Kimsamsoom

Trigger or not, she was already plenty despised before that scene.

It just went from 80% to 97% after the scene.

She is already being set up for a redemption arc regardless of the trigger pulling or not.

I mean the person saying ptsd is Cheong ya, and she's not to be trusted.

She could be covering for ms. Oh.

It hasn't been explained

EP. 12 shows them all changed and washed. It's possible they will show more flashback scenes.

A few things I found weird. In 1987, there was a lot of gender discrimination for women. In fact, the patriarchy of South Korea, especially during the militaristic rule at this time was very pronounced. So I felt it was weird that the women were calling the shots with their husband, when the husband/wife dynamic during this time was not shown this way based on articles on gender inequality in South Korea at this time. In fact it was during this time when radicalized women's group started to form.

Politicians valuing wealth and status over human life is not a unique thing during ANSP times. You can easily such things happen even in modern societies like the US and Europe, and definitely in current SK presidencies and other Asian countries history as well.

It's like saying, politicians are greedy and corrupt isn't exactly earth shattering stuff. So I didn't feel it was necessary to be there For the amount of screen time their scenes took, I felt that it could have been completely taken off, and more time given to character development instead. Especially when the wives scheming never amounted to anything.

I feel instead that the writer had intended the scene between the wives to constantly remind the viewers that Snowdrop is meant to be political satire. In many ways the scene with the wives felt more like an homage to her previous drama Sky Castle than anything else.

I did learn a new word though at least, "Omo Omo Omo!"

the NK and SK have a deal to paint the opposition party in a poor light in exchange of giving NK money. The deal fell through, and now the SK are using the hostage situation to create anti-communist sentiment to ensure their party will win the next election, and NK are still waiting for their money.

I agree

Ms. Pi was quite psychotic and crazy at that point, and she was pushing buttons that she clearly knew were triggers for Boon Ok. She was daring Boon Ok to shoot her for pete's sake. Imagine if I Soo Ho had taunted Young Ro about killing his brother, who knows how people would react, you just don't do that in real life, because you never know how people will react when backed into a corner. To be honest, I don't believe for a second she was going to pull the trigger on Young Ro. Ms. Pi on the other hand is a different story, we don't know their shared history.

We've seen this play out in so many movies. The guy/girl will say, "you don't have the guts to pull that trigger" as they slowly approach, until that person turns out did have the guts.

Soo Ho actually shoots Gyeok Chan. He makes a lot of threats, and we don't know in the earlier episodes if he was really going to hurt anyone or not. I mean to be frank, asking the hostages to be in the windows is in itself not a nice thing to do, because what if one of those hostages had been shot? It just so happens that the writing has given Soo Ho plot armor to make sure he doesn't do anything bad in the dorm, to make him the protagonist, but the intention was definitely there to paint him in a negative light.

I am not justifying Boon Ok's action, I am not saying she is innocent. I am merely saying I am sympathetic to her plight, and I don't feel she is an antagonistic character, but rather a misunderstood one that is making bad decisions.

I rarely see people crucify Hye Roung, Lee Kwang Tae, even Seoul Hee for their selfish acts.

When she had gotten power, she used the opportunity to tell them WHY she stole them. And she brings up a great point, that Hye Roung and Seoul Hee didn't care that she stole the, but that someone lowly like Boon Ok stole them. They never even used these items, but suddenly since Boon Ok took them, they are offended. This goes clearly into a radicalized caste system that is endemic of the problem with the views of the hostages versus Boon Ok.

Pulling the trigger is sometimes not enough reason to send someone to jail. That's why we have the court of law to understand the reasons people have to pull the trigger. In the end, that person may still get jail time, but the sentencing may be reduced dependent on the rationale. That is how the rule of law works. That is why self defense laws exist. It's not so simple as saying, well she pulled the trigger, so she's automatically evil. Real life is not that clear cut. Once again, I am not defending that she should have pulled the trigger, but I am just saying, before we crucify her, let us decide why a person like Boon Ok, who honestly has shown tendency to do good, would be driven to do that in the first place.

