Quick run-through:
Chul’s foray into Yeon Joo’s world has consequences and has us realizing that Seong Moo sucks at talking himself out of a dangerous situation. Here’s an idea Seong Moo. Just stop talking. We get even more kisses, a shipping war, Seong Moo being a jackass and a broken Chul. Ahhhh “W”. How I love you.
The Episode in 10 Moments:
- Chul confirms that his entire life’s been a webtoon
After stepping out of the webtoon world and into the real world, Chul’s world further tips on its axis when he notices a huge billboard with his own face on it, advertising “W”. It’s even worse when he walks into a bookstore and sees the “W” stand filled with a ton of comics. He picks one up and flips through, seeing his entire life play out before his horrified eyes; from his parents’ murder to his arrest, to Cheol Ho’s witch hunt and eventual foray into politics all the way to Cheol Ho becoming a Congressman. Even Chul’s meeting with Do Yoon to ask him to train him how to fight is all on display for him to read, and Chul using those skills to fight a wanted criminal and his gang of hoodlums. Chul reads about how his goodwill with the people rises, so much so that Cheol Ho’s party head meets with him to tell him that Cheol Ho’s popularity decreases as Chul’s rises, seeing that the people actually believe that Chul was falsely accused and Cheol Ho had merely mounted a witch hunt on him. The party chief had told Cheol Ho that he needs to put countermeasures in place in case Chul actually catches the person responsible for his parents murder. Cheol Ho had scoffed though that Chul is the true murderer. As Chul closes the last page in the 33rd volume of a comic detailing his entire life, he sinks to the floor and lies there numb until the store employees show up to tell him that they’re closing up shop. He asks if “W”‘s a popular book and when they tell him it’s been a bestseller for five years straight, he gives a broken smile (ooof. The pain. Shit). One of the employees offers to pack the books for him but Chul turns down the offer, stating that he already knows it all.
2. Chul comes to visit Yeon Joo and totally obliterates us in the process
Yeon Joo’s at Myungsei, reading the recent “W” chapter and flashing back to Chul’s kiss when Soo Bong calls her to tell her that he’d brought someone to check out the computer. The person had told him that there’s nothing wrong with the computer or the server and now Soo Bong’s decided to stay away from the house until Seong Moo returns because he’s terrified of being there alone. Yeon Joo hangs up after the call’s done and whilst she’s scrubbing up for surgery, Seok Bum shows up, wondering when she’d acquired a fiance. Yeon Joo has no idea what he’s talking about, especially when Seok Bum tells her that the man had said Yeon Joo would know who he is when he tells her that he’s her fiance. It still doesn’t click for Yeon Joo until Seok Bum leaves and she stutters to a stop. She walks out of the OR just as Seok Bum’s telling Chul that he’s looking for the wrong person. When Chul turns around and spots her, he gives a little smile and then winks at her (holy shit. I think my ovaries just exploded). Yeon Joo’s stunned (can you blame her though? He destroys me, how much less her) and dazedly follows Chul when he leads her up to the hospital rooftop. She’s stunned as she wonders if she’s been dragged into his world and even as she points out that this is her hospital, Chul tells her that he is the one who’s come into her world. He continues by explaining that everything in his world stopped except for him and that’s why he escaped and came to Yeon Joo’s world. He doesn’t know why he’s the only one to survive and gives a deprecating laugh as he states that maybe it’s the privilege he gets as the main character. Yeon Joo’s stunned and Chul tells her that he’d used the last of his money to buy all 33 volumes of “W” and now he knows why she knew him so well. She must have been a fan, what with how she watched him for seven years. He tells her that right now, he regrets not having listened to her warnings that he’d be unfortunate if he learned the truth. And now, he knows she’d kept her silence because she was protecting him, which is why he’s come to say goodbye. He thanks her for considering him and declares that she’s a good person who deserves to be a good doctor. Yeon Joo at that point receives a call informing her that Professor Park is around. Chul concludes that she’s busy and an anxious Yeon Joo asks where Chul’s going and tells him to wait for her. She calls herself his guardian and when Chul teases her for acting like him, she points out that he doesn’t have any money, ID or a place to stay and states that she knows exactly how lost he must be feeling in that moment. Chul gives her a soft smile and Yeon Joo tells him that she really is a doctor in her world, and she might not be as rich as he is, but she has money and a place for him to stay. She tells him to just trust her and wait right there for her to come back out. She looks so worried that Chul gives a soft smile and nods. As she makes to leave, Chul spins her around (omo), gently pulls her in (*sigh*) and kisses her softly, angling his head to kiss her over and over again (and now, I’ve melted into a puddle of goo).
