S Line: Episodes 1-2 (First impressions)
by DaebakGrits
Our latest fantasy thriller takes the concept of the red string of fate and imagines a world where — instead of linking people to their destined true love — the string connects them to their past sexual partners. What will people do if they have the ability to see the strings, and how many will die as a consequence?
Episodes 1-2 FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The viewer is introduced to the S(ex) Line via SHIN HYUN-HEUB (Arin), a young woman who has been able to see the red lines connecting people to their sexual partners since before she was old enough to understand the concept of sex — or the fact that the line connecting her father to her aunt indicated they were having an affair. After her mother murders her father — either because Hyun-heub’s childhood drawings revealed the affair or because she found out about it through other means — Hyun-heub’s many attempts to unalive herself fail, as though the magical force allowing her to see the lines doesn’t want her to escape. Bound to live with her “ability,” Hyun-heub becomes a well-known recluse in her small community. Her windows are covered in cardboard, and she does her best to avoid people and the massive web of red lines exposing their most intimate connections.
All that changes, however, when she watches a news report on the latest murder to occur in her community. As the reporter comments on the possibility of a serial killer, Hyun-heub notices a man, his face obscured by a biker helmet, lingering at the murder scene. The man catches her attention because he has a single red line coming out of his head, and, according to Hyun-heub, an adult with only one line is as rare as someone with a hundred of them. She’s instantly suspicious and comes to the conclusion that the man in the helmet is the killer. Although it feels like a major stretch to assume a man with few sexual partners is a killer just because he happens to be lingering near a murder scene, Hyun-heub’s hunch aligns with the ongoing police investigation, which places a man with a helmet in the victim’s building the night of her murder.
Meanwhile, HAN JI-WOOK (Lee Soo-hyuk), the lead detective on the case, has more red strings coming out of his head than a Raggedy Ann doll, and he’s not very discriminatory about his liaisons, as demonstrated by the fact that he rendezvous with his engaged coworker for a little afternoon delight in the file room. Although Ji-wook appears to be good at his job, keenly noting the staged appearance of the latest victim’s bedroom, he fails to notice his niece, KANG SEON-AH (Lee Eun-saem), is being bullied at school until she comes home with a busted lip.
It’s unclear how or why Ji-wook became Seon-ah’s primary guardian, but he’s obviously not equipped to be a father-figure to a teenager. He has good intentions and occasionally puts forth the effort to be “present” for his niece, but Seon-ah is defensive when he does show concern for her wellbeing. She’s a troubled, moody teenager who needs an adult to stand up for her, but she doesn’t trust Ji-wook because he’s a bit self-centered and overly preoccupied with work and other…things, if the number of lines above his head is any indication.
Ji-wook crosses paths with Hyun-heub after she calls the police to report a suspicious man (with one S Line) in a helmet who entered her nice neighbor lady’s apartment. Because the details about the murder suspect having worn a helmet hadn’t been released to the public, Ji-wook curiously follows-up with Hyun-heub, but, as she explains to Ji-wook through her cracked open door, she hung up on the police when she realized the helmet-clad man wasn’t a threat. He was her neighbor’s hook-up, and he earned his second line that night. Even so, Ji-wook can’t shake the feeling that the killer is tied to his neighborhood, which is why he jumps at the chance to investigate Hyun-heub’s upstairs neighbor, OH JUNG-MIN (Lee Ga-sub), when he discovers Jung-min knew both victims.
Ji-wook is called away at the last minute to take care of a personal matter, so his partner goes to Jung-min’s apartment alone and is attacked by surprise. Ji-wook, who was on the phone with his partner at the time of his attack, rushes to Jung-min’s apartment building, but on his way up the stairs, he notices that Hyun-heub’s apartment door is wide open. He goes inside, likely thinking she’s become Jung-min’s latest victim, but the truth is that she saw Jung-min enter the nice neighbor lady’s apartment across the street and braved the outside to come to the other woman’s aid. Ji-wook looks out Hyun-heub’s window, sees the women struggling with their attacker, and fires his gun. Jung-min dies, and the red line connecting him to the nice neighbor lady disappears
Although the case is essentially closed following Jung-min’s death, Ji-wook isn’t satisfied with the conclusion. What was Jung-min’s motive — you know, aside from the fact Jung-min had a record of violence against women that could reasonably escalate to murdering women he’s been involved with romantically? No, Ji-wook feels like Jung-min’s needed a trigger for his escalation, and while the red lines scribbled on Jung-min’s walls do suggest Jung-min’s a special breed of crazy, I fail to see how Ji-wook knew to fixate on Jung-min’s glasses, which he can’t locate in the crime scene evidence box. To be honest, Ji-wook’s interest in the glasses is far-fetched, but the writers clearly needed him to investigate them to get the plot moving.
