"The killer looked absolutely puzzled when confronted with the info that he would kill her daughter – of course there is at least another one on the loose."

i agree with you that this guy is probably not saet-byul's killer, just because it's only the fourth episode and there are still twelve more to go. but even if he WAS the real abductor, would it be so far fetched that he would be genuinely perplexed by soo-hyun's words?

because we don't know the details of SB's abduction, whether it was planned in advance or a spur-of-the-moment thing that happened outside the broadcasting station. even if SB's abduction was planned in advance, and this guy WAS her real abductor, maybe he just hasn't had the chance to target SB yet. after all, he'd only just killed victim #3. does this sort of make sense?

i realized this guy made an appearance at the bazaar in episode 1 where the disabled kids were selling their handmade goods, right before soo-hyun's encounter with the destiny cafe.

Daesangs are rotated. Those awards means nothing anyway when they are mostly not based on real merit despite the claim otherwise.

Daesang are usually given to the drama with more of the higher ratings. Though Gods Gift 14 days is pretty good drama, it has slim chances of winning along with the fact it aired too early that they might forget. Look at Queens Ambition got stellar ratings but did not win any awards at the ceremony.

But awards aren't a big deal anyways. If Suzy, Yoona & Han Ga In can win one of the top acting awards it does not mean much... I sorta find it an insult to other actors & actresses that are better but aren't lucky enough to receive it.

Not sure if she'll get it, but she certainly deserves it.

My own money is on Jeon Ji-hyun, although admittedly dramas broadcasting earlier in the year tend to be forgotten.

Well, i think it is Jo Seung Woo(our Ki Dong Chan) will take the Daesang this year. Lee Bo-young has a great chance to win the title however i think Jo Seung Woo will make him name this time. First of all, he is such a great actor, i really love his movies like the Classics, Marathons and Tazza: The high roller. He posses an excellent acting skill that only the top actors like Lee Byung Hun, Jang Dong Gun and Jo In Sung can share. Furthermore, he is continuously making us like him. His tragic past is still not revealed and i think he still has the chance to show his acting and makes many more moving scenes.

Agreed! He has been underutilized so hopefully this role will put him back on the radar. I also totally didn't expect his death so soon and at Soohyun's hands no less. This was an intense episode and I wonder how Soohyun will handle the consequences of her choice. He's a killer who deserves to die, but I wonder if it was all voluntary. Maybe he could have provided info on the real threat to Saetbyul if the police had had a chance to question him. Can't wait to see how the other bits of the first two episodes surface to lead us on other paths.

Thanks, solabelly, for the recap! This is a difficult drama to summarize. So many things happen in each episode with red herrings thrown at us right and left.

I LOVE the fact that the killer was revealed and dispatched so quickly. I adore dramas which are always one step ahead.

*fantastic

This is exactly what I was thinking as well. Not just that she picks great projects but that she has great characters to play. I always have liked her and was worried after she was completely underutilized in Equator Man, but then after that it has been great character after great character. This makes me have hope for better and more varied characters for women.

For a mystery/crime/thriller it is best to watch week-by-week because you catch all the clues and get to join in/read the discussions which are quite thought provoking.. it's a nice addition to the watching experience, imo.
I usually recommend light, fluff dramas to marathon, but in this case you should jump in now and not miss a single thing. Plus, how does one handle all the intensity in one sitting? Ha.

I think if you binge you'll be super stressed! this show is pretty intense and each episode is more than in enough. I just watched 3 and 4 back to back and now my emotions and brain are fried...

I suggest watching as it airs because not only will you be able to participate in exciting discussions and theorizing with everyone else, but you will also most likely not be spoiled if you're someone like me who reads the ending of a show before marathoning it just to get a feel if it was worth it. Whether this drama ends up bad at the end or not, the fun is in watching it as it goes along.

