Wild Goose Chases and Tingly Senses in "The Girl Who Sees Smells" Eps 9 and 10

I admit it. I let out a cry of frustration as episode 10 of “The Girl Who Sees Smells” came to a close this week. What a cliffhanger! What a horrible, cruel, evil cliffhanger! As if having Oh Cho Rim (Shin Se Kyung) and Chef Kwon Jae Hee (Namgoong Min) growing closer week after week wasn’t already causing us an incredible amount of unease, now Cho Rim is getting tossed directly onto the path marked with a big, fat danger sign… with no Choi Moo Gak (Park Yoochun) in sight.

My mind is running wild with potential scenarios on how the ending scene is going to play out. While I’m anxious to find out, I’m also trying to calm myself down enough to make it through until episode 11. After all, I don’t think any serious harm is going to befall onto Cho Rim just yet since it would be way too early for Chef Kwon to bring out the big guns… if he has any.

1. The Sense of Defeat

Chef Kwon continues to remain one step ahead of the Chain Murderer Team by playing his usual switch-a-roo game while seeking out his witness. Lucky for him, one of the identity switches was purely coincidental and it allows him to safely get away while steering the detectives towards another criminal.

Although I can’t help but wonder why none of the detectives had the sense, pun totally intended, to think that, maybe, their culprit would continue his pattern of sending someone else to do his dirty work, it was still pretty thrilling to see Chef Kwon momentarily losing his cool by genuinely trying to run away from Choi Moo Gak, who was hot on his heels.

2. The Sense of Fear

My heart almost dropped in fear for Oh Jae Pyo (Jung In Gi) when Chef Kwon got to him before Lieutenant Yeom (Yoon Jin Seo) did. Half of me expected for Chef Kwon to grill into him immediately about Choi Eun Seol’s whereabouts, possibly even torturing or tormenting him to get the information, but the other half feared Chef Kwon’s sneaky games even more. Is he going to befriend Jae Pyo and then turn him into his next victim, just like Joo Ma Ri (Park Han Byul) and Chun Baek Gyung (Song Jong Ho)? How will he react when he finds out Oh Cho Rim is his “daughter”? Will he be able to connect the dots between her two identities?

But perhaps the most terror inducing moment was when Jae Hee catches Cho Rim with Doctor Chun’s letter in hand. For a brief moment, I thought Cho Rim would end up finding Chef Kwon’s souvenir books for his victims, but fortunately (or unfortunately?) that wasn’t the case. I think it was just an absentminded slip on his part to allow Cho Rim free access to his library with such concrete evidence out in the open. The moment in which that realization dawned on him was the moment I was afraid for Cho Rim…

3. The Sense of Fluttering Hearts

As always, I love, love, love the relationship between Moo Gak and Cho Rim. They bicker, they make up, they horse around, and they get down to serious police business. It’s a great partnership and what makes them even better, both as individuals and as a pair, is that they are both quite prone to daydreaming about one other as seen in these two episodes. Double the humor, double the fun!

Still, I have to say that as much as I adore the romance, I wish they could have concentrated juuuust a little bit more on the investigation. The drama had a rather balanced mix of the mystery and the romantic in the beginning, but now that we’re slowly reaching the last leg of the case, I’m getting the impression that the abundance of the lovey-dovey is a cover up for losing traction on the suspense.

4. The Sense of Suspicion

What gets to me in “The Girl Who Sees Smells” this week is that Moo Gak should have some semblance of a detective’s instinct, so why couldn’t he sense that something was off about Chef Kwon and his phone? He also looked at the tabletop quite a few times and if Jae Hee could see the reflection of the spyapp being downloaded, then why couldn’t Moo Gak? Every time he used the phone, I was so nervous that he would unintentionally give something away to Kwon Jae Hee or tip him off to the fact that he has become a suspect again.

I admire Moo Gak’s boldness for breaking into Jae Hee’s house, but honestly, as a police officer, what would he have done if Cho Rim hadn’t been there to lend a hand? I would love for Moo Gak to break the case and arrest Kwon Jae Hee with solid evidence, but breaking and entering is crossing the lines, even in my opinion.

If it was honestly for that reason that Lieutenant Yeom removed Moo Gak from the case, then I can understand, but a large part of me knows that her ulterior motive was to remove him as an obstacle now that she’s digging into Cho Rim. I’m curious to see how Moo Gak is going to get himself back into the investigative team.

5. The Sense of Returning Senses

I’ve always wondered how Moo Gak can control the strength behind his actions when he can’t feel anything. How does he know he’s not expelling too much energy into kissing Cho Rim? How does he know he’s not crushing her fingers when he’s holding her hand? Why couldn’t he catch up to Chef Kwon when he can’t feel the burn in his lungs from running? (But if they had filmed it that way, then I would feel horrible for Yoochun!)

It’s more difficult than one would assume to 100% successfully pull off a man who had absolutely no senses, so I never thought too much about those kind of errors. At the same time, it made me wonder if it was even possible for Moo Gak to feel emotions such as the pain associated with thinking about his sister or the love that he feels for Cho Rim. Even the genuine concern he felt for the near accident that Cho Rim got into, is he simply going through the motions? Knowing he should be feeling a certain way, but not actually feeling it? How does losing all of one’s senses really work?

Regardless of these thoughts, I’m still glad that Moo Gak’s senses are slowly returning to him and it seems like Cho Rim is a big contributor of that. I hate imagining how strained their relationship might become and how much of a negative impact it might have on them both when Cho Rim’s real identity is unveiled and, along with it, her indirect involvement in the death of Moo Gak’s younger sister.

There are plenty of things to look forward to next week and I’m counting down the days until the next episode. While it has been a decent and exciting ride so far, I also feel that the editing done to the recent episodes have been rather off. This week, in particular, has been pretty choppy and it’s the little asinine errors like these, along with the illogical happenings (did any catch the mistake in the parking lot scene with Kwon Jae Hee and Oh Jae Pyo?), that makes “The Girl Who Sees Smells” not as amazing as it has the potential to be.

Just as I’ve been saying since the beginning though, I’m still perfectly willing to overlook those flaws in light of the unique plot, the great performances by the entire cast, the chemistry between our OTP, and to see justice being served.

What did you think about this week’s episodes, Soompiers? What have been your likes and dislikes so far? What do you think will happen between Cho Rim and Chef Kwon? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Catch episode 9 of “The Girl Who Sees Smells” here:

You can also watch the 10th episode of “The Girl Who Sees Smells” here:

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