Our psychic vet discovers a gruesome crime, and unable to ignore a person in distress, she sets out to solve it with her new neighbor’s help. However, her powers alienate her further and her pervert title destroys her credibility. Still, our psychic vet chooses to believe that the fish-out-of-water detective hides a heart of gold under his prickly exterior, and if anyone will trust her crazy claims, it’s him.
EPISODES 3-4
Ever since gaining her powers, our reluctant heroine finds herself in a predicament, but as the adage goes, with great power comes great hair loss responsibility. Though no one around her believes in her outlandish tale of butt-touching psychometry (especially not our case-obsessed cop), Ye-boon cannot stand by while knowing the truth, so once she realizes that her underclassman is a criminal, she takes matters into her own hands.
Of course, a neighborhood vet has no business solving crimes, and Ye-boon’s first attempt to bust into her underclassman’s house ends up with her touching someone else’s butt… Ok-hee’s boyfriend to be exact. Unfortunately, Ye-boon sees another woman in his memories and warns her friend to double-check.
In the meantime, Ye-boon returns to her underclassman’s place, and with the help of some cats, she learns the door passcode and enters his house to find the missing streamer. However, her search gets cut short when the underclassman comes home earlier than expected, and Ye-boon escapes by the skin of her teeth — or in this case, her butt.
Looking like a mad woman with a windowsill around her hips, Ye-boon swallows her pride and asks Jang-yeol for help. Despite their antagonistic relationship, Ye-boon believes Jang-yeol is a trusting person and hopes that he will believe her, too. She mentions the memory she saw when she touched his backside, but to Jang-yeol, that incident is one of shame rather than pride.
Although these two continue butting heads — he catches her being a creep at best and a sex offender at worst — Ye-boon still places her trust in Jang-yeol and asks him to show up as she dives headfirst into danger… and, oh boy, is Ye-boon reckless. Without any plan or afterthought, she finds and breaks into the missing streamer’s apartment and comes face-to-face with the underclassman.
Having been caught, the underclassman decides one more death means nothing at this point and chokes Ye-boon. As she fights for her life, Jang-yeol comes to the rescue in the nick of time, and they capture the underclassman and save the streamer. Given everything that has happened, Jang-yeol decides to believe Ye-boon and use her powers as his ticket back home.
While Jang-yeol was saving Ye-boon, the rest of his team solved a huge drug case and now bask in their new laurels. This slight only invigorates Jang-yeol more, which means Ye-boon is whisked around from butt to butt as his hunting dog. Though she tries to weasel her way out of helping, Jang-yeol solves all her “problems” with even more preposterous solutions, and all Ye-boon gets for her efforts are a couple of burned fingertips.
Using her injury as an excuse to go to the convenience store, Ye-boon meets up with Sun-woo who has recently moved to her neighborhood. The two share snacks together after his shift, and during their conversation, they learn that they both lost their moms. Sun-woo tells her that this place is her hometown and says that the air is good here as are the people. Ye-boon’s ears perk up at his comment, and her hopes skyrocket when he mentions being interested in someone.
Just as Ye-boon starts relishing her powers, they disappear, but the one truly devastated by this news is Jang-yeol. In an attempt to bring them back, he buys every hand product available and treats Ye-boon like a queen. Though he wants to know if her powers returned, Jang-yeol balks at the idea of Ye-boon touching his rear to check, but luckily for him, Ok-hee walks in right then.
After the boyfriend event where Ok-hee learned that her now-ex is a trans woman, Ye-boon revealed her secret to her friend. Thus, with Ok-hee’s butt, Ye-boon finds out that her powers are back, and she also learns that her friend is nursing a massive crush on Jang-yeol.
With Ye-boon’s powers working in full force again, Jang-yeol drags her to his next big break: a robbery at Assemblyman Cha Ju-man’s office. Ever the sycophant, he sidelines his teammates to grab all the glory for himself and uses his human dashcam to find the culprit. However, with no leads, he orders Ye-boon to indiscriminately touch every supporter’s butt, including those of the opposing party. With the help of Ok-hee’s crew, Ye-boon manages to find a clue, but she keeps this a secret from Jang-yeol since her grandpa may be the robber.
In the background, a more sinister plot brews as the story takes a moment to follow the streamer from the underclassman case. On her way to see her boyfriend, the streamer gets into an accident, and while she waits for a tow truck, a stranger wearing a poncho attacks her.
I know the streamer was a piece of work, but I feel bad for her. First, some creep kidnaps her and attempts to kill her, and now another creep may have actually killed her. At this point in the story, Sun-woo is the most likely suspect, but at the same time, he could be a red herring. I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Cha Ju-man turns out to be a villain (he’s definitely hiding something), but then again, we know so little at this point that everything on my end is pure speculation. However, it seems that the streamer recognized the assailant, and the show deliberately had her interact with a few key players meaning that the poncho creep is most likely someone the show already introduced.
It does add an air of mystery, but just like last week, these violent endings feel rather abrupt in both pacing and tone. I don’t think the show has quite found a balance between comedy and thriller as of yet, and for the most part, these two genres feel conflicting rather than harmonious. It also doesn’t help that I’m more invested in the comedy aspect of the show and find this new killer (and the underclassman kidnapper) a bit trite. There’s still plenty of episodes left, though, and hopefully, as the story progresses, this mash-up of genres will blend better.
Last week, I said the butt-touching wasn’t as off-putting as I feared, but alas, I wonder if I spoke too soon. The Ok-hee’s ex storyline went a bit too far for my liking — dragging a drunk person to a motel room to touch their butt is wrong on so many levels. It also didn’t help that the show backtracked on the message it made last week about how committing one crime does not permit others to sexually harass you. As soon as Ye-boon’s powers became useful to him, Jang-yeol was all about having his pervy partner touch as many butts as possible, and now I’m starting to question the show’s own understanding of sexual assault and consent. Part of my discomfort does stem from the toned-down absurdity from the show’s opening week (the ridiculousness does act as a nice counterbalance), so while this issue isn’t a deal-breaker for me yet, the show needs to either increase the antics or ease on the harassment — or possibly do both.
In spite of my misgivings, I still found the show generally favorable and creative in terms of its jokes. There are so many parodies and references in this show that I’m barely able to pick up on most of them. From the big moments like Jong-mok and Hyeon-ok’s “youthful” romance to small details like Ted Chang from Extreme Job, the creators seem to be having a blast poking fun at its characters and their situations. My favorite little Easter egg was the comment during the stream about Jong-muk looking like he would like bullet proof glass (a nod to his famous line from The Man from Nowhere), and it’s these tiny jokes sprinkled throughout the show that make me chuckle from their random silliness. I also love the banter between the characters, and the scene where Ye-boon tries to figure out Jang-yeol’s age had the perfect back-and-forth quibble. My favorite character, though, is Ok-hee by far, and the parting moment with her ex only solidified my love for her even more. She’s funny, reliable, and a bit unhinged, making her a winner in my book.