3. Professor Park’s hilariously prissy
Chul pulls away from Yeon Joo who still has her eyes closed like she’s savoring the kiss. She opens her eyes and asks him why he’d just done what he did and Chul replies that that’s how he felt after reading all 33 volumes. He’s 99 times unhappier, but the good thing is although he’s always felt like he’s at a disadvantage, he now knows what’s on her mind and so she better not be coy with him (hehehe). Yeon Joo smiles and makes to leave, but stops to tell Chul that should he need anything, he can talk to Seok Bum about it. Chul asks if Seok Bum’s her boyfriend and Yeon Joo reminds him that she doesn’t have a boyfriend. She then heads to the OR where a very prissy Professor Park complains about how the name Oh Yeon Joo is doomed (hehehehe). He continues that things went downhill for “W” the minute the name Yeon Joo was introduced, and now the Yeon Joo in front of him is trying to ruin the cardiothoracic surgery of the hospital. He calls her doomed and states that he will see her at the end of the surgery. Yeon Joo sighs as she looks at the timer on the wall.
4. Chul learns that Yeon Joo’s the daughter of his creator
Chul however, didn’t stay at the hospital as he instead heads to Seong Moo’s house. No one answers when he rings the doorbell so he breaks in and heads to Seong Moo’s study where he sees a portfolio filled with images of his car and his apartment. Outside the room, he notices “W” covers with his face on them, all over the wall and also sees sketches of himself, Do Yoon and So Hee. Worse still is the raw sketches of his face that fills Seong Moo’s sketchpad and he sees that same face as he stares into the mirror. The sight has him screaming in rage and he proceeds to trash Seong Moo’s desk. But when he sees the framed photograph of Seong Moo and Yeon Joo and flashes back to all the time Yeon Joo had showed up in time to save him, her invincibility in his world and her saying she’s his fan, he sighs in a just-when-I-thought-my-life-couldn’t-get-any-more-fucked-up way, and then his face hardens as he storms out of the house.
5. Yeon Joo and Professor Park get into a shipping war (hahahaha)
Yeon Joo tries sneaking away after the surgery but she’s busted by Professor Park who wonders where she’s headed to. He reminds her that he’d said he was going to end her after the surgery and when Yeon Joo tries to explain that she has someone waiting for her, he gets miffed as he declares that she’s getting smart with him because she knows that he’s a fan of her father’s work. The words get him started on a tirade as he declares that “W” is stressing him out (not only you. It’s stressing me out too with all its twists and turns). He wonders what’s wrong with Seong Moo that he’s bringing in romance instead of sticking to the original genre of the comic and work at catching the suspect. Yeon Joo wonders why a hero has to work hard all the time and not take the time to fall in love. She declares that Chul is human too and can fall in love and Professor Park insists that what comic Yeon Joo and Chul are doing is flirting and not love. Yeon Joo asks why Professor Park is so insistent on it not being love and Professor Chul points out that Chul hasn’t even told comic Yeon Joo that he loves her. Yeon Joo declares that it doesn’t always have to be said out loud. Professor Park wonders how comic Yeon Joo would be able to know otherwise and Yeon Joo replies that she knows but can’t tell him. One of the nurses pipes up that that means Yeon Joo knows something and Professor Park is horrified at the thought of Chul ending up with comic Yeon Joo when he should end up with So Hee, his best friend of ten years instead. Yeon Joo points out that it shouldn’t necessarily lead to marriage, and besides Chul has never shown in any way that he likes So Hee like that. Professor Park insists that it should be a logical conclusion and states how the conversation would go: Chul will confess his love to So Hee, they’d kiss and that will be the end. He calls it a formula and Yeon Joo insists that things wouldn’t end up that way, besides Chul likes her. At the slip-up, she hangs her head and Professor Park tells her that she’s shares a mental age with his teenage daughter (hahaha). He declares that they would be good friends, seeing that his daughter’s a groupie as well. Yeon Joo though can’t bear to wait any longer and apologizes to Professor Park as she tells him that she has to be somewhere important. She runs to the rooftop but Chul’s gone. He’s not in the hospital either and as she wonders where he went, she places a call to her father’s phone. Seong Moo’s phone however doesn’t go through and she texts him to ask where he’s at.
