#because i'm like neck-deep in finals + thesis revisions

[katierosefun]

Hi, I just wanted to share a couple of thoughts that have been swirling in my head for a long time and resurfaced again after your recent post. First, I might have missed sth but I still don't quite understand Joo Won's initial cast iron certainty that Dong Sik was the killer. True, he was a suspect, but there was no conclusive proof, and yet JW treated him as if he’d been caught red-handed. This annoyed me no end, because a) JW was being so insensitive, and b) his approach was so last century!.

spoilers under cut/second part of ask:

Also, I found it a bit frustrating that in the end, Dong Sik had to go to prison even though his actions ultimately didn't cause any real harm, while Joo Won basically got off scot-free even though he was directly responsible for Lee Geum Hwa's death and might have contributed, to an extent, to the deaths of Chief Nam and Jung Cheol Mun. It just seems... kind of unfair. (Sorry, I just seem unable to bring myself to like Joo Won the way the vast majority of BE fans seem to do) (2/2)

before i answer the majority of your ask: so dong sik actually didn't go to prison. there was kind of an ambiguity to the translation on netflix and viki i think, but dong sik was given the opportunity to take one year of prison or two years of probation. dong sik actually took the two years of probation.

as for how it all seems unfair--that's exactly the point, i think! what i like about beyond evil is that it shows time and time again that joo won might want to get punished or demoted or whatever (which happens at the start of ep 9 i think), but because of the prominence of his family name and the way the police system is set up, he literally can't. (goes to show how messed up the police system is and all the underlying issues there.)

as for how joo won treated dong sik as though he was caught red-handed: we're def. supposed to dislike joo won in the first half of the show. he's proud and unhinged and even though he has his own set of morals, he's still insanely flawed. (and also, we have to remember again: he's a part of the police system. if we go back to the flashbacks, we'll find that chief nam def partook in some . . . unpleasant police practices, and dong sik tells chief nam that even back then, he was considered one of the good ones, despite the fact dong sik was literally beat up as a twenty year old under police custody. again: chief nam was considered one of the good ones back then.)

i think it's fine for you to have your own opinions about joo won/not quite like him as much as other beyond evil fans (half the fun of fandom is that everyone has their own headcanons and interpretations of the character)--but i know that i personally love the flaws, and i think that's what makes his character arc that much more compelling, because it makes his whole "i'll go to hell" bit so much more damning for him. (you can see the legit moment of grief/anger/sadness/shame when he realizes that his family's ruined dong sik's entire life--and thus, joo won does everything in his power to make sure that dong sik doesn't suffer again, ie. going to jung cheol mun's place in case dong sik gets framed, the whole confrontation with han ki hwan, etc, etc . . .)

oh, and the last bit about joo won being dead-set on dong sik being the killer: first of all, all those news articles about dong sik being the main suspect of the deaths of bang ju seon and the disappearance of lee yu yeon are probably still public record (i mean, look at how dong sik himself has articles up on his wall, which mirrors how joo won has his own wall of crazy regarding the case). part of it is def. the instinct that the first murder suspect is always the "right" one (which is wrong, ofc, but again: messed up police system, messed up line of thinking, psychology, etc).

another part of joo won's suspicion that dong sik was the killer was, i think, actually tied to how he had geum hwa text him something, right? and i think geum hwa texted him something about police officer--i think it was revealed later that geum hwa meant to text that it wasn't a police officer, but of course, joo won never got that clarified, and by the time the message was in joo won's hands, geum hwa was being/about to be killed. so of course, joo won's research about dong sik's involvement in the case plus misunderstanding geum hwa's text message about the culprit having to do with the police = dong sik! (in joo won's convoluted way of thinking.)

and gosh, now i'm getting very detailed into this (you can tell how hard i'm procrastinating my final assignments), but another element as to why joo won kept suspecting dong sik (at least through eps 2 - 6.5 or so) was in part because dong sik was trying to make sure that no one caught jin mook right away. because ofc, as we noted in episode 2 or so--in korea, you can't convict a killer if you don't find the body. dong sik didn't know where kang min jeong's body was, so even if the police caught jin mook and had all the evidence, they wouldn't actually be able to convict him because they didn't know where he put her body. dong sik was waiting out/planning things so that he can finally find min jeong's body and then spring the trap--but in order to do so, he needed time, and with an unhinged inspector like han joo won sniffing around, he needed to be even more careful about his steps. dong sik was definitely . . . going through it in those episodes (probably half-mad with grief, half-mad with the sick understanding that the person he considered his brother/co-parent as the one who fucked up his life, half-mad with the losses he already has suffered through), and so he was . . . pretty self-destructive in that he was basically waving a big red flag at joo won going follow me, follow me.

so ofc, at least in those episodes, joo won definitely followed. he didn't suspect jin mook because dong sik needed jin mook to remain unsuspected for now. ofc, joo won also . . . just had to be Like That because he's mr. "i'm always on the right track, i'm super smart" in those episodes. (ha.)

all a roundabout way of saying: you're totally entitled to your own opinion, anon! just figured i should clear up some misunderstandings (ie. dong sik being on probation) and maybe give my own two cents (which must have been why you sent this aska ldsfadsf).