[Drama 2019] Designated Survivor : 60 Days, 60일, 지정생존자

[angelbeast90]

 

 

was this posted?

[nrllee]

7 hours ago, jenappelle said:

hey I am just trying to increase discussion on a drama I love

 

 That’s what everyone is here for. Not sure about the 20 pages but discussion is always good.  Still haven’t found time to watch Ep 8.  But sounds like OYS’s tailor features in this Ep as the killer of Myung.  Like most here, my first thought about a scandal was that SiWan isn’t  PMJ’s real son.  PMJ is gaining in confidence.  His weakness is his family.  That’s his bedrock. Even if the ‘scandal’ isn’t as far reaching as to cause his popularity to nose dive, rocking that boat will definitely shake his resolve and distract him from enemy fire in the political scene. But yes it could be a red herring and the scandal could be something bigger.  Although as you said, scenes are added for a purpose. Just like how the camera panned into Advisor Han’s photo with his sick son, SiWan’s discovery of his past was just as deliberate so I anticipate a side plot line there. 

 

OYS to me is the one who put his hand up to be the potential “sacrifice”.  He’s the soldier with the resolve and the courage to go directly into the line of fire.  So I feel like there’s a group of them that planned this whole thing and he’s just the player who put his hand up to be where the bomb would go off (this is a life threatening situation, bomb shelter or not. It’s not like they could’ve had a drill beforehand. And potentially he could’ve died had that not found him in time).  So he plays the decorated hero, poster boy for the gang in the background.  The Presidential candidate who will be the “most likely to win” for the gang.  He just doesn’t strike me as a mastermind.  He’s more like a soldier who takes commands from a higher up.  So the gang is expecting him to win easily and just be a figurehead for the mastermind.  I need to rewatch Cha’s assessment of OYS during that meeting where he laid out his reasons why he thought OYS wouldn’t take up the PM post but would take up the Minister of Defense post offered.  Assembly woman Yun isn’t the mastermind.  There have been too many scenes of her openly recruiting OYS.  The mastermind hides in the background. 

 

I think Advisor Han was annoyed by Cha’s ‘defection’.  He thought Cha was a done deal.  He would side with the person he thought would win (which would be OYS). Han thought PMJ’s lack of ambition and want of political savvy would doom him to failure as a candidate.  That he would just be happy to seat warm for 60days and bail.  But he’s risen to the occasion and is now becoming a threat.  If Advisor Han is the mastermind, he knows PMJ enough to know that he will not join a side who would kill for the sake of a better tomorrow.  So he will need to do something to rock that boat of his.  

 

As for Agent Han’s secret informant. I think it may be her fiancé?  Working under cover?  I can’t think of anyone who would know where she lived. Of course higher ups would have the resources to dig into those details but it seemed rather risky to do that from a payphone just outside her place. Seemed rather personal?  Why not just leave a note? How did he know her number otherwise?  Did he take it (his mobile phone) back from her so she no longer had evidence to pinpoint him as the potential bomber?  That would force her to look at alternatives and pursue other leads with more evidence.  

[nrllee]

Ep8 thoughts

 

Advisor Han is still top of my list as mastermind .

 

He was the one who suggested the non-party cabinet in Ep 7 (I missed that on first viewing).  See, he is always the one at critical decision points guiding the chess pieces.

 

His conversation with Cha after the swearing in of the new cabinet.

Cha - The President (PMJ) will outrank all the other candidates by a large margin

Han - A pitcher who takes the mound before he is warmed up is highly likely to be injured.  It will cut his career short.  To run for President he needs to resign from Office 30 days prior to the election. He can’t run this time.

Cha - For the post of Acting President, the other newly appointed ministers can fill in.

 

Why is Han hosing down PMJ’s chances and legitimacy at every juncture?  If not PMJ who else would he want as a candidate?  He seems desperate to win back Cha’s allegiance by seeding doubt in his mind about PMJ’s potential as a “winner”.  It’s already day 20...if PMJ is to run as candidate, he only has 10 days left in the hot seat.  If it is true that your eligibility to run as a candidate is negated if you don’t vacate your seat 30 days prior, then if PMJ stays put, he would lose his chance as Presidential candidate. 

