I have been a huge fan of improv comedy for years, everywhere from short form such as Whose Line is it Anyway to This is Spinal Tap’s long form. When I heard about the new Netflix series, Murderville, I was intrigued.
In Murderville, Will Arnett plays Terry Seattle, a hard-boiled homicide detective who has trouble keeping partners. Each episode a celebrity will appear on the show as Detective Seattle’s new partner. However, the said celebrity will not have been given a script and will need to improvise everything in the murder case they investigate with Seattle. Then, at the episode’s end, the celebrity must decide who the killer was.
Episode one featured Conan O’Brien.
I enjoyed the concept. I will say that I did not find it as hilarious as it could have been, but I do think the proper celebrity has a chance to be really funny. I worry that it will become a tad repetitive, but, again, depending on the celeb, this could really rock.
I don’t want to make it sound as if I did not enjoy the show, because I did. It had its funny moments and watching them try not to crack up with laughter is always fun.
The ending did feel almost like a game show as Conan tried to guess who the killer was among the three suspects and he was told that he was right!
I do plan on watching the remaining five episodes in Murderville, although I may not binge it as I have done with some of the other Netflix shows.
Everything is set up for our big time conclusion. Thankfully, Miguel did not re-break his back as they implied in episode 9. But he had a half hour to return to the match or forfeit, flashing back to how Daniel had the same situation in The Karate Kid. However, Miguel figured out that Johnny was encouraging him to get back out there and was more concerned with the match than with him. (That may not be the case, but that is what Miguel thought).
Miguel failed to answer the time limit and forfeited, sending Eli into the finals against Robby.
Of course, the girls final was Sam vs. Tory. The problem with the set up was that the boys went first and the show spoiled the outcome because they stated that Cobra Kai would win the overall dojo championship by winning just one of the two remaining matches and that Miyagi-do had to win both. Clearly, Miyagi-do was going to win the first one to keep the tension up. Still, Eli won in sudden death, a major upset, but completing his redemption arc of the season.
Kenny completed his turn to Cobra Kai as he viciously attacked Anthony, who had come to the locker room to apologize for his actions during the series. Kenny is now a villain, unlike the first couple of episodes of the season.
Of course, everything was going to be determined by Tory vs. Sam. In order to do what was best for her, Daniel approached Johnny and asked for his help. In a wonderful scene between the two senseis, Johnny and Daniel agreed to work together to stop Kreese and Silver.
The battle between Sam and Tory has been building since Tory arrived in season 2. As Sam was blending the two style of karate, the battle raged. And since we know that there is to be a final 5th season of this show, Tory got the win, giving Cobra Kai the final victory of the dojos and making it so that Daniel and Johnny had to give up their own dojos.
We discover some interesting tidbits at the end of the season, all setting up for season 5.
Silver had bought off the ref. That was why the ref made a controversial call about Tory being out of bounds instead of taking a winning point.
Tory heard Silver thank the ref so she knows that the fix was in.
Miguel took off to find his real father. Johnny promised Carmine he would find him.
We saw a flashback to when Silver was beating Raymond and he said that he would stop beating him and let him into Cobra Kai, but he had to do something for him.
What Silver wanted Raymond to do was to tell the police that Kreese was the one who attacked him.
This led to Kreese being arrested for assault and attempted murder, leaving Silver in charge of Cobra Kai.
Daniel was at Miyagi’s grave, promising to stop Cobra Kai… as long as he had the help of Chozen, who was in the graveyard with Daniel.
This was a great season, and it sets up some real drama in season 5. I still think we see some pay off for Silver being sick and our heroes are heading in different directions. They will eventually come together in the end.
With special guest star, Carrie Underwood to live sing a montage.
The All-Valley added skills competitions this year just so they could add some cool shots with weapons and break some wood. It really did not feel as if it were anything more than that.
Then there was a bunch of early round matches. We narrowed the numbers down knocking out the rd shirts and the secondary characters. Eli was doing well. So was Dmitri. Kenny took one to the face from Robby. And so on.
