Episode 3 of Gyeongseong Creature begins with an update on our monstrous creature. Apparently, three soldiers and another four down in Disease Control have been killed. One Major has been seriously injured, and of course, we know that everyone bar one person inside the cells has been killed. There are dozens of them, and they’re taken out of their cells. Those who have survived – like one soldier – are interrogated by Kato who wants to know everything.
This cuts us back 6 hours as we see the creature taken into a new cell way down in the basement. Unfortunately, the nitrogen tanks are disconnected by accident, and the creature awakens again. Tentacles protrude out from the cell and stab each of the masked men around it. Gunfire is ineffective and there’s only one man left standing when the cell doors open.
Lt. Kato and his men happen to be on the floor above, and they shine a light down through the large circular vent below to keep an eye on everyone. It’s a bloodbath, and those surviving soldiers from inside the elevator are systematically killed by this monster.
The only man who makes it back to live to tell the tale is the guy from the hospital, and he looks the worse for wear. His name is Endo, and he sacrifices his comrade but receives some nasty blows to his chest and face for his troubles. He manages to make it up to the ward, where Lt. Kato listens in disgust as he whimpers and pleads for his life. Kato is not happy when he calls the creature a “failure” but in reality, it’s growing and becoming stronger with every kill.
Tae-sang meanwhile, continues on the hunt for Sachimoto, gaining information from Lady Maeda that Myeong-ja is definitely inside the hospital. He needs to give a signal to the east wing by 10 to show that he’s in on this too. Given he’s being watched by Ishikawa, he cleverly devises a plan and a route through town to give secret messages to his comrades, including the use of fireworks and a picture of what Myeong-ja looks like over at the tailors.
Inside the hospital, Chae-ok gets talking to a Joseon soldier who’s working with the Japanese but he’s actually part of the resistance too He points out that Myeong-ja is alive down there and one of the few people still alive after the anthrax.
This soldier knows all about these attacks, given the same thing happened before in a different location. He was there too, and when he starts retching and throwing up outside, Chae-ok watches as he’s beaten to a pulp and forced to eat his own vomit. He was actually close to committing suicide when Chae-ok got involved and stopped him. She saved his life.
Chae-sang gets good news from Maeda, who informs him that she’s meeting with Sachimoto that night. Unfortunately, Tae-sang is caught off-guard outside by a whole bunch of thugs who end up beating him down. It’s the porcelain pot guy, of course! Eventually, Tae-sang holds his own and knocks the guy out, stumbling away from the alleyway and into the meeting with Sachimoto.
Unfortunately, he’s too late and it seems they’re gone. He heads back home and patches up his wounds, but Mrs. Nawol shows up and speaks plainly to him, telling Tae-sang that he needs to take care of himself and watch out. However, he refuses to go down without a fight and is done being pushed around by thugs, cowards and Japanese goons.
It seems to do the trick, because while Mrs Nawol lets him get patched up, Sachimoto shows up at the Golden Treasure, ready to talk. In fact, he manages to guide his rickshaw inside without being searched too.
While this is happening, Chae-ok asks her father to stop waiting around and head up to the rooftop. She slides down into the vents and begins her hunt for the lab. She takes the vent off down a few floors and finds numerous jars holding human heads. She also finds the jail cells and the poor men and women desperate to escape. Among those are children. Well, Chae-ok refuses to let innocent kids be killed so she slips them out, and back up the vent.
She manages to save some of them, but when the Doctor returns, she’s forced to stop the search, with the vent cover still missing. Thankfully, Chae-ok manages to kill the doctor before he can call for help when he discovers what’s happening.
Chae-ok manages to get back to the vents but unfortunately, she’s almost spotted. Hun-woong comes out of hiding to give them some time, but just as things look set to escalate, Tae-sang’s signal – the fireworks – suddenly rain down and he manages to work with Chae-ok to kill all the guards and turn the tide of battle. In fact, Tae-sang himself hits the killing blow on one of the soldiers.
After the commotion, the freed prisoners are taken out of the vents. However, it’s just the kids for now. Myeong-ja is still down there, meaning they need to go deeper. At the end of Gyeongseong Creature Episode 3, the creature continues to get stronger…
Gyeongseong Creature Episode 3 is really starting to sink its teeth into the premise and the slow-burn nature of the horror is working in the show’s favour. Sure, we’ve seen bits and pieces of the creature but we haven’t had too much in terms of action and big, bombastic set pieces until the end of this chapter.
The story is developing really well and at a decent pace too, helped along by some great performances and a tight pacing. Everything here is set up nicely for the second half of this one but some big questions remain – will Myeong-ja be saved? What is the creature? And what is Lt. Kato’s end-game? We’ll have to wait and see!