WOWOW. NOW THINGS ARE GETTING FUN. Episode six is another great episode, right up there with episode 4 in terms of better planning and execution. Things are starting to get fun now that we know who X is and all the possible things he can do in carrying out his agenda and mission. Whereas before watching School 2017 might have been a little dreadful, episode 6 was so easy and fun to watch and I actually lost track of time because this episode was so fun. Now that things are finally starting to come into play, I'm getting excited.
School 2017 episode 6: The Real Records of our Lives
Episode 6 begins with Eunho chasing after X. She manages to catch him and finds out that X is actually Dae-hwi! Teacher Shim and Officer Soo-ji, who are also still on campus late at night, are busy patrolling the campus and becomes suspicious after hearing some noise. Upon seeing Eunho, Dae-hwi runs away without saying a word and just when Eunho is about to chase after him, Tae-woon comes right in time to stop her. He holds her back from chasing after X and instead they worry about the packet that Dae-hwi had dropped on the floor. It's a packet with the questions and answers to the upcoming math competition.
Tae-woon and Eunho sneak their way into the teacher's office room to return the packet to where it originally came from. But they stop to hide when they hear Teacher Shim and Officer Soo-ji approach the room. Officer Soo-ji heads somewhere else to check something out while Teacher Shim heads to the teacher's office room. In there, he hears some kind of noise and is aware that someone else is in the room with him, but instead of informing Officer Soo-ji about it he stops Officer Soo-ji from investigating any further. While Teacher Shim grabs Officer Soo-ji's attention by randomly confessing to her and telling her he likes her (hahaha omg the things he'll do to stop her), Tae-woon and Eunho manage to escape the room just in time. Phew. That was a close one.
Dae-hwi takes some time to rest after escaping far enough from everyone. He sits in disbelief and regret knowing that Eunho had seen his face. Meanwhile, Tae-woon and Eunho make it safely outside on the campus without getting caught. Eunho guesses that there must be many copycats of X since Tae-woon's the original X, but Tae-woon disagrees. He reasons that this person who was X was no copycat; they actually needed the packet which was why they went to go get it.
Teacher Shim returns to the teacher's office room to get rid of his suspicions. He checks all the cabinets only to find them locked and secure. He recalls hearing the voices in the room earlier, but doesn't actually know who it was that he heard talking. Teacher Shim tries to guess to which of his students the voices belong to, but can't figure it out.
Back in her room, Eunho can't seem to understand why Dae-hwi would do such a thing as stealing the answers and questions to the upcoming math competition. It's not like him at all so why would he do that?
Back at home, Dae-hwi returns to studying. But a sudden reminder compels him to stop and to instead search for something. He frantically looks through his jacket and pockets, but fails to find the item that he's searching for.
This item that he's looking for is instead with Tae-woon. Tae-woon swirls a pair of keys with his fingers as he lays on his bed and recalls the moment he found the pair of keys lying on the floor earlier that night. Dae-hwi must have dropped it while running away from Eunho. Tae-woon knows fully well that Dae-hwi is also X — or at least the X that night.
Tae-woon returns the keys to Dae-hwi the next morning at school. Since Tae-woon knows that Dae-hwi was the one who committed the incident the night before, he mocks Dae-hwi for doing something so low and unfair. But he adds that he has no interest in reporting Dae-hwi to the authorities; he has better things to do and worry about. Exhausted and fed up, Dae-hwi warns Tae-woon to get out of his life and to never talk to him again. Tae-woon scoffs upon hearing this, but his smirk fades away when he turns around and walks away. His face expression is one of hurt and pain (omg the sudden change in his face expression is so sad).
Dae-hwi approaches Eunho that day at school because he wants to talk to her. But Eunho pretends as if she doesn't know why Dae-hwi wants to meet with her and instead assumes that maybe he wanted to meet to go over the competition that he was interested in entering. The conversation comes to a close when Dae-hwi's girlfriend approaches them and Eunho walks away with Sarang.
Tae-woon pleads for Eunho to not meet Dae-hwi once he finds out they're planning to meet up. But Eunho refuses to listen to Tae-woon and together she and Dae-hwi meet up at a coffee shop.
The meeting is off to an awkward start because the two are avoiding the elephant in the room, but things do start to lighten up once Eunho decides to just confront the issue. She knows that it was Dae-hwi who committed the incident the night before as X, but instead of scolding him or expressing disappointment in him, she stays encouraging instead. In return for all the support he gave her when she was framed as X, she'll do the same for him. The meeting still ends off on an awkward note when Eunho receives a phone call from Tae-woon that she doesn't answer.
