latteholic

In ep 1, we see I Shin in her exclusive cell, making espresso and sketching insects. By the finale, shes in a crowded cell, stripped of her espresso privilege, but happily sketching Su Yeol's family photo.

That parallel to the first episode!

Tbh, the last episode wrapped things up in a satisfying way for me. Sure, the road there was full of frustration *cough* Na Hui *cough* Seong Gyu *cough* but they kinda made up for it at the end. I was fully expecting them to screw up and put people at risk, lol. Still, the finale had some great twists and even made me tear up a bit. Only thing I'm still wondering: how on earth did the copycat get all that info? Felt super OP. lol

So.... season 2???

And how he said he repented and was forgiven, but the moment Su Yeol showed up he was like, “Kill the devil!!” Ugh.

[ok putting a spoiler tag so ppl dont have to read this wall of text thats not connected to the drama lol]

No please rant away… I havent watched much on viki for a while since I'm not in the US anymore, so I didnt even know abt the 100 char limit or how channel managers cant edit before releasing for translation.... that explains a lot! I wonder if its bc the platform is now made more for mobile/smart tvs, just swipe, watch, move on, instead of fans who want T/N or cultural context.

I think I first noticed the shift when kocowa started the partnership w/ viki. Subs started feeling more like dramafever, condensed, Americanized, stripped of cultural nuance, like u said. Prob fine if u just want an easy breezy watch, which most ppl do, but I've always wanted that cultural layer. It made dramas richer + more memorable for me.

Feels like viki leaning more and more corporate/profit-driven. I get all companies are businesses at the end of the day, but wish they would find middle ground. Let fans still add/edit subs+T/Ns, maybe as a toggle. I used to watch on my phone w/ notes popping up and it was never an issue, it actually made me enjoy the show more. Instead, they stripped away what made viki so special in the first place.

ah right, I think ur right! In the first eps the subs translated it as "witch"/"ghost" (I forgot which one) then the actual gwinyeo popped up later, maybe ep 3 when they did the wordplay b/w gwinyeo and gungyeo. Same, I only caught those bc I'd seen them in sageuks or variety shows, but I'm sure I miss tons of puns/nuances too. The ottoke one I got, but I remember Ji Yeong made another wordplay in that same scene that made the court lady smile/chuckle, and I wish they subbed that properly.

Also netflix often just translates half the caption. like when the title of the Queen Dowager was written on screen in hangul and they didn’t even translate it :( ppl ended up thinking she was his Queen, which totally changes the vibe. Your demon interpretation actually makes sense lol, bc the scene did kinda play that way...

Her murders were 23 yrs ago, and by now she is basically a stain on the police record, a "dark chapter" the higher ups would rather erase. So the task force only ever sees her as a monster bc thats the easy, institutional story.

Det Choi shows the gray. He lived in that mining town, saw wives beaten in the street and kids screaming behind doors, couldnt do much abt it, and the commissioner brushed him off with "you know what kind of town it is". He doesnt excuse I Shin, but he gets why she did it. That guilt+compassion make him both a father fig to Suyeol and a kind of silent partner to I Shin.

Minjae is the real counterpoint imo. He was that neighbor kid who called her "omma", saw Suyeol as hyung, remembered the beach trips and saw her not as a monster but a hero who saved kids like him. Where Suyeol buries his trauma and resents her for being a serial killer+killing his dad, Minjae embraces her as the one who gave him warmth when no one else did. They are mirrors: one son who cant admit her love, the other who clings to it as the best thing he ever knew. His death is the breaking point that forces Suyeol to face what he's been running from.

I feel that Suyeol really grows into that middle ground. At first hes running from everything, hiding his moms identity, burying his trauma, even lying to his wife bc hes scared of being the devils son. He resents I Shin for killing his dad, remembering only the softer parts and refusing to face the abuse. But working the copycat case and meeting ppl like Minjae slowly shifts him and his death hits hardest, forcing him to stop running. By the end he cant deny both sides of her anymore. That small moment where he zips her jacket and wants to strap the vest on her says it all. Hes the only one who quietly shows he doesnt want her to die when everyone else does.

Even Seo Ah Ra complicates it. Her calling I Shin a monster feels like projection. She was already cutting up animals as a kid, already sliding into psychopathy before witnessing I Shin killing his/her father. She needed I Shin to wear that word so she could define herself against it.

So yeah, again, I agree that the label "monster" gets thrown around a lot, but if u line up the perspectives (task force = black, Choi = gray, Minjae = white, Seo Ah Ra = projection, Suyeol stuck in between), the show isnt flattening her. It's showing "monster" is never truth, but jst reflection of who is speaking.

