Asian Addicts Anonymous

Well this season ended with…not quite a bang nor a whimper. It’s a rather typical ending in a way with a few twists thrown in for good measure. Overall, with the completion of this season, I am ready to bid this series adieu. Sure, if they come out with a fifth season, I’ll probably tune in, but it’s losing it’s overall appeal and charm that not even our cute OTP can change. One thing that I have noticed, and it could be just me, is that there was a general lack of chemistry in team dynamics. That’s just what I felt. It didn’t seem like this team was really as close as in previous seasons. So no offense, it seemed a bit unrealistic with how Si Woo’s death played out since they never really focused on the team dynamics and relationships. Not saying they shouldn’t be upset over what happened or anything like that, but it just didn’t seem like their relationship was as close as it could have/should have been.

Yes, for those holding out hopes that Si Woo lived, that didn’t happen. We open where we left off with the poor, tortured young ME getting shot in the temple. This really hurts our team who worked so hard to rescue him. And with Si Woo’s death the whole investigation goes down the drain. The team get in trouble for investigating behind the prosecution’s back. We all know that the prosecutors are in Seo’s pocket, so they are ignoring all the real blatant evidence that Seo is a very bad man. To add insult to injury in all of this, the prosecutors take Si Woo’s body so the ME team is very broken up about not being able to send Si Woo on his final journey.

Of course, our team wasn’t being very honest with the Psycho Killer. They did not hand over all evidence they had. They kept some of it back in regards to what they found out from the incinerator. That is their ace. Too bad the prosecutors take that information, too. Doo Mong tried to salvage it, but couldn’t stop them. Thus…what are they left with? Jin Woo makes a declaration of war. Even though the odds are stacked against him and his team, he will put Seo into checkmate. Well, to do this he and Kyeong Hee confront Seo to get him to admit he did everything to conceal the truth, but of course he won’t. As the two leave, they run smack into Dr. Jang, Jin Woo’s mommy.

So, Jin Woo learns the fact that mommy is involved with Seo. Given her profession, why would she be? Jin Woo puts two and two together and realizes that his observations of Seo’s physical appearance and manners along with Dr. Jang’s involvement can mean only one thing. Seo is perfectly healthy and keeping it a secret. That means that five years ago he was definitely capable of raping and murdering that young woman. Jang plays ignorant, but her son’s whittling down of everything does have her agreeing. He is upset that his mother helped that human filth. Jang replies that they are not to discriminate against others as doctors. To add to Jin Woo’s ire is the fact that his mother plans on taking Da Mi with her to the States. He wants Da Mi to stay in Korea so that he can treat the little girl himself.

With Jin Woo’s declaration of war, and learning that the investigation team turned to targeting his family for using the illegally imported chemicals in their products, Seo decides he needs to teach the “students” yet another lesson. Psycho Stalker aka Psycho Killer is put into motion. Jin Woo’s nightmare plays out before his very eyes. He watches from afar as Psycho pulls out a gun and shoots Kyeong Hee several time in the chest. It turns out that she was wearing a bulletproof vest, so she was safe. Talk about a heart attack-inducing moment for Jin Woo. Besides this happening to his lady love, Jin Woo gets a video birthday message from the deceased Si Woo who filmed it in advance. This helps put the icing on the cake and make Jin Woo decide on his next course of action to bring justice to the evil Seo. Why? Jin Woo really wanted his protege to call him “hyung” and Si Woo just couldn’t do that. In the video, he calls Jin Woo “hyung” and tells him he loves him. He also tells him he’s investigating a case on his own as he wants to use his own powers to help the victims. Poor boy, it didn’t get him anywhere.

Looks like Jin Woo’s tirade to his mother might have triggered a bit of a conscience as she does turn down Seo’s money and wants to sever all ties. She’ll keep his dirty little secrets of course. Seo doesn’t like this at all. Even if the cloning project is a failure, it’s up to him when to end their partnership. He then makes a very stupid move. He tells mommy that he spared Jin Woo once for her sake and won’t do so a second time. Bad move. She may not be mother of the year, but I don’t think she’d let Seo hurt her son.

