Asian Addicts Anonymous

Lee Donghae has arrived and his Han Shi Woo is no relation to Han Jin Woo. Shucks. That being said, he’s a huge fan of Jin Woo and sees him as a role model and mentor. I was missing the (sometimes perverted) cuteness between Seong Do and Jin Woo and here is another guy added into the picture. Although…as much as I love Donghae and I know he’s a good actor, I’m not entirely certain his (or Jae Kyung’s character for that matter) is really all that necessary in the grand scheme of things. I guess the came could have been said of all side characters…but the team members from the previous season…seemed more like a real team and one big family. Not quite there yet for this season.

This episode fell a little bit flat for me. Sure, we had a lot of humor smattered throughout and we had the whole Jin Woo and Shi Woo drooling over Tae Kyung bopping around the locker room in short shorts and a white tank top (much to Kyung Hee’s annoyance mind you) and those were some cute moments…but I just didn’t like this episode as much as I did Angel’s Fingernail for some reason. It is interesting that God’s Quiz has this ability to be completely silly and then turn around and show some of the darkest and evilest parts of man.

Episode 3: Serpentine Dance

We open with a dancer in the forest and end up with her entangled in tree vines dead. We then cut to Kyung Hee being followed by a man. Of course, Kyung Hee can take care of herself and she grabs the man and twists his arm behind his back before realizing it’s her prosecutor friend “Jae Joon oppa.” Kyung Hee usually has her serious work side and you only see her cuter, almost childish side when it comes to Jin Woo. Enter this new character. Could be a potential love rival…or maybe he’ll have something more sinister come up later. Who knows? That being said, he definitely seems to have some sort of interest in Kyung Hee beyond friendship to which she is completely dense about. I mean…what normal guy follows you home because he’s moved back to Seoul late at night to reminisce about your old school days? That’s just odd. They do promise to see more of each other. Thankfully this is the only time we see this suspicious prosecutor in this episode. With his introduction, I thought we’d see more, but no. Which, like I said, is good as I don’t really like him.

The next day at the lab, Tae Kyung is carrying heavy files and Jin Woo is quick to rush to help her. They complain to Jo that she is doing all the administrative work. Jo doesn’t really seem all that concerned, but introduces their new recruit who can help take off some the load. Tae Kyung perks up at the good looking younger Han Shi Woo [SuJu’s Lee Donghae], but is very annoyed when he blows right past her to gush over his idol Han Jin Woo who is both surprised and pleased that he’s being looked up to as a role model. Then Shi Woo recognizes Tae Kyung as former idol Sarah and he’s a goner. Jin Woo kicks him out to have a conversation with Sarah and he refuses to be a mentor. LOL.

Now on to the case at hand. Our dead dancer is Seo Yun Joo. She apparently left a suicide note but Doo Mong is always quick to assert foul play is always a possibility. true. Why is our special team handling this case? Because of the prescription meds that were found in the dancer’s system. The drugs point to the fact that she could have a special disease. The autopsy begins and it is confirmed that the woman did indeed die of asphyxiation. The marks on her neck match the vine that was wound around. Shi Woo wonders if someone could have strangled the woman with the vine, but Tae Kyung is quick to assert otherwise. There is also needle marks in the deceased’s arm and they still don’t know yet what those are for. Kyung Hee looks over at Jin Woo who is crouched on top of a table in the corner. Is something wrong? Did everyone see the suicide note? Yes. Jin Woo then goes into sleuthing mode and starts asking questions of Shi Woo whom he (and Jo) call Han-goon. Based on the medications that the woman was on, her condition would not have allowed her to write a clear suicide note if she could write at all. This perks up our detectives. So…it could just be murder after all.

Our detective pair goes out to the woods where the body was found. Everything is clean and clear. Doo Mong tries to simulate the hanging which is actually rather amusing. The two then go to Yun Joo’s house. It’s huge. And it’s empty. The woman lived their all by her lonesome even though she has two daughters. She’s also been married twice. Her first husband died 20 years ago in an accident and her second husband died 10 years ago in an accident. Sheesh. Rotten luck. Also strange is that all appliances in the house have color-coded tape over the writing. That’s odd. Ah, and Kyung Hee goes into the woman’s dance studio and watches the last performance she was working on. It’s really weird.

