recaps discussion news cast 380 December 10, 2018December 10, 2018 Memories of the Alhambra Episode 4 The more our gaming investor gets immersed into the “augmented reality” game, the more he begins to notice that all in the game is not as it seems. The program was created to merge game and reality, and at first, Jin-woo is excited by the possibilities. But what happens if the lines between game and reality become so blurred that it’s difficult to discern which is which? EPISODE 4 RECAP In her hotel room in Granada, Hyung-seok’s wife also Jin-woo’s ex-wife Soo-jin wakes and finds herself still alone in bed. She grows worried when she sees that Hyung-seok hasn’t checked his messages, and he’s not answering her calls, either. His secretary tells Soo-jin that he’ll look for Hyung-seok. She can’t stop thinking about Hyung-seok asking her about running into Jin-woo, which also reminds her of an argument she once witnessed between Hyung-seok and his father. Hyung-seok had yelled that he’d never come back, adding, “Who would think you’re actually my father? Only when Jin-woo dies…” In another memory, Soo-jin and Jin-woo stand in the rain, Soo-jin crying as Jin-woo asks her in a voice devoid of emotion, “Shouldn’t I be the one crying?” Yet another scene shows Hyung-seok smashing a glass of wine against the wall, scaring Soo-jin, then telling her that she’s the only person in the world who understands him. Last night, Hyung-seok had called Soo-jin after leaving their room to tell her he was meeting someone, but he wouldn’t say who. She guesses that he went to see Jin-woo, so she gets his phone number from her sister. In the early hours of the morning, Hyung-seok is found sitting on the same bench where Jin-woo left him, dead. Hee-joo’s grandmother has a nightmare that their new windfall was stolen, so she wakes Hee-joo and frantically tells her to check the bank account. Hee-joo groans that Jin-woo is too famous to be a con man, until Grandma yells that all con men seem trustworthy. Thankfully the money is all still there. Grandma grows tearful, telling Hee-joo that she knows how hard things have been for her, and they hug and sob with happiness. In a great mood, Hee-joo invites the hostel guests to help themselves to the sirloin and alcohol in the fridge, on the house. She drives Min-joo to school, cheerfully turning away reservation inquiries about the hostel, which she says will be shutting down soon. She even decides to splurge on a new van once Se-joo returns from his trip. She heads to work at the guitar shop, stopping to buy a huge armful of flowers on the way, just because she can. She thinks about Jin-woo’s advice to start playing guitar again and wonders how he knew she played. When someone walks into the shop, the last person Hee-joo expects to see is Jin-woo himself, and she drops her phone in surprise. He picks it up to see that she’s been watching videos of him online, ha. He’s vague about his reasons for being back in Granada so soon, and he tells Hee-joo that he needs her help with something. He leads to to his taxi waiting on the curb, and Hee-joo’s friend Sang-bum, who was on his way to visit her, sees them leave together. Jin-woo tells Hee-joo that he needs a translator, and she chirps that she’ll even do it for free now that she’s rich. He gives her an odd stare, amazed at how much one day and ten billion won have changed her. She says she was joking as he finally tells her curtly that he’s back because someone died, effectively killing all conversation. He takes Hee-joo to where Soo-jin is staying, quickly outlining that the deceased, his wife, and her sister were on a trip when Hyung-seok was found dead. He accidentally calls Soo-jin “my wife,” so he explains to Hee-joo that Soo-jin was his wife first. Evidently, Soo-jin fainted and a doctor was called, but there’s a language barrier, which is why Hee-joo is needed. Soo-kyung bursts into tears as soon as she lays eyes on Jin-woo. He goes to Soo-jin’s room where she’s sleeping in bed, one hand curled protectively over her pregnant belly. Jin-woo volunteers to go to the hospital and find out what he can about Hyung-seok, planning to leave Hee-joo behind to translate. But Soo-jin wakes and asks Jin-woo what he and Hyung-seok talked about last night “What did you say to him that he ended up dead?!”