13 timestamped notes explaining the Korean cultural context in this episode — customs, idioms, food, honorifics, and history, at the moment each appears on screen. These notes discuss events across the whole episode. To see them revealed scene-by-scene as you watch, use the episode page to find an airing.
무진 석진동 ('Mujin, Seokjin-dong') is a fictional provincial city and neighbourhood. Korean addresses go from largest to smallest — city first, then district (동, -dong). Naming the exact 동 in a news broadcast signals the tight, neighbourhood-level reporting style Koreans expect from local crime news.
The voiceover uses 프레데터 (peu-re-de-teo), a loanword from the English 'predator', as a technical label for the top 1% of psychopaths. Korean true-crime media and criminal-psychology dramas popularised this term in the 2010s, borrowing it directly from Western criminology books translated into Korean.
Go Moo-chi recites the Korean equivalent of Miranda rights: the right to remain silent (묵비권, mugbigwon) and the right to appoint a lawyer. Korean criminal procedure law requires officers to inform suspects of these rights at the moment of arrest, just as shown here — skipping them can invalidate the arrest.
Go Moo-chi quotes Leviticus 24:17–20, the famous 눈에는 눈 이에는 이 ('an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth') passage. This episode's title comes directly from that verse. Citing the exact chapter and verse is a habit picked up in Korean Protestant and Catholic culture, where Bible literacy is considered a mark of seriousness.
백일홍 literally means 'a hundred days of red' — it is the crape myrtle flower. Its traditional flower-language meaning in Korea is '그리움', longing or yearning for someone who has left. Florists and drama writers reach for it whenever a character is grieving an absence, so its appearance here quietly signals this woman's loss before she says a word.
Korean 교도소 (gyodoso, correctional facilities) maintain strict lists of 반입 금지 품목 (banned items). Thread and needles fall under controlled medical-supply items because they can be used as weapons or for self-harm — which is exactly why the new guard's refusal is by the book, and why handing them over anyway would be a serious breach of duty.
Dong-gu mentions joining a 팬카페 (fan cafe) for Han Seo-jun. Korean web portal Daum and Naver both host 카페 (cafe) communities — interest forums organised like clubs. The fact that fan communities exist even for convicted serial killers is a real and controversial phenomenon in Korea, frequently debated in the media.
Chi-guk voices a frustration widely heard in Korean public discourse: that 사형수 (sa-hyeong-su, death-row inmates) live at taxpayers' expense while executions remain suspended. South Korea has not carried out an execution since 1997 and is considered de facto abolitionist, a fact that regularly resurfaces when high-profile crimes occur.
Han Seo-jun calmly describes the precise anatomical spots and depths needed to die by self-inflicted stabbing. This is presented as deliberate psychological cruelty — using medical knowledge as a weapon — rather than any kind of guidance. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a crisis line (Korea: 1393; international: findahelpline.com).
The grandmother mentions helping a neighbour with 김장 (gimjang), the annual community event of making and storing enough kimchi to last through winter. Traditionally done in late autumn, gimjang is so culturally significant that UNESCO added it to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013. Neighbours gathering to help each other is still common in older Korean communities.
The TV anchor references the Zodiac Killer, one of the most-discussed American serial cases in Korean crime documentaries and dramas. The detail about Zodiac's final letter to a broadcaster ('please help me stop myself') is historically accurate and is used here to suggest the Korean killer might similarly want to be caught — a classic profiling theory known to Korean viewers from translated crime books.
The grandmother mentions that today is the local 신부님 (sinbunim, Catholic priest)'s last Mass before he transfers to another parish. In smaller Korean towns, the neighbourhood 성당 (sŏngdang, Catholic church) is a genuine social hub, and a priest's departure is treated as a community event that everyone is expected to attend — skipping it, as Bong-i does, is a mild social transgression.
The scene catalogues three 전리품 (jeolli-pum, trophies): Song Su-ho's boxing gloves, Byeon Sun-yeong's toy ring, and the homeless man's shoe. In Korean criminal-psychology coverage, trophy-taking is treated as a key marker distinguishing a 사이코패스 serial killer from a one-time killer — a distinction the show has been building since the first episode.