We have achieved kissage already by episode 5! In an action thriller drama? Who would’ve thunk it. And it’s not even either set of OTPs I had previously mapped out in my head (Pi Zi-Xi Ying or Ying Xiong-Chen Ling). It feels so illicit and hot, this OTP musical chairs we’re suddenly witnessing. The kiss was so unexpected I think I stopped breathing for a moment.

In fact, more than one scene in episode 5 of Black & White made me gasp out loud and then go “omo omo omo, what the hell is happening.” And in case it’s not clear, that kind of reaction is a very good thing to have with dramas like B&W. You might be tempted to start speculating and trying to guess all the twists and turns, but it’s much more satisfying to enjoy the ride rather than craning your neck trying to look around the next bend.

Action 5 recap:

Pi Zi runs out of that club and chases after a girl he glimpses outside the window peering in. Chen Ling and Ying Xiong are left at the club. She asks if Pi Zi is always like this? Ying Xiong confesses that he actually doesn’t know Pi Zi all that well. What to do about the alcohol left then, Chen Ling wonders. Ying Xiong suggests, in his awkward way, that they can go finish it. Chen Ling says sure and they walk back into the club, but she turns and looks around one more time.

Pi Zi walks past a building and stops to stare at his reflection in the glass. He holds his face, and then touches his reflection in the glass, all with this look of pain. Pi Zi goes back to the North Precinct and has Gao Yi brought out for interrogation.

Pi Zi asks Gao Yi why Gao Yi said that he knew him? Gao Yi laughs and says that he remembers Pi Zi, but Pi Zi doesn’t remember him. That feeling sucks, doesn’t it? Gao Yi repeats what he said to Pi Zi earlier “you changed a face, are you happy now?” Pi Zi whips out his gun and points it at Gao Yi, screaming to know who Gao Yi really is and how he knows about Pi Zi’s situation.

He grabs Gao Yi and demands to be told who transformed Pi Zi into who he is today. Gao Yi says that he’ll be locked up for life as a drug dealer, but he if accidentally tells Pi Zi something today, perhaps he’ll only have one hour to live. Pi Zi is frustrated that he can’t get any answers from Gao Yi.

It’s Winter time in Harbor City. Someone lives under a pedestrian bridge, rummaging through trash cans for garbage to scrape out some food. The title card reads: three years ago, under the pedestrian bridge at Pier #7. The homeless man stands before a McDonald’s and looks inside at the people eating the food. OMFG, it’s Pi Zi, and it’s NOT Pi Zi. His face is different, grotesque and bruised.

He goes into the McDonald’s and grabs the first customer and whips out a knife. He says it’s a robbery and he’ll kill someone. A girl (the girl he saw outside the club) calmly tells him to let her know what he wants. Is he hungry? Suddenly Pi Zi flashes back through many quick scenes until we’re back in the present, and he’s sitting in his darkened room staring at that girl’s picture.

Ying Xiong and Chen Ling are walking home, laughing about how it’s really impossible for them to finish five cases of beer. Chen Ling thinks Pi Zi took off so he didn’t have to pay, and reminds Ying Xiong to get money back from him tomorrow. Ying Xiong says the one thing Pi Zi doesn’t appear to lack is money. Chen Ling says next time Pi Zi has to make it up to them.

Chen Ling asks Ying Xiong to invite the girl who came today to the next getogether. Ying Xiong doesn’t say anything. They arrive at Chen Ling’s apartment and she thanks him for walking her home. They are soooo cute together. She stops and turns back, telling Ying Xiong that when her mom was alive, it was the happiest time of her life. Her father had just started the San Lian Gang and was always busy. So her mom would piggyback her and they would go look for her father to get some face time with him.

When Chen Ling is talking, Ying Xiong just looks at her with this amazing expression of tenderness. When they found her dad, he would piggyback her up and down the stairs and she would be happy. They would go home and she would be happy about the next time she got to spend time with her dad climbing stairs. She thinks that the Dreamer in her make her feel something more.

