Recap Korean Drama "Dark Hole" Episode 2

Jun 20, 2022

Episode 2 of Dark Hole begins with Hwa Sun snapping out of her entranced state. She sees Sung-Bum next to her and that’s enough to overcome the darkness threatening to engulf her. After this mental anguish, she collapses on the ground.

As Tae-Han takes her away, our strange shaman, Kim Sunnyeo, heads up and investigates the dark hole for herself. It’s only a short-lived visit though, especially when police officers show up and begin to check the area. T

he senior officer, Park Soon-Il, phones through to his superior and lets him know about the hole on the sanatorium site. This Director is not happy and demands he fill up the hole no matter what.

When Hwa Sun awakens, she’s immediately startled and doesn’t know who Tae-Han is or have any knowledge pointing a gun at him. When Hwa-Sun receives a call from work, she hurries off and leaves Tae-Han on his own.

At the hospital, another victim is brought in with the same rage-like symptoms as the others. Realizing this spells bad trouble, Sunnyeo cuts her hand open and calls out for her deity up at the temple. Despite some strange visions, she receives no further clues.

Meanwhile, trouble brews at the sinkhole. Dong-Mi is a student from high school and she’s being bullied, so much so that she ends up out at the woods alone. When these bullies start pushing her around near the sinkhole, the strange black smoke comes to her aid. It infects several, of the girls, who all turn on one another and start lashing out.

Dong-Mi manages to get away though, avoiding the smoky, tendrilled grip of this sinkhole long enough to make it to safety. Hwa-Sun continues to suffer from the side effects of this smoke though, witnessing Soo-Yeon stabbing Sung-Bum while she’s in a tunnel. As a car speeds toward her, Tae-Han saves the girl at the last second. Unfortunately, that’s just the start of their problems.

The sun flares mentioned in the first episode cause all the electrics to go out, plunging Korea into darkness. This includes all the equipment by the sinkhole, which malfunctions and prevents the Director from being able to fill the sinkhole.

All the residents in Muji City then receive a text message confirming the blackout around town has been caused by a utility pole. Among those receiving this message is Do-Yoon, who notes the location given that’s where his Mother has gone.

Only…she suddenly knocks on the door asking to be let in. This is just an imposter though, as his real Mum is actually at hospital. Suddenly, the door smashes open and a strange woman believing Do-Yoon is her son comes rushing inside. And now everything starts to go to hell.

Patients are rushed into the ER. Electrics flash on and off. The workers by the sink hole are attacked by these strange tendrilled wisps of smoke. And Young-Sik awakens in hospital.

With blackened eyes, he attacks the other doctors. Although his threat is quelled, another black-eyed zombie rises up. This one happens to be Mr Bae. The two officers, Soon-Il and Hyun-Ho, scramble out the building in a bid to escape.

Meanwhile, Hwa Sun joins Do-Yoon’s Mother in a visit to visit the latter’s son, who’s still in the house with the crazed woman we saw before. Only, Do-Yoon escapes the house and rushes away. He’s eventually reunited with his Mother though after a deadly game of cat and mouse. She helps bundle him aboard Hwa-Sun’s car. Unfortunately, she ends up as a casualty left behind as a whole swarm of infected come charging toward them.

With all hell breaking loose, Hwa-Sun tries to get away but she winds up crashing the car. After fighting off an infected, Do-Yoon bolts and hurries away, leaving Hwa-Sun all by herself. Crowds are encouraged to head for Muji High School, giving our protagonist a direction to go.

While this is going on, Tae-Han fights off his friend and eventually winds up killing Young-Sik. As he stands over his infected friend, Tae-Han is forced to watch the man slowly fade away.

The Episode Review

The second episode to Dark Hole starts to quicken the pace now as this infection takes hold and begins ravaging the various different characters in this world. The purpose of this shaman and what effect she will have on this story however, is still unknown. However, both Tae-Han and Hwa-Sun have solid character arcs here and their split focus really helps to balance out this series nicely.

OCN have always been very impressive with their originals and Dark Hole is no exception. There’s some great work done with the production design, and the practical effects in particular are great.