Nine Puzzles- Episodes 1-2

Murder, Memory Gaps, and Mysterious Puzzle Pieces

Welcome to the twisted, mind-bending world of "Nine Puzzles." Episode 1 wastes no time pulling us straight into the storm—literally and figuratively.

Yoon I-na, a high school student with a blank stare and a tragic past, returns to her childhood home in the middle of a thunderstorm. Her parents are gone. All she has left is her uncle. But something’s off. The power is out. The backyard door swings open. Blood on the floor. A lone puzzle piece. Then—bam—a corpse.

Her uncle, Yoon Dong-hoon, is dead. Stabbed in the neck with an awl. The killer left a calling card: a puzzle piece showing a wolf in a bunny suit with a gun. Creepy much?

Enter rookie cop Kim Han-saem—sharp, skeptical, and immediately suspicious of I-na. She doesn’t cry. She barely reacts. Han-saem smells something rotten, and it’s not just the crime scene.

Evidence piles up fast. The awl came from I-na’s art studio. Her fingerprints are on it. She bought a set of three awls six months ago. The timeline’s full of holes. She says she took the long way home, but that just buys her extra time to commit the murder. There’s a mysterious 13-minute gap before she calls the police. No signs of forced entry. No struggle. The killer knew Dong-hoon—and so did I-na.

She claims memory loss. Says everything’s a blank from the moment she walked in until the housekeeper found her. She admits to arguing with her uncle—but insists it wasn’t about money. Han-saem pokes holes in her story, and for the first time, I-na shows emotion: frustration.

Then things get weirder.

I-na returns to the crime scene, lies down in the exact spot her uncle died, and imagines herself committing the murder—blood spray and all. The next day, she brings the puzzle piece to Han-saem and taunts him: “You think you can catch the killer?”

Flash forward ten years.

I-na is all grown up—and still strange. She’s now a criminal profiler with a death wish, gets her kicks from bungee jumping, and spars playfully with her therapist. Her memories of the murder night still haunt her. She blurts odd truths, masks pain with bravado, and avoids home like the plague.

Han-saem has transformed too—into a rule-breaking, tattooed detective who looks more like a punk rocker than a cop. It’s the tenth anniversary of Dong-hoon’s death, and guess what? He still thinks I-na did it.

He digs up an old lead: I-na’s former dormmate, Mrs. Yeom. She remembers I-na using her as an alibi one night—and yeah, there was another awl in the dorm.

Back at the station, I-na and Han-saem cross paths. She mocks his fashion sense (“Did a raccoon pick this outfit?”) while others debate his obsession with the case. Even Dong-su, now a high-ranking commander and Dong-hoon’s old friend, says Han-saem might be nuts—but he’s got heart.

Turns out I-na’s rich too—thanks to her parents’ hospital empire—and a bit of a chaotic genius at work. In her latest case, she cracks a 10-year-old’s murder with a twisted game of memory. The kid’s brother slips up, and she pounces.

Meanwhile, rookie Choi San gets curious about the Yoon case. Over drinks, Han-saem’s colleagues press him—why let I-na play games with him? Han-saem admits it’s strategic. He’s waiting for her to slip up.

Later, he retraces her steps from the night of the murder and hits another dead end. No security footage. No concrete alibi. Nothing makes sense.

Elsewhere, a new mystery brews. At 8:45 p.m., a girl at a bar notices a man staring. At 9:32, she speeds off in a red car, blowing through a red light. By 10:07, she reaches a high-rise called The One City.

Back at Dong-hoon’s, I-na returns once more. The housekeeper leaves. A delivery arrives: another puzzle piece—this time, a snake-like woman whispering to a girl. Chills. She tries calling Han-saem. No answer.

Boom. Episode 1 ends with a silent scream and a hundred questions. Who’s sending the puzzle pieces? What really happened that night? And why does I-na seem so unfazed by murder?

Another Body, Missing Memories, and Puzzle Piece #2

If you thought Episode 1 of Nine Puzzles was intense, Episode 2 kicks things into overdrive. Murder #2 drops, and the mystery tightens like a noose.

We pick up at 11:15 p.m. Yoon I-na pulls into The One City apartment complex. She knows Detective Kim Han-saem visits his mom here every week. She’s not there to say hi—she’s there with a plan. Too bad for her, Han-saem is home showering.

After Han-saem’s mom shoos her off, I-na wanders the parking lot, forgets where she parked, and stumbles upon something chilling: the headlights of a red car shining into the night. Inside, the woman from the bar last episode—Lee Mi-young—is slumped over, dead. Strangled.

By 11:50 p.m., the cops are on the scene. Sergeant Nam, the supermarket cop from Episode 1, is among them. But I-na? Long gone. Han-saem finally checks his phone—she texted him at 11:38, casually dropping the news of another murder.

The victim, Mi-young, owned the bar Griffin and lived in The One City. She had money. Nothing was stolen. Time of death? Between 10:10 and 11:30 p.m. Han-saem immediately raises an eyebrow—how is it again I-na who finds the body?

But I-na doesn’t flinch. She’s got a theory: Mi-young and Dong-hoon were both killed by the same serial killer—the proof? Puzzle piece #2, depicting a serpent-like woman whispering to a girl.

Han-saem checks in with his mom, who incorrectly remembers I-na arriving at midnight. He pulls security footage: Mi-young’s car was parked in a blind spot. Dashcam hunt begins. He finds I-na entering the building at 11:21 after parking.