Today when Ying Xiong piggybacked her out of the train compartment, his back made her remember her parents and the feeling of that happiest time of her life. The feeling of Ying Xiong’s back reminded her of her father’s back. When Chen Ling is thanking him, Ying Xiong’s face completely freezes but he doesn’t say anything. She says goodnight and goes in.

A girl storms out of the house, and we see that it’s Lin Ke Le, daughter of the North Precinct Police Chief and the girl who slept with Pi Zi at the beginning of the drama. She is crying and ignoring a call.

Pi Zi arrives at work all happy and excited. Hulk sees Pi Zi and gives him a smirk. In fact, everyone walking by Pi Zi gives him a look. Lao Li tells Pi Zi that a friend is here looking for him. Hulk walks up and says it’s a goddess, who appears to be in a bad mood and has been waiting for Pi Zi since 8 this morning. Once Pi Zi is told that the girl waiting for him is Lin Ke Le, he rushes up to the roof to meet her.

He finds Ke Le standing on the roof looking out onto the city. He asks her why she didn’t tell him beforehand if she was coming. He wants to give her a hug but she tells him not to joke around. She has something important to talk to him about. He asks what? She says yesterday she heard…….which is when she gets a bullet to the head. Shit, my mouth drops everytime I see this scene.

Pi Zi immediately dives down and then looks around. He scoots over to Ke Le but it’s too late. We see a long range rifle scope trained on Pi Zi, and a voice says in English “one target has been eliminated, there is another target, what is my move?” Another officer comes up and Pi Zi yells at her to go get some help.

The roof is cordoned off as a crime scene and Lan Xi Ying and her team are collecting the evidence. Ying Xiong has Pi Zi in an interrogation room and is told that Pi Zi will be considered a suspect until the evidence is collected. Pi Zi says that he didn’t do anything. Ying Xiong says that the killer is truly ballsy to dare to kill someone on the roof of the police precinct. Ying Xiong tells Pi Zi that he will find the evidence to prove Pi Zi didn’t do anything. Pi Zi says this is the first time he feels that Ying Xiong treats him as his partner. Ying Xiong says he simply wants to catch the killer.

The Police Chiefs of the North and South Precinct are escorted up to the roof under heavy protection. Chief Lin takes a deep breath before walking over towards her daughter’s body. She bends down and lifts the white cloth and sees her dead daughter. She breaks down and starts sobbing, with everyone looking on in solidarity. Lan Xi Ying asks if she can remove the bullet from Lin Ke Le’s body for further testing.

Captain Huang from the North Precinct storms into the interrogation room and demands that Pi Zi be brought back to the North Precinct for investigation. Captain Chen says that Pi Zi belongs to their squad and the crime happened in their jurisdiction, so he stays. Lao Li explains that the preliminary analysis was that Lin Ke Le was killed by a long range weapon, so Pi Zi cannot have been the killer.

Ying Xiong steps forward and says that they will investigate fairly and thoroughly. The two squads start to bicker until the two Police Chiefs arrive. Chief Lin asks to interrogate Pi Zi here if they won’t let him be taken to the North Precinct. Lao Li stays because he was at the precinct when Lin Ke Le arrived that morning.

The two Captains take their argument outside. Captain Huang says he’ll remember this opposition, whereas Captain Chen thinks Lin Ke Le’s death was clearly someone sending a message to the Chief of the North Precinct, and the South Precinct just randomly got embroiled in it. These two dudes posturing is so hilarious. Captain Huang smirks and says that he knows a new intelligence bureau is about to be formed and the Chief of the South Precinct is a frontrunner for the head job. So the Chief spot will open up, and of course Captain Chen wants it, right?

Chief Lin walks over to Pi Zi and asks why Ke Le came to meet him this morning. Pi Zi says he has no clue. He arrived at the office in the morning and was told Ke Le was here and waiting for him on the roof. So he ran to the roof to meet her. Ke Le said that she wanted to tell him something important, but before she could say it, suddenly a shot rang out and bam, Ke Le was shot in the head just like that.

