Ghost: Episode 3

by kaedejun

It’s a new start for Woo Hyun/Ki Young – and that also means a new case. Whee! Murders, crime, mystery galore! But despite all that good stuff, “The Phantom of the Opera” is oft-repeated in this episode. While it’s a great theme for our big bad Phantom, it’s also becoming quite overused.

We start off with the poor young woman in her apartment, trapped by the intense fear of her unknown stalker who won’t let her forget her crimes. She groggily wakes up to an alarm and stumbles into her bathroom. She turns on the light, and then gasps at the writing on her mirror. In red lipstick, it says, “Remember the sin made by your hands.” And then, written in the same red lipstick across her forehead, “Go die.”

This is going to be a baaaaaaaad day…

Kang Mi helps Ki Young get reacquainted with Woo Hyun’s life, showing him around his apartment and giving him a rundown on all the people on the team. Our new Woo Hyun is not used to all the suits and ties, because he doesn’t feel “free,” and he drinks beer even though the former Woo Hyun never drank any of that sort. I’m loving that our new Woo Hyun has some ‘tude, and it totally frustrates Kang Mi.

Woo Hyun immediately places Chief Shin at the top of the blackmail list; because the chief treated old-Woo Hyun like a son, he must know his habits the best and is most likely to also be on the side of the Phantom. Director Jun is described as Woo Hyun’s hated rival because his investigations team was always coming up against the Cyber Crime team. With Woo Hyun’s long absence from work, Director Jun had created a new division, the Cyber Safety Department, and became the head of that.

Young Suk is the detective for the team that knows nothing about computers, but everything about crime scenes; he even does the hunt-and-peck method for typing. Tae Gyun is the computer genius since middle school; he whiles his day away watching scandalous reality shows under the excuse of “I’m checking if it’s being illegally distributed!” Eung Jin is an expert at recovering damaged digital evidence, while Hye Ram is an expert in videos and super judge-y of the other boys watching scandalous videos at work.

Kang Mi also advises Woo Hyun to be aloof when he goes to work – after all, that’s what old-Woo Hyun was like before.

On the first day of work, Woo Hyun goes into the meeting room where all the directors and chiefs have congregated. He is ready to get back into the action, but Director Jun has some news first. They couldn’t find a decent replacement Team Leader for Woo Hyun for a while, but finally everyone agreed on one man – Kwon Hyuk Joo. Yep – Hyuk Joo is now the Cyber Crime team leader, making him Woo Hyun’s new boss.

Woo Hyun internally freaks out – after all, Hyuk Joo was the guy who was chasing after him when he was still Ki Young, and suspected him in the hospital. This was also a curve ball he had not heard from Kang Mi. However, he manages to greet Hyuk Joo somewhat civilly still.

Chief Shin escorts Woo Hyun back to the cyber team’s office, explaining that Woo Hyun’s rashness last year had cost him a demotion. Now he’s just a lieutenant, and so he can’t also be a team leader. Chief Shin hopes that Woo Hyun will be ok with his two enemies as his bosses. Just then, Woo Hyun gets a text from Kang Mi: “Be careful.”

Young Suk appears from behind with a grave look on his face. He greets Woo Hyun with a pair of handcuffs slapping on his wrist. Say what? Arresting Woo Hyun already!? But then the other team members all come out with party poppers, and Tae Gyun brings out a cake. It’s a party! They welcome him back to the team, laughing over how freaked out Woo Hyun just looked. (Well yeah… ’cause he’s totally waiting to get caught!) Kang Mi smiles – hadn’t she warned him to be careful?

Director Jun takes Hyuk Joo for a private chat in his office. The only reason why Hyuk Joo got the job as team leader was because of the Shin Hyo Jung case, which is still open. Hyuk Joo is suspicious of Woo Hyun, but Director Jun adds that Hyuk Joo must find out what Woo Hyun is hiding. I bet it’s not what they really think it is… Hyuk Joo is a little annoyed that he must report every little thing about Woo Hyun to Director Jun, and leaves. Director Jun then makes a call: “I told him what you told me to tell him,” he says to the unknown receiver. “I’ll report anything suspicious about Kim Woo Hyun.”

