A Theory on Ms. Pi

A Theory on Ms. Pi and a Few Others

Ok, I am going to need everyone to follow my thought process. A few things just didn’t sit well with me, and so I compiled all the things shown so far that bothers me, to create this one encompassing theory. This may be a long read, I hope you read until the end.

After watching Snowdrop, the main plot seems to revolve around Project Phoenix and how NK and SK are involve in a collusion that revolves around the upcoming SK democratic elections, but that is not actually the overarching plot, I feel it is actually a red herring. The true plot of Snowdrop lies in the tiny details, let me explain my theory.

I first wanted to quickly dive into the characterization of Ms. Pi. I had my suspicions about her, but EP. 11 confirmed my theory in my mind. Ms. Pi is a North Korean Spy. Why do I think this? After watching the full scene of her torture from Chief An, and recalling her conversation of Boon Ok, I realize that Ms. Pi was doing a combination of gas lighting and projection to Boon Ok. When she said “Do you want to ruin another family”, and “Your sister is a NK Spy”, I realize that Ms. Pi is actually talking about herself. She is making Boon Ok doubt herself, but the words Ms. Pi are actually speaking talks about herself.

Seeing as Taedong River 1 went to Germany to study, it seems to be that NK has a base of operations in NK which is later confirmed in Ep. 11 as well. I believe that when Ms. Pi went to Germany after Hosu Dorm, she was convinced by someone and indoctrinated. It is during this time as well that she meets Boon Ok’s sister, who she later becomes very close with. Later, they are caught by Chief An, and here is the sad part. We know that the party values their secret identities over life, as we later see in the drama, so I believe that when Chief An captured the two of them, Boon Ok’s sister being loyal to Ms. Pi, denied everything, but Ms. Pi being afraid of her cover being blown, sang like a canary and sold her friend down the river, which led to her eventual death. Ironically, Chief an still tried to frame Ms. Pi, not knowing she really has NK ties. Chief an then decides to turn Ms. Pi into an ANSP informant, not knowing that Ms. Pi is actually a double agent. We assumed that Ms. Pi is listening in to the students because ANSP asked her to, but that didn’t make any sense. The show does its best to make us believe that is the case, but the truth is something else which I will explain later.

The death of Ms. Pi’s dear friend causes Ms. Pi a lot of stress as she really loved her friend. And that is why she feels indebted to take care of Boon Ok, but she cannot tell the truth to Boon Ok that she is actually the person who ruined the family of Boon Ok by getting the sister killed. We see the guilt of this slowly grow throughout the drama, and it culminates in an amazing scene where Ms. Pi goes to Boon Ok, and grabs the gun and points it at her chest. You see, it’s very hard to live with this type of guilt, and this type of lie for so long. I feel that at that point, Ms. Pi’s mental had broken, she became reckless, put her life in danger, maybe in her mind, she had even hoped that Boon Ok would be the one to kill her so that she can be free from her guilt. This type of madness that Ms. Pi showed is reminiscent of movies like Lethal Weapon, where Mel Gibson’s character does very similar actions due to his desire to die. This was the first thing I thought about when I saw the scene. It becomes ironic then when you realize that Chief An is trying to frame her for being a spy, when she actually is already one. Further evidence is hinted when Kang Moo asks Ms. Pi about her being a NK spy, and she angrily denies it. You would think that a person who has been tortured by a military regime like the ANSP would do the opposite to her students. If Ms. Pi is really a bastion of the democratic process, she would not run the dorm the same way as a NK internment camp. Notice the way the dorm is run, the limited phone calls, the doors with bars on the glass, the overly strict curfew. I believe these are some symbolism left by the writer to show Ms. Pi’s true ideologies.

But guilt has a way of creeping up to you. I believe the reason Ms. Pi disappears once a month, and comes back all exhausted has something to do with self-harm. She most likely inflicts on herself some sort of pain, or some type of self-flagellation to dumb the pain of her crimes against Boon Ok’s sister. She does this as a way of alleviating some of the guilt she feels. But then we have to ask, what is Ms. Pi doing in the dorm, and why is she there, and why do the ANSP want to know what the girls are talking about? The answer lies with Man Dong.

You see, I believe that Man Dong is the mole in the dorm. Man dong is a utility man in the dorm, and he is in a small basement workshop repairing things. I found it interesting then, that the man who is acting as radio operator for the NK’s, is also similarly garbed and aged as Man Dong, and also does utility repair. I was thinking that this old man and Man Dong, may be comrades who infiltrated South Korea a long time ago as repairmen. I also thought about Man Dong’s limp and diabetes, I feel these are fake illness Man Dong has come up with to hide his identity. Now somewhere in Man Dong’s life, he had a son, the gambler. Now I thought to myself, of all the things, he could have been a drunk or whatever, but why a gambler, and why was he so excited to see the bag of money? And why is the money in USD? I will come back to him and the importance of his son as a character.