Jin Woo is alone at the lab looking over all the initial evidence and new evidence when the chummy Tae Kyung and Shi Woo come in. Jin Woo asks where they have been and is upset to learn they went and ate hotbars. He scolds them for being childish and then demands to know where his is. This floors Shi Woo. He didn’t buy any for him. Tae Kyung covers this by saying they were only thinking of Shi Woo as he wouldn’t want a cold hotbar would he? Right. Anywho, after that silly scene we are back to the seriousness of the murder investigation. Yun Joo’s disease is uncovered as Huntington’s Disease—a degenerative brain disorder for which there is currently no cure and only one form of treatment. This disease can affect motor abilities so that fine motor control is lost and your limbs can move involuntarily. Miss dancer was able to hide this disease from the public since people thought these involuntary movements of hers were part of her performances. Interesting enough, Yun Joo wasn’t registered as having that disease, but her youngest daughter Hyo Yeon is.

Jin Woo and Shi Woo go to confront the family doctor. He helped cover up the dancer’s disease and the prescription was mete out to her daughter for her instead. Shi Woo is all intense and grilling the doctor like a cop and talking about how it is illegal to prescribe mediation like that. Jin Woo tells the young gun to relax, but Shi Woo keeps repeating the same mistakes.

Kyung Hee and Doo Mong go to the funeral where they meet the two daughters. The eldest  daughter Ahn Hee Yeon is calm and detached while the younger sibling Ahn Hyo Yeon is crying and clinging. The two girls’ behavior definitely seems odd to the detectives since their mother just died. We also meet the stage manager for our dancer. However, all three do profess to have alibis for the night of Yun Joo’s death.

Back at the lab, Shi Woo and Jin Woo are about to enter the locker room when they spot the scantily clad (not too scantily, a tank top and shorts) Tae Kyung grooving to music. The two step back out and peek in on her. Enter Kyung Hee who asks if she can watch, too, startling both men. Kyung Hee is not amused at her boyfriend’s behavior and we get a cute scene where Jin Woo tries to proclaim his innocence and Kyung Hee isn’t having it. LOL. Shi Woo then comes in to say he saw nothing before leaving. Sheesh. These guys.

The scolding is interrupted when it is learned that the eldest daughter Hee Yeon was the one who wrote the suicide note. The woman confesses she did it at her mother’s behest a year ago as her mother would rather die if the disease go too bad (this disease can also kill you as well, but it won’t be fast and painless). That way she would also get to dance on the grandest stage in heave. Eyeroll. Hee Yeon also said that her mom always slept with that suicide note beside her. After that, our loveable breathless teddy bear detective reports that Hee Yeon has a solid alibi, but little sister Hyo Yeon doesn’t. Thus the detectives go to question the girl and Hee Yeon tells her sister not to worry and let eonni do all of the talking. Something is definitely rotten in Denmark. These siblings have a slightly creepy relationship, don’t they?

At the lab, Kyung Hee shows the dance video to Jin Woo and then shows the practice tape. With our dancer’s disintegrating condition, she could barely stand. How could she possibly be able to walk to the forest where she died? They visit a colleague or dance instructor of Yun Joo’s who explains the final performance that Yun Joo worked on. She also explained about the talent of the two girls—Hee Yeon who was a gifted dancer, but who’s dance career was cut short after a nasty spill down some stairs and Hyo Yeon who was a gifted writer. During this conversation, Jin Woo learns the dance is to show the epitome of beauty, but what Yun Joo was practicing was a lot darker and more like Hell. What’s up with that?

Doo Mong talks to the lawyer about the will that Hee Yeon helped write for her mother, too. Her lover (also her stage manager) was promised a huge chunk of her fortune, but her will was changed and left everything to her two daughters. Meanwhile, Jin Woo and Kyung Hee go back to the house and look through the dancer’s things. She has no pictures of her children whatsoever. There is traces of food spills all over in the kitchen and Jin Woo seems to really find the woman’s diary interesting. It definitely showcases the degeneration of her condition.

