Ghost: Episode 4

by kaedejun

Now THIS was quite the interesting episode! I’m happy to say that the ‘phantom’ serial killer case gets wrapped up in this episode, but that’s not why I’m so excited. Rather, I was quite excited to see that there are consequences to the Woo Hyun-identity swap. It was a twist I was not quite expecting, much like how I didn’t expect Woo Hyun to be killed and be replaced by Ki Young. And to top it all off – Uhm Ki Joon is here!

Back to the underground area of the theater – now it’s starting to feel like “The Phantom of the Opera” when Christine ends up in the underground tunnels of the opera house, guided by the Phantom. Except this time it’s Kang Mi being led through the tunnel by the Magician. She freaks out, understandably so, until suddenly she’s pulled into the light. Stage lights, that is. The Magician has brought her out onstage as part of his “magic trick.” In the audience, Woo Hyun is visibly relieved.

The Magician kneels down and slips a ring on Kang Mi’s finger. Fireworks shoot up from the stage, and everyone cheers at the good show. Kang Mi looks up to Woo Hyun and slightly shakes her head – the Magician didn’t harm her at all.

Seung Yoon isn’t allowed to go home alone, even though she didn’t sit in the cursed D7 seat, so Kang Mi escorts her in her car. She doesn’t think the musical is anything harmful, even though it’s too coincidental for the last two victims (or three actually) to have attended this musical. She suggests Woo Hyun go back to the bureau and see how Hyuk Joo is coming along; he should have arrested the suspect Yang Seung Jae already.

Woo Hyun goes back to the theater to ask the manager about who sends out event emails. Everyone pretty much pitches in and helps, and no one keeps track of who sends the email and when, so that lead is pretty useless. As he leaves, he passes by a bulletin board of fans taking a picture with the Magician, and also the recent lucky ladies in seat D7. There’s Han Yoo Ri on May 26th, Baek Young Seo on May 29th, and Jung So Eun on June 3rd; it’s the first time Woo Hyun finds out all three victims were at the musical. The musical totally has something to do with the serial murders.

And now, Kang Mi will be the next victim.

Hyuk Joo has no concrete evidence against Seung Jae, so he’s forced to let the suspect go. He doesn’t believe the suspect is 100% innocent (“There’s no such thing!”), so when Sang Woo walks Seung Jae out, he advises Seung Jae to stay within the area and be reachable. They pass by Woo Hyun, who arrives at that moment. Young Suk tells him that Hyuk Joo’s been looking for him and Kang Mi, but since Kang Mi is taking Seung Yoon home, Hyuk Joo won’t be able to meet with her.

Seung Yoon arrives home, safe and sound, and Kang Mi wants to also check her computer to make sure no virus is in it. But Seung Yoon closes it – she’s absolutely fine, and she will notify Kang Mi if anything weird happens.

Hyuk Joo brings Woo Hyun up to speed based on his interview with Seung Jae. Yay – everyone is finally on the same page. It appears that although Seung Jae was the initial target, because he sent the musical invite to Yoo Ri, she ended up being the one with the computer virus and sitting on the Seat of Death.

Whoever ‘phantom0308′ is, he’s been using the musical as a way of finding out who the hateful commenters were. The killer knows the victims’ email address based on their usernames for the comments, so he sent them the email invite with the virus embedded in them. Once they opened it, the virus entered their computer, and the killer would be able to hack it. They would also accept the invitation to go to the musical and sit at D7; there the killer would see who they were, stalk them home, and then kill them. Seung Yoon was targeted because of her article on “True Story.”

But since Kang Mi sat in Seung Yoon’s seat, she’s the one in trouble. Woo Hyun tries to locate Kang Mi, while Hyuk Joo assembles a police team to find her.