4) Now we should move on to the kidnapper and this will be a hard one, since she will have to go all the way back to the Song case from the first episode, which happened before Soo-hyun’s birthday. However, her husband does mention that she will talk about it during the program, so she will try to remember those details. Since during these 14 days, the only thing he will do will be to kidnap Saet-byul and no one else, there is no way of stopping him, so Soo-hyun will probably check on every person her daughter will get in touch with. ALTHOUGH, as I mentioned earlier, he might have to do one more dirty job (possibly kidnapping another child), since he lost the argument with the 3 killings to back up his threats. And of course, we still need to discover if the one who called really abducted Saet-byul and not someone else with a similar voice. That’s still a possibility and would fit with the inconsistency. Maybe he was just an actor employed by the Minister of Justice, to panic the president and push him into making up his mind once and for all about the death penalty and due to a sad Korean drama-style coincidence, Saet-byul was kidnapped the exact same moment, leading to confusion. Her death might have been something unplanned and unrelated, which happened at a convenient time to capitalize on the tragedy with the death penalty lobby. Remember that the caller at no time mentions KIDNAPPING – he states he will KILL the child, plain and simple. Why wait 7 days to kill her? That’s not the MO. Moreover, her death seemed to be accidental, so whoever was holding her didn’t intend on killing her, although some fighting was involved. I feel the Minister’s hand is in this! And never does the caller or the child say any names. Still feels fishy to me that at no point did Saet-byul and Soo-hyun exchange words on the phone. Come to think of it, this is the theory I am most inclined to go with, although that might be excessive teasing for the viewers. That would be something – a killer, a kidnapper, scamming kidnappers (?) and a faux killer in one show.

5) This brings me to Young-gyu. I have a bad feeling about this, because in this version, apparently he and Saet-byul aren’t becoming friends and he gets concerned/disappointed. This is mainly due to Soo-hyun’s unintentional actions (buying him shoes => scratch the socks from Saet-byul, bringing Dong Chan home => he becomes her daughter’s playmate). Maybe Dong Chan will do with Saet-byul the things she was doing with Young-gyu and Soo-hyun will watch over Young-gyu. Also, don’t know what to make of the killer being his drama teacher (?), although he did give him some good piece of advice. In regards to Dong-ho, after seeing Dong Chan’s flashback when he plays that game, the other children were thinking his older brother was an idiot, which makes me believe that he is definitely not faking his illness.

6) It’s interesting how these two last episodes were all about glass, unlike the first two which dealt with water. When Soo-hyun is dying, there are glass fragments at the bottom of the river. When she is in the rain and the murderer pushes her, she falls to the ground and gets her hand cut with the glass. Saet-byul also gets her finger cut. Soo-hyun hits the guy with the windshield and it breaks. The guy jumps through a window…glass glass glass.

7) Jesus Christ, could the husband be more annoying? Ok, sure, it’s baffling to hear that his daughter is going to die, but he is so rude and disrespectful to her. She could have told him that she is having visions or something like that, but no matter how crazy she sounds, he should show more understanding. It doesn’t look like these two had a loving marriage – there is no communication between them, they seem distant. The marriage will have a nasty ending, I can tell that.

8) Dong Chan saying he thinks he saw Ji-Hoon before – this smells like adultery to me, although it could be something entirely different, related to cases (he is a lawyer after all). But remember how most of Dong Chan’s assignments were all about loans and infidelity? I have this theory (that also some of you mentioned) that Ji-Hoon is screwing around with Min Ah. Or screwed around, until he found out she was pregnant. We saw in this episode that Ji-Hoon can get quite violent if you push the wrong buttons. He is right there on the verge. So, Min Ah’s boyfriend became suspicious, asked Dong Chan to help him track her and he caught them in the act, with photo evidences. Since the boyfriend is threatening Min Ah with giving something to Soo-hyun, I am guessing he was talking about those proofs. Furthermore, that “guy” could have decided that it’s better to blackmail the husband with the pictures instead and maybe that’s what he saw at the end of the second episode. Seeing the pictures, he might have assumed that the guy is the kidnapper, since he seemed to have had a personal vendetta against him. If we are to assume that Ji-Hoon put those thugs to throw Dong Chan at the bottom of the river, it’s not quite working, since Ji-Hoon pretty much wants to kill the guy with his own hands and not employ others to do it. When Soo-hyun installs those surveillance cameras, he says sarcastically, that they should also place one in the bedroom and she asks him if they should. Hmmmm