The two leave the coffee shop only to find an angry Tae-woon waiting outside for them. As usual, the two start throwing hurtful words at each other, but Eunho tries to stop the both of them (poor Eunho, she's always getting caught in between them). She bids farewell with Dae-hwi before leaving with Tae-woon to talk to him.
Once alone, Eunho argues with Tae-woon over what just happened. She wants Tae-woon to stop getting into other people's business, especially in regards to Dae-hwi being X. But Tae-woon wants Eunho to stop it as well; he doesn't want her to meet or talk to Dae-hwi anymore. However, Eunho ends the conversation by adding that there must be a reason as to why Dae-hwi did what he did – just like how Joong-gi also had a reason for saving the lives of the people on the bus even if he was risking his life for them. This causes Tae-woon to stop talking.
At school, Sarang hands Issue (omg he's finally baaaack!) a customized pillow that she got for him as a gift. But it makes Issue uncomfortable so he rejects it. But don't worry. Teacher Jung is more than happy to take the pillow so he grabs it from Sarang and takes it with him. Haha.
Dae-hwi's girlfriend Nam-joo gets a visit from her dad at school. She gets embarrassed upon seeing him in his taxi cab dropping off some bakery goods to her. But just when her dad is about to leave, Dae-hwi approaches the both of them. Unaware that the taxi driver is actually Nam-joo's dad, Dae-hwi volunteers to give Nam-joo a ride to her academy in her dad's taxi. On the ride there, he notices that the taxi is from the same company as her father's taxi company in which she hesitantly admits that it is. Nam-joo confirms that she is volunteering at her dad's taxi company after being asked by Dae-hwi to which Dae-hwi shows envy. Her student evaluations are good to go with that volunteer experience under her belt.
That night, Eunho's father delivers some chicken from their restaurant to Nam-joo's apartment. He recognizes Nam-joo's uniform and comments that his daughter (Eunho) also attends the same school, but Nam-joo just awkwardly nods and closes the door. Back outside, Eunho's father ponders over whether one chicken will be enough for her and her family to eat since it seemed like there were many of them (aww, he's such an angel. So sweet!).
Dae-hwi is busy tutoring Hee-chan for the upcoming math competition, but reveals to his friend that he's also planning on entering the competition himself. Tae-woon – who's sitting not too far away from them – groans out loud in frustration and stares at Dae-hwi as he drinks his soda in one go.
The drama then brings us to the good old times. The good old times of when Tae-woon and Dae-hwi were still friends and when their best friend Joong-gi was still alive. They're together celebrating Dae-hwi's birthday and having a good time with one another on this special day. We return to the present with both boys looking at the picture of them 3 when they were all still friends.
Teacher Shim is meeting with students at school over their student evaluations. He has a short meeting with Sarang's mother (who's a custodian at the school) about Sarang and her student records. Since Sarang is planning on taking the civil servant exam, she doesn't need to stress out as much over her student evaluations. But Sarang is still concerned and wants to make sure she can make her mom happy.
Teacher Shim and Teacher Koo join each other for drinks that night. Teacher Shim's in stress after finding out that his students have been cheating on their student evaluations by making stuff up and basically doing his job for him. Teacher Shim expresses this insecurity and concern with Teacher Koo and in return, Teacher Koo also ends up sharing with him some of his experiences as a teacher. That night, Teacher Shim returns to working on the student evaluations despite the conflicting thoughts he has about it.
The next morning, Eunho's brother finds Eunho's student evaluation and notes how empty it looks. Eunho snatches it away and comments that she'll add stuff to it…eventually. Worried, Eunho's mother attends a seminar/information session on student evaluations that day hosted by Eunho's school. Afterwards, she joins some of the other mothers in a meeting at a restaurant, but still remains confused about college applications and student evaluations. Eunho's mother is clearly the outcast in this group of mothers.
Eunho's mother comes home that night feeling devastated. She's now learns that it's the parents who are the ones fighting to get their kids into college, but she realizes that there's not much she can do for Eunho because they don't have enough money. She drinks her sorrows away.
The next morning at school, Teacher Shim meets with the steering committee and principal. The members – who are mom's of some of the students at the school – want to look at their kid's student evaluations. However, it's illegal to do that and when the members demand for access to the evaluations, Teacher Shim refuses to give them the evals. It's against the rules and he won't allow that to happen.
Afterwards, Teacher Shim heads outside to get some fresh air. He ends up joining Tae-woon in playing some basketball to clear his mind. However, he's reminded once again of the trouble he's gotten himself into once he receives a call from the principal.
