Recap Korean Drama "Mouse" Episode 9

Episode 9 of Mouse begins with Seo-Joon performing surgery and removing the frontal lobe, placing it into Ba-Reum’s head. After hearing this news, Ba-Reum speaks to Bong-Yi and sends over a picture of Seo-Joon. He goes searching through the archives to try and work out exactly how Seo-Joon was able to leave prison and operate.

This investigation leads him to realize this isn’t the first time Seo-Joon has done this. However, he’s interrupted by more visions which seem to hint that Yo-Han may have been the killer after all. At this point, it’s hard to tell.

Ba-Reum speaks to Seo-Joon in prison again. This time the culprit admits outright that he’s experimented on different people in the past. As we cut back slightly, we see Moo-Chi listen as Seo-Joon take to the news and gives an interview about how he’s now accepted what’s happened and is at peace about it. This seems to be what’s spurred Moo-Chi on to go into prison.

Well, before that we cut back 30 years to see Seo-Joon working as a doctor at the hospital. He’s accused of killing one of the patients too, as he’s warned that Doctor Gary is after him. Seo-Joon decides to put on a show for them all, claiming this patient with cerebral palsy actually has Segawa Syndrome. Well, it turns out Daniel Lee was in charge of that ward too. Because of this misdiagnosis, Dr Gary quit the school while Seo-Joon was able to avoid detection.

With Daniel helping him out, sending over mice for him to work on, Seo-Joon began to play God. He experimented on these mice and tried to switch their brains over. This research and experimentation eventually led to Seo-Joon becoming the best neurosurgeon in the world. That is, until Daniel got involved.

This enabled Seo-Joon to pursue forward with his role with more vigor, determined to outdo Daniel Lee and complete his brain transplant. This is what drove him to kill Moo-Chi’s family, determined to take their brains and experiment on them. During that time, Seo-Joon killed over 20 people until the moments with the snowman where he was eventually caught.

Choi Young-Shin meets Ba-Reum in the present and shows him the anonymous footage he received regarding the surgery. Apparently she was the one to approach Seo-Joon and ask him to conduct this surgery. In exchange for doing so, Seo-Joon asked for freedom. This deal saw Young-Shin colluding with the hospital and everyone inside to keep this surgery a secret.

Ba-Reum next heads off to see Jae-Pil but notices there’s no self-defence marks with his hands. Next, he teams up with Hong-Ju and checks the CCTV footage. There, he notices Du-Seok and his wife arriving with a sharp object. This makes him realize that Moo-Chi may not have been responsible after all.

As he continues to do research, Ba-Reum notices that Soo-Jin’s Father, Man-Oh, was lurking round at the hospital around the same time. He took the knife and snuck into Jae-Pil’s room, brutally stabbing the man when he realizes he was responsible for killing Soo-Jin. Jae-Pil didn’t bother to move, allowing Man-Oh to kill him. Du-Seok’s wife was the one who picked up the knife in the room.

When Du-Seok finds out, he’s beside himself with shock and gains permission to dig up the grave to see who’s actually buried inside. At the same time, Moo-Chi drowns his sorrows in alcohol and takes his frustrations out on Hong-Ju. He’s been let go, especially on the back of the previous transgressions, where we learn a little more about Hong-Ju. Apparently she took a liking to Yo-Han, believing he had good in him.

Back at the police station, Ba-Reum continues to struggle. After drawing some pretty frightening images in his sketchpad, he sees more flashes which seem to hint that Yo-Han is actually Jae-Hoon after all. Ba-Reum awakens to find himself at home. There, Moo-Chi shows up and confronts Ba-Reum.

Only, Ba-Reum suddenly grabs Moo-Chi round the throat and chokes him out. Realizing what he’s done, Ba-Reum starts repeatedly slamming the bottle into Moo-Chi’s head as spatters of blood spurt up.

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The Episode Review

Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room first. Brain transplants – especially ones like this and switching the frontal lobes around – would be nigh-on impossible. I’m not a scientist of course, but judging based on the memory overlap and the way this has been portrayed, it’s much closer to fantasy than reality.

However, this does allow for an interesting conundrum as it’s still unclear exactly whether Ba-Reum or Yo-Han is Jae-Hoon. It’s fair to say both of them could be and I’m still holding out that my theory around Ba-Reum being our true killer is correct. I think the Yo-Han idea is all a smokescreen and his real emotions and feelings are confusing and interfering with Ba-Reum’s murderous intent.

The ending with Mu-Chi seems like it may be another daydream but as we approach the midway point of this drama it seems like we’re reaching a tipping point for this crime thriller.

A lot of people may well drop this one thanks to the brain transplant idea, and it seems tvN have a refresher episode coming up to recap on everything that’s taken place. After such a twisty turny season – I can’t say I’m surprised!

There could still be a master plan to everything that’s going on here so we’ll have to wait and see if that comes to fruition. For now though, we’re left with one big question – what the heck happened to Han-Kook?