I get what u mean, the show really does hammer the "monster" angle and it def flattens out a lot of nuance. But I do think there are shades in how diff chars see her (like Minjae and Det Choi).

lol I thought she would annoy me again this ep, but she actually felt less grating after I Shin called her out about choosing work over her son... it gave her some depth (at least for me). But then the last 10 mins… when she said to the other 2 members tht they hv to move independently on the commissioner's orders? Ugh. They were just mad at So Yeol for hiding he’s Jung I Shin’s son, and now they’re hiding the fact that they're not following his/section chief's order anymore. Hypocrisy much?

Netflix really dropped the ball with the subtitles. All they had to do was toss in an extra caption explaining the word so ppl could get sense of the wordplay, which is one of the funniest parts of the show. Like how Gwinyeo (female ghost) sounds close to Gungyeo (palace lady), and the kitchen staff thought the king was bringing another woman to be a palace lady (which didn’t surprise them, given he was gathering all the single ladies to serve in the palace at that time = Chaehong) . Or how "some" (flirting but not dating yet) sounds like "ssaum" (fighting). How 'haute cuisine' in korean almost sounds like 'ottokke'. Those little puns are gold, and the subs just didnt bother.

iirc they did explain Chaehong, but should hv also noted Yeonhuigun = king's posthumous name.

YESSS! I said almost the same thing last week. That’s the line she was reading when she was transported, not a recipe, but essentially a love letter from the king, who had written down all those recipes after meeting her and was willing her back through time to stand by his side. From that setup, it's fair to expect a love powerful enough to bend time and space. Even if the story leaned on a deus ex machina later, it could still feel earned, because the groundwork for that kind of romance had been laid.

If instead she’d been transported by reading a creme brulee recipe, fine, no one would expect romance and the focus could just be food competition. But the writers chose to spotlight the inscription, and with that choice they set a different expectation.

"Because of his age, he still shows immaturity and a quick temper. "

Pretty sure he is 28 and has already been on the throne for a decade… immaturity doesnt really work as an excuse anymore. A decade on the throne is no small thing, by then he should've matured through court intrigue, faction fights, and statecraft. To still call him "immature" makes it sound like he hasnt learned a thing in 10 years, which is a bigger problem than just "youth". He does have a quick temper, but the writing keeps dodging the real cause, whether it’s entitlement/loneliness/anger over his mother's absence. I kept waiting for them to tackle that head on, but every time it feels like they start to, another subplot pulls the focus away.

Interesting... I'd be curious to know which parts u felt were plot holes. Tbh I've noticed more plot conveniences than actual plot holes. Some gaps in the story/character choices I wondered abt got cleared in eps 6-7, so waiting to see if the last 2 eps smooth out the rest.

I thought she said it was the grandma who told her abt Junik not being MIL's biological son.

ETA: He could hv still been meeting her just to see/play w/ the kid, bt not meeting her in an intimate way. Thats why the mistress is so jealous of Munju... she might hv developed feelings, but they werent reciprocated.

I was thinking the same, mostly bc that photo of the 3 of them (Junik, mistress, kid) looked photoshopped. Could jst be a production thing, but that was the 1st thought tht popped into my head when I saw it. lol.

They coulda swapped in a stillborn baby (since all newborn babies look almost the same...)? its a bit makjang-y, but I think the show has handled its twists well so far. Even when it leans into those makjang tropes, they fit with the story and all the messy geopolitical layers.

e.g., I wasnt a fan of Junik being revealed to have a mistress and a child. At first it felt like a cheap way to justify ML and FL getting together so soon after his death. But making the mistress a bigger player in the larger scheme actually works. Same with the start of ep 6: I thought the kiss and bed scene was rushed (even though I was squeeing because their chemistry is fire and I do love seeing them together), but the fallout makes it matter. Munju loses public support, the scandal raises the stakes, and I was glued to my screen wondering how she and Sang Ho will dig themselves out. So if the kid really is Munju's, I'm hopeful there will be a solid, in-character reason why she never realized until now. *fingers crossed*

Not brushing that theory aside, because I think that the kid is Munju's too, but I thought Sang Ho was getting the kid this ep to use as leverage vs Hanna+MIL. w/ Junik gone, kid is the next heir, so holding him = huge bargaining chip. I dont think he has considered the kid might be Munju's yet since she hasnt opened up abt how she lost the baby [unless that was off-screen]

I would assume because he's the most internationally famous name, esp for viewers who dont normally watch Korean medias. Even if his screentime is small, his name recognition helps market the show internationally.

I'm curious if they changed the name after the backlash abt Iraq in post-prod. A week is enough to dub over the scene and swap the graphic.
And I think Idisha is Iran. Google: CRINK (China-Russia-Iran-NK) alliance.