Here is my theory, we know that the CIA has people in Germany. It is my belief that the US was trying to create a shadow government within the opposition, and they were using Professor Han to achieve these purposes. We know Han is the advisor of the opposition party leader, and the US would have been able to easily control the opposition party though Han. I believe the US was paying Professor Han bribes in USD. But then NK eventually learned about this money and we see that is actually the true mission of Soo Ho, given to him by his father. I believe in conjunction with Project Phoenix, Soo Ho actually had a separate mission to retrieve the bag of money near Hosu Dorm for the personal uses of Lim Ji Rok. Because we later found out that the 300 Million USD isn’t’ going to Lim Ji Rok, but the supreme leader and NK government. We actually don’t know how much money is in the bag, but those are hundred dollar bills stacks, so it must be a decent amount of USD.

Now I can see this is getting a bit more complex, so let me quickly talk about Soo Ho.

You see, I believe that Lim Ji Rok, actually really loves Soo Ho. Yes he cares about not getting in trouble, and seeing Project Phoenix become successful, but he also cares if his son dies or not. Similarly, don’t you think it’s weird that Soo Ho seems to have so much faith in his father not wanting him dead? I believe this is on purpose, as I believe Soo Ho and his dad has a good relationship. Think about it, if Lim Ji Rok is a monster, why would his sister, who loves him, tell him “make sure to come back OK”. If both Soo Ho and his sister are in bad situation, she would tell him to defect or flee. Its shown that due to misdirection from the writer, and miscommunication between Soo Ho and his dad, caused a temporary rift. In fact, the only time that Soo Ho and his dad had a clear line of communications is when Lim Ji Rok told Soo Ho not to fail the mission, because of how important it is. I believe that the mission Lim Ji Rok is talking about is the missing money bag. Why do I think this? Because Gyeok Chan keeps thinking they have failed the mission, but Soo Ho doesn’t seem to act like it. I believe that Soo Ho knows his secret mission is to return to NK with the money bag. Keep in mind Kang Moo and Soo Ho both don’t know the actual value of the money involved between the two countries. Only recently did Soo Ho find out it’s a lot of money from Nam Tae il. Soo Ho may have mistakenly thought that the mission for the money bag has been discarded for a new deal offering a lot more money than is in the money bag.

Now how does Chief An fit into all of this? I believe the reason he asked Ms. Pi to spy within the dorm, is because they are trying to find the person that is hiding the secret money. They never suspect Man Dong, and the only thing that is bugged are the dorm rooms. So Ms. Pi has been spying for the ANSP, trying to find the mole for the ANSP, but not to turn the mole in, but rather to shake him/her up to find the location of the money bag. Keep in mind that the ANSP had bugged the dorm previously, and they intercepted a message about someone being trapped.

Man Dong office is very close to the shrine, which is very close to where the money bag is kept, and I believe Man Dong knows where the money is kept, and so does his son. Doesn’t it make you wonder, how the son of Man Dong is even able to gamble with what appears to be a decent amount of money. It’s not like Man Dong is making a lot of money as a utility worker considering how much Boon Ok is making. It is quite possible that Man Dong has been taking money slowly from the money bag to bail out his son from his gambling debt. But the son, having been bailed out so many times, start taking it for granted, and became more and more greedy, and would keep coming back to Hosu dorm to ask for more of the NK money. This may be what the son meant by saying, “you don’t know what kind of man Man Dong is”.

This could also explain why the son of Man Dong seem so intent on finding the money bag, because he has had previous history with it to fuel his gambling addiction.

Just the way ms. Pi acts. She seems so guilty, as if she is the direct cause of boon on sisters death. In a way because of ms. Pi boon ok family got ruined since the dad got sick right after.

There seems to be emphasis on NK being deep undercover like cheong ya being undercover for 17 years. It believe that man dong may be in charge of the money bag whenever NK needs money he would provide the money needed for missions.

Yeah the faith suho has on his dad, makes.me feel they have a close relationship. I would be a bit disappointed if it's not true.

And for all we know, Lim Ji rok had planned on using that money to take his family out of North Korea. Maybe the reason Choi suspected soo ho changing ideology is because Lim Ji rok himself is showing signs of wavering. And now that he is being demoted, it could mean he has been slowly losing favor with the supreme leader.

Because to get a nice ending, I think the writing would want to save sooho sister as well. And if Lim Ji rok actually turns out to be good, then he and the sister could meet suho in Germany.

Also it seemed weird that the bag of ammo and money has so much emphasis they never go anywhere without it. And suho was obsessed with going back alive.