The Rogue Shoe
Following Yoon-Hee’s phone call, episode 4 of The Penthouse sees time reverse all the way back to the night of the party, as we see what happened 14 hours prior. Joo struggles to get through to his wife, who’s gone rogue to try and find her daughter and learn her true identity. This happens to be, as predicted, Seol-A. Su-Ryeon is shocked to find out she was adopted in the States and scrambles back to the Palace. Ignoring calls from her husband, Su-Ryeon instead tries in vain to contact Seol-A. She doesn’t pick up of course, while Joo and Seo-Jin try to work out what to do with Seol-A, who’s still tied up in the mechanical room. Su-Ryeon answers another call from her husband and promising to be there soon. As she enters the elevator and heads down, Seol-A is cut loose from the mechanical room and stumbles downstairs. There, she notices someone who spooks her and she runs. This then catches us up to the moments from before. Joo and the rest of the group notice Seol-A’s bloody corpse by the statue and quickly rush by to see. Only, their most pressing concern is the statue which apparently cost a fortune. In a bid to protect Hera Palace, the horrid residents we’ve come to know over the episodes decide to cover the murder up. They’re going to pretend Seol-A was never there and drop her off in the village. With time ticking by until the anniversary event, Seo-Jin heads to the mechanical room and rips up Seol-A’s notebook, writing a suicide note for good measure. While she does, Joo, Yoon-Cheol and Kyu-Jin all work together to head downstairs with the body locked up in a golf bag. With blood oozing from the bottom, they manage to thwart the threat of a security guard and bundle the body into their car Back at the Palace, Ma-Ri starts cleaning up the blood but winds up fighting with Seo-Jin when she returns. Meanwhile, the trio of guys make to to Bosuk Village and begin by deleting the CCTV footage, frying all the cameras. Only, they seem to have lost Seo-A’s shoe in the process. Even worse, Kyu-Jin also accidentally leaves behind a pocket watch. Their final step is to burn up her apartment. With everything in place, the group head back to the party, pretending nothing happened. Only, there’s something they didn’t account for – Su-Ryeon. Shen awakens after passing out in the elevator and heads downstairs, confused over what took place and contemplates whether it was a dream. With blood on Joo’s shirt and the Congressman at the event too, she starts to piece together what’s happened and realizes they’re all in on it. Even worse, that missing shoe is actually wedged in the statue. When news of a fire and dead body at Bosuk Village breaks, Su-Ryeon charges past them all and races down to the area. She makes it there just in time to see the body being wrapped up in a body bag, prompting her to race after the ambulance… until another car screeches in front of hers and causes her to slam on the brakes. Good grief this drama is dramatic! When Su-Ryeon awakens, she finds herself in hospital with Yoon Tae-Joo watching over her. She immediately asks if he was the guy who phoned, and he confirms that he was. He’s working against Joo – despite being on his payroll – as he feels guilty and wanted to reveal the truth about what happened 17 years ago. This is where she learns Joo switched the children around and Su-Ryeon, in her grief-stricken rage, vows to kill the man if she gets the chance. Yoon-Hee meanwhile, heads to Hera Palace and immediately tries to work out what happened. Jenny suspects she’s the one responsible and the blood on her hand certainly doesn’t paint a particularly favourable picture. Ro-Na rings and confirms she got into Cheol but this brief respite of happiness is short-lived. The police arrive at Hera Palace and begin questioning everyone about what happened to Seol-A. As Seo-Jin finishes her interview, she heads upstairs and reveals a nasty bite across her forearm. We then cut back in time to see Seol-A taunting Seo-Jin until she repeatedly screams in her face to die. Meanwhile, the police decide to write this off as a suicide given how many other cases they have. With the body due to be cremated, Yoon switches the labels on the body bags and allows Su-Ryeon a brief moment with her daughter. During the autopsy they find a USB drive she swallowed and hand it over to her. A cocky Joo tells Seo-Jin that their luck is about to change, having dealt with Seol-A. In their own home no less, they clink glasses and start kissing… just as Su-Ryeon returns home and spies them together.
The Episode Review
What happened to the blood in the elevator? What about the CCTV across all 100 floors? There’s no way Hera Palace doesn’t have that level of security and even if they didn’t, they can’t account for the fact other people living there would have heard or seen the crash and Seol-A falling to her doom. What about bystanders outside? Anyone could have looked up and seen a young girl falling, even if it was a very faint outline. Then again it is only 4 episodes into this epic 20-episode drama so perhaps we’ll see more of this over time. Still, this show is pure, pure drama and I’m just starting to get used to the relentless pace of this pace. So who did kill Seol-A then? I’m thinking it’s one of the kids, possibly Seok-Hoon as he was quite quiet and a few tells seem to hint that it was him. Joo seems far too obvious and the scenes with Seo-Jin telling Seol-A to die feel like a bit of a red herring. Yes she’s horrible but is she capable of murder? I’m not sure. The wildcard situations with Yoon-Hee and Su-Ryeon are both intriguing though and these two are certainly the most likable characters out of everyone else in this Korean drama. Hopefully they’ll uncover the truth sooner rather than later. I’d imagine that USB drive is going to hold some crucial clues too, possibly the video footage of Seo-Jin and Joo together. This is one dramatic Korean drama and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
