Cheese in the Trap

January 4, 2016

Hong Seol (Kim Go-eun) returns to Hankuk University after a leave of absence to find senior Yoo Jung (Park Hae-jin) — charming, perfect, apparently kind — has targeted her for reasons she cannot understand.

January 4, 2016

Hong Seol's specific suspicion of Yoo Jung — the incidents that don't quite add up.

January 11, 2016

The campus social politics — the hierarchies, the favourites, the specific cruelty of the meritocracy.

January 11, 2016

Baek In-ho (Seo Kang-joon), Yoo Jung's former friend, and his antagonistic relationship with both Yoo Jung and his growing protectiveness of Hong Seol.

January 18, 2016

The first clear evidence of Yoo Jung's calculating nature — the drama's tone shift.

January 18, 2016

The university district streets used for the drama's social life sequences — cafés, convenience stores, the ordinary spaces where the campus dramas play out.

January 25, 2016

Hong Seol's financial situation — the scholarship that makes every social complication also an economic threat.

January 25, 2016

The drama at its midpoint — the romance and the thriller in its most precarious balance.

February 1, 2016

The drama's most controversial creative decision — giving Yoo Jung a depth that complicates the thriller reading.

February 1, 2016

The drama's divergence from its source webtoon — creating its own interpretive space.

February 8, 2016

Hong Seol's growing professional and personal independence from both men.

February 8, 2016

Baek In-ho's acknowledged feelings for Hong Seol.

February 15, 2016

The campus social hierarchy's reckoning with its own toxicity.

February 15, 2016

Yoo Jung's choice — the drama's most debated narrative decision.

February 22, 2016

Hong Seol's future — separate from either man's influence.

February 22, 2016

The finale. One of 2016's most discussed dramas — for its source material, its lead actor controversy, and Kim Go-eun's nuanced performance.