Strangers From Hell (Hell is Other People): Episode 3 Recap

Y’all, definitely don’t watch this show alone because it will have you seeing movement in shadows and feeling someones eyes on you when you should be alone. It is that level of creepy and just kicked itself up a notch by showing us exactly what we should be afraid of! Yep, well…I’m definitely scared!

OST: Part 1
IMAGES: Released Images for Strangers From Hell (updated weekly)

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Caution: Be wary of typos

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Shorthand Character Chart: Coming soon!

How we do this: We update the post around every 10 minutes. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the scene. There will be typos which we have fantasies of fixing once the episode finishes airing. Also, there might be lovely updates at the bottom, so check back in!

Recap Countdown: This is a quickcap

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KOREAN DRAMA STRANGERS FROM HELL: EPISODE 3 RECAP

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#1

The doctor, Seo Moon-zi talks on his phone in his office and says that he wanted to see…okay…I will go home after work. The person he is talking to is Bok-soon, the landlord of the gochiwon. She smiles as she tells him that it is interesting.

Moon-zo goes to the gochiwon and sees Ki-hyeok killing the detective in the car. Moon-zo immediately stabs Ki-hyeok with his scissors and then chokes him to death. Before that, he told him that he is an artist, yet Ki-hyeok only kills.

MZ – You did a good job, honey.

Cut to the rooftop, Moonzo talks with Jong-woo on the rooftop and tells him that he talked with ajumma and found out that he is the new guy. He says that it is actually nice to drink a beer on the rooftop. Jong-woo says it is, but he is a bit uncomfortable and asks Moonzo why he is looking at him and smiling?

Moonzo apologizes for hurting his feelings and says he just likes to do it. Then he offers him a cold beer that he just purchased. Jongwoo takes the beer and asks about Moonzo’s hand. It is a bit injured so he asks if he does blue-collar work? Moonzo puts his hands in his pocket and asks about Jon-woo’s hands, they look delicate. He asks if he is a writer. Jongwoo says, kind of. Then Moonzo says he does similar work to Jong-woo about disassembling things and putting them back together.

Moonzo then asks Jong-woo what kind of novel he likes? Jongwoo says he likes crime novels and mentions an author. This breaks the ice as Jongwoo says he likes him also! He never expected to see meet someone who likes that author, not that many people like him. So surprising! Jong-woo is pretty happy about this. Moonzo asks what Jongwoo is writing. Jongwoo says it is not finished yet, he just has an idea about it.

He starts to say there is a pianist on the surface, but he is actually a serial killer. Moonzo says those people are always around. They look normal, but in their mind, they want to kill people. How does he kill them? Jong-woo says he has tools, but he likes to strangle them with his bare hands and watch them die. The main guy has thin sensitive hands, so he wants to feel the body getting cold. He wants to feel it with his own hands.

Moonzo thinks back to choking Ki-hyeok. It appears that this is exactly what he likes.

Moonzo tells Jongwoo that that sounds interesting. But maybe it is not feeling the life go cold, maybe it is the burning of it. You know, strangling the neck, the main character would not have his hands on the cold keys, it would be more like he has his hands on 1000 degree heat, maybe it would be like that. Oh, sorry, sorry, I should not say this in front of a writer.

Jong-woo says he is not a writer and they toast to Jong-woo’s writing career going well. Jong-woo thinks that this guy is the most normal of them all.

Both go back to their room. Then we see the giggling man peeking out at them and stifling a laugh. The giggling man goes back into his room and pulls out a lot of tools.

Jong-woo lays in bed and starts to think about what Moonzo said about feeling the cold keys of the piano and then feeling the heat of the body. He thinks he can add this to the novel. But he realizes that he thinks he left his laptop open today, it shouldn’t close by itself. Hmm. Then he looks at his notes and thinks about the thug guy and that altercation with the giggling man who said he did not come into his room.

He wonders if that man came into his room too, but he thinks he should not be sensitive like the thug ajusshi. 

TITLE: SECRET WHISPERING

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#2

In the woods, we see the giggling man, his twin, and Nam-bok getting rid of possibly the thug’s body and maybe the foreigner’s body as well. there is a huge hole in the ground so they put them in that hole in their own creepy ways. The giggling man is doing all the digging and complains how it is difficult. Nam-bok tells him to hurry. The giggling man starts to kick the body and says, die die die die.