. She seems half out of her mind as she cries that she sensed something bad would happen after seeing Jin-woo at the train station. She accuses Jin-woo of wanting this to happen, screaming at him and demanding to know what he said to Hyung-seok. She wails that Hyung-seok cried every day, wanting to reconcile with Jin-woo, and that they weren’t always happy. Jin-woo doesn’t react at all as Soo-kyung drags Soo-jin back into the bedroom. Instead, he asks Hee-joo if Sang-bum is her boyfriend. She says he’s just a friend, and Jin-woo tells her not to get married, because he’s done it twice and he can assure her that it sucks. After he leaves, Hee-joo recalls him telling Sang-bum that his first wife left him for his best friend. She puts the pieces together and figures out that Soo-jin is the wife who left him, and that her deceased husband must have been Jin-woo’s friend. Secretary Seo is already at the hospital when Jin-woo arrives. He tells Jin-woo that he actually jogged right past the park this morning and had recognized Hyung-seok. He’d been the one to identify Hyung-seok’s body, and he says there was nothing to indicate violence so the police are assuming he had a heart attack or something similar. Jin-woo is allowed to view the body, and he thinks about the last time he saw Hyung-seok, as he was “killing” him in the game. Afterward, he’s introduced to the Korean consul, who tells him that the police want to talk to him since he was the last person Hyung-seok called. He’s quick to reassure Jin-woo that they don’t suspect him of anything since there’s no evidence of foul play. Jin-woo tells the consul that he did see Hyung-seok last night just before his flight out of Spain, and he says that he’ll answer any questions they have for him. He tells Director Park on the phone later that it’s best if he’s honest, and Director Park advises him to be back in Seoul before the articles about Hyung-seok’s death are released. But Jin-woo decides to stay in Granada a bit longer, ignoring Director Park’s concerns about how it will look if he stays. After they hang up, Yang-joo tells Director Park that after the fight last night, Jin-woo said that he “completely destroyed” Hyung-seok, finding his wording disturbing. He’s worried that Jin-woo used physical violence on Hyung-seok while playing the game, which could get him in trouble for assault or even murder if discovered. The consul had told Jin-woo that the doctor who examined Hyung-seok’s body found something strange — that despite the lack of external trauma, Hyung-seok’s body seems to have been drained of blood. The consul said that it’s unlikely, but and this might turn into a murder case and they planned to do an autopsy. As Jin-woo sits at an outdoor cafe mulling everything over, he spots a man playing a guitar nearby. He ignores Secretary Seo advising him to go back to Korea right away, instead asking Secretary Seo the name of the song the guitarist is playing the same one Emma was playing in the game. Secretary Seo recognizes it as “Memories of the Alhambra,” a song that only experienced guitarists are able to play. Secretary Seo goes to put some money in the guitarist’s case and listen to him finish the song. When he turns back, Jin-woo is gone. He ends up at the last place he saw Hyung-seok, where they dueled last night. He puts his smart lenses in, logs on, and looks around, and in the game Hyung-seok’s lifeless body is still sitting on the bench. There’s so much blood that it’s certainly plausible that Hyung-seok died of blood loss in the game, but that doesn’t explain how he lost enough blood to kill him when there wasn’t a scratch on him in reality. Jin-woo reaches out, but Hyung-seok’s body glitches and flickers when he tries to touch it. He recalls Soo-jin’s accusation that he wanted Hyung-seok to die, how Hyung-seok had looked haggard when he called him out to duel, and how he’d called Hyung-seok a coward and a traitor. Suddenly, the game alerts Jin-woo to an enemy nearby. He sees that Hyung-seok’s body is gone, but when he whirls around, a bloody Hyung-seok is standing in front of him. Hyung-seok attacks, but Jin-woo manages to pull out his sword and slash him for a critical hit. Hyung-seok falls, defeated; then disappears. Jin-woo gains Hyung-seok’s experience points again, which boost him back up to level four. In Korea, Yang-joo learns that the tabloids are already reporting Hyung-seok’s death. Jin-woo calls to tell him that the game somehow turned Hyung-seok’s image and stats into an NPC non-player character, and he asks Yang-joo to find out if it’s a game function or if Se-joo is somehow messing with him. Jin-woo gets a call from an employee at Granada Station asking if he left a bag on the train yesterday. He says that