Behind Your Touch (2023) Episode 9

Episode 9 of Behind Your Touch picks up with election day in Mujin. People crowd around Ju-man, and Sun-woo strolls by on his bike. Mr. Park asks him if he is going to vote, and Sun-woo says there is no one he wants to vote for.

Ye-bun is at the police station, and Jong-mook tells her that Kwang-shik and Ae-ran won’t be punished harshly. Ye-bun and Jong-mook begin to trash-talk Jang-yeol, who overhears and threatens to arrest them too.

Ye-bun goes to meet Ae-ran’s co-worker at the café, Ji-suk, to fill her in on the prior night’s events. Ye-bun tells her that Ae-ran is at the police station.

At the station, Ae-ran and Kwang-shik walk out and are shortly greeted by the cafe owner and a muscled thug. The thug pulls Ae-ran away, and the cafe owner threatens Kwang-shik not to follow. Then Ji-suk walks by.

Kwang-shik goes to Ye-bun and blames her for telling Ji-suk about Ae-ran’s whereabouts. Later, Ye-bun asks why Ji-suk told their boss, and she says that if Ae-ran couldn’t come back, then she would have had to pay off both of their debts.

Hyun-ok texts Jong-mook and asks to meet up, but he brushes her off, saying that there is a misunderstanding. He only saved her the other day because he is a detective. A minute later, he meets Hyun-ok’s ex and punches him and threatens him saying that he will kill him if he touches Hyun-ok again and that he is the only one who loves her. Her ex walks away, saying that he will get Jong-mook one day. Jogn-mook turns around to see Hyun-ok standing there. She asks him if there really is a misunderstanding.

Meanwhile, Mr. Park is being peppered with questions about the election by some locals. He says that the general deity needs coffee and comfortable seats in order to answer who will be elected, so they take him to the café. Mr. Park shuts his eyes and says that he can see a golden badge. One of the villains points out that Ae-ran, who served them coffee, is alive. Mr. Park gets startled and spills his coffee. Mr. Bae takes out some talismans and makes a show of mopping up the coffee with them. Mr. Park gets the hint that they think he is a phony.

Somewhere else in Mujin, Da-eun’s brother follows Ok-hui around. He has instructions from Da-eun to do so because Ok-hui saved her life in the past. Ok-hui has a flashback from high school: A group of bullies stole money from Ye-bun, and Ok-hui fought them all to get it back. One of them was Da-eun, whom she could have let fall off a roof, but Ok-hui pulled her back just in time.

Da-eun’s brother insists that he isn’t only doing it for Da-eun but also wants to protect Ok-hui. A motorcycle suddenly whizzes by, and he pulls her out of the way. They romantically gaze at each other.

At the park, Hyun-ok asks Jong-mook if he wants coffee or ice cream, but he says he can’t because he is diabetic and has male menopause. They hold hands, and Jong-mook’s hand starts shaking. Hyun-ok hurriedly unwraps some candy for him to get it back up. Dr. Jung watches in the distance.

Sun-woo walks into a restaurant and finds Ye-bun there. The two share a table, and Ye-bun confesses that she has a hard time figuring people out. Sun-woo says that everyone has a little evil in them, so she shouldn’t trust easily. Ye-bun says that she 100% thinks that Sun-woo is a good person and almost tells him her secret power when he asks her not to.

She takes a drink of alcohol and passes out just as Sun-woo slips his hand under her head. While she is asleep, she sees a memory of the day her mom died, but when she lifts the sheet on the body, it’s Ji-suk. Ye-bun suddenly wakes up and runs out of the restaurant, but she leaves her phone there. Sun-woo is gone when Ye-bun wakes up, but she returns to the table and picks up her phone after she leaves.

At the café, Ye-bun finds Ji-suk and apologizes to her. Ye-bun says that she wants to help her, but Ji-suk says that there is no way Ye-bun can help her. Ye-bun insists and hops on the back of Ji-suk’s scooter while she makes a delivery.

Once Ji-suk makes her delivery, she tells Ye-bun that they can talk nearby. When Ye-bun starts walking to that nearby area, Ji-suk drives off. Ye-bun starts walking home and finds Ji-suk’s scooter lying on the side of the road. Ye-bun sees some lightning bugs and quickly catches one to see what happened. The bug saw Ji-suk running off through some tall grass.

Ye-bun starts running and sees the town’s hooded serial killer trying to stab Ji-suk. Ye-bun hits the killer in the head with a scooter helmet, grabs the knife, and cuts a cable tie that is tied around the killer’s and Ji-suk’s wrists, cutting her own hand in the process. Then she rushes off with Ji-suk. They hide while the killer walks away. Neither woman saw his face, which Ye-bun confirms by touching Ji-suk. Ji-suk apologizes for leaving Ye-bun before Ye-bun runs for help. Ji-sook finds Ae-ran’s old key lying in the grass (the one that is now Sun-woo’s).

Ye-bun stops a bus and asks to board, and Mr. Park touches her arm and asks what happened, but she doesn’t tell him because she reasons that she cannot trust anyone.

Ye-bun starts looking for Jang-yeol. In the town center, the townspeople celebrate the election results: Ju-man won. When people see Ye-bun, they show concern for her bloody appearance, and Mr. Bae, Dr. Jung, Ju-man, and Mi-ran all touch her. Ye-bun asks them where Jang-yeol is, and Sun-woo touches her arm, asking if she is okay, and tries to give her phone to her, but she is too busy running to notice. She finds Jang-yeol and tells him to hurry to where Ji-suk is.

When they arrive, Ji-suk is dead with a knife in her chest. Her hand is holding Sun-woo’s key.