Jong-woo is typing all of this in the book at the same time! It is almost as if he is clairvoyant.

The tenants all start to leave. The twin says that they do all the dirty work, but he has insurance on Moonzo.

In his room, Jong-woo nods off as he types and dreams about his time in the military. His superior punishes him for nodding off on duty and tells him to put his head on the ground (with his butt up in the air, almost like downward dog) and go to sleep like that. Then his alarm goes off and we see that he was sleeping in his bed, but his head had fallen on the floor in the same pose.

Jong-woo groggily gets up and starts to walk up the hallway to wash up. He wonders why he is having a military dream, maybe because they have shared bathrooms? He also wonders about all the tenants, like the pervert ajusshi watching perverted thing early in the morning and the giggling ajusshi possibly looking through his computer. 

He starts to take a shower while wondering all of these things, that is when Moonzo comes in. Moonzo starts to take a shower and talk to Jong-woo. Jong-woo says he hasn’t seen 302 in a while, that is strange right? 310 is gone also. it is strange. Moonzo asks Jong-woo out for a beer after work on the rooftop tonight. But Jong-woo says he cannot do that today, he has to see his girlfriend. Moonzo says it is not in a hurry, see you next time.

Jong-woo heads out and sees the twins in the toilet area. the twins giggle and whisper to each other. Jong-woo thinks that he should not talk to them at all. So he heads to the hallway and sees the ajumma there. She delightfully says that she can make him breakfast. he also asks her if the door can be opened without the key. She says no. He then asks if she can ask 303 to close his door? He smells a lot and watches sexy movies too much.

She tells him that she will talk to him. Then she touches his butt while he walks away and giggles as she tells him that he is cute. Jong-woo is all like, what in the hell? But he doesn’t say anything and just walks back to his room.

He decides to put a bit of dust on his laptop and take photos of it to see if anyone will come in. He takes photos of his entire room and then makes sure that the door is locked. But outside, he sees the pervert ajusshi holding something behind his back and looking at him. he wonders why he is doing that and is actually hesitant to walk by him. But his confidence grows when he sees the landlord ajumma smiling at him and telling him to go to work.

So Jong-woo walks by 313 and the ajumma talks to 313 about closing his door.

On the rooftop, Moonzo tells the twin to take care of 310 ajusshi tonight. 310 ajusshi is the thug. While on the rooftop, Moonzo looks at Jong-woo walking away.

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#3 

While Jong-woo is walking to work, he texts his girlfriend back and forth and smiles. then he sees a little kitten in the alley and decides to go buy something for it. He gives the cat some cat food but that makes another man upset who kicks the can and says that he should not do this! That is why all these cats are coming by! Jong-woo stands up and wonders why that man kicked the food.

Meanwhile, the policewoman is looking at the foreign missing person poster as she tries to figure it out. Outside the department, there is a woman who looks very worried and frazzled. She ends up talking to the policewoman about her husband, the missing foreigner.

In the gochiwon, we see that the thug is still alive on the fourth floor, so that body they got rid of was the foreigner’s body. All the tenants are on the fourth floor looking at the thug. He is gagged and cannot move on a table. The giggling one really wants to get started on him and also on Jong-woo because he looks so soft. It also looks like they will eat them later? Eww.

In her office, the girlfriend talks to Jong-woo on the phone while she is in the bathroom. A lot of people are waiting for her though, so she has to come out. She sees her manager while washing her hands. The manager asks her if she is talking to her writer boyfriend? Everyone says that they are a writer nowadays, but it is difficult to debut at all. Ji-eun says yes and then heads back to work.

The manager starts to give her a hard time about making basic proofreading mistakes while doing her work. Ji-eun takes her boss’s weaponized criticisms with professionalism and calmness. She takes this back to her office and sees that her manager picked all unimportant things to criticize. She tsks and drinks her drink as she gets back to work.

Elsewhere, the officer talks to the wife outside about her husband. The wife says that her husband lived at Eden Gochiwon. They had to live separately due to her job being far away. But he said that the place he lived at was scary, the people there try to murder him. It is all my fault, it is all my fault.

In the gochiwon, Moonzo tells thug ajusshi that he made someone come find him, but that someone is dead now. That is against the rules of this gochiwon. Moonzo starts to put on a clear scrub and gets his surgery gloves put on for him as he talks to the thug ajusshi.

