Tag Archive | Episode 8

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes: Ep 8 Review

Oct29

Things are heating up on the show. Lots to be revealed yet, but this episode gave us a lot to consider.

Episode 8 starts with the car crash from episode 7 and the thing to notice as the Damsel and Moo Young are tumbling down the cliff is the material bouncing around inside the car. It is the charms from the bracelet that Moo Young gave Seung Ah the night they met, the one he put together perfectly after it was broken. Not sure if I mentioned it back then, but the the bracelet is a bit girly, especially for a tough guy like Moo Young. So, why did he have the bracelet in the first place? Whose bracelet is it? A long long sister’s perhaps?

The end of the storyline has seemingly finally come for the Damsel and her fiancee Jang Woo Sang, who sadly both die in this episode, but off screen. Seung Ah’s mother seems sincerely mourning her state, even calling in Jin Kang for a hug, forgetting the hard slap she gave her a few episodes ago. In fact, everyone, even Jin Kang’s brother, Officer Yoo, is deep stricken by Seung Ah’s death. They cry real tears, especially Jin Kang, and that doesn’t happen often, even in dramaland.

However, we learn there is a possibility that some of Jin Kang’s tears are guilty ones. She tells Kim Moo Young she never really thought the Damsel would die, that her focus was on him, as he is missing for a time after the accident. Jin Kang tells him this and pushes him away again, still denying her feelings, and, again, rightly so. Moo Young really seems to have no feelings or emotions, and shows no remorse for the fact that he agitated Jang Woo Sang, the rich fiancee, and pretty much set in motion the likelihood of a disastrous end to the affair. Moo Young even takes a bribe from Woo Sang’s sister, which is interestingly only one million dollars, not the two million that Seung Ah gave him.

No one is more upset about this than Officer Yoo, and he goes to confront Moo Young. At first, Moo Young shrugs off his accusations. Who could have known what would happen, after all? Yoo Jin Kook even says himself that Moo Young probably didn’t mean this game to go that far. But as the officer gets angrier and angrier at him, Moo Young snaps into defiance mode, declaring that he would have done everything just the same, even knowing the outcome of two deaths. For that, he receives a punch in the face, and I have a feeling that Moo Young’s taken quite a few punches his whole life. Jin Kook tells Jin Kang to stay away from Moo Young because he only cares about playing games with people.

The highlight of the episode for most was probably the kiss. Seo In Guk, who plays Moo Young is known as the “king of kisses,” and this is largely due to the fact that he delivers actual kisses on screen, not the weird motionless kisses so many drama actors do. This wasn’t a super kiss, as Jin Kang (Jung So Min) pushes him away, but it does show that the actors and especially the characters do indeed have romantic chemistry. Will they fall in love and make it to the end of the show only to find out they are siblings?

Officer Yoo probably knows the answer to this, as he now knows who Moo Young is. He’s a kid who went missing many years ago when Officer Yoo shot someone, got his detective team disbanded, and made Jin Kang his pretend little sister. A member of his old team is the traffic officer for the car accident, and Yoo visits him, searching for information. The traffic officer brings up that kid from long ago who came looking for him at the Haesan precinct. Officer Yoo is shocked. He’s had no idea that this happened, and it’s been about 20 years since. He angrily confronts the other old team member, the snide Lee Kyung Cheol, who is his current superior on the detective team. Lee says it happened long ago and doesn’t matter anymore.

On the murder mystery side of things, Eom Cho Rong is on the case, perhaps to avoid thinking how terrible his progress is in dating Jin Kang. He finally figures out that Officer Yoo has been keeping information from him regarding Moo Young. Some of this is due to the fact that Officer Yoo now thinks Tattoo girl did it. Im Yoo Ri does not confess and claims to not remember what happened that night, though we find she was in the murdered girl’s apartment and witnessed her fighting with her now exonerated boyfriend. Officer Yoo has the idea that Moo Young showed her how to go from her house to her friend’s without being observed by CCTVs in the area, and that he even told her the code to get in the apartment (speaking of that, let’s not forget he now knows the code to Officer Yoo and Jin Kang’s house).

