#pepi's beday rewatch

[pepi-nillo]

[the moment jw appears in the first episode with his fancy blue car] HEY CUNT

#reunion with my pathetic wet man <3 #hi girlieee <3 #this was my actual reaction btw i just love him #should i make a tag for this rewatch? #pepi's beday rewatch #there we go #beyond evil

[pepi-nillo]

the thing with hjw is that he could make valid questions or inquiries about a person, but he's easily swayed/manipulated. it happened in the first episodes when he asked han kihwan why he shut down yuyeon's case so fast, and dongsik did it too by just saying lee geumhwa's name.

and if you think about it, his logical thinking process is pretty good and led him where other people didn't even bother to look at. he connected the case at foreign affairs with manyang's cold case, he was right when he said minjeong's fingers were cut somewhere else and brought to ds' basement (and the butcher shop was a decent guess, though i wish he was less rash and thought more about the way he would do it, because then it wasn't the right place and he hurt someone and their business for nothing). his thinking process is all good and makes sense, the issue is what he does with those conclusions.

he was convinced that ds was involved in the case (he was, but not the way jw thought) and that clouded his judgment to the point it didn't matter if he was right before, because he led himself in the wrong direction.

basically i think he sucks at social interactions and can be downright cruel with other people, but his logic is pretty sound until he lets his personal feelings sway him, like his suspicion against ds. though post-hot girl winter guilt-ridden jw is a hundred times better

#at first he's SO frustrating and arrogant but he didn't come all this way by doing nothing #i'm glad he changed later on lol his way of getting things done was so dangerous #it actually *got* lethal ffs #he's as if someone went 'yeah this knife can be used to spread butter on bread' and then used it to drink soup #good conclusion terrible follow up #he's my favorite intelligently stupid person <3 #that's my little take on this little man #at least at the start of the show #beyond evil #han joowon #han juwon #pepi's beday rewatch

[pepi-nillo]

something that i love about beyond evil is that they don't try to make us understand or feel empathy for the killer, because we shouldn't even try to understand. i love jihwa's line in ep 9, where she says that people who take away lives don't deserve to be understood.

there's a line between sharing the story of criminal cases and downright glorifying the killers and trying to justify their actions, and i'm glad beyond evil never crosses that line. very respectful portrayal of victims

#they did such a good job at humanizing the victims #when in other pieces of media they're just a puzzle or a number #because i miss yuyeon and minjeong so much #i eat up fics where they're alive like no one's business #they're not just someone's sisters or daughters #they're their own human beings and i feel grief about their lives getting cut short #i mean it's all about preferences in what you like to see in the media you consume #there's nothing wrong in liking the other kind of media with puzzles and such #but this is what i like the most #the humanity of it all #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

it's interesting how BE's first scenes point towards dongsik as the culprit, since it's most likely reflecting what's written on the report. the argument with bang juseon at the live cafe and the "see you later" having a witness, yuyeon sneaking out at night and her reputation as the good daughter probably making people think he lured her out to kill her. all of that didn't help his case, but it does set out the audience to see it from jw's pov because this is the info he had on the case

#yes hello i started the rewatch and i will be annoying about it #i just love this storytelling #and i'm probably not making any sense but this is what i'm thinking rn #i'm doing a dongsik and jaeyi centric rewatch because i wanna see when and how she decides to cover for him #this is kinda obvious but i love pointing out the obvious so #beyond evil #lee dongsik #pepi's beday rewatch

[pepi-nillo]

hjw is still being annoying and even cruel about all of this, but he's right about one thing 😶 ds had all the reasons to not trust the country's law and he did as best as he could in his situation, but if he called the police when he found minjeong's fingers and they searched the house then the possibilities of finding her alive would've been higher than ds searching on his own. but i don't even wanna think about it, the guilt must be crushing him

#also it wasn't guaranteed that minjeong was still in the house #and if they didn't find her there then it would be back to square one #still this is the kind of thing you think about but never say out loud han juwon #i'm pretty sure ds doesn't need the reminder #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

"To be honest, I can't stand the sight of you. I can't see your face without being reminded of your father.

