Finished Stranger from Hell. It fascinating how pretty much all character are performing social roles, Jongwoo is irritated about a lot of it. But a performance Jongwoo doesn't even acknowledge as such, is his relationship with Ji-eun. I don't think either of them actually like each other.
The entire drama takes place over two weeks. I don't know how long Jongwoo and Ji-eun have been dating but it has to have been a significant relationship for Jongwoo to move. Thing is though, he didn't even seem to be really moving for her. Ep 10 reveals that he was basically running out of his home. He loves his mother but he doesn't want the burden of his family around him. Seoul was an excuse to escape.
Once he gets there, Jongwoo does whatever's expected of him as boyfriend to satisfy the inner audience and the outer audience of their society, so does Ji-eun, but there's not any significant moment of trust or connection there. In the two weeks he's in Seoul, Ji-eun barely entertains his emotions, and Jongwoo constantly ignores her predicament. Neither of them genuinely communicate enough to understand each other's circumstances. Ji-eun is quick to believe Jaeho that Jongwoo is losing it, even if she doesn't fully buy it.
Jongwoo is ten times worse. He doesn't really tell her much and when she reacts based on minimal information with the pressure of her absolute bitch of a boss (i'm sorry that woman pisses me off so bad), he gets annoyed with her. They're both doing this, performance of a relationship because it's just what they're supposed to do at their age. Get a job, suffer through your stupid boss, endure, endure, endure, in the real world you settle for this because it's what normal people do.
The real nail in the coffin for this relationship is the final episode.
If Jongwoo actually gave a shit about Ji-eun beyond her being his tether to normalcy, he would not have begged her to stay with him after he held a knife to her throat. Him asking her to stay was more about him validating himself.
Even more telling; when Moonjo says he'll let Jongwoo live if he kills everyone, he's far more focused on the murders and Moonjo than he ever was on Ji-eun. Jongwoo was mentally distressed, yes, but he had completely forgotten about Ji-eun. Going back to the residence was less about Ji-eun and more about proving to himself that he still had his moral code left. A good boyfriend goes to save his girlfriend, a good boyfriend doesn't let people die.
We know there's a chunk of time where after Jongwoo kills Moonjo, he's conscious and moving. Enough to hallucinate and have a whole argument with himself(or try to convince himself sans hallucination). Look, if his priority was Ji-eun, he'd have tried to find a phone and call the police, or at least free Ji-eun and take her out. But it seems like despite being able to move, he was inside the residence the entire time and was taken out only after the police arrived.
WORSE YET; he somehow managed to keep the teeth bracelet. A teeth bracelet with his girlfriend's fucking teeth on it alongside a bunch of other dead people's teeth. The last thing we see Jongwoo thinking about is Moonjo calling him "자기야".
I'd qualify the show as queer because Moonjo is definitely romantically interested in Jongwoo, or is somewhere on that realm. Like come the fuck on. Moonjo's only shown to target men, and he has previously manipulated a handsome young man into murder. I don't even wanna call his seduction subtext, it's text. You don't call murder buddies "babe/honey" for nothing.
Moonjo's main motivation throughout the show is to bring out Jongwoo's true self based on his world view(people are all evil, why bother with pretention when being true to oneself is liberating enough to make you feel like a god?).
A demand for performance from everyone vs Moonjo telling him to be himself. And Jongwoo's true self fully forgot about his tied up girlfriend and was more focused on murdering everyone(with a high likelihood of Moonjo being with him to witness everything)
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