Punch: Episode 13

by HeadsNo2

This episode will make you want to punch the screen, but not in the way you’ve likely wanted to physically harm other drama characters before. It’s infuriating for all the right reasons, weaving a narrative so fraught with tension that there’s no way to watch without feeling a righteous surge of anger when Jung-hwan gets taken to school by human-shaped monsters. It’s a battle of wits and wills, but when one’s wits and will is evenly matched with their opponent’s, no victory is ever assured.

Ratings-wise, Punch saw some higher numbers and managed to stay on top this week with 12.2%. Shine or Go Crazy is experiencing a much faster increase and got close behind with 10.2%, while Healer remained in third with 8.9%.

SONG OF THE DAY

Na Yoon-kwon – “나윤권 (If Only)” [ Download ]

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EPISODE 13 RECAP

Even amidst the whirlwind of media coverage surrounding Minister Yoon the day before her confirmation hearing, she makes sure to get all the details from Ho-sung regarding his search and seizure of all Dr. Mechanic’s possessions. She wants to make sure his father left nothing behind regarding the enlistment fraud case.

She has to smile and act upright for the cameras, hypocritically promising that she’ll hide nothing during her hearing. Only when she’s safely in her car does she call Ho-sung to tell him to meet with Dr. Mechanic in person and bring her anything regarding the enlistment case if he has it.

When Ho-sung notes how much she’s changed, Minister Yoon replies without losing her camera-ready smile, “I have to change in order to change the world.” You just keep telling yourself that.

But all isn’t lost for Jung-hwan, since Dr. Mechanic calls him to say that his father left behind a dossier listing all the people he wrote false diagnoses for in order to get them out of conscription.

Jung-hwan darts out the door to get to his shop, but Ho-sung beats him to the punch after overhearing the phone conversation. With a menacing air, he asks to be given the information promised to Jung-hwan.

Ye-rin calls her mother to tell her she’s changed her dream job from idol/ballerina to prosecutor, and that she and her crush are going to sign up for a program to become “honorary” prosecutors on the official office website.

Ha-kyung realizes belatedly that Ye-rin might see news articles about her father there, but not in time to stop Ye-rin from curiously clicking on a headline blaring that her father has two months left to live.

“Ye-rin-ah?” Ha-kyung asks uncertainly, knowing what’s happened when there’s silence on the other end. Ye-rin slowly puts down the phone as she reads the article, her initial shock giving way to tears. Oh no.

By the time Jung-hwan reaches the mechanic shop, he finds it looking like it’s just been robbed. He calls Dr. Mechanic knowing he’s with Ho-sung, unsurprised to hear that Ho-sung offered to give him back his medical license and place him in a prestigious hospital for the dossier.

“I have nothing to offer you,” Jung-hwan says. He doesn’t have the time to outdo Ho-sung’s offer, nor is he willing to give his blessings for Dr. Mechanic to date his sister just to save his own skin.

The only thing he can appeal to is Dr. Mechanic’s sense of decency, countering Ho-sung’s claim that the dossier was left behind by his father to give him a new lease on life by asking him if he wants to disappoint his father’s memory by ending up just like him. Will he do the right thing or opt for a secure future?

After a pause, Dr. Mechanic tells Jung-hwan to look to a framed poem by Robert Frost on the wall—the data is in the frame. To Ho-sung, Dr. Mechanic explains that he’d rather spend the rest of his life smelling gasoline than blood in a hospital.

Jung-hwan finds pages and pages of incriminating documents in the frame, with Lee Sang-yoon’s name included among the list of people who received false diagnoses.

He’s eager to tell Ha-kyung about what he found, but she calls with some sobering news: Ye-rin found out about his tumor and is understandably inconsolable.

Tae-joon has been doing his best to pave the way for Minister Yoon’s confirmation hearing to go off without a hitch, but hints that he wouldn’t exactly be opposed to taking her position as Minister of Justice when she moves up to Prime Minister.

