The Uncanny Counter Season 2: Counter Punch (2023) Episode 8

Episode 8 of Uncanny Counter season 2 starts with Ha-na squaring off against Gelly. With her having stabbed Do-hwi and left him for dead, Ha-na gets the upper-hand and begins smacking her repeatedly. That is, until Pil-gwang shows and holds her up psychically in the air. He also grabs Gelly by the throat too though before throwing them both on the ground.

Ha-na musters up a last burst of strength to throw Pil-gwang back and take off with Do-hwi, making it to the street. There, Ha-na is reunited with the Counters, with Mae-ok doing her best to revive Do-hwi. With the conflict having calmed down for now, the Counters discuss the in-fighting between Pil-gwang and Gelly.

In the midst of this, there’s some jokes around Jeok-bong’s nose hairs, while Do-hwi recovers after Mae-ok uses her powers. He’s on the mend, but his memory is vague and he can’t remember what happened. Ha-na though decides to go one step further and erase all of his memories of her.

Realizing that Gelly could go after him again and use him as a weapon, she erases his memories to protect him completely. It’s not easy for her, and she does so through tears, but it’s a necessary sacrifice to make.

Just when Jeok-bong couldn’t be more unlikable, he’s at the HQ and decides to come out wearing a sweater with song notes all over it. He’s doing so to try and make his move with her, but the others don’t think it’s good idea. They do their best to hide Jeok-bong when Ha-na shows up, and talk about anything other than what may remind her of Do-hwi.

Gelly starts to patch herself up but ponders over the memories she managed to gain from grabbing Ha-na. Specifically, the fact that she gained her powers by waking up from a coma. She tries to work out what the catalyst must have been while sorting her injuries out.

However, this works the other way too, as Ha-na happens to spot Gelly and Pil-gwang hanging around in a luxurious hotel room, which could be nearby. Unfortunately, Jeok-bong is no help with his powers, given they’re not working at the moment.

Meanwhile, Mae-ok heads off to catch up with Jae-youl. He’s in deep with Chung-jae and the gang, but she does her best to mother him, something that he’s sorely lacking given his own mum has passed away. Mae-ok tries to instil some words of wisdom into him but midway through, she passes out. This is Jae-youl’s doing, and he spikes her drink to bring her to the big boss.

When she regains consciousness, Mae-ok finds herself questioned by several goons. They want Mo-tak and encourage her to bring him there, handing over a phone to call them.

Naturally, Mo-tak shows up and makes short work of the goons. It’s enough time for Mae-ok to recover from her grogginess and she hits the finishing blow on the leader. Mo-tak and Mae-ok both decide to use this to their advantage, specifically in bringing Chung-jae’s subordinate to the big boss. Unfortunately, Ju-seok finds him first on the golf course before the Counters can get there.

Ju-seok starts beating down Chung-jae, but the Counters arrive, with Mo-tak deciding not to use his powers but a gun instead. He doesn’t fire, and he soon finds himself going toe to toe with Ju-seok, which serves as a distraction for Mae-ok bundling him in a golf cart and trying to leave without a murder on their hands.

However, Ju-seok is too strong and he bests Mu-seok and catches up with Chung-jae. Mo-tak shows up with his gun again and the fight continues. That is, until Mun gets involved and jumps in. Ju-seok evades the Counter and listens to the evil spirit, who encourages him to double-down on finding Chung-jae and not to let this opportunity go.

Having failed in his endeavour, Ju-seok returns to Pil-geang empty-handed. “I want to know how to get rid of them,” He says, regarding the Counters. He wants to joins forces but Pil-gwang isn’t sure he has the guts to follow through with this. Ju-seok is consumed by his revenge though and believes he has no other choice but to do this.

Outside the hotel district, Jeok-bong finally starts sniffing out one of the evil spirits, This happens to be Ju-seok, who effortlessly dodges the Counter lights and heads up to the 123rd floor. The Counters show up in the hotel lobby and decide to head up, with Ha-na convinced that they’re up there.

As they ascend, Jeok-bong’s sense of smell returns and the Counters realize the pair are going to be together,. This explains why Jeok-bong couldn’t suss them out. Apparently he can smell across vast distances but not vertically.

When they finally make out to the top, Ju-seok and Pil-gwang both step into the hallway and corner them from either side. This was clearly a trap, and while Mun races to Ju-seok, the other Counters attempt to take out Pil-gwang. Both fights happen concurrently, with the Counters eventually holding them both down.

With everything hanging in the balance, Gelly shows up and sees everything taking place, and immediately grabs Mun by the throat. He reads Mun’s memories and realizes that he too had a moment of rebirth. With this being the key moment, Gelly decides to use her powers and erase it, wiping Mun’s memory of his powers and thus, making him go back to being in a coma.

Pil-gwang watches this take place and he’s livid, having wanted this raw power for himself. He’s bitterly angry and watches as Gelly laughs maniacally in the hallway.

The Episode Review

Can someone please explain Jeok-bong’s power to me? So apparently he can only smell when he’s near to Evil Spirits (despite that rule being contradicted by Jeok-bong sniffing out the farm and the art gallery earlier in the series). However, he can’t smell anything either until the plot calls for it.

Namely here, he couldn’t sniff out Pil-gwang because he was so high up. So Jeok-bong’s sniffing power doesn’t work vertically? Really?

The writing has been rather sloppy this year and the whole Ha-na/Do-hwi storyline is the perfect example of it. With 8 episodes down, we’ve essentially undone all the character development because Ha-na just decided to erase his memories. And to make matters worse, they turn it into a joke when Jeok-bong comes out wearing that song-note T-shirt which doesn’t make him look particularly nice.

Beyond that though, the hallway fight at the end of this episode was great, and quite reminiscent of the elevator skirmish in LUCA: The Beginning. When the action picks up, things are definitely intense and the drama involving Ju-seok is also pretty good too, although it now seems like they might just erase his memories in order to bring him back from the dark side.

And what of So Mun’s memory loss? That’s a massive point of contention so we’ll have to wait and see what net week’s chapter has in store for us.