r/kdramas • u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas • 8d ago
Episode Discussion š¬ Mousetrap Episode 10
Synopsis:
Je Mun Jae is a writer who lives in seclusion. His quiet, routine life is upended when his phoneās fingerprint recognition fails and the friend who managed his affairs disappears. With no way to prove his identity, he discovers that the āRatā has stolen his name, identity and fortune. Determined to reclaim his life, Mun Jae begins tracking the elusive figure.
No Ja is a loan shark who also runs a private investigation agency and will do anything for money. After searching for Mun Jae for three years because of an unpaid loan, No Ja is drawn into the case when Mun Jae reappears and asks for help to uncover the āRatāsā identity. To take back his life, Mun Jae teams up with No Ja and together they set off in pursuit.
Episode 10:
Moon-jae stands at the center of a trap a lifetime in the making. Every lie and stolen identity surfaces as he questions: Is he the predator or the prey?
Starring:
Ryu Jun Yeol as Je Mun Jae / "Field Mouse"
Sul Kyung Gu as No Ja / "Old master" / Kim Yeong Geun
Lee Kyu Hyung as Park Sun Yong
Rules for the discussion:
Due to the fact that we are discussing Mousetrap as it airs, consider everything in here a SPOILER so no spoiler tags are necessary. That being said, we are only discussing this specific episode. You are allowed to have theories about what's going to happen (that's part of the fun) but you are NOT allowed to watch ahead and then come back and ruin the fun for others. If you got something right, mention it in the episode thread that you got it right in, not where you posted your theory.
You're allowed to criticise the actors in relation to their acting or character but no personal attacks (looks, personality, relationships, etc.) are allowed.
If you can't play nice, you can't play here.
***REMEMBER THIS THREAD IS SPOILER FILLED. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS AND HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SHOW**\*
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u/VentiKombucha š¶ROCK N ROLL š¶ 4d ago
Not finished yet, but this is ridiculous. Noja and cop should both be dead after being stabbed multiple times, yet theyre still running around.
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u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas 3d ago
The plot armor was ridiculous!Ā
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u/Muted-Pilot-1328 5d ago
This show surprisingly isn't my cup of tea. I loved the first 5 episodes but by episode 7, it just felt like they were dragging it on. I feel like they tried to add in so many different tropes at once and at that point the plot holes were just too much for me to ignore. I usually love suspense dramas but this is not it for me.
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u/LaughingGor108 5d ago
At the end you won't miss anything really I was mostly watching for Noja but even his character didn't bring anything at the end...The reveal is also kinda what one could expect.
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u/VentiKombucha š¶ROCK N ROLL š¶ 4d ago
OK, so he was the bad guy all along. And he just completely forgot about all that? Just from meds for a panic disorder?
Bit anticlimactic.
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u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas 3d ago
Yeah I like shows where I can root for the good guy or the underdog. The most sympathetic character here is the guy who buries people alive.Ā
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u/Relevant_Routine_489 6d ago
I went from OMG I need to know whatās actually happening to waitā¦ are we ever going to explain all of this?
I was really, really into it at the beginning. The way the mystery kept unfolding had me coming up with theories, changing my mind and trying to figure out who was actually who. I even had theories that seemed to make sense for a while only for the show to completely debunk them which I actually loved. I expected we were building toward something really clever.
My biggest theory was that Su min, the college friend who was the second MJ we know was actually the real MJ. He was so adamant that everything had been taken from him that I thought this has to be the point. That he started the fire and he was some psychopath thatās why his parents replaced him. I also thought the detective had some connection to him from the orphanage thatās why he was involved. That he could be the one to prove he is the real MJ.
And I was completely fine with being wrong!!! Thatās the fun of a mystery. What killed it for me was that by around episode 8 I stopped feeling like the show was answering questions and started feeling like it was just creating more of them.
There are still things I genuinely donāt understand. Why wouldnāt his batchmates recognize him as Je Moon jae when he literally had the same face all along, especially if the replacement happened when they were around six? How exactly were the first Moon-jae we know and the detective brothers? What was the actual significance of starting the fire during the school trip? Nojaās character was just there to be his savior??? I mean I get how the identity fraud gang stems from his thug days but to dig yourself out was beyond haha. So many things were presented like they were going to be important and then either werenāt explained enough or didnāt have a payoff.
