IRIS Episodes 3 - 6 Thoughts
Dec. 29th, 2010 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaEpisode 3
“So that’s why I was thinking when this assignment is over I want to have her stop working.” – Hyun Joon
“Get married?” – Sa Woo
I pretty much had the exact same expression as Sa Woo here. Hyun Joon looked so pleased with himself and happy at the thought that I wanted to punch him in his face. I was going to list all the ways what he said pissed me off starting with him getting a choice in what she would do through the fact that she’s an amazing agent so why should she have to quit but honestly I don’t think it needs to be explained.
• The very first episode started with Hyun Joon’s mission in Hungry and after he was blown to the ground we were flashed back to how he got to that place. When the show got back to Hungry and the mission in episode 4 I was expecting the show to gloss over what we’d already seen and to go to that last moment we’d seen Hyun Joon. Instead we saw everything we watched in the first episode again. I was all ready to be irritated about it except then it got so much better. Yes, the show gave us the exact scenes we’d already watched but they gave them to us in context. We saw not only the expanded version of Hyun Joon’s mission – further scenes of his preparation and escape – but we were also given extensive scenes of what else was happening at the same time from Sa Woo’s mission, to Seung Hee quietly freaking out about what was happening, to the cover-up and betrayal of Hyun Joon. I loved it. I think this was the best use of flashback to a future first scene I have ever seen done. I love that we’re not just getting things from Hyun Joon’s point of view. I loved how in the replay of the warehouse fight we get to see that Sa Woo and Seung Hee are there as well, hiding and trying to save Hyun Joon.
Episode 5
• Why, oh why, would Hyun Joon go into the station for tickets while Seung Hee waited in the car? It makes no sense! He’s the one being hunted by the police, military and North Korean agents while no one knows who she is! It came off very contrived. The show needed or wanted the confrontation and Hyun Hee to think Seung Hee was killed but there had to be a better way to do. I know there was a better way. This way made them both look so very stupid and they are not stupid people. I’m disappointed.
• Then they had the North Korean agents just standing there and shooting at Hyun Joon when they caught him outside the station instead of moving in on him. He wasn’t shooting back and appeared trapped – why were they just standing there? I suppose I could excuse them a little bit, perhaps things were actually happening much faster than it seemed? The fact that they couldn’t hit him, didn’t even seem to hit the windshield, while he was pushing their car with his is less excusable. He was like three feet away!
• I am really enjoying the Hyun Joon/Sa Woo stuff that’s been happen. I shouldn’t be surprised – friends becoming enemies is a much loved trope of mine (though I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily enemies just yet). The final scene of this episode was great.
Episode 6
• I keep being surprised that Sa Woo would shoot Hyun Joon. I was surprised in the previous episode when he pulled his gun out and I was surprised when he actually shot down Hyun Joon’s plane at the start of this one. I thought for sure Sa Woo would let him go. Sa Woo as he watched the plane go down and his scream of pain when it crashed and Hyun Joo’s expression while he tried to control the plane as it crashed... aw, I just want to hug them both.
• I really loved the inclusion of Chief Yang Jung In as Seung Hee’s friend, confidant and inside source. I like that Seung Hee has a close female friend and ally, that there’s loyalty there and I really like there being another woman of relative rank at the NSS. I hope we get to see more of her.
• The scene where Vic saves a girl at the club felt weird and disconnected from pretty much everything else, at least until I read a recap and learned that girl was Mi Jung, the NSS tech agent. The show setting up a Vic/Mi Jung romance could be interesting.
• I found Mi Jung’s reactions in this episode – off. She’s depressed and sulky getting into work and then during a meeting she responds to criticism about her not doing her job well by muttering about ‘if Hyun Joon were here’. I just don’t understand it from her point of view. I mean Hyun Joon was a newbie and worked there for probably six months at the most and we never really got any scenes showing that he and Mi Jung had any kind of special or close relationship. Now if she was being all upset over Seung Hee being gone (and Hyun Joon in addition) then it would be more understandable – there was no indication that they were very close but they had worked together for a much longer time.
• I liked the scenes in Akito between Yuki, Sun Hwa and Hyun Joon. I wonder who Yuki likes better – Sun Hwa or Seong Hee? All the scenes with the three of them felt very domestic.
• I find Seung Hee helping Sun Hwa to escape very confusing. Actually I found her thinking that Sun Hwa would how knowledge of Hyun Joon’s fate confusing as well at first but I suppose that she doesn’t know what happened (Sa Woo shooting him down) and so it’s not a stretch for her to question one of the agents that had been chasing Hyun Joon about him. It makes sense especially considering that after six months of searching with no news she’s pretty desperate for information. But it still doesn’t really explain her passing Sun Hwa the pill. Does she believe that Sun Hwa was lying to her and does know something about Hyun Joon? Was it actually poison and Sun Hwa managed to counteract it?
• The final scene with Hyun Joon confused me. The last time we saw him was safe and sound in Akita and then without anything to bridge it we suddenly find him being tortured by some soldiers. It made me go ‘what?’ first and then I wondered if the episodes had gotten mixed up somehow.
