Hyun Joon and Seon Hwa race to find the location of the nuclear bomb. Seung Hee escapes Sa Woo and also searches for the bomb. Sang Hyun becomes arrested for treason.
In this episode, we see the topic of brotherhood between Hyun Joon and Sa Woo finally being addressed upfront. The two haven’t seen each other face to face since Sa Woo tried to shoot down Hyun Joon’s plane in Hungary, and I feel like the two’s friendship plot line has been dragging out. In the confrontation scene in this episode, we learn that Hyun Joon has never blamed Sa Woo for what happened to him but has instead been trying to have revenge on Baek San, who gave the order. On the other hand, Sa Woo blames Hyun Joon for the “hell” that he has been living in and for everything he had to give up (possibly hinting at Seung Hee). Sa Woo then proceeded to shooting at Hyun Joon, and we see that Hyun Joon is reluctantly forced to return fire. This scene can be analyzed as the end of the two’s brotherhood, which had only been held together by Hyun Joon’s faith in Sa Woo. Sa Woo shooting at Hyun Joon first can be interpreted as him being the one to break their friendship, with Hun Joon shooting back affirms the fact. This makes me wonder how the rest of the drama will play out with the two’s brotherhood being officially broken.
In episode 15-16, Hyoon Joon has been ordered directly by the Blue House to find the bomb and stop it. Eventually, he found the location Gwanghwamun where IRIS would set up the bomb. As Hyoon Joon described in IRIS, Gwanghwamun is a vital location to Koreans in terms of both political and historical. Politically, since Gwanghwamun is located in between of US embassy and blue house, the bomb would consequently lead and cause irreversible and massive impact to Korean diplomacy. Not to mention that Gwanghwamun is the main and largest gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, in Jongno-gu, Seoul, at the northern end of Sejongno. As a landmark and symbol of Seoul’s long history as the capital city during the Joseon Dynasty. Back in Joseon Dynasty, Gyongbokgung, which is the largest of the Five Grand Palaces, was the main royal palace. Gyeongbokgung was built three years after Joseon dynasty was founded and it served as the Kings’ households, and government of Joseon. However, it was once destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), and abandoned for nearly 3 centuries. Till the year 1867, reconstruction was started under the leadership of Regent Heungseon Daewongun.
In this episode, almost everyone finally finds out that Sa Woo is working with Baek San and is a part of IRIS. Sa Woo originally had a goody two shoe personality that cared about his country, so everyone felt more betrayed because of this. Hyun Joon believed that Sa Woo only pulled a gun on him because Sa Woo obeys orders, so he was in for a great shock when he found out that Sa Woo is a part of IRIS. During their confrontation scene, Hyun Joon kills one of the North Korean agents in order to protect Sa Woo. It can be clearly seen in Sa Woo eyes that saving his life hurt a lot more emotionally if Hyun Joon just let him die. There was a moment where they are temporarily on the same side and fight off the North Korean agents, so I thought that there was a chance that Sa Woo would find his true nature and become good again. Unfortunately, his response to his life being saved was to try and kill Hyun Joon again, because apparently Hyun Joon caused him all these problems. That was when Hyun Joon felt even more betrayed, because he finally knew that Sa Woo didn't just point a gun at him as an order, but that he is now choosing to. On the other hand, back in NSS, Sang Hyun is arrested and Sa Woo interrogates him. Sang Hyun has always thought of Sa Woo as a younger brother, and was the one who recruited Sa Woo. This betrayal hit him even harder, as he grew up with Sa Woo, and knew that what Sa Woo is doing right now is not his true nature. All of these confrontations told Sa Woo that he was acting out of character, and it makes me wonder whether he will have a last second switch of allegiances; but on the other hand, I think that with his characteristics of always being the good guy, he has to hit boiling point at sometime where he turns bad, and could stay at a steady boil.
I’m just thinking about the last time there was a scene where the bros, Sa Woo and Hyun Jun, were happy and together… And, yeah, it’s been a long time and I’m not able to recall it. The two finally come face-to-face this episode. Their reunion is accompanied with a shoot-out together against the North Koreans and then against each other. Bullets fly, blood splattered, tears shed, memories were reminisced, and heart-wrenching words were exchanged between the two who were once friends. I think that as we near the finale for the series, having this story event serves to compare how far this drama has gotten since the first episode. A lot of things have been reversed since then like: the friendship between the bros, a change in atmosphere (it is not as casual but darker as secrets unfold), and the one who points the gun is Hyun Jun at Sa Woo. When Sa Woo and Hyun Jun work together briefly to take out the Koreans, it sends us back to their military training days. With this, it is a good chance for the viewers to take in and reminisced what it was like before and there are still some episodes left… it gives us the chance to dream and hope for the two bros to reconcile at the end of the drama and possibly bring back the bromance.
