So we’re at it with Kdrama standard plot devices: Jung Ba Reum (Lee Seung Gi) has amnesia. Understandable with his head injury, but it’s been done so many times in these shows, my eyes are hurting from rolling so much. One year after the injury, he’s forgotten his love, Oh Bong Yi (Park Ju Hyun), and also Officer Go Mu Chi (Lee Hee Jun). Episode 7 I spent a lot of time wondering if Ba Reum was faking or not. Always waiting for that twist or the penny to drop, and the twist did come in the next episode.

Although Detective Go is on leave for awhile due to shooting Dr. Sung, who we think was the psycho-killer, he’s soon back working his skills running the evidence room. Before too l long, he’s back doing full on detective work. Go encounters Ba Reum in almost the same way he first did, by almost running him over with his car. It takes awhile for Ba Reum to get his memory back, but when he does, he goes full on genius, helping the detective connect a couple of different cases from the Headhunter killer’s time. He could be a genius only, but he clearly is now thinking like a psychopathic killer, which is how he’s able to make the correct observations and assumptions. Perhaps he’s a Dexter of sorts, a serial hunter who will now be hunting serial killers?

PD Choi (Kyung Soo Jin) has more of her past revealed. Now in short hair, she is far more reserved than she used to be, not surprising as she probably still feels trauma from aborting Dr. Sung’s baby. She was worried the baby, too, would become a killer, not unrealistic in this show, where every other person appears to be one. It’s also indicated that she herself may be the son of a serial killer, and worked closely with her father helping him abduct people–and probably even worse. With the jam packed events and characters in this show, I nearly forgot there was a second killer operating at the time of the Headhunter murders, and one who had a girl helping him. Not sure if they ever said it outright (really these two episodes need second viewings, but I don’t have time right now), that the PD is the daughter, but she’s there in his room in the hospital after Ba Reum beats him to a pulp.

Yes, let’s back up a second. So, Ba Reum eventually does remember Oh Bong Yi, and she’s living in a shady neighborhood that either is her original neighborhood or a different one where she was raped when she was younger. Not sure. As he’s knocking at her gate, getting no answer, we get to see her inside held captive by an assailant! As if this girl hasn’t gone through enough. On top of that, her original attacker is set to be released from prison, and at the end of episode 8 he goes after her. I mean, seriously, the writers have something against her. If characters could leap out of their stories and accost their authors, Bong Yi would totally do it, and without remorse. Fortunately, with her fighting spirit, Bong Yi is able to fend off the killer, who ends up running away and getting beat up by Ba Reum. This killer is then revealed to be an officer/detective working with Detective Park (Ahn Nat Sang), who was investigating the Headhunter. This guy killed Park’s daughter, not the Headhunter. But then, turns out he really didn’t, but Park’s wife thinks he did and kills him, and then Detective Go takes the fall for her. My head is still spinning.

Back to Ba Reum. He is now clearly marked as “mouse” or the kid in the yellow coat at the beginning who brought the mouse into the snake’s cage. Ba Reum has a couple of encounters with the Headhunter (Han Seo Joon, played by a magnificent Ahn Jae Wook) as he questions him in prison. The first time, Ba Reum beginning to have flashbacks–memories of being this kid and dealing with the mouse. The connection between our, hopefully, hero and the child is uncertain as another twist is thrown in.

I must have missed it in the first couple of episodes, but although it was clear that the Headhunter was some kind of doctor, totally didn’t know he was a neurosurgeon. He always helpfully has a bunch of loyal followers, who, it seems, ferry him in and out of prison on occasion, one of those times being a year ago when both his son, Dr. Sung, and Ba Reum are in the hospital and being operated on for their respective injuries. Turns out when Bong Yi was attempting to suffocate Dr. Sung, so he really would be dead, she inadvertently saw the face of Ba Reum’s fantastic brain surgeon. When she can’t ID anyone on the official roster, Ba Reum has a thought and shows her a pic of Han Seo Joon. Yup. Yup, yup, yup.

Episode 8 ends with Ba Reum confronting the Headhunter in prison, and we can now see very clearly that the mouse Han Seo Joon is holding has had some kind of brain surgery done to it. It seems that the mouse Ba Reum picked up as a child and took to the snake’s cage also had surgery done to it, which is why it was so vicious and killed the snake instead of getting eaten. “Did you put that killer’s brain in my head?” Is what Ba Reum asks. Waiting on episode 9 to see that confirmed, but I have to wonder if Ba Reum is the human equivalent of the mouse from the beginning, what does that mean? For it seems the mouse may have been altered to go after something that would prey on itself. And, we’re back to the Dexter possibility. It’s also interesting that Detective Go, too, wore a yellow jacket as a child.

Riveting episodes yet again, and I’m getting attached to the characters. Really hoping that Detective Go, Bong Yi, and PD Choi all end up happy at the end. As Ba Reum is either a serial killer who now has the brain of a serial killer, a killer who now has the brain of a genius, or a genius who now has the brain of a killer, I’m thinking he doesn’t have a happy future ahead of him. Perhaps, though, with the genius ability, he may be able to satisfactorily help the others. Is the kid in the yellow jacket really Ba Reum, and is he actually the Headhunter’s son, not Dr. Sung? Or is he the child born to the other woman, the one who also took part in the study? How much does the Headhunter know?

As much as I don’t like the amnesia and brain-swapping devices, admittedly, they do make sense in this particular story, which is certainly a horror one. Curious to see how this will all play in to hating God, especially as the Headhunter is clearly bent on playing God, but to what purpose? It can’t be merely to save his son in some form, for he’s done this with the mice before. Psychopathy indeed, but there must be a reason. Perhaps he’s trying to prove his old friend, Dr. Daniel Lee, wrong. Perhaps he’s after a bigger fish…er, snake? Is the snake himself or someone else?

One thing more: My attention is also on Na Chi Kook, Ba Reum’s officer friend who was attacked at the prison and still in a coma. Just think there’s more to be revealed either by him or about him. In fact, both of Ba Reum’s officer friends could be suspect as being the child yet to be revealed, as they are all the same age or around the same age.

Oh, this story makes my head hurt! Until next time.