Parasyte: The Grey – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Completely Off The Rails

Parasyte: The Grey episode 5 jumps back in time and explores more of Kang-woo’s history. His little sister, Jin-hee, looks up to Kang-woo and believes he’s in Seoul helping her out. She rings Ki-seok for an update but he hasn’t heard from her brother. When she heads home, she finds the pastor and Kyung-hee outside. Jin-hee is adamant that she’s going to get help for her big sister. This doesn’t fly with her sibling though, and her insistence ultimately ends up getting her killed. The last thing Jin-hee manages to do before she’s killed is ring Kang-woo.

Back in the present, Kang-woo rings Ki-seok and learns that he’s hightailed it away to Jinyang. However, he agrees to give over his address and the passcode for him to come too and hide out. As for Su-in, she’s blinded by grief for the one person in her life that always looked out for her. With the Chul-min she knew dead, and the new one a parasite, she composes herself and heads out with Kang-woo.

Meanwhile, the task force are twitchy after the botched operation on the highway. With no Hunting Dog to guide them to the parasites, they want to call off the big music festival and memorial about to take place for the Mayor. The authorities certainly don’t want to cancel anything, given how massive this is for him. After all, it could be the last time he runs and politics for these people always comes first.

Won-seok speaks to Chul-min (the parasite) after the meeting and he confirms that Su-in is a mutant. This is how she managed to avoid detection on the sensors. Chul-min knows that she’s super strong and decides Su-in needs to be taken out. Kyung-hee rings and the pair discuss this operation, but Chul-min believes he can deal with this himself.

At Ki-seok’s, Su-in decides she’s not going to flee. She’s going to fight back and now, as they turn on the TV, news spreads of the parasites. Kang-woo is taken aback as the authorities decide to actually make this public.

Jun-kyung meanwhile, finds the church the parasites are hiding out at. She has pictures snapped of the exterior and organizes for the place to be attacked and everyone inside killed. After arranging this, Su-in rings that night and warns that Chul-min and Won-seok are both parasites. Jun-kyung points out that they’ve done full body scans to get clearance and they’re both fine. But… hang on a second, didn’t Jun-kyung capture Su-in and do full tests to reveal she wasn’t a parasite? And we learned two episodes ago that these scans are inconclusive? 

Anyway, Jun-kyung wants to meet so Su-in gives her an address and hangs up. As they gear up for this, Jang-woo sees the final message that Jin-hee was about to send, with “don’t come home” written out but never sent, given she was killed. Kang-woo realizes what a fool he’s been and decides he’s going to fight after all.

Su-in shows up on the opposite rooftop to speak to Jun-kyung that night. Su-in explains the symbiotic relationship between her and Heidi, and also what went down with Chul-min. Jun-kyung decides she wants Su-in to come onboard with them for the raid – which appears to be one big set-up to kill the soldiers – but Su-in decides to flee, especially when more guards show on the roof holding a helmet, wanting her to be their hunting dog.

With Heidi in control, Su-in jumps off the roof and hops into a car driven by Kang-woo, and they race off. On the road, Heidi explains that she’s taken way too much control of Su-in lately and she’s going to be dormant for the next 3 hours. No matter what happens, they cannot get entangled in any more risky situations.

Kyung-hee shows up to see Ki-seok, on the trail of his brother and Su-in. Unfortunately, things take a bad turn when he rings Kang-woo, telling him to come home. Kyung-hee takes the phone and demands they turn around, otherwise Ki-seok will be decapitated in 15 minutes’ time. The pair do just that, and Ki-seok ends up sacrificing himself to protect Kang-woo and Su-in, who then hurriedly leave and disappear. So after all of that, Ki-seok dies anyway.

Meanwhile, the raid goes ahead but Jun-kyung certainly has her suspicions about Chul-min. She does cut some of Won-seok’s hair in the elevator but when it doesn’t disintegrate (given he’s a human as we know) she suspects this may not be the case. With the team moving in for the strike, Kang-woo and Su-in ring one more time and warn that this is a trap and for her to stand down. Jun-kyung shrugs off the concerns and refuses, unaware she cut the hair from the wrong person. Chul-min is part of the taskforce and they move in killing all the parasites in the building.

Chul-min actually kills his own parasitic brothers with a shotgun to the chest, while Kyung-hee manages to escape on a bus. She watches Chul-min in shock and realizes she’s feeling betrayal. So what’s the end goal here? Well, Su-in and Kang-woo suss out that the parasite inside Chul-min has an ulterior motive. It intends to take control of someone higher up the chain of command. And, more specifically, the Namcheon Mayor who’s showing up.

The Episode Review

So the penultimate episode is where everything just goes completely off the rails. I do understand that Jun-kyung is blinded by rage but the fact that the show just forgets its own worldbuilding and lore is rather frustrating. We already know that the parasites can avoid detection, as evidenced by a long meeting where Jun-kyung was adamant Su-in is a parasite despite passing all the tests – and then seeing it with her own eyes on the rooftop. So why would she not be suspicious of Chul-min whom she’s had suspicions of in the first half of the show?

And then we come to the announcement worldwide that there are parasites everywhere. After hearing this everyone just… goes about life like normal? Really? Surely this would bring out the absolute worst in humanity as they revel in paranoia and begin to suspect everyone around them is an alien?

It’s sloppy writing, and even worse is what they’ve done with the parasite plan. So it seems like this is moving back into political waters with Chul-min presumably wanting to take over a mayor. But for what purpose? I guess the answers will be revealed in the finale.