P.S. Choi Seung Hee totally ruined the bromance for us : )
In this episode, Sang-hyun is arrested for treason as he is seen conspiring against Baek San and the actions of Iris. Both Sang-hyun and Baek San underestimates the damage a nuclear bomb would cause if it is dropped in the middle of Seoul. They both think that this attack will cost roughly 150,000 lives but this is a foolish estimate. During World War 2, almost 150,000 people died in Hiroshima when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on this city. However, the population of Hiroshima at this time was only around 330,000 people. Considering that Seoul has a population of 10 million people in 2009, this nuclear bomb will cause some devastating damage to the city. Millions will die or will be affected from the nuclear radiation. Baek San explains that this act will restore a sense of security and protect this country. I believe that the after effects of this bomb contradict this statement. The bomb may start a war which may destroy the country instead of protecting it. I believe that this episode is not intelligent when dealing with deadly weapons of mass destruction like a nuclear bomb.
I find it quite convenient how the North Korean terrorists just left the GPS info inside the car and the remnants of the bomb material inside the room. In the past, the team has always been very thorough with their cleanups and leaving no evidence behind by incarcerating everything. Throughout the episodes the terrorist with the bandana always has this dodgy look towards the side as if he doesn’t fully agree with the bombing and especially the killing of Hyun Jun and Sun Hwa. I suspect that he’s secretly helping Hyun Jun and Sun Hwa, or at least feels a bit bad for them and is conflicted between his moral conscience and loyalty towards his team and nation.
Since the introduction of IRIS as an organization trying to control the faith of South and North Korea, I constantly thought of it as a comparison to someone or some external force that existed in the real world. The writers of this drama must have created this idea of IRIS as a depiction of something in the real world. Then, as I continued to watch more and more episodes and the plot thickens, I found it interesting that IRIS could very closely represent the Unite States of America in some ways. It could sound crazy, but I could argue that they have some distinct similarities between them. Like the US, IRIS has a goal in mind that contradicts both the South and the North. South Korean presidents goal was to host a successful peace summit with the North and the North delegates were trying to threaten the South into cancelling the summit without actually detonating the nuclear bomb. However, both Baek San and Commissioner from the North that work for IRIS are working together to drop the bomb. For a reason that goes against South and North Korean goals. Much like the event that took recently with the THAAD missiles, there were discrepancies between the South Korean government and the US over whether THAAd missiles necessity in resolving the issues between North and the South. US had different ideas than the South Korean government and peer pressured South Korea into building the THAAD missiles. Like IRIS, it did not help in resolving the issue between the North and the SOuth and further aggravated the relationship between China and South Korea as well. It may be a long shot, but I believe there are some correlation between the way IRIS is depicted and the influence US has on the korean peninsula. It would be interesting to research further into the influence US had during the time IRIS was made, and perhaps there are other possible groups that IRIS could've been based off of.
I found that there is a lot of different altercations that goes on in this episode. For example, Cheol-yeong and Hyun-jun to start it off when Hyun-jun was interrogating him, Sa-woo and Hyun-jun's fight that my group members have mentioned, Baek-san and Sang-hyeon are some of the disputes that happen. These arguments and controversial things that goes on especially in this episode reflect South Korea's political system. The IRIS members and non-members going against each other is very similar to how South Korean government parties go against each other. Obviously there is no killing going on but interestingly party members do not have to show substantial loyalty to their party. Political parties' names often change and split into different parties. Also just recently, two South Korean spy chiefs who served under Park Geun-hye, the impeached former president, were arrested on charges of illegally channeling tens of thousands of dollars monthly from their agency’s secret budgets for Ms. Park’s private use. I find that there is a lot of corruption that goes on in the Korean political system, similar to IRIS but not as extreme.
Karisa, nice analysis. Shengjie, nice job googling up basic facts on Gwanghwamun. I'm sure that helped you understand the episode better. Gwanghwamun (the actual gate) was just reconstructed a few years ago, though. The Japanese tore it down to expose the main bldg of the Colonial Gov't to the city, and it was rebuilt of concrete (not wood) by Park Chunghee, so just recently it was rebuilt of stone and wood and paint. Karen, bwahahah. Donny, no kidding. Also, let me point out that Seoul might technically be 10 m but the population in the general area (connected by Seoul subways) is more like half the country's population (more than 20 m). Unlike cities like Beijing (which is larger than all but two of Korea's PROVINCES), Seoul is geographically not too big.
Jiyong, I think IRIS is supposed to be an extra-governmental organization, rather than a foreign country, but I do agree that it does have some parallels with the US, and the drama could have been written to intentionally criticize any entity (US or not) that tried to pull the strings on the peninsula, instead of leaving things to the Koreans.
