Episode 9 of Dark Hole begins up on the rooftop, with Hwa-Sun inexplicably using her powers to see the shaman in the hospital. She mentions the smeared blood across Soon-Il’s forehead, prompting Tae-Han to don a gas mask and head off. Unbeknownst to him though, Jin-Seok is still out there and he watches from afar, chuckling evilly. Back at the supermarket, Dong Rim refuses to talk to Seung-Tae, calling him a coward. For now though, he encourages the other survivors to get some rest while learning from Hwa-Sun that Tae-Han has gone to the hospital. He thanks her for helping so far, and decides to go off on his patrol. In doing so, he watches Dong-Rim from afar – but they’re not alone. Jin-Seok is there too, prompting them all to run away. Hwa-Sun stays behind and manages to kill Jin-Seok. This causes ripples to pulsate across to Sunnyeo, who somehow feels what’s happened. Without much of a choice, Hwa-Sun leads the survivors down the streets, intent on making it to the hospital. Only, Do-Yoon notices his Mother and hurries away, leaving it up to Seung-Tae to lead them on. Hwa-Sun catches up with the boy though, eventually bringing him back to the group. It’s a short-lived moment of suspense, one that eventually sees the group together and making it into the hospital. Inside though, Sunnyeo continues to pray and hears from her deity that he’ll be coming soon. Tae-Han sees this take place and sneaks inside. Only, he’s blindsided by Snake Eyes, who knocks him down. It turns out Sunnyeo was the one who saved this thug, calling off the infected which led to him joining Madam Kim’s ranks. Well, she grabs Tae-Han and the two officers, throwing them outside, ready to be devoured by the mutants. However, that’s not before seeing her blackened eyes. This confirms that she is well and truly possessed. While they prepare for the inevitable, all the survivors from the school/supermarket show up looking for refuge. Hwa-Sun uses her telepathy to sense where the others are, rushing up to the fifth floor to find Sunnyeo. She goes alone, throwing fire to distract them and fighting off mutants to give the others a chance. That chance manifests itself in survival, as they make it into the adjacent hospital wing alive. Eventually Sunneyo allows them to stay, but it’s clear she has a ulterior motive. The higher-voice that commands her has other plans for them but quite what, remains a mystery. Anyway, Dong-Rim meets Dr Han but this isn’t the first time they’ve been together. In fact, she was coerced into writing up that their chairman, Mr Choi, actually died of a chronic disease in the past. This is, of course, wrong, but it’s enough for Dong-Rim to overhear and show disdain toward her in the present. Well, that character drama is short-lived when the tentacled creature shows up again. It bursts through the vents in the video recording room, impaling and killing several people. Tae-Han sticks by Hwa-Sun’s side and tries to find the monster, running straight into the main lobby where Sunnyeo and her followers stand waiting for her. She wants to conduct a ritual to invite them in as guests rather than sacrifices.
The Episode Review
Dark Hole bows out with another draggy chapter that doesn’t really progress the story too much beyond moving all the survivors together. The show does have some unique ideas around the telepathy and the tentacled monster but this slow burn has been a little too slow at times. It’s perhaps unsurprising to see the ratings drop the way they have, and even in this episode plot contrivances are thrown in to try and spice things up. Do-Yoon running away and then being found for example, is one such example. Another involves the blackened eyes and short moments of madness washing over Ji-Hye, both of which failing to really move the story forward in a compelling way. The whole idea of these people blindly following a shaman around who’s very obviously possessed by the mutants is okay but it feels a little cartoony at times, especially how open she is about sacrifices and killings. Even Snake Eyes is still alive too, diminishing the urgency from his supposed sacrifice several episodes ago. That’s to say nothing of Jin-Seok either, who’s just unceremoniously killed after several episodes of teasing he would be a big threat. Overall, Dark Hole is not a drama to remember and with 3 chapters remaining, it seems unlikely that this one will pick things back up and return to the urgent, tense chapters we started the show with. What a shame.
