GABDONGI EPISODE 13

Tae Oh asks for Maria�and the footage of his confession is turned over to the police. Tae Oh's assertion that Gab Dong is dead has her crying in Mu Yeom's arms -- the nightmare must be over. Ji Wool is broken up over this confession. When Mu Yeom confronts her about it, she tells Mu Yeom, sobbing, that she wanted to believe Tae Oh was human. Though the statute of limitations is up, Mu Yeom can't let Gab Dong go. Mu Yeom goes to the bulletin board full of missing persons�and finds a few clues that fit together with his notes. Maria gets ready to leave on a date and Tae Oh calls her again, telling her that he's going nuts and to just kill him already. Maria walks along a deserted road, reliving the night of her abduction. Back at the station, we find more details about the letter that dropped from the book�Ji Wool was reading a couple episodes back; the title page of the book marks it as belonging to Section Chief Cha. Meanwhile Maria finally remembers Gab Dong's face and when Section Chief Cha races back to the station at the news, Mu Yeom is there with Maria. She says she remembers what Gab Dong looks like and that his face is familiar...

So Section Chief Cha is the killer. We may not see it in the synopsis, but he is agitated when he hears that Maria remembered Gab Dong, he grins when telling Mu Yeom to leave the case alone, and he seems discomfited by one particular woman on the missing persons board. As I've said, the writers seem to want to trick us, but they're playing this up so much that maybe it's real this time?


"Gab Dong is my god because he can stop."

Tae Oh's mother talks to the lawyer and comes up with the "affluenza" defense. I thought that was dead and buried, but apparently not. The concept behind affluenza is that the kid grows up rich with no limits on his behavior; and therefore, is not responsible for what he does. Basically, spoiled brat syndrome. A Texas teen got off on this defense before, getting a rehab and probation sentence instead of murder conviction after he drunkenly ran over four people, and I'm sure it seems like a decent defense to use for Tae Oh. It is a hot button topic for me because it lets us know, once again, that the rich and powerful can get away with whatever they want. Tae Oh doesn't seem to stay incarcerated for too long, so I'm sure in an episode or two, he will be out again. On the positive side, Tae Oh doesn't seem to like the "affluenza" concept either.

When he's behind bars, Tae Oh talks about the murders and why Gab Dong was his god -- Gab Dong could stop himself from killing and Tae Oh wanted to know how to stop. He questioned himself in the greenhouse too.� Why couldn't he stop? He didn't mean to kill the victim on the plane, either. He is convinced that Gab Dong must be dead because there's no way to stop killing until you are dead -- which is a twisted assertion and I'm guessing that's why he asks to be killed. Could there be a way not to feel the way he feels? He seems to indicate it's rage, but then couldn't you control it? With drugs and/or relaxation exercises? They don't seem to have addressed that at all.� �


Section Chief Cha as Gab Dong

Mu Yeom thinks Gab Dong couldn't/didn't stop killing. It's just a theory and a bit tenuous at that. They've spent all this time building up Tae Oh as the killer and now the real Gab Dong is back in action. Or is it a copycat? Section Chief Cha would certainly have been briefed on the details of each case; and therefore, he could have picked up the mantle when the original Gab Dong went into hiding or died.� Mu Yeom imparts this wonderful bit of news to Tae Oh, who seems hopeful at the fact that Gab Dong might not be able to stop. Maybe the thought that he can't stop himself does not make him worse than Gab Dong? That's as disturbing as it is intriguing.

The love letter angle is interesting. Ji Wool was reading a book a little while ago and a piece of paper dropped from it. It appeared to be a love letter from "Crybaby." In this episode, we learn that "Crybaby" was the nickname of a female officer in the original case who turned out to be a victim. The nickname is written in Mu Yeom's journal. So if the Section Chief was an officer back then, Crybaby could have been in love with him and he murdered her.

So what does this mean for the future? If Maria fingers Section Chief Cha, it's over for him, right? If Tae Oh can't stop killing, then doesn't he just keep pulling the same stunt? And what does that love letter have to do with anything or is it a clue the next victim could be Officer Young Ae? �

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