11 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.
Han-seo is describing how Babel's team swept through the phone calls, texts, and SNS (소셜 네트워크 서비스) records of thousands of people who had legal disputes with the company. In Korea, SNS is the everyday umbrella term for all social-media platforms — the word is used even in news headlines. The casual mention of monitoring nearly 4,000 people reflects how data harvesting by powerful conglomerates is treated as an open secret in Korean corporate-thriller dramas.
적하 (Jeokha) is addressed as 스님 (seunim), the respectful honorific for a Buddhist monk or nun in Korea. Buddhism is one of the country's two dominant religions and monks are a familiar, respected presence in daily life. Calling someone 스님 automatically signals their ordained status and demands a degree of social deference even in tense situations.
Cha-young explains she bought a limited-edition pair of shoes specifically for use as a weapon — a comedic nod to the Korean drama trope of a fierce female lawyer turning everyday accessories into tools of justice. High-heeled shoes as an improvised weapon appear frequently in Korean action-comedies and have become a recognisable genre joke.
Cha-young pulls out 막걸리 (makgeolli), a milky, lightly fizzy rice wine that has been brewed in Korea for over a thousand years. It was once considered a farmers' drink but is now fashionable across all ages, sold in convenience stores and pojangmacha (street stalls) alike. Sharing a bottle of makgeolli late at night is a deeply casual, intimate gesture — the Korean equivalent of opening a bottle of wine with someone you trust.
번개탄 (beongaetan) are quick-lighting charcoal briquettes sold cheaply at convenience stores all over Korea, originally made for tabletop barbecues. Because they emit concentrated carbon monoxide in an enclosed space, they have tragically become a method associated with staged suicide scenes in Korean crime dramas. The detail here is deliberately chilling: the killers chose a tool that is both commonplace and readily available.
기석 (Gi-seok) name-drops 신의 퀴즈 (Sin-ui Kwi-jeu / God's Quiz), a long-running Korean forensic-crime drama about a medical examiner solving bizarre deaths. It aired from 2010 through multiple seasons and is one of the most popular procedural dramas in Korean television history. Dropping its name is his way of explaining why he, a non-detective, somehow knows about car-chase evidence and phantom registration plates.
The team's satirical online broadcast calls itself '오프너' (opener, as in a bottle opener) and their anonymous presenter '까발리어' (kkaballi-eo), a Korean pun on '까발리다' (to expose or uncover) styled to sound like a European title. It is a spoof of real-life Korean whistleblower YouTube channels — a growing genre where anonymous hosts air corporate or political scandals that mainstream media won't touch.
Yoon the lawyer mentions requesting a broadcast ban from '아잉튜브' (Aingtube), the show's thinly veiled fictional name for YouTube. Korean dramas routinely invent fake brand names for real platforms to avoid licensing issues, and Korean viewers immediately clock what the real service is. The fact that the request fails quickly — and that keyword suppression in search engines is handled separately — reflects real familiarity with how Korean online media management actually works.
Vincenzo paraphrases a line from Victor Hugo's 레 미제라블 (Les Misérables) — 'Justice is only right when it is complete and faultless.' The novel is enormously popular in Korea and is a standard school curriculum text. Citing it here lands as a cutting cultural shorthand: he is telling the prosecutor that half-corrupt institutions cannot produce genuine justice, no matter how many honest individuals they contain.
Joon-woo compares Vincenzo to 메이웨더 (Floyd Mayweather), the undefeated American boxing champion known for being practically untouchable in the ring. The reference is widely understood in Korea — Mayweather's 2015 fight against Manny Pacquiao was a massive cultural event that aired live there. Saying Vincenzo is 'Mayweather, not a sparring partner' is Joon-woo's way of admitting he has dangerously underestimated his opponent.
Hong-sik (the tailor) mutters that he swore to use his scissors only for cutting cloth, not for fighting — and he is clearly rattled that the brawl has just broken that promise. In Korean artisan culture, tools of one's trade carry a kind of sacred dignity; using them for violence is treated as a serious transgression of professional identity. The moment plays as both comedy and a genuine character beat.