The Lake
Episode 5 of L.U.C.A.: The Beginning begins with Ji-O crashing Yi-Son’s car and walking away. However, our foe has managed to stumble free. As the car explodes, Ji-O heads back into town and rings Goo-Reum. Remembering the Professor’s words last episode, Goo-Reum deliberates over whether to really stop Ji-O at all costs or not. And just like that, Ji-O shows up while she’s out looking for him. Goo-Reum clutch her gun tightly but hesitates when Ji-O asks why no one likes him. Bemoaning how he has no one by his side, Ji-O staggers forward and hugs her, prompting Goo-Reum to think twice about shooting him. Instead, she allows Ji-O to hide out at her apartment while she gets ready for work. As she heads to the NFS, the country finds itself under crisis as hackers have managed to attack the entire online banking system. With the server gone, including the research papers, it turns out Hwang Jung-A from the L.U.C.A project is responsible. She’s determined to gain Ji-O for herself, learning about his electrical power and speaking to Cheol-Soo about her plans for the future. They want to raise an army of clones to shape the future of humanity… unless Ji-O can stop them of course. Back at the lab, Cheol-Soo is called in on the back of Yi-Son losing Ji-O again. Cheol-Soo is not happy, repeatedly slapping Yi-Son in the face. Our lead goon approaches the professor though and asks for him to make the man stronger. Despite being initially hesitant to do so, Joong-Kwon eventually agrees to inject them with this serum again. After, they approach the NFS parking lot and trick Jong-Hwan, with Yi-Son drugging him and handing over his ID badge to Tae-O. When he awakens, Jong-Hwan finds himself tied to the steering wheel with nowhere to go. Yi-Son injects him with a syringe and demands to know where Ji-O is. Jong-Hwan eventually spills the truth to Yi-Son over where they are. As soon as he does, Yi-Son rolls the car into the lake, killing Jong-Hwan. Back home, Goo-Reum goes over details of her childhood case to Ji-O. Everyone involved in this has either died or gone missing, leaving her with a single post-it note referring to Joong-Hwon. She believes this their only option for uncovering the truth and finding out what really happened. Back at work, Captain Choi approaches Goo-Reum and breaks the bad news to her. She races to the NFS in time to see Jong-Hwan taken away on a stretcher. She demands they do an autopsy to uncover what happened, as Goo-Reum mourns for his death. Down by the river, Goo-Reum pours soju in the water and begins sobbing, saying goodbye to her friend. On the other side of the lake happens to be Yi-Son, watching from afar. He doesn’t make a move though, instead following from afar as Goo-Reum stumbles home drunk. At work, Goo-Reum is determined to try and investigate the case but Captain Choi is adamant that it’s closed. She decides to try and get some evidence, asking for a warrant in order to obtain this. Choi and the other detectives aren’t happy, especially given how it makes them look, as they all walk away. Yoo-Cheol hangs back though, convincing Goo-Reum to put together a believable scenario to force the officer’s hand and give her a warrant. Goo-Reum immediately investigates Jong-Hwan’s office, finding out from his colleague that he rarely drank alcohol. As she continues on the road, Goo-Reum’s car suddenly grinds to a halt, which happens to be a direct result of Yi-Son and his men sabotaging the engine earlier in the day. They immediately catch her and take Goo-Reum away, abducting her from her car. When Ji-O learns about this, he races up to the LC Plaza where he intends to try and save Goo-Reum before it’s too late. Ji-O sabotages the electrics, blindsiding Tae-O and saving Goo-Reum before it’s too late. With Yi-Son thwarted again, he tells Goo-Reum she needs to survive and drives away, with Tae-O caught as a hostage. Yoo-Na heads in with a scanner and finds the heat signature of Tae-O, fried and in a bad way. They abandon hope of finding Ji-O and take their man back to the lab. Only this time, Ji-O decides to track them down himself in his car. Well, it’s not quite good enough as Yi-Son figures out Ji-O’s game and lies in wait. He shows Ji-O the secret lab and convinces him to head inside.
The Episode Review
Is it just me or are these trio of goons really dumb? The past four episodes we’ve seen them stopped time after time and while that was okay in the early episodes where Yi-Son and the others didn’t know what Ji-O was really capable of, now it’s becoming a bit of a nasty trend. This diminishes their threat and worse, here it’s backed up with very little plot development across the 75 minutes. Beyond the NFS professor dying and Goo-Reum being captured, there’s very little going on. With a distinct lack of humour or romance, the series leans heavily on its action sequences instead. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but here the episode does suffer for it. As we approach the midway point of the series, the ending certainly hints that we’re going to get some intriguing developments in the near future. For now, episode 5 feels like an unfortunate step back from the great work we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. Hopefully this is just a blip and L.U.C.A. picks up steam soon.