If you feel Boon Ok is evil or insufferable or unsympathetic, I have no problem with that, I am just writing my views on the whole situation. Boon Ok, in my opinion is a tragic hero, like Darth Vader. And especially in literature, where the complexity of Man can be dispersed over thousands of pages, I find myself more understanding.

With such extreme training, and Soo Ho actually killing someone in cold blood, I find it a bit weird his indoctrination is so easily nullified.

Like is he still loyal to NK but not his father? It's all quite muddy at this point.

Hye Roung would be kind of a let down. Would rather it be old man.

I suspect Chief An. Who is a NK spy. We see another ANSP soldier get shot as wel.

If Eun Chang Su dies, Chief AN becomes the new director of ANSP. Which would place him in good position to be a presidential candidate. He just needs to get rid of Nam Tae il Next.

Which if my suspicion is right, was suppose to be killed by Cheong Ya.

With Nam Tae il and Eun Chang Su out of the way, that would leave just Chief An, who has the favor of the current president now.

But then, even I could see, that if someone was wiling to disregard orders at that point in the training, he would not be an effective soldier. Even in american movies, disobeying your commanding officer is enough for military discharge, but instead he gets promoted? It seems counterproductive to communistic indoctrination. In fact, many people noticed it. So Lim Ji Rok allowed his pride in Soo Ho to blind him to what is obviously a red flag. All that scene did was explain why Eun Cheol is loyal to Soo Ho. I felt the scene wasn't necessary if that was their intention.

I was just felt that they were building up a lot of things showing that the father cared, only to throw it away in Ep. 12.

Same for Eun Chang Su, it seems like the writer wanted to double down on the It's the lovers versus the world, but it didn't come off as very real.

Like I said, since it never happened, we don't know the true intention of Boon Ok, or what she would have done. It seem more to me, she had a realization, and she doesn't know how to react to it yet, she is confused at this point, it doesn't translate to genocidal tendecnies

Soo Ho has also said several times he would shoot someone, or hurt someone, but never actually does it. Same for Boon Ok, she may be thinking it, may even vocally say it, but unless she actually shows it, we can only assume it.

Like I said, i've written extensively on the Boon Ok subject in the discussion sections. And like I said, the reason she thought about Cheong Ya planning on killing the hostage, is because she is smart. It never crossed my mind that she would actually sacrifice the hostages. Just like it never crossed my minds Soo Ho would actually kill anyone or shoot anyone even though he has said so. How many times has he threatened to kill Gyeok Chan, but I highly doubt he would. It's not in Soo Ho's character, and neither is it in Boon Ok's.

If Young Ro is truly on Boon Ok's side, she has had PLENTY of opportunities to prove it. There are several times, when she either hides something from Boon Ok, treats her differently, sides with her friends of RM 207, or just stays quiet while Boon Ok is accused. Like I said, to Young Ro, they are close, but to Boon Ok, what Young Ro did to get Soo Ho was very foul. Yes, most of this lays with Boon Ok's insecurity, but Young Ro, if she truly understood Boon Ok, would know this.

In real life, it is not up to use to say "Hey, I am being a nice person to you, why can't you see that". But rather it is up to that other person to say whether I am nice or not. Like, imagine me, I give to charity, or I go to chruch, and I claim. "Hey all, I am a nice good christian girl, I do so many nice things". The thing is, I can't self claim my angelic nature, what seems nice for me, other people may not see that way. And it's the same situation as Boon Ok, we don't know if she ever felt genuine friendship from Young Ro. As an audience, some of Young Ro's action made me think otherwise.

It's possible that Dr. Kang will escape the shrine, and that gives Nam Tae il all he needs to storm the dorm, since that is the only reason he hasn't.

It's not just Boon Ok, every single one of the hostage has been selfish. Look at Hye Roung and Seoul Hee and their BF's. In EP. 12 they can be seen trying to escape selfishly. Nobody prosecutes the selfish thoughts of the other hostages, but when Boon Ok DARES to think selfishly, well that is a no-no. How come?

