Warning: This article contains spoilers.
Nine Puzzles is a mystery series that begins with Yoon E-na (Kim Da-mi), a high school student, who returns home to find her uncle dead in a pool of his own blood, along with a strange puzzle piece. 10 years later, she becomes a criminal profiler and receives more corresponding puzzle pieces linked to a string of murders. This bizarre connection drives E-na, with the help of Detective Kim Han-saem (Son Suk-ku), to uncover the truth behind the serial killings and puzzle pieces.
The premise sounds promising, and the dark scene of E-na discovering her uncle’s dead body while the rain was pouring outside the floor-to-ceiling window is visually striking, setting an eerie tone. However, everything changes once E-na grows up and becomes a criminal profiler. As a high schooler, she is a mysterious, brooding teenager, harboring many hidden thoughts and emotions. But after a time skip and she reappears as an adult, she becomes a somewhat unserious, quirky criminal profiler who seems to always know more than others do. Rather than charming and offbeat, this new persona comes off as slightly obnoxious like when she would simply breeze by others trying to solve the cases, only to later flippantly reveal later that they were following the wrong trail the whole time. It’s such a drastic change in personality, and viewers aren’t given any context for how she became this way, so it’s challenging to get onboard with this new development.
This lighthearted demeanor doesn’t help make unraveling the mystery compelling either. Conversely, the more engaging parts of the show are when things are serious. Much of this is driven by Son’s expressive performance of Detective Kim, who goes through a whole rollercoaster of emotions, as he exerts effort to chase leads, faces the prospect of betrayal, and deals with frustration and loss. Meanwhile, Yoon generally remains the same all throughout: easygoing and nonchalant, despite seeking to overcome her traumatic past, identify her uncle’s killer, and clear suspicion of her involvement with her uncle’s murder. These all contribute to why she even became a criminal profiler in the first place.
As it comes to light that the victims of these serial killings are also guilty of their own misdeeds, it becomes abundantly clear that the murderer is motivated by revenge. When all things come to a head, the show reveals the murderer’s backstory and what inspired their killing spree through a series of flashbacks. The why is interesting, but the how of executing the murders and sending the well-timed puzzle pieces feels half-baked. In an unsatisfying end, the murderer took their own life, and Yoon didn’t do much to stop it, pretended she never figured out who was responsible for all the “puzzle murders,” and then simply quit being a criminal profiler. It’s confusing why Yoon didn’t at least reveal everything to the police before quitting. Perhaps out of empathy for the killer? It didn’t quite add up, and after going on this journey with Yoon, it also didn’t feel like a good payoff either. While the show was off to a great start, Nine Puzzles struggled to keep everything together to the end.
