ENA Monday-Tuesday drama "The Scarecrow" broke its own highest ratings record and concluded its grand finale with a heavy aftertaste. Critics are praising it for tackling forgotten cases and the pain of victims head-on while achieving both entertainment and a social message.
"The Scarecrow" is the first drama to take as its motif an actual past serial murder case and tell the story after the real perpetrator was revealed.
Director Park Joon-woo and writer Lee Ji-hyun, who were recognized for overwhelming direction through "Taxi Driver," this time again blended sharp social messages into genre thrills to drive word-of-mouth success. Park Hae-soo, who intricately portrayed the upright but crumbling role of "Kang Tae-Ju," Lee Heejun, who chillingly embodied the Janus-faced "Cha Si-young," and Kwak Sun-young, who renewed her career role as the principled reporter "Seo Ji-won," created shining synergy. Added to this were Song Geon-hee's powerful performance in two roles and Jung Moon-sung's overwhelming presence; the flawless performances of the cast created the fictional space of 1988 Gangseong to feel more real than reality.
According to ratings survey company Nielsen Korea on the 27th, the final episode (episode 12) of "The Scarecrow," which aired on the 26th, recorded nationwide ratings of 8.1% and 8.3% in the greater Seoul area, breaking its own record and ending on a high note. The nationwide peak minute rating rose as high as 9.3%, and the 2049 target rating also reached a peak minute of 3.3%, ranking first across all channels including terrestrial broadcasters in the same time slot and holding the crown for Monday-Tuesday dramas.
In the final episode, the brutal truth that was finally revealed after 30 years and the heartrending struggle of those who survived were portrayed.
At Im Seok-man's (played by Jeon Seok-chan) retrial, the detectives who had conducted coercive investigations in the past vehemently denied the charges. However, Kang Tae-Ju (played by Park Hae-soo) candidly acknowledged his past investigative errors, and by calling another victim, Lee Seong-jin (played by Park Sang-hoon), as a witness, he exposed that then-prosecutor Cha Si-young (played by Lee Heejun) had forced a false confession. Cha Si-young ultimately revealed his ugly true face by giving false testimony in court, but the twist came from elsewhere.
The real serial killer, Lee Yong-woo (= Lee Gi-hwan, played by Jung Moon-sung), stood in the witness box and proved that the seventh case was his crime. In the ironic situation of "the killer revealing the truth that the police buried," Im Seok-man was finally acquitted after 30 years and, sobbing with his sister Im Ji-hye (played by Shim So-young), turned living rooms into seas of tears.
Although the truth was revealed, reality was bitter. Even after Kang Tae-Ju's acquittal he could not hide his emptiness, saying, "Unfortunately, it's still not over." The body of victim Yoon Hye-jin (played by Lee Ah-rin) still had not returned to her family, and because the statute of limitations had expired, no one among the perpetrators, including serial killer Lee Yong-woo, could face legal punishment.
Kang Tae-Ju's stinging message to Lee Yong-woo, "You were the beginning of all this tragedy," reexamined the institutional limits of the statute of limitations and the reality of victim families still living in tragedy, leaving viewers with a deep and heavy resonance.
[Photo] "The Scarecrow"
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