The “mad person disease” outbreak is CAPSLOCK REAL in the 5th episode of Happiness.
Sae-bom, Yi-hyun and the rest of their apartment building tenants face a horrifying situation. Their building is the only one safe from the rapidly moving disease.
abbyinhallyuland watches Happiness on iQiyi
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03| 04| 05| 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | Finale + Review |
Happiness Episode 5 Key Moments
“Those who want to go, you can go.”
Communication got cut off at the apartment complex with Le Ciel tenants being advised to wait for the rescue. Wary about the gym staff who might be infected, Yi-hyun tells Detective Kim to take charge of him.
Video-streamer wanna-be Dong-hyun, disregards his mother’s inquiry about the symptoms of the disease. He heads to the building management to check on the internet connection that was lost. He bumps on the Na siblings who talk about the situation that seems to be getting out of control.
Convening at the ground floor, the residents at the building act unruly. Thus, trouble-fixer Sae-bom opens the blood-stained door to escort out the people who refuse to cooperate.
Relenting to the newlyweds, Sae-bom and Yi-hyun organize the situation. Unknown to them the lawyer-secretary-married-couple and the murderer-and-his-mistress are discussing the case.
“Everyone from other buildings except for us got infected.”
Yi-hyun and Sae-bom make sure all the bases are covered. They also notice the bloodstains were cleaned alluding to the infected’s desire to hide their identities. True to what they deduced, the security guard of the building did exactly what they told after being infected.
Gathering for a meeting, the residents continue to whine about their situation. Arguing if the situation outside is real, their different backgrounds and condescending attitudes are not helping at all. Offering a wager of who can attest if the disease outbreak is real, wife-murderer Oh Ju-hyung lured the residents and the cleaning staff with money.
Just as Yi-hyun and Sae-bom finish their patrol, they bump on the residents who just had the meeting. Questioning why Ju-hyung is out, Yi-hyun listens to his drama nonsense of regretting what happened to his wife.
Detective Kim briefs the married friends of the residents’ plan to go outside for surveillance with the money pompously thrown by Ju-hyung. The only thing good happening is how the residents have helped the cleaning staff with food and clothing.
“If we give up on active cohort isolation, and the infected reach a certain number, within 72 hours, one week at the most, we will all be infected.”
Outside the apartment complex, the city is entering chaos. Han Tae-seok and Ji-soo report with the higher-ups, honestly relaying how important the cohort quarantine is in place to contain the virus.
Looping in the antibodies being developed to fight the brain-centered virus, he also lays the cards of the inevitable spread if the management of the disease will not be handled accordingly.
Ji-soo questions Tae-seok for declaring a cure is possible when all the tests they had done so far were not successful. Responding, they need the fund and inevitable slaughter for the infected would have followed if he revealed the worrying truth.
He asserts they need to buy more time and strengthen the current quarantine protocols in place to save more people.
“Pick between me or the residents!”
The next day, Sae-bom finds Yi-hyun all geared up to go outside. She reminds him that they are also in isolation, but he insists that the call of his duty as a detective warrants him to help possible survivors.
Reasoning about how he can’t run because of his bad knee, Yi-hyun defends himself to be at least better than other middle-aged men. Launching her unique beauty trap, Sae-bom asks Yi-hyun to choose between her or the residents.
The two end up going together with the mission to check the outside world. Armed with various instruments to help ward off the infected people, Yi-hyun and Sae-bom join the team not knowing Ju-hyung’s evil ploy.
Outside they meet the infected security guard with other people. Yi-hyun stops Sae-bom when she recognized him to be infected. Pretending they don’t know they’re infected and probably going out to escape, the two walk away from them.
“We’re all okay! Hurry and open the door!”
Without the food ration, they decide to go to the supermarket to get as much food as they can. However, a group of infected came early than them and cause them to run for their lives with the groceries. However, arriving at the door of the building the worry-wart ajumma who had an earlier encounter with an infected person refuses to let them enter.
Villain Ju-hyung adds to her panic by playing the sound of his dead wife when she was infected with the disease through his phone. Fortunately, Seo-yoon received instruction from Sae-bom for backup at a particular set time. She urges Detective Kim to go to the ground floor and the door was finally open.
Furious about Ju-hyung, Yi-hyun chases after him and covers his face with the blood from outside making the villain scream in fear. Later, Yi-hyun apologizes for his outburst to his wife. But Sae-bom hugs him and reminds him how his bravery helped them against the infected.
Meanwhile, Dong-hyun is counting the chicks that will be brought by his popularity once all his videos will be uploaded. However, he discovers his phone is missing. Outside, Ji-soo reports of an infected who came from the complex.
To stop the protesters from condemning the quarantine procedures, Han Tae-seok orders for the infected to be seen by the protesters to stop them from their meaningless efforts.
Happiness Episode 5 Musings
Another excellent episode for Happiness. The concoction of thrill, drama, and romance is what makes viewers root for the episode serving of this series.
I honestly can’t pick between the self-righteous-worry-freak ajumma and Oh Ju-hyung as the aptest tribute to die first when worse comes to worst in the story. Likewise, being addicted to the faint romance between Sae-bom and Yi-hyun is a treat to viewers each week.
In this presented miniature version of the scary new normal, I hope viewers can pick up not to tolerate stubborn people. Staying away from people who reek selfishness and bad attitude would also save you from any trouble. This is true in any kind of situation.
Empathizing with Tae-seok’s position as the man in charge of developing a cure gives us a glimpse of how hard it had really been for the “decision-makers” faced with concerns of gravity involving life and death predicaments.
While the residents in the still-thriving building fight for survival from the people outside, they would confront the reality of how Dong-hyun’s mom is a ticking-infected-time bomb. She’s more dangerous than ajumma’s brother who is being monitored.
Keeping up with its unpredictable storytelling, Han Tae-seok seems to be bent on working on developing antibodies to thwart the tricky disease. Hence, Sae-beom who escaped the disease unscathed most likely will be needed for the experiment.
Tackling the relatable perspectives of the frontliners and citizens when face with a pandemic scenario, Happiness is a perfect informational series that could help shake some sense to hard-headed people.
Don’t miss the exciting new-normal survival of Le Ciel residents in Happiness on tvN and TVING. International fans can watch it on iQiyi.
Photos/Videos: tvN | iQiyi
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