Eom Cho Rong follows a lead regarding Arts Brewery beer glasses and learns from Moo Young’s old coworker No Hee Joon, that the murdered girl was a nasty drunk while at the Arts Bar, and that Moo Young took her home. The episode ends with Eom Cho Rong and his detective team going to arrest Moo Young. They catch him as he’s follows a distraught Jin Kang home from his place. She is so sad that he doesn’t show remorse or feelings about the death of Seung Ah. The only person he does care about is Jin Kang, though the reason is still a secret. Is it that she is his sister? Is it fate that’s drawing him, or is it just that he has genuinely fallen for her despite his emotional handicap? Whatever the reason, Eom Cho Rong is clearly wondering what he’s doing hanging around Jin Kang.

Overall, this episode wasn’t as awesome as I thought it would be. I really didn’t expect Seung Ah and her fiancee to die and am not sure what will fill the space for their storyline. I’m also hoping the murder mystery wraps up soon or they get a new interesting case to follow, as I fear it’s dragging on now. Perhaps the murderer is really Im Yoo Ri, and perhaps she will turn herself in so they’ll release Moo Young. Good thing is, there’s definitely going to be an all out war between Officer Yoo and Moo Young, with Jin Kang caught in between. Will she fall for Moo Young’s manipulation? Will she forgive Officer Yoo for whoever he killed back in the day and raising her as his sister? Will she be able to save Moo Young from himself and his stupid games?

Until next time.

Haven, Season 5, Episode 8: Exposure

Nov4

(Spoilers)

“Exposure” was more or less a typical Haven episode.  The fixing of the “ghost” trouble wasn’t super surprising, as it was obvious that the photographer was responsible.  Her not-actually-dead-fiancee-now-turned-murderer was a bit creepy, and a testament to the real reason people fear change.  Traumatic changes often either bring out the very best or the very worst in a person, and for many of us, well, we’d rather not know how what kind of a person we’d become (or actually are).

Vince and Dave Teagues were the best part of the episode.  It was great to see them try to talk their way out of a tricky situation, and even funnier to think of them performing similar shenanigans throughout the years to prevent the greater world from hearing about the Troubles of Haven.  I’m guessing Dave’s leg infection will feature prominently in the near future.

Mara/Audrey: Is it awful that I now find Audrey boring?  Time will tell if Audrey is actually, well, Audrey, and not just a shadow of her, but short-term Mara is far more intriguing simply because of all she knows.  Speaking of things she knows: Woohoo! A partial explanation for how she and Audrey became separated! Again, it’s not terribly specific, but Mara knows that Duke chose to separate the two entities instead of having Audrey take over Mara’s body.  What’s Duke’s motivation here?  Likely, it has something to do with wanting to rid himself and his family of the Troubles.  Hopefully, it’s not amorous, though he may try to manipulate Mara in that capacity (or vice versa).  He also is still dealing with the fact of Jennifer’s death, and this may be affecting his judgement.  In addition, we learned through Mara that Duke’s mother may be important to the overall Trouble arc and more backstory about Duke.

As things stand, Duke and the Teague brothers may be the ones to power through and figure out what everything means.  Nathan and Audrey, while helping, are so focused on each other that it risks making the characters irrelevant to the larger arc.  I’m sure, though, that the writers will get them back on track if not in Episode 9, then 10.  Audrey in particular won’t rest until she finds out who or what she actually is, and who or what Mara is.

Dwight was not present this episode, and I’m sorry to say I didn’t even miss him.  As much as I like his character, his relevancy (like the Guard’s) is floundering.  Gloria was not in this episode either, but her character is even more minor than Dwight’s, so it doesn’t bother me as much if I don’t miss her.  Who I do miss (sorry to harp on this) is Audrey being Audrey again, and I do so hope that the next few episodes will fix that, as I don’t want her identity to simply now be as a couple with Nathan.  As much as I like a good love story, Haven is not first and foremost a love story.  It’s a science fiction mystery, and Audrey’s journey to understand her identity is the biggest part of that.