In this episode, we see the topic of brotherhood between Hyun Joon and Sa Woo finally being addressed upfront. The two haven’t seen each other face to face since Sa Woo tried to shoot down Hyun Joon’s plane in Hungary, and I feel like the two’s friendship plot line has been dragging out. In the confrontation scene in this episode, we learn that Hyun Joon has never blamed Sa Woo for what happened to him but has instead been trying to have revenge on Baek San, who gave the order. On the other hand, Sa Woo blames Hyun Joon for the “hell” that he has been living in and for everything he had to give up (possibly hinting at Seung Hee). Sa Woo then proceeded to shooting at Hyun Joon, and we see that Hyun Joon is reluctantly forced to return fire. This scene can be analyzed as the end of the two’s brotherhood, which had only been held together by Hyun Joon’s faith in Sa Woo. Sa Woo shooting at Hyun Joon first can be interpreted as him being the one to break their friendship, with Hun Joon shooting back affirms the fact. This makes me wonder how the rest of the drama will play out with the two’s brotherhood being officially broken.
ReplyDeleteIn episode 15-16, Hyoon Joon has been ordered directly by the Blue House to find the bomb and stop it. Eventually, he found the location Gwanghwamun where IRIS would set up the bomb. As Hyoon Joon described in IRIS, Gwanghwamun is a vital location to Koreans in terms of both political and historical. Politically, since Gwanghwamun is located in between of US embassy and blue house, the bomb would consequently lead and cause irreversible and massive impact to Korean diplomacy. Not to mention that Gwanghwamun is the main and largest gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, in Jongno-gu, Seoul, at the northern end of Sejongno. As a landmark and symbol of Seoul’s long history as the capital city during the Joseon Dynasty. Back in Joseon Dynasty, Gyongbokgung, which is the largest of the Five Grand Palaces, was the main royal palace. Gyeongbokgung was built three years after Joseon dynasty was founded and it served as the Kings’ households, and government of Joseon. However, it was once destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), and abandoned for nearly 3 centuries. Till the year 1867, reconstruction was started under the leadership of Regent Heungseon Daewongun.
ReplyDeleteIn this episode, almost everyone finally finds out that Sa Woo is working with Baek San and is a part of IRIS. Sa Woo originally had a goody two shoe personality that cared about his country, so everyone felt more betrayed because of this. Hyun Joon believed that Sa Woo only pulled a gun on him because Sa Woo obeys orders, so he was in for a great shock when he found out that Sa Woo is a part of IRIS. During their confrontation scene, Hyun Joon kills one of the North Korean agents in order to protect Sa Woo. It can be clearly seen in Sa Woo eyes that saving his life hurt a lot more emotionally if Hyun Joon just let him die. There was a moment where they are temporarily on the same side and fight off the North Korean agents, so I thought that there was a chance that Sa Woo would find his true nature and become good again. Unfortunately, his response to his life being saved was to try and kill Hyun Joon again, because apparently Hyun Joon caused him all these problems. That was when Hyun Joon felt even more betrayed, because he finally knew that Sa Woo didn't just point a gun at him as an order, but that he is now choosing to. On the other hand, back in NSS, Sang Hyun is arrested and Sa Woo interrogates him. Sang Hyun has always thought of Sa Woo as a younger brother, and was the one who recruited Sa Woo. This betrayal hit him even harder, as he grew up with Sa Woo, and knew that what Sa Woo is doing right now is not his true nature. All of these confrontations told Sa Woo that he was acting out of character, and it makes me wonder whether he will have a last second switch of allegiances; but on the other hand, I think that with his characteristics of always being the good guy, he has to hit boiling point at sometime where he turns bad, and could stay at a steady boil.
ReplyDeleteBring Back the Bromance!
ReplyDeleteI’m just thinking about the last time there was a scene where the bros, Sa Woo and Hyun Jun, were happy and together… And, yeah, it’s been a long time and I’m not able to recall it. The two finally come face-to-face this episode. Their reunion is accompanied with a shoot-out together against the North Koreans and then against each other. Bullets fly, blood splattered, tears shed, memories were reminisced, and heart-wrenching words were exchanged between the two who were once friends. I think that as we near the finale for the series, having this story event serves to compare how far this drama has gotten since the first episode. A lot of things have been reversed since then like: the friendship between the bros, a change in atmosphere (it is not as casual but darker as secrets unfold), and the one who points the gun is Hyun Jun at Sa Woo. When Sa Woo and Hyun Jun work together briefly to take out the Koreans, it sends us back to their military training days. With this, it is a good chance for the viewers to take in and reminisced what it was like before and there are still some episodes left… it gives us the chance to dream and hope for the two bros to reconcile at the end of the drama and possibly bring back the bromance.
