Into The Void
Episode 11 of Dark Hole begins with the reveal that Dong-Rim is the one who’s been controlling this tentacled creature, acting as the conduit all this time. However, there are more important matters to deal with. It seems Hwa-Sun and Tae-Han have figured out that liquid nitrogen is the monster’s weakness. They decide to use this to work out exactly which body the monster is hiding out in. Well, we know it’s in Dong-Rim and she grabs a plaster from the kit to try and disguise the burns that have cropped up on her arm. However, Hwa-Sun has obvious doubts about Dong-Rim’s story. Elsewhere, Ji-Hye struggles to fight off the infection as her eyes turn black. Da-Yoon happens to be listening to her struggles, although he eventually decides against heading in to see her. Meanwhile, Snake Eyes turns all of Madame Kim’s supporters to his cause, showing CCTV footage of Tae-Han and the others and how they’re responsible for the deaths. He even encourages them to take up arms too. Kim however, manages to bring in hordes of the mutants into the hospital. Unfortunately for our protagonists it comes right off the back of the liquid nitrogen canisters being emptied by a saboteur. As Tae-Han holds the door shut with Soon-Il, the truth about his involvement in the past is revealed. It’s not really the time to be honest, and this moment that should be emotionally charged falls flat as they are soon forced to flee from the mutants. As they turn a corner, Hyun-Ho is held up at knife-point by Madame Kim. Everything is stuck at a standstill…until Da-Yoon arrives and manages to distract her long enough to free Hyun-Ho. He’s freed and the ragtag survivors manage to get away from her before the mutants manage to kill. Madame Kim is confronted by this creature who turns her completely, with black veins protruding out her face. With the threat thwarted for now, the attention turns to Seung-Te who’s attacked by one of the mutants and knocked down to the ground. Unfortunately Dong-Rim emerges from the shadows and controls the tentacled monster, which pierces his neck and leaves him for dead. Unfortunately when Tae-Han and Hwa-Sun show up, they find him dead – and Dong-Rim’s diary nearby. Inside are damning revelations confirming that she’s the one who’s joined hands with the monster willingly and helped kill them. In fact, Dong-Rim immediately kills Madame Kim when this is revealed. After a skirmish involving the mutants in Hyun-Ho and Ji-Hye’s room, Hwa-Sun is left a message telepathically (and written in black blood on the walls) telling her to meet if she wants to see Do-Yoon alive. That place? The chemical factory.
The Episode Review
Dark Hole’s penultimate episode sees multiple changes as we see the hospital breached and all hell break loose. The reveal with Dong-Rim is certainly a nice inclusion and a good twist too. However, the show continues to suffer some serious pacing problems and the sudden shift to kill off Madame Kim and have Dong-Rim as the big bad feels like a bit of a betrayal to the story that’s been built thus far to be honest. The spinning wheels issue I mentioned earlier in the season is especially prevalent here, with the show struggling to juggle its wide group of characters and deliver something unique to the very bloated zombie genre. Overall, the penultimate episode sets everything up for the finale to come but given the drastic drop in viewership figures this season has suffered, it’s perhaps just as well that this one hasn’t run for 16 episodes!
