Korean drama "Black": Episode two recap and screenshots

 Air Dates: October 14 until December 3rd, 2017 on OCN, two episodes air per week Saturday and Sunday nights at 10:20 pm. This episode's rating: 3.87%.... OCN is a cable network

Cast:

Song Seung-Heon as Black, before his death was Han Moo-Gang and is now a Grim Reaper

Go Ara as Kang Ha-Ram

Lee El as Yoon Soon-Wan, had gone by the name of Kim Sun-Young

Kim Dong-Joon as Oh Man-Soo

Two other main Grim Reapers

Jo Jae-Yoon as Grim Reaper #007(!)

Lee Kyu-Bok as Grim Reaper #416

Seoul Police Force Squad(Black was a detective until his death)

Kim Won-Hae as Na Kwang-Kyun(Mad Dog)

Jung Suk-Yong as Bong Man-Shik

Lee Chul-Min as Oh So-Tae

Heo Jae-Ho as Park Kwi-Nam

 About a seventy percent increase in the rating from the first episode as the reviews for it must have been positive. OCN is a cable network so their ratings are going to be much smaller but 3.87% seems like an impressive figure. Think the episodes are rerun before the next show airs in case you've missed the previous show.
 Should be a bit shorter than the the first recap(it wasn't) which may have been the longest one I've ever done for a drama. Not too many of the confusing parts have been cleared up but at least only a few new baffling things were added in and for the most part this show was fairly straight forward. There were even a few moments of humor sprinkled in though wish everything was kept serious.

 The opening scene wasn't about Moo-Gang's return to life but about a man and woman coming from  their wedding. The pair is heading for the airport in their car so they can leave on their honeymoon. Unknown to them in the backseat is a Grim Reaper, no names were said but think it's #416. He mumbles that a tragedy will soon happen but the couple didn't hear him, perhaps only us viewers could see him. A truck then comes barreling around a corner towards the car, the husband swerves out of the way but to no avail as he loses control and the car flips over killing both of them.
 That was the only time we heard about the newlyweds, that scene could just been for an introduction to a Grim Reaper though we don't see too much of them until the show's conclusion.As you can see in the above screenshot Moo-Gang has somehow come back to life after being shot in the head. The bullet is still there as it's too close to his brain to operate.
 Still in his hospital robe Moo-Gang somehow slips away unnoticed and is staggering down the street. As it being a drama Ha-Ram is in a car that just happens to be passing by. She asks the driver to stop and jumps out to attend to Moo-Gang who has passed out. She manages to get him back to the hospital and he's remained unconscious. We did learn right then that his mother is a doctor at the hospital where he's now at, the name of it is Royeol.

 While still lying unconscious Moo-Gang is approached by what could be another grim reaper, unsure as he had a mask on. He injects something into Moo-Gang's IV and then quickly departs, don't know what the chemicals were but when Moo-Gang awakens he's a different man. Though not as confusing as the first episode there were still so many events that I or perhaps many viewers were unsure of.
 Moo-Gang finally awakens the next day but doesn't recognize any of the people around him. One was his mother while another person was Soo-Wan who is also a doctor at the hospital plus she's the girlfriend of Moo-Gang. However they did have a major spat in the previous episode, he had been working on a case involving the discovery of a decade old skeleton which was recently found. Doing some digging he had found out some details about Soo-Wan's past such as that she had plastic surgery when she was 25 and changed her name.
 She may also be involved in a murder as the ten year old skeleton found is a woman who had been killed. Moo-Gang had deduced she knew the woman and had witnessed a scene between them when he was fifteen. Like many things this will be another event from the past that will be slowly revealed to us. But Moo-Gang not knowing who anyone was may work to Soo-Wan's advantage as he's forgotten about their fight and the details he's learned about her. Then again he's also forgotten that the two had been dating and we don't see much of her besides these two hospital scenes.