And in the battle between Miguel and Eli, something went wrong.
I was both thrilled and horrified at the return of Paul Walter Hauser as Raymond, aka Stingray to Cobra Kai. Thrilled because he was a funny and engaging character that won me over when he was on the last time.
Horrified because Terry Silver kicked the living crap out of him.
That good guy Terry Silver who apologized to Daniel and tried to get the Cobra Kai kids to focus on the tournament only seems to be gone new. In his place is this complete psycho. I just hope he leaves poor Raymond alive, because I am not sure about that.
While Silver is freaking out, Sam continues to show what a disrespectful brat she is. She takes Miguel to prom and then she gets mad when Robbie and Tory show up together. Yes, they showed up to throw Miguel and Sam off balance, but Sam started a fight and played right into the hands of Tory.
By the way, there were some ultra cool fight moves blended into the dance choreography.
I’m not sure the message that the show is sending when Anthony started to straight up his act but only after Daniel broke his iPad in half. That response in anger was what apparently worked for the boy.
Oh, and there was a remarkable scene with Johnny and Miguel. After Johnny got the crap beaten out of him by Silver (who was incredibly busy this episode), he got drunk and Miguel found him on his apartment floor in a puddle of his own … whatever. Miguel took him to his room and Johnny told him that he wanted to be a father to him but he was failing. Miguel said he was doing fine and that he loved him. Johnny responded that he loved him too, Robbie. Oh, right to the heart. That was a crushing moment for poor Miguel.
We finally got back to Anthony and maybe, finally, Daniel and Amanda can open their eyes to what a punk their son has been. Kenny sets him and his group of bully friends up to get them isolated in the library. They get caught just as Kenny is about to deliver some justice to Anthony.
This whole thing happened after Anthony let his father believe that he was being bullied by a kid from Cobra Kai. This was exactly the opposite of course as Anthony had just stolen Kenny’s clothes during PE and lured him into the hall for everyone to laugh at him. One wonders where the teachers are in this school. Maybe they are just all hiding out to avoid the karate fights.
Anthony was not the only one who was facing the music. Miguel discovered Johnny’s bandanna in his mom’s room and they finally had to tell him that they were “dating” ( or as Johnny said, hooked up). Johnny is remarkably awkward during this scene, which was very funny.
Eagle Fang Karate still needed a female competitor for the upcoming tournament and they have apparently found one in Devon, who watched all the karate fighting movies, which seemed to impress Johnny and he took this opportunity to build up immunity to the dirty tricks that Cobra Kai may pull at the tournament and so he had Devon kick all the other boys in their balls.
She enjoyed that too much.
Then, it appeared that Kreese felt the need to reestablish his power over Terry Silver, as he had an unbelievably awkward conversation with Terry to remind him who was boss. Are these cracks that are beginning to show among the Cobra Kai crew?
Yup, they have successfully made me dislike Sam LaRusso. I did not think that was possible, but she has turned herself into a spiteful and mean-spirited person.
The confrontation at the end of the episode as Tory returned to school for the first time since the fight, thanks to the LaRusso family’s help, as Sam laid down the law in no uncertain terns by saying, “I’m coming for you, bitch” showed how Sam has become the worst type of person.
I can understand why she feels this way, but you would think that being raised by Daniel and Amanda would have had some of those lessons passed on to her. Or maybe not since we also saw her bully brother earlier in the season. Maybe the LaRussos need to work on their parenting skills.
Then we have Hawk… or should I call him Eli now? This feels like his own personal journey has reached its apex. When he turned to join Miyagi-do last year at the end of the season, that did not feel earned. It felt too quick. Now, he has spent most of the season paying for his choices to the point that he was ready to give up karate completely (which might be a sound decision in the long run). He was convinced to remain by his friend, Demetri, and he showed up at Miyagi-do to complete his path back.
