[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Circle" Episode 10

If you already feel bad for the twin leads of "Circle", get ready for more pain, as a glimpse of false happiness, bonding and doubts comes crawling into their lives in episode ten. Dong-geon pushes Woo-jin to his limits in 2017 while Joon-hyeok and Jeong-yeon take on a very dangerous and possibly final plan to find Woo-jin in 2037.

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We sadly get the horrible confirmation of Woo-jin (Yeo Jin-goo) as the human battery for Human B's supercomputer and while well expected, it is still twisted. I still feel that the mentioning of cloning is meaningful as well. Woo-jin could already be in a coma or gravely ill. I want nothing more than for the mystery figure on that stairwell to be a healthy Woo-jin, but the series has done a great job at making this feel like an unattainable dream.

We see Woo-jin falter again in a very long time and we see Beom-gyoon (An Woo-yeon) "happy", but we know that he will eventually want nothing more than to have his memories back. The twins have gone through so much in life and them essentially being decades apart in their efforts for each other makes this all very tragic and only enhances my wish that they get a happy ending. I want a happy ending as a viewer and this pleases me as a reviewer.

Speaking about viewer desires, the episode talks a bit about Byeol (Gong Seung-yeon) and her origins. We know she has almost human DNA, but she does not physically age and has a more advanced brain. She could be anything from an alien to a clone to a time-traveling, evolved human. My curiosity does want closure, but as I have mentioned before this is a mystery which is not the main drive of this story and one which can remain unexplained.

Since we are on the subject of closure, I gave Ho-soo (Lee Gi-kwang) a lot of grief early on due to his character feeling irrelevant to the story at the time, but I am very satisfied with his development. He was the first one to drive the point about memories making up our existence as individuals home and now he makes a big and possibly permanent sacrifice to protect those individuals.

As much as I love "Circle", I do wish we had more time with its setting, especially in 2037. We have barely seen Smart Earth's inhabitants and its "brave" new world order. I wish we had, because it would make the hopefully imminent takedown of its entire structure more emotional. On the other hand, short and sweet is something we need more of in Korean drama. Pave the way, "Circle".

"Circle" is directed by Min Jin-gi, written by Kim Jin-hee-III, Park Eun-mi-I, Ryoo Moon-sang and Yoo Hye-mi and features Yeo Jin-goo, Kim Kang-woo, Gong Seung-yeon and Lee Gi-kwang.

Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'

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