[TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 14
Eye in the Sky <天眼>
TVB Drama 2015
Executive Producer: Catherine Tsang
Genre: Crime Thriller
Number of Episodes: 20
Cast: Kevin Cheng, Ruco Chan, Tavia Yeung, Tony Hung, Vivien Yeo
The following is not a recap but a commentary on the particular episode in the title. Major spoilers and Ruco Chan-love alert. Originally posted at www.point2e.com.
EPISODE 14
Obligatory eyecandy pic of the day …
I decided to take a break from Lik and eyecandy pics of Lik because he is not that eyecandy anymore. Not that he is terrible but Lik’s descend is expected and not that sudden but totally understandable. So I am posting Ruco as Ruco himself in a rare nice photoshoot.
As for Episode 14, epic. Absolutely epic and I am not sure it is in a good way.
Let me gather my thoughts for a while …Just a snippet for now… Ruco blames Law Lan for his predicament and declared;
“Ho Yee Ku ruined my life!!”
Quite true… but I shall say Jan played a huge part in it and he doesn’t blame Jan when he should. Maybe he will. Or maybe his mind will be so twisted he just doesn’t know why he hate in the first place.
Ok, let me think first how to recap this epic but not always in a good way episode …
Ok thought about it and let’s just summarise as this;
Ep 12 is Ruco at his happiest, Ep 13 is Ruco at his saddest/angriest and so Ep 14 is Ruco at the start of what will become the worst of him.
He is still angry in the morning and it isn’t helping that his parents, very worried opened a chatroom with just Kevin to discuss about Ruco and Ruco being self conscious thinks they were backstabbing him. Kevin tried to explain, he did, he really did but at that point Ruco was beyond any persuasion and quite simply said with a hint of malice;
“You all have never really accepted me into this family. If you have, you wouldn’t be talking behind my back. But I can’t blame you nor father and mother. Who can live with a stranger? No I don’t blame you all for my predicament. I blame Hor Yee Ku. She is the reason why we are separated for over 30 years. She is the reason why I could have had your life, your education and an equal chance in life instead of living as I did. It is her fault!”
Kevin is very alarmed. Later Ruco asks Tony to do something for him; he wants revenge, he wants to hurt Hor Yee Ku, not to kill her but to maim her cat. Tony feels that is too much, they have already stole her savings and she is living a miserable life, enough is enough but Ruco so angry tells Tony if he isn’t helping so be it. The scene stops there.
Kevin still worried remember Ruco’s words and worries for Hor Yee Ku and goes in search and finds her stroking her cat, all well. She remembers Kevin and asks;
“Have you found your twin yet? (Kevin says yes) Oh he must look like you doesn’t he? I am truly very sorry for my greed, for my selfishness. But you know, I am getting my just desserts. My son? I thought he is accepting me again and treating me kindly but in the end it is just pretend. He just doesn’t want to be blamed and questioned by relatives for ignoring me so he pretended to be good to me. How can I complain about his treatment? I deserve it. I deserve it all for the sins I have done to your brother, the anguish to your family. I am old now and all I have as my companion is my cat. I am fine, I will have my punishment waiting for me after I am dead as well. I can never repay my sins, and I blame no one for the state I am in now. I deserve it all”
And Kevin was moved by her sincerity and asked for her phone to put his number in it and told her to call him if anything.
Meanwhile Kevin tells the agency, Samantha and gang he is not going to be their consultant anymore for personal reasons. Tavia knocks some tea or something and he wants to hand her a tissue but decided not to and then leave. Tavia runs after him, angry and shouting;
“Why won’t you admit it? Why won’t you admit you like me too? Why are you running away?!”
Kevin calmly explains why; his love for her was through his telepathy link with Ruco when in actual fact he doesn’t feel that way. Tavia couldn’t believe it, she argues about her memory and how she saw how concerned he was when the tea poured on her, etc etc but Kevin was done talking when he finally said;
“I admit I may have thought I liked you but no, I don’t anymore”
Or something to that effect. Tavia looks sad. And here I was thinking, errr what do you expect? You just dumped his long lost brother he just found after 30 plus years of separation and the dumping part was so ugly you expect to have him confess his love and marry you and then for the next few decades endure the most awkward reunion dinners ever? Who wrote this script? How juvenile is this? How shallow Jan be?
