Recap Korean Drama "Chimera " Episode 3

Aug 5, 2022

Episode 3 of Chimera begins at Hammyung University in 1984. A doctor heads in to his lab and finds the chimera drawing up on the wall. He turns on the light to see better and the flickering electrics react with the open gas cannisters to blow the place sky high.

In the present, Jae-Hwan continues to reel after Ju-Seok’s death. Chief Bae appears and briefs the team, as they deliberate over how to handle this to the press. Chief Bae scoffs at the Chimera case being brought up and instead establishes a two week window to catch the man or woman responsible. They’re going in hard, determined to push this all the way and solve it before the press catch wind of what’s happening.

Part of this operation comes from placing Ko Gwang-Soo in charge of the case. He’s from the Intelligence Bureau. He’s stubborn and incredibly good at his job. Bae briefs him on what’s going on and tells him they need to solve this case quickly, dismissing the Chimera incident and telling him to focus on the here and now.

When Jae-Hwan returns to the office, he finds Gwang-Soo exerting his authority and joining the entire task force together to track down Ju-Seok’s killer. Jae-Hwan refuses to be pushed aside though, telling Gwang-Soo he intends to try and solve this case too. As the pair stare one another down, he admits he likes Jae-Hwan’s tenacity to getting this crime solved.

Meanwhile, the autopsy of Ju-Seok reveals the familiar Chimera lighter on his possession. The doctor heads over and gives it to Jae-Hwan. Jae-Hwan is reassured by the doctor that this isn’t his fault, although it’s clear Ju-Seok has some deep-rooted secrets.

After Ju-Seok’s funeral, Jae-Hwan gives his statement, including how the water sprinklers caught fire. While the other officers aren’t convinced this could happen, Gwang-Soo believes Jae-Hwan is telling the truth but isn’t sure how. Thankfully, later in the episode it falls to Eugene to figure this out.

Silver nitrate and magnesium mix together and that, combined with water, reacts in a pretty violent manner. jae-Hwan was right, Ju-Seok did burn from the water.

Before they come to this conclusion though, Jae-Hwan and Eugene head back to the crime scene and notice writing up on the wall that translates to “Day of wrath.” This is a biblical reference to Judgment day, but how this ties to the chimera and Greek mythology is still unclear. For now, Jae-Hwan continues to deal with Ju-Seok’s death.

Sitting together, they talk about the Chimera case and how the captain didn’t tell him anything about it. Eugene believes he may have done this to protect him. But from what? There are still a number of puzzle pieces missing but one thing’s for sure – they’re dealing with a serial killer.

The lighter, obtained from all the recent deaths in this timeline, seem to tie everything together. Jae-Hwan feeds this back to Gwang-Soo who’s not particularly pleased that Ju-Seok had one of these in his possession. Given he was withdrawing evidence from the scene, it rubs Gwang-Soo up the wrong way.

Jae-Hwan continues though, bringing up the killer’s marks and how two of those who have been killed – Captain Han and Wan-Ki – were both part of the Chimera case 35 years back. It would seem that the same killer from before and he wants the tie everything together for this investigation.

Gwang-Soo doesn’t see the same correlation and this – combined with Bae’s influence earlier in the episode – leads him to confront Jae-Hwan after the meeting. He tells the man to get a grip and focus on this case.

Now, given what we learn about the chemicals being mixed together, Jae-Hwan deduces that the culprit must either be a doctor or someone in a high ranking profession with knowledge of mixing chemicals. The most likely is, of course, Joong-Yeop and that evening Gwang-Soo gives the green-light to have him arrested and brought in for questioning.

As Joong-Yeop’s apartment is searched, they find a painting of a screaming man sitting in a chair about to be burned. Coincidence? Absolutely not. And Jae-Hwan is ready to question this man and figure out exactly what he knows.

The Episode Review

The third episode sees the investigation take on an extra dimension as all roads seem to lead toward the real killer being Joong-Yeop… but is he really? I know we saw in the opening episode that he was the one Jae-Hwan shot but I can’t help but shake the feeling that we’re not seeing everything. There’s definitely more twists and turns to come here.

Most of this episode sees Jae-Hwan and Eugene investigating the case further, while the inclusion of Gwang-Soo helps to give a little more conflict for Jae-Hwan to deal with at work.

For the most part though, this is a pretty straightforward episode and while it doesn’t deliver any answers, it does help to flesh out more of this investigation and point toward just who could be responsible for everything.