Kang Mi leaves Seung Yoon’s apartment building. As she exits the lobby, she walks right past a man dressed in a dark hoodie and backpack, and dragging an empty luggage case. Kang Mi ignores him as Dark Hoodie enters the elevator. Um hello?! Is he not in the least suspicious to you? At all!? She does think she’s being followed through the parking lot though, and hurries to her car. I half-expected for Dark Hoodie to jump out from the backseat and strangle her – but thankfully no one else is in the car.

She finally picks up her cellphone, which has been ringing off the hook because of Woo Hyun. He warns her that the killer/Dark Hoodie/phantom0308 will be going after her since he thinks she’s Choi Seung Yoon, and tells her to get out of that parking lot ASAP!

Kang Mi quickly pulls out, but then stops the car. If he thinks she’s the reporter, wouldn’t he already be after her? She flashes back to the Dark Hoodie she passed by at the lobby – Dark Hoodie isn’t after her. He’s after Seung Yoon! He knows how Seung Yoon really looks like! She jumps out of her car and runs for the elevators again.

And suddenly, Seung Yoon’s computer starts blasting “The Phantom of the Opera.” She’s lost all control over her mouse, and the message “Remember the sin made by your hand” pops up on her screen. She’s spooked, but has enough sense to quickly dial Kang Mi’s number. She grabs her jacket and opens the door.

Dark Hoodie is standing right there, wearing the Magician’s mask!

Kang Mi is freaking out because once again, she’s let a suspect escape when he was within her grasp. She runs for the elevators, and as she goes up, the other elevator is coming down… Seung Yoon’s door is open, and there’s an overturned chair to show a sign of some struggle. Kang Mi sees the haunting message displayed on the computer screen as well, but there’s no body. Seung Yoon’s been kidnapped and stuffed into the luggage bag.

Seung Yoon’s home becomes a crime scene and the team starts taking pictures of her apartment as it was. Woo Hyun loses himself in his memories in front of Seung Yoon’s little bulletin board of stories for “True Story,” thinking back on the good ol’ days when he was still Ki Young. Kang Mi gets a severe scolding from Hyuk Joo for losing the suspect. Suddenly, Woo Hyun pushes Tae Gyun aside and inserts his own USB into Seung Yoon’s computer. Though protocol states that they need to bring the computer in and make a copy of the hard drive, Woo Hyun argues that Seung Yoon is still alive, and they need to find her as soon as possible.

Surprisingly, Hyuk Joo agrees, and he allows Woo Hyun to go through the computer, effectively “tampering with the evidence.” He orders Young Suk to check the CCTV cameras, Sang Woo to investigate the Han Yoo Ri case, Woo Hyun and Tae Gyun to investigate the computer, and he himself will go with Kang Mi to the theater to investigate everyone in the company.

Woo Hyun locates the virus within Seung Yoon’s computer, and sees the music file for “The Phantom of the Opera.” Tae Gyun and Woo Hyun wince at the music, but they recognize which musical it is from. It suddenly makes sense for Woo Hyun, who has an idea on who ‘phantom0308’ may be. Since he had seen photos of Hyo Jung in “Phantom of the Opera” costume on the suspect’s hard drive, the suspect must be someone very close to her in that same production.

Though Hyo Jung was never said to have been in a musical, it was possible she worked on one before she became famous. He knows that the production company The Musical is the only one that handles “The Phantom of the Opera” productions in Korea, so he goes to meet them. Am I the only one sniggering at the reference of The Musical because it’s really Ki Young/Daniel Choi in Woo Hyun/So Ji Sub’s body?

Woo Hyun meets with the production manager of The Musical, and he sees the very same costume that Hyo Jung and another actor had worn in those photos. The production manager says that Hyo Jung never played the female lead role of Christine for the play, but she was definitely part of the company as an extra. The production manager takes out one of her photo albums and shows Woo Hyun the same pictures he saw on the hard drive. For the extras, it was a bit of a tradition to wear the costumes of the leads at least once so that they can keep holding on to the hope that one day they will be successful.