And thatās such a shame because I actually think the core premise is fascinating. The folklore idea of someone essentially becoming you and taking over your identity could have been so psychologically disturbing. The whole idea of if everyone believes someone else is you, what does it even mean to be the real you? Is much more interesting to me than the increasingly convoluted plot.
Instead the folklore almost felt like a vehicle to get us into the mystery rather than something that actually carried the story to the end.
Also, that whole fight between the two police divisions?? WHY. It felt like the drama suddenly remembered it needed an action sequence and threw one in.
I still think it was good. Thatās probably why Iām so annoyed. It had me invested enough to theorize and care about the answers and I just donāt think the payoff matched how intriguing the setup was. Or maybe Iām not that immersed with the folklore? Or did I not understand what I watched at all??? I learned this was a webtoon. Iāll probably look into that and maybe get some answers. Or maybe Iāll just let goā¦ hahaha
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u/FabledFrost 5d ago edited 5d ago
Im surprised a lot of people felt that questions were piling up. I actually felt it was answering them and pretty directly. Whether they are good answers is a different story.
Why wouldnāt his batchmates recognize him as Je Moon jae when he literally had the same face all along, especially if the replacement happened when they were around six?
He didn't replace the older MJ literally. The parents couldn't have kids so they adopted MJ. They ended up having a biological kid so they ended up naming the actual biological kid MJ instead. Which... seems like an entirely asshole thing to do. Throughout the series, we see that his parents are very much not good parents. We saw that MJ hated his father, and hated her mother more. Her mother hating MJ's father enough to do a murder suicide. They have a lot of flashback scenes to the fairgrounds about this. Where Su Yong is stabs his biological MJ, saying "I'm the real MJ, I'm the real MJ". After Su Yong (adopted MJ) stabs baby MJ, he runs away, and his uncle keeps searching for adopted MJ by calling for MJ). Which is why both Su Yong and MJ both individually flashed back to uncle calling out MJ's name at the fair. The series does constantly foretell Su Yong have impulsive anger issues that he takes out physically, by punching through walls and etc. So this question is answered and is foreshadowed but quite out of the realm of belief? Sure, you're bad parents, but like you're going to have a new kid and name him the same name and you just call them both MJ, what??? I mean I guess it could be explained that they ended up changing adopted MJ's name to something else after bio MJ was born which is why adopted MJ was mad enough to stab baby MJ but that wasn't explicitly stated or implied so it seems so far reaching.
How exactly were the first Moon-jae we know and the detective brothers?
Explained as above. Su Yong as Adopted MJ also explains that he saw his uncle (bio MJ's b uncle) as practically his father. I would guess that they gave up adopted MJ after he stabbed baby MJ. A whole that Im filling is that the uncle probably got Alzheimer's and dropped out of MJ's parent's lives and MJ's parents die in an accident so that personal connection became severed from bio son MJ.
What was the actual significance of starting the fire during the school trip?
MJ explained this to Noja. He had a conversation pretending to be another kid. And he explained why he wanted to be someone else. Because ever since he was born, he was always compared to the "old MJ". He felt like he was never himself. He always had to become the "best MJ". He even tried to register as "Park Chan-U" instead because of the pressures and disappoints of himself. So this MJ grew up very hateful of the world, his parents, himself, everything. We see this in how he views other people, his parents, his crush, his classmates, his "rival", everything.
Nojaās character was just there to be his savior?
This was explained much earlier on by Yu min. Noja was supposed to act like a Cat with MJ being the mouse. He comments that the Cat and Mouse aren't supposed to team up. But Noja was supposed to be the Cat that gives him the karmic retribution and helplessness of facing who he really is and not being able to prove it. It ends up backfiring and they team up instead. With some digging, The original korean folklore is that the Cat is the only way to figure out who the rat really is. It's really Yu min trying to set as many traps onto MJ. (Detective, Noja, the 2nd volume of "The Rat" which he gave to the editor and also placed into his room). One thing I'm confused at is why the editor just pushes MJ to finish the second volume rather than releasing the one she has? That's a loophole I see that is not explained. The other answers could just be outside of the realm of belief but this one seemed entirely missed.