Jin Woo goes anti-hero. He dresses all in black and wears a baseball cap pulled down low. Kyeong Hee learns of his plan and tries to talk him out of it, but Jin Woo refuses. Thus, the two take on the plan together and ultimately everyone gets involved. The plan involves kidnapping and forcing confessions. From the prosecutor in charge of the investigation to Choi, they are kidnapped and drugged and made to tell the whole truth. Choi confesses that five years ago, Doo Mong saved Kyeong Hee’s life by closing the investigation with Seo being innocent since Seo threatened to have everyone involved killed. This really makes Kyeong Hee feel bad.

You know…sometimes I really did like the actor portraying Doo Mong and other times it felt his acting wasn’t quite right for the scene. It’s sad. I think he could have made some scenes better with some different reactions.

So after doing all of that, Jin Woo pleads with his mother for her help. He needs the information about the chip implanted in Seo that allows him to walk. It’s a chip his mother’s company has manufactured and is planning on making public so that people paralyzed can walk and utilize their limbs once more. Jang hesitates in doing this, but ultimately you know she’ll help her son, because as much as she wasn’t there for him, you do notice that she’s never not kept tabs on him. So Jin Woo gets the secret code to override Seo’s control over his own body.

Why do you think he needs this? With the investigation ongoing into Seo’s company, Jin Woo has the prosecutor set up a stage for a miracle. This way several cops and prosecutors witness Seo walking. This obviously means he was capable of the murder/rape case and everything about him being physically incapable is void. The team go outside and cheer for their victory over Seo at long last. Jin Woo gravely says it isn’t over yet. What else is there to do? He saves Psycho for last. He’s drugged and when he wakes Jin Woo is wearing Si Woo’s badge and he gives the hit man an option. Struggle and cause your heart to explode essentially or stay still and let the drugs work out of the system. What do you think Psycho chose? He struggles towards the gun Jin Woo placed at his feet. Jin Woo doesn’t want to save the man, but he does, at the last minute and Kyeong Hee arrests him.

When all is said and done, Jang reveals she will take Da Mi as her daughter and raise her. This little girl is a clone of herself and yet Da Mi is nothing like her. This must mean that Jang has the capabilities of being a different person and she’s hoping living with Da Mi might help her. Thus Jin Woo lets the loveable little girl go. Jang keeps it to herself, but she does say that the only reason she helped is because at the end of the day Jin Woo is her son.

Unfortunately Seo does manage to use his influence to escape once more and the law comes fully after Jin Woo for the kidnappings and coercion. Doo Mong and team put up a stink allowing Kyeong Hee and Jin Woo to escape. Kyeong Hee say she will handle Seo and Jin Woo needs to stay on the move. Thus Jin Woo runs even though he was willing to accept punishment for his very real crimes. We end with Jang meeting Kyeong Hee as Jin Woo’s mother interviewing a perspective daughter-in-law. Jang tells Kyeong Hee to stick by her son’s side until she hates him  to death. Kyeong Hee smiles and says that is the plan…except for the hating part of course.

We end with Jang’s assistant who had gotten pretty chummy with Seo, killing the man by using a CD which was tuned to a frequency or something that would effect the chip in the man’s head. You wouldn’t think she’d do such a thing since she seemed attached to Seo and did things with his chip at his bequest that made Jang very angry. But she does. Why? Jang tells her to basically kill Seo and come back to the US to be her right hand woman. Looks like it wasn’t Seo she was attached to, but what she could do with him on her side. With Seo out of the picture, it shouldn’t take too long to clean things up for Jin Woo, right? Jin Woo gives a monologue about how each of the hard journey’s makes him who he is and gives him something in return.

And that’s it. Yeah. Kind of very anticlimactic in many ways. Jin Woo was really torn up over losing his precious Han-goon. But at the same time, even with Si Woo’s hero worship, it doesn’t seem like a solid enough bond was created in these twelve episodes. The police team seemed more cohesive and close than the ME team (minus Dr. Jo and Jin Woo who have already built up a large camaraderie over 4 seasons). Even though there was some great cases touching on some really important and dark and scary subject matters, even though the people involved in most of the cases touched me in some way, I really do thing this season was the flattest yet and that’s really sad. American television shows suffer from season after season which leads to redundancy in plots, upsetting casting changes, and just a show going down the tubes in general. I think in this case, God’s Quiz is starting to suffer from this. As much as I love Donghae, Ryu Duk Hwan, and our leading lady, this just wasn’t the best it could have been. Even in the slightly disappointing third season, things didn’t get as bogged down or mundane…even though we did have that not-so-good mastermind and Jin Woo’s dark split personality coming out to play.