ASMR: Sim Card Special
Episode 6 of Penthouse Season 2 begins with Seok-Hoon inviting Ro-Na out for dinner. When she walks away, he says out loud that he missed her too. Unfortunately these good vibes are shattered by the announcement of a bloodied body outside. Ro-Na is still alive though but barely. She sees the spirit of Seol-A and asks her to forgive Yoon-Hee. She leans forward and hugs Ro-Na, as the apparition fades. Yoon-Hee and Yoon-Cheol are beside themselves with shock as they scramble to phone an ambulance. Kyu-Jin realizes this is a murder case as Ma-Ri calls for everyone to shut the gates and keep everyone inside. Seo-Jin approves this too but suddenly the alarm goes off. People scramble past them as Yoon-Hee does her best to keep it together. An ambulance shows up and takes Ro-Na away with a distraught Yoon-Hee inside. Ma-Ri notices a necklace on the ground but Seo-Jin snaps it up and claims that it could be evidence. Well, the actual killer is, of course, Eun-Byeol and she snaps out of her trance after seemingly killing Ro-Na. She repeats the mantra “she can’t die” as the fire alarm goes off. She notices blood all over her hands and immediately screams, struggling to keep it together. With so many people charging out the theater, forensics admit that it’s going to be difficult to try and find DNA evidence. Yoon-Cheol is beside himself with rage, and remains determined to figure out just who tried to kill Ro-Na. Well, the attention turns to Eun-Byeol, especially given Je-Ni confirmed she wasn’t in the dressing room at the time. For the time being, Yoon-Cheol decides to let those with a solid alibi go. As we soon find out, Ro-Na was hit with two blows – one in the shoulder and another in the neck. For now, they can confirm that she lost a lot of blood but don’t have anything solid to go on. Je-Ni and Ma-Ri both show up at the intensive care unit where they find Yoon-Hee in a bad state. Ro-Na awakens though, allowing Yoon-Hee to head in and see her daughter. She can’t talk though, eventually seeing her Mother before slipping into cardiac arrest. Back at the penthouse, Seok-Hoon confronts his Father, believing Dan-Tae was the one responsible for killing Ro-Na. However, he has the necklace from the crime scene, taken from Seo-Jin’s jacket. When he shows his kids, they confirm that it belongs to Eun-Byeol. Speaking of which, Seo-Jin finds out what her daughter has done and demands she tell her everything. It’s here Eun-Byeol admits the truth and decides to turn herself in, coming clean about everything. Seo-Jin tells her to lie, deciding to cover everything up and make sure there’s no evidence. The trophy (aka. the murder weapon) is actually in Eun-Byeol’s locker at school. She also gets rid of her SIM card too. Instead of destroying it outright, Seo-Jin decides to eat it. Wait, what the heck?! Meanwhile, Logan Lee arrives and conspires with Jin Boon-Hong, who of course is the maid in Seo-Jin’s apartment. He shows pictures snapped at 5am of Eun-Byeol leaving, which seems like he’s onto the real killer. Seo-Jin sneaks into the school after-hours to find the trophy. When she does, both Ma-Ri and Yoon-Hee spy her and track the girl down by the lockers. They both pry open all the lockers but shockingly find nothing inside Eun-Byeol’s. In the distance happens to be Yoon-Cheol, who has planted the trophy inside Seok-Kyung’s locker as he was in a hurry to leave when he heard voices. On the back of this, Seok-Kyung is arrested. When Yoon-Cheol finds out the truth, he’s beside himself with grief. Seo-Jin decides they need to team up together and pin this on someone besides Eun-Byeol. Yoon-Cheol is obviously not happy about this but when he returns home, finds Yoon-hee sitting waiting for her. Seok-Kyung is let go from custody, especially when her fingerprints aren’t found on the trophy, while they all seem to come to the same conclusion – Eun-Byeol wasn’t in the group photo. Yoon-Hee watches Yoon-Cheol’s reaction and seems to think he was the one responsible. On the back of this, Yoon-Hee visits Eun-Byeol while she’s lying in bed. She questions her over where she was that evening and grabs her wrist, demanding Eun-Byeol tell the truth. She claims not to know anything but Yoon-Hee knows she’s hiding something. Well, news breaks that Mr Park, the janitor at school, has confessed to the murder. It seems like he was paid off and as we soon find out, this is Yoon-Cheol’s doing. When Eun-Byeol finds out about the confession, she’s beside herself with grief and hurries off. She not the only one though, as Seo-Jin starts to lose control and begins drinking heavily. Yoon-Cheol finds her at the bar though and tries to comfort his ex, telling her to keep it together. He promises to protect their daughter no matter what. Just then, Yoon-Hee rings as she races to the police station. She questions Mr Park over whether he’s the one responsible, as officers grab her and pry her away from the janitor. Meanwhile, someone sneaks into the intensive ward and pulls the plug on Ro-Na. With her daughter seemingly dead, Yoon-Hee pays her respects by the grave and looks to kill herself too. Just before she pops pills, Logan Lee shows up and stops her, telling Yoon-Hee she needs to pull herself together and go after the real culprit – Eun-Byeol. As the episode closes, Su-Ryeon returns! Or at least it seems like her. It may well be Su-Ryeon’s long lost twin. Anyway, she kisses Dan-Tae on the mouth and tells him that it’s been a long time.
The Episode Review
Penthouse is a show you really need to suspend your disbelief with. I mean, I’m not quite sure why Seo-Jin decided to eat the SIM when the SD card is what actually holds the video and music files. Then again, she could be saving that for dinner, so who knows! Either way, the dramatic music and crying made this scene far more funny than it perhaps was supposed to be. Meanwhile, the police investigation is completely botched from start to finish. No one decided to check the cameras, even though it’s the first logical place you’d go to. Even worse, the Hera palace residents completely contaminate the crime scene, sneaking into the school after-hours and wrapping their bare hands around the trophy. Then again, it seems like we’re gearing up for Eun-Byeol getting her just desserts by the end of this season so there’s always hope this will come to fruition. Yoon-Cheol though is easily the worst character here. I understand he’s trying to protect his daughter but at the same time he’s supposed to be one of the good guys – he just comes across as flaky and unlikable. It’s even worse too because he’s starting to cozy up to Seo-Jin and seems to be colluding with the authorities to pin this murder on someone else. And that link with someone in the police force extends to what happened in the hospital. I have doubts over whether Ro-Na is really dead, which is ironic given I pretty much wrote as much in the recap. With no dead body and an abrupt end to the scene inside the hospital, it seems like we’re gearing up for a big reveal that Ro-Na is actually still alive. Applying a lot of logic to this show will see you crunching your mind harder than Seo-Jin chewing on SIM cards. Despite that though, this is an undeniable guilty pleasure. Roll on next week!