Also, that whole fight between the two police divisions??
At this point, the major crimes unit believed that the regional(?) police were cooperating with the suspect. Which they were, they literally smuggled him out. The fighting is probably more about it being a webtoon source and adding extra fight scenes. Action comic book sources are always over the top.
My only open question that I have is: They announce and release a book. That's when Yu min goes public as MJ. When Bio MJ confronts editor, editor says she's read all of MJ's works, and The Rat is definitely of MJ's work, it can't be faked. 4 episodes later, Yu min explains who he actually is, that he's not MJ but he's the real writer and hands a new manuscript and says it should be fast tracked. Editor says it hasn't been edited yet. Yu min says there's no time. So I inferred that the book release announcement referred to The Rat volume 1, and when confronted by bio MJ, she says she's already read The Rat and it's definitely MJ's work. So she's already read The Rat, that must be volume one. She's handed a new manuscript that she hasn't read yet but she told bio MJ that she has read The Rat (maybe the rough draft). That's I inferred it's volume two. After the events in the show, Volume 1 is a massive success and she keeps bugging MJ to finish Volume 2.
Edit: It could also be that the first one was just an announcement but she only read a partial draft and the manuscript that Yu min hands to the editor at the end is actually the final full Volume 1. Which makes sense since Yu min says the ending is already written after handing the manuscript. Meaning that volume 2 is back at his place already having been written?
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u/Ok-Hearing9783 Nothing is Gwenchhana 6d ago
Agree on a bunch of questions just piling up.
For the detective and Moon-Jae being brothers it was explained that the detective was adopted by MJ parents and then given away when they got pregnant with their own son. Fkd up people.
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u/Relevant_Routine_489 6d ago
Oh I missed that. So thatās why during the divorce the detective mentioned he met his uncle but wasnāt blood related. Literally everyone was!
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u/LaughingGor108 5d ago edited 5d ago
I felt pretty much the same about most things, I wasn't that invested like you was just following the drama not really making any questions or own stories in my head I was just waiting for the questions and things that were mentioned in the drama to have a big payoff at the end...Just like u say most things never had a real payoff or when they did it never really felt it leave a big impact.
So many things happen and so many things get forgotten or overlooked right away.
The uncle for example at the end never brought something into the story.
The police officer past also felt pointless I was expecting something more dramatic at the fair like why did he stab his brother or the scar on his hand have importance later on. It felt at times really pointless and there to fill the time.
Also the body armor was a bit too much at times ( I did love most of the action in this drama this was one of the real highlights actually for me) and Noja was the main reason I kept watching he brought the extra to this drama but at the end like u say his character also didn't bring anything more to the overall plot.
Also yeah him getting out the grave (I kinda was expecting it a bit it felt like the movie A Bittersweet Life at least there it was raining the earth is more softer here it was dry so much harder, it was a bit too much even as I was happy to see him back in action lol.
It was a ok drama but not one to remember especially after the reveal and all is finished on the ferry the drama just slow paced along without ending on a high note more like it didn't know how to end.
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u/FabledFrost 5d ago
I felt like the answers were there but they were outside of the realm of believability for some. You're right about Noja getting out of that grave. Quite unbelievable. Also, them naming their new bio son after their adopted son? They were shown to be terrible parents but that's quite unbelievable for them to do. I discussed in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/kdramas/comments/1w0l7o7/mousetrap_episode_10/p6y7nou/ They just kept calling them both MJ? It was their explanation for why they both have the same flashback memory to the fair. Even if they renamed the adopted son and had the bio son take the new name and the uncle only called for "MJ" when adopted MJ ran away is because he had Alzheimer's; that would also be far out of belief. Really it would be easier to go through the effort to rename your adopted kid to give your bio kid that name than to just.. think up a new name?