 

Agent Jeong’s confession to Myung’s murder

This was an interesting turn of events.  So he’s taken the fall for OYS.  PMJ’s suspicions echo mine.  Why would he do that?  He had a good career, he had a family.  On all counts, he’s been exemplary in his job.  He’s done something totally out of character.  An anomaly.  Remember how I said Scientists love anomalies?  .  We all know he can’t be the murderer.  He was in the corridor with Agent Han when the guy wheeled the poisoned food into the cell.  He didn’t look like he was part of the OYS team.  He was ready to expose him when he met with PMJ but for the fact that OYS was there in the room (just like PMJ’s wife said - a witness changes their statement if someone they don’t want to hear the statement is in the same room).  For him to take the fall so that OYS could remain in play it must mean he was part of some grand plan.  He had a family.  Was he coerced to take the fall for their safety’s sake?  The elements of a revolutionary faction that desires change are evident (not just of the President but the whole system).  Big sacrifices.  The shared belief in a cause that overrides self preservation and self interest.

 

Assemblywoman Yun’s Advisor

Agent Han said Yun was the only one who knew she was enroute to the National Assembly with the evidence.  She was wrong.  Yun’s advisor was told by Yun that she had struck a deal with Agent Han with the Blueprint for Rm119.  So he’s the mole on her end.  I think he leaked the info which led to the accident.

 

The scandal(s)

They said “scandals” so it may be more than just SiWan’s parentage.  It’s too minor to hit polls drastically?  Oh mentioned something in the Preview, “I wonder how PMJ will react when he finds out he was part of the bombing”... So it’s bigger. They will link him to the bombing.  That he avoided the Assembly meeting because he knew it was going to happen?  Do they have proof?  Honestly with scandals how much “proof” is needed?  It is enough to just suggest it and seed that doubt in voters’ minds and it will cause them to turn.  There’s not much time left anyway for him to regain voter confidence.  Anything that will unsettle him if only temporarily is sufficient.

 

But I have to agree.  Son SukGoo as Sec Cha has been riveting in his role.  SooJong would’ve had to be a rock not to fall for him .  And it looks like JiWon (?) the computer guy is crushing on his SunBae Agent Han.  My money is still on her fiancé being her informant and guardian angel.  He keeps popping up in conversations.  She said the quote about “An agent’s commitment isn’t a virtue but an obligation” was from her fiancé (who trained her).  If that was his mantra, then he is relentlessly task focused.  Commitment isn’t an optional extra (virtue), something to aim for,  it’s a duty, a given when you sign on.  So he’s probably undercover investigating the “Tailor Group” who has links everywhere within the government.  Oh’s statement about the Investiture not being that important because they already achieved the outcome desired.  A rise in his approval ratings.  When the tailor mentioned how everyone is focused on the Presidential election, OYS replied,

 

”How great is the world they are trying to create?  If we could change the world with an election, humans would have done everything to get rid of elections a long time ago.”

 

Does that sound familiar?    He is echoing the same sentiments Advisor Han has.  Elections don’t change anything.  They are of the same mind.  See why I think Advisor Han is part of the “Tailor Group”? 

[ryanallright]

One thing for sure, OYS is not the mastermind but member of a sinister plot to undermine the administration.

 

One thing for sure, Korean version is similar but running on their own plot with the character building and how the story progress. At least not a direct ctrl-c ctrl-v. 

[liltash85]

16 hours ago, triplem said:

You know what I think the scandal could be ? PMJ is not PSW’s real dad . But he met the Wife after she had PSW. So either the real dad has died & she remarried PMJ ( but that does not seem scandalous ) or she left the 1st Husband for PMJ ( now that can be terribly scandalous because he could be accused of being an adulterer! ) .... these crazy speculations in my head . 

 

So it seems quite clear that OYS is part of this bombing given the “evidence” we have been shown

- footage of him going into room119

- the one who killed the NK suspect & tried to kill Agent HNK works for the tailor which @imgreatgal mentioned is Tae Ik 

- OYS tells PMJ that Agent Han’s fiancé was also a victim of the bombing which is strange because I don’t remember anyone knowing about it 

- the recruitment of NIS boss who wants to meet the VIP.

