Evil
With Ji-Su slowly recovering, episode 9 of Sweet Home begins with her remembering Jae-Hun’s last words. He told her he liked her. As she sits against the wall, Ji-Su is overcome with grief as Eun-Yoo shows and drops off some chocolates to try and help her mood. In fact, given her past demons it’s obvious Ji-Su is taking this death the hardest. Out of all the residents, it’s Eun-Yoo who manages to give her the encouragement needed to carry on, telling Ji-Su not to be miserable and handing over the severed blade. While Sang-Wook symbolically empties a bottle of soju over Jae-Hun’s grave, Sun-Young continues to count down the days left before she gets over the worst of the infection. 5 days. Realizing they have no hope in outright fighting against the monsters, Gil-Seob proposes heading out and finding an underground bunker of some description. Unfortunately the time to move comes and goes as Ji-Kyung contemplates using her tracker. For now, she remains quiet as Gil-Seob notices the truck racing up to the apartment block. The truck slams straight into the front doors, unloading a whole stack of men who kill the runaway soldier and begin hunting the rest of the residents. While they take Gil-Seob away, he’s kept the kids safe in the vents. Unfortunately all the residents find themselves trapped in a makeshift prison down on the ground floor. A penciled outline is enough for them to stay in line, especially when Ji-Eun is shot as an example to what happens when those rules aren’t followed. Their leader, Jung-Seop, greets the others as we cut back in time and see what happened to this guy. He reveals fragments of the past, including a small church he found full of bodies. As he smiles evilly, he tells them all that humans are the real monsters. With everyone caught together, Ji-Kyung and Sang-Wook seem to be their only weapons to get out of this predicament. Eun-Hyeok is recruited to their cause as Jung-Seop speaks to a captured Sun-Young. He holds a gun up to her and shoots, seemingly killing her instantly. Both Ji-Kyung and Sang-Wook work together and manage to down two soldiers before snatching up their gun and axe. Eventually they make their move as all hell breaks loose. The residents work together and pick off the different soldiers, one by one. Hyun-Soo leads the charge in the main atrium but when Jung-Seop eventually holds Eun-Hyeok up at gunpoint, things come to a stand-still. Only, Sun-Young returns and stabs Hyun-Soo through the chest after downing another soldier. As Hyun-Soo drops to the ground, writhing in agony, the other residents watch in horror as a fire starts and engulfs Sun-Young. With Hyun-Soo taken away in a lift, Ji-Kyung manages to save and free the rest of the residents. Unaware of the commotion down below, Hyun-Soo awakens to find himself on the rooftop. He begins staggering off but as he does, Jung-Seop shoots him again. Mutiny grips the group of criminals as one of the soldiers steps up and grabs Jung-Seop round the neck, knocking him over the edge. It turns out Jung-Seop wasn’t the real leader after all. He was simply the rabbit whereas this guy is the proverbial wolf. Holding out a bloodied hand, he tries to strike a deal with Hyun-Soo, just as a military helicopter flies over with a leaflet regarding the infection. As the lift descends, Hyun-Soo prepares to meet the rest of the residents.
The Episode Review
Much like 28 Days Later and Alice In Borderland, Sweet Home delivers an episode that shows us the real villains here are human beings. While this trope has been overused a lot in different big and small screen productions, there’s enough uniqueness with it this time around to keep things interesting. There’s a solid dose of cat-and-mouse drama going on here too and all of that is wrapped up in a heady episode of action and home truths. Learning that Jung-Seop isn’t the real leader of this group is certainly surprising and that ending leaves the door wide open for the finale to come.
