Summary
With the infected being put to use carrying out dangerous missions, Sang-wook goes rogue on a personal quest, and there’s a tease for perhaps the biggest — quite literally — threat yet.
This recap of Sweet Home season 1, episode 5 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
With Eun-heok having unofficially become the leader of everyone on the first floor, he comes up with a new plan to kick off Sweet Home episode 5 — to use those who’re already infected to carry out the most dangerous work. This begins with Hyun-su, who he removes from quarantine and tasks with bringing Han Du-sik from room 1408.
This forms one of the episode’s two major story arcs. In the other, Sang-wook continues his personal quest against Seung-jae by journeying upstairs to his apartment, a mission that intersects with Hyun-su’s since they’re going in the same direction, and then helps to pay off the subplot involving a grieving Ms. Cha. But more on that in a bit.
Upstairs, Du-sik, who had promised Ms. Im that he would kill her if she turned, finds himself unable to harm what is quite clearly a giant monster baby growing in his bathroom — as we see in flashes to a prior conversation, Du-sik once had kids too, so that shared bond over lost children is something he and Ms. Im share. Telling the kids that Ms. Im is “gone”, he gently pulls the door closed.
Eun-heok also tells Yi-kyung, who we later learn is pregnant, about the blog he found claiming the virus was a curse and mentioning the word “Crocru”, which seems to ring a bell. This is clearly something to be paid off later.
Anyway, Hyun-su runs into Yu-ri and the old gentleman, while Sang-wook survives an encounter with a monster, which simply leaves him be, for some reason. The old man wants to accompany Hyun-su upstairs to retrieve Du-sik because he isn’t afraid of death, which, he assures Hyun-su, isn’t the same thing as wanting to die. There’s an interesting parallel between the two characters there, but it’s for the audience’s benefit. They head upstairs — where, we also see, Ji-su and Jae-heon have unfurled a giant SOS banner — together.
The culmination of Sang-wook’s arc is a redemptive one, reframing Seung-jae as something very far from an innocent victim when a dark room in his apartment reveals incriminating photographs of captive young girls. This incenses Sang-wook, and he returns downstairs to finish him off. In flashbacks, we see Seung-jae clearly got off lightly after committing a crime, but he pays the ultimate price for it here as Sang-wook smashes his face in with a hammer and drags his body outside.
While he’s out there, though, he grabs the body of Ms. Cha’s daughter and drags her back inside. When he attempts to lock himself out, Eun-heok stops him. His story isn’t over yet.
With her daughter returned, Ms. Cha cradles her body. Later, she’s comforted by the children, and they all cry together in a touching scene.
As the episode ends we see the familiar long-tongued monster feeding outside until he’s snatched up by a giant hand.
What did you think of Sweet Home season 1, episode 5? Comment below.