But she’s not in the mood to humor him after she gets a call from Ho-sung telling her about the documents Jung-hwan got ahold of. She’s worried that all her carefully laid plans will go to hell in a hand basket if her son’s enlistment fraud is revealed during her confirmation hearing tomorrow.

At least she knows enough to realize that targeting Jung-hwan would be useless when he’s got one foot in the afterlife already, causing Ho-sung to list his family members, all of which are squeaky clean.

It’s when he mentions that Jung-hwan’s daughter was accepted to a prestigious international school that Minister Yoon finds something to latch on to. “Was his daughter’s name Ye-rin?” she asks. Uh oh.

Speaking of, Jung-hwan returns home to the sound of Ye-rin’s sobs. She grabs onto him the second she sees him and tearfully begs him to promise her that he won’t die, because that way he’s sure to live—he never breaks his promises to her.

He can’t make that promise, but he does promise to spend the time he has left with her. He’ll watch every sunrise and sunset with her and teach her how to ride a bicycle, that way she’ll always remember him whenever she rides one.

The only thing he asks for is one more week for him to finish his work, and then he’ll devote all his time to her. “What if I miss you?” Ye-rin cries. Jung-hwan’s expression falters as he tries to stay strong for her: “I’ll be watching you. I won’t be able to talk to you or hold you… but I will always be watching my Ye-rin.” Oh god. I can barely see through these tears.

Jung-hwan should know something’s up from the way Ho-sung grins at him before his meeting with Minister Yoon, but it doesn’t stop him from factually informing her about the detailed transaction her mother-in-law made to get her son out of military service.

Minister Yoon mentions that Jung-hwan will be leaving the world and Ye-rin will remain, which I’m guessing is only the beginning of where she’s about to go with this, but Jung-hwan replies, “You acted like a princess in the world I live in. I can’t let you become a queen in the world my child will live in.”

Even though he could just take the enlistment fraud case to the media and get rid of her, he’s giving her a choice: she can go down alone, or expose the NIS chip and at least take Tae-joon down with her. Isn’t that what she always promised to do anyway?

Minister Yoon is unfazed as she presents Jung-hwan with another choice. She has proof in her hands that he suspended an embezzlement case for the president of the international elementary school Ye-rin got accepted to shortly after (despite the fact that Ha-kyung already decided she wouldn’t be going there).

At the time, even Ha-kyung had asked if he made some sort of deal, and now he’s being threatened with it. Minister Yoon throws back the same intonation and words Jung-hwan just used to threaten her back at him with a smirk.

It’s his choice to make—if he doesn’t go public with the enlistment case, she won’t go public with news that would shatter his daughter’s world. Especially when he won’t be around to protect her. Ouch.

Minister Yoon’s confirmation hearing is able to go off without a hitch, and Ha-kyung bursts into his office after figuring out what happened. She’s gritting her teeth with anger, but Jung-hwan calmly tells her to defer punishment for later. Right now, they have to think of Ye-rin.

Luckily he already took care of deleting the admission files from the school, which leaves Minister Yoon as the only person with any evidence. As for finding a way to get into her home safe and get rid of them, Jung-hwan claims he has a plan—he won’t leave this world without making sure they have no way to harm his daughter.

His plan involves Tae-joon, since he approaches him by saying that he used to be the one in the palanquin but now carries Minister Yoon’s. “I’ll also carry your coffin,” Tae-joon retorts.

At least he hears out Jung-hwan’s proposal to remove the leash Minister Yoon has on him, as long as they work together to bring her down. Even though freeing Tae-joon could be bad for him, Jung-hwan is willing to make that sacrifice for now in the service of the only common goal they share.

He’s planned for news of Minister Yoon’s son’s enlistment fraud case to break the morning after her inauguration as Prime Minister, and needs Tae-joon’s cooperation to organize an immediate search and seizure of her house and office. That way, she won’t have time to move the documents he needs from her safe.

When Tae-joon expresses doubt in his ability to get a search and seizure warrant just like that, Jung-hwan calmly replies that he’s welcome to keep carrying Minister Yoon’s palanquin for the rest of his life. Since that’s not what Tae-joon wants, they agree to join forces. Temporarily.

