Abyss – Netflix Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Kiss

Abyss returns this week with a continuation of the story and a lackadaisical approach to the plot itself. With 8 episodes gone, Abyss has failed to really deliver anything that exciting although we do see who’s responsible for kidnapping Hee-Jin’s Mother. The episode begins where we left off – the car chase through the hilltop streets. As Cha Min drives, dodging and weaving past traffic, they drive into a long tunnel where they step on the gas to catch up with the car infront. As the mouth of the tunnel beckons, the car infront suddenly careers off track, tumbling down the hill and taking Hee-Jins mum with it.

However, despite the car blowing up into a fiery inferno, no-one is found in the wreckage. It is later discovered though that Prosecutor Seo was the one driving and Hee-Jin’s Mum is safe, but Hee Jin is being blackmailed. While Oh continues to scheme from inside the prison, in a flashback we see Seo and Oh working together and the reasoning behind him doing this.

Back in the present, the real Mi-Do shows up at the police station, demanding the fingerprint scanner to prove she’s the real deal. However, Se-Yeon shows up and plays the part well, eventually leading to Mi being escorted off the premises. However, knowing she may cause issues going forward, Cha Min pays her off and convinces her that Se-Yeon is actually someone who looks like her.

However, Se-Yeon heads to her place later on but a robber breaks in and stabs her, sending her to hospital. Once there, Se-Yeon admits to everyone the truth and the fingerprint scanner is used to prove as much. With the truth now out in the open, our main cast of characters set to work to catch the real culprit, with the rest of the episode seeing them doing just that while flashbacks are shown of Seo, seeing him orchestrating what happened to Se-Yeon the night she was killed. Before we can get any real answers however, the episode ends with Se-Yeon and Cha Min kissing and a final musical montage to see us out.

I have a real guilty pleasure for Korean dramas and to me, the Eastern television scene is a fascinating and oftentimes adventurously original medium well worth checking out. The Crowned Clown is one of my favourite shows of the year while Memories Of The Alhambra, for all of its faults, remains a very enjoyable journey, even if the ending failed to live up to its premise.

Here though, Abyss struggles to compete with even the most average of Korean dramas. There’s just not much substance to this one and this episode proves as much with the injection of romance at the end to superficially add some more drama. There really isn’t that much to get excited about here which is a real shame as the early episodes certainly had some promise. There’s still time for me to be proven wrong though and I’m holding out hope that this one improves, but  right now it certainly feels like a tough ask.