A Killer Paradox – K-Drama Episode 5 Recap & Review

A Girl in Busan

A Killer Paradox Episode 5 starts with a young woman named Gyeong-a whose sex tape was leaked, resulting in a scandal that forced her to move cities. Meanwhile, Roh Bin makes a fake ID for Tang with a new name, Lee Gyeong-su.

He’s now based in Busan and his most recent kill was a professor who slept with a student and then killed her when she became pregnant. A narration from Bin claims that Tang’s deeds are the essence of pure good. Tang, meanwhile, is working at a supermarket in the fish section.

At present, his colleagues talk about a female employee — Gyeong-a. The young woman is told to work at the cash counter. She does so but seems to be wary of men in particular. A woman picks a fight with her while trying to ask for a refund. Afterwards, the woman goes out to her car to see Tang smoking nearby.

He exposes her for stealing the product that she claimed to want a refund for. Gyeong-a watches Tang talking to her. Later, she has a smoke with Tang and says they’re both similar in that they’re running away from their past. Sometime later, Gyeong-a picks up her mother at the train station. We learn that she got plastic surgery so she wouldn’t be recognised. Her mother tells her to visit home sometime.

Chung-jin visits Nan-gam and is surprised to see Rex at his house. Nan-gam days he’s keeping Rex till the charges against him are dropped. Bin even has a restraining order against Nan-gam. A frustrated Yong-jae comes over as well and tells Nan-gam off for not keeping him in the loop regarding the Roh Bin case.

Yong-jae tells Nan-gam that while working on another case, he spotted footage of Tang going to Busan. They discuss the murders in Busan and Nan-gam makes a suggestion. Together, they go to Tang’s family and suggest they report him missing. Yeong sees through the act though and tells Nan-gam to tell them the truth. They do but the three family members find it hard to believe that Tang would be responsible for murder.

While having dinner with her mother, Gyeong-a gets angry at a man for staring at her. But it’s not because of the sex video, rather he recognised her from elementary school when she went by another name. They chat for a while and the man says he had written about her in his journal as a child, which he found recently. When he tries to take her phone number, she gently refuses.

Yeong and Tang’s mother come to the police station and register the missing person complaint. This helps Nan-gam and Yong-jae officially go to Busan to look for Tang. The Busan detectives don’t seem to think Tang could be the culprit of the professor’s murder. Nan-gam asks for information on other unaccounted deaths.

Meanwhile, Tang hallucinates Prosecutor Ji who taunts him about being able to evade the police only for so long. It turns out to be a dream. He wakes up and is about to enter the elevator when he gets goosebumps on his neck again. He runs back out.

Gyeong-a is at work when she gets a call from her schoolmate she met earlier, Sang-min. He says a sex tape of him also got leaked and he was extorted for it. They meet and Sang-min admits he got her number from a cop. Being in a similar situation, he didn’t know who else to go to.

His parents don’t want to do anything with him and his girlfriend broke up with him. Gyeong-a allows him to stay over. When he’s in the washroom alone, we see him smiling to himself. At night, Gyeong-a asks him if he wants to share the bed.

Of course, he’s lying and is on perfectly good terms with his girlfriend. He makes an excuse to visit Busan again. When he’s near the supermarket, Tang overhears him talking to his girlfriend on the phone. Gyeong-a continues to spend time with Sang-min. While cleaning the bathroom, Tang hallucinates himself holding a knife instead of a water spray. His reflection suddenly attacks him.

At home, Gyeong-a is happy in Sang-min’s arms. So much so that she suggests coming back to Seoul. But she’s quick on the uptake and checks his phone to find a video with his wedding invitation. The truth is that Sang-min got Gyeong-a’s phone number from the empty delivery packages outside her house. He was only interested in Gyeong-a because of the sex video. At present, they get into a fight and Sang-min pushes Gyeong-a down, choking her, and she soon dies.

Later, Nan-gam and Tang both separately see the news of a massive fire in Gyeong-a’s building. In a shop, a couple of people discuss how Gyeong-a didn’t die of the fire but was murdered. Song Chan is in the shop and laughs at this.

Nan-gam tries to push the investigation into Gyeong-a’s murder but the Busan detectives insist on doing things slowly. At work, Tang learns that Gyeong-a died and seems shocked to learn about it. He then notices Song Chon in the market, following him. Tang tries to run away but Nan-gam enters through the front door.

He rushes to the back of the store where Song Chon is waiting for him. Tang’s neck tingles and he realises this man has killed many people. By the time Nan-gam gets there, both have disappeared. He then asks the employers for Tang’s address.

Meanwhile, Sang-min has been diagnosed with gonorrhoea. He speaks to his girlfriend, who also has it and confesses to cheating on him. He goes home to see Song Chon waiting by his front door. Chon interrogates him like a regular cop. When he realises that Sang-min did kill her, he starts pulling out the tape and other equipment from his bag.

Tang is now on the run. He calls Roh Bin and says something feels different this time. Bin tells him to lay low and keep his phone off.

Chon tells Sang-min about Tang and how he’s been looking for him. He’s hoping Tang is looking for Sang-min at this very moment. Sang-min ends up writing a confessional note about the murder. Chon kills him and then cleans the place up. He sets the apartment on fire before leaving.

Nan-gam and a Busan detective go to Tang’s house. Around the same time, Yong-jae and the other cop go to Sang-min’s. They even see Chon leaving. Nan-gam opens the door to see Tang’s house filled with smoke while Sang-min’s kitchen explodes, hitting Yong-jae who is right at the front door at the end of A Killer Paradox Episode 5.

The Episode Review

A Killer Paradox Episode 5 takes a bit of a dip. Compared to the fast-paced thrill of the previous episodes, this one is quite slow. It spends too much time in setting up Gyeong-a’s background and story, not all of which was necessary. Even Nan-gam and Yong-jae’s journeys to Busan are a bit slow. The tension and thrill of the earlier episodes only return towards the end, with Song Chon taking on a bigger role.

What is interesting is the effect of all the murders on Tang. He seems to have more hallucinations and dreams about his deeds. It’s nice to see these hauntings return after the first two episodes since they add a macabre touch to the show. The scene with his reflection attacking him was the most compelling of all, saying a lot about how he sees himself with no dialogue or narration from Tang himself. His psychological journey continues to be fascinating.