The next morning, Minister Yoon practically runs to the office where Jung-hwan and two other prosecutors are holding her son on suspicion of enlistment fraud. She’s quick to threaten him with his daughter, but is stunned into silence when Jung-hwan flips on the TV, where news about her son is already breaking.

That’s also how she finds out the search and seizure going on at her home and office, thanks to Tae-joon coercing (to put it mildly) the Chief of Staff into granting the warrant.

The search team, headed by Ha-kyung and Detective Oh, finds both the NIS chip and the incriminating admission documents with ease. I absolutely love the look Ha-kyung shoots one of the many press cameras with the folder in hand, meant for Jung-hwan to be sure that she got what they needed.

Now that he’s taken away Minister Yoon’s barganing chip, her only recourse is to try and evoke pity from him. She’ll step down in order to stop the investigation against her son.

But the room they’re in is the exact same one where, seven years ago, Minister Yoon had coldly thrown him to the police. Standing in the same spot she once did, Jung-hwan parrots the words she said back then with a few changes, but one part stays the same: “We abide by the law. The law is equal to me… and to you.”

Minister Yoon can only sink down into a chair when her son is escorted out, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

She tries turning to Tae-joon for help, only to realize that he had a hand in her son’s current situation. While she’s counting on the fact that Jung-hwan is in possession of the only evidence against her son, Tae-joon assures her that he’ll get the best prosecutors on the case to make sure her son gets the harshest punishment possible.

He brings up the inauguration ceremony she made it a point not to invite him to when she tries appealing to him as something-like-but-not-necessarily-a-friend, and is all to happy to tell her that he’ll escort her to the interrogation room when she receives her summons.

While Minister Yoon gets hounded by the media for all the wrong reasons now, Ha-kyung hands over the admission files she swiped from Yoon’s safe. Jung-hwan shreds them, sure now that no dirt will exist on Ye-rin after he’s gone.

Little does he know that Ho-sung—who remembered that copy machines are a thing—has a duplicate of the admission documents. Stop looking so tortured, Ho-sung. We all know you won’t take the high road.

Jung-hwan has a lot to think about by the time he crawls into bed that night, waking little Ye-rin up. She seems to sense her father’s racing mind and is the one to sing him a lullaby, only allowing herself to cry when he’s fallen asleep. Awww.

Since Jung-hwan set her up with a sponsor to fund her journey to become an assemblywoman, Yeon-jin reciprocates by giving him internal investigation files on the Chief of Staff.

She can’t help but worry when she looks at Jung-hwan now, and comments that he’s losing weight. She’s clearly bearing her true feelings when she tells him that though she’s always welcomed spring, she’s afraid of its arrival this year since he’ll be gone. Jung-hwan decidedly stays away from indulging her emotions, as per usual.

He pays a sneak visit to the Chief of Staff during a pee break, letting him know that they’re looking into the people who used their wealth to help him get to his political position.

You know the guy’s guilty when he instantly asks Jung-hwan what he wants, only to balk when Jung-hwan suggests that Prosecutor Jung fill the recently vacated Minister of Justice seat. But his choice is easy—either Jung gets the spot or he gets publicly humiliated.

The reason the idea is so scandalous is because Prosecutor Jung’s appointment at his comparatively early age would upset the strict ranking system and age-related hierarchy that exists among prosecutors. Namely, Tae-joon is older than him and should be up for the spot first, which is precisely why Jung-hwan subverted him.

Even Prosecutor Jung was shocked to hear he’d even be considered, until Jung-hwan told him it’s part of his plan to oust Tae-joon from office. So now in his meeting with Tae-joon, Jung refuses to do as he says and say no to the position. I love this ajusshi.

Tae-joon brings his grievance regarding Prosecutor Jung to the Chief of Staff, even though he’s not able to argue against Jung’s character, since unlike the rest of them he’s got a squeaky clean, bribe-free history. His argument is that Jung is too young and inexperienced to take the position. (By Korea’s standards, age in political circles is rewarded more than merit.)