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#4

At his workplace, Jong-woo shows up and we see Yoo-jung talking to a reporter. She introduces their new intern to him. The reporter says that he called him last night. Did you forget the data? Jong-woo says he forgot, he is sorry. The reporter kind of mocks him and says it is okay, at least you remembered to come into work.

The reporter asks if they think it is easy to advertise their show? They joke that he doesn’t even watch the show, he just writes the article. The manager comes in and jokes as well and then they let him out. But it is clear that they don’t really like this reporter as they sigh while returning back to their desks and complain about entertaining him so early in the morning. The manager then gives Jong-woo something to do on PowerPoint.

Back at the gochiwon, the tenants are about to do their creepy serial killer stuff on the thug. It looks like Moonzo is going to take out his teeth? he tells him that he is good but he did not use anesthesia so he will have to endure it, then he gets started.

In the police station, the officer continues to investigate the cat case and thinks about the giggling man that came in.

In his office area, Byeong-min starts berating Jongwoo about not working hard and getting hired due to his connections. Jongwoo takes it all as Byeong-min asks him if he just slept all night and didn’t work at all? Jong-woo apologizes and gets back to work. But he doesn’t really understand what to do and doesn’t want to ask Byeong-min.

Yoo-jung comes in to the rescue as she asks him if he has a question? He tells her that he does not know how to do this. So she shows him and then tell him to ask the director if he has questions. She walks off and we see the director looking at Yoo-jung’s booty as she searches through the small library for something. Jung-woo thinks this director guy is just like the pervert at the gochiwon.

Then the boss comes in with food. they are going to eat ddukboki and soondae. As they pull a ddukboki out of the bag, we see Moonzo pulling a tooth out of 310’s mouth. Classical music starts to play as we go through the daily life of Jong-woo as well as the officer on the cat case. She has to deal with petty crime and he has to deal with work things. The next day, we see Moonzo going to work as a dentist and the policewoman at work.

Cut to Moonzo making a ring out of the thug’s tooth? It looks like it. He makes a ring and places the tooth with dozens of other well-organized teeth inside a case.

At work, Jong-woo gets yelled at by the director again. he gets told that he doesn’t know anything and he is stupid and all those things. Jong-woo gets more and more angry. Finally, he stands up and hits the man hard with his computer or something and tells him to just shut up! He looks psycho at this moment.

But that was just what he wants to do, instead, in the real world, he just takes it. The sunbae comes walking up and tells them that they can go home for the evening. The director tells Jong-woo that he should stay and work all night. Everyone leaves, but Jongwoo stays. He texts his girlfriend to tell her that he has to stay at work, so he will see her on the weekend.

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#5

Meanwhile, the officer was able to find 306’s home address and goes by there. She gets let into the home and a man opens the door to the courtyard. This house might be a bit in the countryside. This man is the twin’s uncle, so he lets her in to talk to her. 

the man says that those twins have been strange since they were born. People said I was drunk when I saw it, but they burned the house in order to kill me. officer So Jung-hwa says that they were kids though. The uncle asks her if she suspects him? Do you think I am drunk? No one knows this, only I know about this. She apologizes and asks if he has a picture of them and their belongings?

The uncle goes and grabs a key which sends officer So to the shed. She opens the shed and slowly walks inside. But then we see the uncle in the background. He looks kind of scary as he stands at the door, she puts her hand on her weapon. But he nods and pats her to move to the side a bit. Then he starts to look through the boxes.

he finds the box he is looking for and tells her that, after he sent them to the orphanage, the orphanage sent him this a long time later. Officer So asks if she can look at it and send it to him later? the uncle says that he does not want to look at it at all, so she can keep it.

Inside the box are VHS tapes, so Jung-hwa has to go to her basement to get a very old TV that has a built-in VHS player in order to play them. She starts watching the videos which show the kids walking together and playing together and throwing rocks together. But it also looks like they want to burn a frog? 

They ended up catching a lot of frogs at the lake. One of the women comes to them and happily says that they caught a lot of frogs? Good, we can eat frogs later! This woman is the tenant to the gochiwon now. Cut to Bok-soon cooking something happily. Perhaps this is that mans body parts???? It is not clear.

Elsewhere, we see Jong-woo call his girlfriend, but she is also working hard and does not see the phone call. So he ends up leaving and, while walking up the alley, thinks that the cat came back and must be hungry. he goes to buy more food for it.

