The Devil Judge - EP 14
Added 2025-05-26 16:41:20 +0000 UTCthese last two episodes are going to give me high blood pressure
Comments
Nooo we truly are in divorce era :( I was totally thinking the same thing- Yohan totally pushed Gaon too far and didn't give him enough information. Yohan wants to think Gaon is similar to him or can be molded into someone similar- but he's also someone with a very strong moral compass that can't just be bent to Yohan's will. Gaon doesn't have a rigid view of justice, but Yohan isn't really being convincing here. I think Yohan was also blinded by grief and rage and didn't know how to handle Gaon's grief so he went to the extreme. I'm on pins and needles for the next few episodes too eek!
Ziggy_Zade
2025-05-27 15:59:41 +0000 UTCjust here to give it up once again for greatest actor of our generation park jinyoung,,, i've literally never seen on screen crying that felt so genuinely authentic and visceral in my life
bella
2025-05-27 09:55:00 +0000 UTCthe blue peter reference HAHAHAHA. It's so tough bc I have so much to SAYY but also I want to finish watching so I have the whole context. I think you're so on the nose about Yohan knowing but not caring about the wider ramifications. On the constant trials thing - there's something childish about it in a way. He's so pedantic and somehow simultaneously hyper-aware of and completely oblivious to nuance. It's soooo apparent how stuck he is in his child self and how that is constantly at war with his own intelligence. This has made me rly excited for the final two eps tho I can't wait. Thank you for commentary as always
Freddie
2025-05-27 04:35:23 +0000 UTC💀
Freddie
2025-05-27 03:57:50 +0000 UTCIt’s been really interesting seeing how (constructively!) critical you are of Yohan, cos I vividly remember the general reaction when it was airing (at least on Tumblr), which was pretty much ‘Yohan can do no wrong how dare Gaon betray him’ etc etc to the extent I was sitting there thinking ‘well hang on a second I know he's gorgeous and competent and tormented but he’s literally electrocuting a man to death on live tv!’ I fall somewhere in the middle in that I’m 100% against the death penalty – no ifs, no buts, no exceptions whatsoever – so we absolutely should NOT be reintroducing capital punishment let alone executing ppl via livestream...but then again, if you’re happy to vote for it, shouldn’t you be prepared to flick the switch yourself? Shouldn’t you have to see the consequences of your choices? How many ppl enthusiastically support something but would balk if required to actually get their own hands dirty (again this might be the vegan in me talking!)? Put up or shut up I guess! Of course that line of reasoning only works if ppl actually DO balk, which (evidently!) isn’t always the case, unfortunately. Maybe I’m slightly more sympathetic to Yohan because I, too, struggle to view humanity through anything but the grimmest lens, so I get where he’s coming from! But that’s precisely what makes him and Gaon so perfect together, because if Yohan sees the world as it is, Gaon sees it as it *could* be. Neither of those positions is sustainable on its own – realism without hope = rage/despair, but hope without realism = ineffectual at best, complicit at worst. And so that’s why they need each other. (Also, I just want to take a moment to point out that there’s something almost morbidly funny - if it wasn’t so horribly real and sad - about the fact the Korean vision of this dark descent into dystopia culminates in…a completely legal and normalised feature of the US justice system. Between that and the portrayal of the President, I’m tempted to say their idea of dystopia is basically Trump’s America.) I’m going to sound like a Yohan-defender now, but bear with me… I don’t think Gaon can really pin the old man’s death on him cos the way things were going with those ‘clearances’, someone was going to die regardless of whether or not Yohan + film crew showed up. Did he foresee it? Probably. Did he use it to galvanise the ppl? Definitely. But isn’t there a difference tween making use of a tragedy to achieve a good end and causing the tragedy in the first place? Hasn’t many an uprising happened in real life because one person’s ‘sacrifice’ has been the spark that lit the flame? I think it’s more that Gaon’s struggling with yet another example of what he sees as Yohan’s ability/willingness to manoeuvre real people and events as if they were game pieces (or that he realises Yohan is doing what he accuses the elites of always doing: turning a crisis into an opportunity – I mean, if it works…!) Thing is, I think Yohan is *trying* to be more human, for wont of a better phrase! At least in his dealings with the people he cares about. I know you weren’t a fan of his ‘drag ‘em all down to hell with you!!!!’ tip, but do I believe it was said in earnest, that it came from the heart (hence the hand) – that’s clearly what kept him going after Isaac’s death, so if it worked for him why wouldn’t it work for Gaon? My poor, maladjusted rabble-rouser – he’s just not emotionally equipped to offer healthy advice! You can see it in the bedroom scene after Gaon wakes up – he can physically restrain him, but he can’t provide the necessary words or gestures of comfort needed to calm him down. No, the adult has to leave that to the teenager! And it’s not that he doesn’t WANT to – look at the tautness in the way he holds himself – it’s just that he doesn’t know HOW. He was the same in the graveyard scene – you can see that he feels Gaon’s pain, but he doesn’t know what to do with it, can’t even bear to look at it - it’s written all over his face, it’s why he looks away (and there’s something about Yohan putting his hands in his pockets when he’s catching feelings from