This show is really about there not being any specific villain. They are al in shades of gray. Daniel sure felt like the bad guy when Silver confronted him at the store. Daniel is allowing his past experiences to prevent moving forward, something he wanted Sam to do. He does not really lead by example, sadly. Maybe Silver is the real bad guy, but he does not seem as if he is. Also, maybe I misread the clues from earlier because there is not implications that Silver is sick.
Surprise return: Aisha
Not sure the purpose behind this since she did not really do anything and Sam seemed to toss her advice aside.
The show is building toward the tournament with the new rules that will make things more inclusive. Johnny can explain it to you…
Terry Silver showed up at Miyagi-do to apologize to Daniel for his behavior during Karate Kid 3. Daniel was having nothing of it, despite the fact that it truly did feel sincere. This show continues to paint Terry Silver as a repentant man who realized his past mistakes. He has been a voice of reason among the Cobra Kai and with Kreese. I’m not sure where this is going, but he did not appreciate Daniel’s dismissal of his apology.
Silver’s arrival spooked the heck out of Daniel and he immediately wanted to take full control of the training of the students. Of course, Johnny wanted no part of that and, after a lot of alcohol, they wound up with a rematch from the All-Valley Tournament set for the next day.
Although Silver placed a no fighting restriction on the Cobra Kai students, they found a way around it. They caught Hawk, held him down and shaved off his mohawk. That was a vicious shot at Hawk, since that hairstyle had become such a symbol of who he was.
Meanwhile, Daniel was recovering from his hangover, we got a Johnny Lawrence training montage. Johnny slipped right back into his bully persona as he was shoving people out of his way and causing destruction such as karate kicking a mailbox. The montage was in tune with Survivor’s Burning Heart from the Rocky movies.
Despite the understanding of what it might do to the uneasy alliance that has been in place this season, the match between Johnny and Daniel proceeded with Sam and Miguel in position as judges.
Johnny scored first. Daniel got the next two points. Johnny tied it up despite Daniel pulling out the old arm numbing trick he learned last season. Then, it a beautifully choreographed point, Daniel and Johnny struck the final blow at the same time.
This of course was when Hawk arrived and showed off his new hairdo and the alliance fell apart. Eagle Fang and Miyagi-do Karate split apart. Perhaps this is what Terry Silver was trying to do in the first place.
This was my favorite episode so far in season 4. Not sure where they go from here.
I think the show is going out of its way to make me dislike all of the students in Miyagi-do karate. Not only Hawk and his little minions, but even Sam LaRusso was acting like a bully this episode. For no reason. Sam went out of her way to try and humiliate Tory while Tory was just trying to do her job. And Hawk went out of his way to try and bully Kenny at the drive in.
I think the show has to be careful that they aren’t creating a bunch of characters that I do not want to root for. I am all for creating three-dimensional characters who are not just good or bad, but there has to be some redeeming qualities or else I am not going to care who wins or loses.
Johnny continues his jealousy over how much time Miguel is spending with the LaRussos and it is threatening to rip apart the tentative treaty between Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang. Johnny also is nervous about telling Miguel about him and his mom, Carmen…so much so that it is causing performance issues. Sorry Carmen.
The best part of this episode was the arrival and reveal of Kreese and Terry Silver to Daniel. That was a great cliffhanger and sets up episode 5 extremely well. Nothing more about any possible illness Silver may have that I thought they were alluding to last episode. Silver is clearly healthy enough to kick Robbie’s butt as we saw here.
It is really odd that they show seems to be trying to pull a double turn and make the Cobra Kai guys the heroes, at least Robby, Tory and Kenny.
I really love what they are doing with Terry Silver. He is not just jumping into the fray with his old war buddy. He is weighing options and remembering what Kreese did for him.
But there is more.
When I heard the line said by his aid/servant/chef early in the episode, I perked up. When Terry was having flashbacks to Vietnam, he said he was going to skip breakfast and his valet said “Should I call the doctor?” Wait…what? That is not a normal response to someone deciding to skip breakfast. Then later we see Terry with medication just before he does his cool ponytail thing. There is something wrong with Terry and we are diving into it.