At the same time, Kang Mi is flipping through the theater’s roster for “The Magician’s Dream,” and becomes interested in the profile of Ha Jung Ho. He looks a lot like the suspect in question, but he’s also The Magician on certain nights. In fact, that evening he’s actually performing onstage again. Kang Mi gets his schedule and notes that every single time the victims attended, it was when Jung Ho was performing.

Hyuk Joo goes through the dressing room and checks out each locker. He freezes at the sight of one of them holding a dark sweater. It has the words “Bidangil” on it – the same words that were on Dark Hoodie’s back the night of So Eun’s murder. The locker belongs to Ha Jung Ho.

It’s the end of the musical, and a new girl has been chosen to be the Magician’s bride for the night. The lights go dark, and when they turn on again, a team of cops surround the Magician onstage. He’s under arrest!

Hyuk Joo and Kang Mi conduct their interrogation in the dressing room, demanding him to tell them where Seung Yoon is. Um, who? OK – so he’s not going to admit so easily. Hyuk Joo accuses him of avenging Hyo Jung’s haters because he became friends with her during the production of “The Phantom of the Opera” a few years ago. But Ha Jung Ho really has no idea what they’re talking about. He doesn’t know any of those people, and after each performance, it gets so crazy backstage that he wouldn’t have had the time to kill those women anyways! He has witnesses to prove that he’s at the theater all night too.

Camera pans to the doorway, where the entire theater company is watching the proceedings unfold. It’s a nice break for comedy that they all raise their hands, as if saying “I’m his witness.” Heehee!

At The Musical company, the production manager informs Woo Hyun that the man in the Phantom costume beside Hyo Jung is her friend Ha Jung Ho. But Woo Hyun sees another face that catches his attention. The production manager explains that “that face” also performed with them and was quite close to Hyo Jung. The two of them nicknamed themselves as “Bidangil” – an acronym for the phrase “The Only Way that Dreams can Soar.” Hyo Jung even hired him into her production company after she debuted.

“That face” Woo Hyun recognized is none other than Yang Seung Jae.

Hyuk Joo throws the sweater at Jung Ho’s face – what is the suspect’s sweater doing in Jung Ho’s locker then? Ha Jung Ho says that his manager gave it to him. He’s close friends with his manager and performed with him in “The Phantom of the Opera” too. Cold realization falls upon Hyuk Joo and Kang Mi’s faces as they discover Seung Jae is now Ha Jung Ho’s manager, and that they both let the suspect out of their grasp.

Seung Jae had known who Seung Yoon really was because when he was leaving the bureau, he overheard Woo Hyun say that Kang Mi had escorted Seung Yoon home. That’s how he knew to go after the correct person.

Sang Woo calls Hyuk Joo with some new information that he discovered regarding Han Yoo Ri’s case. Yoo Ri and Seung Jae had had a fight because Seung Jae knew Yoo Ri was one of the hateful commenters against Hyo Jung. Basically, Seung Jae lied while giving his statement; he wasn’t the “real” target – Yoo Ri was from the start. On top of that, one of the theater company people remembers that Seung Jae offered to send out invitation emails for them, so that’s how he got his victims to come out.

In an unknown location, Seung Yoon is all bound and gagged, listening to Seung Jae rattle off her crime. He’s killing her because she wrote a slanderous article on Hyo Jung. Legally her punishment would be up to 3 years in jail or she pay a large fine, but for him – he thinks she should just die. Seung Jae sounds like a lovesick psychopath. He’s incensed that the girls involved in Shin Jin Yo didn’t even care that Hyo Jung died, because they even emailed each other saying “If Shin Hyo Jung never died, we wouldn’t have met!” To him, it wasn’t one person who killed Hyo Jung, but rather all of the netizens who wrote those nasty comments.

And he goes back to editing the Shin Hyo Jung video with Seung Yoon’s face on it.