 

 

 

I have a feeling that the mastermind behind this bombing is OYS. But he does the work too like a cover up that there's another VIP. Another guts told me the tailor could be the VIP. That is why the 'errand guy' works for him at the tailor shop. The shop is their actually basecamp. 

 

about PMJ and PSW, I have a feeling that PSW real dad died when her mother is pregnant with him and PMJ steps in to marry her for the baby's sake. 

[nrllee]

43 minutes ago, liltash85 said:

about PMJ and PSW, I have a feeling that PSW real dad died when her mother is pregnant with him and PMJ steps in to marry her for the baby's sake. 

 

That’s totally what a decent man like him would do.  So if SiWan’s question to him was, “Are you really my dad?” He could honestly say, “Yes”.  Because really even if he isn’t his biological dad, he is his father figure from the start. He treats SW as his real son. He has never treated him as someone else’s.

[angelbeast90]

Oh I forgot to mention something! Agent HNG's data analyst Seo Jiwon had her mobile phone connected to charger. I'm saying he is meticulous. He also said he was suspended for the time being. I was going to add this to my post earlier but will leave it at that.

 

ONe more thing I noticed after a second watch Agent HNG saw a more dark figure whose features she could not make out but the build was different than Tae-Ik. So was it Juno/Junho? and then she passed out!

 

 

Also I'm confused with the sequence that took place at the end of the episode where Tae-Ik enters the tailor shop. Did he change face or something? The tailor guy is so unassuming. But also do all people talk to service industry people like they are at a bar and talk about all their problems , lol.

 

 

--

About Park Siwan I don't want the other guy to be his father. That will really make that boy loose his cool exterior and may go into more rebellion. I don't want him  go do a DNA test all by himself and then run away from home, maybe to go find his other dad for questioning! (Anyway I just want the actor who plays Siwan to get more screen time. Looks like it's his first drama. Besides I love when drama children complicate things and not just there for decorative purposes.)

 

 

PS: Sorry I keep editing stuff after I write it down.

 

 

[nrllee]

3 hours ago, angelbeast90 said:

Also I'm confused with the sequence that took place at the end of the episode where Tae-Ik enters the tailor shop. Did he change face or something? The tailor guy is so unassuming. But also do all people talk to service industry people like they are at a bar and talk about all their problems , lol.

 

I think that sequence was to highlight that the Tailor shop is like their HQ?  Tae-Ik is there as is OYS and so is the head of NIS.  Someone here mentioned the picture that OYS was painting in an earlier Ep.  I didn’t think much of it but it’s surfaced again in this last Ep, hanging in the Tailor shop and OYS was looking at it.  I need to take a better look at it. Does it look like an explosion to you?  Modern art version.  I just recall vivid lurid colors like red, orange and yellows. For it to resurface usually means it’s there for a reason so it warrants a closer look. 

[angelbeast90]

@nrllee:  Now that u mention it I took a screen capture. It does look like an explosion also looks like a tree. (this is all I could capture for now)

 

He's been drawing this painting after he was rescued and sent home. Is he drawing it subconsciously or consciously or some parts of the subconscious intertwined with the tree. He want to root out all evils of this tree and light a better future  and be the torch bearer of it,is it!

 

While he is looking at this drawing he speaks of light and shadows.

 

Also the bottom of the drawing seems to depict buildings at a distance.

[nrllee]

@angelbeast90 I am horrible at art.  Your interpretation is as good as anyone’s.  This is my screen capture.  It does look like a tree or flames or an explosion.  I keep thinking mushroom cloud like with nukes?    With all those lurid colours it just looks violent?

 

His conversation with the tailor is with reference to Director Ji (whom I assume is the guy he just took measurements of - head of NIS).  Ji wanted to meet with the man in charge (VIP?) or at the very least with the people he’s on the same side with in the government.  It looks like the VIP/mastermind keeps his pawns in the dark.  So they work in silo, not knowing who else is in on the master plan.  That’s why there was that light/dark reference.  All these “agents” planted inside the government in strategic spots - Ji in NIS, OYS as the Presidential candidate, Assembly Woman’s chief advisor, and Tae-Ik the henchman. They are in the dark.  They just follow orders.  And I think Advisor Han is the VIP even though it would appear that OYS is the one behind it all here.  

