The Face Of Evil
Netflix’s latest Korean drama Abyss returns to the streaming platform today, picking up where it left off for Episode 3. Realizing that Oh Young-Cheol is back on the loose in a brand new body, Cha Min and Se-Yeon begin investigating further into the case. Within Young-Cheol’s notebook they find a specific reference to killing someone with his bare hands on a date that’s suspiciously similar to that of Se-Yeon’s death. However, before they get a chance to deliberate, Prosecutor Seo shows up to find Park Ki-Man only to find Oh Young-Cheol on the floor, motionless. While he’s taken in an ambulance to hospital, Dong-Cheo recognizes Se-Yeon and mistakes her for someone called Mi-do. Playing along, she gets him to drive them to the hospital where she sweet talks him into finding info on Oh Young-Cheol. Having told the doctors he’s Oh’s father, a few examinations later ultimately see him released again. While he leaves, we see a flashback of Park Ki-Man stabbed in the house before he slips away, undetected. Seemingly fooling everyone at the house, we cut back to Cha Min and Se-Yeon as they discuss the Abyss and its effect on dead people. On ill-advised plan involving a funeral later, they make a hasty retreat as Prosecutor Seo shows up at the hospital. Deciding to get something to eat, Se-Yeon and Cha Min find themselves in an all you can eat buffet where Se-Yeon ends up having one too many drinks. Failing to woo Cha Min after he carries her back home, she questions herself before falling asleep, leaving Cha min to deliberate over his own past. From here the rest of the episode turns its attention to Park Ki-Man who finds himself in hospital thanks to Cha Min and a rather unfortunate incident at a graveyard. As Cha Min, Se-yeon and Oh Young-Cheol turn to their own ways of finding Park, they convene in the hospital for the final act of the episode. We learn that Cha min caught up with Park Ki-Man before, telling him that Oh is the one who killed Se-Yeon. Having snuck away with Park, Oh Young-Cheol kills the driver of the car and winds up stabbing the detective outside in the alleyway. As the police arrive, he hightails it out of sight while Se-Yeon and Cha Min tend to Park’s injuries. However, Cha Min spots his fiance and chases after her while Prosecutor Seo chases Oh and finds out some pretty shocking home truths, leaving the episode on a big cliffhanger. It may not be the best Korean drama released this year (The Crowned Clown currently holds that title in my mind), there’s enough here to make for an interesting crime drama nonetheless. With little in the way of background around the strange magical orb, most of the episode relies heavily on its characters to drive the story forward. Quite what’s in store for our characters tomorrow is anyone’s guess but there’s enough here to keep you watching, even if it does feel like a show waiting to kick things into high gear. There’s certainly some good humour here though and that’s ultimately the one stand-out part of this Korean drama. There’s some legitimately funny moments and these work really well to offset the bleak and dark drama clutching to large parts of the series. Still, Abyss is shaping up to be an interesting one but let’s hope we get some answers around the Abyss soon!
