There are many suspense/thrillers out there. Some of them tell stories so convoluted, you wonder if the screenwriter got confused, while others have no story so they rely on endless fight scenes and special effects. I’m happy to report that Awaken does neither. The plot’s intricate, but it makes sense and if you pay attention it’s not hard to follow. And the drama still manages to pepper in interesting fight scenes. It’s in the sweet spot as far as I’m concerned, and episode ten just drives that point home. In it, Jae-woong’s methods are exposed, and White Night’s operation isn’t so clandestine anymore.
Yes to Jung-woo being the architect of the serial bank robberies
To be honest, I almost forgot this is the case Jung-woo and the gang were working on at the beginning of the drama. But it doesn’t make the reveal any less shocking. In addition to him sending Ji-wook the notices about the murders, he also managed to orchestrate seventeen robberies? Jung-woo’s completely unpredictable, and I’m loving it. I’m intrigued by characters who occupy a morally gray area, because they’re usually more complex.
In any case, it’s a good thing he has Son Min-ho’s money. He’s able to pay off Lee Taek-jo and set his plan of finding White Night’s lab in motion.
Yes to seeing exactly what Jae-woong does to the victims
The details surrounding the murders have been such a big point of mystery, finally seeing them feels like scratching an itch.
From my understanding, it’s a two-step process. An initial pill is given so the victim gets a taste of lucid dreaming, but they’re not physically mirroring their dreams. When the exhilaration is no longer enough, Jae-woong gives them new yellow pills (helloooo Matrix). He lies and tells them the way to differentiate dreams from reality is by looking at the black watch he supplies. For example, if the time on the watch says 1:30 AM, but it’s day time, then it’s a dream. To wake up, all the victim has to do is what scares them the most.
In Lee Tae-soo’s case, that’s going really fast. So he ends up jumping off his office building, and becomes Jae-woong’s seventh victim right after his father, hospital director Lee Byeong-sun. Man, what a way to go. Before this I thought Jae-woong could just use mind control and make someone lucid dream, but if there’s a pill involved what is it exactly? Who’s manufacturing it? Is it just a placebo?
I still have a lot of questions about Jae-woong and his alternate ego, but I suspect the next couple of episodes will satisfy most, if not all of my curiosity.
Yes to Jamie realizing Jae-woong is the third White Night kid
I’m so glad the drama didn’t drag this out! She sees the CCTV footage from Lee Tae-soo’s building, and easily puts two and two together. I think that makes perfect sense given her superior senses and intellect.
Since quite a few big things were revealed in this episode, I’ll list them:
- All of the forewarned murder victims were wearing black smart watches that Jae-woong supplied. It allowed them to get into his counseling room, and the time on it made them think they were dreaming. The watches also have a logo on the back of a sun and crescent moon (with the exception of the first victim, Kim Young-joon). Someone deleted the watches from the evidence log at the police station.
- Jung-woo was the architect in the serial robbery case at the beginning of the drama.
- Deputy Commissioner Hwang has been drinking himself into a stupor, because he’s the one who pulled the officers guarding Jung-woo in the hospital under the orders of his superior and Oh Jung-hwan.
- It’s confirmed that all the victims (with the exception of Kim Young-joon) were board members of the White Night Foundation, or affiliated in some way. (We already heavily suspected this).
I don’t have any noes that weren’t already expressed in the previous reviews, so I’ll say HOLY COW. When Jung-woo moved the truck to help Hye-won at the end of the episode, I screamed. This is definitely the power he talked about keeping to fight White Night. As viewers, I think we’ve only seen a fraction of how powerful he is.
I said this before – I looked forward to this show months before it started. However, I was confused and somewhat disappointed when I watched the first ep. I have since changed my opinion and been loving it more and more every week.
The matter of fact is, the back story was so complicated and the writers only reveal the story/history a little at a time and let the audience solve the puzzle together with the characters. The way Jamie, Jung-Woo and Hye-Won work on their own is a smart way to show us the whole picture of the history of the foundation and the people involved.
Lastly, as strange as it sounds, I have to admit, I begin to like reporter Lee.
Author
I like reporter Lee too XD That’s the thing about this drama, all the characters are morally ambiguous, but you can’t help but like some of them.
We all know that korean drama is always trying or experimenting with the storyline or plot line. We saw in Awaken how the three main characters are working separately without directly communicate with each other to solve the Case. In the beginning of the story Jamie have known that Jung Woo was not the serial killer But she always doubt him even she know the truth behind the mysteries he still did not talk to or ask him what happened when they were young. “Who is the monster she is dreaming of.”
In the following episode we will see Jung Woo and Jamie talking. I think the writer / director is playing with us and It so much confusing. I ship for them but I felt sad to the female lead one sided love. We are not sure what Jung Woo really feels but I am very interested in the ending with mixed fear. I think Awaken need a fair ending even it will not focus in a romance but I hope it deserves a better ending.