Sweet Home – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Truth About Seung-Jae

Episode 5 of Sweet Home begins with Eun-Hyeok calling for Hyun-Soo and taking him out of isolation. It turns out he’s going to be doing all the dangerous work from now on and that includes finding Doo-Sik and saving him from his predicament.

As we cut back to Doo-Sik, he deliberates with the bathroom, a task made more difficult when he remembers Myung-Sook’s story about her daughter. Eventually he decides to shut the door and stay put for now.

Eun-Hyeok eventually backs up Sang-Woon as he remains determined to head back into the main area of the apartment building. Opening the locked door, Hyun-Soo holds back while Sang-Wook goes on ahead.

Eun-Hyeok’s words weigh heavily on him, especially as he tells Hyun-Soo to rescue Doo-Sik and that the kids are secondary. It’s pretty cold but something that he collaborates with Eun-Yoo over, telling her that Hyun-Soo may be their strongest weapon to use in this coming fight.

It also turns out the vote from before were completely legit and not at all staged like he initially intended to do. As they talk, Eun-Seok mentions the Crucru blog he saw online, specifically a post about how this isn’t really a disease but actually a curse.

Upstairs, Sang-Wook and Hyun-Soo work together to navigate through the burning rooms as a lightning quick monster with a pulsing orange heart arrives and begins chasing them. Thankfully our two new characters are on hand and enter the fray; a crossbow-wielding girl called Yu-Ri and her elderly patient.

Sang-Wook heads up to Room 802 and begins sifting through Seung-Jae’s belongings. Using the keys he swiped last episode, Sang-Wook sees numerous pictures of different kids beaten and pictures of them up on the wall; a disgusting, twisted trophy cabinet. Now it becomes apparent exactly why this man was beaten as badly as he was.

Hyun-Soo, Ji-Su and the old man make it to the apartment holding Doo-Sik. Inside, Hyun-Sook sees the sac in the bathroom for himself and contemplates what to do next.

Meanwhile, Sang-Wook heads down to the basement but is blindsided by Seung-Jae, who bashes him over the head with a hammer several times. Eventually Seung-Jae gets his just desserts as Sang-Wook beats this man down to a pulp.

Dragging his lifeless body to the front, he lifts up the shutters, drops the hammer and proceeds to drag Seung-Jae outside. He closes the shutters but Eun-Hyeok is there, holding them back up to keep him in. In this courageous act, Sang-Wook drags both Min-Ju and Su-Ung inside. There, the pair are given a proper burial as the residents join together and pay their respects.

On the back of this, Yi-Kyung decides to deal with her demons alone. As she heads out, the rest of the residents contemplate what it means to be human and whether this curse is just the next step in evolution.

The Episode Review

Episode 5 completely flips the script on Sang-Wook and he’s easily one of the more fascinating characters in this show. He’s gone from this antagonizing character who looks like he’s part of a criminal organization to actually exacting revenge and finding justice for what Seung-Jae has done.

Finding Seung-Jae’s disgusting den with all the pictures hung up like twisted trophies was definitely a hard watch and it shows just what’s pushed this man over the edge to torture Seung-Jae the way he has.

Alongside that, the episode does well to keep the threat of the monsters alive while also allowing each of the characters time to actually grow and evolve somewhat. I still think this series is slightly rushed but it’s at least somewhat better in pace now as we reach the halfway point.

So far, Sweet Home has been a really enjoyable watch and I can’t wait to dive into more of this!