Hyuk Joo and his team enter Seung Jae’s apartment, searching for clues on where he could be. Kang Mi spots his phone bill and sees some of the extra charges on his phone. She immediately calls up Woo Hyun, who is en route to Seung Jae’s apartment. It appears that Seung Jae had downloaded a cell phone tracker into his phone that served as a GPS. If they make a duplicate of his phone, they could find out where Seung Jae’s been to and where he could have gone with Seung Yoon.

Kang Mi can’t do it herself, since she’s a police officer and she doesn’t know how to do it. But Woo Hyun… well he’s technically a hacker posing as a cop, so he should be able to do it, right? Without responding, Woo Hyun pulls up to a curb and starts typing away into his computer – ha!

Woo Hyun hacks in to the phone company’s database and changes his phone’s serial number into Yang Seung Jae’s serial number. With a few clicks and a redirecting of numbers, he tricks Seung Jae’s phone company into sending the information to his phone. A list of his last GPS locations come up, and he rattles them off to Kang Mi. Kang Mi identifies each location as either a victim’s neighborhood or locations related to work. But there’s one address that they can’t identify. Woo Hyun searches it online – and they get Palace Tower.

Seung Jae took Seung Yoon to Hyo Jung’s old apartment. He’s going to kill her in the same way that Hyo Jung died.

Kang Mi quickly informs Hyuk Joo that Seung Jae is at Palace Tower. It’s been left empty because Shin Hyo Jung’s family has been fighting over her possessions. Hyuk Joo demands to know how Kang Mi knows all this, but she doesn’t give it away. All she says is that the previous murders have been staged to look like suicides. If this is going to be the last murder he will commit, then he will stage it in the most glorious way possible – imitate Hyo Jung’s death.

That doesn’t satisfy Hyuk Joo, because he knows something fishy is going on without his knowledge. But Kang Mi glares at him – yes, she glares! She’s only trying to fix her mistake for letting the suspect go, so she has no time to try to explain how she found him. The point is, she found him, and now she’s going to catch him. Hyuk Joo can come along if he wants.

At Hyo Jung’s apartment, Seung Jae prepares Seung Yoon for her death. He rips the tape off her mouth, but Seung Yoon doesn’t scream. “I did write the truth,” she says. “Shin Hyo Jung was murdered!” But Seung Jae believes that the killer is Hades (as everyone initially did) and that Hades is dead (as everyone should believe). He believes the netizens are at fault as well, because they ruined the dream that he and Hyo Jung had.

Woo Hyun arrives at Palace Tower, and suddenly, just like in episode 1, something crashes through the glass awning. Instead of a body, it’s a backpack with a laptop, its hard drive damaged by the fall from 11 stories up. Gosh, those building owners must seriously hate that they have to fix the awning. Kang Mi calls to let him know that Seung Yoon’s video is up. That’s not good news…

Up in Hyo Jung’s apartment, Seung Jae chloroforms Seung Yoon and then picks up her limp body. Just as he’s about to throw her over the window, Woo Hyun appears, gun in hand. He orders Seung Jae to let Seung Yoon go. (Side note: If I were the killer holding a victim over the edge, I’d literally let go and let her fall to her death. Can’t you cops say something more specific like, “Put her on the ground” or “Step away from the window”?)

Seung Jae inches closer to the window, and Woo Hyun fires a bullet through one of the windows. He will shoot if Seung Jae doesn’t let her go. “Shin Hyo Jung’s real killer is alive,” he says. “You know the watch with the world map? It’s that person.” Seung Jae freezes – he does know the person who owns that watch, but he didn’t know that person was the killer. He has a moment’s doubt, but then figures that he’s being lied to again.

A bullet fires into Seung Jae by his heart – it’s Hyuk Joo who fires. Kang Mi quickly checks on Seung Yoon, while Woo Hyun goes over to Seung Jae. Whispering, he tries to get Seung Jae to tell him who that person is, but it’s too late – Seung Jae dies.