 Moo-Gang had also forgotten who Ha-Ram was, they hadn't known each other long but she had become very important in his life. At the hospital he had even come close to beating her badly when she tried to give back a bracelet belonging to him, she quickly left after that. Not sure what that object is in the above screenshot, Moo-Gang did remember one thing which was the glass ball(?) being in his jacket, it's hard to tell what it is and it was the last we saw of it.
 Rummaging through the clothes Moo-Gang has discovered he's a detective and thinks that'll come in handy for his future tasks. Whatever was injected into Moo-Gang has worked as he remembers nothing about himself, wonder if that was what the drug was supposed to do or whether it's the effect of getting shot in the head.
 Once again Moo-Gang leaves the hospital but at least this time his health is okay. That's the only thing about him you could say was okay as he didn't put his clothes on and was only wearing his jacket over his hospital gown. This did make for a few humorous moments as Moo-Gang wasn't wearing anything under his gown and often was called a pervert. Ha-Ram had been waiting outside the hospital, she was furious with Moo-Gang not remembering who she was and he tried to ditch her.

 Ha-Ram follows Moo-Gang on to a bus, she had to pay as he naturally had no cash. Besides forgetting who everyone he knew was Moo-Gang has also forgotten how to act in public, he's truly naive on just about everything such as speaking, eating, sitting and just generally how to act around others. Once again this could be the effect of the injection he was given.
 It could also be that it's because Moo-Gang is now a Grim Reaper but even so he should know more about the ways of the world. But don't think his transformation to being a reaper is compete yet though he does have many of their abilities such as having enormous strength and there was even one time where Moo-Gang was able to transport himself.
 He ends up eluding Ha-Ram and is now on the hunt for a man. It's a man who in the beginning of episode one had his gang beat up Moo-Gang, he can't remember anything else about his life but can somehow recall this one person and incident? He does track this guy down who is the leader of a small gang, this gang remembered beating Moo-Gang severely and were relishing the thought of doing it again. The new Moo-Gang is not the weak sap he was before and manages to take the gang of about ten thugs down rather easily and has exacted his revenge.

 I'm back, sometimes need to take a breather to refresh my batteries on long recaps like this. Only problem is I lose my train of thought but that could be good this time around as the train was chuggin' along rather slowly. Moo-Gang before his transformation into a reaper was a rather quiet detective who would vomit at the sign of blood and always had a wimpish personality.
 Now he's the complete opposite, as you can see above he took that gang of thugs out rather quickly with his new strength and had gotten much ruder as he's taking back to his superiors. The next case for the squad was a killing at the Hope Psych Hospital in Bookyangju. There a nurse had been stabbed brutally by an older patient who somehow was able to flee the hospital. He went by the name of Kang though it's presumed to be a fake one. Moo-Gang arrives on the scene and for a change doesn't vomit at the sight of the dead nurse while his colleagues do.
 There wasn't much talk about this incident after this long scene but like a lot of events that have happened it'll may tie in with many of them, for all that's taken place it's still just the second episode. We haven't learned about Moo-Gang's father, there were some clues in this murder which leads us to believe he may have been the killer. He would be in his mid fifties by now but of course the new version of Moo-Gang wouldn't remember him as he's forgotten almost all of his past.

 That's one clue about the murderer but like I mentioned we didn't see any more of the investigation after that scene and have a feeling it'll be tied in with other unfinished mysteries. The other major character is Ha-Ram and we didn't see a lot of her in the first forty minutes of this 76 minute show.   Left this event until now which was from the opening scene that showed Ha-Ram trying to hang herself as she feels so guilty about Moo-Gang's death. But as she was hanging herself the news came on that he had a miraculous recovery and she tried to get free from the rope with no success. Just at that moment there was a pounding on the door and we're introduced to a new character. Not entirely new as we saw him for about three minutes in the first show but omitted talking about the man as that scene was so short.
 It appears as this person will be a major character and that's Oh Man-Soo who is about 25 years old. He comes from a very wealthy family who own many different businesses. Man-Soo is an intelligent guy but very lazy and is quite a rebel, he's looked down by all of the members of his family including his teen brother. His father has recently given Man-Soo control of the his Royeol Insurance Company which is one of the biggest in Korea.
 But the father did that for a reason as the insurance company will soon file for bankruptcy. It's had to pay out some big settlements the past year including so much for the plane crash that Ha-Ram had predicted. Man-Soo hadn't known of the company's predicament but checking their books he realizes he's been set up to take the blame when in reality had nothing to do with the upcoming demise. Brought him up now as he was the person who had saved Ha-Ram from hanging herself as he had gone to her apartment so she could give a spiritual reading to his.... dog!?