But I'm trying to tell myself this. You didn't do anything wrong, and I know what it's like to be blamed for something you didn't do. So please, stop doing things out of guilt"

PHEW OKAY let's go, all under the cut

personal opinion is that dongsik did mean what he said. under more normal circumstances he wouldn't have mentioned it in the first place, or at least not in the way he did it. the small pause before he says it kinda comes off as those things you told yourself to bury deep and leave them there, but the anger in that moment makes them come out almost on their own. ds was stressed and worried and it led him to be pretty harsh, but it doesn't feel like the things he used to say when he wanted to manipulate jw before. if he was doing that, i don't think he would've said the part about telling himself jw did nothing wrong, because that leaves him too open and that's not something you do when you're goading another person to do x thing (even if in this case he would be doing it to stop jw from throwing himself into danger), or at least it's not his style.

but maybe he knows it's exactly the kind of thing that would make jw listen to him even if it hurts and that's why he said it, that would make sense too, though for me it feels like he did mean those words and if it wasn't for jw putting his life in danger to protect him, he would have never said it. by the time he got out of the room and was talking to jihwa, he was calmer and thoroughly defended jw when jihwa implied he couldn't be trusted, but the things he never planned to say were already out.

that's why i think spending time away from each other was good for them. ds needed to get used to his new life after reaching the only goal he's been pursuing for 20 years. needed to get used to not being the local nutjob, to the fact that he (hopefully) wouldn't have to experience grief the way he was used to anymore. he needed to deentangle jw from his father, to stop seeing hkh in his face.

and jw needed to process everything too, his whole view of the world changed 180° and how to live without his father breathing down his neck. he needed to process and, as ds said, stop doing things out of guilt. i don't think he succeeded much in that last thing, but at least he started the process.

it's been stress, disaster and death ever since they met each other, and they needed time away to process all of that if they wanted to keep any kind of healthy relationship with each other. that's what i think anyway

#ds' line from the storybook 'han juwon. my savior who came to ruin my life' #i feel like it describes their relationship in canon so well #jw came in like a hurricane and unleashed a series of life changing events #and i feel like they deserve some time to settle down and learn how to exist again #i am in no way a professional to accurately explain their actions and stuff #but i drew these conclusions with what i picked up from their behavior #omg why did that sound like i'm trying to be posh #anyway this is yet another post of me analyzing some fictional men who i love #like dongsik knows how to read jw so well and how to say exactly what he needs to say #so i'm not 100% set on anything here #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go #beyond evil

[pepi-nillo]

the rain scene is perfect for ep 15 because we know exactly what kind of person jw is. i don't think it would've had that much of an impact if they did it sooner, and putting it in this episode means they still got two hours of screentime to wrap it all up.

even dongsik has pointed out that jw is not one to lie or say things he doesn't mean, we've seen that he's very prone to guilt and then do whatever he can to fix his mistakes. this is the highest phase of his character, the point of no-return the show has been preparing him for this entire time. he's made a grave mistake in repeatedly accusing dongsik when the sin actually came from his own family, so all he's got left is to fix this while being fully aware that he's going to ruin himself. he accepts and offers it to dongsik, even. "I will go to hell"

and i think this scene wouldn't have the same emotional impact if he had another kind of personality. if he was less annoyingly stubborn, we could've had some doubts if he'd back out or if he's just putting up a front; but even when jw did something seemingly "out of line" to their general goal, he was actually working towards that same goal in a different way (getting lee changjin out of questioning to hear his conversation with hkh, for example). once he sets his mind to something there's almost nothing that will move him from that path, and it really shows right here. it also works in his favor to convince dongsik to let him do the dirty work, because ds knows this about him and knows he's serious about it

#also there's that he looked absolutely devastated all drenched and crying #but you can see the moment dongsik gets what he's saying #there's that look on his face with apprehension but also attentive on what jw is saying #jw's flaws can also be his redeeming qualities #*head in hands* #THIS SHOW #AAAAAAAAAAA #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

i mean, how is hjw supposed not to be an absolute mess with a father like his. it's a family trait! han kihwan acts like nothing can move him, but all of this happened because he handled everything terribly wrong. he's just better at acting like he's above everyone else when his quest for "perfection" let him more flawed

#i hope he rots in prison #and then in hell #and then his reincarnation is a bug #and he's fried and then eaten #i could go on like this i just hate hkh #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

lee sangyeob really left a big impact on dongsik. first of all, watching the scene where ds finds minjeong's fingers in the basement is such an experience, ds getting more trauma stacked on top of his already existent and untreated trauma, the debate of what to do, his hands getting tied by the country's law and finally deciding to "make the indisputable evidence" pointing to jinmook... oh dear, what a perfect performance from shin hakyun

while the thing that hold him back from calling the police on kjm was his own words about the risk of the culprit going free without a corpse, what gave him the push to tamper with the scene were sangyeob's words of making the evidence to catch the killer. that was amazingly portrayed

is this why he asked sangyeob in his head how far was jw willing to go in that one scene? the way sangyeob and then dongsik did?

