Our counters are back with new friends, new foes and new assignments! *Excited dance* Catching evil spirits has never been more fun, and I’m so hyped for this drama. Let’s go sell some noodles beat up some evil spirits, y’all! Woohoo!
EPISODES 1-2
I won’t even lie, as much as I’m not a fan of second seasons, I was really looking forward to The Uncanny Counter 2 because I totally enjoyed the first one. I mean, what is not to like? The found family dynamics, the counters’ individual — and very visible — character growth that had me rooting for them every step of the way in their fight against evil, Ahn Seok-hwan being the goofiest and one of the most righteous chaebol chairman I have ever seen, and the show’s humor in general.
I’m ecstatic that our entire team of counters returned for Season 2 because as much as I understand that actors can decide to move on or might have scheduling conflicts, I’m always mildly disappointed when a (major) character I like in a show is recast or doesn’t return at all for a new season. Thankfully, our show took “no one left behind” seriously, and brought everyone I cared about back. And speaking of new seasons, we’ve also got new players in this one, so let’s meet the crew!
Our opening scene has a kindergarten school bus waiting to receive the kids, and one of them sticks a “you are nice” sticker on the driver’s hand. Unfortunately, the driver proceeds to be anything but nice as he speeds along with the excited, reckless abandon of someone who has been possessed by an evil spirit. Thankfully, our counters’ radar, DO HANA (Kim Se-jung) detects his presence, and the rest of the counters swing into action.
Hot on the driver’s heels from different directions are the team’s healer, CHU MAE-OK (Yeom Hye-ran — who I’m just going to call Ms. Chu like the rest of them do), GA MO-TAK (Yoo Joon-sang), and the team’s financier, CHOI JANG-MUL (Ahn Seok-hwan) — who I was kinda surprised to see since he rarely comes out on field assignments. We get an action-packed chase sequence complete with flying kicks, screeching tires, and screaming kids. It’s quite the intense ride, but they manage to stop the bus from skidding down a bridge. Phew!
Like the roach he is, the evil spirit takes one of the kids hostage, but the snicker soon wipes off his face as his hold on his weapon begins to loosen. Wait, could it be…? Of course, it is! Channeling his main character energy, the team’s ace and our titular counter, SO MOON (Jo Byung-kyu) makes his appearance on the roof of the bus with a cheeky, “Sorry, I’m late. I kept you waiting.” (Yes, you did!) Cue: my squealing, his effortless ass-whooping of the evil spirit, and the summoning of the spirit to Yung (the border between the human world and the afterlife).
Just like the counters, their partners at Yung are still alive (ha!) and kicking. Moon’s partner, WI-GEN (Moon Sook) remains as graceful as ever, and it was nice to see Ms. Chu’s late son and partner, SU-HO (Lee Chan-hyung). I lol-ed at Hana’s remark about her partner, WOO-SHIK (Kwon Duk-in) losing weight (the kid has grown!), and Mo-tak is still in the habit of stressing his partner, GI-RAN (Kim So-ra) heh. I got a little emotional watching the reunion at Yung, and it was in this moment it absolutely hit me: Ah! These guys are really back.
We get a few updates from the first season: first, Mo-tak has returned to being a detective and he finds it exhausting combining his day job with counter duties — which explains why Jang-mul was out in the field to help. And while Moon has given up on college for full-time counter pursuits, he has fully mastered the use of his psychokinetic powers and is now coaching the other counters to develop this power, with the slogan “I can do it!” But so far, only Hana can “do it” with ease. Mo-tak and Ms. Chu are still struggling. Lol.
Anyway, now that we’ve met the characters we knew, it’s time to introduce the new ones, starting with this season’s baddies who we meet in China. The leader of the pack is HWANG PIL-GWANG (Kang Ki-young — who’s debuting a shocking overall aura that makes me want to ask who he is and what he has done to the Kang Ki-young I know). His two stooges are KELLY (Kim Hieora), and WONG (Kim Hyun-wook), but Kelly is a bit above stooge level and she definitely tops Wong in the hierarchy.
This trio are no ordinary evil spirits, and they succeed in killing a set of Chinese counters (the red tracksuit is really universal!) and absorbing their powers as well as their souls — making the evil trio even more powerful than they already were. Wong acquires healing powers, Kelly acquires the ability to read and erase memories, and Pil–gwang activates a whole new level of psychokinesis. And worse, the evil trio can now see the counters’ territory (waves created by the merging of the energies of the divine and human realm, increasing the counters’ powers whenever it appears). Oh boy!
“It’ll be a battle unlike anything before,” Hana says, when they learn about their Chinese counterparts’ death at the hands of the evil trio, and no kidding! I have faith in our Korean counters, but I’m not going to lie, these new villains are freaking intimidating! They’re not playing around and it’s just the first week! Our counters are worried, and rightly so. But as always, they resolve to train and get stronger for when they inevitably have to face the evil trio — which won’t be long since the evil trio are Korea-bound, with a suspicious interest in a real estate fraud case.