he didn’t take the train, then realizes that she’s talking about the train that Se-joo never disembarked from, so he says he’ll come pick up “his” bag. That evening, Hee-joo talks to Sang-bum on the phone while making porridge to take to Soo-jin. Sang-bum finds it odd that Jin-woo would get Hee-joo involved in taking care of his ex-wife. He thinks it’s suspicious that someone as rich as Jin-woo would buy a run-down old hostel, thinking that Jin-woo is trying to seduce Hee-joo. On Hee-joo’s end, Jin-woo hears Sang-bum on speaker phone and says that that’s not his intention, but he does admit to having an ulterior motive. He thanks Hee-joo sincerely for making Soo-jin porridge, then asks to borrow her computer. He frowns at it and asks if she’s got one with better specs, and when she mentions her brother’s much nicer computer, Jin-woo asks to use that one instead. He casually asks after Se-joo, but Hee-joo says that he’s late coming home from a trip and she’s not sure where he is. She tells Jin-woo that Se-joo will be thrilled to hear who bought the hostel, and warns him that Se-joo’s room isn’t exactly clean. Grandma goes nuts when she sees Jin-woo, even grabbing him in an impulsive hug against his will. She thanks him for his generosity, hugging him over and over again until Hee-joo manages to peel her away. Min-joo asks Jin-woo point-blank why he’s divorcing the famed actress Go Yu-ra, so he quickly escapes to Se-joo’s room. It’s a pigsty, but Jin-woo is only interested in the computer and the notes and drawings all over the walls. He borrows Hee-joo’s phone, surprised when she just hands it over without any worry that he’ll snoop through it, then gives her a look that clearly says, “Thanks, you’re dismissed.” As soon as Hee-joo leaves, Jin-woo locks the door and gets to work. He checks her text messages to see if Se-joo has said anything interesting, taking screenshots and sending them to himself. He’d picked up Se-joo’s bag earlier, proof that Se-joo intended to go home, but it’s a mystery why he never got off the train and left his bag behind. He’d called Director Park, who speculated that someone was chasing Se-joo, and based on the things Se-joo said on the phone, Jin-woo wondered if it was Hyung-seok who was after him. Flipping through a notebook, Jin-woo finds a note in Se-joo’s handwriting mentioning someone named Marco. He gets on the computer, and the real research begins. He’s in there for quite a while, and when he returns Hee-joo’s phone, he warns her not to let anyone borrow it or they might take advantage of her. With a smile, she thanks him for his concern, which throws him off a little. He stares at her for a long, charged moment, then grins and grumbles that she’s asking for trouble. He tells her, a little sadly, “Don’t trust me too much. I’m not as decent as you think. I’m worried you might hate me someday.” On his way up to his room, Jin-woo calls “A” to ask him to find out what he can about this Marco from Se-joo’s notes. He tells A that Se-joo is missing, and A asks if Jin-woo thinks Hyung-seok’s death is related to the game. Jin-woo says that he needs to find out why Se-joo turned down the ten billion won offer from Hyung-seok, because the reason may indicate that Se-joo is in trouble. As he lies in bed, he wonders if Director Park was right, that he should have waited until Se-joo returned to sign a deal. He takes a call from Professor Cha, Hyung-seok’s father, who says wearily that he’s on his way to Spain now. Jin-woo asks if he’s coming alone, and Professor Cha says yes, that he “doesn’t need that woman” anyway, and that she’s probably happy about the Hyung-seok’s death. He asks if Jin-woo saw Hyung-seok, and Jin-woo says he did, and that there were no visible wounds on his body, so they’re doing an autopsy. Professor Cha says that Hyung-seok was drinking a lot and wasn’t sleeping before he left for Spain, and that he recently threw a drunken tantrum at his father. Jin-woo hangs up as it begins to storm, but the rain doesn’t seem quite natural as Jin-woo looks out the window. There’s a knock on his door, and at first Jin-woo can’t see his visitor’s face — until a flash of lightning reveals Hyung-seok, still bloody and holding his sword. Keeping calm, Jin-woo turns away to get his phone and call Yang-joo. He quickly tells Yang-joo to check his monitor and find out how this new Hyung-seok NPC can show up whenever he wants, but Hyung-seok swings his sword and slashes Jin-woo’s arm, interrupting him. Jin-woo drops the phone, writhing in real