GABDONGI EPISODE 12

On his flight to Switzerland, Tae Oh strikes again. This does not go unnoticed as there is a passenger keeping an eye on Tae Oh's activities. We know now that the bloody police badge belonged to Chul Geon.� Profiler Han explains it was near the 7th victim and designed to frame Chul Geon, who is subsequently�fired and tells Mu Yeom to quit before his obsession overtakes him. The 7th victim is found, the plane heads back to Korea, and Tae Oh is taken into custody for interrogation before being sent to the asylum. The passenger who was watching Tae Oh gives his statement and Mu Yeom discusses his discomfort with the case. He knows Tae Oh was angry with himself after the murder; he usually seems excited, but this time, he was subdued. Mu Yeom ends up at Maria's�and, before the action can get hot, the asylum calls, saying Tae Oh�wants to confess to Maria. The scene shifts to a figure walking through a field of reeds. The telltale whistle lets us know it's Gab Dong.� When he moves his face out of shadow, it's Section Chief Cha!

Well, that came out of left field. I was expecting, perhaps, our witness from the plane (he seemed a bit ominous) or Profiler Han,�not the section chief. I know we should suspect everyone; with the creepy way the writers set things up, it's hard not to, but I had fairly well ruled out of number of people. Just goes to show how much of a mystery buff I am (I'm not). I'd love to know the explanation for this, though. This revelation alone is worth the price of admission.


The in-flight movie was pretty bad, but did you have to kill someone over it?

At the same time, the revelation frustrates me. We seem to have more than one Gab Dong running around. We have Tae Oh, who admits there's another Gab Dong. There's Section Chief Cha, Chul Geon has been a suspect at least once, there's Profiler Han, and whoever that guy in the asylum is that Tae Oh met more than once. So is there one Gab Dong, is there at least one copycat, or are there a number of crazy people who have adopted the Gab Dong moniker and methods?

I commented before that Tae Oh doesn't seem in control of his action, and here, it seems true. He seems angry at himself as he reseats himself on the plane and Mu Yeom mentions that the 7th murder was unintentional. We certainly see a different Tae Oh in the asylum, he has madness in his eyes, hurling himself against the bars, and screaming at the top of his lungs. So when the cool veneer of the chaebol killer is stripped away, this is what we are left with. It kind of shocked me, as I didn't imagine Tae Oh as anything like that. I think I liked him better as the killer with the unsettling demeanor.


Wow. Just, wow.

But, still, that rage!� The twisted hate that the eyes reflect seemed fairly real, which would indicate his end as a K-Pop idol, but he might have a future in death metal. His acting in that scene was more physical than I've seen him get, and I can almost imagine him suffering contusions similar to the bruises After School showed during the 2013 comeback just from sheer physical exertion. I've read recently that Lee Joon studied hard to become a convincing sociopath, and I think he's outdone himself here. �

Maria interests me more and more. The show seems to suggest she has multiple personalities and I feel this episode confirms my suspicion. There's calm, cool, rational Dr. Maria, there is Club Chick Maria with miniskirt, fake nails, and fake eyelashes (and doubtless some Barbie accessories)...now,�Mu Yeom has identified the third one: the victim,�Jae Hee. In this installment, he cautions her when she questions Tae Oh�to enter the cell as Dr. Maria and not as Jae Hee. Which makes sense, now that I think of it. But if you have multiple personality disorder, can you really control who you are around others?

I'm enjoying this show and this episode in particular. I don't think 'Gabdongi' knows what it wants to be yet, but I think that's part of why it's so compelling. At some points it wants to be a murder mystery, at other points, a horror show, and finally it resembles a psychological thriller. You can't be murder mystery if you know whodunit, it can't be horror if the killer is out in broad daylight, and a psychological thriller works best if your violence is mental, not physical. Maybe they're deliberately trying to avoid genre or maybe the writers are just telling their tale their way. Who knows? Either way, it's a must-see.

SEE ALSO: "I was really beaten a lot," Lee Joon recalls being a victim of school bullying