Blind: Episodes 15-16 (Final)
by mistyisles
The time has come to uncover the full truth, mete out justice, and bring the case to a close so our characters can try to move on with their lives. But “justice” isn’t always clearly defined, and motives can’t always justify the means.
EPISODES 15-16 WEECAP
Sung-joon takes some time to process his newly restored memories, piecing together all the times Sung-hoon “helped” with his investigation. Now that help just looks like interference.
We’re so used to seeing Sung-joon’s angry outbursts that it’s almost scary how quietly he simmers as he confronts Yoon-jae. He deduces that Yoon-jae’s fears of being betrayed mean Sung-hoon is his accomplice, and by the way Yoon-jae’s face hardens, he’s right.
But Sung-joon can’t bring himself to outright confront Sung-hoon immediately. Instead, he makes it clear to Sung-hoon that he knows and privately advises Eun-ki to move out ASAP.
Meanwhile, Bae PD meets with Sung-joon’s mother and Ki-nam at a fancy restaurant, where they bribe him to bury the Hope Welfare story again. He takes the bribe and hands over his footage, and is murdered in an alley on the way home.
While investigating the murder, Sung-joon finds a hidden camera in the restaurant that caught the whole exchange. The camera was planted there by Sung-hoon, who orchestrated the rendezvous to back his mother and Ki-nam into a corner. However, though Sung-joon doesn’t find out until later, Ki-nam was the one who ordered the hit on Bae PD.
And that’s a pretty good summation of the truth behind the Joker Killer case: Sung-hoon was the mastermind of it all, but though his plans didn’t originally involve murder, especially of innocents, murder was the outcome. Initially, Sung-hoon planned to punish each offender according to their crimes against the Hope Welfare children, and then Yoon-jae added his own flair. Take Tae-ho for example: Sung-hoon wanted him to be rescued, but Yoon-jae moved his location to make it more difficult — or as he said, more fun.
Still, even if Sung-hoon didn’t want innocent people to die, he did ultimately give Yoon-jae the go-ahead on multiple murders, only reining him in when he took things “too far.” Helping restore Sung-joon’s memories — thereby jeopardizing The Plan — is apparently beyond too far. Sung-hoon visits Yoon-jae a final time to declare him a lost cause.
Then he moves on to his next target: his and Sung-joon’s father. Immediately upon Hope Welfare’s shutdown, Sung-hoon submitted a petition to the judge who is now his adoptive father, begging him to punish their tormentors. Which, of course, never happened. That would be bad enough, but the judge was also among the men who participated in the sexual exploitation of Yoon-jung and the other Hope Welfare girls.
Sung-hoon has Sung-joon listen over the phone while he confronts their father about it. Their father isn’t remorseful, preferring to keep his and his wife’s reputations intact. By the time Sung-joon arrives on the scene, he has to tackle their father to keep him from shooting Sung-hoon with a rifle.
After handcuffing their father, Sung-joon turns to Sung-hoon. When Sung-hoon confirms that Sung-joon was never more than a pawn to him, all of Sung-joon’s pent-up rage comes bursting out. He punches Sung-hoon in the face over and over, and then collapses beside him.
Eun-ki visits Sung-hoon as he awaits his trial, devastated by his involvement with Yoo-na’s killer. She tells him sternly that no matter what he suffered, he has no right to choose who lives and who dies, intending to show him it’s possible to achieve justice without harming others. To that end, she organizes an exhibition of artwork by the Hope Welfare victims to tell their story. Sung-joon, meanwhile, throws himself into arresting those involved in Hope Welfare.
Now abandoned, Yoon-jae goes looking for Moon-kang in prison. They both have makeshift weapons prepared, and kill each other in one last showdown. Both Sung-hoon and Charles attempt suicide upon hearing the news, but only Sung-hoon is found in time to be saved.
Once he’s sufficiently recovered, he requests a jury trial. He’s represented by another former Hope Welfare victim, now an attorney, who reached out to Eun-ki on seeing her exhibition. (That same man goes on to help Eun-ki file a lawsuit on behalf of the surviving Hope Welfare victims.)
At the trial, Sung-hoon’s defense is his own story. He describes the terrible things done to him and the others, particularly the heartbreak of finding Yoon-jung’s body, which was the catalyst for his revenge plot. When Sung-joon is called to the witness stand, he confirms how many people died from Sung-hoon’s revenge and describes how Sung-hoon manipulated him with false memories. He adds pointedly that it’s natural to want your abusers to pay — but plenty of people accomplish that without resorting to murder.
Sung-hoon’s closing comments are another confession: he asked for a jury not to plead innocence, but to tell his story to the world. Looking Sung-joon directly in the eye, he apologizes sincerely for everything. He’s sentenced to prison for life.
Sung-joon visits Sung-hoon after the sentencing, but sits staring at him until their time is up. Finally, just as Sung-hoon stands to go, Sung-joon offers a small but heartfelt wish for him to escape the past. The prison hallway isn’t all that different from Hope Welfare, but at the end, Sung-hoon pushes open the gate with his own hands and walks through.
Later, Sung-joon watches Eun-ki work with a young sports team at her center. He pictures the Hope Welfare kids in their place, wondering how their lives might have turned out differently if they’d had someone like Eun-ki to stand up for them.
I knew Sung-hoon’s betrayal would crush Sung-joon, but it still broke my heart the way Sung-joon looked at him with so much pain. I thought the mixture of compassion for Sung-hoon’s suffering and condemnation of how he took it out on undeserving people like Sung-joon was really well done, both in the storytelling and in Taecyeon’s acting (and Eun-ji’s as well).
Like Sung-joon, I found myself wrestling with how to respond to Sung-hoon being the ultimate mastermind. I wanted him to be mostly innocent — for all the really terrible things to have been solely Yoon-jae’s doing — and part of me still doesn’t believe his claim that he never cared about Sung-joon at all. But overlooking his crimes isn’t unlike giving people involved in Hope Welfare a pass because they were kind and loving to their own children at home.
I was a little afraid to say this before it was over (I didn’t want to jinx it!), but Blind has earned a spot among my top K-dramas for the year, and probably my top thrillers of all time. It never lost sight of the story it was telling, and I’m not left with any lingering questions or complaints. Rather, I kind of want to re-watch the whole thing with full perspective.
And while I love a heart-pounding finale, I’m glad Blind chose to spend this time on closure instead of last-minute twists or contrived drama. It emphasizes Eun-ki’s point that justice and healing are accomplished through patient, persistent effort — not climactic face-offs.
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Source: Buzz Pinay Daily
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