Showtime Begins!: Episodes 5-6

by mistyisles

When past events come back to light, the newly forged partnership between our magician and police officer is tested to the breaking point. Will truth and trust prevail, or is it already time for them to part ways?

EPISODES 5-6 WEECAP

This week is all about partnership. And what better way to drive that home than to feature a case-of-the-week involving a boy and his dog? After outsmarting Cha-woong during one of his rare non-ghost-powered magic tricks, not only does the (ghost) dog partner with our team to catch the bad guys, but he also sticks around, even after justice has been done, until his collar can be found and delivered to his owner for a proper farewell – loyal to the end and beyond.

But that case is really just a side plot: the partnership at stake is the newly emerging one between Seul-hae and Cha-woong. And the problem is that their families’ connection is discovered.

Cha-woong is the first to learn about it. When Seul-hae shows him her father’s urn, Cha-woong regonizes him at once from the photo. She clocks his reaction, but figures he just saw her father’s face on the news and proceeds to angrily explain about the “quack shaman” who intervened in police business and got her father killed.

Cha-woong hesitantly points out that said shaman was released on lack of evidence, but she’s heard the details from her father’s partner, the police chief (who’s also Hee-soo’s father), and nothing could convince her it’s not the truth.

Except, it’s not entirely true. As Cha-woong knows, her father and his grandfather were well-acquainted – in fact, they considered themselves partners of sorts – and her father specifically asked the shaman to accompany him that night.

What neither of them knows is that the Full Moon Killer was possessed by an evil spirit, and both the shaman and Seul-hae’s father expended all their strength to draw the spirit out and imprison it in a bottle. But someone did interfere – the police chief, who first created a disturbance – forcing them to act before they were ready – and then was too petrified to help them, ultimately giving the killer time to regain his senses and kill Seul-hae’s father.

While Cha-woong is wrestling with his new-but-still-partial knowledge, the magic show producer decides to pair him with a celebrity for one of the episodes. But when the idol singer Aris shows up to practice, she’s weirdly uninterested in the magic stuff and weirdly insistent that he try the instant coffee she brought with her, dropping it in his bag when he declines.

Then, on the day of the show, she’s nowhere to be found. In desperation, the producer grabs the nearest acquaintance of Cha-woong’s, and of course it’s Seul-hae. That’s lucky, though, because she knows about the ghosts and only has to be told where to stand and to let them do all the work.

Together, they perform a fun number with a split-second costume change, floating tricks, and Ah-reum dancing Seul-hae around like a marionette. But then while Dong-chul carries her through the air, she waves her limbs too much (downside of not being able to see him), and he drops her.

Fortunately, Cha-woong manages to lunge forward and catch her, and somehow pulls it off like it was planned. It’s very smooth and romantic, and further convinces Seul-hae that they make a perfect team.

Their teamwork is further put to the test when Hee-soo’s case-of-the-week catches up to them. He’s been investigating a drug ring involving a number of big names and celebrities, including (you guessed it) Aris. They’re also the dog-killers, and Ah-reum spots their ringleader while she’s out walking the ghost dog.

She uses a nearby mirror to get Seul-hae’s attention, and Seul-hae tails him to the gang’s hideout, where she’s ambushed in the process of calling for backup. But, fortunately, Ah-reum tagged along, and she calls Cha-woong.

He comes bursting in like a full-on action hero, declaring confidently that he’s Seul-hae’s partner and getting in a few well-aimed kicks… with the help of his employees, of course.

A brawl ensues, with the ghosts and Seul-hae all doing their part (my favorite bit was Sang-goon sitting in a chair and tripping each person as they pass) and the General channeling his energy to fight using Cha-woong’s body. They’re hugely outnumbered, though, and are only saved by Hee-soo’s arrival in the nick of time.

Incidentally, Hee-soo has also learned about Cha-woong’s connection to the old shaman. By the time he decides to tell Seul-hae, she’s already seen a picture of the shaman in Cha-woong’s house, and Hee-soo’s confirmation is the last puzzle piece she needs.

When she confronts Cha-woong about it, they both end up hurt: him because she won’t even try to listen to the side of the story he knows, and her because he lashes out when the pain of his own past is brought up.

And that brings me to my favorite development this week: the ghosts make contact. For several episodes now, we’ve seen Seul-hae and the ghosts attempt to communicate with each other in small ways, to varying degrees of success. But that started to majorly shift when Ah-reum took the initiative to signal Seul-hae about the dog-killer, and after Cha-woong and Seul-hae have their fight, the General decides it’s time to take matters into his own hands like never before.

He first goes to Seul-hae’s house to try to talk to her, which is painfully and hilariously awkward as he finds ways to answer her questions and struggles to type his message on her laptop. So then he enlists Ah-reum, who engineers a device that renders ghost speech into a frequency that’s audible to human ears.

Since the General was present ten years ago on the night her father died, he’s able to tell her the whole truth. Having already realized that she’s been listening only to her own preconceived biases, Seul-hae is struck by remorse, and she and Cha-woong talk it out once the General explains everything to him, too.

I really appreciate both how quickly the misunderstanding is cleared up and the way it’s addressed. Both Seul-hae and Cha-woong are able to understand why the other felt and reacted as they did. Both of them apologize, and no one person is blamed for the falling out or burdened with doing all the work to make up.

And that, I would say, is what truly enables them to finally agree to be partners. They’re not just working toward a common goal anymore; they’re on equal footing. They’ve come to understand and accept each other’s point of view, and now they’re both willing to put in equal effort – whether that be applied to chasing down criminals or owning their own faults.

And good thing, too, because the Full Moon Killer is back in action, and has zeroed in on Seul-hae’s heavenly energy like it’s a homing beacon.

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Showtime Begins!: Episodes 5-6