Jin-sang and Min-gyeong are already in the car park recording Tae-su’s men loading Han-jun and Su-cheol into a van. The detective team uses their footage to get hold of the van’s licence plate number. Jae-hui puts out a notice for the vehicle as they take off in pursuit. ..
When Tae-su’s party enters a zone with no CCTV, Han-jun taps into the camera on his glasses and forwards the feed to the detectives. A tip then points them in the direction of Jaepyeong Industrial Complex. It’s just as well because Tae-su smashes Han-jun’s glasses beneath his shoe.
Han-jun wakes up before Su-cheol. He stalls for time while trying to rouse the team’s muscle, even telling Tae-su that Aunty Im plans to dispose of him. Tae-su pays him little heed, giving his men the kill order as the detectives reach the complex.
Han-jun is a fairly useless man. He waves a stick around to ward off the men, but he’s not very good at using it. Su-cheol, the other man, wakes up and sees Han-jun on the floor and assumes that the attackers are his friends.
As we’ve come to expect, Su-cheol handles Tae-su’s men without so much as breaking a sweat. Sensing the ball leaving his court, Tae-su makes his escape.
Jae-hui follows the sounds of pain to Han-jun and Su-cheol, finding them as one of Tae-su’s men makes to stab Han-jun. She’s furious at the attempt and proceeds to give the men a second round of beatings. Han-jun watches on in awe.
The group listens to the audio recording of Myeong-jun describing his murder of Eun-hye. Han-jun advises the detectives not to arrest Tae-su before they have sufficient evidence to take down his superiors without being foiled by Aunty Im.
Jae-hui escorts Han-jun and Su-cheol back to Café Minamdang, where Hye-jun only has eyes for Su-cheol. Leaving Han-jun in shock, she fawns over Su-cheol and carts him off to the hospital.
Jae-hui stays for tea, and Han-jun gives her a free pass to look around. She comes across an old picture of Han-jun and Jae-jeong. Next to it is a figurine that she gifted Han-jun back when he first became a police officer. Both items made their way to Han-jun’s bedside after Jae-hui’s identity revelation prompted him to go looking for them.
Han-jun realises too late that he let Jae-hui explore without putting them away. He tries to snatch the figurine from her grasp, and they fall onto his bed, almost making it to their first kiss before Han-jun’s back spasms. Two more almost-kisses occur as they wait for Hye-jun to come home.
Meanwhile, Hye-jun has gone over to Su-cheol’s apartment where she confesses that she likes him and coaxes him into admitting he returns her feelings with one intense kiss after the other. ..
With Hye-jun not in any rush to go home, Jae-hui falls asleep waiting. Han-jun lets her lie on his lap. By the next morning, Hye-jun and Su-cheol return to find Jae-hui spooning Han-jun on the couch.
Han-jun realises that his best friend and colleague, Hye-jun and Su-cheol, came in together. He drills them, but they’ve already conspired to keep their secret hidden.
Detective Na has found the contact details for the real Gu Tae-su’s adoptive family. The family hasn’t spoken to him since he returned to Korea, and their relationship is strained. Meanwhile, the fake Tae-su has zero records for them to investigate. ..
Jang finds a charred photo album inside an abandoned house in the countryside. The album contains a portrait of a woman and child. Jang is able to identify the woman as the mother of the child in the photograph.
Han-jun has been charged for a restaurant bill that was put on his company card. When Hye-jun mentions the trendy eatery, Han-jun hastily insists on checking it out without the rest of the Minamdang crew. He calls Jae-hui and tells her to meet him there. ..
Jae-hui is thrilled to have a date with Han-jun. However, her feelings turn sour when Han-jun gives an excuse for his poor investigation cover. Jae-hui then gets a call from Do-won, who hears Han-jun’s voice and decides to head over to join them. ..
Do-won, a regular at the bar, noticed that Tae-su was not in attendance and asked the bartender about him. Han-jun pulled out a photo of Seung-won and Do-won excused himself, believing that Tae-su may have been involved in Seung-won’s disappearance. ..
Do-won goes to Seung-won’s office to ask if he follows the same pattern as the bartender described. When Seung-won’s secretary refuses to answer, Do-won decides to go ask his brother himself.
Han-jun and Jae-hui learn that Tae-su likely goes hunting and occupies a camping ground. Hye-jun, who planted a bug and GPS on Han-jun to avoid another abduction, has already begun mapping out camping sites that overlap with Tae-su’s movements.
Do-won marches into Seung-won’s office and bluntly asks if he gave Tae-su the order to murder Gyeong-cheol. He also guesses that Aunty Im is the woman who once made Seung-won’s dirty business disappear under their father’s orders. Do-won is disgusted, saying that that their father ruined Seung-won by cleaning up after him back them.
Do-won leaves the room, and Seung-won starts to lose his equilibrium. He rushes to dose himself with the red powder Aunty Im brought to their last meeting.
As night falls, Jae-hui comes across Tae-su’s trailer. Tae-su himself watches her through his phone from a gas station, where he purchases gasoline with his card. The purchase pops up on the other detectives’ radar, and they make their way to the gas station.
Inside Tae-su’s trailer, Jae-hui finds benzene, gopuri knots and Eun-hye’s white heels. After calling Han-jun to let him know, Jae-hui finds portraits like the one Detective Jang saw at the old arson site.
Jae-hui observes that Tae-su’s mother looked strikingly similar to Eun-hye when Tae-su locks her in the trailer. He douses it in gasoline and sets it ablaze, as she bangs on the window. ..
Han-jun sights the blaze and calls Su-cheol for backup. He finds Tae-su walking away and knocks him to the ground. When Tae-su asks Han-jun who he’ll choose, Han-jun looks up and realises that Jae-hui is in the burning trailer. Han-jun then tackles Tae-su in an effort to save Jae-hui, but is unsuccessful. ..
The epilogue shows us Eun-hye getting into an elevator with Tae-su. She smiles at him before we flash back to Tae-su’s mother, wearing white heels and beckoning him over to take their portrait pictures. We jump forward again to Detective Jang looking around the blackened house. ..
The Episode Review
The episode ended on a sour note with two big disappointments. The first was the way we left this episode. I detest female leads being used as damsel-in-distress fodder on a good day. And then Café Minamdang tried to convince me that Jae-hui, supposedly a badass detective with ghost-like fighting skills, did nothing but cry and bang weakly on the window while Tae-su set the trailer alight. Not today, writers, not today. ..
The second is Do-won and Seung-won’s relationship. I think complex and/or tortured family ties done well can be excellent narrative drivers and add emotional weight to a story. So, I was looking forward to seeing where Do-won’s confrontation with Seung-won would lead, but it was so two dimensional and predictable that all I was left with was disappointment.
Seung-won’s encounter with the detective revealed his true character - a whiny child who is easily manipulated.
While I have been rooting for Hye-jun and Su-cheol as a couple, their romantic exchange was pretty questionable where consent was concerned. ..