He then pays a visit to I-na’s therapist, Dr. Lee, with puzzle piece in hand. But the doc isn’t talking. Another doctor, who invited I-na to an exhibition earlier, watches this scene from a distance—clearly, something’s up.

Back at the station, Han-saem catches heat from his boss Yang for once again zeroing in on I-na. But guess who walks in? I-na herself—she found out about the therapist visit. Han-saem wants to know why she rang Mi-young’s doorbell after discovering the body. I-na changes the subject, claiming the murder happened at 10:32. He doesn’t bite. She’s frustrated, again.

Han-saem hits Griffin, Mi-young’s bar. No security cams. Four customers that night. Mi-young spent time with a big guy, maybe a cop. The bartender says I-na never showed up there, which rules her out—at least for now.

A number called Mi-young twice that night—once at 8 p.m., then again at 9:45. It’s traced to none other than Hyun Ho-geun, the precinct chief and Dong-hoon’s old friend. Han-saem confronts him, treating him like a suspect. Hyun blows a fuse, claiming he only called to cancel a reservation.

I-na plays it differently—she approaches Hyun with kindness and curiosity. She wants to know if Mi-young and Dong-hoon were connected. Hyun doesn’t think so.

As Han-saem questions every cop who visited Griffin, things get tense. The internal probe leaks. Reporters swarm. Hyun is furious and demands the case be wrapped up in a week. But a breakthrough comes: Griffin’s manager digs up a name—Commander Dong-su.

Dong-su says he left at 9:30. Mi-young had to close early. Han-saem keeps the pressure on, but Dong-su is insulted to be treated like a perp.

Sergeant Nam, weighed down by guilt for ignoring Mi-young’s car the night of the murder, asks Han-saem if the crime happened in the parking lot. He’s confused—he hadn’t considered that.

Meanwhile, alibis are falling apart. Neither Hyun nor Dong-su can account for the time of death. But Yang finds a vital clue—Mi-young’s ID is missing. Someone wanted her unidentifiable.

Cut to I-na, giving a seminar on criminal profiling. She breaks down how to catch serial killers and later compares Dong-hoon and Mi-young’s deaths: clinical, calculated, but only linked by the puzzle pieces.

Then the storm hits.

It’s raining. I-na urges the housekeeper to stay, but she leaves. I-na locks the door behind her. And then—finally—a memory cracks open. The night of Dong-hoon’s murder, she saw a reflection of someone hiding in the room. Before the power came back, he slipped away. She remembers the sound of the door locking.

Boom. We’re not just dealing with cold cases. We’re watching someone slowly remember a killer’s face.

Nine Puzzles Episode 2 ends not with a cliffhanger, but with a crack in the dam. The truth is coming—one memory, one puzzle piece at a time.

DramaZen's Opinion

Serial Killers, Psychodrama, and One Seriously Twisted Game

Okay. WHAT. A. START.

Nine Puzzles came out swinging with Episodes 1 and 2, and I’m already spiraling in the best way. We’ve got murder, memory loss, cryptic puzzle pieces, and a main character who lies down where her uncle died just to feel something.This drama? Yeah, it's not playing around.

Let’s talk about Yoon I-na. On the surface, she’s this stoic, brainy criminal profiler who doesn’t blink when dead bodies turn up. But underneath? She’s a haunted, maybe traumatized (maybe more than that 👀) woman with a deep, creepy calm about murder. In Episode 1, she finds her uncle (a former police superintendent!) stabbed to death with an awl, and the only thing left behind is a puzzle piece of a wolf in a bunny suit holding a gun. Like… excuse me?? Who leaves something that specific unless they’re playing a long game?

Enter Detective Kim Han-saem—our grumpy, unshaven, emotionally chaotic king. He smells foul play immediately and practically laser-locks onto I-na as the prime suspect. Honestly, I don’t blame him. Her story has holes. Her vibe is off. But then she straight-up imagines killing her uncle, complete with blood splatter fantasy, and I’m screaming at my screen like, “Girl, what is happening inside your head??”

Then BOOM—Episode 2 hits us with another murder. This time it’s Lee Mi-young, a bar owner found strangled in her car. Guess who finds the body? Yep. I-na. Again. And again, a puzzle piece is involved—this time a serpentine woman whispering to a girl. It’s giving Zodiac Killer meets mind palace.

Now Han-saem’s on edge. The cops are annoyed, the commander’s angry, and literally everyone is suspicious. The best part? I-na is loving it. She’s not scared that Han-saem suspects her. She’s curious. She’s even helping him. But is she solving the puzzle, or just playing the game better than everyone else?

And then there’s the ten-year jump—yeah, that’s right. They dropped a whole time skip in Episode 1. I-na is a profiler now, rich from family money, smart as hell, and maybe completely unhinged. Han-saem is still chasing her uncle’s cold case like it’s his life mission. They’ve both evolved into messier, weirder, more dangerous versions of themselves and I love it.

There are so many tiny details I’m obsessed with:

• I-na playing detective and possible suspect? Iconic.

• The weirdly elegant horror of the puzzle pieces? Chef’s kiss.

• Han-saem lurking outside houses and getting the cops called on him? Peak unhinged energy.

• Everyone around them walking on eggshells while these two orbit each other like ticking time bombs? YES PLEASE.

If these two episodes are the setup, I’m terrified (and thrilled) for what’s coming. I-na is remembering things. Puzzle pieces are still arriving. And there’s definitely a serial killer hiding in plain sight.

Call me obsessed, but Nine Puzzles is already shaping up to be my new murder-mystery addiction. Let’s goooo. 🧩🔥💀