Back at home, Kevin sees Ruco but his face a bit bruised. Flashback; basically Ruco punches Tony, Tony punches Ruco, Ruco see Law Lan and wanted to do something terrible and police nearby and so they had to leave. Ruco now very angry with Tony refused to take his calls and even deleted Tony’s number from his phone.
Kevin again tries to persuade Ruco not to go the wrong way but Ruco hates Law Lan so much he tracks her and poisons her cat. Law Lan so distraught ran with the cat to find a vet and she remembered Kevin’s message and so tried calling him when a van nearly hit her, she fell back, hit he head on the wall or something and laid there dying for the next 5 minutes or so. Ruco was there, he was surprised when she fell and he never intended to kill her but when she was on the floor, twitching and dying, looking very pitiful, he stared at her satisfyingly and did nothing to help her and in the end walked away after watching her die.
Back in office, Kevin is approached by police. It seems they’re checking Law Lan’s death and asks Kevin why she called him and the revealed the eye in the sky aka CCTV showed clearly how her death was accidental BUT Ruco stood by looking at her die. Ruco was interviewed and he simply said he didn’t see the blood and thought she was a vagabond sleeping on the streets. Kevin couldn’t believe what he heard and went to pay final respect to Law Lan at the mortuary and cried his heart out for all the innocence lost;
“I… am .. I am so sorry for what he did… if he had called the police earlier, you may not have died… I am very sorry”
He sees Tony and threatens to punch Tony and asks if Tony participated and all that but Tony was shaken as well and cried how Ruco could change so drastically, how he couldn’t let go, how he just wanted to poison the cat but never realised he could have gone so much as to see her die, etc etc. Tony then reveal their past fully to Kevin so basically Kevin knows Ruco’s background now, as a thief, smuggler, Mr Pittman and the necklace.
Back at home, Kevin confronts Ruco but wears the most patient but boiling look, that inside he is ready to scream but outside, he tries very hard to appear calm as he asked Ruco why can’t he just let go? Ruco sneered;
“Easy for you to say. She caused my misery and please don’t blame her death on me. I didn’t kill her, she fell and that was her comeuppance, a repayment for her sin to which I am absolutely not sorry”
The parents notice both brothers seem cold to each other. Kevin confronts Ruco again and again and this time Ruco smiles menacingly as he said;
“So you know about my past? Fine. There is no need to pretend anymore. I will do what I do, get my revenge, get back the necklace and then I will come home and be the dutiful son.”
Yeap, war!!!!!
And then something happened that made me question the sanity of the writers.
But first, blind owner and Vivien correctly deduces who is Ruco and his relationship with Kevin. You know what? Except for shallow Jan, everybody knows who is everybody except they have no proof.
Back to the insanity of the writers.
Jonathan is broke so he is in a tenant’s apartment to steal watch and handphone when Ruco catches him in the act and is willing to let him go. Why?
This is the insanity part.
Kevin finds a watch and a handphone in his drawers. SEE!! SEE!! Crazy!
Owner comes complaining, suggestions are made to use some tracking app, calls made and phones ring and Kevin is accused except that is his own phone and the owner finds his phone and watch back in his own place!! Ruco looks at Kevin, sneering, as if applauding how smart Kevin is. Yeah… but I weep for how idiotic this is making Ruco look!! Oh come on, if you wanna frame someone, especially someone like Kevin who doesn’t need the phone or watch, can’t you think of a better way?!
At the rooftop Kevin meets with Ruco and full of strained patience says;
“Can’t you stop now?”
And Ruco immediately goes right up to Kevin’s face and looking very threatening says;
“Once a thief, always a thief eh? Well guess what? That’s not the case. You made a wrong assumption about me. Remember, you won’t always be at the top, I will get there soon enough to displace you! Remember that!”
Ok… now is ALL OUT WAR!!!!!!!!!!
Kevin looks even more … strained.
