My Thoughts — Save Me— Episode 5 & 6
Nutshell Summary:
The van containing Im Sang Mi (Seo Ye Ji), the boy, creepy curly haired church leader Jo Wan Tae and mute faithful leader Jo Wan Duk (Wan Tae’s brother) goes down a hill and flips on it’s back when Sang Mi attacks them knowing they intend to permanently silence her and the boy for the video showing Wan Tae assaulting a woman. Sang Mi and boy flee but Wan Tae and Wan Duk catch them. Cruelly Wan Tae lures the boy to cross railroad tracks. A train hits and kills him. Sang Mi is traumatized. They return to the cult church. Faithful leader Kang Eun Sil is relieved the precious chaste Sang Mi is unharmed.
Father Im isn’t pleased that his daughter doesn’t embrace the cult church fully. He fears a devil is near his daughter. Sang Mi can’t believe her father’s loyalty is to the church not his own daughter. Mother Im dreams of joining their dead son (Im Sang Jin) in heaven. Eun Sil piles her with pills to keep her docile and Wan Tae insinuates if Sang Mi doesn’t cooperate accidents could happen.
Han Sang Hwan (Ok Taecyeon) confronts his father on failing to keep his promise to get Dong Cheol out of prison. Father Hwang blusters he’s working on it. Sang Hwan declares his a liar because his Father doesn’t know Dong Chul is being released the next day. Sang Hwan accurately sees that his father only cares about obedience and loyalty to his agenda but not others except what they can do for him.
In an eerily parallel moment Father Hwang demands loyalty from local police detective while cult leader Father Baek Jung Ki (Cho Seong Ha) receives similar loyalty from a sick follower who vows to give the church all his worldly possessions for salvation and a cure for his illness. The message is clear; both men demand loyalty from others to serve their own selfish needs.
Seok Dong Cheol (Woo Do Hwan) is released. He gets a job at club working for the club owner / local thug. A man enters the club and threatens the local thug saying he went to prison because him. The thug sends his goons to beat him up. But the man single-handedly dispatches the goons. He warns the club owner he’ll be back. The man and Dong Chul knew each other from prison. The man tells Dong Chul they both have iron chains around their hearts from their past. He tells Dong Chul should he ever need his help, he’ll provide it. Dong Chul visits his grandmother’s memorial and cries remembering her single visit to him in prison when he turned his back but sweetly kissed the glass where her hand was. Dong Chul runs into the trio from high school that brutally bullied at Im Sang Jin who committed suicide. It’s awkward to say the least. Dong Chul walks away. But Dong Chul doesn’t walk away when he witnessed a man pulling a resisting woman into a car. He grabs a pipe, stands on the car and order the man to exit. When the man doesn’t comply, Dong Chul bashes in the windshield.
Sang Hwan hangs with Woo Jung Hoon (David Lee), and Choi Man Hee (Ha Hwe Jung). Riding their motorcycles the Church’s van hits Sang Hwan’s bike. Ok but shaken Sang Hwan doesn’t take the settlement creepy cult elder Wan Tae offers. But when cult elder Kang Eun Sil exits the van she makes their threats to call the police moot when she claims to smell alcohol on their breath. Headlights illuminate Sang Mi and she mouths “save me”. Sang Hwan recognizes her. They follow the Church’s van to find out where Sang Mi lives but lose them.
They spot Sang Mi handing out flyers. Sang Hwan asks Sang Mi if she needs his help. He promises to not fail. Unfortunately he makes the offer in front of Eun Sil who forces Sang Mi to leave with her.
A deliveryman identifies Sang Mi’s house. The trio go there under the cover of night. But when they scale the wall, they make noise. Father Im comes outside to see what made the noise. He searches the ground growing closer to where they are hiding.
My Thoughts
Father Im is so brain washed he is difficult to watch. His allegiance to the cult church is first and foremost. He believes Sang Mi’s continued rejection of the church is due to a devil near her or possessing her. Sang Mi longs for the parents she once knew, but they are gone, either controlled by grief (her mother) or the teachings of the cult church (her father).