I think Director Jun’s our Phantom ally!

Woo Hyun checks out his new office, which is now smaller. He loosens his tie as he settles into his seat, and Kang Mi catches him. She orders him to tie it up again – the old-Woo Hyun was absolutely perfect. Woo Hyun complains: “It’s like you might as well tell me not to breathe!” Hee. She adjusts his tie for him, and he gives her a long look that sizzles with chemistry. There’s the bit of Ki Young in there!

Hyuk Joo and Sang Woo interrupt this lovely little moment with their entrance. Hyuk Joo relishes at the thought of having Woo Hyun finally under him. Woo Hyun doesn’t have an immediate rebuttal, so Hyuk Joo thinks that Woo Hyun’s personality has improved much during his stay in the hospital. Woo Hyun then snipes: “It’s not me who became under you, but you just got above me.” That’s the old Woo Hyun that Hyuk Joo liked – witty and harsh.

Kang Mi does a presentation to the team on their new case. Since the video of Hyo Jung’s murder was released a year ago, her family is claiming that the last video of her was unlawfully used. Apparently users are taking Hyo Jung’s last video and then editing in heads of other celebs or politicians. It’s become a bit of a jokey game to kill off someone else over and over again, with plenty of people posting up videos. Their task: find the degree of defamation in the videos already uploaded and their intent. They then need to see the user’s frequency in uploading videos, and then they can decide whom to punish.

For Woo Hyun, he’s still frozen, staring at the horrifying memory of Hyo Jung being pushed out the window.

That evening, a young office woman walks down a dark path to her home. She’s being followed by a hooded man, and once she senses his presence, she starts running. Dark Hoodie chases her until he’s got her cornered at her front gate. Shaking in fear, Office Lady has a hard time inserting her key into the gate, while Dark Hoodie inches ever closer. Just when he’s right in her face, he turns to the left and continues on his way. Office Lady nearly faints from the fear that Dark Hoodie was going to kill her.

She enters her small home and turns on her computer. What she doesn’t notice is that Dark Hoodie is watching her from behind a nearby tree. Suddenly, her cursor takes a life of its own, and “The Phantom of the Opera” starts playing. Office Lady tries to move her mouse and click out of the music player, but she can’t. Instead, an Internet browser page pops up and the hacker types out “Remember the sin that you made with your own hands a year ago.” Office Lady is genuinely freaked out. What on earth did she and the apartment girl do?

It’s a long night at the office, and Young Suk hands Kang Mi a list of all the usernames of people who uploaded the Hyo Jung video. Time to investigate each one! But then, she catches sight of Woo Hyun leaving and triest to stop him. He’s now Kim Woo Hyun – he’s going to have to help out with the investigation! “Did (the old) Woo Hyun not eat during an investigation?” he replies. “I’m starving to death…” Heh. Kang Mi joins him – guess she’s hungry too!

Woo Hyun’s perfect meal is some ramen, which Kang Mi disapproves of. “Ramen stimulates the brain and makes people happy! There are studies showing that!” Woo Hyun argues. Kang Mi is surprised: “Really? There are results showing that?” Woo Hyun practically shakes his head – how could a police officer be so gullible? He grabs her ramen bowl but she takes it back. Just because she hadn’t touched it yet doesn’t mean she’s not eating!

She starts stuffing the noodles into her mouth, and he teases her for it. Kang Mi slams her chopsticks into the soup, which then splatter all over the place – including Woo Hyun’s eye. She warns him not to make fun, as she is a police officer, and starts blotting the list of names. Woo Hyun frowns – why is she cleaning up the list when he got splattered too? Kang Mi: “These papers are more important than your face.” BWAHAHAHA – sorry that just cracks me up.