You see, the glasses are integral to the plot because they allow the wearer to see the same red lines that Hyun-heub has seen her whole life. Jung-min went a bit crazy — well, crazier — wearing the glasses, and he became a murderer when he realized he could get rid of his lines if he killed the women he’d slept with — not that Ji-wook has gotten that far yet in his investigation. His interest in the glasses does, however, lead him to Seon-ah’s school, where her homeroom teacher, LEE KYU-JIN (Lee Da-hee), assumes he’s asked to meet in order to discuss Seon-ah’s bullying issue. But no, rather than discuss Seon-ah’s troubling school life, he (much too quickly for my comfort) switches to the topic he’s there to discuss: Kyu-jin’s former coworker Jung-min. Did he always wear glasses, or is that a new fashion choice?
Although Ji-wook’s investigation into Jung-min pretty much stalls out at this point, the glasses (or another pair of them) make a reappearance when they are mysteriously left in Seon-ah’s locker. (I’m assuming by Kyu-jin, who is — by this drama’s logic — extremely suspect because she has no S Lines.) Once Seon-ah figures out the meaning of the red lines, well, let’s just say her opinion of her uncle doesn’t improve.
However, after a short adjustment period, Seon-ah quickly grows empowered by her knowledge of everyone’s sex lives. Her confidence skyrockets. She becomes popular — inexplicably and almost instantaneously — and she starts dating. And, because the red lines reveal that her school bully, KIM HYE-YOUNG (Nam Kyu-hee), is having an illicit relationship with their Korean teacher, Seon-ah decides to use this information to blackmail Hye-young and the teacher. The blackmail attempt doesn’t work on Hye-young because she’s underaged and there’s no consequence for her involvement with a teacher, but the Korean teacher is very threatened by the picture Seon-ah texts him.
Meanwhile, Hyun-heub is pulled from her reclusive lifestyle by a text saying, “I can see the world you’re seeing” that lures her back to school, where she’s reunited with Seon-ah, a former classmate. Hyun-heub soon realizes that Seon-ah’s glasses have given her the ability to see S Lines and warns her against using them, but Seon-ah dismisses Hyun-heub’s concerns. How can glasses be dangerous?
In truth, Seon-ah is addicted to the power and popularity she gained from wearing the glasses, but her hubris is her downfall. The Korean teacher she was blackmailing asks to meet on the school roof (never a good place for an after hours rendezvous with someone who has a reason to hate you), and he’s like a panicked, cornered animal. He’s afraid of how the truth will affect his wife and kids if he can’t pay her, but Seon-ah has no sympathy for him. Why should she? He turned a blind eye when Hye-young bullied her.
It’s during their fight that the teacher receives a text from his wife. Someone (probably Hye-young, who stole the glasses from Seon-ah earlier in the evening) sent his wife the picture of him outside a love motel with Hye-young. At this point, he snaps, and pushes Seon-ah from the roof. Hyun-heub, who grew worried after Seon-ah called her and accused her of stealing the glasses. She arrives at the school just in time to watch Seon-ah fall from the roof, and she’s at Seon-ah’s side when the single red line from her head begins to fade.
After two episodes of S Line, I’m fairly confident in saying that this drama is not my cup of tea, which is a shame because I was excited to see Lee Soo-hyuk in something new. The concept of the S(ex) Line is intriguing, but I’m not a fan of the way it’s being used as part of some sort of conspiracy or social experiment gone awry. We’re talking about characters having the ability to see people’s sexual history — a novel idea that’s hampered by tried-and-true serial killer and school bullying plot arcs. I would have preferred if this drama had been a dark comedy — emphasis on the comedy — about society’s obsession with body counts. The humor of Seon-ah seeing Ji-wook’s sex lines for the first time should have been the tone of this entire drama, but, alas, the first two episodes are bleak.
It also doesn’t help matters that pretty much every character is unlikable. Ji-wook’s above average detective skills don’t make up for his barely perfunctory interest in Seon-ah’s bullying issues, and even though Seon-ah started out a victim deserving of the audience’s sympathy, she was corrupted by the glasses’ ability far too quickly for us to enjoy a rising sense of vicarious justice on her behalf. Hyun-heub is probably the most likable of the bunch, but her motivation for reintegrating into society wasn’t good enough, in my opinion, to overcome the trauma — not to mention the still constant presence of the S Lines — that caused her to self-isolate in the first place. In general, all the characters feel jumpy. Instead of flowing naturally where the story takes them, it’s like the writers are picking them up off a game board and then skipping them ahead to the next major plot point on the board.
Given that this show is only slated for six episodes, I’m willing to concede that a lot of what factored into this drama’s poor first impression is likely due to its time constraints and (I’m assuming without having read the webtoon) the writers trying to cram in as much detail from the source material as possible. That said, if I’m not hooked after watching one-third of a drama, then I’m probably not going to finish — even if Ji-wook and his many S Lines are totally meme-worthy.
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