I love how this is different than what we have seen before.
Unlike the Johnny stuff. I was disappointed at the end of the episode when it was clear that Johnny was starting to feel jealous over Daniel’s burgeoning connection to Miguel. Didn’t we already go through this storyline with Robby earlier in the series? I hope I am wrong, but this feels like a retread of a conflict that they feel like they need to throw in the path of the senseis.
Especially since I enjoyed the bonding that Daniel and Johnny were doing. The dinner they had with each other was great, and had a funny interaction with Johnny and “the Boy” aka Anthony. Growth spurt? Ha ha.
Kenny returned to find his place in Cobra Kai, thanks to a little coaching by Robbie. He is a interesting character that I am intrigued with seeing where exactly this season takes him. He is certainly worth rooting for and the fact that he is now in the villains hands, who knows where this will go. No matter what, the show is definitely pointing at Anthony LaRusso as the reason Kenny is where he is.
Episode two brought us an important thing… somebody new for Cobra Kai. Inside the dojo led by John Kreese, we have basically two main characters, Robby and Tory, but the rest are no name red shirts. They needed some more interesting characters to fill out the ranks of the opposition or nobody is going to believe that Cobra Kai has a chance against our heroes.
So we get the introduction of the new kid at school, Kenny. And what sends him to the dark side? Why it is Anthony LaRusso, Daniel’s own little bully of a son. Placing Anthony squarely in the Johnny Lawrence role of tormenting bully is some awesome storytelling that I hope carries out throughout the season. The show sets up Kenny as being extremely likable and relatable and then ties him to the prisoner that Robby fought with in season 3.
Meanwhile, Daniel and Johnny are teaching each other their respective brand of karate in hopes of creating a better understanding of the other’s philosophy. Daniel makes Johnny do the iconic “wax-on, wax-of” and “paint the fence” routines while Johnny takes Daniel to a warehouse and eventually a hockey game.
Johnny manipulates one of the hockey players into attacking Daniel so Daniel could learn to be more aggressive. It was funny cause all I was thinking about when that hockey player was taunting Daniel, was that Daniel was going to kick his ass.
Season 4 is setting up conflicts that I assume will be paying off in the future. The one between Tory and Amanda, Daniel’s wife, is fascinating and I hope it bears fruit. Maybe honeycrisp.
It’s New Years Eve Day and Netflix has dropped the long awaited season 4 of Cobra Kai. We’ll be binging it today and, maybe tomorrow depending on how things go, and doing a write up for each episode.
I watched season 1 back when this was on YouTube Red. It was a main reason why I purchased that streaming version of YouTube. I enjoyed season 1 but I did not return for season 2. When it came to Netflix, I still did not watch. When season 3 came out and everyone was talking about it, I decided to binge these two seasons at once. I was very pleased that I decided to so that. I really enjoyed those two seasons and I am looking forward to season 4.
At the end of season 3, having Johnny and Daniel come together with a common enemy was an epic way to leave off the season. However, I guess the idea that the long-standing rivalry would just go away was a pipe dream as Johnny and Daniel immediately clash over the differing styles. Maybe this was necessary, but it felt as if this was what the first three seasons were building towards and that it might have been a step back. It makes sense that we should see this conflict.
I did like how Hawk had to take some punishment. The biggest issue I had last year was that his face turn came out of nowhere and did not feel earned. The resentment from some of the other students and the senseis is real and was a nice addition to the story.
I also enjoyed the fact that Terry Silver did not just come running back when John Kreese called. They gave us a scene where Silver reflected on his past from Karate Kid 3 and was not happy about it. It immediately made him more of a real character than he ever was in the movie. In fact, they actually did too good a job, because I now am not sure why he makes the choice to return to Cobra Kai.
The end of the episode with the students working together to “build a bridge” was a great moment and showed Daniel and Johnny, who were about to give in to their baser instincts about each other, that this could work even if it was not easy.