pain, and Hyung-seok swings again, this time connecting with his abdomen. Jin-woo manages to avoid Hyung-seok’s next few attacks, stumbling out to the landing as he finally summons his sword. He counters Hyung-seok’s attacks, but Hyung-seok pushes him until he’s bent backwards over the railing, nothing between him and the floor six stories down. Hee-joo is down in her office when she gets a call from an unidentified number. She listens to what the caller has to say then goes to the lobby to look up the stairwell, but she doesn’t see anything. She heads up to the sixth floor, getting about halfway up before something heavy falls past her. Suddenly terrified, Hee-joo slowly looks down, then up to the sixth floor. She calls out to Jin-woo in a scared voice, then looks back down to see Jin-woo’s body lying on the lobby floor. COMMENTS I know I ask this a lot, what, WHAT the heck is happening?? How did Jin-woo manage to kill Hyung-seok in the game when he himself suffered no ill effects from their duel? How is the game reviving Hyung-seok and sending him after Jin-woo over and over again, even when Jin-woo isn’t logged in? Was it Jin-woo that fell it looked like Jin-woo in his white shirt, in which case, oh noooo? And most importantly, why is all this happening?! I suspect that Soo-jin was onto something when she accused Jin-woo of wishing Hyung-seok dead, and although Jin-woo would deny it, I’m guessing that part of him did wish Hyung-seok dead for stealing the woman he loved. So are Jin-woo’s secret desires affecting the game? If they are, how did the game manifest his in-game desires into reality? I’m incredibly confused, but it’s fantastic, and I’m so excited for next weeks’ episodes so that we can learn even more. I love the theme of magic that runs throughout this show — it’s been mentioned by Jin-woo in every episode so far, but referring to different things. He’s called the game magic, but he also called it “magic” when Hee-joo received the life-changing sum of money for selling the hostel. He’s not talking about magic as in potions and spells, but the kind of “magic” that happens when someone’s life is irrevocably changed. The money is magic to Hee-joo because it will allow her and her family to vastly improve their circumstances, and even go home if they want, after being stuck in Granada for over a decade. The game is magic to Jin-woo because it’s a technological breakthrough that will bring him and his company fame and fortune. And the game if it functioned safely would be magic to the world, because the kind of things that can be done with augmented reality, including but also in addition to gaming, could change the world in ways we can only imagine. I rewatched the first two episodes and I noticed a few things that escaped me on first watch, particularly in the scene where Jin-woo fights on the train a year from now. The most important thing I realized was that when the storm kicked up, Jin-woo was surprised because he wasn’t logged into the game — just as Se-joo didn’t appear to be logged in when he disappeared. Combined with Hyung-seok’s death after dying in-game, I’m forming a theory that somehow, the game is actually pulling people into itself, and that future-Jin-woo is the game’s latest victim, but how and why this might be happening are still unclear. And it still doesn’t explain a lot, like why Se-joo’s body wasn’t found when Hyung-seok’s was. So many questions! So far, I’m still enthralled with this drama and the incredible story it’s telling. It’s unique and exciting, and I love how, every time we get some answers, something happens that just leads to a lot more questions. The deeper we go, the more excited I get. The writer’s storytelling style is confident and detailed, and I feel assured that she knows exactly where she’s taking us and how she wants to get there. I’m along for the ride, wherever this train is going! 