IRIS Episodes 18 & 19 Thoughts
Jan. 8th, 2011 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaEpisode 18
• The biggest surprise of the episode was definitely where the show appears to be going with Seung Hee. In the beginning she was all adorable with Hyun Joon and it appeared that they were going to get their happy ending but considering that there were still two episodes left I knew something was going happen. I never even considered the idea that Seung Hee might be part of IRIS. Even with my theory that Baek San is Seung Hee’s father it never occurred to me. And why should it have? From the very beginning... well, no, in the beginning she was undercover evaluating the boys and then she was watching expressionless as Hyun Joon was tortured – but once they were in IRIS there was no hint of her connection to any outside force. There was no hint that I can remember that she worked for or with Baek San, she worked very hard and very actively against the IRIS goal of stopping the meetings/setting off the bomb. In fact she was pretty instrumental in preventing the bomb from going off. If it were to be revealed that she is a part of IRIS... I don’t even know what to do with that. Okay, granted what they kept saying was that Seung Hee was in danger from IRIS – it’s what Hyun Joon tells her he’s worried about, and what Sun Hwa tells him she suspects – but what we see seems to point more to as someone very much not ‘innocent’ or a victim.
Of course it’s possible I am reading too much into what happened this episode or – new theory – perhaps Seung Hee is the daughter of the mysterious leader of IRIS but isn’t a part of it herself (explaining the care Baek San takes of her, and him warning Sa Woo away). Hmm, I like that idea. Or perhaps the prisoner that only Baek San sees is a family member of Seung Hee’s and IRIS is blackmailing her into working for them? But that doesn’t explain Baek San and everything he’s done and said with regards to her. Something is clearly going on but I’m really not sure what. She did seem honestly upset and surprised to learn about Mi Jing’s death which I’m glad to see.
• Sung Shik dying in the escape made me a little sad. He’s Baek San’s right-hand man and was so loyal! Was it to leave that place open for Sa Woo to fill?
• I liked Sa Woo finally asking Baek San about Seung Hee and about how ‘his treatment towards her is so preferential that it sometimes puts the organisation at risk’. I want to know the answer to that as well. Baek San telling him not to over think things or ask questions about her because it’ll put him in danger and then telling him “It’s not advice but a warning. If Choi Seung Hee is still in your heart that is the most dangerous thing.” was very interesting. I hope there is a really good explanation and reveal for this.
• Advisor Hong could have been a little less obvious that the car explosion didn’t surprise or bother her in the least.
Episode 19
• The Sueng Hee mystery appears to have been a lot less interesting then I thought – except Seung Hee’s expression when Hyun Joon hugged her and stated his relief at her making the right decision and then her ending the episode walking alone has me thinking that maybe she didn’t make the right decision.
I still think it would have been even better to make Seung Hee the daughter of Baek San or the head of IRIS (and for a second instead of NSS I thought she’d said IRIS and was all ‘wow, really, awesome’) but Baek San being her father in all but blood and name worked pretty well. I wish we’d gotten more of them together building up to this though. Seung Hee tells Hyun Joon that Baek San was ‘like a father to me’ but I don’t feel like we got to see that as much from her side as we did from his. He clearly took an active interest in her life and considering that she was so young when her father died Baek San is probably the only person she’s ever thought of as her father. But added into that affection there also has to be a sense of obligation and gratitude towards him for saving her and her mother when everyone else turned their backs on them. Hyun Joon waves it away by equating her situation with his own and states that clearly Baek San had been grooming her like he’d been grooming Hyun Joon but I disagree. There is a very clear and distinct different between the relationships each had with Baek San and we have seen over and over just how much Baek San is protective of and worries about Seung Hee. He treats her like she is his daughter. I mean he set Hyun Joon up to die because he got involved with her ‘the forbidden fruit’. I wonder if Hyun Joon has realised that?
• This episode had Baek San showing a lot of trust and belief in Sa Woo and he came off very much like a mentor.
• I liked his line to Hyun Joon about how his ‘every decision was for the choice and meaning he chose’ and the sentiment it espoused. I like him owning his own choices. Was he purposefully trying to get Hyun Joon to kill him in that scene?
• I found it strange that everyone else just went with the explanation that Seung Hee was an IRIS target as the reason for her being in the files instead of the far more obvious possibility that she could be a part of IRIS. I mean she was acting weird and betrayal is certainly not unknown to this team (not only the two guys but also poor Mi Jung, who may have been a victim, but who also did steal classified information for her boyfriend – that was her choice).
• I found the Vic/Hyun Joon ‘fight’ disappointing because there was no actual fight but at the same time it was still satisfying.