Back at the gochiwon, Boksoon and the twins are pulling a bag into a small room. Perhaps it is the body? It looks like it can be it. they start to carry it into a stairwell.

Outside in the alley, Jong-woo leaves the food for the cat and then walks to the gochiwon. While walking there, he sees the twins carrying a huge bag and wonders what is in it. So he starts to follow them from a higher vantage point to watch what they are doing. He is on the street above them and peeks down to look at them. But then, one of them hears him and looks around. Jongwoo runs to hide. 

 But one of the twins comes to the side where he is. However, he is not there for Jongwoo, he is there for the cat. The other twin tells him to come back, that is why they almost got caught! The giggling twin says he only did it to one! Then he starts to kick the bag. But an alcohol bottle rolls and falls sending Jongwoo running to grab it before it breaks. He is able to get there in time, but then we see two legs standing behind him.

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#6

Those two legs belong to Moonzo who asks him what he is doing. Then Moonzo walks around to the twins and asks them what they are doing? Are you getting rid of a dead body or something? What is that blood? The twins says that it is kimchi. So Moonzo asks if they do not separate their food waste and trash waste? You should open the bag. Open it, or I will call the police.

The other twin holds a box opener and hands it to Jong-woo to open it. Jongwoo opens it and then gets super startled and backs away in fear. Moonzo then looks at the bag and sees that a dead cat is inside. he tells him not to throw away dead cats here.

Moonzo then walks with Jongwoo (I think he calls him honey too) and asks him if he is okay. Jongwoo wonders why Moonzo is so calm. Moonzo says that his father is an animal doctor so he has seen these things before. Jongwoo wonders why it is like Moonzo can read his mind. Then he takes Jong-woo back to the gochiwon and tells him to try some meat, it is good. the meat looks raw, but I guess it is cooked?

Jongwoo eats it and thinks that it tastes weird, but he also thinks this might be because of the dead cat that he just saw. Moonzo asks him if he likes it and says that they have another part he can try.

The lights flicker and we see Moonzo looking pretty sinister for a second. But that could be Jong-soo’s imagination. Moonzo asks Jongwoo if he is surprised, does he think it is human meat or something? Then he smiles.

Fade Out

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COMMENTS

Okay, y’all, this show is like Doctor Giggles meets Hannibal. It is sinister as well as creepy and does not lure us around a corner about figuring out what is happening. They tell us what is happening to the new tenants and show us in gruesome detail what we can expect to happen to Jong-woo. It is so scary.

We are slowly figuring out what brought these crazy people together and that two of them were actually nurtured to be serial killers from a young age by the landlord ajumma. But, they weren’t innocent kids that she turned into horrible adults, from what we heard with the uncle, these kids were already doing some pretty horrible things, like trying to kill their uncle in a fire. So, my guess is that the landlord ajumma noticed this behavior in them and took them under her wing. Why they sent the videos back to the uncle is a mystery to me, but I do want to see more of them. Perhaps they sent the videos back just to show him that the twins are having a fun time at the orphanage? It seems like that could be the case.

I have a bad feeling about the officer and her life expectancy in this drama. She is getting closer and closer to details and we already know that these tenants will kill anyone at a moments notice, so I kind of don’t want her to go to this gochiwon alone. Though it might not help if she has her partner with her, they could just take them both out. I do like that she is not letting this cat case go and feels like it is connected to a serious case.

Poor Jong-woo needs to get up and out of that apartment complex. But I can see why all the tenants stayed, it is because of the landlord ajumma! She makes everything seem like it is normal and these people won’t actually kill you, that doesn’t really happen in real life. Just come in here for breakfast and go to work you super adorable thing. But she is the ring leader! Argh! I feel like Jong-woo should really follow his intuition with this one.

However, I do still have this feeling that Jong-woo is kind of like them. He has rage control problems that are hidden by an innocent demeanor. But if he actually does act on what is going on in his mind, then someone is going to get seriously injured. I also think that is why he likes writing about serial killers and possibly reading about them to (with that author he mentioned). He puts all his thoughts into the page and gets them out of his head, so it is a good outlet for him. I wonder if this book will keep him safe in the end. Perhaps Moonzo won’t kill him until he finishes it? Or many Moonzo doesn’t really care about that at all.

Y’all, this show is super scary, don’t watch it alone! 

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