Daydream
Episode 2 of D.P. begins at the military hospital as Corporal Han is sent back to his unit. And right in the middle of a nice shower as well – of all the times! We’re 596 days away from Jun-Ho’s discharge and things are starting to heat up. Captain Lim has joined their ranks, and Sergeant Park is tasked with showing him the ropes. As the officers talk, they decide to add mountain running to their training too. However, there’s bigger problems to deal with given Jun-Ho is currently behind bars with the military police. Lashing out against a superior officer isn’t exactly looked kindly on here, although it falls to Jun-Ho’s old buddies to keep an eye on him. While they do, Ji-Seop decides to dismiss the superior officer, Sung-Woo, rather than Jun-Ho. Beom-Gu breaks the news to Jun-Ho but he’s still torn up over Woo-Suk’s death. Still, he’s let go and returned to his bunk. Sergeant Hwang only intensifies his berating though, until Corporal Han shows, having returned to the dorms fresh-faced and ready to work. Han sticks up for Jun-Ho too, with a different attitude and a more laidback, easygoing nature. However, they immediately have another case to deal with. This one happens to be a boy called Choi Jun-Mook. He was last seen at Incheon station but it’s been two months since then and no one really knows where he is. Han is not looking at this logically. After all, the deserter isn’t going to think rationally in this situation so neither should they. So Han decides they should put themselves in his shoes and try to trace his steps. Some of this comes from following a woman from Jun-Mook’s journal called Hye-Jeong. The journal proves to be very useful for the duo, as they follow the clues and get closer to finding Jun-Mook. It’s been 12 days since they left to try and find him but Beom-Gu is growing impatient. Well, Jun-Ho’s keen eye sees the pair realize that the boy is only moving late at night. It appears Jun-Mook is a “vampire” of sorts, falling asleep at random intervals. This explains why he ended up at the last stop at Incheon Station and why he was nearly struck by the train at the station too. Thanks to Jun-Ho’s wits, they manage to find the man and bring him back. Despite doing so, Jun-Ho is still haunted by the ghosts of his past.
The Episode Review
D.P. rolls round with another episode, this one surprisingly more comedic than the first. After such a brutal chapter to start things of, these moments of levity are certainly welcome. Not everyone in the army wants to be there, and these recruits are just counting down the days until thy get to leave. Seeing the hierarchy of the officers and their different values and ideas is a nice touch too and it ties in nicely with Jun-Ho and his guilt following Woo-Suk’s death. This chapter sees Jun-Ho and Han use their wits and intelligence to find the deserter and bring him back to the barracks. It’s a simple episodic romp but one that does well to actually show how all of this works. The ending does hint that we’ve got lots more drama to come though, leaving things wide open for the rest of the series.