To his surprise, the Chief of Staff agrees with him regarding Prosecutor Jung’s appointment, but insinuates that a “part” of the prosecutor’s office wants him there.

Tae-joon picks up on what he means very quickly, and guesses that Jung-hwan’s behind it—and if they were to get rid of him and thus his dirt on the Chief of Staff, then Jung’s support for the position he wants will disappear too.

Of course, the second Tae-joon tasks Yeon-jin with finding out what Jung-hwan is threatening the Chief of Staff with, she calls him straight away to let him know. Jung-hwan isn’t concerned, having guessed Tae-joon would try something like this before Prosecutor Jung’s official inauguration.

No sooner does Yeon-jin say that she’ll tell Tae-joon there’s no dirt to be found that Ho-sung passes her en route to the prosecutor general’s office with a folder. He hesitates only briefly in front of the door. (Why do I hate you most of all, Ho-sung?)

Even Tae-joon seems impressed when Ho-sung hands over the admission documents on Ye-rin as a tool to bring Jung-hwan down. Then again, he realizes he shouldn’t be so surprised that Ho-sung is selling a friend out that he’s already sold out once before.

“I don’t like the merchant, but the goods are quite nice,” is how Tae-joon expresses his dislike for Ho-sung, which only makes me like him more. He’ll take the documents, but notes how much Ho-sung’s changed.

Ho-sung remembers saying that exact same thing to Minister Yoon and replies, “If the world doesn’t change, then I must.”

Tae-joon and Jung-hwan meet at their chilly spot near the Han River again, and after some small talk, Tae-joon asks him to stop threatening the Chief of Staff. “I can’t fall,” he adds emphatically, going into his rags-to-riches life story and how he struggled every step of the way to get where he currently is.

“Are you the only one who’s ever lived?” Jung-hwan responds sarcastically, coming this close to playing the world’s smallest violin for him. “It’s nice to be alive,” Tae-joon bites back.

But then he softens in an attempt to level with his old buddy: Does Jung-hwan really hate the idea of shouldering some blame in death, when it shouldn’t matter? Yes.

He knows that “Park Jung-hwan Gate” would be such a huge scandal it’d make it into textbooks of modern history, and that’s not the textbook he wants to leave his daughter with. Tae-joon tries again: “Jung-hwan, must you take my position away from me?”

On this, Jung-hwan won’t budge, since he’s determined to see Tae-joon in a prison cell before he dies. He leaves after telling Tae-joon his earmuffs are stupid (hah), and that he lied about the weather getting warmer.

Tae-joon apologizes after he’s gone, but not about the weather as much as the call he places to Ho-sung to release the admission documents tomorrow. He at least does the small favor of blurring Ye-rin’s face.

Of course, Ye-rin can recognize her own blurred face when her father’s face is crystal clear in the picture that makes the papers the next morning, though she thankfully doesn’t understand what the article is about.

Jung-hwan, to his credit, is genuinely horrified by the article—he must’ve been so sure he destroyed all the evidence that he didn’t think anything when Tae-joon mentioned his daughter the night before.

He calls Tae-joon up to demand a meeting, and Tae-joon directs him to a private room at a restaurant. But Tae-joon’s in his office, leaving Yeon-jin to wonder who’s waiting for Jung-hwan as Jung-hwan opens the door…

…Only to find Kang-jae inside. Kang-jae as a free man. Holy crap.

Ye-rin doesn’t understand why her friends have suddenly stopped talking to her, forcing Ha-kyung to gently tell her daughter to spend a few days indoors and without television.

She gets the call that a search and seizure warrant is being executed at her house while Kang-jae, not humbled by his prison stay in the least, morbidly teases Jung-hwan while wearing his shittiest of shit-eating grins.

He tells him how Tae-joon managed to clear away his sponsorship charges, and that he now works at a law firm. “Should I look into a job for you? The annual salary is…” He literally has an oh wait moment intentionally meant to drive home the fact that an annual salary can’t matter to someone who’ll be dead in a month. (Grrrrr.)

