With God, all things are possible, especially, and most importantly, forgiveness of sins. That was the ending message of this crazy horror story. And it fits. The horror genre often goes hand in hand with religious themes, probably because the horror or horrible things are often sins or things based on sins.

In episode 20 we and Ba Reum find out that the Secretary Chief in the government, Choi Young Shin, is behind the shady organization OZ. She chose to fund this organization through the National Intelligence Service without consent. This all comes out in public due to Ba Reum, who officially turns himself in, causing great stress to Detective Go, who finally–finally!–fully concludes that Ba Reum is the cross killer. Once again, Go is foiled in his plans by Ba Reum. The first was when he wanted to go to prison to kill the Headhunter, and this time when he wishes to kill Ba Reum.

The face offs between Bong Yi and Ba Reum and Go and Ba Reum are short but great. Ba Reum really does not want to see these people he love become killers, yet he feels their pain and anguish and knows that he does deserve to die for what he’s done.

Choi Young Shin is painted as the real monster here, as her goal in having OZ watch both Ba Reum and Yo Han was to make sure one of both of them did become psychopathic murderers, all so that she could get her abortion bill passed, a bill condemning babies to death before they have committed any crime. We, and Ba Reum, find out that although he clearly had problems as a kid and was harming animals, he didn’t actually kill any humans back then and wouldn’t have except the secretary and OZ set him on that path. It doesn’t excuse the murders he did commit, but it definitely puts them in a different light. Nearly all those who want to create a utopia or their version of a heaven on earth end up harming humanity in the process. Nearly all. And because most of these people end up in government to further their plans, it’s a very, very good reason to limit all powers of government.

PD Choi gets her wish, and the very good Yo Han is declared innocent in the public eye. She, however, too, manipulated Ba Reum, along with Dr. Lee, to get him to kill other serial killers. We also learn that she was the girl who helped the Headhunter lure at least one young woman to her death. PD Choi turns herself in for this and is arrested, though I’m not sure how that works in S. Korea, since she was a child and was clearly frightened and manipulated by the Headhunter. She is also properly reunited with her father, Detective Park, who lovingly puts the handcuffs on her. With Dr. Lee, we learn Ba Reum was the one who tried to kill him and Yo Han, the doctor, saved his life.

Ba Reum ends up going to prison, to death row, and there enacts a kind of justice, for himself, and for others harmed by the Headhunter. Ba Reum fakes going back to a coldblooded killer well enough that he gets close enough to his father, the Headhunter, and kills him. The clever Headhunter doesn’t even expect this, but then he’s been stuck in prison a long time and has probably lost some of his edge.

Like the mice in his biological father’s brain surgery experiments, Ba Reum is dying and doesn’t have much time left. He does his best to make amends with Go and Bong Yi, before dying in perhaps one of the most important scenes in the entire show.

I’ll get back to that in a second, but first want to say that this episode had a plethora of great scenes and acting, especially from Kwon Hwa Woon, who plays Yo Han, and Lee Seung Gi, who plays Ba Reum. They make us really feel for these characters who got a raw deal all due to Dr. Lee’s study of the psychopath/genius gene. Much food for thought about treating children as marked bad from the day they are born. Yes, we all have original sin, but it is true that if we treat people always expecting the worst from them, not only is that psychological abuse, it often can and does bring out the worst in them. (On a side note, this brings to mind the sudden persecution of those who choose to not vaccinate, treating healthy people as if they have a disease. Again, psychological abuse and so, so wrong. Our society should be ashamed of itself).

Other great scenes were Ba Reum meeting his real mother, the Headhunter’s wife, but even better was a scene between her and Detective Go. Go is plagued with guilt now, realizing he shot an innocent Yo Han, but she tells him that he didn’t really kill Yo Han. Yo Han would have lived, but the Headhunter finished him off in order to use his brain for his experimental brain surgery to save his son, Ba Reum. And the neurosurgeon didn’t save Ba Reum because he loved him, but because he thought the psychopath gene he carried was superior to regular people, and wanted his line to survive. Ugh. Ick. And also makes madam secretary’s wish to get rid of all these psychokiller people who think other people are ants or mice sound suddenly reasonable.

Mouse is the name of the show and we find Ba Reum a figurative mouse, literal experiment, sending himself into the snake or serial killer’s lair, all in order to kill him. Everything comes full circle from the beginning shot to that scene.

Ba Reum’s death scene is the best part, though. He dies in the church he once visited as a kid, angry with God and begging God to stop him from being a monster. Ba Reum appears to see his younger self in the pew there and gives him a hug, comforting him. Ba Reum tells the boy that God did answer his prayer: He now has feelings, especially of remorse and is full of repentance. He no longer has the will or desire to kill. Ba Reum dies at peace with himself and with God. I am not sure if he just goes to the church in his mind or actually gets to go there. Think the former.

Although I am so glad that Ba Reum came to repentance and that he does say sorry to both Go and Bong Yi, I wish the writers would have found a way to indicate that Jesus is really the reason why he would be forgiven. We are called by God to repent of our sins, yes, but the real reason we are forgiven is because Jesus Christ lived a perfect life in our place and also suffered and died for us, taking the punishment for all of our sins upon himself, and the defeated death by rising from the dead in the resurrection. Christ atoned for us, something we can never do, no matter how much we may repent. It’s a sobering thought.

Detective Go does give a nod to the Gospel message, though, by asking himself if God gave Ba Reum punishment or salvation? With a wistful smile on his face, we can guess he hopes it’s the latter, and perhaps it’s a bit much to expect a mainstream TV show to really dig into the person of Jesus. It’s rarely done; sometimes Christian movies don’t even directly talk about Him or explain how it is that He is our Savior. Anyway, I give the show ten out of ten just for all that, and coming so close to sharing the Gospel message, and it is a tough message for us to swallow sometimes, that anyone, anyone who repents and has faith in Jesus can be saved. We think certain sins should be unforgivable, but we easily forget that God is holy and sees any sin, no matter how small or insignificant to us, as enough to damn a person to hell eternally. Jesus Christ is the only way any of us can be saved, from a bubblegum thief to a rapist, to a literal headhunter.