Editor’s note: Since Snowdrop’s beginning, the show has not been without controversy. The most notable of which is the backlash over what many claim to be the drama’s alleged revisionist approach to South Korea’s democratic uprising in the 1980s, a movement against dictatorship marked by blood and loss. Following its premiere on December 18, a petition to stop the broadcast of the drama has gathered upwards of 300,000 signatures. Anyone going into Snowdrop should, therefore, watch it with a grain of salt.
Now that we’re in the midst of the fray, tensions have climbed to unbearable points. Episode 12 of Snowdrop begins with Han-na (Jung Yoo-jin) secretly delivering proof of the South and North’s collusion to various news outlets as Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in) and Kang-moo (Jang Seung-jo) wait.
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Turns out, Soo-ho and Kang-moo have trouble incoming: news of Soo-ho’s betrayal reaches the North, and consequently the South to Eun Chang-soo (Heo Joon-ho) and Nam Tae-il (Park Sung-woong). In a cruel twist, Chang-soo – who had been adamantly against killing the students inside the dorm – suggests that Yeong-ro (BLACKPINK’s Jisoo) be rescued, following which the dorm should be rigged with explosives and blown up, killing the students and spies inside.
Back at the dorm, Soo-ho and Yeong-ro share a small moment in the dorm’s chapel – the two take a moment to imagine what life would be like on the other end of the hostage situation, with Soo-ho promising Yeong-ro that he would keep her safe and accompany her to the next Open House.
At the ANSP quarters, Chang-soo and Tae-il discover that it was Han-na who helped Soo-ho and Kang-moo. As ANSP agents start rigging the dorm, the forces go after Han-na, while Tae-il lets Soo-ho and Kang-moo know what he is planning over the phone. This escalates tensions all over – Chang-soo threatens Tae-il with his life, warning him to rescue Yeong-ro at any cost, while Soo-ho and Kang-moo suspect there is a mole in the dorm feeding the outside forces with information.
Naturally, Soo-ho suspects Dr Chung-ya (Yoo In-na), but after conversing with her, he decides that it couldn’t have been her who sold them out. This leaves both Kang-moo and Soo-ho with one realization: someone has been spying on everyone all this while. They gather the students together in the chapel, announcing that they’ll have to search everyone’s rooms.
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As Boon-ok (Kim Hye-yoon) tries to leave during the commotion, she is caught on suspicions of being the mole and brought in for questioning. While on an emotional tirade, she recalls the moment when Soo-ho left the dorm on the day of the Open House. This jolts Kang-moo into a horrible realization: Soo-ho had left the dorm on December 3rd, but the ANSP’s wiretapping team had intercepted a message from someone in the dorm “hoping to go to the North as soon as possible” on December 5th – meaning that there had been a spy in the dorm even before Soo-ho had come into the picture.
Upon ransacking the dorm, Soo-ho and Kang-moo find another radio stuffed into a chicken in the kitchens, leading them to believe that the cook Oh Deok-shim (Nam Mi-jung) was the mole.
As night approaches and the SWAT team gears up to break in and rescue Yeong-ro, she hatches a plan along with Soo-ho and Kang-moo. She asks to see Chang-soo alone. Upon meeting him, she begs him to save not just her, but everyone in the dorm – Chang-soo, however, uses a predetermined codeword, which prompts the ANSP forces to get into action.
Yeong-ro, shields both Soo-ho and Kang-moo with her body. The two pull her back in just in time. Just as Chang-soo is trying to control the situation and asking the soldiers to stop, Tae-il – who’s been watching all this time – orders the forces to kill Chang-soo. As Yeong-ro escapes back into the dorm, Chang-soo gets shot and goes down.
Tae-il’s plan backfires when immediately after the shooting, ANSP chief Ahn Kyung-hee (Lee Hwa-ryong) arrives on the spot with the press. Tae-il, however, spins the story around and claims that it was the spies who opened fire on Chang-soo, eventually also gaining permission from the higher-ups to go in and take the dorm by force. Watching everything play out on the TV inside the dorm, Soo-ho and Kang-moo figure out the same thing.
As panic runs through the dorm members, Yeong-ro also finds out that her father was shot. She doesn’t get much clarity as everyone is ushered into the library for safety – the ANSP forces break in through the bathroom in the basement. Soo-ho and Kang-moo, however, force them to retreat by leveraging Tae-il’s affection for Chung-ya. They strap explosives onto her and threaten to blow everyone up lest the forces go back.
With their lives hanging by a thread, Soo-ho and Kang-moo need a new plan – which comes from Chung-ya. She offers to go back out and intercept the money that the South was sending the North to put their deal in jeopardy, which could buy the hostages and spies inside some time. Soo-ho and Kang-moo reluctantly give in. Needing as much ammunition as they can get, they also deploy Han-na, who’s managed to escape and is posing as a doctor in the same hospital Chang-soo is in, to let his wife know that his injuries are a result of ANSP’s actions.
As Chung-ya “escapes” the dorm, a suspicious Kang-moo asks Han-na to also dig up proof of her affair with Tae-il to use as leverage over the ANSP. Tae-il might also find himself in hot water on other ends too, however – not only did he tell Chung-ya about the value of the deal between the North and the South, but he also believes that Chang-soo is in critical condition (a lie, since Chang-soo recovered successfully and is fully aware of Tae-il’s schemes).
Under the pretext of booking tickets for a trip, Chung-ya obtains Tae-il’s passport number and calls a Swiss bank to open an account. When Han-na relays this information to Kang-moo, he instructs her to arrest Chung-ya at the airport and bring her and the money to the dorm, so he could use it to save the hostages and arrest Soo-ho. Unfortunately for him, Soo-ho hears his scheme. Just as the two men point their guns at each other, the screen fades to black.
Memorable Moments
- It’s amazing to see how Gye Boon-ok (Kim Hye-yoon) remains one of the series’ most infuriating characters. Not only does she sell out Ms Pi’s (Yoon Se-ah) ANSP ties to the dorm members – causing them to turn on her, albeit briefly – but she also plans to leverage Yeong-ro’s connections to save her own skin.
- The show also seems to be tying up loose ends as we move towards the climax – Chung-ya’s plan, for example, involves a fortune-teller whom the wives of Tae-il, Chang-soo and Kyung-hee frequent and believe in blindly. He turns out to be a Northern spy, and a major pawn in Chung-ya’s plan to intercept the money.
‘Snowdrop’ is available on Disney+