Birdsong
Episode 6 of Mouse begins with Mu-Won’s death. It’s a shocking, poignant moment, and one that immediately re-introduces Jae-Hoon to the fold. He curses the Almighty, confirming that whoever this child is as an adult is clearly the one committing these murders. At the church, Bong-Yi sneaks inside but immediately finds herself blindsided by the killer. He knocks her down, preparing to force a knife into her until police thankfully arrive and force the killer to disperse. With Bong-Yi rushed off in an ambulance, Ba-Reum lurks around outside but smells mint and quickly goes on the hunt. Little does he know, Yo-Han happens to be watching from afar. Inside the church, Mu-Chi arrives and sees Mu-Won dead. He despairs, just as news breaks that a 3 minute video from the killer has been released. This shows Han-Kook and confirmation that he’s been picked because he won’t show envy or jealousy. With the news abuzz with this development, Mu-Chi and Bong-Yi both find themselves in hospital recovering. The latter confirms that the killer seems to be using his left hand. When Mu-Chi is discharged, he finds himself wallowing in self pity at home. That is, until the killer releases another video taunting Mu-Chi. He tells the detective he has 3 days to find him. If he can’t manage that in the time span given, he’s going to kill Han-Kook. This, coupled with an emotionally charged chat with an imaginary Mu-Won, are enough to spur Mu-Chi back into action. Mu-Chi first visits the housekeeping office, learning that Bong-Yi-‘s Grandmother was actually there before. Tracing the clues, this inevitably brings him to Ji-Eun, whom he questions about the housekeeping job. As she begins acting suspiciously, Mu-Chi suddenly realizes that she’s the Head Hunter’s wife and that means his son is Yo-Han. As he phones the station to confirm this, Mu-Chi receives word of another crime taking place. This one happens to be for Joon-Sung, Yo-Han’s friend. From this, Mu-Chi believes the killer must be Yo-Han and vows to go after them no matter what. Without a warrant, he ignores the warnings from his colleagues and sneaks in to try and find evidence. Whilst there, he finds blood on a pair of shoes stashed away. Sneaking back out, he speaks to Detective Shin and pleads with him to get a search warrant for Yo-Han’s place. Meanwhile, Hong-Ju arrives and hugs Yo-Han at his house. He tells her he’ll explain everything later that day but it’s too late. The search warrant apparently goes through, as Hong-Ju confirms out loud that they’ll be at Yo-Han’s in 30 minutes. Yo-Han overhears this and senses something is up, prompting him to snatch up any incriminating evidence and take off. Only, on the way he’s stopped by a driver bumping into his car, which inevitably leads to police arriving on the scene. At the same time, Mu-Chi learns that the blood on the shoes doesn’t match Daniel Lee’s or any of the victims meaning his proposal for a warrant is rejected. To make matters worse, the suitcase Yo-Han has doesn’t hold any evidence (despite what we’re led to believe) and actually has clothes inside. Mu-Chi watches this from afar with gritted teeth, pointing a shaking handgun at him. Unable to find anything, Yo-Han is allowed to go free. However, Detective Shin tails the man, which leads them up to an abandoned church. There, Yo-Han begins burning up incriminating documents. Yo-Han eventually heads home and speaks to his Mother, telling her she must have known all this time that he was a killer. Just as he reveals this, word comes back that the DNA on Yo-Han’s shoes are actually that of Bong-Yi’s grandmother. Ba-Reum hears this too and after letting Bong-Yi stay at his place, sneaks into Yo-Han’s basement. There, he sees the pictures he has up for Ba-Reum and Bong-Yi. Ba-Reum scrambles away just in time, as police show up and begin their search. Back at Ba-Reum’s, Bong-Yi notices the shadowy presence of the killer nearby. Only, Ba-Reum suddenly shows and takes her up to the roof. He promises to catch the killer personally and lets her run away. On the road she runs into Mu-Chi, who shows up in a taxi while Ba-Reum and Yo-Han stand face to face. Yo-Han beats him down to the ground while Mu-Chi shoots the man. With both of them bleeding out on the rooftop, the two men are raced to the emergency center. Ba-Reum awakens and finds Bong-Yi’s bird sitting in its cage. He takes it out and snaps the bird’s neck, throwing it out the window.
The Episode Review
Episode 6 throws the investigation wide open as we’re left with lots to chew over for the week. It seems like Ba-Reum is definitely one of the psychopaths, especially with the way he snapped the bird’s neck. Given this links up with Jae-Hoon’s scenes in episode 1 – specifically the mouse and snake – it seems like Ba-Reum may well be Jae-Hoon. If that’s the case, then it appears like he’s the seven deadly sins killer. Yo-Han meanwhile, has all the traits and shady characteristics to make him a killer too but to be honest, his actions lead me to believe he may be innocent. He may well have just been investigating Ba-Reum, sensing that he’s the killer and following him ever since. Even so, it doesn’t explain Daniel Lee’s murder – and given he was just unceremoniously dumped in the sea it doesn’t match the elaborate way the seven deadly sins killer is operating. What do you guys think? Is there more than one killer out there? These killings are certainly very similar to the way Se7en handled this, but there’s enough to differentiate the show and help it stand out. Right now though, it’s very hard to point fingers at anyone definitively and the show has done an excellent job keeping us guessing until the end. Quite what will happen next remains to be seen but this is definitely one of the best k-dramas currently airing right now!