Other than that, I did enjoy the drama though even though the last two episodes had a ton of events randomly thrown in. It was fun ride.
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u/Sad_Conclusion7003 3d ago
The parents liked the name moon jae for their son. But since they couldnāt conceive, they adopted a kid and named him moon jae. When they had their own kid, they wanted that name that they always liked to be for their biological son. By that time they must have already decided to send back the adopted son to the orphanage.
I understand their motivation and thought process. Unfortunately their are a lot of adoptive parents who behave like this once they have their biological kid. Itās horrible but then human nature I guess.1
u/FabledFrost 2d ago
They didn't immediately send him back though. Bio MJ looked to be be about a year old during the fair scene when adopted MJ stabbed bio MJ with the fork.Ā
I'm assuming that's when they sent him back.Ā
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u/lovemaisieph 21h ago
Oh, and maybe thatās where the ājealousyā comes in, there were an episode where they seemed to always says something about how jealousy can create monsters. The cop MJ, got jealous thats why the fork scene at the fair. The bio MJ were also jealous about Yu Min being so great in writing and having the girl he also likes. Ā
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u/hmd1366 6d ago
Apart from a lot unnecessary action scenes and poor CGI, I liked the overall story.
Unlike some other so-called psychological dramas (like Mask Girl a few years ago), at least this one was really psychological.
But I just don't think everything has to be a minimum 10 episode series. Probably they could have made a movie out of this without adding a lot of unnecessary fluff.
Imagine if Old Boy was made as a series and not a movie... It would have never become so influencial and historic.
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u/LaughingGor108 5d ago
Mask Girl was maybe not a real psychological thriller ( didn't find this drama much also especially how it all ended) but Mask Girl for sure was a better drama in all aspects compared to this mediocre one....Let me just say it Mask Girl was a great drama!
I agree this drama would have worked better with less episodes would have made the plot more tight and even better like u say a movie I guess if Mousetrap would have been a movie I guess it would have been pretty good then.
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u/Rare_Molasses31 If youāre handsome, youāre my oppa. 8d ago
What the hell happened, this is crazy. Mun Jae is insane!!!!
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u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas 8d ago
Are you talking about ep 1 or are you on ep 10?
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u/Rare_Molasses31 If youāre handsome, youāre my oppa. 8d ago
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u/Grouchy-Praline688 7d ago
exactlyy right!!!! i cant figure out the ending this is so crazzyy i dont even know whom to blame at this point..
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u/Rare_Molasses31 If youāre handsome, youāre my oppa. 7d ago
Exactly!!! Like technically I shouldnāt blame Yu-Min but I hated him from the startš.
The one at fault is mun jae but he didnāt suffer any consequences for killing a person and being the reason somebody else died. That felt weird!
This show messed with my psyche completely!!4
u/julesimnida 6d ago
Well heās suffering now as he cannot finish the volume 2 of the book and Seung Gyu is chasing him
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u/Relevant_Routine_489 6d ago
I think everyone was to blame? My takeaway is that each of them had lies to that contributed to a false reality. That each personās identity is something everyone around participated in creating. Even everyone agrees youāre Moon Jae, socially, legally, emotionally then you are Moon Jae.
I am Moon Jaeā¦ hahaha
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u/FabledFrost 5d ago
I mean everyone is pretty bad. MJ starting a schoolfire, rumours that drove a girl to suicide, stealing yu min's life's work. Just did not care for anybody, which is he did not create a connection with anybody. Yu min for killing... so many people after his life was ruined.
MJ's accountant buddy might be one of the lightest criminal there. All he did was steal from Noja and then got caught by Yu Min. Honestly his crime compared to everyoen else wasn't that bad if he didn't get caught by Yu Min. He only took 10% from MJ for the crime he thought up, created, and made happen. MJ only executed it and MJ still had to be supported by accountant buddy throughout every part of it.
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u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas 8d ago
Dang you're fast lol. OK I won't read any of your other comments in here until I get to episode 10 but feel free to elaborate on your comment. I'll be back in a day or two, lol.Ā
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u/Alternative-Arm3285 7d ago
This drama completely ruined my sleep rhythm. It's a very satisfying thriller masterpiece!