It’s when she’s blotting the list that Kang Mi finally gets a good look at the names on it. One of the users is ‘phantom0308.’ That rings a bell for Woo Hyun because the Phantom’s email address when he contacted him about the file was also ‘phantom0308’. Could it be that Hyo Jung’s killer is uploading the videos too?

Though ‘phantom’ is a common username, ‘0308’ is not as random because it could stand for March 8th, which is Hyo Jung’s birthday. A search on the username leads to a YouTube page where the Shin Hyo Jung joke videos are also uploaded. One particular video has Apartment Girl’s face on Hyo Jung’s body. Because YouTube doesn’t require social security or ID numbers to sign up with (thank God!), Woo Hyun would only be able to track down the user through the IP address.

He works his computer magic, and voila, the IP address where the video was uploaded leads them to Seongdong-gu. Kang Mi and Woo Hyun enter through the front gate easily, but the front door is locked. No problem – window it is! Kang Mi stops Woo Hyun from going in though – this could be considered trespassing! Um, okay – Woo Hyun jumps inside anyways. Hee. Not wanting to miss the action, Kang Mi joins him inside too.

The room is a mess, suggesting a fight had occurred. Kang Mi spots a body first, and so Woo Hyun turns on the lights. Scribbled in red paint all over the walls are hateful comments such as, “You make me feel sick,” “Die die die die,” and the all-important, “Remember the sin made by your hands.” Kang Mi checks for a pulse but the girl is dead. It’s the Office Girl, not the Apartment Girl on the video. The word “Die” is scribbled over her cheek. Neither can figure out the connection yet between Office Girl and ‘phantom0308’, but they do know that she didn’t die from an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, Woo Hyun notes the strangulation marks around her neck – it was murder!

The doorknob starts to turn, and Woo Hyun and Kang Mi panic. Woo Hyun shuts off the lights, and the two of them press up against the wall by the open window. Someone starts crawling inside, and as soon as she’s halfway in, Woo Hyun pulls her down. He recognizes her right away – it’s Seung Yoon! Scared, Seung Yoon hands her business card and claims to be a reporter; looks like she’s kept “True Story” alive!

Seung Yoon claims that she had interviewed Office Girl – a.k.a Baek Young Seo – for a quote as she wrote an article on the first anniversary of Hyo Jung’s death. She had heard a few days ago that Young Seo was feeling terrorized by her computer, and then afterwards she was unreachable. So Seung Yoon came by to check up on her. Woo Hyun turns on the lights – is the body lying next to her that of Baek Young Seo?

What a way to freak out a poor girl when she least expects it!

It becomes a crime scene, and so Woo Hyun and Kang Mi formally question Seung Yoon. Apparently Young Seo’s stalker would take over her computer and play “The Phantom of the Opera.” It turns out Young Seo was the head of a group called “Shin Jin Yo” – a group that demanded to hear the truth about the scandal from Shin Hyo Jung. She and her other group members were haters towards Hyo Jung – and their hateful comments seem to be the ones written on the walls. Kang Mi then wishes Seung Yoon off, telling her to leave the crime scene.

Woo Hyun hangs back a little though. He’s amused to find out that she continued his company and made “True Story” an online newspaper. He takes her by the shoulders and pushes her gently along her way – much like how he used to do it when he was Ki Young. “Do your best, but please be quiet about this case until the police investigation is over,” he advises.

Within the apartment, everyone is snapping away photos of the crime scene. Hyuk Joo comes in, blustering about why Woo Hyun and Kang Mi are there first when they should have been investigating the Hyo Jung videos. Kang Mi explains that their search led them to this house, where one of the videos had been uploaded. They didn’t have an opportunity to tell Hyuk Joo earlier. They also found out that the victim was cyber-stalked before her death, making the case a cyber crime. Hyuk Joo grows with displeasure every minute since it seems like Kang Mi and Woo Hyun are acting on their own without permission. But Sang Woo is all, “That all sounds reasonable. It’s ok that they didn’t tell us right away!”