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recaps discussion news cast 280 December 17, 2018December 17, 2018 Memories of the Alhambra Episode 6 by LollyPip This show just continues to blow my mind, with everything getting twistier and scarier the further into the game we go. I love that I have no idea where things are going or what’s going to happen next, and I spend the whole hour on pins and needles, equally excited and terrified. Who ever thought that the normally lovely, relaxing sounds of rain and a classical guitar could feel so menacing? EPISODE 6 RECAP After finding Jin-woo in the rain outside the hospital, Hee-joo walks home, still soaked and worried. Grandma is surprised that she left Jin-woo alone, but Hee-joo says that his wife showed up. She had followed as Jin-woo was carried, unconscious, back to his hospital room. Yu-ra had been waiting impatiently, and later Hee-joo overheard Yu-ra on the phone with someone complaining that she may have to drop the divorce suit if Jin-woo has actually gone crazy. Yu-ra had stopped Hee-joo from entering Jin-woo’s room, angry that she lied to her earlier. She’d threatened Hee-joo not to mess with her, and Secretary Seo told her to be respectful to Hee-joo — only to get kicked in the shin, ouch. After he recovered, Secretary Seo had told Hee-joo to go home so as not to anger Yu-ra further, promising to call her later. When Jin-woo wakes, he ignores Yu-ra and asks Secretary Seo if he’s having a nightmare, ha. While Secretary Seo and Yu-ra bicker, Jin-woo is alarmed by a clap of thunder and the sound of a guitar. Hee-joo tosses and turns in bed, thinking about how Jin-woo pulled her to him and asked her if he seemed crazy. Eventually she gets up for a glass of wine, and she hears a knock at the front door. When she opens it, she finds Jin-woo, still in his hospital pajamas, looking around as if terrified. He blames his presence on the fact that Yu-ra is at the hospital, holding Hee-joo responsible for telling her where he was. He asks Hee-joo to get his things from his sixth floor room, specifically his lens case, but Hee-joo seems skeptical that this is the real reason Jin-woo is here. He waits in his car while Hee-joo goes inside, and the first thing she does is call Secretary Seo, who’s been looking everywhere for Jin-woo. He tells Hee-joo to humor Jin-woo, because the doctor thinks he’s suffering from stress-related paranoid ideation — in other words, he’s seeing and hearing things, like a dead person who’s chasing him with a sword. He says that after Hee-joo left, Jin-woo had a seizure and was given a sedative, so Secretary Seo left him alone, which is when he escaped. He tells Hee-joo that Jin-woo’s “hallucinations” should go away after a few days, so to just go along with him for now. While Jin-woo waits, it begins to rain, and he goes very still. He rolls down the car window and sticks his hand out tentatively, and when his hand remains dry, he quickly closes the window again. He looks around as he hears a guitar, and the game’s UI user interface appears in his vision and informs him that “an enemy has appeared.” Through the rain-distorted windshield, Jin-woo sees a figure approaching — NPC Hyung-seok, sword in hand. Hee-joo runs outside where it’s perfectly dry with Jin-woo’s lenses, but inside the car, he’s locked in a stare-off with Hyung-seok. He acknowledges Hee-joo with a gesture, but doesn’t take his eyes off Hyung-seok until the timer runs out and the game cancels the duel. Once Hyung-seok disappears again, Jin-woo rolls down the window and asks for his lenses, and as soon as Hee-joo hands them over, Jin-woo pops them in and logs onto the game. Everything in-game seems normal, directing him to his next quest as usual. Jin-woo prepares to drive away, but Hee-joo begs him desperately to let her drive or she won’t be able to sleep out of worry. She wails that she’s scared he’ll get hurt even worse, driving with a broken leg while on sedatives, and asks if he’s crazy. He says calmly that he already told her he’s crazy, noting that she seems a little nuts herself, the way she goes off at the mouth when she’s angry “You could be a rapper”. Hee-joo assures him that she’s quite sane, and she says that she wants to cancel the contract to sell him the hostel. She tells Jin-woo that for one day she was thrilled with the money he offered, but that she won’t be able to live with herself if he drives in his condition and kills himself. When Jin-woo says he can’t do that, Hee-joo tells him to at least open the car door, and he does without hesitation. In a heartbreakingly honest tone, he says, “I’d be grateful if you came along. I was scared to go alone anyway.” Oof. Jin-woo drives, confusing Hee-joo when he knows where to go without help of a GPS, unable or unwilling to tell her that the game is directing him. He stops at a closed antique shop and asks Hee-joo to call the owner they’re neighborhood buddies. She can’t reach the owner, so Jin-woo uses his crutch to smash the glass door in, shocking Hee-joo. He lets himself inside, and an NPC shopkeeper appears to welcome him to Armas, an in-game weapon shop. Jin-woo looks around, and now, instead