[HanCinema's Drama Review] "God's Quiz Season 4" Episode 12 Final

The opening clearly establishes that the cliffhanger from last time was not, in fact, a fake out. The bad guys really were that petty and vindictive, and the good guys really were just not smart enough to plan for a double cross. So, with no apparent usable evidence, and a dead forensic investigator that apparently no one cares about outside of the main team, how exactly is the story supposed to get resolved here?

Dirty tricks, mostly. I'm generally not a fan of cops going bad because the villains are just that evil, but it actually works pretty well here. The essential problem of the villainous plan is that it's assuming Jin-woo and team are so wholesome and goody-good that they would never, ever resort to devious tactics in order to accomplish their goals. Now, this could have worked if they just weren't so darn smug about it. Practically everyone working with the villains is either trying to avoid law enforcement or has some sort of secret they really don't want anyone to find out.

Their essential mistake is that they've been so overconfident that the good guys know all about who they really are- it's just that they can't prove it, and if there's no proof, there's nothing they can do. What the bad guys fail to realize is that at this point they're pretty much locked into a suicide pact. If the heroes are willing to sacrifice themselves they can absolutely take the bad guys down with them in a glorious moment of spite, and that's exactly what happens.

Now, this doesn't all go perfectly. "God's Quiz Season 4" continues to suffer from the simple problem of having too many characters, most of which haven't actually done anything noteworthy or relevant throughout the season's entire run. The only ones we actually get to see do any of the grimy illegal stuff are Jin-woo and Kyeong-hee, even though a big point is made of everyone else being willing to ignore their legal responsibilities for the sake of the case.

The ending also hiccups a little, mainly because of some last minute revelations that I'm not really sure how to interpret. Was this supposed to be a plot twist that we were supposed to see coming to keep the drama from wrapping up too tidily, or some sort of convoluted set-up for a fifth season? I'm really not sure where the franchise is supposed to go from here. But then, I think that about most dramas (Korean or otherwise) that have been going on for this long, so interpret that statement with the appropriate grain of skepticism.

Review by William Schwartz

"God's Quiz Season 4" is directed by Lee Min-woo-II, written by Park Jae-beom-I and features Ryu Deok-hwan, Yoon Joo-hee, Donghae, Kim Jae-kyung, Kang Sung-pil, Park Jun-myun,...

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