• The biggest surprise of the episode was definitely where the show appears to be going with Seung Hee. In the beginning she was all adorable with Hyun Joon and it appeared that they were going to get their happy ending but considering that there were still two episodes left I knew something was going happen. I never even considered the idea that Seung Hee might be part of IRIS. Even with my theory that Baek San is Seung Hee’s father it never occurred to me. And why should it have? From the very beginning... well, no, in the beginning she was undercover evaluating the boys and then she was watching expressionless as Hyun Joon was tortured – but once they were in IRIS there was no hint of her connection to any outside force. There was no hint that I can remember that she worked for or with Baek San, she worked very hard and very actively against the IRIS goal of stopping the meetings/setting off the bomb. In fact she was pretty instrumental in preventing the bomb from going off. If it were to be revealed that she is a part of IRIS... I don’t even know what to do with that. Okay, granted what they kept saying was that Seung Hee was in danger from IRIS – it’s what Hyun Joon tells her he’s worried about, and what Sun Hwa tells him she suspects – but what we see seems to point more to as someone very much not ‘innocent’ or a victim.
Of course it’s possible I am reading too much into what happened this episode or – new theory – perhaps Seung Hee is the daughter of the mysterious leader of IRIS but isn’t a part of it herself (explaining the care Baek San takes of her, and him warning Sa Woo away). Hmm, I like that idea. Or perhaps the prisoner that only Baek San sees is a family member of Seung Hee’s and IRIS is blackmailing her into working for them? But that doesn’t explain Baek San and everything he’s done and said with regards to her. Something is clearly going on but I’m really not sure what. She did seem honestly upset and surprised to learn about Mi Jing’s death which I’m glad to see.
• Sung Shik dying in the escape made me a little sad. He’s Baek San’s right-hand man and was so loyal! Was it to leave that place open for Sa Woo to fill?
• I liked Sa Woo finally asking Baek San about Seung Hee and about how ‘his treatment towards her is so preferential that it sometimes puts the organisation at risk’. I want to know the answer to that as well. Baek San telling him not to over think things or ask questions about her because it’ll put him in danger and then telling him “It’s not advice but a warning. If Choi Seung Hee is still in your heart that is the most dangerous thing.” was very interesting. I hope there is a really good explanation and reveal for this.
• Advisor Hong could have been a little less obvious that the car explosion didn’t surprise or bother her in the least.
Episode 19
• The Sueng Hee mystery appears to have been a lot less interesting then I thought – except Seung Hee’s expression when Hyun Joon hugged her and stated his relief at her making the right decision and then her ending the episode walking alone has me thinking that maybe she didn’t make the right decision.
I still think it would have been even better to make Seung Hee the daughter of Baek San or the head of IRIS (and for a second instead of NSS I thought she’d said IRIS and was all ‘wow, really, awesome’) but Baek San being her father in all but blood and name worked pretty well. I wish we’d gotten more of them together building up to this though. Seung Hee tells Hyun Joon that Baek San was ‘like a father to me’ but I don’t feel like we got to see that as much from her side as we did from his. He clearly took an active interest in her life and considering that she was so young when her father died Baek San is probably the only person she’s ever thought of as her father. But added into that affection there also has to be a sense of obligation and gratitude towards him for saving her and her mother when everyone else turned their backs on them. Hyun Joon waves it away by equating her situation with his own and states that clearly Baek San had been grooming her like he’d been grooming Hyun Joon but I disagree. There is a very clear and distinct different between the relationships each had with Baek San and we have seen over and over just how much Baek San is protective of and worries about Seung Hee. He treats her like she is his daughter. I mean he set Hyun Joon up to die because he got involved with her ‘the forbidden fruit’. I wonder if Hyun Joon has realised that?
• This episode had Baek San showing a lot of trust and belief in Sa Woo and he came off very much like a mentor.
• I liked his line to Hyun Joon about how his ‘every decision was for the choice and meaning he chose’ and the sentiment it espoused. I like him owning his own choices. Was he purposefully trying to get Hyun Joon to kill him in that scene?
• I found it strange that everyone else just went with the explanation that Seung Hee was an IRIS target as the reason for her being in the files instead of the far more obvious possibility that she could be a part of IRIS. I mean she was acting weird and betrayal is certainly not unknown to this team (not only the two guys but also poor Mi Jung, who may have been a victim, but who also did steal classified information for her boyfriend – that was her choice).
• I found the Vic/Hyun Joon ‘fight’ disappointing because there was no actual fight but at the same time it was still satisfying.
