mentallycoded

"Can I trust you?"

First off this series was defiantly an emotional one and one that would make you say "Well if I were there I would have done this..." (I'm guilty of it). In the beginning of the first episode we see the main character the father parked on a isolated path when a van crashes into him. Goes to check it out and uh... wow... 2 dead guys and enough money to change your identity and move to an island. The whole reasoning then for him to take the money was because he and his wife were not making enough money to be able to see through their sons life threating surgery. But why did he clean the car of blood and fingerprints, take the van, bury the bodies in his YARD... where he lives with his family. But what almost turned me off from continuing it was a scene of him being dragged and beaten in the woods buy some gangsters saying "I'm going to die. I shouldn't have taken the money" That felt like a huge spoiler for how the show was going to end but I gave it a chance anyways. Until episode 9 I was confused and didn't know if the detective was his wife and she had a double life but that's false, his wife is just a regular citizen who got caught in her husbands drug money problem. And also the affair? That undercover cop didn't the father think that's who his wife was cheating on him with? But he had a relationship (kind of) with the detective I always thought. But for some reason he didn't push that very much even though the wife was so cruel to him. I understood her frustrations but she wasn't that much better. He was a not so good professor and she was a part time translator? Hey girl maybe pickup some side hustles instead of leaving all the money making to your timid husband. A lot of the gangsters looked too similar for me too so I didn't know who's side was who's often besides the fat boss, guy with eyebags who recruited the mc into doing this business and the tattoo guy who called a convenience store lady a "bitch" because she said he should go to the hospital for the pain he was in. AND THE DAD WAS A LOOP. He's basically a scammer so when I saw him get approached for a job involving the family I thought he was just an actor but I guess not because that was the fathers actual dad and he did not like him very much. I don't even want to think about the daughter she is so angsty and unreasonable I could not get behind her at all.

"Dong-ha"
"Back then I strayed too far from you"
"I'm sorry, son"

The reason I didn't give a great score is because I was confused often throughout it and the weird cliffhanger where life seems to go back to normal then he gets a call saying something like "If you want to keep your family safe answer when I call." LIKE WHATTTTT WHY ARENT WE DONE WITH THAT?!?!?!!?!? So, a second season would interest me for sure. I finished this in about a day and It felt worthwhile to me.

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100% WORTH IT!!! PEAK FATHER + DAUGHTER "US AGAINST THE WORLD"

I literally have almost no qualms about this drama, it was everything. I love the trope where somebody's child is in trouble and their parent who had a secret life has to save them. But in an episode early on when he (Agent Kim) is searching for Ming Ji he stumbles upon a house a bunch of thugs are in where they were going to kill this old man and his daughter. She is then taken into a room that looks like a certain plant grows and put onto a table in front of some butcher looking dude. Were they organ trafficking? Probably but we don't get to see much of what comes with that because he is then caught by the police. I was also thinking what I would do if i were in Ming Ji's position and saying "No stay in the freezer!" or "No don't get into the first car you see at midnight after almost being murdered and dragged around the city for days!" Randomly she is shown in Cambodia? or Mongolia? Either way she's just there in a very fancy looking hotel reading comments or messages from old classmates online and she starts to panic. I hope she never lets any kind of bullying or mockery get to her because she has actually survived hell. So once everything is resolved and they move and change identities I feel like she should have at least maybe cut her hair or alter her appearance a bit. I would NOT be able to relax even though I'm supposed to be safe now I would just be paranoid 24/7. I only found out this was a webtoon at one of the credits shown at an episode at some point, I might check that out. BUT HOLD ON....who was that dude Kim called to destroy that guys construction company? Like it was kind of out of nowhere and I feel like he could've used that card a bit earlier but also this new job..... IS HE STILL DOING SKETCHY WORK??? It's just some big dude at a desk who challenges him to a fight, we don't get a name or even see his face. BUT OMG ALSO.... THE GOON WITH THE GRILLS COMING AND STABBING HIM ONCE HE LEFT THE HOSPITAL WAS PEAK "Here's Johnny" vibes. There's somethings that go unanswered but that's no problem with me, I just love that we got a happy ending in a drama. FINALLY, I was so stressed watching because I had no idea how they would get out of the situations they were in this ending was defiantly earned.

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