In the meeting with the principal and vice principal, Teacher Shim is told to either give the parents the student evaluations that they asked for or get fired. Tae-woon hears their conversation from outside of the principal's office.
Later on that day, he asks Eunho for her availability that night. It seems as if he's on to his next prank, but wants the support of Eunho to help him. But when Eunho reveals that she's not available, he readily goes on his way and minds his own business.
Tae-woon marches to his hideaway spot in his black sweater. Meanwhile, Teacher Shim and Officer Soo-ji head over to the abandoned warehouse that Officer Soo-ji had been eyeing for a while now. She opens the door to the warehouse with the keys she was able to find for it, but unlike what she expected the warehouse is empty. There's nothing in there. It's clean and neat.
Turns out that the warehouse actually isn't Tae-woon's secret hideaway. Or maybe he moved to a different spot after what happened last time with Teacher Shim and Officer Soo-ji. Regardless, Tae-woon is safe and sound, sitting in peace in his new secret spot.
omgggg look at that smirk!!!
But that new spot is only actually the empty warehouse below the original one he was in before. HAHAH. Wow, so much for moving. And we find out that Tae-woon had asked for Eunho's availability that day at school because he wanted her to help him move. Hehe, so cute. He'll do anything just so he could spend some time with her.
At school the next morning, Vice Principal panics to the principal that someone has posted all the student evaluations all over the school. They head over to the hallway where the evals are posted and finds the students reading their own evals – mainly the comments of them that were written by Teacher Shim. Teacher Shim describes each student with accuracy and positivity, saying good things about each student and pointing out traits about them that stand out. We then find out that the principal's ID was used to access the student evaluations online making him a possible culprit behind the incident (hahah, that's what you get!).
In the midst of all this chaos, Tae-woon and Eunho stand on opposite sides of the hallway, secretly giving each other a thumbs up in a totally not obvious way (smooth Tae-woon and Eun-ho, smooooth).
In the next scene, Tae-woon is seen overlooking the answers to the math questions for the upcoming math competition. Maybe he's planning to enter it after all?
Okay just kidding because in school the next morning, all the students receive a video through their phones of the principal in a meeting with Tae-woon basically revealing that the math competition was created just for Tae-woon. All the students stare at Tae-woon upon watching the video. So if Tae-woon was reported on by X as seen in this video, he can't be X. So who is X then?
Tae-woon yells at all the students to stop staring at him and while most of them turn their heads away upon his demand, two students don't even budge at all: Dae-hwi and Eunho.
OOOOOOOOOOOOH THIS IS GETTING GOOD. I'm not really sure what it is that is making me all so jumpy and excited considering that X has been doing this since the very beginning and has been pulling pranks since like forever (before School 2017 even existed). But I don't know — there's just something there that is pulling me into the drama and is making me even more excited now than I already was. I think it's because we now know that Tae-woon is X so we can just sit back and watch him pull these pranks and make the faculty miserable and the students entertained (whereas Dae-hwi was only X that one time). And then to make things even better, seeing Tae-woon's reactions to his own pranks as well as Eunho's reactions knowing fully well it's Tae-woon who committed them makes me so happy and giddy. That one moment they shared in the hallway while everyone else was busy reading their student evals or while the faculty was panicking was probably the sweetest moment yet in the drama and one of the most adorable scenes ever in a drama (it was sooo cute! i will never get over this scene).
I love School 2017 even more now knowing that THEY know about X and therefore can start committing more pranks as a team. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Tae-woon has up his sleeves, hopefully with the help and support of Eunho. Of course, it's all fun and laughs, but at the same time it's good to be reminded of why Tae-woon is doing these pranks in the first place — to get a message across at school and to break down the corrupt system at the school. So yes, these pranks are funny and entertaining, but at the same time they have a purpose and it's up to the students and faculty to figure out what this purpose is more so than who's committing them.
I'm really loving Teacher Shim in here just because he's so down-to-earth and different. He loves and cares for his students, but struggles to receive the same type of support back from his students who fails to take him seriously. He wants the best for his students, but some of those students don't want the best for themselves as much as he does. Teacher Shim abides by the rules and laws and doesn't bow down to anyone even if they're more powerful and wealthier than him, but for his students he'll break the rules just to protect them.
I think it's so interesting that he'll do anything for his students just to save them even if that means breaking the rules set in place, but won't break any rules when it comes to dealing with adults like the mothers who wanted to look at their kids' student evaluations. And I think this love and care for his students is what sets Teacher Shim apart from the other teachers at the school and what makes him someone you root for. Being a teacher is not the easiest thing and in fact, for him he struggles constantly. He's always in conflict over whether to break the rules or to stay complacent in a corrupt and broken school system, but he has always done what he believes is right from the very beginning and has been winning lately.