No one has much of a lead on who ‘phantom0308’ could be, so Hyuk Joo orders for Apartment Girl’s face to be distributed to a bunch of stations to see if she matches any recent dead bodies or missing persons. Young Suk has the autopsy report, which states that Young Seo was killed via strangulation sometime on the evening of May 30. Kang Mi notices that the video uploaded from Young Seo’s home was done on May 30th at 10:30pm; ‘phantom0308’ must have killed Young Seo first, then uploaded the video.

Woo Hyun then comes in with photos of the writings on the wall. After some digging around, he’s found out that the writings on the wall are actually hateful comments Young Seo had posted when she was part of Shin Jin Yo. It’s a little far-fetched to believe that people are being killed for just hateful comments, but then Tae Gyun rushes in – they have another problem. Seung Yoon posted an article about the recent murder through “True Story,” and it’s already making its rounds around the internet.

Meanwhile, someone named ‘Winter’ (probably Vans Man) informs Phantom (our mysterious figure) that Woo Hyun is investigating the videos. But Phantom orders his man to stand down – they’ll just observe Woo Hyun for now.

A young college student – Jung So Eun – has just had an awesome evening after having watched the musical ‘A Magician’s Dream.’ She starts chatting with one of her friends, who tells her about the article on Young Seo’s death. If the article were true, then it means all the hateful commenters against Hyo Jung are next to die. So Eun clearly doesn’t think much of it, until her computer is hacked into, and the hacker types out, “Even if I die, I deserved it. I have made so many sins so I am dying today.” So Eun is confused on why her computer is typing out weird messages to her friend, and suddenly they turn against her: “Die! Die! Die! You’ll die tonight!”

“The Phantom of the Opera” blasts from her computer, and So Eun freaks out. She turns around… and the killer is already inside her apartment, waiting to attack.

The cyber team is having a little difficulty finding the killer as there were no CCTV cameras in Young Seo’s area. Woo Hyun reasons that if the hacker had remotely controlled Young Seo’s computer, he must have first sent in a virus in the form of an email attachment. The email could look like a harmless promotion, or a coupon, or a free game; once opened, the virus would be installed. To log in to Young Seo’s email account, he pretends he’s forgotten his password so that he can reset it.

Just then, Tae Gyun informs them that ‘phantom0308’ logged in to the video website and was going to upload another video. He’s about to give them the IP address, but Hyuk Joo and Young Suk don’t understand that – they want the real house address! The team files out to go after the criminal, but Woo Hyun stays behind. Since his old laptop – the Hades laptop – is in the evidence room, Woo Hyun wants to investigate something else his own way.

Woo Hyun locates his computer and greets it like an old friend. Using his own program, he hacks into the IP address that ‘phantom0308’ is currently at, and then access the computer ‘phantom0308’ is working off of. With some nifty computer graphics we are led to ‘phantom0308’s’ screen. Woo Hyun sees him uploading a new video with Young Seo’s face on it this time. The file is stored on a portable hard drive, and Woo Hyun spots a folder for Shin Hyo Jung. Inside Hyo Jung’s folder are photos of her dressed as Christine from ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, and another man dressed as phantom. Then there is another photo of Hyo Jung in a cafe with another man – who wears the watch with the global map.

The police arrive at the address and break their way inside. Meanwhile Woo Hyun is trying to adjust the angle of the photo so that he can get a better look at the Global Map Watch man’s face. Suddenly, the image disappears for Woo Hyun; it is because ‘phantom0308’ had disconnected his hard drive from the computer. Guess he’s running away from the cops! When the cops finally make it into the apartment, they first see red scribbles all over the walls, and then they see So Eun’s body hanging from the ceiling.

