‘Happiness’ episode 7: Han Tae Seok kidnaps Sae Beom in Yi Hyun’s absence

In Happiness episode 7, Han Tae Seok is desperate to find a cure for the disease that has begun to spread rapidly in the city. It was no longer contained within the apartment complex that Sae Beom (Han Hyo Joo) and Yi Hyun (Park Hyung Sik) lived in.

The man who owned the pharmaceutical company that Tae Seok worked for, and the one that produced the drug called Next is unhappy with how quickly the disease progressed. He did not want people who were infected to be given any leeway and he did not care about hurting innocent people in the process of smoking out the infected ones either.

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What dangers do Sae Beom and Yi Hyun have to face in 'Happiness'?

One of the steps that he wanted to take in Happiness was to cut off electricity and water in places where the infection had spread rapidly, to ensure that individuals who were affected would turn up dead and stop causing further spread of the virus.

This is ironic because this rich man is also infected and is kept at an unnamed location. He is guarded 24/7 and is also chained to ensure that he doesn’t hurt people around him. Yet, this man believed that he deserved to be treated differently than the common man who was infected, simply because he could afford it.

It all came down to the class that he belonged to in Happiness. The show repeatedly drew a comparison between the lives of the upper class people and the middle class people through different narratives, and this further stressed the disparity in living conditions of both.

As renters in the apartment, Sae Beom and Yi Hyun belonged to the section of society that was most affected by Happiness. They were repeatedly discriminated against in the apartment, and now, their safety and security was also not paid any attention to.

In addition to the dangers posed by an unfeeling rich man who influenced the moves made by the government in Happiness, Sae Beom and Yi Hyun also had to deal with the stupidity of certain apartment residents. For instance, the young man who lived in 302 opened the door on the first floor to retrieve his phone.

He was obsessed with uploading videos on YouTube to earn money and he was ready to go to any extent for the same. He also hired one of the employees stranded in the apartment to step out and pick up the phone in Happiness. The two of them let infected people into the building, and this resulted in another resident getting bitten as well.

In addition to this, other residents in the apartment also had personal agendas and refused to come together to face the situation. At this time, the gym trainer who was infected and cuffed inside a room was freed by a naive and scared resident. He almost infected Yi Hyun, but fortunately Han Tae Seok appeared on time and shot him to death.

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Han Tae Seok's hidden intentions in Happiness

Yi Hyun and Sae Beom were not happy with this, but they let go of it to deal with an important question in Happiness. What was the situation like outside?

Han Tae Seok fools Yi Hyun and Sae Beom, manipulating them into believing that he had come into the apartment full of infected people to give them an update and talk to the little girl who stayed there. He claimed that the little girl’s mother was not infected and missed her daughter.

He said that he would like to take her out of the apartment and to her mother. However, Seo Yoon’s instinct proved right. His intention was to take Sae Beom away from the apartment and keep her closer to the facility where the other infected individuals stayed to continually run tests on her.

The team in Happiness learned from her first blood sample that her body had a presence of the antibody to the virus that was changing humans into bloodthirsty zombies. Han Tae Seok wanted to run more tests to figure out if she could be the answer to their prayers for a cure. Instead of telling her the truth, Han Tae Seok decided to kidnap her.

He isolated her from Yi Hyun and the others in Happiness, tranquilized her to take her along. However, Yi Hyun was too sharp and he managed to catch hold of Han Tae Seok on time. Sae Beom was also not one to lose and she somehow managed to fight the effects of the tranquilizer.

That was how, instead of being imprisoned in a facility, Sae Beom was free to leave after handing over another sample of her blood in Happiness. Is she really the answer or will the virus attack her at an unexpected moment?