9) Wonder if they will think about placing a tracking device on Saet-byul as well or it that will be also considered a way of running away from fate.

10) What’s interesting to me is that it seems that in this reality, Saet-byul will side with her mother and actually turn against her dad, since she looks to be more loving to her. Even through their behavior, it’s as if Soo-hyun and Ji-Hoon switched places in this reality. It’s all about mommy mommy mommy. Also wonder if there was anything important written on daddy’s page which Saet-byul keeps in her pocket. If Woo-jin is not involved in any way with the kidnappings, he and Soo-hyun might rekindle, since he, just like her husband, is someone who didn’t experience time travelling, yet he still decides to go out of his logic ways to believe her and be there for her, since there are still feelings involved. This shows how uneven the confidence in Soo-hyun is between her husband and Woo-jin.

11) “Even if I die because of him, don’t even try to save me”. Oh God, the foreshadowing. I am really afraid that she might save Saet-byul at the expense of her own life. The Destiny shop owner with her “Only one of you two can survive” is also not helping. Could it come full circle with Soo-hyun drowning to save Saet-byul from drowning? Please no. On that note, will Soo-hyun be able to find the ajumma, since the picture is still present, although different? Ajummaaaaaaaaaaaaa, we need you to change your damn prophecy!

12) For a moment, I thought there would be a connection between Young-gyu and the third victim, since both her son and Young-gyu are 16 years old and she gave hers to an orphanage. Oh and that rich grandpa clearly knows a lot of things about Dong Chan. He also knows he will die fairly soon.

13) I wonder if the killer will die or if Dong Chan will get there in time to save him, since he already told Soo-hyun that it would be painful for her to kill someone. Will she go on being traumatized with the fact that she purposely let him go to avenge her daughter’s death (thinking it was him) or will Dong Chan spare her? I feel the killer is going to be saved, because that would be the quickest way for her to figure out that there is another person on the loose. This is almost like Minority Report – trying to stop crimes before happening.

I'm done for today's theories LOL :)

YES to everything! Woo-jin might have the ways, but Dong-Chan has the wits. He knows people's weaknesses and flaws just by being incredibly observant and clever, in an almost Sherlockian manner (the white spot on the finger indicating the guy has a wedding ring, the underage employer, etc.). There's no wonder that they say that there was no one like him in the division.

When she sees him playing with Saet-byul, I think that in a way, it makes her reflect on her marriage, since this ajusshi was practically doing with Saet-byul the things a father should do and my feeling is that Ji-Hoon is very much absent from his child's life. Before the time travel, the only thing he did was to go against Soo-hyun, without being actively involved in his daughter's life. I definitely see Dong-Chan become some sort of a father figure to Saet-byul. Although DC is not entirely safe from my suspicions, I am at this point so invested in these characters, that if anything bad happens to them, I will be absolutely gutted.

o/ Hi mangoes. I agree. The recap was well done and having a forum to discuss is awesome. These days I'm too tired to type but I love reading all the comments.

I thought of that too, her actions now giving the opportunity for the killer to want to attack her child. But all the other events haven't changed so I didn't consider that option too much.

Lol, I'd probably slap my husband but if he persists like that, my annoyance would give way to concern and I'd at least humour him.

(Cont.)

He also seemed to be working alone, seeing as he personally revisited the crime scene and planted the gas bomb. And let's not forget that he has a main job as a teacher.

