Two cops, two rapists, a couple of enablers, and a serial killer walk into a mansion that has even more rapists running amuck within its walls. It also happens to be owned by a sad perfume maker with multiple personalities . Yeah, it doesn’t even work as the start of a really bad joke. This is only the beginning of our convoluted tale.
The Plot So Far…
Our paintball gamers are stranded on the side of a mountain and they seek out shelter, hoping to find a cave at most, but happen upon a medieval mansion. Here is where the story goes totally and completely off the rails. Not so much that the core plot for the drama is a lost cause, but this particular case of the week is just one unnecessarily elaborate thing after another. We’ve also decided to group four episodes together this time because the end of 16 wraps up T’s case.
Because the trip down the rabbit hole is so twisty and deep our post centers around the breakdown of what happened, instead of favorite moments. Our couple was mainly in survival mode and there wasn’t a ton of cute things that happened anyway. Except for the fact that they make a great duo. I do miss them fighting each other, but the next best thing is them kicking other people’s butts as an in sync badass team.
Rapists Times Two
Drama Geek: Yes, there are two sets of them. I think the best way to start this is tell what happened to the poor dead girl since she’s the reason T invited everyone to the games, and why he’s killing them off one by one.
A year before, on the same mountain, Gu Ran shows up to participate in the CS Tournament. One of the other female members ends up being jealous of all the attention she gets and steals her map and compass. Then Gu Ran is gang raped by three of the guys participating in the tournament. This is witnessed by the jealous girl and her boyfriend, but they are too scared to call the police, so they just go back to their tent and sleep. Once Gu Ran gets away from her attackers, she’s seen by other members of the team the next day, but they too do nothing to help her to safety. She is somehow found by the four goons that live in the mansion and brought back to the perfume maker (I’ll skip going into this guy’s story) once he’s done extracting Gu Ran’s scent, the four cousins take her down to their torture chamber and … gang rape her. Then after a missed opportunity to escape (we’ll talk more about this later) she is taken to the river and drowned.
These men are the reason the death penalty (whether you believe in it or not) was created. This girl went through absolute hell and I’m not sure T doled out enough justice to these monsters.
Kmuse: I can’t believe we literally watched 4 episodes that focused on telling why T was on a murderous rampage. There was definitely a lot of long winded monologues by all our various bad guys. The multi-personality nut job had multiple monologues since his various personalities all got their turn to share their part of the stories. It went on and on to the point I was wondering if we were ever going to get to the point. And let’s not forget T’s story complete with long term assassination jobs and a secret club of masked killers. All to the tune of some super duper dramatic opera music. Surprisingly, all this plot development wasn’t boring…….but I did find myself wondering what the ever living fudge was going on……..every three minutes or so. There was just so much convoluted plot development.
Serial Killer or Hero?
Drama Geek: Now that we have the why of everyone being there, we get to how T is tied into all of this. Are you ready for another convoluted story? T was abused as a child and decided he’d had enough so he set his house on fire, along with his father. When he woke up a mysterious man had rescued him, though I’m not sure it was a rescue mission, more of a kidnap and brainwash mission. We don’t see the man’s face or hear his voice. (Though I’m pretty sure everyone knows who he is. Hint: I’ve thought he was creepy since episode 2 or 3.) He raises T to be a killing machine.
And T isn’t alone. Yup, there are more killers for other letters of the alphabet. They meet up in a weird masquerade ball and discuss their favorite ways to kill people. Note, one of them talks about a drug he’s concocting to erase memories… They were all happy clams killing and partying until a task force including a certain police officer tried to take them down and sent them all into hiding. I bet you can guess how long ago that happened. After a while T is bored with his normal existance, so T goes on a shooting spree, but he finds himself unable to shoot the person because his mark is holding a child. He still ends up getting made by the police and a car chase ensues. I swear the director put this backstory in just so they could do another one.
T gets away, but he’s been shot. He ends up passing out and his car falls down the side of a mountain. Yup, you guessed it. THE mountain. He’s rescued by the perfume maker’s assistant and nursed back to health. Of course, the goons (who are the assistant’s cousins) come back with the girl from our original story and proceed to rape her. The assistant decides he can’t be complicit anymore so he tries to stop his cousins who then put him in one of those torture boxes with spikes. The assistant dies, and the cousins carry his body off leaving the girl still chained to the table. That’s when T comes in and offers to help her escape, but she refuses saying she’s too broken to go on living. She does make him promise that he’ll get revenge on everyone and then relays everything that happened to her and all their names.
Whoa, I think I need to take a deep breath.
In the present, everyone ends up back in the woods which is where we hear this last bit of information as to why T is doing this to everyone. Unfortunately, Han Chen does stop him from killing some of the rapists so not everyone dies.
T gives Han Chen (and Jin Xi) a little piece of information. T knew Han Chen five years ago, and he also knew his fiancé… dun dun dun. Han Chen starts screaming for him to tell him where his fiancé is, but that’s when T shoots himself.
Poor Jin Xi sustained internal injuries (I have absolutely no idea when this happened to her) and she spits up blood and passes out. But before she does, you can see how hurt she is to find out about Han Chen’s fiancé.
Creepy Doctor arrives with a helicopter and tries to take Jin Xi away from Han Chen, but he brushes him off and carries her, limp and all.
Kmuse: I don’t think I can really add anything that Drama Geek’s explanation doesn’t already touch on. Just know that this was all bat crap crazy to the nth degree. I also am still rolling my eyes over the super secret killer club. I am shaking my head at all the crazy and yet I can’t wait to see this all play out!
Our Thoughts:
Drama Geek: I have watched some really messed up story lines before, but this might take the cake. I hope for the duration of the show we don’t see another rapist.
Let’s scrub most of the case from our minds and concentrate on our OTP. They were forced to depend on each other and really work as a team. You could see how intuitive they are with one another, and also how drawn Han Chen is to Jin Xi even though he still freaked out about wanting to find his fiancé at the end. That’s the thing. He has this vague love for mystery girl, but Jin Xi is very real and amazing right in front of him and he can’t deny how he feels. Two seconds after yelling about his lost love, he scoops Jin Xi into his arms and won’t let Creepy Doctor near her.
There have been continued flashes of memory from both sides, and T implied he knew Jin Xi five years ago too so I think we’re getting close to them making the connection.
Kmuse: I also loved how natural their relationship has developed. They obviously have very intense feelings and their ability to trust each other is unbeatable. I squealed at all the moments where they would be running (or hobbling as the case might be) and they hold hands or stand extremely close. It is the little things like this that make this couple work despite a crazy storyline.
Til our next memorable recap,
Drama Geek & Kmuse
Dramas With A Side of Kimchi