A Brief Dissection of Humanity, Stripped: Lessons in Parallelism and an Unnecessary Death
A quick recap on film language, narrative relevance and repetition + finally, the thematic arc of the show and the common link between all four of its main characters. [ Wouldn’t You Like to Know, Rich Boy + Go Crazy, Go Stupid, Go Fall in Love + Conclusion ]
A non comprehensive understanding of Vincenzo’s questionable decision, Han Seok’s confession of love, and Cha Young’s ability to see through his bullshit. In other words, Love in Vincenzo, that which makes us stupid, makes us human.
Wouldn’t You Like to Know, Rich Boy
“Don’t you know how much I love you?”
It’s not a confession, not even a question, but a statement of fact. I love you, you silly little thing. Haven’t you realized that by now?
Of course, Cha Young does not accept this statement. She’s a lawyer, and she understands the importance of truth, and of context, and knows how to pick apart testimony. The way Han Seok says it, “...how much I love you…” is condescending, and more than a little cruel, but we the viewer have no choice but to believe that he believes this. This is his own form of honesty; he genuinely believes that he loves Cha Young, as if this absolves him of his guilt of being inhuman. What I do think is really interesting is the way that the Jun Woo persona was, in a way, intrinsically connected to his ability to love, and his attempts to be human. He identifies as a monster, as something distinctly inhuman, when he is behind bars and presenting a face to Vincenzo. This is something he seems gleeful about, excited, almost. We will never see Jun Woo the intern again, which is a real pity, but it is for the best.
It’s through Jun Woo that Han Seok fell in love with Cha Young, it’s through Jun Woo that he likely planned to have Cha Young fall in love with him (or at least maintain some kind of relationship) and it’s through Jun Woo that Han Seok observes and integrates himself into a human setting. We see moments of Jun Woo dancing to himself, alone, either similar to or mimicking Cha Young’s private victory dances. We see him laugh at jokes in the background, out of focus, and watch him run like an absolute dumbass. As the viewer, Jun Woo’s eccentricities humanize him to us immediately, and when he’s caught by the one person who he actually wanted to conceal his identity from, Cha Young, we witness him cling to this identity as a last straw, as if he knows that his one slim chance to be by her side —
(“...make me your partner! Well, we can work together, go watch baseball together, and have fried chicken and beer. How nice is that?” [That’s not working. That’s dating.] “Even better. We’ll work hard and rely on each other. It’s a dream come true!”)
— and try to hold onto that chance even as she walks away from him. I think that part of him fools himself into believing that the Jun Woo identity can become a legitimate extension of himself, like a prosthetic limb. In a way, he really means that it is a dream come true. His fake identity is a fantasy, one carefully constructed, something that can never be authentic, but something he pursues nonetheless. With Cha Young, Han Seok seems to genuinely enjoy his fake identity beyond the novelty of Playing God, and once the game is up with her, he abandons it, because he no longer enjoys it, and it has served its purpose. Jun Woo, the intern capable of love, is a lie. We know that, and he knows that, but he wants to convince himself that the conduit he’s used is the living, human vessel of the god persona, Han Soek.
After confessing his love, to her disbelief, he even concludes, “That makes me human.” This suggests that he sees Cha Young as the one thing that separates him from godhood, the one thing that saves his soul, or gives him a semblance of one.
Of course, he’s wrong, because he’s a psychopath and kind of a loser lmao. What he feels for Cha Young may very well be the closest approximation he has to love, but clearly, we the viewer understand that there is something off, something wrong about this honest declaration. The show thinks so, too. I don’t think that he’s so much obsessed with Cha Young as he is possessed of her, possessive of her, in that he wants to be with her, sure, but before that, he’d like to have her. He’s a rich kid, and a psychopath. Often, those things go hand in hand. If he likes something, he likes it, and if he wants it, he considers it to be his. Notice that during the kidnapping scene, as he crouches next to her, he takes a fistful of her hair. While we don’t see him yank her head back, he definitely has a grip on the back or side of her head. He doesn’t jostle her, but rather alternates between holding it and stroking her head, petting her. Similar to his attempts to remove her from the Babel equation early in the game (by begging her not to represent Babel pharmaceuticals), he wants her in mint condition, undamaged.
