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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Hyde, Jekyll and I" Episode 13

Tae-joo's decision to use Hee-ae as bait last episode was a pretty clear admission that he was willing to bet everything on his current psychological theory. As a result, his current attempts at backpedaling this episode just come off as kind of pathetic. Hee-ae barely even tries to argue with him this time. If Tae-joo isn't willing to accept Robin's decision as evidence that Seo-jin is seriously psychologically damaged, it's clear that nothing will ever get through to the man.

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Fortunately by the time we get to the cliffhanger it's clear that Tae-joo's more-or-less finished. His rampant bouts of hypnotism have finally left enough residual psychological evidence that some characters, at least, have managed to pinoint Tae-joo as the only logical suspect. And that pretty much does it for all the important stuff that happens this episode. I'm glad to see that this story point is presumably going to be wrapped up next time, because while this has all been entertaining, the plot has been going on a tad too long by this point.

Part of that might just be the construction of this episode, though. An inordinate amount of time is spent simply building up a giant red herring. What's especially irritating is that we get lots of characters simply repeating basic plot information that we already know. Everything that random foreign doctor said is just stuff that Tae-joo and Hee-ae already figured out. This much is also annoying because Seo-jin, Robin, and Ha-na already know the stakes- and even have a serious heart-to-heart on the subject.

While the sentiment displayed between the three leads is sweet, it also suffers somewhat from Ha-na not being all that well-developed a character. She seems less like a love interest who suddenly flew into Seo-jin's life as she does a childhood friend who's willing to let herself be used as emotional support. This works perfectly fine in the context of individual scenes- but it does somewhat damage "Hyde, Jekyll and I" as a holistic product.

Like, do we even have a circus anymore? One of those guys appears to be working at the smoothie shop of all places. I very much get the feeling looking back that the reason writer Kim Ji-woon-II introduced so many random plot hooks at the beginning was because she wasn't sure which one would make for the best story. While I'm glad that this strategy at least partially turned out well in the long run, in practical terms it makes "Hyde, Jekyll and I" come off as a pretty fragmented product.

Review by William Schwartz

"Hyde, Jekyll and I" is directed by Jo Yeong-gwang, written by Kim Ji-woon-II and features Hyun Bin, Han Ji-min, Sung Joon, Lee Hyeri, Lee Seung-joon, Han Sang-jin, Shin Eun-jung, Lee Deok-hwa and many more.

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