6. Chul gets a face to face meeting with his creator
Seong Moo it turns out is back at home, unaware that he has a visitor waiting for him. He immediately pours himself a drink and switches on his phone and is hit by a barrage of text messages from the editor, Soo Bong and Yeon Joo. Yeon Joo’s message has him calling her but at that exact moment, Chul steps out from the shadows and calls him by name. Seong Moo’s so shocked he drops his glass and is unaware when Yeon Joo picks up. Yeon Joo is able to hear Chul tell Seong Moo that he’s always known it was him (wait what? How?) and states that they have a lot to talk about. Seong Moo’s shocked as to how Chul got to their world and Chul replies that he’d been expecting Seong Moo to tell him the answer; seeing that Seong Moo’s the one that created him. He tells Seong Moo to come closer and take a seat and when Seong Moo spies a box cutter on his desk, he tries using it to attack Chul (guy’s probably forgotten he gave Chul super fighting skills). Chul easily disarms him and slams him on the table and Yeon Joo who can hear the tussle calls for her father. Seong Moo refuses to stay down though and keeps attacking Chul until Chul hits him with the butt of his pistol. Seong Moo crumbles to the ground and Chul drags him to a chair after which he then points the gun at Seong Moo. He tells him to be grateful to Yeon Joo who had kept trying to save him whenever Seong Moo had tried killing him, as that’s the reason why Chul’s going easy on him. Yeon Joo who’s still on the line, calls Soo Bong with the landline to tell him to go to Seong Moo immediately. She has to repeat the fact that Chul’s with Seong Moo several times before it sinks in for Soo Bong that Chul is in their world. She tells him to tell Chul to just wait for her and not do anything drastic and immediately heads out. Soo Bong as well, rushes out of the Cafe he’s at.
7. Seong Moo had personally attempted to murder Chul (holy shit)
Chul thankfully withdraws the gun and gives a sardonic smile as he states that Seong Moo’s bleeding. He points out that the man’s not immortal in this world (wait, have they met at some point? Cuz Chul’s words seem to be heading in that direction) and it’s only fair because it had been unfair that it was only Chul that bled and got hurt. We then flashback to Chul getting stabbed and Seong Moo smiling as he draws the scene (god, I hate that he smiles at the thought of killing him like that. So wrong). He’d just finished pouring himself a drink when Chul had reached for him and yanked him into his world (fucking hell!). Chul states that the first person he’d brought into his world hadn’t been Yeon Joo but Seong Moo. Yeon Joo who’s still on the phone is stunned to hear this and we see in flashback that Chul had begged Seong Moo to help him or call an ambulance. Seong Moo had done neither but had instead picked up the killer’s knife, told Chul that they should end it and plunged in the knife (what the fuck?!!!! Asshole! That’s murder!!!!!). Chul had forced the knife out (ouch) and had turned it around and stabbed Seong Moo with it. Seong Moo though had suffered no injuries and so had been able to flee unharmed (oooh. So that’s why he knew that Yeon Joo couldn’t get hurt). He tells Seong Moo that it had been Seong Moo who’d fatally injured him and Yeon Joo who’s listening closes her eyes at the realization. Chul continues that Yeon Joo had then appeared and saved him and no one knew that there had been two killers up on the rooftop that night. And although he’d kept quiet, he knew that Seong Moo was the one who had tried to kill him without any context, although he hadn’t known exactly who Seong Moo was. Chul glances around the room and states that Seong Moo must have created him in the room, with a pen in his hand and had decided to kill him with that same pen. Because now that Seong Moo’s successful, he doesn’t need him anymore. Furthermore, Seong Moo had achieved that success by making Chul suffer and turning his life into a rollercoaster, only for him to decide to attempt to kill Chul at the end of it all. And when he hadn’t been able to kill him through his scenarios, he’d attempted finishing the job himself.