 

[40somethingahjumma]

Episode 7

The show is doing a really hard sell regarding OYS' probable guilt. The overt camera angles, the "ta-da" moments, the creepy music, the obvious attempts to highlight his enigmatic qualities. Someone's trying a little too hard to make him the chief perpetrator or someone with a hidden agenda. Most people have hidden agendas and it doesn't make them guilty of bombing national buildings to destablize the country. This is not to say of course that he is or isn't responsible for the NA bombing. Perhaps I'm cynical... but why is the show trying to be so helpful in fingering OYS as the boogey man?

 

I am surprised though that only 3 people are involved in the bombing investigation. Such a major event that rocked a nation and it seems rather odd that there's not more people at work following different avenues. Is the NIS so shorthanded or so narrowly focused that no one's looking at other possibilities?

 

It's clear that YCK is a master of political posturing. She knows how to maneouvre her way around the political processes if self-interest dictates. And then the opportunistic mayor. I imagine all this talk of impeachment of PMJ is really about OYS working side by side PMJ and he's wild card... dark horse etc etc. It's a variable that she's unable to factor in her calculations. Call me cynical... but she's only as concerned about the constitution as she needs to be. 

 

At the end of the day, self-interest prevailed. It was a good move by PMJ to "blackmail" two people to get his non-party cabinet rolling. I'm glad he's finding his own feet, his own groove even if he's not "politically savvy". One of the things about being a leader is reading and using people well. There is a kind of logic to that. But the best part is him finally just getting people to act on their self-interest and maintaining alliances. He is finally learning that there are other ways of being "a good man".

All in all a better than decent episode.

 

It's taken me a while to catch up. Still not there yet. Life's busy and there are too many dramas.  Be back soon.

[Belinda Tan]

On 7/24/2019 at 6:57 PM, triplem said:

scandals

 

On 7/24/2019 at 9:29 AM, liltash85 said:

After watching Ep 8, I am almost certain that OYS involved in the bombing. Either he has someone backing him up or he is the mastermind all along. 

I also know he has to do with the sudden confession of Agent Jeong Han Mo and the accident involving Han Na Gyeong. This drama keeps getting us confused on who is the culprit and mastermind. 

 

[jenappelle]

 

Quote

Episode 7

The show is doing a really hard sell regarding OYS' probable guilt.  The overt camera angles, the "ta-da" moments, the creepy music, the obvious attempts to highlight his enigmatic qualities. Someone's trying a little too hard to make him the chief perpetrator or someone with a hidden agenda. Most people have hidden agendas and it doesn't make them guilty of bombing national buildings to destablize the country. This is not to say of course that he is or isn't responsible for the NA bombing. Perhaps I'm cynical... but why is the show trying to be so helpful in fingering OYS as the boogey man?

@40somethingahjumma love it when you said you agree with PMJ say about anomalies. I think these hard sale is rather to hide another figure behind him rather than OYS is not involved. Although he is not a detective/police, he thinks in a way like what motivates people. So he gets frustrated when he couldnt get Yun and OYS motives. He did get NK motives thats why he is successful in EP2.

 

The other figure may be a beloved character/not so obvious/seemingly harmless character. What else that could pull the audience's heartstrings?

 

OYS couldnt act alone either so based on the clues we have, here is my guess on the hierachy:

• Front man - OYS
• Dirty work/coordinating guy - Tailor guy
• Someone with links to military   - NIS guy
• Person with links to bluehouse -?? (Mastermind)

 

Quote

It's clear that YCK is a master of political posturing. She knows how to maneouvre her way around the political processes if self-interest dictates. And then the opportunistic mayor. I imagine all this talk of impeachment of PMJ is really about OYS working side by side PMJ and he's wild card... dark horse etc etc. It's a variable that she's unable to factor in her calculations. Call me cynical... but she's only as concerned about the constitution as she needs to be. 

Agree about Yun entirely. She is not entirely devoid of feeling, but mostly self serving.