P.S. Choi Seung Hee totally ruined the bromance for us : )
In this episode, Sang-hyun is arrested for treason as he is seen conspiring against Baek San and the actions of Iris. Both Sang-hyun and Baek San underestimates the damage a nuclear bomb would cause if it is dropped in the middle of Seoul. They both think that this attack will cost roughly 150,000 lives but this is a foolish estimate. During World War 2, almost 150,000 people died in Hiroshima when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on this city. However, the population of Hiroshima at this time was only around 330,000 people. Considering that Seoul has a population of 10 million people in 2009, this nuclear bomb will cause some devastating damage to the city. Millions will die or will be affected from the nuclear radiation. Baek San explains that this act will restore a sense of security and protect this country. I believe that the after effects of this bomb contradict this statement. The bomb may start a war which may destroy the country instead of protecting it. I believe that this episode is not intelligent when dealing with deadly weapons of mass destruction like a nuclear bomb.
ReplyDeleteI find it quite convenient how the North Korean terrorists just left the GPS info inside the car and the remnants of the bomb material inside the room. In the past, the team has always been very thorough with their cleanups and leaving no evidence behind by incarcerating everything. Throughout the episodes the terrorist with the bandana always has this dodgy look towards the side as if he doesn’t fully agree with the bombing and especially the killing of Hyun Jun and Sun Hwa. I suspect that he’s secretly helping Hyun Jun and Sun Hwa, or at least feels a bit bad for them and is conflicted between his moral conscience and loyalty towards his team and nation.
ReplyDeleteSince the introduction of IRIS as an organization trying to control the faith of South and North Korea, I constantly thought of it as a comparison to someone or some external force that existed in the real world. The writers of this drama must have created this idea of IRIS as a depiction of something in the real world. Then, as I continued to watch more and more episodes and the plot thickens, I found it interesting that IRIS could very closely represent the Unite States of America in some ways. It could sound crazy, but I could argue that they have some distinct similarities between them. Like the US, IRIS has a goal in mind that contradicts both the South and the North. South Korean presidents goal was to host a successful peace summit with the North and the North delegates were trying to threaten the South into cancelling the summit without actually detonating the nuclear bomb. However, both Baek San and Commissioner from the North that work for IRIS are working together to drop the bomb. For a reason that goes against South and North Korean goals. Much like the event that took recently with the THAAD missiles, there were discrepancies between the South Korean government and the US over whether THAAd missiles necessity in resolving the issues between North and the South. US had different ideas than the South Korean government and peer pressured South Korea into building the THAAD missiles. Like IRIS, it did not help in resolving the issue between the North and the SOuth and further aggravated the relationship between China and South Korea as well. It may be a long shot, but I believe there are some correlation between the way IRIS is depicted and the influence US has on the korean peninsula. It would be interesting to research further into the influence US had during the time IRIS was made, and perhaps there are other possible groups that IRIS could've been based off of.
ReplyDeleteI found that there is a lot of different altercations that goes on in this episode. For example, Cheol-yeong and Hyun-jun to start it off when Hyun-jun was interrogating him, Sa-woo and Hyun-jun's fight that my group members have mentioned, Baek-san and Sang-hyeon are some of the disputes that happen. These arguments and controversial things that goes on especially in this episode reflect South Korea's political system. The IRIS members and non-members going against each other is very similar to how South Korean government parties go against each other. Obviously there is no killing going on but interestingly party members do not have to show substantial loyalty to their party. Political parties' names often change and split into different parties. Also just recently, two South Korean spy chiefs who served under Park Geun-hye, the impeached former president, were arrested on charges of illegally channeling tens of thousands of dollars monthly from their agency’s secret budgets for Ms. Park’s private use. I find that there is a lot of corruption that goes on in the Korean political system, similar to IRIS but not as extreme.
ReplyDeleteKarisa, nice analysis.
ReplyDeleteShengjie, nice job googling up basic facts on Gwanghwamun. I'm sure that helped you understand the episode better. Gwanghwamun (the actual gate) was just reconstructed a few years ago, though. The Japanese tore it down to expose the main bldg of the Colonial Gov't to the city, and it was rebuilt of concrete (not wood) by Park Chunghee, so just recently it was rebuilt of stone and wood and paint.
Karen, bwahahah.
Donny, no kidding. Also, let me point out that Seoul might technically be 10 m but the population in the general area (connected by Seoul subways) is more like half the country's population (more than 20 m). Unlike cities like Beijing (which is larger than all but two of Korea's PROVINCES), Seoul is geographically not too big.
Jiyong, I think IRIS is supposed to be an extra-governmental organization, rather than a foreign country, but I do agree that it does have some parallels with the US, and the drama could have been written to intentionally criticize any entity (US or not) that tried to pull the strings on the peninsula, instead of leaving things to the Koreans.
Melissa, Byeonghan, Rachel, noted.