Sang Mi’s resistance continues to be tested. Eun Sil, Wan Tae, and her father all demand she acquiesce and give her loyalty and trust to the church. In real life, you wonder why people don’t leave cults if they don’t believe in them. Sang Mi is the poster child for staying because her parents are in the clutches of the church. It was difficult to watch her utter the expected responses to the church with tears streaming down her face. It was difficult to watch the police turn her over to her father and cult when she went to them for help.
Wan Tae continues his scummy ways. He practically slapped his brother’s head off after the accident. I did enjoy when Father Baek literally forced him to his knees as a reminder that he’s top dog in the church’s hierarchy.
Sang Hwan realized his father won’t keep his promises. Three years ago Sang Hwan faced his father’s ultimatum. Don’t testify to save Dong Cheol from a bogus charge or he’d lose the election for Governor. In return, his father promised to get Dong Cheol out of prison. He lied. Now Sang Hwan sees his father is a lying manipulator. Sang Hwan couldn’t get Sang Mi’s plea for help out of his head. Sang Hwan was stupid to ask Sang Mi if she needed his help in front of Eun Sil. But Sang Hwan’s gut instinct says that Sang Mi needs his help. He’s determined to help her this time, not forsake her like last time because of his father’s request to keep a low profile during the election for Governor. His father’s mercy killing and subsequent butchering of a deer was unpleasant.
Dong Cheol is released and a wounded loner. Full disclosure, I’ve got a crush on this character with his hurt heart and hardened exterior. He didn’t look up his Sang Hwan, Jung Hoon or Man Hee when he came back to town. Instead he forged his own path working for a local thug and club owner. His attack of the man who dragged the woman was surprisingly decisive. I’m afraid Dong Cheol can not avoid self destructing.
Ranking the episodes (on a scale from 1-10) had me rank the episode 5 as decent and episode 6 as good. My episode ranking chart is below.
Asian drama fan. I watch and blog dramas on https://kjtamusings.wordpress.com/.
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You nailed 🔨 it on the head, Father Im is hard to watch. I am sickened to not only see his behavior the the cult leaders threatening Sang Mi using her mother. I hate to say it, but it looks like her parents are a lost cause, unless something snaps them out of it.
I hate to see our hero, Dong Chul, working in such a scummy environment. I’m glad he avoided his High school enemies. Nevertheless Dong Chul continued to fight for the underdog; I just hope 🙏 he doesn’t get in trouble. I hope Dong Chul can reconcile with his friends and help Sang Mi.
Speaking of friends, I’m glad to see Sang Hwan being persistent about following up with Sang Mi . It is also refreshing to see that Sang Hwan recognizes his father as a lying manipulator.
I found the governor killing and butchering of the deer to be DISTURBING❗. The hacking away at the carcass with a hachet was bad enough, but when the Governor was snapping its neck, he said something to the effect that just because the deer was struggling for breath didn’t give it much of an existence. My thoughts went to his wife, Sang Hwan’s mother … If the Governor has that philosophy about the deer, does he really think much differently about his wife? It makes me wonder what happened to her to put her in her debilitated state…did the “dear” Governor have a ✋ in getting his wife into the debilitated state? If so, why hasn’t he taken her out of her misery? Oh, that’s right, his wife was a convenient photo op during the campaign.
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I hate to say it, but it looks like her parents are a lost cause
Only if they are both drugged with the “water” and can be taken off and deprogrammed, could they be functional parents again.
It is also refreshing to see that Sang Hwan recognizes his father as a lying manipulator.
Agreed. What a difference time and distance made on Sang Hwan’s perspective.
did the “dear” Governor have a ✋ in getting his wife into the debilitated state?
That’s an interesting question. The parallels between Father Hwan and Father Baek are clear.
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