Meanwhile, Tony sits alone in the dark park and Samantha finds him and asks him what’s wrong and Tony cries his heart out as he laments;
“I have lost him! I have lost my best friend in life! I have lost him forever!”
And he cried and cried and cried.
Poor guy.
So… the descend of Ruco and it is mighty interesting. I love the interaction between Kevin and Ruco. Ruco makes Kevin a much better actor than the other actors in this series and they play off one another very well. Kevin in particular looks strained, sounds strained, is probably strained acting wise. However, far too many times in this episode Kevin quite simply overacts. He is so deliberate, you can see he is counting himself when to move here, when to bite his lips. All very unnatural BUT this is Kevin at his best even if compared to others, he is at best mediocre. It is just too much of OTT acting for me.
Ruco is in fine form. His sudden lurch at Kevin, his sinister smile, his menacing sneers, the way he removed his glasses as he said to Kevin they need not pretend anymore. He is making Nik into quite a morally questionable character. I get his anger over Hor Yee Ku, frankly I don’t pity her. That is her comeuppance. Kevin could have the bigger heart to forgive her because he didn’t lead the life Ruco did who justifiable hates her. But it goes to a matter of character when someone wants to kill the pet of another, to strip the other of any dignity in life and to stand there to watch that someone die even if he didn’t pull the trigger so to speak, he in a way lost his innocence and anything good in him when he did just that. So Ruco isn’t wrong, legally or even morally but he is condemned. It takes an embedded badness in someone to do what he did and maybe he is beyond redemption. Yes he is getting quite disgusting but I feel for him. I also feel for Kevin of course who is trying to do everything right except he shouldn’t have said “I will not let you lead a life of crime. Don’t you dare do any crime” to which Ruco retorted what can he do? Well arrest him of course. But I don’t like how it is going. I like the strained patient Kevin but I don’t like TVB’s need for a clear moral conscience like ABSOLUTELY NO CRIME AT ALL IS JUSTIFIABLE that is exhibited by Kevin’s character. That can be quite annoying because sometimes a crime is a justifiable crime.
That is until this episode went insane with the frame up by Ruco to Kevin. What was on the writer’s mind? Already we have Shallow Jan and her ridiculous expectation, then we have stupid unnecessary subplots about her father selling the house to buy some franchise right which doesn’t fit into the story, then we have OTT reaction of Ruco’s parents sms-ing one another in chatroom like so obviously doing something and now we have this stupid scene.
Luckily Ruco and Kevin’s scenes dominated this episode and to see the warring brothers is like watching a would be epic Hindi/Tamil movie of a brother who is a cop and another a robber and in between dancing to some songs with some pretty girls with beautiful snow covered mountains as backdrop. Except with such stupidity, it may not get that epic.
And yes, I really dislike Jan who to me is half of the root of the problem. Perhaps the show should have shown Ruco as a more violent boyfriend prior to her breaking up with him but it didn’t. So we are given a shallow girl who just made all the wrong moves and broke the heart of a guy who really really likes her and is at that point, still a decent fellow. In a way Jan helps to turn Ruco into a monster he probably will be.
Except he isn’t quite yet. This series shows Ruco’s descend by killing the cat and watching Hor Yee Ku die. I feel the start of his evilness should have been killing the cat in front of Hor Yee Ku and KILLING Hor Yee Ku. Why go half bucket? Make him a super villain and there is no better disgusting super villain that one who kills pets and old people.
Which is why I said this episode is epic but not in the way it should have been. The writing is to me pretty bad at this point and doesn’t make sense. The only 2 people that keeps me from losing interest is how much more strained Kevin can look and how much more in your face Ruco can get. The rest are quite simply forgettable although Tony gave a fine performance tonight.
RELATED ARTICLES
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episodes 1 to 3
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 4
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 5
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 6
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 7
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 8
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 9
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 10
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 11
- [TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 12 and 13
This commentary is written by Funn Lim, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com and was originally posted at www.point2e.com.
tony hung has the acting range of a brick
Good to see I wasn’t the only one who questioned the sanity of the writers during that stolen phone and watch scene! Honestly, that scene made no sense to me. Didn’t Ah Lik say earlier on that he didn’t blame his parents or Szeto for what happened to him? And there was no indication prior to that stolen phone scene that Ah Lik was pissed off at his brother enough to frame him. There was a fleeting moment when I thought perhaps, just perhaps, it was actually old Mr. Kong and Hon Sun who framed Szeto, as that would make much more sense – after all, their scene was right before that scene with Jonathan and the stolen phone, plus they were actually discussing about getting rid of Szeto somehow.
