Hunter with a Scalpel: Episodes 9-12 » Dramabeans
Hunter with a Scalpel: Episodes 9-12
by lovepark
A twisted love that confines and punishes against an unconditional love that sacrifices and gives, these are the two halves of our heroine’s past. As her father corners her and the police turn their suspicions towards her, our forensic pathologist must outwit her friend and foe in order to end this game once and for all.
EPISODES 9-12
If things were bad for Se-hyun before, they just got worse. The police get a tip about the stalker thanks to Jo-gyun’s meddling, and when they arrive at the crime scene, they find her scalpel covered in blood. Though Jung-hyun confronts Se-hyun to give him some kind of explanation for her odd behavior, she refuses to convince someone unwilling to believe. Their tentative partnership breaks, and the next time they meet, he acts on orders to arrest her while she narrowly escapes capture.
After receiving a present from her father, Se-hyun arrives at his cleaners and attacks him on sight. She has the upper hand at first, but a momentary drop of caution gives him enough room to retaliate. He knocks out Se-hyun, has her transported to the van, and once both daughters have left the premise, he stages a failed attack, acting like the fifth victim in the latest string of serial murders.
Though the police believe the planted evidence — confirmation bias at its finest — only Jung-hyun finds the sudden new leads suspiciously convenient. The first three crime scenes were immaculate, but now that Se-hyun is the prime suspect, they have an abundance of fingerprints and murder weapons. Something feels off, but the superintendent steps in, assigning a different team to the case and effectively dismissing any and all of Jung-hyun’s suggestions.
Realizing that the others will not listen to reason, Jung-hyun goes rogue and steals the case files. With these, he learns of Se-hyun’s past and visits the psychiatric clinic she attended as a child. There, he meets with the doctor who claims that Se-hyun could not be the killer because she grew up with a loving mom. The woman in the hospital was actually a nun who raised Se-hyun as her own despite the psychiatrist warning her that she displayed sociopathic tendencies. She even left her order to be with Se-hyun, and for the last five years, Se-hyun has returned that favor by taking care of her sick mom.
However, the nun was not the only person in Se-hyun’s life who showed her love. She also had an older sister named Eun-seo who, though probably not biologically related, treated Se-hyun like family. Despite Jo-gyun trying to keep them apart, Eun-seo read her stories from outside her room and set up a surprise birthday party without their dad knowing. Alas, some secrets are hard to hide, and having a serial killer father is one of them. Having been in the dark about Jo-gyun’s “business trips,” Eun-seo stumbled across his blood-filled van one day, and unlike her younger sister, she was appalled by what she saw.
Though Se-hyun comes across as callous and detached, these glimpses into her past reveal a young girl who just wanted to be like everyone else. While she had the misfortune of catching Jo-gyun’s eye, she was also blessed with two great people — both of whom were not blood related to her. Through their example, Se-hyun was able to learn what kindness and sacrifice meant, so no matter what her dad said about fatherly love, it never swayed her because she already experienced what true love should be.
As the police put out a warrant for Se-hyun’s arrest, a shocking twist arrives at their front door: the supposed fourth victim is alive. The stalker tells the detectives that Se-hyun actually saved him and told him to hide for a week if he wanted to survive. While one would assume that the police would then rescind their nationwide hunt for her, they simply double down since the stalker only smelled bleach on his attacker and never saw their face.
Fortunately for Jung-hyun, his team has his back, and Chang-jin speaks up for him during a meeting, resulting in a temporary transfer to the traffic safety unit. The demotion works in their favor, though, and with four brains on the case, they narrow in on Jo-gyun and his whereabouts. The only setback is that their target is aware of their presence and plans to flee the country with his daughter. Notice the lack of plurality?
Meanwhile, Se-hyun is tied up in her dad’s van with only Se-eun for company. Seeing herself in the little girl, Se-hyun tries to guide her away from Jo-gyun, but the current Se-eun is too indoctrinated into his weird family cult to question his authority. Instead, she feels jealous towards Se-hyun for having Jo-gyun’s attention, and her misplaced wariness makes her unaware of her dad’s true intentions.
In spite of her bound hands and feet, Se-hyun tries to escape the first moment she gets, but the unlocked door was a deliberate invitation to join their family BBQ. Jo-gyun shows her that the world has turned against her, and the only one on her side is him. He says that they should start over again as a family, but when Se-hyun asks about his other daughter, he simply replies, “I have you, so why would I need her?”
As soon as Se-hyun gets her hands on a weapon, she attacks Jo-gyun again, but he clocks her hostility and easily overpowers his weakened daughter. Pinning her to a table, he warns her against baring her teeth at him, and as punishment, stabs her hand.
While Jo-gyun is an unfeeling monster who could kill anyone without an ounce of remorse, Se-hyun knows that her life holds value to him at the moment, and using this to her advantage, she asks to be taken to the hospital for treatment. Having to leave immediately for their boat, Jo-gyun compromises with a trip to the pharmacy, but the medicine she asks Se-eun to buy requires a prescription. Thus, he takes both daughters out to grab supplies, unaware that their location has been compromised.
At the pharmacy, Se-hyun pockets a spray can and uses that to hinder her captor for a brief second to escape. She grabs Se-eun on her way out, but the younger girl screams for her dad and fights back. They only make it a couple of steps outside before Jo-gyun catches up to them and brutally beats Se-hyun. It seems her troubles may finally outweigh her usefulness to Jo-gyun, but right then, a hero appears.
Having found their location thanks to his team’s help, Jung-hyun rushes into the scene to save Se-hyun. Alas, as he tries to get her up, Jo-gyun stabs him in the back. While Jung-hyun writhes in pain, Jo-gyun drags his daughter away, but our stubborn detective refuses to let go. He manages to hold onto Se-hyun long enough for the cops to arrive, and Jo-gyun retreats, using Se-eun as a human shield.
Though her dad is getting away, Se-hyun’s attention turns to Jung-hyun as she desperately tries to stop the bleeding. Looking up at her, he apologizes for not believing her before, and Se-hyun cries for help as he closes his eyes.
Se-hyun and Jung-hyun have an interesting relationship which, for me, isn’t about a potential romance but another form of love our heroine can experience. More than a romantic partner, Jung-hyun’s importance to the story is that he plays another figure in her life who tries to see the real her rather than the monster others force upon her. He observes Se-hyun’s behaviors — the unease in her eyes, the catch in her breath — and believes there is more to the cold doctor than everyone else says. In a way, he is like Eun-seo and the nun. He treats her with dignity, and in a world quick to judge, he tries to gift her something both Eun-seo and the nun gave as well: a chance for Se-hyun to be her own person. Though he did momentarily get tricked by Jo-gyun, he never really turned his back on her because, deep down, he always believed even if he didn’t know it himself at times.
In contrast, Jo-gyun is a true narcissist and monster. He has an overinflated sense of self that constantly seeks approval to mask his own insecurities, and his idea of “love” is an excuse to control and manipulate others. He only wants Se-hyun because she got away, and our heroine knows this, too. That’s why she keeps pushing her luck and jumps into danger recklessly because, as this week revealed, Se-hyun is using herself as bait. She isn’t the monster Jo-gyun tried to shape her into, but rather, the loyal woman Eun-seo cared for and the nun raised. While our heroine might struggle to empathize, that doesn’t mean she cannot learn to understand emotions and build connections. She isn’t the monster Jo-gyun made, and it seems pretty clear that she never will be.