#let's think about the guy a lil bit #the loss and grief #the fact that ds couldn't even explain how he died when asked about it #but it's deeply ingrained in his mind #nam sangbae got demoted for defending ds wasn't he? #oh dear #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

i wonder what ds was gonna do if he didn't find jw being a little stalker the morning they found the fingers. would he leave jinmook to find them and catch him if he tried to hide them? or if the market is on his way to the substation, would ds have "found" them on his own?

also i'm getting really interested in outsiders' opinion of ds, jw and everything that's going on

#was he counting on jw's stalker ways? #i really wonder what would have happened #also i started taking note on the oursiders' opinion and i think it's very interesting #they're often mentioned in passing but i'm taking notes #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch

[pepi-nillo]

it's kinda sad to see hyuk being happy that jw is in the commissioner general hearing. imagine all the strings he must've pulled to get him there, he actually sounded like an older brother. sorry hyuk, but it had to be done lol

#also the ensuing conversation about how jw has both hyuk and hkh in the palm of his hand... interesting #but still it's so sad he didn't see it coming #or did he #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

something i'm trying to make sense is about the burner phone hjw gave to lee geumhwa, or actually about dongsik's actions with it. he finds the hidden phone while searching for minjeong, he takes it and then plants it somewhere hoping to incriminate jinmook. he had to take the gamble that it would be connected to the case, because at this point he had no idea about the phone's history, and he got the surprise that it connected to jw. i don't think he turned it on or searched it in any way, because jw showed him lee geumhwa's messages later on and ds doesn't seem to have read them before. but what would've happened if it tied back to kjm? him and minjeong lived together so it's logical that it had traces of him, and it ended up being useful to hold it over jw's head and get him to back off as he was getting investigated, but why did he do it in the first place? there's 100% something i'm missing here, i guess i'll have to start another rewatch soon lmao

#my brain is not being useful rn so i'll have to come back to this later #is it because jaeyi's mom went missing there? #or he just needed a place where it was almost guaranteed only the police would find it? #why why why #or was it because no one has seen the phone before and it would be suspicious to have a burner phone with kjm's traces on it #even if he didn't know it actually had lee geumhwa's dna on it #hmmmm #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

i find interesting how we don't see the victims' faces in the flashbacks when they're interrogating kjm, just their silhouettes, hands and feet (just like his m.o., tied hands and feet). it's such a contrast to other people's memories of them, faces smiling and lively

it's as if he didn't see them as people, just something lesser that annoyed him instead

#i'm so mad he didn't get prosecuted #but at least i hope he's rotting in hell #the cinematic choices in this drama are amazing #and i don't mean to give any attention to kjm but i thought the way they showed it was very clever #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

i love the way they staged dongsik's house, functional but cluttered. looks like a family home but only seeing ds there gives it the feeling that ghosts of the past are still around, that they haven't moved on yet

#what catches my attention is the wheelchair #it talks about that period before his mom got into the care facility #the staff did such a good job #and that house is very pretty #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go

[pepi-nillo]

"clean your nails and go straight home"? that means kjm was either open in his disgust against nail art, or at least it was noticeable enough for ds to point it out this way. i mean, minjeong was either still drunk or hangover, but the nails are important enough to get a mention here. foreshadowing!!

#be is so careful even with the tiniest details #i literally jumped when he said this #oh i wonder how many times has ds laid down and started thinking about all the signals he missed #how his family had taken in a monster #i feel like this line says so much #it really caught my attention #beyond evil #pepi's beday rewatch

[pepi-nillo]

ep 15 at the fish noodle soup restaurant drives me CRAZY they could've just implied they met up to smooth things before the hearing and moved on, but they showed their conversation, ds convincing jw to eat, finally sitting down after spending tiring months of being at each other's throats. a scene to just exist and smile in each other's company and literally the calm before the storm

#i just love beyond evil scenes that don't do much for the plot but do wonders for their characters #and for us!! this scene is so comforting #it's a nice change of pace #the lighting the vibes all of it #i love this scene sm #pepi's beday rewatch #to the queue you go