someone else’s anguish but trying not to let it show – he does it then, and I think he did it in ep 7 too when Gaon broke down in the prison yard – it's like there’s a part of him that WANTS to reach out but he just can’t bring himself to. I headcanon him as deep down actually a very tactile person when it comes to his chosen few (how many times has he caressed Gaon over the course of the show??), but it was beaten out of him so he’s having to relearn that touch can heal, not just hurt). That’s why it makes me melt when he tries to use Gaon’s own love language – cooking – as a means of comforting him. And yes it’s really awkward and he’s very bad at it, but it's *such* a big deal, a significant gesture, coming from him. And, like Gaon says, the awkwardness is precisely what MAKES it comforting. I just think that’s possibly the sweetest thing Yohan’s done all series. Though having said that, I’m also actually of the opinion that Yohan is fully aware of the wider societal ramifications of his actions – I just don’t think he cares. It’s like you said - he has a one-track mind: revenge. Everything and everyone else is collateral damage (unless you’re one of the handful of people who have wormed their way into his affections). That might make him unpalatable as a character to some, but imo it makes him infinitely more compelling and complicated. Also that reminds me - bringing back the episode titles for a sec: this one is called King of the Frogs, from Aesop’s Fables, and once you read up on it you realise it’s perfectly chosen. Be careful what you wish for indeed…! And I think that's exactly how Yohan sees the catastrophic consequences of his stratagems - he's just giving the people what they wanted, so on their own heads be it. It's the whole 'holding up a mirror to society' thing again. Not necessarily saying he's right, mind you! But that at least is how I explain his rationale. Stray observations: I don’t know if there are any UK viewers here who remember Blue Peter, but I always giggle when Yohan reveals the electric chair cos it’s giving ‘and here’s one I made earlier’…anyone? Just me?? Love how our little cabal of evil are always depicted in their underground gilded lair stuffing their faces with fancy food – something bout gluttony as a potent metaphor for their general avarice? ‘Don’t cry, I love you’ = seriously, that’s gotta be the cruellest transition ever! Sunah in that black dress = perfection. But so sad and lonely – she’s giving me serious Viva la Vida vibes. Also, yet another delicious parallel tween her and Yohan – they are both in thrall to fatalism. Sunah is only now realising this isn’t what she wants, yet thinks she’s come too far and done too much to even entertain the possibility of change, and Yohan is out there turning murder into a spectator sport because he denies having any other choice, a constant refrain from him. But contrast that with their respective seducees: Jinjoo came from poverty and is a young woman in a field dominated by old men, but she’s chosen – possibly against her best interests – to do things the right way, not to compromise her beliefs, herself, just to get ahead. And Gaon has gone through so much pain but chooses again and again not to let that define him or warp him – he chooses to be good, and to see the good in others. Slight digression but I’m kinda obsessed with the idea that Yohan spends the ENTIRE SHOW giving everybody else choices – I’ve already talked about the multiple times he gives Gaon a choice (stand with me or against me, kill the conman or don’t, keep going or stop – he even sort of does it this ep in that final confrontation tween them: ‘if you have time to ask questions, take action’ – and Gaon does!), but he does it with/to everyone – in the very first ep the Chairman has to choose tween murder or negligence, Minister Cha tween confessing or condemning her son, then tween blowing the whistle or her brains out I mean taking the fall, the conman tween saving his money or his family, Sunah tween ‘joining’ him or fighting him, Jukchang tween himself or the President, the public every time they vote – I mean, the whole premise of his trials is giving the ppl a choice! And okay to be fair they’re very much rock and a hard place choices, but still! And then when we take into consideration his words to the Prof in ep 12 bout how all he's ever done is make choices…poetic cinema/justice! By offering them these choices it’s almost like he’s daring them to prove him wrong bout everyone being awful, and then when they without fail choose to do the wrong/self-serving thing, he doubles down on his misanthropy. Except Gaon is, once again, the exception – and as he tries to point out in this ep, he’s not the only one, there ARE good ppl out there trying to do the right thing, trying to make the right choice, like the doc and Soohyun. Almost forgot - love how Yohan's expression at the end isn't so much anger as it is a combination of disbelief and heartbreak. Sure, the anger may follow, but think that initial reaction is very telling. No words can express how excited I am for you to watch the next ep - I am positively trembling, nay, *levitating* with anticipation! I’m not usually one for hyperbole (okay that's a lie), and I don’t wish to set you up for disappointment, but I honestly think the last 20 mins of ep 15 is some of the best television to ever grace our screens. Gaggery without parallel. And speaking of episode titles…if you weren’t already nervous, next one is called Medea! Mwahahah!
fishinabook
2025-05-27 01:32:17 +0000 UTCme recommending this on the yaoi and then you get to the harrowing political commentary
Char
2025-05-26 21:39:11 +0000 UTCheh, i'm so glad what happens in the last two episodes :)
mirka
2025-05-26 18:12:38 +0000 UTC
