W-Two Worlds Apart

episode 8

I... was going to write words, and they were going to make sense, and they were going to be about W. Perhaps they would've been words about the love story, or about the fantasy-within-a-fantasy wish-fulfillment of this heightened world, or about my feelings, because I have a lot of them while watching this show. But then I watched this episode, and then my brain exploded.
End.

Terror sets in as Kang Chul is threatened by No-Face Killer, who has somehow gotten into the real world and is speaking to Chul via chyrons appearing out of thin air. No-Face wants to know how Chul got back into the manhwa world, and notes menacingly that Chul has a new family now.

Yeon-joo stirs awake just as No-Face hangs up on Chul, and she can tell that something's wrong. But Chul tucks his gun away and just asks her how the last frame of Dad's manhwa changed from "The End" to "To be continued." Yeon-joo says she doesn't know how or why-it just changed one day, and she assumed that there was a reason the story couldn't end there.

They're interrupted by the housekeeper, who has a whole array of party dresses lined up for Yeon-joo to choose from. Chul tells her that he heard she had a hard time letting go of Romantic Option One-the Cinderella party-and figured he'd just give her both. (Ahem, what about Option Four?)

He's been invited to a party at the Blue House and tells her to pick a dress, adding helpfully, "For your information, the more skin it shows, the more I like it." Am I blushing? Stop that, face! The attendants point out the dress with the lowest neckline, and Yeon-joo laughs nervously and says they shouldn't take Chul seriously.

Do-yoon calls after trying to trace the phone calls from No-Face, but he's come up empty. Chul tells him to keep trying, and sits down at his desk to start a new case report for his crime show W. He writes that he's going to throw away all prior case files and formulate a new hypothesis from here on out: There is a true culprit.

Chul thinks back to the moment when No-Face killed his family and discarded the gun in the alley, and as we see Dad's hand drawing the frame, Chul narrates that god did not give him physical matter, and so the killer has none-he has no face, and no identity. He writes: "He was born solely to kill my family. So he feels no guilt over murder. He feels no sadness, and of course no pleasure. Because he has no character."

Chul writes that the killer was merely a tool to make him dedicate his life to fighting crime, and will appear whenever he's needed in the story, and disappear when he's not. Chul concludes: "In any space, in any form, without needing any context, according to god's whims... he can appear at any time and kill." Well, shit.

Yeon-joo chooses the lacy pink dress and tiptoes out into the living room, wondering if this will be appropriate for such a fancy event. She worries that there will be dancing and twirls across the room by herself, giving the bodyguards something to chuckle over.

She shows Chul the dress and asks if it looks okay, but when she's met with a silent stare because he's still so lost in thought over No-Face and his threat to kill her, she assumes that she looks weird and shuffles back out to go change.

Chul finally says, "Go back," and she points out that she's already heading back to the dressing room. But he meant back home to her world because it's dangerous here, and asks if there isn't some way for her to go home. She doesn't know how-it's not like she can control the coming and going-and asks what's gotten into him.

Without warning, a bullet suddenly flies through the window past Chul. He whips his head around to see where the shot came from, and when he looks back at Yeon-joo, she's already been shot in the forehead, just like his family.

She falls to the ground in slow-motion as Chul watches, horrified. He peers over his desk to see her body on the floor, except when he does, she isn't there. He draws in a breath. Did she return to her world?