 

Quote

OYS to me is the one who put his hand up to be the potential “sacrifice”.  He’s the soldier with the resolve and the courage to go directly into the line of fire.  So I feel like there’s a group of them that planned this whole thing and he’s just the player who put his hand up to be where the bomb would go off (this is a life threatening situation, bomb shelter or not. It’s not like they could’ve had a drill beforehand. And potentially he could’ve died had that not found him in time).  So he plays the decorated hero, poster boy for the gang in the background.  The Presidential candidate who will be the “most likely to win” for the gang.  He just doesn’t strike me as a mastermind.  He’s more like a soldier who takes commands from a higher up.  So the gang is expecting him to win easily and just be a figurehead for the mastermind.

I wont say he doesn't have the mind for it, in fact he has it. He is very calculative, knowing which chess move is the best. Due to his status, I will consider him a higher up or a second in command in that mystery group chain,I am knocking him off the mastermind due to his lack of political or military power. But agree with him being "most likely to win" for the gang.  And even if he was not a higher up, he will be now. The comments with him and Yun is the first time he shows some emotion. Those emotions, although blocked by him partially, is still there.

 

Quote

 @nrlleeI need to rewatch Cha’s assessment of OYS during that meeting where he laid out his reasons why he thought OYS wouldn’t take up the PM post but would take up the Minister of Defense post offered.  Assembly woman Yun isn’t the mastermind.  There have been too many scenes of her openly recruiting OYS.  The mastermind hides in the background. 

I will look for the korean wording but basically the sub says that he thinks OYS think like it this way:

1) Being Prime Minister - administrative. No advantage for him. Will be attacked by oppositions (if i recall correctly)

2) Ministry of Defense = ex soldier and honourably fought in a war (?). Great advantage to him and he is trustable in citizen's eyes.

 

Quote

@nrllee I think Advisor Han was annoyed by Cha’s ‘defection’.  He thought Cha was a done deal.  He would side with the person he thought would win (which would be OYS). Han thought PMJ’s lack of ambition and want of political savvy would doom him to failure as a candidate.  That he would just be happy to seat warm for 60days and bail.  But he’s risen to the occasion and is now becoming a threat.  If Advisor Han is the mastermind, he knows PMJ enough to know that he will not join a side who would kill for the sake of a better tomorrow.  So he will need to do something to rock that boat of his.  

I found that his lack of reaction interesting. Like Sec Cha, he keeps his full deck to himself. Cha has shown one of his cards to Han, half to Park Dae, and both to Sec Jeong, but Han has shown no one so far what are all of the cards on his hands. I couldnt make heads and tails of this, so atm I am guessing its either a person burn out of politics or another motive like what you suggest.

 

Re: Agent Jeong

 

I think he confesses because:
> When he watches the live streaming, he realises that his options are limited. If he exposes OYS, nothing will be done, lives will be at stake

> So he try to do a last attempt to talk to Park Dae while hoping OYS is not in and not yet officially in his role.

> When he arrives the room, his mind is calculating which is the best options. And I think he realises that he has limited options than b4. The best options is to do an uncalculated chess move, and hopefully the President will realises that something is wrong.

 

 

 

 

[imgreatgal]

Does anyone know how many years PMJ and his wife been married. I thought i heard his wife said somewhere in a conversation "we've been married 15yrs". The photo that SW found shows PMJ's wife and a man, she is pregnant and they were holding a baby's garment. The date on the photo is 050316. 

[jenappelle]

12 minutes ago, triplem said:

What do you guys think of the faceless picture in this character chart? The unknown mastermind? 

Better view here http://program.tving.com/tvn/60days/13/Contents/Html

 

The word that was written in red is "daelib" which when google translated means opposition, which is different from the one to OYS's picture that says rival/ competition.... so perhaps there could someone else behind all of this besides the main players that we have seen

 

 

The red words (two hangul) is 대립 is per what you said, in opposition of.

 

테러배후: 테러= terror (terror in korean pronounciation), 배후 = behind. Ie terrorism mastermind

[joccu]

I'm been thinking about president parks scandal. It could be about his son but there is other thing that I been thinking. 

Assemblyman oh said in the preview what would president park feel when he knows that he is part of the bombing. 

So what if President park was somehow involved with the assembly bombing simulation what was show in the first episode in Jun ho phone? Or He has seen the simulation before.

 

And about president park son. If Siwan really isn't park real son. IS that really that big of scandal? I mean the bigger scandal would be if SIwan real dad would be like some big criminal.

