The Big Scoop
The episode begins with the infection spreading. A crowd of people gather at a homeless shelter, cornered off by soldiers. They’re worried but no more so than Tae-Seok when he sees the bloodbath before him. He learns that a pill was given – the same one from before – and that’s what caused one to become infected and kill the rest. Te\h trouble is, the country is starting to catch wind of what’s happening with the deaths and there’s only so much Tae-Seok and his people can do.
Sae-Bom returns to the force, bright and early. Seung-Young is there too and Sae-Bom nonchalantly shows and confirms she’s got new accommodation. She also confirms the reason for asking Yi–Hyun to marry her. It turns out she’s falling short of the right number of points for her application. If she gets married then that gives her a much better chance. Even Yi-Hyun himself is okay with this, persuaded by Sae-Bom’s “I’m a real nice person, there’s not many of us left” line to sweeten the deal.
Seung-Young has not yet told anyone that he was scratched by Jong-Tae during their training routine last episode. His words now make more sense, especially when Sae-Bom reflects on Seung-Young talking about how no one leaves the university dormitory after they enter. ..
Sae-Bom moves into her new apartment, which is off-limits to those below. She greets her neighbours without one, and eats rice cakes to everyone.
It’s a clever way of meeting the various different residents, who I’m sure we’ll see more of across the season. For now, we meet lawyer Yong-Cheol and his wife Seo-Yoon along with slimy Joo-Hyeong who’s currently cheating on his wife. As day turns to night, Yi-Hyun and Sae-Bom are awakened by strange banging coming from Joo-Hyeong’s room above them.
Yi-Hyun is awoken early on account of Tae-Seok who requests his help in deal with this infection case. He hands over Jong-Tae’s unlocked phone and a good amount of financial incentive, tasking him with investigating further into Jong-Tae’s past and ties to this drug. Given Yi-Hyun always used logic to solve his cases, Tae-Seok butters him up and calls him “The Sleuth.”
Yi-Hyun is out investigating another noise, leaving Sae-Bom alone in the station. She hears banging again and heads up to investigate. Joo-Hyeong, who claims to have been moving furniture all night, is caught in the act. Sae-Bom doesn’t believe him and decides to go ahead and exercise instead. However, she gets a call from Seung-Young who tells her that Yi-Hyun has been found dead. ..
Sae-Bom is in a tough position. Her colleague, who is clearly in pain, rings her and tells her his wound isn’t healing and he needs help. She drives him down to the treatment center, but things don’t look good. Only, all of this is a ruse. He cuts his wrist but his actual infection is on his chest, which he hides from the doctors.
At the compound, Tae-Seok’s right-hand woman, Lee Ji-Soo, tells the story of a patient who is believed to have the cure to infection. The patient has been turned save for Sae-Bom. Who else is betting that she has the cure and knows where to find her?
Seung-Young’s true intentions are revealed as it turns out he showed at the facility in order to bag an exclusive for the reporters, despite signing a secrecy agreement. However, as he sneaks around, Ji-Soo mentions how they’ve moved the infected to a refrigerated truck out back. These are the most critical patients, moved to make way for new infected. The only trouble is, that’s precisely where Seung-Young is heading.
He finds himself in a truck filled with patients, all of whom are infected. He is locked inside, but he knows that he can’t stay here forever. He calls his contact and promises to send a huge video scoop his way if he wires the money. After hanging up, Seung-Young slowly creeps down the truck but finds himself in no man’s land as all the infected begin to wake up and stalk toward him.
Meanwhile, Yi-Hyun and Tae-Seok follow a contact to a warehouse where they claim to have pills in the trunk. Only, instead they actually have an infected patient who goes crazy and begins attacking Yi-Hyun. Tae-Seok shoots him though and questions the survivor, learning that the infected took a lot of Next, that drug from before.
As Sae-Bom and the others watch, a group of infected soldiers come running towards their truck. One of the soldiers is clearly infected and he starts to claw at the door, trying to get inside. Sae-Bom is shocked and watches in horror as the soldiers struggle to shut the doors. Seung-Young is very clearly infected too. ..
The Episode Review
The second episode of “Happiness” introduces the various different apartment residents with Sae-Bom. Now, I imagine the woman above Sae-Bom is probably infected and her husband is keeping her restrained for now. However, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s anything more to this story than that. ..
Meanwhile, Yi-Hyun and Tae-Seok team up and learn about this drug, including its distribution and how dangerous it actually is. This works pretty well to give more context and depth to what’s happening as the infection continues to spread.
The show has been successful in slowly building up the suspense and tension, with the infected still being contained for the time being. But how long will that last? In a way, it would appear as if the show is learning a lot of lessons from Black Hole, a similarly themed k-drama that tackled these infections. Unlike that show though, Happiness appears to have the balance between light and dark elements in-sync. ..
Happiness looks good value so far, despite a slightly slower follow-up. ..
