MASK episode 3

The series opens on an immediate hook: Our heroine dies. Okay, you have my attention. Continueeee.

We’re thrown into the thick of action as BYUN JI-SOOK (Su Ae) drives along a mountain road and swerves to avoid a collision, only to send her car crashing through the cable railing and down a rocky hillside. She’s saved momentarily by the cables that catch the vehicle, but only barely, and not for long.

Ji-sook is handcuffed to the steering wheel, and manages to grab her phone to answer a call from a mysterious “Crazy Bastard,” who pressures her into accepting his deal. Panicking and desperate, she agrees, only to have him declare that she must die.

Facing imminent death, Ji-sook takes out her phone and records her last messages to her family—her wastrel of a father, always plunging the family into debt and trouble; her long-suffering mother; and her troublemaking younger brother.

The cables give way and the car plunges into the sea, with Ji-sook still handcuffed to it. Her body is identified in the morgue, her distraught family mourns, and then we jump back to two days prior.

CHOI MIN-WOO (Joo Ji-hoon) is the successor to SJ Group, a chaebol corporation that owns department stores, for which he serves as executive director. Yet despite his high rank and chaebol status, his position seems far from secure, with his exacting chairman father constantly barking warnings that he won’t pass the company to an undeserving successor.

Eun-ha draws clear boundaries for their arrangement, where she’ll continue to see the man she loves, and refuses to have children with Min-woo. He’s fine with that, though he comments, “I feel sorry for him and for you—truly.” To which Eun-ha replies, “Do you not have someone you love? I feel sorry for you—truly.” Touché.

Min-woo suffers from OCD and hallucinations that are initially depicted in a humorous light, but the tone grows increasingly more grave as it becomes clear just how debilitating his condition is. It’s not just that he dislikes dirt; there are hints of a deeper problem, for which he’s been undergoing long-term psychological treatment. He seems to have come to a good place of calm and control, but any hint of instability shakes his composure, and we see that the cause is rooted in a childhood trauma—his mother drowned, and he experiences recurring hallucinations of bodies floating in pools of water.