 

[nrllee]

6 hours ago, joccu said:

And about president park son. If Siwan really isn't park real son. IS that really that big of scandal? I mean the bigger scandal would be if SIwan real dad would be like some big criminal.

 

Yeah that’s why I think it will be more than that.  It will be a series of scandals, not just the isolated case.  And if anything, PMJ marrying a pregnant woman would be seen as the “decent” thing to do?  Unless he was the third party  which caused the first marriage to break up.  It would rock the little idyllic safety net that he has so far in his family.  Not just in his relationship with his son, but also with his wife who would then also be scrutinised for her less than ideal behavior.  Now that would been a scandal.  It would hit at his character.  So far, he’s been portrayed as this upright, honest man.  To throw shade into that premise would cause his popularity to nose dive, not just with the public but also with his team.  Especially when put up against national hero OYS who has thus far done nothing but the right thing in the public eye.

 

Quote

Assemblyman oh said in the preview what would president park feel when he knows that he is part of the bombing. 

So what if President park was somehow involved with the assembly bombing simulation what was show in the first episode in Jun ho phone? Or He has seen the simulation before.

 

Yeah that statement stumped me too.  And the early scenes kept playing in my mind...how could he possibly have even remotely been “involved”?  It doesn’t make sense for the Minister of Environment to have seen the simulation.  Unless it (being tied to the bombing) was somehow tied to his treatment of the US delegate and the treaty to be signed.  That somehow it was the trigger that set off a chain of events which led to the decision to the bombing.  Actually why was the National Assembly meeting called in the first place (I forget)?  Was it because of the failed treaty with the US?  

 

Quote

@triplem

What do you guys think of the faceless picture in this character chart? The unknown mastermind? 

 

Yes the unknown mastermind I think.  Initially I thought it was someone yet to be revealed, as in a faceless conglomerate figure who suddenly gets thrust in our face at the end (which would annoy the heck out of everyone ).  But I think all the players are already revealed and there is no faceless figure.  The faceless figure is one of the people already in play (like we’re guessing here - Yun, Oh or Han.).

 

8 hours ago, jenappelle said:

Re: Agent Jeong

 

I think he confesses because:
> When he watches the live streaming, he realises that his options are limited. If he exposes OYS, nothing will be done, lives will be at stake

> So he try to do a last attempt to talk to Park Dae while hoping OYS is not in and not yet officially in his role.

> When he arrives the room, his mind is calculating which is the best options. And I think he realises that he has limited options than b4. The best options is to do an uncalculated chess move, and hopefully the President will realises that something is wrong.

 

Yeah he took me by surprise.  Initially I thought he was part of the Tailor gang but now we know it was his boss that is one of them.  Don’t know if his real motives for doing the turnaround will be revealed or not.  

 

Quote

I will look for the korean wording but basically the sub says that he thinks OYS think like it this way:

1) Being Prime Minister - administrative. No advantage for him. Will be attacked by oppositions (if i recall correctly)

2) Ministry of Defense = ex soldier and honourably fought in a war (?). Great advantage to him and he is trustable in citizen's eyes

 

Thanks for this.  It makes sense then.  Why put yourself in the direct line of fire (being Prime Minister) in the meantime BEFORE signing up for President?  Better to sit tight (as Defence Minister for the next month or so) and fly under the radar and let higher ups like PMJ take all the heat and suffer from popularity swings.  Just let Yun and PMJ fight it out in the public arena and play it safe.  Keep your nose clean until Presidential Election comes around because that is the battle that counts.

 

Mystery man (assumed Agent Han’s fiancé)

- does he have a boss he is reporting to?  Or is he acting totally on his own?  Assuming it is Jun-O, if he discovered his boss was in the Tailor Group, and he’s in over his head but still wants to keep uncovering the links and ties within the government then faking his death and investigating under the cover of darkness would be his best shot of doing this.  Not sure if using his fiancé is kosher though.  But he is a task oriented man so I will let it slide.