8. Chul verbally flays Seong Moo
Chul tells Seong Moo that he’d done his research whilst waiting for Seong Moo to return home and scoffs that Seong Moo is now so popular. Before though, he was an incompetent head of his family and unsuccessful webtoon artist, given to his alcoholism.We see in flashback Seong Moo and Soo Sun arguing whilst child Yeon Joo sketched a drawing of a man holding a gun (Shit. She created Chul?). Most importantly, he was old, which was why Seong Moo had created Chul to be an antithesis to everything he was: young, successful, wealthy, popular and with a strong will; a person through which Seong Moo could live vicariously, whilst escaping his reality. But that hadn’t lasted long for Seong Moo because his wife had finally left him, and because Seong Moo has an inferiority complex, that combined with his lack of will or confidence led to him giving up. Which was why he’d decided to kill Chul; because he wanted Chul to commit the suicide that he wasn’t brave enough to do. Chul was the only thing Seong Moo could control in his world, but something had gone wrong starting then because Chul had started to have nightmares of drowning in Han River. He gives another sardonic laugh as he states that he’d never understood why and glares as he tells Seong Moo that he knows why now: Seong Moo had killed him but then changed his mind and saved him.
9. Seong Moo sucks at hostage negotiation, even when he is the hostage
Seong Moo replies that he hadn’t saved Chul back then. Instead, Chul had resisted death and Seong Moo had finally taken pity on him and saved him. He tells Chul that he’d been quite fond of Chul back in the day and his face turns ugly as he tells Chul that it was from that day on that Chul became a monster (dude, right now you are the one looking ugly). Unaware that Yeon Joo can still hear everything, Seong Moo admits to giving Chul everything and yet Chul had wanted to learn about this world with the brain he had given him. He continues that it makes no sense because Chul is a cartoon character and not a human being, and yet he kept giving him a hard time. And now, Chul’s here. He continues that he’d spoken to a psychiatrist and even told his friends. But nobody believed him. He’d even tried running away but couldn’t because he’d remembered Yeon Joo and the fact that he hadn’t done anything for her whilst she’d been growing up. And so, he’d forced himself to keep going because people liked his work and it helped him earn a living. He’d kept himself going with the thought that he needed to provide for Yeon Joo, buy her a hospital so she wouldn’t have to worry again. He asks if Chul thinks he’s the only one with nightmares and declares that he too has nightmares of Chul suddenly showing up in front of him. He’d kept drawing with the hope that it would all end soon and he wouldn’t need to keep drawing Chul once he finishes. But Chul wouldn’t die and had instead pulled him and then Yeon Joo into his world. A tearful Chul looks at Seong Moo as he shouts that Chul’s an illusion; a character he’d created, so why does he appear like he’s a person and why is he forcing his story to continue by dragging Yeon Joo into the mess? He stands and declares that Chul’s just a character he created and he can’t shoot him. Why? Because he created Chul that way (dude, that’s what your daughter said. And look how that panned out). He continues to dig his grave by declaring he made Chul righteous, he made him into someone who wouldn’t shoot someone who’s helpless and unarmed. He laughs at Chul thinking he’s in there out of his own free will and states that the only reason why Chul is there is because he was the one who gave him an unusually strong will; a will so strong that Chul himself refuses to die unless he understands why. He pulls the gun to himself and screams at Chul to kill him. Yeon Joo who’s on the other end of the line begs Seong Moo to stop but Seong Moo can’t hear her. Chul tries to shoot but can’t and his hands hang limply at the realization (awwww. I’m sorry Chul. Now there’s a part of me that wants you to shoot him. Maybe in an arm? Leg? Blast off a toe?).
