What is it with this week giving us episodes we don’t need to see on our favorite shows? It is not as if the emotional quotient of this episode was on the higher side for us to feel heavily invested. It comes across as a filler episode that needs some patience and commitment to watch, which we will be doing since the general consensus is that The Uncanny Counter Season 2 is better than Season 1. Here is a recap of it.
Spoiler Alert
What Are The Evil Spirits Up To?
We were wrong when we deduced that both Mun and Pil Gwang had figured out that an evil spirit was holding Ju Seok. Only the latter had figured it out, and he was intrigued. We are unable to understand why everyone thinks that Ju Seok would be a special host. How does being a good man all his life make him different when the evil spirit takes over his body? Also, this spirit must be stupid because it did not take the chance to get out into the real world and messed up Ju Seok’s court case by making him say that he would still kill the people who had harmed his wife. As expected, he goes back to prison, but the spirit is clearly gaining control over him. The evidence is in the way he stopped the ball that was coming at him. The other inmates irritate Ju Seok, but the only reason he is unable to ignore that is that the spirit is fanning the flame into a murderous rage, so he succumbs to the spirit and lets it take control.
To make matters worse, Pil Gwang visits him in prison and further incites Ju Seok by asking him provocative questions as to who murdered his wife, between Mr. Park and the company that swindled Ju Seok and Min Gi. Essentially, Pil Gwang is making Ju Seok feel that gross injustice has happened to Min Gi, and the spirit in Ju Seok is taunting him for not showing initiative for revenge. The only thing holding back Ju Seok is Mun’s words outside the courtroom, asking him to let go of revenge, as Min Gi would not want that for him.
In the outside world, Mo Tak tells the Counters that his instinct says that something is wrong with Ju Seok. His coming out into the world is not a good idea. Of course, everyone hates hearing this, and it doesn’t help that this is the moment Jeok Bong chooses to make his grand entrance, irritating everyone further.
It is not a good time for Jeok Bong, who is further annoyed when he finds that Ha Na is out on a date with Park Do Hwi. At least Mae Ok is happy for her. But does anyone else feel uncomfortable with this budding love story? It is just that we remember what happened in Season 1 with Mo Tak and his girlfriend when they were about to take things forward. We don’t want Ha Na and Do Hwi to meet a similar fate. But on the other hand, the writer of this series has crafted the men as rather sweet people. We knew about So Mun and Mo Tak, but Do Hwi is just as nice. He spent every afternoon with Ha Na when she was in a coma after what happened to her family. If he is not a keeper, we don’t know who is.
Talking about keeping, Jeok Bong’s sense of smell is not stable. He leads the Counters to a cold storage area, saying that Gelly is there. He is right because Gelly has come there to retrieve the money they had stolen, which her subordinates were supposed to launder but ended up scamming them out of. Gelly is fierce and evil, and she takes care of it with her fists. But when the Counters reach there, she escapes once again, but not without discovering Jeok Bong’s power and unintentionally taking it away from him again due to an attack of the gas. That is two such attacks for Jeok Bong that day. She may have discovered what happened to the money when she read the beaten-up man’s memories, and by doing the same, Mun finds out that Gelly and Pil Gwang are behind the Baekdu Planning and Construction scam.
Does Ju Seok Succumb To The Evil Spirit?
When Gelly tells Pil Gwang about Jeok Bong, he cannot stop laughing. We understand why it is funny, but we cannot not explain it in words. If you get the vibe, you know. While Gelly is panicking, Pil Gwang asks a very pertinent question, which is why the Counters are not hunting them down if they can smell them. He will probably discover in the next episode how Jeok Bong’s sense of smell comes and goes. In the meantime, they have to be prepared to fight the stronger party, and they need their force to increase. The only way to do that is to bring Ju Seok to their team. They break into the prison to force Ju Seok to accept the spirit in him. Gelly weakens his resolve by flooding him with the grief of his dead wife’s memories, and Pil Gwang adds fuel to the fire by once again telling him that Mr. Park killed his wife. An enraged Ju Seok is on the verge of breaking, and he finally accepts the spirit.
At the end of episode 5 of Season 2 of The Uncanny Counter, when the irritating inmates try to harass Ju Seok by insulting the memory of his wife, he beats them up black and blue and breaks out of prison to find So Mun waiting for him outside. Mun and Mo Tak have investigated the scam and are narrowing down the evidence towards Pil Gwang and Gelly. In the meantime, Ju Seok’s mother was sending some clothes for him, and Mun was there to deliver. But seeing Ju Seok turn into an evil spirit breaks his heart. Ju Seok saved Mun’s grandmother by telling her that he was sent by her daughter to collect her mother’s cool stories. He was that good and compassionate of a man, and seeing him be consumed by such evil stuns Mun. He will have to fight him, maybe immediately, since the spirit tells Ju Seok to kill So Mun.
Final Thoughts
Gelly and Pil Gwang are going to lie to Ju Seok to convince him to be on their team, and the Counters can only bring him back if they reveal the truth. But there is no telling how far gone he will be by then. Jeok Bong may need to get his nose punched to fix it, and Do Hwi better learn some self-defense. The Uncanny Counter has always been predictable but fun, and we hope it lives up to that standard.
