Don’t Move
We begin episode 2 of Sweet Home with a look at 19 year old Hyun-Soo back at home and with scars up his arm seemingly hinting at self-harming. He continues to play video games and ignores his Mother’s pleas to head out for a family trip. His behaviour is clearly dividing the family but as they argue in the car, his Father begins bleeding profusely from the nose and passes out, subsequently crashing the car. As the only one of his family to survive, Hyun-Soo is given 30 million won but berates the petty amount of money he’s left behind. This catches us up to the present as Sang-Wook is attacked on the stairwell by the maniacal girl from before. After biting a chunk out of his back, he beats the girl down before leaving it in a bloody mess. Meanwhile, Su-Ung helps Yi-Kyung move the dead body from the hallway and eventually sends a picture of him to his family. Down in the basement however, Ji-Su finds the security guard laughing and calling out for Manager Han. As blood gushes down his face, she smacks the man instinctively before Eun-Hyeok saves her from her ordeal. In the midst of all this carnage, the residents all receive an emergency message confirming what’s happening outside. As they check the news, they realize that this disease is country-wide and right now they’re in damage-control mode. The creature on the stairs stands back up again, twisting and contorting as it begins ascending the stairs toward the other residents. In the main atrium, the group gathers to try to work out what to do and contemplate whether they should all reconvene on the seventh floor or not. Fighting inevitably breaks out as everyone begins disagreeing over the best option forward. The arrival of Sang-Wook soon changes the dynamic of the room. Given he’s been bitten, the other residents cower away from him before he’s eventually tasered and knocked out on the ground. 8 hours later, Hyun-Soo struggles to keep his nose from bleeding. He heads online and sees numerous people talking about this disease and how they’re calling it a curse. No one seems to know where it originated from and given the rate it’s spreading, it seems unlikely they’ll find a solution that won’t result in many people dying. Unfortunately, the internet connection is severed and goes down before he can get a chance to research further. Hyun-Soo accidentally lets in the creature into his room which looks more like an overgrown Gremlin now. It seems to have heightened hearing and is missing half its head. It’s a tense affair to say the least, as it stumbles around the room while Hyun-So holds his nerve for long enough to see this creature eventually stumble away. With Sang-Wook tied up and held behind shutters, Seung-Wan turns to Suk-Hyun for answers given he’s their makeshift leader now. Armed with a knife and a gas mask, he heads in intending to stab Sang-Wook but hesitates. It’s a big enough pause for Sang-Wook to headbutt Suk-Hyun square across the face. Meanwhile, Jae-Hun and Ji-Su find the beaten man in the elevator. The former obviously knows he’s the captive of Sang-Wook but for now decides against saying anything. Armed with a hammer, he joins them on the hunt. Elsewhere, the rest of the group contemplate whether to leave and make a move on the daycare centre or stay there for the time being. Although the Director, Jin-Ok, is against the idea, Eun-Hyeok coolly shuts down her argument and eventually walks away. Up in one of the rooms, a resident hangs himself which brings back bad memories for Ji-Su, who remembers seeing a face from her past doing the exact same thing. Whoever it was, they left a post-it note telling her that the guitar is hers now. Hyun-Soo makes a bold decision to help out a resident in the apartment block below. A giant eyeball attached to a tentacle heads up the building and wraps up, squeezing him tightly. This happens to give his neighbour Doo-Sik enough time to sever the eyeball and save Hyun-Soo’s life before it’s too late. Together, they decide to team up and save the kids. Knowing that his phone can attract the monsters, he prepares to head out and meets Doo-Sik at his apartment. It turns out he’s in a wheelchair and has a pretty nifty set of tools to use too. However, he warns Hyun-Soo about taking the monsters on face to face and encourages him to play more tactically. This plays out in the form of a bouncy ball, used as a distraction for the half-headed gremlin creature. Hyun-Soo manages to sneak up behind the creature and electrocute it with his makeshift spear. Suk-Hyun meanwhile makes his way into the convenience store where Yi-Kyung happens to be too. The food inside this store is literally all they have left and both Yi-Kyung and Eun-Hyeok are well aware of that. In fact, both of them start to work out exactly how to ration the food and make it last if they’re going to be stuck in there for a while. Suk-Hyun though is not willing to share anything. Meanwhile, Hyun-Soo charges down the hallway and manages to make it to the two kids as they realize their father has passed away. Unfortunately things take a turn for the worst when Hyun-Soo’s condition worsens and he begins bleeding profusely from the nose again. Only this time, his eyes are blackened.
The Episode Review
The second episode does a great job introducing all the different residents of the apartment complex while never losing sight of the suspense and tension. The violence and action, when it does arrive, really reminds me of Resident Evil. Hats off to the design team for this one, they’ve really gone all in to make each creature as creatively grotesque as possible. Although some of the supporting characters haven’t had that much time on-screen, hopefully that changes as the series progresses and we see more of the history for each of these people. With Hyun-Soo seemingly turned to the dark side now, is there any way back for our protagonist? We’ll have to wait and see!
