Jung Kyung is one of the central characters key to the narrative in this Netflix adaptation of the manga Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki. Parasyte: The Grey depicts an original story based in Korea with its own set of characters who only mildly take inspiration from the manga. Choi Jung-kyung plays an important role in the story. Although on the side of team humanity against the Parasites, Jung-kyung initially seems more like an anti-hero hellbent on hunting down every Parasite. They say everything is fair in war, but even war has principles that must never be breached. But people leading wars often fail to see that. I won’t call Jung-kyung a typical warmonger because her intentions are driven by her own traumatic past. Even though she has her reasons why she is so merciless with the Parasites, even Choi Jung-kyung has a pretty significant character arc, which piques my interest a lot.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Is Jung-Kyung Relentlessly Hunting Down Parasites?
Jung-kyung is a special forces agent acting as the head of the anti-Parasite division of the South Korean government called Team Grey. Before this alien invasion, Choi Jung-kying was happily married, seemingly living a normal life; however, her husband was infected by a Parasite and went on a killing spree in a supermarket. Jung-kyung saw this massacre and fought him off, locking the Parasite in the freezing storage. Following this, she turned the Parasite in her husband’s body into the Hunting Dog, a tracker that Team Grey now uses to find other Parasites.
Jung-kyung’s life had changed after this incident. Of course, along with her husband, she lost the life that she once lived, and she could never go back to it. It’s only natural that she blames the Parasites for snatching this away from her. This is a major reason why she doesn’t refrain from torturing Parasites. However, the intense hatred she feels against this alien species also clouds her judgment, which can be seen in how she treats Jeong Su-in throughout the series. Jeong Su-in was a human-Parasite hybrid, but Jung-kyung was too hung up on her Parasite side. For her, Su-in is just a monster, and she is not ready to consider any other explanation. Such is the extent of her hatred toward the Parasites.
How Does Jung-Kyung Catch Su-In?
Su-in becomes suspicious of Senior Detective Cheol-min for being associated with and aiding Su-in, considering his past with her. Seeing Cheol-min hide evidence proving Su-in’s presence at Saejin Church, her suspicions further solidify. Subsequently, she asks one of her men to keep an eye on Cheol-min instead, guessing he will contact her. As expected, Cheol-min does end up meeting Su-in and Kang-woo at an abandoned amusement park. Meanwhile, Jung-kyung catches wind of this and tracks down Cheol-min’s location, and after a brief fight, captures the mutant.
Why Did Jung-Kyung Turn Her Husband Into The Hunting Dog?
When Kang Won-seok kills the parasite who was Jung-kyung’s husband, she plans to make Su-in the next Hunting Dog. Although her husband had become a Parasite, Jung-kyung is compelled to grieve her husband. In this scene it becomes apparent that she had been grieving the whole time. She had become a ruthless person against these aliens because of what they did to her husband, but she had somewhere hoped that there would be a way to save him. She was in love with the person to whom this body belonged, and when she sees the lifeless body of her husband, she can’t help but come to terms with the fact that he is actually gone now. Even though the parasite inside her husband was Team Grey’s Hunting Dog, for Jung-kyung, it was as if she was in denial of losing her lover forever.
Why Does Jung-Kyung Change Her Mind About Su-In?
Jung-kyung had been adamant about hunting down Su-in, despite several attempts by Cheol-min to make her understand. Even her superiors, the ministers of the South Korean government, question her ruthless methods while keeping Su-in in their custody. However, through the events of the series, it is Su-in’s own attempts to talk to her that finally reform her opinions about Su-in being a human-Parasyte mutant friendly to the human cause.
In the final fight that unfolds at the end of the series, in a standoff between Heidi and the Pastor, Jung-kyung points her gun at Su-in, thinking the Pastor is actually Won-seok. However, she spots the reflection of the hollow behind Won-seok’s head and realizes it’s actually the Pastor. While Heidi kills the Parasite, Jung-kyung kills the body. As the Team Grey personnel enter the scene and arrest Su-in, Jung-kyung steps in and declares her to be a normal human. Jung-kyung saw the life-threatening risks Su-in and Heidi took to save other people, despite being targeted by both humans and the Parasites. Su-in was even ready to sacrifice herself, and Jung-kyung couldn’t help but acknowledge that Su-in, like herself, was a victim of circumstances as well. Su-in never wanted to be a mutant, like Jung-kyung never wanted to lose her husband.
What To Expect Of Jung-Kyung In Season 2?
Jung-kyung, like Kang-woo, has reinvented herself by the end of the season. Not only does she acknowledge Su-in’s humanity, but she also recruits her to work for Team Grey, realizing that Su-in will prove an important asset to Team Humanity. In the final scene, she meets the protagonist of the anime, Shinichi Izumi, hinting at the countless possibilities that Jung-kyung will be presented with in the future. With Shinichi, Kang-woo, and Su-in on her team, she will make humanity’s last stand against the Parasite invaders. Moreover, now that she has changed her opinions about Parasites, when the time comes when Parasites become docile towards humans, she might be another one of the humans who will stop this war.
