, and Hong Joo and Woo Tak decide to take things into their own hands. Dae Hee ends up stabbing Woo Tak, who desperately clings to his ankles in an attempt to give Hong Joo and Little Sister time to escape. It’s things like this — Woo Tak’s noble sacrifice — that make me love his character so much. It was heart-rending to see him bleeding out on the floor as everyone left him behind.

Multiple dramatic entrances

Hong Joo and Little Sister make it to the roof and cower under a tarp. Hong Joo remembers what Jae Chan told her — if she finds herself in trouble, just speak out loud and tell him where she is and he will find her.

She trusts him and does it, and as the tarp lifts . . .

. . . yeah, that’s not Jae Chan. My heart totally clenched at this point. But then the lights go on, and Jae Chan makes his entrance, Goblin-style.

I may have cheered.

And so Dae Hee is nailed for his brother’s murder and his little sister is saved, but what about Woo Tak??? The previews seem to indicate that he survives, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about previews, it’s that they always lie.

I’ll be waiting on pins and needles to see what happens next. What about you, drama fans?

Until then,

Karie the Maknae

Dramas with a Side of Kimchi