Jin Woo surprises Hee Yeon by asking for the script of the final performance her mother was working on. Jin Woo compares it to the original and it’s completely different! His Spidey…er Sherlock…or whatever senses are tingling. He recalls the teacher talking about Hyo Yeon’s gift for story telling and goes back to ask to see some of the girl’s work. We then get a creepy scene with the youngest daughter holding a bouquet of roses. She takes the red one and squishes it, smearing the blood-like juices onto her throat. This girl is not all there is she (in a creepy, psychotic way)?

Things are getting more and more suspicious. But the two prime suspects have alibis—the eldest daughter who wrote the suicide note and the will and the dancer’s lover who was supposed to get a chunk of her sizeable fortune. So what next for our team? They finally identify the drug injected by the needle marks. It turns out it is a type of steroid that is even more powerful than anabolic steroids. In large doses, it can kill. Thus the suspicion is thrown back on Hee Yeon since she runs a diet clinic and imports things all the time. It turns out she was the one supplying her mother with this drug. She did it to ease her mother’s suffering and allow her to perform. She cries and says she warned her mother about the dosages and had no intention of killing her.

As it stands, Hee Yeon will get manslaughter charges for supplying this illegally imported drug for her mother. Hyeo Yeon comes and tells her sister she can’t live without her and Hee Yeon replies that she won’t let that happen. During this scene, Jin Woo focuses in on the youngest daughter’s hand and his eyes narrow. He’s definitely suspicious of something. Nothing escapes his notice…usually.

So what happens next? Jin Woo introduces another condition that Yun Joo had. Not only did her disease make her unable to write, she had another condition that made her unable to read! Ah, and also given her stage of Huntington’s Disease, there is just no way that she could have injected the drug herself before her death. Thus our team starts gathering new evidence and doing some deeper digging into the mystery surrounding the dancer’s death.

I could go into more details, but really this is just them building up their evidence and confronting the two daughters. The eldest daughter insists everything was al her doing, but the youngest one eventually cracks. The detectives were too smart…or maybe there were some issues in the script. It turns out this entire time, things have been orchestrated by Hyo Yeon with Hee Yeon helping her along. In the end, it was Hyo Yeon who injected the lethal dosage of the drug into their mother which led the woman to involuntarily strangle herself in the vines.

Hyo Yeon then talks about their past. Their mother cared nothing for them at all. They were merely burdens—unwanted. When Hee Yeon exceled in dancing, their mother felt threatened and shoved her down the stairs. Then when their mother remarried, she knew her husband was doing bad things to her daughter, but she didn’t care because he was helping her career even more. Thus little Hyo Yeon had enough. She killed their stepfather and arranged the death of their mother to get their just desserts. Hee Yeon then breaks down and says she doesn’t know if she’s even happy or not any more. This makes Hyo Yeon go berserk. Who did she do this all for?

After that, Kyung Hee asks Jin Woo if Hee Yeon answered like that because her mother really was everything to her. Jin Woo replies negatively. It wasn’t the mother, but Hyo Yeon. Hee Yeon can’t be happy because the sister who did everything for her stopped being the sister she loved a long time ago—Hyo Yeon became twisted and evil.

We end the episode with some half naked guy with a tattoo across his back doing pushups while looking at a picture of Kyung Hee. This can’t be good. Hopefully nothing bad will happen to our detective.

Oh! I almost forgot. No episode is complete without Da Mi. Jin Woo visits her and asks her what she means when she said that she has never seen her mother. The little girl admits her mother abandoned her. The day Jin Woo saw her crying was the day her father told her that her mother is as good as dead (since she’s not with them). Jin Woo says  that be that as it may, the woman is still Da Mi’s mother and she should not regard her as being dead when she is more than likely still alive. You really have to wonder what significance this little girl is going to have when it comes to Jin Woo later.