"Hang on in there just a bit longer...."
Wow. What an episode.
We begin with No-eul showing a ruthlessness that many of the players in the game of hide and seek do not- and the rest of the episode is dedicated entirely to said game.
My only slight criticism here is that the point is that anyone could die (and does die!) in the games... except Ji-hun, whose plot armour is impervious. He spends the episode being simply unable, mostly decent chap (though terrible father) that he is, to kill anyone. But we know he has to survive, and so it's inevitable that he ends up killing in self-defence. And his deeply felt guilt... yeah, we get the point. Let's not push that too much further, shall we?
It's an interesting dilemma: how to most effectively use the only player with plot armour, and for whom there can be no real tension...?
Ji-hun aside, though... this episode is devastating.
Myung-gi, with his sense, and Nam-gyu, with his total lack of conscience, make a gruesomely efficient team, working out the best strategy- collaborate and jointly kill two people. But Nam-gyu- it bloody would be him- also works out that it's in their overall interests to keep on killing, reducing the opposition on both teams to their long term advantage. Wow. Fortune favours the sociopath, it seems. I'm sure he'll get his delicious comeuppance.
Speaking of comeuppances, Seon-nyeo, that cynical quack, gets hers. Good. As a direct contrast to this, we have the solidarity of Jun-hee (who of course goes into labour at the worst possible moment), the old Geum-ja and the heroic Hyun-ju, who gets a heroic, selfless death here. Yes, one may raise an eyebrow at the only trans character being killed... but it's a very heroic, noble death, saving the two other ladies with whom, pointedly, she bonded while they were all in the ladies' loo.
Geum-ja, though... oh! Her tragedy, inevitable though it begins to seem by the end, hits hard.
As does the episode. Wow.
I am not an expert on any controveries surrounding trans characters potyral or how their deaths can be handled but I felt this was done respectfully and was a gut punch. Something goes wrong and people die, that’s how it is. The character’s arc was done right. And during the time other characters bonded with her, we came to see her as a person and not question her choices on how she wanted to live her life. And writing wise, it can be argued her death was done right. She served her purpose as a guardian to her friends, kept them alive and was killed in a realistic way that made her death sudden, even if one expected it to happen.
ReplyDeleteI also think it was impactful seeing Seong Gi-hun finally kill with his bare hands; it represents how he can be pushed to a darker character and it hints that he is no longer in a hopeful spot now.