Chief Lin grabs her gun and points it at Pi Zi. He asks her to believe him. She screams, wanting to know if Ke Le told him anything, and whether they agreed to meet today. Pi Zi screams that she didn’t say anything before she got offed and he hasn’t seen her for quite a long time. Lao Li explains that Ke Le arrived early and went up to the roof to wait for Pi Zi.

Lao Li says that went Ke Le arrived this morning, she was very upset and her make up was mussed. She took a cup of coffee but held it in silence, seemingly in a daze. It appeared that she didn’t go home last night. Lao Li says that such an accurate long distance kill cannot have been the work of any ordinary person.

Lan Xi Ying tells Ying Xiong that the forensics show that the bullet was fired from far away and was thus lodged deeply in the brain, so Pi Zi could not have killed Ke Le and they’ve ruled him out as a suspect. She is about to walk away when Ying Xiong calls her back and explains that he was just surprised to see her at the club yesterday because he knows she doesn’t drink.

He tries to explain that Chen Ling grew up in the gang without any friends, but Xi Ying tells him there is no need to explain. Ying Xiong tells Xi Ying that she is a very important friend to him. She says she understands, and he is also her very important friend. She walks away and Ying Xiong looks horribly uncomfortable.

Ying Xiong brings Pi Zi some food and tells him that he will be released in about half an hour. Pi Zi is starving and wolfs down the food. Ying Xiong says that Pi Zi has been ruled out as a suspect and is now the eye witness. Ying Xiong asks if Pi Zi didn’t think Chief Lin was really odd when she was interrogating Pi Zi.

Chief Lin is in a parked car in a remote area screaming into the phone, demanding to know how they could do this to her. She says that Ke Le didn’t know anything or do anything, how could they hurt her? She then gets really frantic and says they can’t do this. Because of this, she’s already….. She says that she won’t back out now. The call ends and Chief Lin just painfully sobs her guts out in her car.

Pi Zi walks to his car and gets a text on his phone that his bank account is overdrawn and his credit card payment can’t be paid. He holds up the phone and yells out to no one in particular, saying that if “they” want him to be a cop, then don’t let him deal with such shit. He tells an unknown entity to hurry up and pay his bills. Pi Zi then points again and demands that the killer also be found.

Hulk hears and sees this. He takes out his cell phone and points it up in the air and scream out that next week he wants to buy a certain limited edition comic book. he also wants a convertible like Pi Zi. And Xiao Lu, his fellow cop, will love him forever and ever. LOL. Pi Zi pokes his head out the window and wonders if Hulk was also found by “them”?

Pi Zi goes to the CSI lab and gives Xi Ying a new cup that she can drink beverages out of in the future so as to not mix up liquids she keeps in the fridge. Suddenly Xi Ying stares at Pi Zi’s face really closely, noting that his facial structure and lines are almost perfect. Pi Zi tries to lean in and mack on Yi Xing when he’s restrained from behind by Ying Xiong, who says he’s got more clues.

The three of them head outside and climb up on the roof of a nearby building. Ying Xiong has checked out all the nearby buildings and this is the most likely place the shooter could have been standing. It’s quite far from the South Precinct, but the direction is correct. The distance is so far that only a trained sharp shooter could shoot from this far. And with the wind blowing towards the precinct, this would be the better direction to shoot from.

Xi Ying looks at the rusty barriers and notices a new mark, which is likely where the shooter rested his gun to aim. She takes a picture and also explains that the bullet extracted from Ke Le’s brain was a bullet that is used for a standard automatic weapon, and not a custom long range rifle. They remark about how extraordinary the shooter’s skill must be to shoot from this distance using a regular automatic and still kill Ke Le with a bullet to the head.

Hulks is asked to get a list of people who have recently won sharp shooting competitions. Pi Zi sits down and the female officer Xiao Lu asks why he was at a club with Chen Ling the other day. Pi Zi explains it was to celebrate his getting exonerated (for having Dreamer in is blood).