of antiques, the walls are covered in weaponry of all kinds. As he checks out the weapons, the game tells him when he’s too low-level or doesn’t have enough in-game gold for each piece. He eventually finds two level four weapons, a Dagger of Wind and a Fairy’s Ninja Star, that the game will let him purchase. Outside, Hee-joo finally gets ahold of the shop owner and tells them that a guest of hers accidentally broke their door. She goes inside to find Jin-woo appearing to throw something over and over — he’s in Practice Mode trying out the star, but to Hee-joo, it looks like he’s gone even further ’round the bend. He manages to land a solid hit with the star just as thunder booms and the sound of a guitar fills the air. Jin-woo spots NPC Hyung-seok standing just outside the shop, and unfortunately, the shattered door means there’s no obstacle to stop the duel from beginning. Jin-woo hits Hyung-seok with two of his three ninja stars he whiffs the first one, then the game auto-equips his familiar Assassin’s Blade. Hee-joo waits outside for the shop owner, assuming that Jin-woo is alone inside. Jin-woo has retreated to a storeroom, which causes the game to delay the duel due to the closed door. But instead of just standing there like he’s done before, this time, NPC Hyung-seok reaches out and opens the door. Holy crap, the game is evolving. Equipping his new dagger, Jin-woo waits until Hyung-seok enters the storeroom, then attacks. He stabs Hyung-seok from behind, leaving the Dagger of Wind in Hyung-seok’s shoulder, then equips his sword and runs it through Hyung-seok’s belly. He wins the duel with a critical hit and advances to level five, but all Jin-woo can think is that he just murdered Hyung-seok… again. He’s still reeling when Hee-joo finds him to tell him that the shop owner is here. She believes he wants to buy something, but he tells her wearily to just pick something and he’ll purchase it. Once they’re both back in the car, Hee-joo wants to return Jin-woo to the hospital, but he refuses to go. He mutters, exhausted, “I don’t want to die, but it feels terrible to kill.” Lightning flashes, and Jin-woo can see NPC Hyung-seok standing in front of the car. He continues, “There’s no point in killing him. Damn it, there’s no way out of this.” Professor Cha visits the spot where Hyung-seok’s body was found, having learned that he met Jin-woo here the night he died. Jin-woo’s fingerprints were found on Hyung-seok’s neck, and the time of death coincides with the time that Jin-woo left the area. He’s already visited Soo-jin, who’d tearfully apologized for not taking better care of Hyung-seok. Professor Cha yelled that if she was so sorry, she “shouldn’t have done that” left Jin-woo for Hyung-seok. He reminded her of her promise to make up for how she and Hyung-seok ended up together, angry that instead, one man is dead and the other will be handicapped for life. He accused Soo-jin of being the reason that his only son lost everything, became an alcoholic; then died in a foreign country. Professor Cha said that he knows Hyung-seok’s death isn’t Soo-jin’s fault, nor is Jin-woo’s accident, but he can’t find it in his heart to feel sorry for her. Director Park has come to Spain, and he finds Professor Cha at the park, having already visited Jin-woo, who’s back in the hospital and sedated for “anxiety.” Over lunch, Professor Cha tells Director Park that they need to handle this with the press. He’d pressured Soo-jin not to approve the autopsy, afraid that no matter the results, reporters would take it as proof of murder. He tells Director Park that he doesn’t doubt Jin-woo’s innocence, but Director Park doesn’t seem as confident. He remembers Jin-woo telling Yang-joo that he “destroyed” Hyung-seok, and further back, when Jin-woo told Director Park himself that he might have stabbed Hyung-seok if he’d had a knife, but he tells Professor Cha what he wants to hear. Professor Cha decides to cover up as much as possible, so Hyung-seok’s death is covered up. Everyone leaves Granada, Hyung-seok’s body is sent home, and Jin-woo, realizing that NPC Hyung-seok can’t come after him if he’s asleep, voluntarily allows himself to be kept sedated. Nobody ever asks Jin-woo what happened between him and Hyung-seok that night, because if they had, he’d have told them that he killed Hyung-seok. When Jin-woo wakes up, the only person still with him is Hee-joo. She’s sleeping curled up in a chair, so he covers her with a blanket and watches her for a little while. He leaves the bedroom, finding