Another thing to note, I think, is that his crouching position vaguely mirrors the way he crouched behind Cha Young while she sat in front of her father’s grave, on his haunches. As per usual, the camera makes separate cuts between them, emphasizing the angles to show that he is in a position higher than her, whether he’s leaning over her with a gun in her face, or he’s settled back on the couch, looking down at her sprawled on the floor. They are never shown truly side by side, on even ground, facing the same direction, in just about a single, lingering shot of the show, even in the beginning. He is always a pace behind her, a figure at her back, maybe even beneath her, but never at her side. Whether they are positioned together on a bridge, or next to each other in a car, or running through a hallway, Jun Woo and Cha Young are always positioned at an angle to each other, not-quite-adjacent. Additionally, camera angles and positioning are shown to illustrate their difference in size and height.
He is an assistant and an omen, but he never quite makes partner, not in the way he wants. This unbalanced power dynamic and misalignment of character drive is only further illustrated when he turns and hits her across the face. Notably, Han Seok strikes down, because that is what he’s always done, struck down at those who he sees to be smaller or weaker.
Another clever callback is a brief moment in one of the earlier episodes, when the lawyers are gathered around Ms. Choi’s open window, watching her dance. He comes up behind Cha Young and comments on her new bracelet, taking note of her jewelry. She dismisses it as him knowing “trivia”, which implies that he’s made casual statements and observations about this before, displaying seemingly unconnected background knowledge. This might subtly be foreshadowing his real identity, in that of course a wealthy chairman interested in potential stocks would know what products in a popular brand or line would be new, which ones make profit, which ones are popular amongst women. It also can be compared to Vincenzo buying Cha Young her earrings and necklace. While she brushes off Jung Woo, who might have secretly been thinking something along the lines of, “I could buy you all the bracelets in the world, no matter how new”, she lets Vincenzo actually put the jewelry on.
The fact that Han Seok removes these articles of jewelry from her while she is unconscious - from her ears, from around her neck - is an implied gesture of un-reciprocal intimacy, and symbolically could represent a futile attempt at the removal of ownership, at least in his eyes. Using the jewelry as bait and removing all visible traces of Vincenzo from Cha Young’s person is a petty attempt to display possession.
It’s interesting that he’s aware of his love for Cha Young and associates it with a figment of his hypothetical humanity, and yet he never tries to dispose of her. A psychopath who’s part-time job is literally referred to as Playing God would logically want to get rid of his Achilles Heel, right? He falsely identifies this as his brother, Han Seo (fly high, angel), but surely it would be within his best interests to get rid of Cha Young, right?
Wrong. Han Seok’s priority is himself, even before godhood, and hurting or destroying something he wants is counterproductive. Han Seok is not overwhelmed by his love for her, and she will never be his first priority, because the only thing or person he is capable of loving in that manner is himself - Cha Young chides him, calling his principle “killing people [he doesn’t] like”, but his principle can really be broken down into one part: him. In his narcissism, there is no room for anyone else.
Cha Young goes on to explain, “Abducting a woman you love is not love, but a crime, you crazy asshole.” He’s unphased. “Sorry, Cha Young,” he says, gripping her face with a hand, “but to me, my principle comes before love.” She scoffs. “Your principle? Killing people you don’t like? What a load of bullshit, Han Seok. Someone like you shouldn’t have been born at all.” To which he responds, in English - “Ouch. That hurts a lot. I shouldn’t have been born? Isn’t it harsh, Han Seo?”
This refers to his constant abuse of his younger brother and his belief that Han Seo should have never been born; this sentiment is derived partially through classism and partially because of his own selfishness. He sees Han Seo as a half-blood, undeserving of their rank in society and of his inherited wealth, but also understands that he is competition. To be told by the one that he ‘loves’ that he should have never been born - does not have the ‘right’ or worth to be human, strikes a chord.
Cha Young, once granted the tools and opportunity, has the ability to see through him and his bullshit, or to at least catch him off guard. When she pretends to collapse in the courtroom and he rushes to her side in genuine concern, despite it obviously being a ploy, even Ms. Choi calls him out on it, to which he shrugs, feigning Jun Woo’s idiocy. In reality, Han Seok is aware that “love” interferes with his ability to play the game, in which his dominant strategy is dictated by his psychopathy.
Go Crazy, Go Stupid, Go Fall in Love
Love is something that will overcome our rationality. Vincenzo is one of the most capable and pragmatic characters in the game, and something that a lot of people pointed out and were bothered by, myself included, was how he rushed to untie Cha Young instead of helping Han Seo fighting his brother, when in theory, that decision would’ve been the logical thing to do. At first glance, it’s frustratingly out of character.