Speaking of: ugh. The fact that he's a special needs teacher by day makes him even more despicable. And it doesn't seem as if he divorces his murderous tendencies or personality from his lawful work, cf. creepy demeanour. I think he gets a thrill from being an authority figure, hence his police and fireman disguises. Although they're also expedient - since victims are unlikely to mistrust him at first sight - they also feed into his vanity. Moreover, his disguises seem to originate from the special needs school: Young-gyu's classmates were wearing such uniforms whilst practising for their play. I'm not certain whether the murderer planned the play in order to aid his murdering, or whether he was merely opportunistic - either way he gives me the shivers.

On a lighter note, I love Soo-hyun and Dong-chan as a team. Of course, they're already bound by the fact they both time-travelled, but they also work so well together. He holds her back from acting blindly in her desperation. She - along with Saet-byul - seems to be opening him up emotionally, peeling back his layers of resentment and denial. Some great chemistry doesn't hurt.

What does hurt is the crumbling relationship between Soo-hyun and Ji-hoon. Naturally, we can understand why Ji-hoon does not believe her wild sounding claims. But she didn't seem to make much of an effort to make him believe - correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think she's even told him that she time-travelled yet. She tried harder with Woo-jin than she did with her husband, although admittedly Woo-jin's position could be more influential in the case. It upsets me that she could not just foretell an event at the very least, in order to get Ji-hoon to believe. It does not help having a detractor in her own home, especially when Ji-hoon could be supporting her. He's Saet-byul's parent too, and who else would be as desperate or determined as her in this investigation? As a lawyer, he would surely have superb analytical skills, and he probably has a bevy of powerful contacts. I do not think Soo-hyun suspects him yet, but that she simply does not feel it's worth her time.

However, the drama has planted a seed of suspicion against Ji-hoon. Saet-byul's unbeatable ddak-ji probably contains something important, but what? I am really disinclined to believe that Ji-hoon would kill his own daughter because she might know something, however significant or damaging it may be. However, the information might be connected in some way to why she was kidnapped and/or murdered.

Which leads me to speculation about the kidnapper's identity. *rolls up sleeves*

(Cont.)

I'm only listing my main suspects, where there are substantial arguments for their culpability, for brevity. (HA!)

Kidnapper suspects

1) Young-gyu's teacher, aka the serial killer

I'm playing devil's advocate here (and also pre-empting the need to eat my words later). Why did he choose Mina and his other victims? It could have been random - indeed the police found no connection between his first two victims - but years of drama-watching experience lead me to conclude that no coincidence is meaningless. Mina's murder is probably related to her son. Who might be Young-gyu. Which opens a whole other can of worms. (And, ack - did he become Young-gyu's teacher on purpose?!) Continuing on this train of thought, Saet-byul may have been taken because of her connection to Young-gyu: through the murderer's position as teacher, he would have seen Saet-byul at the school event with Young-gyu.

Alternatively, if we take the serial killer's vanity for granted, he might have previously taken Saet-byul to whip up more uproar. After all, nothing gets attention like crimes against a child. In this second timeline, he might do so to avenge Soo-hyun's slight to his pride.

Together with motive, the serial killer has the intellectual capability to kidnap Saet-byul - as shown by the depth of his planning for Mina's murder.

However, his fall was either fatal or at least exceedingly debilitating. He will also most likely be in police custody. So I don't think he's in any position to effect a kidnapping. I don't support the hypothesis that we are now in a parallel universe, where the kidnapper will be different. Personally, I believe that runs counter to the entire point of Soo-hyun being given the chance to travel back in time - she cannot have this opportunity to catch the kidnapper only for it to be a different person. It doesn't jibe with this drama's concept of fate.