I think it also helps that Tae-woon is there to help carry out Teacher Shim's plans by acting as X and ultimately protecting him. The small moment they shared at the basketball court could be a small foreshadow or clue to the future: Teacher Shim is the one who's shaking things up, but it's gonna be Tae-woon who will finish the job with his pranks as X. It makes for a great plot as well as teamwork between the two and I hope to see this combo come alive especially since Teacher Shim has already been protecting Tae-woon and Eunho.
I do wonder for how much longer the drama plans to drag out the Tae-woon and Dae-hwi love/hate relationship though. At first, it was interesting because you wanted to know how they got to that point after having been best friends, but as you get more and more glimpses of how their relationship came to be you start to lose more and more of that interest. I'm no longer as curious about their relationship as I used to be and I don't care for it as much anymore either. At this point it'd be great if they could either move on and go their own ways or find a way to make amends and heal. I'm pretty sure the drama will eventually get the two boys to forgive each other and return to being friends, but I'm not sure how much longer it's going to take until we get there.
I do still think the same way about their relationship as I did before where I mentioned that Dae-hwi and Tae-woon resent each other with what happened to Joong-gi, but probably do miss what they had or the past that they were once so happy in. I think a part of them wants to go back to how things used to be when they were still friends, but because they have so much hatred and resentment towards each other they can't seem to be able to take the first steps towards doing that. It also doesn't help that the both of them are so stubborn that they won't say how they actually feel or they won't be honest with their feelings and thoughts. At this point they're just misunderstanding each other and need to have a real and honest talk about what went down that night of the accident. Hopefully after doing that, the boys will have some kind of closure and maybe be able to move on with this part of their life that they're clearly still stuck on.
I do have to admit that the storyline with Dae-hwi's girlfriend Nam-joo is a little intriguing to me. Why does she seem so embarrassed when Dae-hwi brings up her dad or how she's volunteering at her company? Is she embarrassed? Is it because her dad isn't a rich powerful man or the CEO of a business? Does she not want to talk about it because she thinks Dae-hwi won't be impressed with what her father does as a living? I'm curious as to why she seems so hesitant every time he talks about her dad and if there's more than what meets the eye.
While I was watching this episode, I realized just how beautifully shot this drama is. The cinematography is so vibrant and colorful and each scene just breathes life. If this drama wasn't any good we could have at least agreed that the drama is beautiful and shot very prettily, but since the drama does have some good elements to it, it's both so pretty and interesting. So far so good.
The drama still hits all the right notes in terms of sadness and angst, but through this episode the drama's also starting to learn how to build up momentum and excitement which I'm really enjoying. The editing towards the end of the episode when Officer Soo-ji and Teacher Shim are about to open the warehouse that Tae-woon had stayed in made it seem as if he was going to get caught, but as illustrated he was actually in the warehouse under the original one he stayed in. It's just small things like those that gets you sitting at the edge of your seat and gripping onto your hair and this episode did a good job in building that excitement and maintaining the intensity. The camerawork also adds some flavor to the tone and I especially enjoyed the scene where the camera's zooming out on Tae-woon's face and back as we see him just casually resting in his warehouse while the music plays in the background. The scene just oozes mystery, darkness, chills, and anticipation and that's the type of stuff that I want to see in School 2017 – especially if we want it to seem like our characters are at risk or are in danger of getting caught. We gotta make it seem like they're going to even if they're actually not.
I'm really loving all the cute moments that we're getting with Tae-woon and Eunho. They hate each other, but like each other so much as well and it's so fun watching them go back and forth in this push-and-pull relationship. It seems like Eunho is also starting to warm up to Tae-woon a little bit more now which is always good news as Tae-woon has been doing the same to her since forever. I still think it's so interesting that Eunho can get Tae-woon to stop talking and arguing with her just based off of one word: Joong-gi. She manages to make him stop everything he's doing whenever she mentions his best friend – NOT to tease him or to hurt him or to torture him, but rather to prove a point. She's aware of how much pain and anguish he's still going through a year later since the accident, but she doesn't use that against him. While Eunho realizes and acknowledges that agony and trauma, she uses it to encourage Tae-woon or to get a point across to him when he's being stubborn and close-minded. I'm also really liking how their relationship is growing. Whereas before Eunho was angry that Tae-woon was X because she suffered so much because of him, she's now come to warming up to the idea and has even been supporting him in small bits here and there. She's come around to supporting him and forgiving him and I wonder how things are gonna look like for them now that they've hopefully moved on past the resentment and more towards the love.
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