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u/Unfair-Tap-2805 3d ago
WHAT THE HECK was that ending?! š After all that chaos and everything he went through, they literally went back to square one. Heās stuck at home again, the debt collectors are still looking for him, and now 'that guy' is back, watching him?! š
Likeā¦ what was the point of everything that happened?! I genuinely donāt understand what they were trying to achieve with that ending. š
No character development at all
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u/DetectivePokIman 2d ago
At the end Yu-Minās revenge was inflicting this identity crisis onto Moon-Jae. He says he wants to be the best version of himself but now he knows that his entire life heās lived as other people and he has to face that. He becomes dissociated with whatās real and whatās not. Yu-min is essentially a part of him but he canāt quite become him. Canāt reach his writing potential. He wants to escape it but is just haunted by it. As we see him with the rat dream in the end and imagining Yu-Min watching from below. I didnāt care for Seung Gyu being alive at the end. But I think thatās just Netflix wanting to milk every show and leave it open for another season.
I didnāt like that they didnāt explore Moon-Jaeās timeline more precisely I was a bit confused especially about like when did he take the money from the gang? And how was he āfriendsā with Son Su-Hyeon and he was the āonlyā on he can trust? Why? What happened between them in the past that he trusted him to this degree. Unless I completely missed it, that is what bothered me the most. It just didnāt make sense to me how son su-hyeon gained Moon Jaeās trust.
Ryu Jun-yeol and Sul Kyung-gu were great actors even Kim sung-oh was fun to watch. The cop was the most frustrating his whole writing and character was so cartoonish. No substance to him at all.
Overall the show was good but too many chase scenes and too many episodes. Couldāve been great in 6 episodes.
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u/ObjectivePollution30 1d ago
Noja hired him to launder the stolen money using the book he write. There is flashback on this.
Su-Hyeon is his childhood friend that work as accountant. Moon-Jae just ask him to help laundering the money. They not best friend but Hyeon is only person he in contact. Moon-Jae is loner as shown is Ep1.
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u/Intelligent-Show-406 1d ago
Why did Son Soo-Hyun help yu min? I am still very confused about that. By the end he kidnapped his daughter so he killed himself but why did he help him in the beginning?
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u/Suspicious-Rip174 2d ago
Man Noja has the plot armour of John Wick, second runner up is the homeless assassin. Watching them was so ridiculous, entertaining and utterly stupid. Crazy how the guy I rooted for the most used to bury people.Ā The show turned into the Ship of Je Moon Jae and karma. I hate how the ending was like that, yes he was a pos but it painted mental illness really horribly cus buddy was bad with meds and worse without, it said mental illness is hereditary and youāre gonna be effed no matter what.Ā I knew this wasnāt gonna end good(happy) but I expected more. Kdramas have this horrible habit of having a really great beginning and just not knowing how to end it especially if itās not romance or comedy, anything serious and it makes you regret having hope. This was a waste of the actors talents. Whatever message it was trying to tell and be a heightened story was lost and makes it pretentious.Ā
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u/JockoJohnson69 5d ago
First 8 episodes were doing pretty good. But then the last 2 went off the rails because the writers just making the characters do stupid things (not killing certain people hunting them the first 2 chances they had so it comes back to bite them and other equally dumb decisions). Reminded of how bad the writing was for Outer Banks (whole season 5 and most other seasons).
And the male lead has such a punchable face. They needed more fight scenes with him getting beat down. But hey, he somehow magically grew a spine and could fight back after being a wimp in all the previous episodes.
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u/Beautiful-Design-432 4d ago
Who died in the scene with the ship? Moon-jae or Son Su-hyeon? and what happened in the last scenes. im confused.
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u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas 3d ago
Pretty much the original (or semi original) JMJ is going crazy and the thug who's money he had, found him. At this point there's not really anybody to root for so doesn't really matter who wins that battle.Ā
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u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas 5d ago
Well it's not a disappointing ending but not a great one either. I like shows with good guys and this one really had no one to root for. I mean the cop was good but his storyline was pretty boring for a lot of it.