10. Seong Moo’s death wish is granted
Chul then pushes Seong Moo in front of his computer and tells him to draw the ending he’d initially planned, an ending that Chul’s will will be able to accept; an ending that involves Seong Moo revealing to him exactly who the killer Chul’s been searching so intently for is. He pulls out the gun and tells Seong Moo to draw the killer’s face. Seong Moo picks up his pen but can’t draw it. He admits that everything was a set-up for Chul to become the stereotypical hero who’s gone through a traumatic experience: the experience in this case, being the murder of his parents. A horrified Chul realizes that that’s the reason why Seong Moo kept trying to kill him. It was because Seong Moo knew that there wouldn’t be a happy ending and if things hadn’t turned out the way they had, Seong Moo would have continued with his successful life whilst Chul would have continued to chase after a ghost all the while suffering from insomnia and getting hurt and broken. He cries as he asks if Seong Moo knows all that he’s gone through, things that Seong Moo himself can’t even endure. Seong Moo had put him through all that, all the whilst thinking himself a god with none of the responsibility whilst Chul’s the one that feels the pain. Seong Moo replies that it’s fiction; he was just doing his job. Chul doesn’t think so though because Seong Moo had seen him alive and breathing and had tried killing him anyway. That is who Seong Moo really is although all this while, he’s been hiding behind a pen rather than a knife. He calls him trash and a murderer and raises his gun. Seong Moo closes his eyes, waiting for the shot whilst a worried Yeon Joo screams “No” and Soo Bong gets to the gate, trying to look for a way in. Chul can’t pull the trigger though and his hand drops as he woodenly tells Seong Moo to think of a solution before he comes back. Yeon Joo’s relieved at the save and Chul tells Seong Moo to consider himself lucky. He makes to leave, only for Seong Moo to declare that he isn’t lucky, but rather, it’s all part of Chul’s set-up and he can’t kill him. The words are the last straw and Chul draws his gun and shoots Seong Moo (I am not surprised. The idiot just wouldn’t shut the fuck up).
Character i wanted to bitchslap:
Seriously, firstly he actually stabbed Chul. Stabbed him. And then he has the audacity to keep pushing Chul and blathering on about it being part of Chul’s make up. Man I wanted to slap that smug and ugly look off his face.
Headache inducing moment:
Cuz the guy’s got a death wish and it’s Chul he wants to use to end his troubles. Talk about giving me a migraine.
Alcohol Rep:
This episode’s a Cinquecento. It’s the very definition of bittersweet with the way that kiss turned me into a puddle of goo. That and how Chul looked at Yeon Joo like she’s the bees knees. But then we’re hit with the sad part. So much heart-wrenching sadness; because Chul’s world crumbled some more and to realize that all the pain and hell he’s been through had no end in sight from the very beginning but was instead some machinations of Seong Moo the overload doing it to tell a good story without consideration for the character he’s putting through hell. I was as devastated as Chul and shit, even as a writer, it makes me feel horrible for imagined characters that I’ve put through hell all for the sake of an engaging story. But the thing is, no character should have to go through that hell without achieving a measure of peace and growth at the end of it all. Seong Moo keeps calling it the set-up and claiming that he’s doing it for the sake of the story and because it’s his job. But any writer worth his or her salt knows that a character arc has to come to a suitable conclusion especially if he’s the hero of your story. It’s a given and a pre-requisite. And Seong Moo talking the way he’s talking just further confirms him as the lazy webtoon writer with an inferiority complex that Chul had called him from the onset. The man’s lazy and not willing to push to see how much further the story can go and who the villain is. He’s given up midway and decided to kill the character because he can’t work with the story anymore, and what gets to me is how he keeps justifying it that that’s how the ending should be because he’s a writer. Well dude have I got some news for you: good writers complete their character’s arc. It might not be a happy ending but it should be an ending that successfully completes the character arc and killing your character is just you taking the easy way out. Plus, you’re trying to drag Chul down with you because we all know he would not be able to live with himself if he thinks he actually killed someone. Especially if that someone’s the father of the girl he likes.