“So that’s why I was thinking when this assignment is over I want to have her stop working.” – Hyun Joon
“Get married?” – Sa Woo
I pretty much had the exact same expression as Sa Woo here. Hyun Joon looked so pleased with himself and happy at the thought that I wanted to punch him in his face. I was going to list all the ways what he said pissed me off starting with him getting a choice in what she would do through the fact that she’s an amazing agent so why should she have to quit but honestly I don’t think it needs to be explained.
• The very first episode started with Hyun Joon’s mission in Hungry and after he was blown to the ground we were flashed back to how he got to that place. When the show got back to Hungry and the mission in episode 4 I was expecting the show to gloss over what we’d already seen and to go to that last moment we’d seen Hyun Joon. Instead we saw everything we watched in the first episode again. I was all ready to be irritated about it except then it got so much better. Yes, the show gave us the exact scenes we’d already watched but they gave them to us in context. We saw not only the expanded version of Hyun Joon’s mission – further scenes of his preparation and escape – but we were also given extensive scenes of what else was happening at the same time from Sa Woo’s mission, to Seung Hee quietly freaking out about what was happening, to the cover-up and betrayal of Hyun Joon. I loved it. I think this was the best use of flashback to a future first scene I have ever seen done. I love that we’re not just getting things from Hyun Joon’s point of view. I loved how in the replay of the warehouse fight we get to see that Sa Woo and Seung Hee are there as well, hiding and trying to save Hyun Joon.
Episode 5
• Why, oh why, would Hyun Joon go into the station for tickets while Seung Hee waited in the car? It makes no sense! He’s the one being hunted by the police, military and North Korean agents while no one knows who she is! It came off very contrived. The show needed or wanted the confrontation and Hyun Hee to think Seung Hee was killed but there had to be a better way to do. I know there was a better way. This way made them both look so very stupid and they are not stupid people. I’m disappointed.
• Then they had the North Korean agents just standing there and shooting at Hyun Joon when they caught him outside the station instead of moving in on him. He wasn’t shooting back and appeared trapped – why were they just standing there? I suppose I could excuse them a little bit, perhaps things were actually happening much faster than it seemed? The fact that they couldn’t hit him, didn’t even seem to hit the windshield, while he was pushing their car with his is less excusable. He was like three feet away!
• I am really enjoying the Hyun Joon/Sa Woo stuff that’s been happen. I shouldn’t be surprised – friends becoming enemies is a much loved trope of mine (though I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily enemies just yet). The final scene of this episode was great.
Episode 6
• I keep being surprised that Sa Woo would shoot Hyun Joon. I was surprised in the previous episode when he pulled his gun out and I was surprised when he actually shot down Hyun Joon’s plane at the start of this one. I thought for sure Sa Woo would let him go. Sa Woo as he watched the plane go down and his scream of pain when it crashed and Hyun Joo’s expression while he tried to control the plane as it crashed... aw, I just want to hug them both.
• I really loved the inclusion of Chief Yang Jung In as Seung Hee’s friend, confidant and inside source. I like that Seung Hee has a close female friend and ally, that there’s loyalty there and I really like there being another woman of relative rank at the NSS. I hope we get to see more of her.
• The scene where Vic saves a girl at the club felt weird and disconnected from pretty much everything else, at least until I read a recap and learned that girl was Mi Jung, the NSS tech agent. The show setting up a Vic/Mi Jung romance could be interesting.
• I found Mi Jung’s reactions in this episode – off. She’s depressed and sulky getting into work and then during a meeting she responds to criticism about her not doing her job well by muttering about ‘if Hyun Joon were here’. I just don’t understand it from her point of view. I mean Hyun Joon was a newbie and worked there for probably six months at the most and we never really got any scenes showing that he and Mi Jung had any kind of special or close relationship. Now if she was being all upset over Seung Hee being gone (and Hyun Joon in addition) then it would be more understandable – there was no indication that they were very close but they had worked together for a much longer time.
• I liked the scenes in Akito between Yuki, Sun Hwa and Hyun Joon. I wonder who Yuki likes better – Sun Hwa or Seong Hee? All the scenes with the three of them felt very domestic.
• I find Seung Hee helping Sun Hwa to escape very confusing. Actually I found her thinking that Sun Hwa would how knowledge of Hyun Joon’s fate confusing as well at first but I suppose that she doesn’t know what happened (Sa Woo shooting him down) and so it’s not a stretch for her to question one of the agents that had been chasing Hyun Joon about him. It makes sense especially considering that after six months of searching with no news she’s pretty desperate for information. But it still doesn’t really explain her passing Sun Hwa the pill. Does she believe that Sun Hwa was lying to her and does know something about Hyun Joon? Was it actually poison and Sun Hwa managed to counteract it?
• The final scene with Hyun Joon confused me. The last time we saw him was safe and sound in Akita and then without anything to bridge it we suddenly find him being tortured by some soldiers. It made me go ‘what?’ first and then I wondered if the episodes had gotten mixed up somehow.
