The Puppet Master
Episode 9 of Penthouse Season 3 begins with Seok-Hoon greeted by Dan-Tae, who shows up to confirm Logan is still alive. It’s a massive bombshell for him of course, and one that’s made worse by the fact he’s struggling to get through to Su-Ryeon. Elsewhere, Seo-Jin exacts her “poetic justice” by confirming to Yoon-Cheol she’s the one who was blackmailing him all this time. After sending him on his way, Seo-Jin returns to Dan-Tae at the penthouse. He’s clever though, knowing that Seo-Jin has plans to get rid of him next. For now, he remains vigilant and smiles at his counterpart, not letting on what he’s thinking. Logan finally explains what happened that day to Su-Ryeon. Yoon-Cheol was actually the one who helped bring Logan to Su-Ryeon. Logan was just pretending to be comatose after Yoon-Cheol helped him out. He was even awake when Seo-Jin poured boiling hot water over his legs. Holding his nerve, Logan managed to avoid arousing any suspicions. While Yoon-Cheol head out to enlist Alex’s help, Seo-Jin had Logan moved and set up the big reveal we saw last episode. His heart didn’t stop after all. Instead, he just removed the heart monitor from his finger. En-route to the hospital, Alex managed to bring Logan to this secluded manor. This catches us up to the moments in the present. Logan, Yoon-Cheol and Su-Ryeon all promise to get revenge on Seo-Jin and Dan-Tae. When Seok-Hoon shows up, he also decides to help out. The gang use Seok-Hoon to lull Dan-Tae into a false sense of security. After Seok-Kyung is stopped from stabbing Dan-Tae, Seok-Hoon sits with his sister and embraces her, learning the truth about her ties to Seol-A and comforting the girl as best he can. Meanwhile, Dan-Tae and Seo-Jin manage to stop Dohae Construction from getting involved with Cheonsoo District. On the back of this, the gang gather together and celebrate with champagne. Their despicable plan is back on again, and this includes Seo-Jin at the Foundation and making sure Su-Ryeon is dismissed. When Yoo Dong-Pil manages to get his hands on a bag full of money, as promised for his hand in all this, he implores Ma-Ri to pack up her things and leave with Je-Ni in the morning. Well, Ma-Ri throws the money back in his face – quite literally – and claims he’s turning into Dan-Tae. Given his lack of compassion over Yoon-Hee and what has transpired recently, she encourages him to get his head back in the game. Joon-Ki awakens to find himself tied up and captured by Su-Ryeon and Logan. They both question him over his swaying loyalties, calling Joon-Ki out for aligning himself with Dan-Tae. Back at the penthouse, Dan-Tae decides to honour his Moher by building a massive Zeus Tower. It’ll be it for 24 hours and will be the largest building in the world. The others smile politely, as Dan-Tae’s past starts to become clearer. Elsewhere, Eun-Byeol starts to remember what happened with Yoon-Hee. She calls on Ms Kin to get her pills, but the whole incident is set-up as Yoon-Cheol poses as the drug dealer. Knowing that it causes dementia, he injects her with something and knocks her out. When Ms Jin awakens, she finds herself at Logan and Su-Ryeon’s mercy. They want the dashcam footage from the incident with Yoon-hee, and eventually manage to obtain it. Within this, they see firsthand that Seo-Jin is directly involved in Yoon-Hee meeting her untimely demise. Seok-Kyung eventually rings Su-Ryeon and drops the bombshell reveal that Seo-Jin is responsible for killing her Father. With this in mind, Seo-Jin sabotages Dan-Tae’s big press conference and plays a video of Dan-Tae killing Logan with the bomb. At the same time, Dan-Tae sends over a gift for her – a framed picture of her Father with the words “Seo-Jin killed Director Myung-Soo” With both Dan-Tae and Seo-Jin butting heads, the two meet in private and start fighting with each other. Logan and Su-Ryeon watch from afar, as it becomes clear that they’re the real string-pullers here.
The Episode Review
Penthouse returns this week with another wacky episode, one that sees plenty of drama come to the foreground. Seeing this band of rebels stat to exact their revenge against Dan-Tae and his gang is certainly satisfying to watch. Meanwhile, Logan somehow survives the explosion with minor scars. I mean, unless he somehow has superhuman skin there’s no way he would have got away from that with minor scars. Then again, this is Penthouse and not everything makes complete sense! What does make sense however, is extending this show for 2 episodes. There’s so much going on and it’s difficult to see how everything will get wrapped up in a satisfying manner by the end. I’ve said it before and I know I sound like aa skipped record but honestly this show should have ended at season 2. This third season has thrown so many twists and turns into the fold that it’s diluted what was otherwise a real guilty pleasure binge. Now the show has become difficult to predict – and not in a good way. There’s all sorts of deus ex machina, contrivances and 180 character turns that keep things moving forward. Still, the show is undeniably addictive and the ending leaves the door wide open for next week’s follow-up.