Young Ro's action, if it was any other person would have bigger ramifications. You simply change the nameplates of Boon Ok and Young Ro, and see if the ramifications is the same.

I've seen so many shows with redemptive characters, and in comparison, Boon Ok is a straight up angel. Her actions are actually not that bad. Especially when we have actually evil characters like Lim Ji Rok and Nam Tae il. I find that sympathy for Boon Ok is quite easy. I also find her plight to be very relatable. We all have felt jealousy for people better than us, people who coast through life, and have all at one point in our life acted like the victim. It's not a good look for people, but it happens so often. It's human.

Theory Time

I have a couple of suspicions. First I was thinking of Kang Moo's comment how NK has infiltrated some very high positions. It made me think what if Chief AN is in actuality either a NK spy or informant. The way I see it, the radio they found out in the chicken is a walkie talkie, which means, that the signal is not very far and can only be used to contact someone on the outside of the dorm. I believe that person the mole is contacting is Chief An. Because how else would NK find out about Soo Ho and Kang Moo collusion.

It also made me think about Ep. 1 when chief an and hanna was first talking in his office, and she asked "Who would bug the chief of ANSP office", It felt like a suspicious scene. Because in the bonus scene after ep. 12 that safe is clearly in his office, as it looks the same as the one in Ep. 1. Inside there is a lot of money, but what interested me was the different types of money, from Won, to USD, to gold bars. It made think back about Ms. Pi and Chief An's scene over the waterfall. We assumed that Ms. Pi was being framed as a NK spy for protesting the government, due to the backdrop of the drama. BUT what if, it's for another reason. What if Chief An had done something, or stolen some money from a mission, and needed a scapegoat for why that money is stolen.

Could it be then that the long game the NK is planning is to have Chief An become the next candidate for presidency in SK? He is certainly ambitious enough. It becomes clear that in the end of Ep. 12, the one who shoots Eun Chang Su aren't ANSP, but rather NK's who pretend to be ANSP. You will notice one soldier actually goes in front to defend Eun Chang Su and gets shot. Now the question is why? Because currently Chief An is only the second position from the top of ANSP, for him to secure director of ANSP, Eun Chang Su would need to die. In fact, we see one of the doctors suspiciously look at the bed of Eun Chang Su, this could be a comrade of Cheong Ya.

Eun Chang Su can be seen telling Chief An, get the 300M and just use "expense" as an excuse. What if Chief An had already been doing this all along. It is possible that when Ms. Choi said that the 300M was the supreme leaders money, he was being literal. What if the project phoenix was never the original plan, what if NK themselves deliberately sabotaged the mission to make the current regime look bad. What if, in a bit of irony, the recordings left by Hanna, were instead intercepted by NK spies, who will then used it to make the ruling party look bad.

What if this whole time, NK have a puppet in the opposition party? And the opposition party winning is what they had intended from the very start.

If Lim Ji Rok was so benevolent at this time, what changed?

The biggest difference is one has plot armor, one doesn't.

When Young Ro does reckless things, and what not, the plot is on her side, and she gets zero ramification.

When Boon Ok does it, instant punishment, instant consequences.

I don't understand, when has Boon Ok shown that she wants all the other hostages to die? Or even use them as sacrifice? I might have missed this part.

I suspect there is much more to Ms. Pi that we just don't know yet. This is the same Ms. Pi by the way who has been gaslighting, threatening, and herself thrown Boon Ok under that same bus. And I suspect, Ms. Pi is acting this way due to something bad he has done to Boon Ok's family, which hasn't been shown yet.

I've written a discussion section about the "Tragedy of Boon Ok" and I cover all these things and so much more.

But to quickly point out a few things. Young Ro, "Thought" they were friends, but in reality, she didn't really understand Boon Ok's situation. Similar to the old man, she doesn't know about the problem with the old man's son. She gave them rice cakes from her Grandma, but to people like the old man and boon ok, those are the not the things they are actually looking for.