The case of ‘phantom0308’ is closed. ‘0308’ actually stands for the date when Seung Jae and Hyo Jung first performed the musical together. Kang Mi promises to try and find the picture in Seung Jae’s hard drive, though Woo Hyun holds little hope that it’s retrievable. He even wonders if he did the right thing in becoming Woo Hyun. Inside, he’s still Ki Young, and inside, he can’t shoot his gun at a suspect. The old-Woo Hyun would have been able to.

Seung Yoon appears, wanting a word with Woo Hyun. Why did he say that the person who killed Hyo Jung is still alive? Woo Hyun says that it was just a lie to stop Seung Jae from killing her. One more question: “How did you know my name was Choi Seung Yoon the first time we met?” Woo Hyun: “I heard Ki Young mention you one time.” Ooooh….slick.

Chief Shin and Director Jun listen to the results of the case and are ready to close it up. But Hyuk Joo has one more point to make. When they handed over Jung So Eun’s hard drive for investigation to Eung Jin, they discovered a dead Hades virus. How could Hades’ virus exist if Hades is dead? On top of that, Eung Jin tracked down the virus and saw it was sent through the police department IP address. So… Hades is in the police department!?

Woo Hyun and Kang Mi shift uneasily in their seats. Woo Hyun even says, “Park Ki Young is dead” to help finalize the issue. But Hyuk Joo won’t stop – he wants to be allowed to investigate further into the matter and see who in the police department used Hades’ code. Chief Shin wants to let this go. Why!? Director Jun doesn’t, and he approves the investigation.

Now, before Hyuk Joo closes in on them, Woo Hyun and Kang Mi have to work faster in catching Phantom – the real Phantom.

Kang Mi works late into the night, calling up any production company that could possibly know if Hyo Jung had a boyfriend or anything. She’s ready to give up, but the one thing that helps her regain her strength is Woo Hyun’s last voicemail. She still saved it, and it seems like she always goes back to it whenever she needs that reminder to be a good police officer.

She heads home, and finds Woo Hyun checking out her building. He’s surprised to see her there too, until she clarifies that she lives in that building. Woo Hyun: “Oh. Hmm.” He tells her to get into his car – he’s been doing some investigating on his own, and he’ll fill her in on the way.

Since Woo Hyun was able to duplicate Seung Jae’s phone, he did the same with Woo Hyun’s old phone that was blown up in the explosion. Most of the GPS locations were the office, crime scenes, and home. One was a camping place in Gangwon, and another place is one they’re heading to right now. Kang Mi guesses – is it Yangpyeong?

They arrive at a traditional Korean home in Yangpyeong. Kang Mi had not told him this before because she hoped they’d never have to come to this place. No matter how busy old-Woo Hyun was, he would make time to visit this place where his sickly father lived. Kang Mi had lied to the father and his helper that Woo Hyun had gone abroad for a long term program so that Ki Young-as-Woo Hyun would never have to come by.

Yeah well… now they’re here.

Woo Hyun looks at Mr. Kim awkwardly, not sure how to act. He’s just discovered that his best friend’s father is sick and dying, and now he must act the role of a son. And then, a little boy appears, half-asleep and in pajamas.

Woo Hyun stares. I stare. The kid stares back.

Kid: “DADDY!”

OH SHIT! Woo Hyun’s a daddy!!! This just makes things more awkward for Ki Young-as-Woo Hyun. WHOOO! Woo Hyun stares blankly at the kid, Seon Woo  who’s just hugged him around the middle. Um – hug back?

Kang Mi knows Seon Woo too, so it means that she’s been here with Woo Hyun herself, instead of just having heard it from Woo Hyun. She does know that before she joined the police, old-Woo Hyun had married right after graduating from the academy (which Ki Young missed) and they divorced soon after Seon Woo’s birth. She never mentioned this family since she’d eventually tell them that the real Woo Hyun had died.

She’s shocked that Ki Young knows so little about Woo Hyun, but since he left the police academy, he couldn’t exactly go meet Woo Hyun. He was a hacker at that point; criminals and cops don’t exactly go to each other’s weddings. Kang Mi wonders why Ki Young left the police academy, but he doesn’t answer. He in turn asks why she continues to be a police officer when Hyuk Joo is so mean to her, and she doesn’t answer.

