Apartment 404 Episode 5 Recap and Review: BLACKPINK’s Jennie and Others Solve the Mind-Boggling Case of 1991

Apartment 404 Episode 5 Recap and Review: The new variety show stars BLACKPINK’s Jennie, Yoo Jae-suk, Oh Na-ra, and Yang Se-chan as well as Moving stars Cha Tae-hyun and Lee Jung-ha. The 8-episode series follows these 6 members through various mysteries in a large apartment complex. They are given reenactments of real-life incidents and through games, they solve the mysteries. With 6 of them split into two teams, they use each other to carry out their mission and the result is only one of them can win! 

– Apartment 404 Episode 5 Review Contains Spoilers –

Apartment 404 Episode 5 Recap 

We are taken back to 1991 with each member representing that time with their clothes resembling the popular singers of the time. They reach the apartment directly and the resident representative calls them to clean the shared hallway. In the 1990s, the residents would clean the building together. 

The representative offers them coffee but the other residents drink it all. As she goes to make some more, the ones who drank the coffee collapse, experiencing a seizure. Shocked at the incident in front of them, they begin their mission. Two detectives take the representative to the station as the report shows that the residents collapsed due to the coffee. 

The cast immediately suspect the representative as well as one resident who refused the coffee earlier. They enter her apartment and immediately find many things that don’t sit right. There are many premium water bottles, cosmetics and flyers for door-to-door sales. They deduce that she is selling items illegally from her house. 

They see a video that shows them the different things happening in 1991, from a public service announcement to a case where a person poisons the yoghurt drinks in a resident complex. The clues are related to luxury items, greed, bribes and the disharmony between classes of society. With these clues in mind, they go on to search the apartment even more. 

They play the first game where they must find an item with the same colour or the same letter as the chosen ones on the dice. They split with BLACKPINK’s Jennie, Cha Tae-hyun and Yoo Jae-suk in one team and Oh Na-ra, Yang Se-chan and Lee Jung-ha in the other. Jennie elicits laughter with her quick thinking and light kicks to stop Se-chan. The set erupts in laughter as Jennie’s team wins all three rounds. They win a clue and some delicious lunch. Both the teams go into separate apartments and the winning team is quickly able to deduce that the case revolves around bottled water. 

In the 1970s, the country began creating bottled water for foreign athletes during the Olympics. The Koreans at the time would only drink tap water, which was boiled. In the 1990s, the benefits of clean drinking water and mineral water became widespread, leading many Koreans to try and buy bottled water. However, the government saw that many were illegally selling it from their homes and put a stop to it. This made bottled water extremely rare and considered a luxury item. 

The other team also find clues in the representative’s house and deduces the crux of the case of the episode. As the cast gathers to discuss the connection between water and the hospitalised residents, the detective comes in to share some news. He tells them that residents also have peculiar blue rashes on them, which is the reaction of the toxin used in the coffee. He also confirms that the representative is not the culprit and rather someone else tampered with the coffee. 

He also says that there will be a police car in front of the apartment and whoever puts the culprit’s belongings in the car by 5 PM, will be declared as the winner of the game. Bearing that in mind, the cast goes on to search the apartment when the light goes off and blue lights come on. They are quick to discover that they are covered in blue rashes as well, from drinking the barley tea and the soup in the representative’s house. 

The security guard and recurring character in the series, Woo-il, calls them to the senior centre where they play yet another game called ‘Liar Mafia’. With two rounds of hilarious play, Jennie’s team wins the second clue as well. The other team also get a clue but it becomes harder for them to deduce the culprit.

In the midst of it all, Jae-seok’s shoelaces disappear, making the cast laugh at his frustrated reaction. The teams return to the apartment and the winning team’s second clue has a word jumbled on the tape. As they watch the tape, Jae-seok’s 1991 comedy skit comes on where he makes light of a current topic. Turns out, the toxin is Phenol. 

Due to phenol being leaked into the reservoir of the Nakdong River, causing the smelly toxin to leak into tap water. The boiled barley tea, the kalguksu and the coffee, made with tap water, are laced with phenol, causing the blue rashes on the cast. 

In 1991, the company responsible for the incident attempted to cover up the incident using an insider. The insider instigated Person A to blame the representative as she sold bottled water illegally from her apartment. 

The other clue is the ‘clubs’ sign which littered the apartment with things like light aeroplanes, a sketch of green trees and rain, a poster of Korean beef as well as the controls on an old TV. Jae-seok and Na-ra think it all points to Jung-ha and they scram to take an item from him. Jae-seok runs to the police car and throws Jung-ha’s belongings. The announcer tells him that he is wrong, causing a loud reaction from the rest of the cast. 

With only one chance left, Se-chan quickly tells them the right answer – the security guard, Woo-il. With the correct answer, the team run to find him with only 15 minutes left on the clock. Woo-il hides and sprints from them but Na-ra and Jae-seok are quick to find him. Jae-seok pulls the cap off him and beelines for the car. 

With a few seconds to spare, he makes it – making him the sole winner of the game. Se-chan remains gob-smacked at Jae-seok’s behaviour and the rest of the team laugh at his funny antics. 

Apartment 404 Episode 5 Review 

The series continues to improve with each episode, as the cast bonds and becomes more comfortable with each other. Jennie and Jae-seok stood out in this episode as they use their quick-thinking skills to deduce situations while Se-chan proves to be a hilarious entertainer with his antics. 

Jung-ha continues to be the clueless and cute member of the cast with his wrong deductions and distracted actions. Na-ra and Tae-hyun blended into the background more in this episode but they still showed their variety show skills with their one-liners. We hope to see them shine more in the coming episodes. 

Apartment 404 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Also Read: All of Our Apartment 404 Reviews