Abyss – Netflix Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Missing Piece

Following last week’s cliffhanger, Abyss returns this week with another double bill of sci-fi crime action. With more character development around Oh Young-Cheol and a few interesting plot developments, there isn’t a whole lot else going on here to get excited about.

We begin the episode with Cheol posing as a Doctor in the hospital, intent to go after Park but he’s stopped at the last minute by a nurse, preventing him from injecting a needle into his IV fluid. Outside the building, he runs into Cha Min who drops the abyss on the ground but before he can grab it, Cheol picks it up. He realizes at this moment that only a revived person can know about its existence, leading him to realize the man is Cheol. Before he can act on this, he stabs Cha Min with the serum, telling him he’s mistaken and leaving him to die, which is were we left off the episode last time as Se-Yeon rushed to the scene.

This then gets us up to speed with the plot and we begin back where we ended off last week. Se Yeon pleads with the police not to close the case and thankfully disturbing evidence links Cha Min’s fingerprints and Oh Young-Cheol’s DNA to the exact same scene, forcing more questions and consequently the case remaining open. In order to bring Cha Min back to life, Se Yeon needs to gain possession of the orb which is currently with Young-Cheol.

We catch up with our killer properly, bemoaning his lack of vigor and doing press-ups, indifferent to the bloody dead body left in the bath. He does eventually get to work though, burying another woman who happens upon the original body he killed earlier in the episode. However, shes buried with the abyss and as he piles the dirt up, her hands poke free and he looks on in shock as she rises from the dead.

Meanwhile, Se Yeon gets a breakthrough at the police station, finding CCTV footage that highlights the glowing green orb. Of course, only she can see it but Dong gives her the address and they race off to track it down. Realizing what the abyss can do, Young-Cheol walks through the streets while Se Yeon frantically searches for the very orb he holds in his hand. However, Hee-Jin is the one who spots him and immediately has flashbacks to the night she died – Young-Cheol was the one who killed her.

As the episode reaches its climax, Cheol heads to the hospital and finds a shock waiting for him in one of the hospital beds, throwing another spanner in the works and leaving the episode wide open for tomorrow’s follow up episode.

Although Abyss does have a few stand out moments, without Cha Min to keep things ticking over, the episode feels hollow and lacking a consistent protagonist to keep things moving. While Se Yeon is competent enough in her role, the real driving force of the series is her chemistry with Cha Min which is really lacking here. While Cheol is a competent enough villain, the show itself feels like its missing a key component to help it stand out next to the glut of other K-Dramas. Unfortunately it hasn’t found it yet but as we approach the halfway point, hopefully Abyss can kick it up a gear.