Good start, laying the groundwork for what is to come.
The finale of Squid Game is a real gut punch in a lot of ways. The twist of the episode is something I’ll look at later.
The Squid Game finale finished with a brutal battle between Gi-hun and Sang-woo in the final game, which was clearly always going to be the Squid Game. This struggle in the rain was unbelievably violent, brutal and realistic. It was down in the dirt, literally. It was able to show the progression of Gi-hun’s character during this series with the way he reacted to the potential win and the refusal to kill Sang-woo.
Gi-hun showed that he truly was a good man at heart and that he was willing to let Sang-woo redeem himself despite all the horrible things that he had done during the game. Then, when Sang-woo jammed the knife into his own throat, he took a step back into being the childhood friend and he kept Gi-hun from sacrificing everything and giving up the money.
So Gi-hun was returned to his life, with his 45 billions. and a huge case of PTSD. His mother was dead. He would not touch the money and we have a time jump.
1 year later.
Here was the twist. Here was the betrayal.
Il-nam is alive. Il-nam was the Host. He was behind everything.
How does this make me feel? The emotions from episode 6 were real. Now though, they are tainted. I just do not know if having this unforeseen twist at the end of the show was worth taking everything from episode 6 and warping it. Having Il-name behind it all and turning out to be nothing more than a cruel and bored rich guy makes me reconsider everything that I loved about that character from the first part of the season.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a surreal twist that I did not see coming. That is always welcome, but was it worth it? His answer to why he set these games up was basically “I have so much money, I was bored.” Doesn’t that make him every bit as bad, if not worse, than any of those VIPs that attended the last few games?
There was more done with the episode at the end, but this was the moment that swung everything. This moment is one that I am still not sure how I feel about. I appreciate how it played with my emotions, but did it cross a line? Did it go too far? I am not sure what to think about it yet. And the twist, being able to accept it and deal with it will color my opinion of Squid Game from episode one through the finale. This one point in time where Player 001 was not dead and in fact was the evil entity behind the whole thing, a character that I loved and mourned over….
I just do not know.
By the way, I guess Jun-ho is dead after falling off that cliff in episode 7 because we never once even make a fleeting reference to him in the finale. That felt like a major piece that is just left dangling.
Would I be in on a season two of Squid Game on Netflix? Honestly, right now, I am not sure. I loved episodes 1-8, but that finale really made me question how much I loved those earlier episodes.
So the wild speculation I made back around episode four turned out to be 100% on the nose. The Front Man turned out to be the brother of Jun-ho, In-ho.
Lee Byung-hun, who played Storm Shadow back in 2013’s G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, is a well-known Korean actor and, according to the research I’ve done, is the most familiar face among the cast. I am pretty proud of myself for wildly speculating Front Man’s true identity back in the early part of the series. His confrontation and unmasking on the edge of a cliff with his brother was tense and potent. Both of the actors involved in this scene did tremendous work. You can see that, even though he shoots his brother in the shoulder causing him to fall off the cliff and into the water, In-ho was tying to maneuver it so he could take his brother in alive. (BTW, there is no chance that I think Jung-ho is dead. He’s coming back in the finale…count on it). The scene where In-ho sees his brother’s reflection in the mirror gives us a deep look into the mind of Front Man.
The brotherly confrontation was one part of this episode. The other part was the pay-off from last episode’s exploding glass bridge and the choices made prior to it blowing up. Gi-hun confronted Sang-woo about his cold-blooded shove of the guy from the glass company. This was brilliantly written as Gi-hun asked him if it had been him on the glass in front of him, would he still have pushed him. Sang-woo verbally attacked Gi-hun, blaming him for being here and Gi-hun masterfully turned that around, wondering why Sang-woo, the “golden child” and highly educated college man, was here too. They were clearly placed as opponents moving forward.
But there was a third wheel here and it was Sae-byeok. It had looked like she was injured after the glass bridge was blown up, and, in fact, she was as a huge glass shard was shown to be imbedded in her side.