The thing is, it’s intentionally so; love, I think, will make us act not like ourselves, because it will make us become more of ourselves. Vincenzo’s instinct is to protect Cha Young, the woman he loves, and because he is human, in that moment he’ll go to her. That is the difference between his love and Han Seok’s idea of love. Han Seok’s “principle” prevents him from feeling or expressing love, and his own feelings, however real, cannot translate into instinct nor self-sacrifice in the way that Vincenzo’s do. The contrast between him admitting that his own rationality and self-preservation can never overcome the love that he does feel and Vincenzo shielding Cha Young without thinking, rushing to her side before anything, is what draws the line between a human and a monster in love.
I am of the belief that Han Seo’s death could have been avoidable, and also wasn’t necessary in the narrative. It was adequately foreshadowed, what with the Cain and Abel comparisons early on, I think that the arc of a ‘victim of abuse finding the strength to overcome or at least confront the trauma he has been dealt with and break the pattern of compliance because of found family’ is an inspiring one that mirrors the tenants (all of whom are revealed to have been fighters, in a figurative and literal sense, all along, who were eager to fight for themselves when given the chance), and to conclude his completed arc with death and self-sacrifice? Unnecessary.
To be absolutely fair, as unfair as his death was, at the very least, Han Seo did not die unfulfilled. He died with no regrets, having become the person he should’ve been all along, the person in hiding.
That being said, the decision to have Vincenzo rush to Cha Young’s aid was an intentional one. Whether or not it was the best decision is a...questionable one, but in terms of the love ‘triangle’ between Han Seok, Cha Young, and Vincenzo, we are supposed to register different parallels and similarities between the two men in terms of their abilities and relationship to the common point of that triangle, as well as their similarities as character foils. Both are hard-cut, foreign men who slip into different languages, who feel alienated, are powerful and competent with a bloody side, an appreciation for deceit and dramatics, an understanding of the legal system and methods of exploitation and blackmail. For Han Seok to declare his love (bad timing, buddy, read the room) but also call it secondary to his own interests, only for Vincenzo to immediately forgo his interests (taking down Han Seok) and rush to the woman he loves instead, here we have two men. One tells us what we know in words, and another shows us what we know in action.
Earlier in the show, Vincenzo insists that “Villains don't deserve to love. Not everyone deserves to love. Those who harm or hurt others don’t deserve to love.”
We the viewer believe that Vincenzo himself is not a villain, but an antihero. The atrocities he commits are in the name of justice, and the power he wields helps the weak. Cha Young remarks that they’re not concerned about appearing dirty, because they are. They’re willing to get their hands dirty in order to get justice, because a rigged system is impossible to play honestly. The real narrative villain of this drama is Han Seok, or Jun Woo, and the people who are willingly complicit with injustice. They don’t deserve to love, or to be loved, and therefore don’t deserve to be considered human. That is one more difference between Vincenzo and Han Seok. While textually Han Seok is a villain, within the narrative he is not. Villains are, after all, still human. Han Seok is incapable of love, and is evil incarnate. Therefore, he is a monster. Inhuman.
[Vincenzo, to Cha Young] “Villains never break up, because they’re tenacious, even when they love.”
The intrinsic quality of humanity, Vincenzo’s writing posits, is love and the way it links us, as evidenced by the support of the tenants, Chayenzo’s relationship, and the way that goodwill and surrogate familial love helps draw Han Seo out of his shell and to become the person he was meant to be, the kind that was kicked and beaten by a monster (Han Seok) that could never love in the first place. While Vincenzo refers to himself as a villain and tells Cha Young that villains, and by extent himself, are undeserving of love, he doesn’t deny that they are capable of love. Love will confuse us, will horrify and compromise us, will redeem us, will heal us, and will, in the end, save us. It’s what set Cha Young on the path to righteousness, to be the person she was meant to be (her love for her father, which fueled her rage in his death)—Vincenzo to find the family he thought had left him, and to find family he would not want to leave - Han Seo to gain a surrogate brother and people who cared about him and the courage to stand up against his abuser—and it’s what prompted the tenants to become the fully-realized versions of themselves and to expose and discover their own potential, something that had long been asleep (see: dormant) and is now awakened.
Conclusion
In the end, this show is about love, how love makes us human, and how love, real love, will defeat our villains.
That villain may be an unjust system, a tormentor in our lives, capitalism, or our own demons, but when we learn to love, we get the strength to fight back, to fight fire with fire. Who knows? Maybe they’re onto something.
This meta may be edited or revised.