[angelbeast90]

@nrlee : about the scandal: you have  almost written what I was thinking but I felt I did not want to go more makjang. lol. I'm going to spoiler this my wild imaginings

Spoiler

 

But I was thinking that the previous partner was a drug dealer who was put in prison and she found out sooner and started the divorce procedure on him. So one month later she started dating Park Myungjae a professor where she goes to lecture on lawyerly things and then she got pregnant . Her previous husband came to visit her one fine day and asked to take a picture with her to send to her mother to keep appearances. He tried to convince to stop the divorce proceedings but she did not agree to that though after much thought and talk to Park Myungjae. So she got married to Park Myungjae but also asked for the photo back if not she will go full lawyerly and put him in prison herself. But why she kept that photo in her bag after all these years confuse the heck out of me?

 

 

[40somethingahjumma]

So the tailor's shop is Conspiracy HQ? Interesting. Our plotters seem to have a taste for the finer things in life.

So who is this VIP? OYS? The tailor? Or someone else? That remains unclear to me. Perhaps it's due to LJH's beautifully nuanced performance here but when OYS spoke to PMJ beside the pond (?), there was both a sense of regret, seething anger and sincerity in his words. I expect that OYS believed in every single thing that he said. He is an idealist... the real kind. The one who is willing to take their radical agenda to the extreme. The worst kind of survival guilt and perhaps a revolutionary in the making.

 

Interesting. It seems that the very foundations of SK democracy is at stake here. The exchange between OYS and Tailor Kim reminds me of something that Churchill was supposed to have said "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". No one would disagree that democracy is flawed (what system put together by humans isn't) but I shudder at the thought of what might be instituted in place of it. Our conspirators sound like the kinds of people that think they know best what the rest of us need. The twentieth century is littered with examples of such idealists. "Whatever it takes" I've been reading The Gulag Archipelago again and listening to a historian being interviewed about Stalin and his rule over the Soviet Union... the mass killings (far exceeded that of Hitler) and Mao's bloody cultural revolution in China... it's horrifying to think that there are those amongst us who want to take us back there.

 

Before Episode 8, I wondered perhaps if OYS was not a part of the initial conspiracy but knew people who were. But it's hard now to deny that he is a key player even if he's not the mysterious VIP. I always believed that there had to be people in every branch of the civil service for this to work and now that's been borne out by recent revelations. These people are not content to game the system like YCK or Mayor Kang. I imagine their goal is to completely overhaul how politics is done in the country. I have no idea how though. But it is the conceit of human nature to think that they have the answers that nobody else has ever thought of before they came on the scene. We've had thousands of years of recorded history of various forms of governments. Some have worked better than others.. not necessarily because of the system but because of the values that underpinned the motivations of those who governed. Any kind of system that doesn't consider the foibles of humanity is doomed to fail.

 

I don't want to diminish OYS' grievances about past government decisions. We all have our own complaints about government incompetency. But I don't think blowing up a building with corrupt and/or incompetent politicians is going to change much because the problem runs far far deeper. 

 

Whatever the flaws of this drama, we certainly have to give the actors their due. The cast is solid but for me SSK rates a special mention. He certainly put in an amazing performance in this episode although  he has been consistently great throughout this drama so far. CYJ's monologue when responding to JSJ was truly heartbreaking. I've said this in the past... he speaks for me... as it turns out even more than I had thought. He is looking for a good man who plays the political game well and with determination. A fighter with sound morals. SSK's anguish was palpable... the frustration, the grief and the pain that tumbled out of his lips broke my heart.

PMJ might not want to go beyond the 60 days... but then he might not have a choice. The country is under existential threat even worse than he had thought and good people have to rise to the occasion regardless of what they would prefer to do.

 

My favourite quote from Lord of the RIngs which is so pertinent in PMJ's case:

 

Quote

 

Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

 

 

 

 

[nrllee]

19 minutes ago, 40somethingahjumma said:

My favourite quote from Lord of the RIngs which is so pertinent in PMJ's case:

 

Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

 

Ahh...yes... the Ring came to PMJ quite by accident.  He is of the Shire.  A Hobbit.  Good hearted and true.  Thrust into the Fellowship and never quite fitting with the Elves, Men and Wizards. Tasked to take the ring to the fires of Mordor.  The most unexpected of heroes.  He needs to hold close then to the wise counsel of Samwise when he thinks to give up.

 

Quote

“It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.”