She tried to bandage herself up, but this was going to require more than what she was capable of. As the Squid Game soldiers provided a final meal of steak, she was not eating much because she was in such bad shape. The soldiers left each of the three of them a steak knife, which you knew would come into play.
Gi-hun approached Sae-byeok in the night to check on her and to try and build an alliance with her against Sang-woo. They had a great conversation about their families and Sae-byeok tried to get Gi-hun to promise to look after her brother if he won the money. She knew at this point that she was most likely not going to survive this side wound. Gi-hun would not promise, saying that they could get out together and split the money. When he noticed that Sang-woo had fallen asleep and had dropped his knife, Gi-hun was going to go kill him, but Sae-byeok stopped him by telling him that he was not that kin of person and that he had a good heart.
It was at this point that Gi-hun realized that Sae-byeok had an open wound in her side and he ran to try and get help from the door. When it opened, there was the soldiers with a casket. Gi-hun turned around and realized that Sang-woo was standing by her bed and that he had stabbed Sae-byeok in the neck, killing her.
There have been some terrible deaths in the series that has elicited some powerfully emotional responses, in particular Oh Il-nam and Ali Abdul in episode 6, but this one was one of the worst yet because Sae-byeok was already badly injured, perhaps even fatally, and he still went and took advantage of her situation to kill her. I said last episode that Sang-woo had become the “Big Bad” at the end and it is clear that he is exactly that. It is coming down to Sang-woo vs. Gi-hun in the final game, which I assume will be the Squid Game itself.
This was the shortest episode of the season, but it was fully packed with powerful moments and fantastic acting. I am so glad that I did not continue on with the dubbed version on Netflix because I just do not think the dubbed version would have delivered the emotional depth and potency of the scenes. And, like all other subtitled films I have watched, the best ones make you forget that you are reading the movie.
Even though I had figured out who Front Man was, I have no idea how this series is going to end. That is a great feeling. I do not even have any wild speculation to toss out now. I sure hope that Sang-woo gets what it coming to him, though.
After the last episode with so much emotion and anxiety during the marbles matches, episode 7 picks right up with the suspense as the players are thrown into a game where they have to choose one of two glass squares to jump on. One is strong enough to hold up to two people while the other one is not strong enough to hold one. Choose poorly and you fall to your death.
This was a great way to get rid of the remaining “Red Shirts” of the show (an allusion to Star Trek, of course). One of the things this show has been tremendous with has been giving a little bit of character to the Red Shirts. They may not be incredible complex or deep of characters, but they all have something to make them more than just cannon fodder. Case in point, in the Tug O’ War episode, we met married couple that Sang-Woo rejected for his team. We also saw that this couple formed a pair in the marbles, meaning one would survive and one would not. The husband (number 69) survived the marbles but was immediately crushed by the loss of his wife. We knew so very little about either of these characters and yet their loss and their pain resonates with us because we understand the feelings. We also understand when Player 69 killed himself instead of facing life of guilt knowing that he lived because his wife died.
The episode is entitled “VIPs” because the VIPs arrived to watch the final two games live and in person on the island. These characters were shown to be the stereotypically worst people imaginable. They were betting on the outcome of the games while they sipped wine an couches with real naked women acting as feet rests and pillows. They all spoke English too, which is clearly a commentary on the American way of life. One could see someone like Donald Trump beneath one of those sparkly golden masks.
These VIP character were simply there for us to hate, bringing little more than that to the story. There was one horrendous VIP who embodied the worst of the gay stereotypes, probably not a character that would make it through in the American culture nowadays. These characters were very much caricatures, but it did feel like that was their purpose. Perhaps these are the rich men who bankroll the Squid Game. It gave an impression that there are Squid Games going on in more than just this location and these men may be involved in these. I’m not sure we are going to be going into more detail with these people, but I do believe those explosive charges we saw a few episodes ago may have a purpose with these men.