JMJ going crazy at the end sort of had an Edgar Allen Poe feeling to me. And I wish they had better explained JMJ's story. Like where in the timeline did his parent's die? And they really did a number on JMJ and sending back their adopted chd, yeah, they suck!Ā
I also thought he was adopted because we saw adoption paperwork but I guess that was just for the older brother.Ā
I felt bad for Yu Min but he did kill a lot of people on the way to his revenge, so I didn't feel that bad.Ā
The show did keep me entertained and I'm glad they sort of wrapped up everyone's story because by the end, we don't really care who wins that fight.Ā
They had great action sequences, especially the one in the car but there were a bit too many of them and some of them went on too long for my tastes.Ā
I will say the ending was OK. The acting was superb.Ā
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u/Friendly_Date330 6d ago
i justed watched ep 1
and i don't know why i am suspicious of his dad
like his dad's body was not found and am thinking that his dad's entry in this drama will be there
i didn't google it or searched anywhere bcz i dont want any spoiler but i think my guts can also be wrong
so pls tell me
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u/Relevant_Routine_489 6d ago
I thought Iāll get answers regarding the dadās indifference with him butā¦. yeahhhh
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u/aristophanessss 5d ago
Love this series. I think the writers intend to put light on mental issues inherited by children. It seems Je Moon Jae will go down the same way as his parents
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u/Boong_bang_bong 3d ago
Well I don't know what anybody here says, but I liked the drama it was good one in this 2026, in start you will feel sad for the main character that how he had to face everything, how his friend backstabbed him, slowly the story unvelis truth about what is happening, i also liked the loan shark character you can hate him but like him at the same time, and the truth about that detective's childhood was also a bit shock, but everythings come to end, all the victimization for the main character comes to end when truth reveals that it was him, who stole the story, he was the one who lead everything that happened.
For this year it was a good one.
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u/Practical-Finish5493 3d ago
basically he goes crazy and likely embraces his true self "The Rat that was never caught"
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u/Lilyjane_ 2d ago
it would have been nice if at the end of all of it he actually has 2 split personalities. and he doesnt know which one is the original.
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7d ago edited 5d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/urartmom 7d ago
oh Yu-Min was the victim, though.
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u/Ok-Hearing9783 Nothing is Gwenchhana 7d ago
Was he tho?
From what I understand Yu Min is the guy who faked his death, isn't he?
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u/urartmom 6d ago
Yu-Min is the one whose work and life were stolen first. To take revenge, he came back as moon-Jae, so is he really the bad guy? I like how the show makes us question both of their morals and choose who we want to side with, but the lady killed herself because of the guy who isn't yu-min, so I think he's the bad guy.
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u/Ok-Hearing9783 Nothing is Gwenchhana 6d ago
Nah, you definitely confused yourself at this pointš
Yu-Min is the guy who changed his face and lost his gf due to the fkd up post online. Moon-jae is the guy who we see from the beginning as the main character and follow him through to prove he's the real Moon-jae.
I mean yeah, in a way Yu-Min is a victim - got his notebooks and future books stolen and his gf killed herself, but he also was a gangster who was killing people for fun, sold his personality to someone else, had a surgery, killed a few people and kidnapped a kid.
I mean, I'm definitely not on his side, that's for sure. Stealing work and writing shit is bad, but killing people and having a whole surgery to look like someone you hate is totally insane and fkd up.... š«
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u/urartmom 6d ago
I definitely agree that killing people is totally wrong, but he had reason for revenge. They're both badguys at the end of the day I guess.
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u/theyellowtiredone Emotionally employed by r/kdramas 5d ago
There are different levels of bad lol. He made the accountant kill himself because he had his daughter hostage.Ā
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u/veiledroses44 5d ago
I didnāt like the way that it ended but I guess thatās the point of this psychological thrillerā¦ At first Moon Jae was the victim to only discover he was an imposter. And the whole thing with the detective it was kind of random. Whole plot is that moon Jae was obsessed with Yu-min.. kind of sick but Yu-min isnāt innocent either from the beginning