I agree that the script for this series is horribly written. A lot of the things that happen make no sense , there’s too much fluff and unnecessary characters / subplots, and the main story is frustratingly messy. If it wasn’t already finale week and I had already wasted my time with 14 episodes, I probably would’ve dropped this series already. Reading the episode summaries, it doesn’t sound like this final week is going to be any better, so I guess I’ll just have to painstakingly plow through the last 6 episodes and hope that I don’t feel like killing myself at the end….lol.
Jan couldn’t accept Ruco bc she was attracted to Kevin all along. She obv slept with the one who had Kevin’s face, so it is Kevin all along that she likes. Shallow? Perhaps. But, I think it’s acceptable as to why she is so set on Kevin.
Then why accept to be rucco’s gf. she could’ve just say no
Because she was shocked and confused at the moment, I guess.
Couldn’t agree more. If Jan knew there was another “Kevin” but not the one she met, she wouldn’t have slept with him. It is the “good” Kevin in her mind who she slept with. I personally don’t think it’s just the look, it’s Jan’s emotion as well.
Even her best friend, Samatha, also says that her feelings tell her that Jan has always liked the first Kevin all along the way.
Why I say it is shallow sort of love is because she was attracted at first sight with a guy she did not interact. She later meets and interact with the other guy, same face and went through some scary moment. The intimacy came as a result of that good feeling. And then original face Kevin came back into her life and I suppose you can argue she went through some stuff with him. So maybe she fell for him then hence those pesky flashback stopped. This I understand but it is shallow in the way she handled the breakup and even worse in her expectation of starting a relationship when she knew the nature of the relationship between the 2 guys and how bitter the breakup was.
What would have been more romantic is sayyyy Jan tells Szeto she will wait until he settles his problems with Nik, that someday they will start when. But nope. She has every expectation to start now. So imagine how awkward for the brothers and how selfish her expectation.
Now imagine the other end. If she had liked the 1st Kevin all along from day one, it means for her Lik however he interacted with her didn’t matter. It’s the face that matters. Coupled with her subsequent actions, I will say Shallow Jan becomes even more shallower.
Either way this character is badly written and does not have my sympathy. Their love affair is unconvincing and the most convincing thing was what Szeto said which in real life would be the truest words;
“I don’t want him to hate me”.
Now that’s reality. Jan is still floating on clouds.
@Funn Lim:
I don’t speak Cantonese. I can only wait for these episodes to be translated into my language. So far I only watch until ep. 12. For the rest, I can only watch the pictures and guess what they say.
Based on that, you might be right about Jan’s love/interest about Kevin and Ruco. But just for my feelings, I still think that Jan is in love with Kevin because of his personality, not just the look.
I agree that the look had a great effect at first, but it changed after that. I remember in ep. 1 when Jan asked the bad Kevin why he needs her help since he’s a policeman himself, he then answered sth like “I can’t find any pretty girl in the whole police department to do this job better than you” ( sth like that coz I can understand based on what they translated into my language, not sure if it’s accurate), Jan then responded sth like “you act differently than the first time I saw you. You need to be more professional.” Then she talked to herself sth like she should not judge people too easily just based on his appearance.
It shows me that even Jan really like Kevin at first, she still doesn’t like it if he is too flirty. Thus, even she now knows the truth and the “good” Kevin now acts so distant and cold, she still goes after him.
I really hope Jan and Szeto could make a couple at the end, but I have a feeling that she probably would choose Lik a.k.a Ruco. ( I’m not an antifan of any of them, I just like them based on their characters)
jan is shallow…but she fell in love with kevin’s face from start…and she had a one night with that face…so it is hard for her to accept ruco’s new face even though she did sleep with him.
