Summary
Episode 8 lacks a little pace in playing catch-up, but it does contain some important developments and revelations.
Still steeped in metaphor and underlying political commentary, Gyeongseong Creature Episode 8, which kicks off Part 2 of Season 1 after a short hiatus, is a surprisingly weak episode. After the frantic events of Episode 7, the pace is reduced a little, and while there is certainly enough intrigue, the shift in setting and mood is a little awkward as the final three episodes attempt to bring things to some kind of conclusion.
It’s not an especially long time since we last checked in with Gyeongseong Creature, but we nonetheless begin by lurching through some catch-up. With Maeda now firmly established as the string-pulling Big Bad, we see in flashback how she lured Myeong-ja to Ongseong Hospital.
Seishin is still inside, and still very much has a problem with Maeda. It remains slightly unclear how much humanity still exists inside the titular creature, but given this response and what we saw with Chae-ok earlier in the season, it’s a fair amount.
Jun-taek is at home, but still traumatized, and his namedropping of his collaborators has led to their arrests. Haneda is found injured but alive in the hospital’s basement. Tae-sang, also injured, manages to make his way out by disguising himself in a new uniform and hitching a ride with Maeda herself.
Chae-ok and her father are both free and alive, hanging around the pawn shop and being distressed about the news that it’s Chae-ok’s mother rampaging around the hospital.
How does Tae-sang free the merchants?
Tae-sang doesn’t wake up until four days later, having been nursed back to health by Maeda. He tells her, understandably, that the experimentation at Ongseong is unethical and needs to stop. Feeling emboldened by his discoveries, Tae-sang plays hardball with Ishikawa, who has arrested all the merchants who supposedly violated several laws on the night of the hospital escape. After threatening to disrupt the fundraising for the army’s upcoming party, Tae-sang agrees to share all the information he has gleaned about Ongseong Hospital if Ishikawa lets all the merchants go.
Ishikawa agrees and, in a note, Tae-sang reveals Maeda’s involvement in the experiments. Later, Ishikawa questions her, but she remains tight-lipped about it. They apparently had an agreement to stay out of each other’s personal lives, but Ishikawa getting Myeong-ja pregnant was a bit of a step too far it seems.
What does the Najin do to the infected?
Ishikawa’s subordinate, Mori, is sent to keep an eye on Tae-sang, who spends some time with Chae-ok after their reunion. Mori has an encounter with Myeong-ja, now infected with the Najin and apparently immune to bullets.
Elsewhere Kato explains to Maeda about the nature of the Najin, of which there are three left. Infection by the Najin alone doesn’t produce a creature like the one Seishin has become – that was the result of further experimentation. However, the Najin does make infectees violent and hungry for human brains (which we see in Myeong-ja, and which also explains a spate of brainless victims turning up around Gyeongseong.) The only weaknesses of the infected are fire and nitrogen.
How does Gyeongseong Creature Season 1 Episode 8 end?
As per the above, Tae-sang waves a burning stick around to bring Myeong-ja out of her violent trance. When she sees what she has done she runs away, and Chae-ok and Tae-sang give chase into the woods. With the police on the way and Myeong-ja’s fate uncertain given the unpredictability of the Najin, it’s a decent cliffhanger to end things on.
What did you think of Gyeongseong Creature Season 1 Episode 8? Let us know in the comments.