At least he answers truthfully that it was Ho-sung when Jung-hwan asks him where Tae-joon got the records from, which doesn’t change Kang-jae’s intention to return the favor Jung-hwan gave him by forcing him to waste what little is left of his life being hounded by the law.

And just in case he wasn’t getting his utter hatred and derision for Jung-hwan across, Kang-jae even has his plate taken away so that Jung-hwan can only watch him eat. It’s then that he tells his enemy that he better go help his ex-wife clean up her house…

The place is already in shambles by the time he arrives, with Ha-kyung quietly informing him that they found some questionable money behind the apartment in Gangnam he gave her, and used that to get a search and seizure warrant.

“It’s fine,” she says a few times, forcing herself not to blame him even if it means she’ll lose her position as a prosecutor. She can deal with all of that. But the people who messed with their daughter? “Let’s get them. Together.”

Ho-sung has been responsible for writing all the smear articles on Jung-hwan, and knows that the public just needs a tiny push to wholly turn their backs on him. For that, he’ll take some of Tae-joon’s scandals and make them Jung-hwan’s. “‘Park Jung-hwan Gate’ has begun.”

Meanwhile, Jung-hwan and Ha-kyung make their way through the media mob together in silent solidarity. On their elevator ride up to work, Jung-hwan takes her hand and squeezes it.

Ha-kyung squeezes back without a word.

 
COMMENTS

Amendment to yesterday’s recap: This really wasn’t Jung-hwan’s week, was it? Literally everything bad that could’ve happened short of his death did happen, and if I thought he’d been backed into a corner before, then the only way to describe his situation now would be if a brick wall was erected around the corner he’s been backed into. By all the worst people this show has to offer, no less.

What surprises me most about Jung-hwan is his indefatigable will, his absolute refusal to allow himself to fall into despair, which is all the more commendable when the trials he’s faced would break most men like a twig. Not only is he dealing with one hell of an uphill battle against enemies who are just as resilient as he is, he’s fighting a ticking clock that won’t stop winding down no matter how much stronger the opposition becomes.

And as of right now, he’s losing, which has to be frightening for him on some level. But I have a newfound respect for him now that we’ve seen how strong his determination is and how that’s morphed from a selfish (but completely understandable) desire to keep living no matter the cost to a slightly less selfish—but by no means selfless—desire to protect his family and ensure their futures. He made the very adult realization that nothing he does now will be of any help to him in the afterlife, since not even the hardest-working men in history could take any of their accomplishments with them when they died.

The only thing he can leave behind is his legacy, and though it’s way too late to undo all the wrongs he’s done in his life, who can blame him for not wanting to take on all of Tae-joon’s heavy baggage even in death? Their riverside meeting was a hotbed of character revelations, mostly regarding Tae-joon’s inability to understand why Jung-hwan won’t just give up and relent. But even in Jung-hwan’s darkest hour, he had a conscience to answer to in the form of Ye-rin, and that’s exactly who he doesn’t want to let down. Which made Tae-joon’s press release afterward all the more cruel, knowing that hurting Ye-rin would be Jung-hwan’s Achilles heel.

Where it gets a little more complicated is that neither men are blameless, since that conversation was a pretty even exchange—both got to say to each other what they value more than anything, yet neither of them were willing to honor those values in each other. Jung-hwan didn’t care an iota for Tae-joon’s familial sob story, so Tae-joon wasn’t left with a whole lot of options if he wanted to keep the position he worked so hard for. I both can and can’t blame him for what he did.

I bought Tae-joon’s apology and honestly believed he was actually sorry for what he was about to do to Jung-hwan, but that good will all but vanished when he tricked his old buddy into meeting his most hated rival. Even that wouldn’t have been so bad if Jung-hwan hadn’t worked so hard to put Kang-jae behind bars, and his freedom couldn’t have been more of a middle finger to all of Jung-hwan’s efforts. He’s practically back to square one now, but at least he’s not going back into battle alone. I better see some scorched earth from these two next week. Scorched. Earth.

 
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