I’m confused, I’m pretty sure they never slept together because didn’t they have that one scene where they flashed back to that moment and then the table kind of collapsed and it ended there? Maybe I was watching another version perhaps with that scene added in?
Yes, you watch the right version. That’s what I watched too. I too thought they just had the emotion built up for that one night stand. But according to what Lik’s and Jan’s conversations, I guess we just have to assume that they did sleep with each other even though TVB never showed it.
Me was confused too but TVB can’t show the aftermath. So assume they did.
I should elaborate a bit on what I meant, didn’t that scene actually show her leaving? My memory is a bit hazy on it but I always assumed she had actually left the room when I commented. Didn’t they joke about if the dad was behind that picture too?
“Didn’t they joke about if the dad was behind that picture too?”
Yep, and Kevin said “it’ll be educational”. 🙂
So, I also think they did.
“(he)should have been killing the cat in front of Hor Yee Ku and KILLING Hor Yee Ku. Why go half bucket? Make him a super villain..”
I think if he killed the cat in front of Ho Yee Ku and then killed her. This is not the ah Lik that Ruco intended to act. The difference between this is he was doomed in life coz he grown up though and he is meanwhile totally lost, BUT he never intend to kill anyone. I feel that Lik does has pity, but the anger covers his original personalities. Ruco in interview said “imagine you are born in the war zone, kids would hold a gun when they are 3 and they would becomes evil just because they lack too much.
Let’s see how Lik’s character developes, hope the drama reflects some dignity for him at the end!
Ahhh that situation is not evil since war made them so BUT if the inclination to shoot is there with or without war, that’s a errr… psychopath? I want Ruco to be all out evil.Right now he is just angry, jealous, envious, scared. Fear motivates him. Anger pushed him.
I can’t help thinking about that insanely crazy cool murderous dude in that k-drama about the alien. He may be cartoonish but you know, that’s how evil should be. I shudder whenever I thought of him. I don’t know what’s the script intention was but whatever said at the start, I don’t see the resemblance of whatever said.
Perhaps Ruco wanted to portray someone in the society who with all the ‘negatives’ within him, but not evils. I dont know what the script was intended but in his interview Ruco gave me this impression that he wants to reflect some real people in the society, and he wished to act a bad role that has more a story behind rather than just a role with a typical ‘function’ to kill or something
In short Lik is no sociopath psychopath crazy or evil.
I always thought that Jen loved Kevin, at first sight on the motorbike, and thereafter. She just could not accept a new face, Ruco’s. You may call it ‘shallow’ but there it is.
Kevin had liked Ruco from the start. Since they are identical twins one could call that instinct and Kevin wasn’t going to give up on him no matter what. The whole family loved Ruco and Kevin would even sacrifice his love, Jen, to him because he said thos unforgettable words, “I don’t want to lose him!”
I find their acting convincing enough to move me. Kevin, Ruco and Tavia are really fine actors.
Actually I think he said I won’t want to hate me. More powerful and more realistic.
suffering from the same tvb problems, episodes 10-20 are always horrible, stupid plot ideas to drag out series to 30 episodes
ya so much happens in these middle episodes and then at the end everything is rushed to end the series, every show is like this, im pretty sure every drama is edited by the same people at tvb thats why they feel all the same
The plot got really stupid really quickly. Ruco’s a Lik does not deserve pity. He deceived Jan from the start to get info about that criminal dude in order to save his friend. He knew Jan thought he was someone else and he slept with her, and now he’s pissed she can’t accept him. What an idiot.
LOL
At that point he didn’t know there was another Kevin.
It doesn’t matter how you sliced and diced it, Jan is a shallow character. I’m not dissing Tavia as an actress so all you fans can calm down. It’s the writers who wrote Jan and they’re to blame. They tried to give her character depth with her father, but that just turn out annoying, unrelated, and draggy. They gave her this awesome pictorial-memory, but never did anything with it except it go one-time praise from Kevin. They made her pure, naive, kind-heart, but she turned Mary-Sue and plain ole annoying. Bottom line, writers need to check themselves and come up better character, developments, plot, dailogue, etc.