After more police arrive, Ye-bun and Jang-yeol pay Kwang-shik a visit. He is asleep on the floor. Ye-bun touches his butt and finds that he isn’t the killer. Ye-bun tells Jang-yeol that the killer tied a cable tie to his and Ji-suk’s wrists and that she doesn’t know how the killer knew where she and Ji-suk hid.

Jang-yeol posits that the killer might also have powers. Ye-bun tells him what Kwang-shik told her—that there is another unknown psychic in their midst. Jang-yeol says that Ye-bun must have run into the killer on her way to find Jang-yeol, and the killer touched her.

Jang-yeol also realizes why the knife wounds on the victims are so random—because the killer closes his eyes when he stabs so that another psychic won’t be able to see his memories. And the cable tie is so that the victim won’t run away.

Ye-bun and Jang-yeol put together a list of suspects. The only thing left to do is touch them again. But Ye-bun’s hand is cut, so they’re going to need Kwang-shik.

At Ye-bun’s home, Dr. Jung looks at a photo of himself and Ye-bun’s mom on her graduation day. The next day, Dr. Jung meets Jong-mook. He hands him a folder, saying that it is a case that he has been investigating. He needs Jong-mook to take over because he won’t be able to soon. He also asks him to take care of Hyun-ok before leaving.

Jong-mook opens the file and sees an old photo of Ju-man at an election, but just then, Ju-man himself walks in, asking about the murder last night. He imposes that Jong-mook be present as if there is no serial killer, as it would ruin Mujin’s image otherwise.

At the café, the owner tells Ae-ran that she has to pay off Ji-suk’s debt now. Jang-yeol hands the owner a paper saying that he has taken over Ae-ran’s debt. He has to work in her place. But when the first customers come in, Jang-yeol proves that he is an unfit worker. It turns out the regular customers (who are all guys) only want to buy coffee from a pretty face. Later, Jang-yeol helps Kwang-shik reunite with Ae-ran.

Ok-hui realizes that Da-eun’s brother isn’t going away and pretends that she has somewhere to be, knowing that he will accompany her. So she goes to the movies, a restaurant, and a park with him.

Sun-woo finds Ye-bun at her house and gives her phone back to her. He asks her to have udon with him. Ye-bun is about to eagerly accept when she looks at her phone to see a text from Jang-yeol: “You’re the next target.” She looks up and sees Jang-yeol on the nearby rooftop comically mouthing, “You’re dead.” So Ye-bun declines, feigning illness.

The next day, Ye-bun goes to the hospital. She asks Jang-yeol for a ride, but he says he is busy. After her appointment, Jang-yeol appears. She asks him if he is worried about her. He says no, and that he only thought the killer might show up if she was alone. Ye-bun mutters that he bawled his eyes out when he was dumped in high school, and now he is heartless. He says nothing and stares at her.

Later, Jang-yeol visits Kwang-shik. Jang-yeol massages his hands and gives him a manicure. They let him in on the recent news and ask for his help. Jang-yeol instructs him to test out his skills on Ye-bun. She agrees on the terms that she needs a private word with Kwang-shik first. She tells him to skip everything from 10th to 12th grade, including certain embarrassing memories. Kwang-shik sees memories of Dr. Jung ignoring her.

They all go to Kwang-shik’s farm and determine the height and frame of the killer based on where he was standing the night of the meteor shower. Then, Jang-yeol drops Ye-bun at the clinic, and Sun-woo comes by. He asks if Ye-bun would like to come to his workshop after work.

That evening, Jang-yeol and Kwang-shik sit outside the convenience store. Kwang-shik tells him that he and Ye-bun were both touching his cow when they got powers. So there is a chance that the other person there did not get any. Jang-yeol insists that there has to be someone else with power, and Kwang-shik asks a great question: Since the killer didn’t touch the cow, what does he have to do to see someone’s memories?

When Sun-woo walks out, Jang-yeol realizes he is the correct height and shape to be the killer. Jang-yeol walks into the store, notices that the store sells cable ties, and asks where Sun-woo was on election day. He had asked for an off that day.

Later, Jang-yeol sees that Ye-bun’s lights are off at home. He calls her and asks where she is, and she lies and says that she is at home, evades his questions, and hangs up.

Jang-yeol visits Mr. Park’s home and asks him if Sun-woo is there. Meanwhile, in his workshop, Sun-woo takes out a knife, the same kind that the killer uses. Ye-bun looks at one of his wooden projects nearby, her back turned to him.

The Episode Review

A part of this episode is a little bit on the nose. We all know Ju-man will be elected, as they never openly named any other candidates and for numerous other reasons. Ji-suk betraying both Ae-ran and Ye-bun is also very predictable.

They keep trying to throw viewers off about who the killer is with different tactics. Shouldn’t the police have already connected the dots about the key that Ji-suk is holding? And how can both Ye-bun and Jang-yeol miss that? This episode is definitely framing Sun-woo as the killer, but if it isn’t him, there better be a good explanation for that key being there.

But here is the thing about Sun-woo as a suspect–he touched Ye-bun’s arm when she came looking for Jang-yeol, not some other device or object. So if he is the killer and the killer is psychic and can use his skill by touching something other than a person, it doesn’t make sense for him to be the killer, or for any of the people that touched her during that time period. but perhaps they’re just trying to throw us off again. 

The dream that Ye-bun has about her mom’s death and Ji-suk dying is also a cool foreshadowing of her demise. Simultaneously, the scene reminds viewers about Ye-bun’s mom (who we only saw briefly in episode 1) in case they forgot about her and her fate. Finally, we are getting to the case of Ye-bun’s mom’s death. It looks like Ju-Man had something to do with that, and it’s probably not a suicide after all.