himself in a large apartment with a pool on the balcony, where Min-joo is happily splashing away. She tells him that the doctor cut off his sleeping meds. She says that she came to help Hee-joo nurse him, but that he only wanted Hee-joo. He vaguely remembers begging Hee-joo not to leave the room, slurring that he was afraid to be alone. Min-joo asks why, but Jin-woo admits that he doesn’t know, either. Min-joo tells him that he’s doing a great job charming her sister, and that she’s even created a nickname for him, though she doesn’t say what it is. She adds that she used to like Go Yu-ra because she’s pretty, but she came by the house and now Min-joo doesn’t like her anymore. In flashback, we see Yu-ra show up at the hostel, extremely drunk. She shoves Hee-joo hard enough to knock her down, screaming that she warned Hee-joo to stay away from Jin-woo. Min-joo tells Jin-woo that the other guests pulled Yu-ra off Hee-joo, and she asks why he married someone like that. He says he doesn’t remember, looking both angry and guilty. Hee-joo is still asleep when Jin-woo checks on her again, and her friend Sang-bum arrives to bring her some things. When he sees that Jin-woo is up and awake, he asks if he can take Hee-joo out since it’s her birthday and her friends want to throw a party. Hee-joo is alarmed when she wakes to see an empty bed, but she finds Jin-woo sipping coffee in the dining room. He wishes her happy birthday, and Sang-bum invites her out for a birthday party. Jin-woo looks like he feels a little left out, but he tells her to go, insisting unconvincingly that he doesn’t need her anymore. Hee-joo gives in, but she feels unsettled leaving Jin-woo alone without even Secretary Seo to watch over him. Jin-woo goes back to bed after she leaves, sitting stiffly as if expecting the thunder and guitar at any second. He relocates to the couch, but he startles at the loud screeching of cicadas. His anxiety returns as the last of the sedatives wore off, but a frantic search of the apartment turns up nothing, not even alcohol. Jin-woo curls up in bed, wondering if he’s mentally ill as he feels Hyung-seok getting closer and closer. While getting ready for her party, Hee-joo calls Jin-woo to check on him, and he lies that he’s perfectly fine. She offers to return to keep him company, but he tells her not to come and hangs up on her. An enormous bouquet of roses is delivered to the hostel for Hee-joo, with a note from Jin-woo wishing her happy birthday. At the apartment, Jin-woo is sitting huddled in the shower stall when the thunder comes. NPC Hyung-seok materializes in the bathroom, and this time, Jin-woo tries to talk to him. He says, “Hyung-seok, how long will you keep following me? Can’t we stop this now? I really, really want to stop. Will you be happy only after you’ve killed me? How long must we fight?” Hyung-seok just stands there, unresponsive to Jin-woo’s pleading, but not attacking, either. He begins to glitch, and his fierce expression seems to soften a little. When Secretary Seo returns, he finds Jin-woo still in the shower stall, but alive. Jin-woo says he wants to leave now, but he’s afraid of being trapped on a plane in case Hyung-seok shows up again, so he requests that they take a train back to Barcelona. In the middle of her birthday party, Hee-joo steps out to call Secretary Seo. He and Jin-woo are on their way to the train station, and Jin-woo asks Secretary Seo not to tell Hee-joo they’re leaving. Secretary Seo tells Hee-joo that everything is fine, but when she says she’ll stop by the apartment later, he asks Jin-woo again if he can please tell her the truth. Jin-woo doesn’t respond, so Secretary Seo tells Hee-joo that they’re on their way out of town. Her face falls and her voice falters, then she turns and runs out of the restaurant. She catches a taxi and directs the driver to the train station. Secretary Seo settles Jin-woo into his seat on the train, and Jin-woo looks defeated, narrating, “I fled from Granada in fear. I couldn’t even afford to think about someone else’s feelings. But… ” He watches as Hee-joo runs out of the station and onto the platform, trying to catch the train. The train pulls out, leaving her behind, and on the train, Jin-woo hangs his head. COMMENTS The “romance” finally seems to be kicking in a little, though at this point, what’s between Hee-joo and Jin-woo seems like it’s mostly about their shared experiences in the past few days than any true romantic emotions. They’ve had the unique experience of having seen each other in