Just when you thought this drama couldn’t go any darker, our latest (and bloodiest) murderer-of-the week sends our characters on a hunt for the truth. But our detective, who doesn’t see eye-to-eye with our demon judge’s brand of justice, finds himself not only trying to solve a murder but preventing one.
EPISODES 5-6
This week’s episodes of Demon Next Door — I mean, The Judge from Hell — begin with Bit-na discovering that she has a new neighbor: Da-on. After being in detective withdrawals for so long (re: a few days), the mere sight of him is enough to send her heart fluttering and — wait, is she having a heart attack? Our demon’s heart palpitations are so intense that she faints, and Da-on has to piggyback her to the hospital, where she’s told that there’s nothing wrong with her. Mere human doctors are incapable of detecting and fixing the unique ailments of the demon-possessed, and the best diagnosis they’ve got: stress. (*shrugs*) And to avoid future fainting spells she should either avoid her stressors (Bit-na doesn’t like this one) or learn to love and embrace them (much more appealing).
Luckily for Bit-na, Da-on wants to stick to her like (hawt) glue, but his sudden renewed interest isn’t because he’s also having love-induced heart palpitations. No, after examining the scene of New Wife’s murder, Da-on found one of Bit-na’s trademark crushed Cola Z cans. I guess her cleaning crew wasn’t as thorough as one would expect of a demon-duo wielding magic wet vacs, and that single soda can is all Da-on needs to make him suspect Bit-na is the serial killer behind the forehead branding murders. Well, that and the fact that both “victims” (using that word loosely since they were also heartless murderers) made appearances in Bit-na’s courtroom. So, yeah, now that Da-on has a reason to be sus of Bit-na again, he’s inserted himself in her life as her neighbor and personal shadow in order to determine if his theory is correct.
During his not-so-undercover stakeout of Bit-na, he follows her and Ah-rong to a local demon gathering that doubles as a cooking class, and if Da-on had any lingering doubts as far as Bit-na’s demonic origins are concerned, it’s pretty safe to say they were exorcized after watching the bootleg cast of Hell’s Kitchen use their magical weapons to whip up some side dishes for the local community. Apparently, performing community service is the most efficient way to blend in with society and ensure no one suspects that you’re a demon Airbnbing a human’s body.
I know what you’re thinking. A cooking class? Community service? These things are so not on brand with Bit-na, and you’re correct. She only followed Ah-rong to the demon meet-up because word on the street is that Satan and the Kylum, a magical item he stole from Lucifer (yeah, Satan and Lucifer are two separate beings in this story), are somewhere on earth. The missing Kylum is practically a get back into hell free pass, and Bit-na joined the cooking class to see if the local demons had any leads. Instead, she got roped into community service — although Da-so ended up doing most of the work on her behalf in order to observe Bit-na and the other demons.
Da-on’s solo investigation of Bit-na is put on pause, however, when our story kicks off our latest murder-of-the-week plotline. This time, our murderer (cameo by Yang Kyung-won) has been watching a little too much Dear Hyeri because he pulls the whole it-wasn’t-me-it-was-my-other-personality-that-murdered-my-wife-and-kids card, but super sleuth Da-on isn’t buying it. During his interrogation of Mr. Dissociative Identity Disorder (or Mr. DID-it for short), Da-on subtly pokes holes in Mr. DID-it’s story and all but confirms that Mr. DID-it is faking his multiple personalities, which is why he’s alarmed to discover Bit-na has swapped judicial departments so she can preside over Mr. DID-it’s trial.
Given Bit-na’s recent track history of dolling out light courtroom sentences so her victims are more accessible when it comes time for her to issue her harsher divine punishments, Da-on’s got reason to suspect Mr. DID-it is next in line to receive a forehead branding. And, man, the way he watches Bit-na during the trial is intense. He’s only got eyes for her — in a non-romantic but still totally sexy kind of way — so he doesn’t miss her devilish smirk when she rules that the trial cannot proceed until Mr. DID-it has had a thorough psych evaluation.
Of course, this delay means Mr. DID-it is now being temporarily held at a hospital, which is far easier for Bit-na to infiltrate than a prison. There’s just one problem: she didn’t predict that Da-on would be hiding underneath Mr. DID-it’s hospital bed, where he saw her whip out her glowing dagger and overheard her announce her murderous intentions. Before she can whisk Mr. DID-it off to her magical realm of divine punishment, Da-on grabs her ankle, startling Bit-na and forcing her to (temporarily) abandon her plans for the evening. (Oh darn.)