2) Someone on the police force

This would account for the kidnapper knowing the number of stabs pertaining to the third victim. And I have a feeling Soo-hyun's wallet went missing only after it was brought to the police station. The bag was dropped in an abandoned alley, so it could not have been a random bystander. Although the serial killer did not go far after his tussle with Soo-hyun - seeing as the poor skull top girl was stabbed only thirty metres away - I don't think he would have been inclined to root through her bag, his priority probably being to escape. Besides, my memory might be deceiving me, but I believe the killer fled in the opposite direction to how Soo-hyun entered the alley. So he could not have encountered the bag.

If the kidnapper were a member of the police, he would be perfectly capable of scoping out, and avoiding, CCTV cameras. Furthermore, police involvement would also account for why little progress was made on the case even forty-nine days after Saet-byul's death. And the serial killer's choice of disguises gave me the...

I will gladly ignore the length warning, tell me about it LOL.

Soo-hyun is probably one of my favorite female characters I've seen lately. She's a brawler, a fighter, a survivor - nobody can stand in her way, when she's in WOMAN ON A MISSION MODE: ON. She is of course flawed, but her determination compensates all that.

"Thank goodness for small mercies, and that he’s just a serial killer. " LOLOLOLOL. This is so wrong, but true hahaha.

In the end, the vanity got the murderer. I think that's why he was even there at the crime scene the next day - because he was so overly confident that he wouldn't get caught. And of course, he wanted to see his "masterpiece". Plus, even to Soo-hyun he says the typical "They'll never catch me", then to his surprise, the police is there. That's also the reason why he didn't postpone the last crime or changed the victim - he invested so much of his time to orchestrate everything and he was certain that he would avoid getting caught, with his careful planning. He was truly multi-tasking, taking care of the children with disabilities, taking the role of a policeman/fireman AND killing those girls. Man, he really knew how to use time wisely and he surely loved the role-playing part. Ok, that sounded awkward. No wonder that he was giving acting classes to those children.

Everything seemed to suggest he was working alone, unlike the kidnapper(s). There's no way that this killer is the same who abducts Saet-byul. Some suggested that he might escape and harm Saet-byul because her mother exposed him, but with the building surrounded by cops, I'd like to think that they will definitely catch him, especially since the police seems to be quite efficient in this show.

It IS despicable that he had such an honorable job, but kudos to the writer for not going with a man who you would expect to be a killer, but with an apparently decent one instead. Apparently. Aren't most killers like that anyway? Good on the outside, rotten on the inside?

It's not that Ji-hoon is unreasonable, but as we say here, the tone dictates the music. His aggressiveness in dealing with Soo-hyun's confession got on my nerves - he completely lost his sh-t there, although she didn't put too much effort into explaining him things in a calmer way either. Clearly, they aren't used to talking and listening to each other. What we have here is a failure to communicate.

(Cont.)

And the serial killer's choice of disguises gave me the idea that Saet-byul would have trusted a uniform-clad kidnapper, and thus gone along with him without protest.

As for motive, it could be the case that he felt Soo-hyun's show cast the force into disrepute, seeing as it broadcasts details of unsolved crimes - evidence of police failures. On the other hand, if the kidnapping turns out to be a political intrigue, it is easy to see why the police would be implicated.

NB: I did not say Woo-jin, since he was in the studio when the call was made. If he is somehow implicated, he must also have an accomplice. And if I had to choose, I would put my money on Ho-kook. I don't know why, call it intuition.

Accomplice suspects

1) Mina

She cannot be the kidnapper since we saw her leave Saet-byul. However, she could be an accomplice - her leaving gave the kidnapper opportunity to strike. She was also suspiciously uncomfortable in episode three, when Soo-hyun left Saet-byul in her care.

2) Saet-byul's nanny

Her absence was the entire reason why Saet-byul was at the police station. The birth of a grandchild is hard to fake - and any lies would have been easily unrooted by the police - but she need not have visited on that day in particular. Moreover, as others have noted, the nanny's penchant for Go-Stop might have made her vulnerable to blackmail or bribery, as she may have accrued gambling debts.