There’s only so much that Jang-mul can do in the field and with the addition of the evil trio to the mix, the counters are in desperate need of an extra hand. This is where NA JEOK-BONG (Yoo In-soo — who’s currently on the ahjumma perm phase of his never-ending hairstyle evolution) comes in. In an attempt to save his blind date from an accident, Jeok-bong falls into a coma after a meet-and-greet with the Truck of Doom, and his selfless act is all Yung needs to recruit him as a counter. He takes up the counter job in exchange for getting his life back, but dude isn’t even worried about the possibility of dying on the job. All he wants to know is if the job comes with insurance and if he gets to go home after work. He is so real for this! Haha.
I already predict so much hilarity from the village bumpkin-turned-counter and his relationship with his unwilling Yung partner, JONG-GUK (Choi Kwang-je), and I hope they keep the count versus counter gag for a few more episodes. Jeok-bong has no problem feeling at home with his counter sunbaes. Although Hana, as usual, will take a while to warm up to their newest teammate, and maknae-no-more Moon is a little too excited and goes overboard with Jeok-bong’s training sessions. Lol.
Balancing out the good guys versus baddies equation is the wildcard, MA JOO-SEOK (Jin Seon-gyu) — who we’re introduced to as a devoted husband, and a kind-hearted fireman who once saved Moon’s grandmother from a nasty fall. Since then, he and his wife, Min-ji, have been close with the rest of the counter squad. The couple is expecting a baby, which is good news enough, but doubly so for them, because they need a win after falling victim to the real estate fraud.
As a slap to the faces of the victims, the perpetrator kills himself and his second-in-command gets off on probation. But not for long, because to claim the proceeds of the fraud, the evil trio waylay Second as he leaves the courthouse. Unfortunately, Min-ji walks in on them and ends up dead. It’s double the loss for Joo-seok, and he begins to question everything, swearing never to forgive the people behind Min-ji’s death.
Joo-seok and the police think that Second killed her, but as we see when Hana reads Second’s memory, Pil-gwang made him strike the killing blow with psychokinesis. Right now, Joo-seok is in a pretty volatile state of mind and it’s hard to tell in which direction he’ll turn. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how our good guys, the baddies, and the wild card are intertwined.
Hana’s reading of Second’s memory (and a fight with Wong), gives the counters an insight to the evil trio and the powers they possess. But that same fight also provided the evil trio the opportunity to witness the counters in action and see (and lust after) their powers. So, both sides are even. For now. As we conclude the opening week, Pil-gwang visits the noodle restaurant to scope out his opponents, and Moon sniffs him out immediately. We’ll have to wait till next week to see the interaction between the strongest counter and the strongest of the evil trio, and I cannot wait to see who comes out tops in this first confrontation/battle of wits!
Have I mentioned how much I love this drama yet? The premiere was everything I hoped for and more, and it proves that the show hasn’t lost its juice. It knows the things that made it tick (the action, the humor, and the general heart it possesses), and it didn’t deviate off course. The opening episodes did a great job arousing nostalgia for the characters we’re familiar with, and fed us with just enough bits about our new characters to know what they’re like on the surface, but revealed nothing too major, to keep us on our curious toes.
Our baddies are poised to give our counters a run for their money and I’m already intrigued from the little we’ve seen of them (maybe even more than I am with Joo-seok). That said, I do not like Wong. Phew! There, I said it. I’m not curious about him one bit, and I find him so annoying. He’s the weakest link of the trio and he can be summoned to Yung next week for all I care. Kelly, on the other hand, is deliciously unhinged. Everything about her screams chaos and you can tell that Kim Hieora is having a blast as she marinates in this chaos. She’s fun to watch, and I like villains that keep me entertained.
Kang Ki-young is my biggest shocker as Pil-gwang, and I’m having a hard time separating the actor from his character because this is such a huge departure from his usual goofy roles. But the mark of a good actor is the ability to portray different types of characters and so far, he’s killing it as a villain. His aesthetics in this drama is an excellent (and I hope deliberate) choice since it makes him distinct in this villainous role (and easy to hate haha). But who am I kidding? We’re talking about Kang Ki-young here!
As for our counters, nothing much has changed, and they’re still the same guys we know and love. I love how with all his powers and experience with life, death, good, and evil, Moon remains a child at heart — like when he plays around with his powers at crime scenes (to be honest, he’s just showing off at this point). Like a kid with a cool new toy, he’s having way too much fun and I can’t even blame him because it’s so darn cute — even when he’s having a third wheel-like meltdown on learning that his best friends KIM WOONG-MIN (Kim Eun-soo) and IM JOO-YEON (Lee Ji-won) are dating. (By the way, who else was happy to see his friends? I did not think the show was going to keep them around since they’re done with the high school part.)
Our found family is growing, and I love Jeok-bong’s addition to the team. Personality wise, he’s a little too eager and earnest (which is never a bad thing), and while that can be a weakness, with a little honing, it can also be his greatest strength. And speaking of strength, I’m eager to see what his specialty is as a counter. How many days until it’s Saturday again? *Counts down with fingers*