Even though Da-on caught Bit-na red-handed — or purple-daggered — he has no proof she was at the hospital. Finding solid evidence is an ongoing issue for Da-on, as he can’t find proof that Mr. DID-it is lying about his multiple personalities either. He and his colleagues suspect that there’s evidence stored on the smashed cell phone that belonged to Mr. DID-it’s deceased son, but by the time the detectives are able to access the son’s files via the cloud and find an audio recording from the night of the murders, it’s too late. Yes, the recording irrefutably proves Mr. DID-it was of sound mind when he killed his family, but it wasn’t submitted as evidence in advance of the trial, which makes it inadmissible.
So even though it’s apparent to everyone that Mr. DID-it, well, did it and is faking his disorder, Bit-na makes her ruling as though it’s still a possibility that he’s mentally unwell and sentences him to two years in a secured mental health facility. In this case, I honestly can’t tell if Bit-na is genuinely being a stickler for the rules or if she has an ulterior motive for keeping Mr. DID-it out of prison — to either ensure he remains unrepentant or have it so he’s more accessible to her for when she’s ready to torture him and send him to hell. Doesn’t seem like it’s the latter, though, because if she and Ah-rong can coordinate an elaborate prison bus accident and kidnap Mr. DID-it right out from under Da-on’s nose, then surely supernatural beings of their sort could have killed a guy in prison, right?
Of course, even though Bit-na has an airtight alibi, Da-on (correctly) assumes she’s the mastermind behind the prison bus accident and subsequent kidnapping, so he positions one of his camping chairs outside her door with the intention of sitting guard all night to block her from killing Mr. DID-it. As expected, Da-on and his lawn chair are no match for a wiley demon on a mission, and with a little help from Man-do, Bit-na sneaks out her apartment window and follows her usual routine of making her victim relive his crimes from the perspective of his victims before sending his soul to hell. This time, though, she’s more passionately violent than usual and makes a notable change to her pattern by giving Mr. DID-it her stamp of disapproval before killing him. And then, to taunt Da-on, she makes a production out of leaving Mr. DID-it’s body in his jurisdiction.
Once again, Da-on and his colleagues are stumped by the complete lack of forensic evidence found on the body, and as they speculate over whether or not it’s time to speak with a shaman. Da-on decides to follow-up with the nice demon he met at the cooking class to see if the demon can provide any insights on how to stopping Bit-na’s murder spree. There’s just one problem: Nice Demon supposedly unalived himself.
Da-on immediately suspects that Nice Demon’s death is Bit-na’s handiwork. Da-on witnessed the compassion and love Nice Demon secretly felt for humans — a punishable offense among demons — and knew he feared that Da-on would tell Bit-na his secret. Bit-na, however, who has always been quite proud of her kills, is genuinely surprised by the news of Nice Demon’s death. However, Da-on is past believing in a demon with at least three kills under her belt and he vows to bring her to justice.
Honestly, at this point, Da-on’s excessively righteous moral compass and naive belief that he can defeat a literal demon are laughable because — and maybe this is just me — but if I’m ever presented with irrefutable proof that not only are demons real but they’re on earth killing and dragging unrepentant murderers to hell, I’m not going to try and stop them. I might politely ask them to hold off on the forehead branding and make their murders look like accidental deaths so I have less detective paperwork to do, but otherwise I’m minding my own damn business. Because demons.
I really should stop overthinking this story, though, because despite the convoluted theology and demonic justice system, this is a love story. It’s not about Da-on defeating a demon — at least not in the conventional biblical sense. Instead, there’s been enough foreshadowing and heart palpitations to make it clear that this is a romance about a demon falling in love with a human, which will prove especially dangerous for Bit-na now that we know Ah-rong is a demon who has been sent to earth to punish other demons, like Nice Demon, who fall in love with humans. But Ah-rong’s growing suspicion that Bit-na may be feeling forbidden emotions may be the least of Bit-na and Da-on’s worries.
For starters, we still don’t know who killed human Bit-na, but if her ex-fiancé’s veiled threat is any indication, he seems like the type who might resort to murder if Bit-na continues blocking the success of his redevelopment project. Then again, that could have just been a misdirect so we’d suspect Tae-gyu has something to do with Bit-na’s neighbor getting attacked at the end of Episode 6. Either way, lest we forget, Satan is apparently walking among humans, and I can’t imagine he will live by The Law of Finders Keepers if Bit-na manages to locate the Kylum before him.