Without getting too much into detail, in real life even, you can give an overweight man/woman some sugar free desserts, thinking you are helping them, but that may no necessarily be what they need. You may be giving them a physical solution for a problem that may be mental.

This "Pity Party" is merely her self defence. She clearly has no allies, nobody believes her, and we see people are quick to blame her. But deep inside, I think Boon Ok believes she's not a bad person. But think about it if people all around you, keep saying your a bad person, do you allow social discourse, and pressure to dictate who you are? or do you allow your own inner strength to dictate who you want to be?

So to give an example, Gyeok Chan keeps calling Soo Ho a traitor, Cheong Ya also says that Soo Ho is betraying the country. Based on what you say, Soo Ho should just accept these things? He doesn't he defends his actions. All that is all Boon Ok is doing. She's just repeating the same thing, trying to prove her innocence, and she is in fact innocent in what they are blaming her in Ep. 12.

We have no idea how Boon Ok would have acted when it came down to having the hostages killed, we are just making an exception. But I would argue the fact that she gave the hostages snacks, albeit it was a small gesture, makes me feel she would not have condoned the death of any of th hostages. The carrot was dangled, and she took the bait, but doesn't mean she was so quick to jump into genocide.

At that point, her loyalties lay with Cheong Ya, so she wanted to save them, because in a way they had become her "Family". But I will repeat, we can only assume what she would have done if the hostages were really in danger.

Young Ro gets sympathy, because her cause seems more noble, and she's the main female lead, the protagonist even. She thinks that she alone has the power to stop what is happening, she puts a lot of importance on her life, but outside the dorm, nobody but her dad feels her life is important. Even the president, Code 1, could not care less if Young Ro dies. Soo Ho had to convince his men that Young Ro is a trump card, but politically, she's not really. But Gyeok Chan bought into it. I could argue that Dr. Kang is a bigger reason for them to blow the dorm up because of Nam Tae il who has been running operations since the start.

What stops them from all rushing in and killing everyone is because the plot is not ready to advance yet, so they have to find some reason why they cannot do it. If Young Ro had been the daughter of the president, then sure, I would believe her importance, but she's not. Can you imagine a movie, where the president will negotiate with terrorist because the daughter of the head of CIA was captured?

Take away the romance between Young Ro and Soo Ho, and he doesn't bother to rush back to the dorm, he doesn't treat Young Ro with favoritism, and the hostages don't get implicated at all. It wasn't Jeong Min's idea to hide Soo Ho, it was Young Ro's and Jeong Min just supported the idea. Soo Ho instead of running back to the boat, was day dreaming and stopped for the paper airplane. I think it's pretty heavily hinted that his love for Young Ro is what brought him back. There is even dialogue where Young Ro asked "Why did you back come back?".

And it's not like Boon Ok is the only person to think of this, even the other hostages earlier in the drama was thinking this, but it just so happens they are no longer vocal about it. Even Cheong Ya and Kang Moo noticed it. As much as I would love to think, "Oh, it's all a coincidence", a lot of what is happening now can be traced.

P.S.

Yup, that is what makes's Boon Ok's character tragic. She allows her self pity to hurt her, and it backfires on her. While Young Ro has made so many self-inflicted faults, with zero ramifications. That's the main difference between the two, Boon Ok is punished at every turn, and so far Young Ro hasn't.

Boon ok is a tragic hero, she allows her victim mentality, and self pity to write her own characters demise. But at the same time, I get where she is coming from, as Young Ro is making similar mistakes, and yet ZERO ramifications.

Most likely the Command came from chief an. He is second in line. If the director dies, he moves up to be the director of ansp.

The bonus scene shows a lot of bank books Worth around 100k usd in deposits. Seem like bribe money.

I guess its possible that chief an is the real mole.

I thought so initially, but EP 12 kind of shows otherwise.

It's a superman complex.