FINAL ADDITIONAL COMMENTS *phew*

I don't agree that the gangsters were different - the mob boss specifically stated that Dong-chan should drown for sleeping with his wife. Even if the extras were different, that doesn't mean they're not part of the same gang.

Pink hair is a good look for Lee Bo-young. And I need that red lipstick.

Obligatory note on how the drama is spectacular and that Lee Bo-young is stellar. Jo Seung-woo is not calling it in either.

I love being able to discuss (at such great length) my speculations about this drama, and I adore the wonderful vibrancy of this comment section. As soon as I finish typing, I'm going to have to read through the doubtlessly countless comments which have sprung up since I started writing this. Many thanks are owed to dramallama and solabelly for facilitating this with their great recaps.

I'm also cutting the husband some slack because i think he's very much reacting the way any normal husband would if their wife suddenly acted erratically by things you've mentioned. There seems to be some shade thrown on him though, based on some character descriptions and theories floating around, so perhaps people are keeping him at a distance as to get ready for any unexpected twists in the proceedings.

I also thought the writer had purpose in making him young gyu's teacher -- one for those with mental disabilities in particular -- because then what's the point? Perhaps victim #3 was young gyu's mother that gave him up for adoption.. There was a heartwarming moment shared between her and dong-chan at her house when she offers up a knitted sweater. Then the show makes sure to mention that his nephew is the same age as her adopted son. Could just be thinking more into it, but i wonder why the show decided to make her likable before offing her, when they didn't give a rats ass about the women before her.

"Me trying to dissect clues in every episode and trying to put clues together to guess who is the real kidnapper makes this show feels like Reply 1994: The Kidnapper Version."

Thanks for the chuckle. :)

i would be shocked if the husband turns out to be the kidnapper, unless he's a sociopath and the show just hasn't shown that to us yet. we saw in the end of episode 2 that he received photos that appeared to tell him who saet-byul's kidnapper was (in hindsight, it kind of looks like he might have actually recognized the kidnapper, or at least knew where to go to find him), and he was in a rage, saying he would kill the guy himself.

yes, there's some hints at shadiness regarding the husband right now, but for the moment i don't find any strong reason to doubt his devotion and love for his daughter. saet-byul may have been targeted due to her father's views on capital punishment, or her mother's job, but i'm inclined to think we haven't been introduced to the real kidnapper yet.

(unless it's the president's shifty-eyed aide, but that actor always has those shifty eyes, lol).

3) I'm really curious about Soo-hyun's past. Her ex-love from 10 years ago chief detective man or whatever earlier referenced how he preferred the young, "tough" SH to what she'd become, and in this episode we had Dong-chan remark on her fighting skills and her surprising instincts to stab the killer with her pen. I'm thinking now that she has a dark past that goes beyond what I had assumed of her (that she was scrappy and a little wild in her youth).

4) To that end, it seems like her husband really doesn't know her past (or her, frankly) at all. It's really heartbreaking to see how little love there actually is between them, but it's also incredibly realistic to me how their relationship is portrayed.

I'm guessing that she had a really rough youth, grew up and attained the socially acceptable forms of "success" because she's so smart and talented, and sought out a normal, stable life with Ji-hoon as a sort of escape from or rejection of her past. It's so telling to me that Dong-chan views her fighting spirit with surprise and a little respect (even though he chided her for it), while Ji-hoon seems repulsed and embarrassed by her actions. Of course, Dong-chan has info that Ji-hoon does not, but even before the time travel, Ji-hoon seemed put off by Soo-hyun's more emotional, passionate side. He doesn't do conflict (his primary action throughout this entire story is to run away when things get tough), whereas Soo-hyun's instinct is to run toward the conflict and fight.

I really think that their relationship was deeply broken before Saet-byul's kidnapping, this is just the catalyst to show them how incompatible they really are.