their lowest, most vulnerable moments, and that’s bound to create a bond of some kind. I actually like that the show is taking this part of the story slowly — I appreciate the slow-growing awareness of the other person’s true self rather than the persona they present to the world. That sense of knowing who each other are on a fundamental level is not only an understandable basis for forging a strong connection, but it’s a good place to begin a relationship from, if that’s where this is leading. I was skeptical that a romance between Jin-woo and Hee-joo would be believable until this week’s episodes, but now that we’ve seen how they’ve been there for each other at their worst, I can absolutely imagine this bond turning to friendship, then love. It was hard to see Jin-woo so broken in this episode, both in body and mind, by his realization that he killed Hyung-seok and the game’s subsequent relentless stalking. I think back to the wolf he was in the first couple of episodes, and it’s heartbreaking to see Jin-woo’s confidence and spirit so completely destroyed. By the time he sees Hyung-seok in the bathroom after “killing” him a second time, Jin-woo looked like he was almost ready to give up on life, literally, and let Hyung-seok kill him just to get some peace and atonement. I keep forgetting that Hyung-seok wasn’t a simple villain, but Jin-woo’s very close friend whom he loved very much, and probably never stopped loving even after what happened with Soo-jin. After killing him once by accident, then again on purpose even if it was in-game, it still looked and felt very real, it’s no wonder that Jin-woo’s mind and spirit just couldn’t cope. I hope he finds something to bring back that spirit soon because he’s got a long time — at least a year that we know of — before he’s safe again. I love this whole game-as-antagonist twist to this drama, because you can’t fight a game that can just regenerate your enemy as many times as it likes, which is a terrifying thought. And the scariest thing about the game is the way it’s evolving and adapting, making it nearly impossible for Jin-woo to find safe haven, because the game just learns how to circumvent any safety measures he discovers. First it behaved like a game should, staying within the parameters of its programming, but then it became capable of killing a human player in real life, and making that player an NPC. For a while that NPC obeyed the gaming rules, but now even that can’t be trusted, since NPC Hyung-seok learned how to remove obstacles instead of just waiting for them to be removed. I don’t know if Jin-woo’s desperate plea in the bathroom is what worked to save him, but I hope it’s something that can be repeated, because we’ve seen that he’s still fighting the game a year from now. What scares me the most is what we saw at the end of Episode 5 — Se-joo lying on the ground at the train station, unable to be seen by anyone not in the game. My feeling is that Se-joo was alive until he boarded the train and ran into his own thunderstorm, because he could interact with the people around him until that point. I believe that Se-joo was at a similar point in his game’s evolution then as Jin-woo is now — still human and alive, but unable to control the game and being chased by an NPC that he inadvertently created maybe the mysterious Marco?. So somehow, the game went through an evolutionary process with Se-joo, ending or did it? by pulling Se-joo into itself. Now it’s repeating that process with Jin-woo, but why? Is the game sentient, or is it simply glitching in a deadly way that Se-joo never predicted? And why is it doing so again with Jin-woo? There’s got to be something that both Se-joo and Jin-woo did to kickstart the process, and the question is, will Jin-woo be able to discover what’s happening and stop it before he too is pulled into the game and can’t get out? Editor’s Note Please don’t discuss spoilers because we’d hate to delete your comment! This includes anything shown in previews. RELATED POSTS Premiere Watch Clean With Passion for Now, Boyfriend, Memories of the Alhambra More teasers for Memories of the Alhambra Promos for suspense romance drama Memories of the Alhambra Reminiscing about Spain at sunset in tvN’s Memories of the Alhambra Park Shin-hye up to join Hyun Bin in Memories of the Alhambra Hyun Bin offered new sci-fi drama from W-Two Worlds writer Tags Chanyeol, Hyun Bin, Memories of the Alhambra, Park Shin-hye Premium Supporter ♥ Currently Airing

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