Ki Young-as-Woo Hyun picks up on the fact that Kang Mi likes (liked?) old-Woo Hyun, but she denies it. How could she like her boss? He points out that on old-Woo Hyun’s navigation system, every location held a sweet memory. His GPS showed that he stayed outside Kang Mi’s house every so often, waiting and watching her go home. It actually warms Kang Mi’s heart, but now she wonders whether their relationship could have been different if she had seen him waiting outside.

Woo Hyun drops her off home, and notes that Kang Mi is much kinder to him now. “Do you really see me as Woo Hyun now?” he asks. Kang Mi freaks – of course not! New-Woo Hyun and old-Woo Hyun are totally different! Hee.

The following day, a trading company experiences a crisis – their servers are completely frozen, thus not providing real time updates to their traders on the stock prices. It causes a frenzy within the company, and Hyuk Joo and Woo Hyun are called in to help investigate quietly.

Phantom receives a message from Winter again – this time about the Hades virus being found in Jung So Eun’s computer. I now have a feeling ‘Winter’ might be Director Jun… His assistant then comes in and informs him that it’s time for the meeting. Phantom opens up a drawer and picks out a watch; he does not choose the watch with the global map.

The trading company board gather in the meeting room 30 minutes before the market opens. They’re worried because they received a threatening call after their servers had frozen for approximately 10 seconds. The company is to wire $1 million dollars to a bank in Hong Kong or else the hacker will attack their home trading system. If that happens, it can affect approximately $6 billion dollars in the market. They’re not sure on what they should do; though they are loath to send the money, they also don’t want to get financially ruined and lose the customer’s trust.

However, the final final decision lies with one man – and he enters the room just in time. It’s JO HYUN MIN (Uhm Ki Joon), the president of Sekang Securities.

Comments:

Dun dun dun! Woohoo for Uhm Ki Joon! I’m kind of excited over the fact that we know who the killer is right away. We know it’s Jo Hyun Min (and if it’s not, there better be a good explanation!), but the other characters don’t. I love this cat and mouse game where the mouse sneaks around thinking the cat can’t see him, but the cat can see all. Things are probably going to start getting awkward since old-Woo Hyun knows Hyun Min, but Ki Young-as-Woo Hyun doesn’t. I wonder how that dynamic will play out…

And then we have a blind cat in the form of Hyuk Joo, who lords over the mice and yet can’t figure everyone out. It’s funny that Hyuk Joo gives everyone a nickname – Tae Gyun is “Know Nothing,” Sang Woo is “Mr. Reliable” because he always says that Kang Mi is reliable. But it also indicates that he’s putting down his members and reinforcing the fact that he is the leader of the group. He must realize that without his ever capable group, Hyuk Joo would be nothing. I’m sure he’s a brilliant detective, but right now he’s just an annoying thorn in mine and Woo Hyun’s sides.

The editing of this drama is a little choppy, and time of day is such a huge inconsistency in this drama. Scary scenes would happen in the dark, and then next thing we know, the police arrive not much later and it’s already morning. The choppy editing might also explain why it gets confusing in this drama. There are so many threads that not everyone figures out the same thing at the same time. It’s great because it drives home certain points for the viewer, repeating it often enough so that you understand what’s happening. It’s not so great because then I start thinking, “Wait, you didn’t know that already?” The whole situation on who knows about the Magician and who could possibly be the killer was a little confusing because I’m following Woo Hyun’s line of investigation, and I forget that he doesn’t share his findings with Hyuk Joo and the others.

On a final note, I know there might be some romantic tension between Woo Hyun and Kang Mi, and I’d be grateful if it were Ki Young-as-Woo Hyun being in love with Kang Mi, even though that would be quite complicated. But frankly, I don’t give a damn who she ends up with. The romance isn’t pulling me deeper into this drama at all.

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