[Drama Review] 'The Girl Who Can See Smells' - Episode 5

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THE GIRL WHO CAN SEE SMELLS - EPISODE 5

A chef murdered! Maybe someone didn't like the food?

This drama seems to be going the one-murder-per-episode route, which is okay if it's done well. Hopefully last week was just a fluke. We see a lot more of Moo Gak and Cho Rim's relationship here, and I'm really digging the little developments. So, moving on:

Jae Hee, the fiance of one of the barcode murder victims, is accused of killing one of the chefs at a restaurant he owns. Cho Rim knows he's innocent because the scent on the victim matches the scent of someone else she saw at the scene (well, that plus they're friends). This leads her on a merry chase around the city until a chance encounter with the suspect places her in deadly peril.� Moo Gak saves her, and tells her not to chase after perps. Jae Hee -- still in custody -- tells his roommate, Dr. Chun, to grab some financial files that he doesn't want the cops to find. A bust of a marijuana front leads Moo Gak to the chef killer. Meanwhile the cops are trying to poke a hole in Chun's alibi as he is still a suspect in the barcode murders. Moo Gak heads to Jeju where the murders occurred and finds that Chun pulled medical files related to Choi Eun Seol. With this knowledge and subsequently figuring out his sister was murdered by mistake, he flies off the handle and in a tearful rage threatens the doctor. Our hero quickly finds himself on the receiving end of Lt. Yeom Mi's rage. He ends up taking Cho Rim out for soju�and ends up passed out on her lap under the cherry blossoms.

Cho Rim in danger from the chef-killer

I liked the pacing a lot better in this episode. If they can't show you the action right away, at least make us smile, which they did. I've said it before, but I love the chemistry between Yoochun and Shin Se Kyung. And there's enough going on in this episode, so�Cho Rim doesn't spend much of her time agonizing over their relationship, but lets it happen more naturally here. I have to laugh at the whole situation: rather than have the guy be emotionally unavailable (a very old and tired trope), he's simply oblivious.� It's obvious he cares for her -- I think I even detected a twinge of jealousy when she was with Jae Hee. :)

The writers once again did well with the blend of elements, moving from comical to action-packed to suspense and tragedy. It moved faster this time and still kept the pacing. I wasn't lost or bored once, so we'll assume episode 4 was a mistake. At least, I hope it was a mistake. It kinda worried me happening as early in the series as it did. They really put their best feet forward in the first two episodes and set the bar high for the rest of the series.��

Moo Gak, remembering a moment with his sister Choi Eun Seol

Jae Hee gets a little creepier each episode. There are just little things they show you to let you know he's not simply the rich-and-handsome-owner of-a-restaurant-chain-you-bring-home-to-mom type. He's got skeletons in his closet -- whether that's literally true remains to be seen. I'm fairly sure he's not the barcode killer, but it makes me wonder what else he's done to win the race to the top of the food chain.

I think the murder-each-episode thing could work out in the show's favor. The 2014 drama 'Gabdongi'�kept using tricks to keep us on our toes, and then finally, someone actually got murdered by the main psycho or someone else. It got a little old after awhile, and sometimes you felt cheated. This is a simpler format to keep to, giving us some of the old "let's wrap this case up in an hour" format while still keeping the other parts alive (such as the big murder case and the relationship between Moo Gak and Cho Rim). It keeps the show living and breathing even as they bring some of the things we've seen in earlier episodes to the fore to be examined again, and we learn something new.