He wonders how she happened to see him? Xiao Lu says she walks by that route everyday on her way home. Suddenly Pi Zi has an epiphany that He Xiao Mei (the girl he is looking for) might take that route every day as well. He runs out of the office and we see him staking out that area. He wonders just where the heck she is?

Pi Zi closes his eyes and asks God to please have his goddess magically appear before him right now. Which is when Chen Ling walks up asking what the heck he’s doing, and Pi Zi says “nope, it’s not this voice.” Pi Zi opens his eyes and sees Chen Ling and has a little freak out. He asks why it’s her? She sees his convertible and gets in it, telling him that she just drank and can’t drive. So he might as well take her home.

He tries to get her out of the car and she wonders if he’s waiting for someone? Pi Zi says he was just driving past and decided to stop for a break. Chen Ling asks why Pi Zi left the other day and didn’t come back. They waiting for him for so long. Did he see a pretty girl and ran after her? She asks if he found that girl? Pi Zi just stares at her and doesn’t say anything.

Chen Ling finally shuts up and thinks she’s blabbering probably because she drank too much. She tries to get out of the car but he stops her, saying he’ll take her home. Chen Ling gets out of the car and tells Pi Zi to leave, but her skirt is caught on the car door. Once he drives off, her skirt gets ripped, and a passing car happens to spray water all over her.

Pi Zi drives her and laughs at her shitty luck. He takes her back to his place and she borrows his clothes and runs off to change. She warns him not to dare peek or else he’s dead. Pi Zi just giggles in his usual way and then runs around and clean up the room. Chen Ling comes out to find him preparing two drinks at the bar. She takes her drink and wanders around his place, impressed with how nice it is.

Pi Zi says that the view from outside is even better. She walks over to the bookshelf and sees the picture of He Xiao Me. He tries to get it back but she dodges him and says that she just wants to take a look and not to be so petty. Finally he grabs her until she agrees to return it. He lets her down and she bites him. She says that is for daring to carry her.

Pi Zi mutters that it wasn’t the first time. He goes to put the picture back and Chen Ling demands to know what he meant by what he just said. Pi Zi says it was nothing. Chen Ling keeps dogging him, demanding to know what he said about this not being the first time. She blocks his path and says that she won’t leave until he tells her.

Pi Zi says fine, she can stay here all night if she wants. Chen Ling gets pissed and tries to back flip Pi Zi. He restrains her, and in their struggle, Pi Zi grabs Chen Ling for a kiss to keep her from struggling further.

Thoughts of Mine:

Wow, that is a lot to get my mind around. So Pi Zi was once a homeless dude living under a bridge, who almost become a criminal to steal some burgers on Christmas Eve? And his goddess He Xiao Mei was just a McDonald’s employee who was likely kind to him, and this he has never forgotten her. Pi Zi no longer seems so douchey and shallow, and it’s almost like the writers just added a second character and merged it with his. No wonder sometimes Pi Zi feels slightly bipolar – twitchy and flirty one moment, serious and thoughtful the next.

I knew there was more to Pi Zi than meets the eye (and likely true of all the major characters), but I don’t think anyone could have guessed the truth was that….he’s as much in the dark as we are as to how a guy like him could have become a cop. I like that about this story, that we are uncovering the clues along with the characters as they solve both their personal and professional mysteries.

Lin Ke Le’s dead and Chief Lin’s likely complicity in some serious shady matters was introduced and executed perfectly. Without warning and no sentiment. I love how B&W does character and plot reveals, in a very calculated fashion so that you only learn things when it’s time to find out. Unlike K-drams which tend to foreshadow the shit out of the story, B&W has this far done none of that. I’m surprised at every single plot point thus far.

Not sure what the kiss between Pi Zi and Chen Ling will lead it, however hot it was to watch. Ying Xiong will likely come clean with Chen Ling soon about the mistaken piggybacking, and who knows where her heart lies. I find the chemistry just wonderful between all four leads, in any incarnation, especially with Pi Zi and Ying Xiong. I love how he still refuses to admit he cares about Pi Zi, when we all know he’s already pretty far gone and the bromance is starting to take off.