A muffled crash attracts everyone’s attention to the bathroom. Hyuk Joo slams his shoulder into the locked door and there they see that ‘phantom0308’ has escaped through the window and is now jumping over roofs to get away. Hyuk Joo and his men chase after him by jumping between rooftops as well, but Kang Mi follows the action from the ground level, trying to see where ‘phantom0308’ is going. Poor Young Suk: “We’re a cyber crime team! Why do we have to run around so much?!”

Kang Mi, Hyuk Joo, and Young Suk lose ‘phantom0308’ in the streets, unable to find anyone matching the description of a dark jacket and a dark backpack. Then Kang Mi spots the dark jacket in the trash can; they’ve all lost him. WhenWoo Hyun hears of this, he breaks the office phone, slamming it repeatedly against the table. Whoa dude, calm down a bit!

News of So Eun’s death hits the media and people start worrying over whether they’ll be targeted next for having left hurtful comments a year ago. Hyuk Joo briefs Director Jun on the case – it’s likely they have a serial murderer in their hands, where he kills the girls but makes it look like suicide. There is no link between Young Seo and So Eun aside from the fact that both were part of Shin Jin Yo. Unfortunately, the team doesn’t have enough information to try and narrow down the list of suspects. They also can’t track the killer via IP address because it looks like he goes to his next victim’s house to upload each video.

Sang Woo arrives just in time to tell them all that the Incheon police have reported another murder that happened a week ago. Han Yoo Ri – a.k.a. Apartment Girl – was found in her bathtub with slit wrists and red writings all over her walls. The Incheon police were unable to catch a killer, but they had interviewed Yoo Ri’s boyfriend, who was a potential suspect. That boyfriend, Yang Seung Jae, was also Hyo Jung’s manager up until 2 months before she died. He is the likeliest serial murderer.

Hyuk Joo goes off to track down Seung Jae, and Woo Hyun offers to come along. Hyuk Joo: “No. Why? Because I don’t like you.” Sang Woo quips, “I like you!” before he runs off to join Hyuk Joo. When both are gone, Woo Hyun quietly admits he saw the picture of Shin Hyo Jung’s killer in ‘phantom0308’s’ hard drive. It means that while Phantom and phantom0308 are two different people, phantom0308 must know who Hyo Jung’s real killer (Phantom) is.

Young Suk catches up with Woo Hyun on So Eun’s case. He had questioned So Eun’s friend who chatted with her online; the friend said that their conversation had turned weird right before So Eun died. It suggests that her computer had been hacked as well. Woo Hyun figures that So Eun must have accidentally downloaded the hacker’s code into her computer, thus allowing for remote control. Young Suk also adds that So Eun had watched a musical that evening – ‘A Magician’s Dream’.

That rings a bell for Woo Hyun – he had seen a ticket for that same musical in Young Seo’s home.

Woo Hyun looks into both Young Seo and So Eun’s emails. Both had received an email invitation to a viewing of the play as VIP guests, and both had gone. One more common denominator between the two victims! He tells Kang Mi about it, so she tags along for this investigation.

They go up to the front desk of the theater, and Woo Hyun asks if the theater people themselves send out the email invitation for the play. They do, and for that particular email the recipient would also receive an additional email with their e-ticket. Woo Hyun and Kang Mi turn to leave, and they bump into none other than Seung Yoon! She had just received an invitation to go watch the musical too. She gives the front desk her e-ticket, and Woo Hyun snatches it away. It’s a VIP e-ticket, and holders of that ticket always get the seat D7.

Hmmm – is it possible then that Young Seo and So Eun all sat at that seat too, since they received similar emails?

Meanwhile, Sang Woo and Hyuk Joo locate Seung Jae at a PC cafe. Though Seung Jae makes a run for it, Hyuk Joo casually trips him, giving Sang Woo the chance to handcuff him. Seung Jae is absolutely horrified that he’s being charged with murdering Yoo Ri, his former girlfriend. Though running is a very guilty act, Seung Jae says he just ran because he wanted to live. That’s an interesting excuse…

Inside the theater, Kang Mi sits at seat D7. If it’s true that all those girls who sat in that seat died, then it’d be better if Kang Mi pretended to be Seung Yoon and see what happened instead. Woo Hyun and Seung Yoon sit several rows back, watching from afar. The play begins, and the magician is masked. While performing simple tricks, he asks the audience what love is, and then proceeds to show them two mini stories of couples falling in love.