What we will absolutely be getting as a resolution before this show ends is the reveal of an identity of the Front Man. I am even more sure that Front Man is the missing brother of detective Jun-ho. I made that random wild speculation several episodes ago and now it just makes more sense. Especially since we know that the Front Man still reports to someone above him, The Host. Front Man notices the little details and he moves with a gun like someone who knows what he is doing. There is definitely a reveal coming with this character and, since he has been connected to Jun-ho, it makes sense narrative wise.
While I am talking about Jun-ho, can we comment on the battery life on dude’s cell phone? Where can I get that model? I have to be charging mine every other day if I am not using it much.
Then there was the most satisfying moment of the whole episode. As they are moving along the bridge of glass, Deok-Su decides to stop and blackmail the rest of the players behind him so someone else would go first. Who steps up? It is crazy woman, Han Mi-nyeo. She wound up spared last episode because of the leftover rule (those of us chosen last for dodgeball, we know what that feels like). She was back and she pretended to take the lead from Deok-su, only to grab him around the waist and throw them both off the bridge, crashing through the next glass step and falling to their deaths. That was such a satisfying moment because Deok-su was such a horrible person and really deserved to die, and Mi-nyeo was able to deliver on her promise to kill him she had made after he betrayed her in the Tug O’War. I could not think of a better way for this pair to go out than what the show gave us.
We are down to the final three. Gi-hun, Sang-woo and Sae-byeok. Sang-woo has really set himself up as the next “Big Bad” to be faced off with. He has had a secret through this entire series, something that he has been hiding from Gi-hun and I am sure that we will have that reveal soon too. Episode 8, interestingly enough, is a shorter 32 minutes. I’m not sure why this was, but I am fine with it. I have two more episodes to finish and I will get to them today. I did not anticipate being done with this series this weekend, but once I started, I could not stop.
The show flipped the script on us once again as the people in charge of the Squid Game had the players choose partners. We all thought that they were choosing partners to work together with, but instead, they chose someone they were going to have to play against with marbles. Whoever ended up with all 20 marbles would be the winner. So we had a fun little section at the beginning with these characters pairing up, with plenty of character moments, only to pull the rug out. Seeing the pairings, the fears that we would be losing some of our favorite characters was obvious.
The pairings were:
Gi-hun and Number 001
Ali and Sang-woo
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong
Doek Soo and Player 278
Things were set up for some painful moments. And then the episode was spent showing amazing character moments and development that gave us more insights into who these people were. Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok in particular told us a great deal about their tragic pasts and what they may or may not do when they “win” the money.
Sang-woo showed his true colors in his pairing with Ali, as he was losing badly to the innocent soul that was Ali. He suckered Ali into giving him the bag full of marbles after Ali nearly won everything. Sang-woo betrayed the young father, who reminded us about his family during the emotional dialogue. Sang-woo has been sketchy throughout the first five episodes, but this was the worst thing he had done. The sound of the gunshot was painful. Thankfully we did not have to see the blood spray from Ali.
Of course, perhaps the worst one was Gi-hun and Player 001. The old man was suffering with the brain tumor, but was winning the majority of the marble rounds. Gi-hun was becoming more frustrated and afraid with every failure, until the opportunity presented itself to him. Player 001, who had told Gi-hun that they were now gganbu, best friends in marble playing, could not remember what he had said and Gi-hun lied to him, manipulating him so he could start to win some. This became the continuous stretch as Gi-hun kept lying to him. Gi-hun told the story of his own guilt and fear on his face. When Player 001 had one remaining marble, he wandered off, forced Gi-hun to follow him.
They wound up in a house that Player 001 said was his old house, and then he asked why Gi-hun would be fooling him. The pain just flooded out of Gi-hun. Player 001 gave the remaining marble to him, accepting his fate. The last words from Player 001 was that he remembered his name and that it was Oh Il-nam. As Gi-hun walked away, we heard the fatal gunshot.
This was a painfully emotional episode. One of the best of the series and it really moved the story forward.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 