Summary
Sweet Home takes a breather in its sixth episode to allow some routine to settle in, but there’s development regarding the virus in the background and some last-minute action makes for an enticing ending.
This recap of Sweet Home season 1, episode 6 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Sweet Home episode 6 definitely pumps the breaks on the action a bit, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One of the main objectives of this episode is establishing a sense of routine, of the survivors falling into roles and responsibilities and coming to terms with their predicament, which can only happen with a period of relatively uneventful time. It’s also no accident, though, that the episode opens with a bit of context for Sang-wook being hired to carry out the job he completed in the previous episode, since a secondary concern here is the continuation of his redemption arc, with him finding a new, more stable role in the group.
There’s a scene here in which the characters drill what to do if one of them becomes infected, using Ji-su as the test dummy, but the irony is that later when they do actually encounter a monster, the scene is much less frantic. Part of that is the creature being the husband of one of the survivors, but a sense of melancholy, almost mundane routine is felt there, much more prominent than the sadness evoked by the tears after the fact.
Everyone is, on some level, becoming too used to the situation, much more relaxed about the harsh realities. Hyun-su continues to carry out all the dangerous jobs, but there are no signs yet that he’s ever going to actually become a monster. It seems that the “desire” part of the infection only kicks in once you actively succumb to that sense of desire. In his mind, Hyun-su communicates with his dark-eyed alter-ego, but he doesn’t give in to his desire and thus he hasn’t yet become a monster. Is this a sustainable state? That obviously remains to be seen.
The major narrative development is that Yi-kyung ventures into the outside world and a good portion of the episode is devoted to her hazy reminiscences of a researcher fiance from whom she first heard the word “Crocru”. That’s her destination here, a penitentiary clinic containing research on the virus and which claims that an infected person resisting the monsterization is key for research into how to fight the virus. Yi-kyung is promptly captured and interrogated and uses this information as a bargaining tool, claiming to know the ideal test subject — obviously Hyun-su.
All the action is reserved for the very last minute. Sang-woo, Jae-heon, Eun-heok, and Ji-su drag Hyun-su into a parking garage, where they encounter a monster, while Du-sik battles that weird spidery thing that webbed up Yi-kyung earlier in the season. Both fights are left unresolved, a perfect lead-in to the next installment.
What did you think of Sweet Home season 1, episode 6? Comment below.