In the interrogation room, Hyuk Joo asks Seung Jae why he fought with Yoo Ri before she died. Seung Jae says they just did, as couples do, and insists that he didn’t kill his girlfriend. He knows someone else did it. Though he never saw the other person’s face or knew his name, Seung Jae had witnessed one of those times when Yoo Ri’s computer was hacked into it. The message “Remember the sin made by your hands” had been in reference to the rumors of Hyo Jung posted online. The thing was – Yoo Ri never made those comments. Seung Jae had actually written them instead.

Seung Jae had gotten annoyed with Hyo Jung one time and then wrote up the nasty rumor as a form of revenge. It’s just that the rumor spread like wildfire and went out of control. He notes that things really changed between him and Yoo Ri after she went to watch the musical – ‘A Magician’s Dream.’ In fact, he had received an email invitation for a VIP ticket, but he forwarded it to Yoo Ri instead so that she could watch it…

The musical ends on a happy note, and the magician then calls out, “Everyone has found a person they love, but what about me?” The magician turns a red scarf into a red rose, and then a spotlight shines on seat D7 – on Kang Mi. The magician cries out, “My love, will you accept it?”

The theater lights go off, and when they come on again, seat D7 is empty! Where did Kang Mi go?!

Woo Hyun gets up and stares dumbfounded at the seat, where only a rose is left. Kang Mi is actually under the theater, as her chair must have been a trap door. She looks around lost, and then a dark figure grabs her hand, and drags her through the basement. Dun dun dun!

Comments:

The episode was fairly straightforward because it was setting up so much about this serial murderer case. This case was a little confusing because at some point, ‘phantom0308’ became someone who was not our big bad Phantom, and yet he knew how to hack into computers and terrorize these women. But it was a relief to see that cyber hacking could be portrayed in a suspenseful and scary manner. Honestly, it makes me never want to open another email again.

I initially did think that Chief Shin had something to do with the Phantom because he was so close to Woo Hyun, and his benevolence was a little too suspicious. However, if the Phantom’s ally is really Director Jun, then that throws everything off. They’re such enemies at work that I wonder how could they possibly be working together for the greater evil? (Unless, the antagonism at work is just an act!) But perhaps Phantom does want his allies to be enemies, because in that way they will automatically be suspicious of the other and keep tabs on each other.

The one thing I enjoyed in this episode was seeing glimpses of Ki Young in Woo Hyun. I’m glad So Ji Sub is channeling a bit of Daniel Choi because I do miss that fellow. It was amusing for me to see Kang Mi constantly guide Woo Hyun on how to act all Woo Hyun-y, and get pissed around him because he was a bit too cavalier about his attitude. I am a little surprised that Woo Hyun managed to do so much on his own with Kang Mi because I thought he was under close watch by Hyuk Joo. Clearly, Team Leader Hyuk Joo isn’t really keeping much tabs on his members. Hyuk Joo really annoys me too because I feel like he only knows how to get angry at people. What use is that other than to intimidate? Thank goodness his partner is Sang Woo, who is the complete opposite in personality and also gets all the best one-liners.

There’s not much else to say here except – episode 4, let’s tie this case up!

RELATED POSTS

• Ghost: Episode 2
• Ghost: Episode 1
• Find the hidden message in Ghost’s posters
• So Ji-sub and Lee Yeon-hee shoot Ghost title sequence
• Daniel Choi joins the cast of Ghost
• Eom Ki-joon joins cyber thriller Ghost
• Lee Yeon-hee reunites with So Ji-sub for Ghost
• So Ji-sub confirms crime drama Ghost