dangermousie | Arang and the Magistrate - episode 8 thoughts and caps...

I continue adoring AatM. I am seeing more and more complaints about the pace but it works fine for me - I think meandering and atmospheric go well together (though I actually don't think it's meandering - we are given more and more questions and answers each episode and Arang and EO are progressing as characters - well, at least EO is, Arang is quite static) and I really don't care when (if ever) we'll get anywhere. My ideal ending would be Arang getting to keep her body (hopefully fully human, but this new one is fine too), getting together with Eun Oh, and then both of them staying in Miryang, which is plainly a Korean Sunnydale, with his being a magistrate and the two of them being a supernatural crime-solver team.

EO looking for Arang. LJK was born for roles like these, with his aristocratic features...

Get that arm fixed!

Everyone finds the servant amusing but he annoys the hell out of me and I want him off my screen.

Awww, Eun Oh is pacing a groove into his front yard, worrying for Arang.

Demon Mother! Heh, is Eun Oh a sageuk version of John Taylor from the Nightside books? (A crime solver with a grumpy attidude, supernatural abilities, and the world-destroying demon for a mother?) Also, it's been established she wants Arang because the latter is immortal (oh, Jade Emperor, you bastard, you sent her as bait!) and thus she won't need humans any more and would never die. Which begs to wonder - does she plan to do that by somehow consuming Arang's essence or is the demon a body-swapper who takes on new shape every x years when the body is worn out and thus Eun Oh's birth Mom is not a demon but a demon is now using the body? Hmmmm.

Poor Eun Oh, still frantically looking for Arang, despite his busted arm.

Every time I see Joo Wal within 100ft of Arang, I get the shivers. Especially since in this ep, despite his 'I won't give her to Demon Lady until I know her intentions,' he was all ready to bring her over when Demon Mama spoke and now will try to seduce her on Demon Mama's orders. Ugh.

Eun Oh finding out the bone tomb has been filled. Throughout the episode, you see EO get angrier and angrier at injustice and indifference until he finally snaps and assumes his magistrate duties at the end, going head-to-head with Lord Choi. It's pretty clear that EO's mask of indifference is just that, a mask, put on because he does have a tendency to care and feel and get hurt. But that mask gets pretty much broken by now.

The confrontation between our three. I especially love how hurt and jealous Eun Oh is that she is fine and with JW and never bothered to tell him, while she is mad he never told her JW was her fiance back when she was Lee Seo Rim. (umm, I thought she knew and in any event, why that matters at all is beyond me so if anyone can explain...)

Their fight continues back at the house and I love that they are talking about two utterly different things - his about her spending the night with Joo Wal (awww, you are so far gone, dude! But I love that it turns out he was mad worried that she wouldn't reincarnate and didn't show back home because she genuinely died. AWWWWW) and hers about him not telling her JW was her former self's fiance (I never thought I'd ever type that particular sentence!). Hmmm, is she mad because she thinks he didn't tell her because he thought it would interfere with her helping him to find his mother and she feels betrayed? That's all I am getting and it still makes no sense - I can see why she thinks he would put finding mommy above all, but why does she think he would think not telling her would further anything? Bizarre. But then I didn't puzzle too hard because Arang herself is not a favorite of mine - Eun Oh is a complex human being but she is not, especially since she seems to be not just fairly one-dimensional but with no character development. I like her place in the story, but as a character, she leaves me cold more often than not.

EO learns the flunkies burned the bodies, too. In the face of such monumental callous indifference, his own cannot stand. I think Lord Choi has started something he might not want to finish!

She is still mad. Awwww, Eun Oh, explain to her! (It's clear he didn't mention JW=fiance for reasons that had nothing to do with Momster. I think he actually thought she knew (I certainly did)).

I'd laugh at her going off on a date with Joo Wal and Eun Oh (in magistrate robes finally!!! Eeee!) jealously fuming (good, he'd never realize his feelings except for this), except I am too busy freaking out at Arang going anywhere with the dude. I mean, worst taste in men ever, y/y? It's not every day you hook up with a serial killer for a demon, who's killed you before!

EO facing Lord Choi! EEE!

The preview makes me gleeful! They clearly made up! And Lord Choi's men attack him but he's holding his own but then Arang is threatened so...I need to know!