Link: Eat, Love, Kill: Episodes 3-4

by quirkycase

Our leads become increasingly entangled in each other’s lives this week. Or, more accurately, our chef gets drawn further into his new neighbor’s hectic (and hazardous) life. Adding to the intrigue, there’s a suspicious new arrival in town with connections to a certain stalker and a local blackmailer who’s looking to put out a hit on someone. This neighborhood is a lot.

EPISODES 3-4 WEECAP

Caught red-handed peeking in Gye-hoon’s (empty) fridge, Da-hyun stammers out an obvious lie. Gye-hoon calls her out but lets her leave after telling her he may just be an ally. Now that the body is gone, Da-hyun’s family has an even bigger problem. Who took it? Or could the stalker still be alive?

Da-hyun and her family are extra jumpy, afraid to open fridges and scattering whenever a police car drives by. Of course, their squirrely behavior just makes Min-jo more determined to figure out what they’re hiding. Unfortunately for them, she’s also taken an interest in the recent murder case that seems related to the stalker.

An older neighborhood cop is convinced that the primary suspect in Gye-young’s disappearance is responsible for this recent murder. The suspect was turned in by his young son who saw him covered in blood the day Gye-young went missing, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. The man is now homeless, still living in the neighborhood. When Gye-hoon comes face to face with him, he vows to kill him if he finds evidence that the man killed Gye-young.

Meanwhile, Gye-hoon’s link with Da-hyun is getting more disruptive. She has nightmares every night about the trauma, and Gye-hoon experiences them along with her. After they meet on the street coincidentally, both getting drinks, it becomes a nightly tradition.

Gye-hoon cooks and they share drinks, becoming more comfortable with each other. She’s curious about his surprising care toward her, so he shares that he owed someone five meals – he might be using Da-hyun as a substitute.

In a flashback, we learn that Gye-young had written Gye-hoon a letter right before she went missing; he didn’t receive it until after she was gone. She’d had a few requests, including five meals, as repayment for Gye-hoon ratting her out in typical sibling fashion.

Worried that Da-hyun will misinterpret his actions, he makes her promise not to like him no matter how well he treats her. So, of course, she starts liking him. Da-hyun gets a little too comfortable and proves just how unsuited to criminality she is: she confesses to Gye-hoon that she murdered someone.

Gye-hoon is flabbergasted, more at her complete lack of secrecy than the murder. Da-hyun quickly realizes how bad of an idea confessing was and decides the best way to ensure his silence is to threaten to kill him if he talks. HA.

Despite how much of a disaster she is, Gye-hoon still lets her work at his restaurant. Da-hyun had been studying for the civil service exam to make her mom happy, but she knows she’s not cut out for it. She has a huge fight with her mom about wanting to live her own life and for now, that means working at Gye-hoon’s restaurant.

Da-hyun isn’t the only new hire at the restaurant, though. A sketchy young woman comes to town and is hired on as a chef. LEE EUN-JUNG (Lee Bom) is looking for her little brother, the stalker. She assumes Da-hyun is his girlfriend from the social media posts and cozies up to her for information, thinking she has something to do with his disappearance.

Eun-jung even showed a photo of her brother to Bok-hee and halmeoni, but they didn’t recognize him. Da-hyun’s coworker alerts her to the fact that a family member is looking for the stalker, but Da-hyun doesn’t realize it’s Eun-jung.

While Da-hyun frets about this latest development, Bok-hee and halmeoni have a new problem of their own. A neighbor saw them stuff the stalker’s body in the fridge and is now blackmailing them to keep silent. The kicker? In return, she wants them to off her abusive husband.

But that might not be necessary. I haven’t yet introduced another newcomer to town who arrived when Gye-hoon did. JI WON-TAK (Song Deok-ho) is a cop who has been stationed in Jihwa. He and Min-jo are exes and, awkwardly, now partners.

Won-tak is also sketchy (who isn’t here?), and there’s this anger under the surface that’s concerning. He’s very protective of Min-jo, despite her constant warnings to him not to interfere. They cross paths with the abuser a couple times, and he’s always disrespectful to Min-jo. Each time, Min-jo has to stop Won-tak from becoming physical.

One night, Won-tak goes out dressed in the universal stealth suit (all black with a baseball cap, naturally). He gives the abuser a vicious beatdown in an alley and leaves him looking almost dead. Yeesh. Gye-hoon happens by and greets Won-tak as he tries to sneak off. Gye-hoon takes in the stealth suit and the blood on Won-tak’s hand.

As luck would have it, Da-hyun and family end up finding the abuser unconscious. And that’s when the cops show up. To make matters worse, they each happen to be holding a utensil that also doubles as a weapon: a shovel, a rolling pin, and a hammer. So off to the station they go. Thankfully, the still-alive abuser confirms that his attacker was male, so the women are released.

It’s a miracle the whole neighborhood doesn’t know what they did yet. Da-hyun especially is a terrible liar and can’t keep her story straight. At one point, in Gye-hoon’s restaurant, Jin-hoo notices that one of their expensive knives went missing (which is oddly in one of the neighborhood ajumma’s possession). Gye-hoon’s eyes cut over to Da-hyun who blurts out, in front of Jin-hoo and Eun-jung, that she didn’t do it with a knife. HA. She’s going to give Gye-hoon a heart attack from the stress of watching her flail.

Meanwhile, Jin-hoo is worried about Gye-hoon and decides to get some answers. He collects hair samples from Da-hyun and Gye-hoon (by ripping it from their heads) and sends them off for DNA testing. As expected, the results are negative.

Jin-hoo shows Gye-hoon who admits he already knew but was lying to himself. He wanted his family to be whole and happy again, even though he knows that’s just an unrealistic dream.

He and Da-hyun do, however, have a past connection. She also grew up in the neighborhood and had a crush on him after he saved her from bullies, which led her to believe he liked her too. She didn’t realize he was actually protecting Gye-young who was standing beside her.

Now, Gye-hoon has decided it’s time to come back to reality. He can feel Da-hyun’s feelings for him through the link and confronts her about it, saying he only acted out of sympathy and no longer plans to be so involved.

Still, he can’t help but warn her when he makes a startling realization. Gye-hoon had seen the wrapped body in the fridge (not knowing it was a body) before it disappeared. At the same time, one of his knives went missing. He concludes the stalker wasn’t dead – he escaped.

Da-hyun is skeptical, wondering why he didn’t come after her. In voiceover, Gye-hoon says they’d later discover the stalker was hit by a taxi on his way to her family’s restaurant. At the end of the episode, as they stand in the street, the stalker suddenly lunges from the shadows and grabs Da-hyun by the throat.

So… that was jarring. I’m half wondering if this is in Da-hyun’s imagination. The camera angles throughout the episodes did suggest someone spying on Da-hyun and Gye-hoon, but still. Given how shady this neighborhood is, it really could’ve been anyone.

Won-tak is almost as concerning as the stalker and may himself be a stalker. Did he come to town for Min-jo? Or is he also connected to the past? I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the son who turned his father in for Gye-young’s disappearance.

I think Gye-hoon is going to have his hands full in this neighborhood, what with solving his sister’s disappearance and trying to make sure Da-hyun doesn’t accidentally give herself up. Although at least now she’s not facing a murder charge. Silver lining, I guess?

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Link: Eat, Love, Kill: Episodes 3-4