 Man-Soo had been at the police station when Ha-Ram was under arrest for her antics on the doomed plane. There he had gotten her address, Man-Soo had also overheard her talking about the shadow of death and was wondering the details of it. The character of Man-Soo is supposed to be one of the biggest ones in this series but to date we haven't seen much of him but positive we will soon but no idea yet what his role will be with the death shadow, perhaps he can see them too?
 If you didn't think there could be any more mysteries than you're wrong as here's another one that's been added. Ha-Ram's father was an officer and died when she was about ten, she was the same age when the slightly older Moo-Gang moved away. Her father knew Ha-Ram could see death shadows, he was the person who told her to wear sunglasses. On the day of his death Ha-Ram had seen a death shadow around her father and he knew what she was seeing. He had to go to work and did so despite the pleadings of Ha-Ram, he told her he'll be safe now because he knew what to expect.
 That wasn't the case as Ha-Ram's father was trying to arrest a criminal but had been pushed to his death. Ha-Ram rushed to the scene but it was too late as her father was now deceased but in the crowd she saw his killer. In her vision Ha-Ram had known the murderer had a spider tattoo on his left hand and saw that person at the death scene. She tried in vain to get the other officers to believe her but before long the killer had escaped and has remained free until now.

 The man who earlier killed the nurse also had a tattoo but don't think it was one of a spider, odd that his last name is Kang which also Ha-Ram's. Getting close to the end now, so much happened but don't think as much as the first episode. After Ha-Ram's father was killed in the line of duty her mother remarried to such a big loser who does nothing but gamble away everyone's money. Ha-Ram had gone to their apartment looking for him, he wasn't there but instead she discovered her father's old wallet behind a huge dresser.
 In it was a note sent to her mother telling her there was more info about the murder but Ha-Ram's mother never called the number which is now out of service. Ha-Ram confronted her mother who is a nurse and the pair had a heated argument. The mother confessed she hadn't loved Ha-Ram's father anymore when he died, in a way she was glad he did to get him out of her life. That infuriated
Ha-Ram even more and nothing was settled during that spat except that they hate each other more.
 Back to the stepdad, Ha-Ram eventually found him and that was at her apartment when he was trying to steal all of her money. Ha-Ram tried to stop him but to no avail, he needed the cash to pay back some loan sharks. But with the rest he was going gambling and will probably lose it all, that was all of the money she had in the world. He knew about Ha-Ram's ability but she couldn't quite make him believe she saw a fake death shadow on him as he quickly fled in a panic just in case she did.

 On to the final two short scenes and both involved Moo-Gang. His killing had been predetermined by a death reaper, wonder if the reapers who we haven't seen too much of know of Ha-Ram's abilities? As you can see in the above screenshot the police sniper didn't miss his shot, he had been planning on killing Moo-Gang from the start. But it wasn't a police sniper but a reaper who fired the shot, think it was #416 who was taking orders via a transmitter from his head reaper.
 In the final scene which should be continued in the next show we see both reapers. One of them is meeting Moo-Gang and it looks like it could be a dream sequence as Moo-Gang's head is still bloody from the bullet wound. The dream could have been the result of the injection he received from a reaper when he was laying in a hospital bed unconscious and what we're seeing now is a flashback. For now we don't know as the episode finally ends and hope the next show starts off with this scene.

 Sorry if these two recaps didn't quite explain everything and left you a bit puzzled about the events but that's how the story has worked out so far. I'm also in the dark about many things, wish it wasn't that way but perhaps the writers have done it like this for a reason. The series is sixteen episodes so there's plenty of time for all of these bafflements to be explained and hope most are soon.
 Also viewing two other Korean dramas so may fall a bit behind the recaps for this one soon, one reason is that these shows are so long and hoping their length will become shorter. Even though it's been confusing at times it's been an interesting watch and really does have the potential to be an excellent drama especially when the grim reaper aspect starts to get heavier.