Woman With a Suitcase: Episode 4

by Paroma

With her team almost complete, Geum-joo tackles her first case for her new law firm. Her opposition comes in the form of her sister, who has given up all pretense of familial affection by now, leaving Geum-joo to battle old fears as a new future beckons. Our hero may have found the thread that can unravel the mystery of his last case as a prosecutor, but while he needs Geum-joo to put his plan in motion, can he trust her with potentially deadly secrets?

 
EPISODE 4: “The Woman from the Rumors”

Bok-geo drags Geum-joo to an Oh Sung charity event, where a very drunk Yoo-ri decides to stab him with a table knife. Geum-joo spots the vengeful actress, sizes up the situation, and throws herself between Bok-geo and the knife. Bok-geo looks on in horror as Geum-joo gets stabbed and collapses in his arms.

An-na, Manager Hwang, and Attorney Goo arrive at the hospital and pelt an already worried Bok-geo with questions. Attorney Goo tells him that Yoo-ri has been put behind bars and that they should finish her off this time. An-na asks scornfully why a man needed a woman’s protection instead of doing the protecting.

Meanwhile, Hye-joo’s catty colleagues ask her why Bok-geo opened a law firm for her sister, and why Geum-joo took a knife for the man. Hye-joo is taken aback by both pieces of news, which amuses the women. As she excuses herself and walks away, it’s clear that she’s furious.

Geum-joo wakes up to find Bok-geo standing by her bedside, watching her with a soft expression. Fighting the haze of sleep, she tells him not to be so touched and sorry. As her vision clears, she looks up again and notes that Bok-geo’s expression has changed — he now looks more like he’s seen something he dislikes.

He observes that she’s back to her senses now and admonishes her for damaging his dignity by trying to protect a healthy man like him. Geum-joo scoffs (and so do I). He further claims that she breached their contract by saving his life and getting hurt when he hadn’t told her to. Geum-joo apologizes sarcastically and then fakes pain to make him go away. Alone, she calls herself crazy for saving him.

A socialite accesses her husband’s account on a social network site and looks through his list of contacts. Her husband works at Oh Sung Law Firm, and we met this woman at the party earlier, where she wondered who Geum-joo was.

A stewardess walks through an airport, ignoring coworkers who pour over posts made about her on a gossip site called TENpatch. It claimed that instead of her being born rich, she had plastic surgery and drove imported cars bought by a rich sponsor.

The scene shifts to the girl driving, her phone constantly pinging with harassing texts from colleagues who want her to resign. She closes her eyes, smiles through her tears, and lets the steering wheel go. The car accelerates and crashes off screen.

Fortunately, she doesn’t die. Suk-woo sits beside her in a hospital room and tells her that he’s sent off a complaint to the cyber investigation unit regarding the posts made about her. He asks for access to her social network account so he can look through her messages and maybe find out who was spreading these rumors, but his client refuses.

Hye-joo visits Bok-geo at his office, and feigns concern over Geum-joo’s health. She observes that opening a law firm for a “paralegal with a flaw” might cause trouble for both him and Geum-joo, since her sister has so many enemies. Bok-geo simply wonders if she’s disappointed that he didn’t open an office for her, but Hye-joo insists that she’s just worried for them.

A group of women wrap up their lunch, and one of them brings up the site TENpatch, where pictures of a couple have been posted. Turns out the woman in question is the daughter-in-law of the Oh Sung Group family, and the man works at a lowly bar. The pictures make the women gasp.

The subject of their horror, JO YE-REONG, sits in broody darkness where her assistant brings her a tablet with the posts about her.

The K-Fact staff discuss this new site, which boldly tells its victims to sue it if they’re in the right, and which seems to be targeting the private lives of celebrities and sport stars. They wonder why Ye-reong is not defending herself, but Bok-geo walks in and shuts down their article about her. He says he knows her, and that they shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

The staff look at some other photos on the site, and one in particular makes Bok-geo stare in surprised recognition. It’s of SEO JI-AH, the woman we know as Tomy Kim’s right hand. Bok-geo flashes back to his time as a prosecutor, when he had asked Ji-ah if she would stand witness in a case. She was a school student then, and had remembered the license plate of the car that had picked up her friends, one of whom was later found dead. Bok-geo warned her that it would be difficult, but Ji-ah had insisted that she wanted to do it.

Bok-geo’s employee tells him that the girl is definitely Ji-ah, and the picture was taken in Oh Sung Group’s vacation home. Bok-geo asks for a meeting to be set up with Ye-reong.

The socialite HAN JI-EUN celebrates her son’s birthday and walks over to her sister-in-law, Ye-reong, to ask about the scandalous photos. With a sharp smile, she tells Ye-reong to give up and step down as the director of Oh Sung Art Center.

Ye-reong meets Bok-geo at her gallery, assuming he wants something in exchange for not writing an article about her. He asks her why she didn’t dispute the rumor when the woman in the picture was clearly not her. Tiredly, Ye-reong says she decided to let it die down on its own. However, Bok-geo suspects that she knows who owns TENpatch. Ye-reong admits that she heard it was her sister-in-law, Han Ji-eun, and that a war had started over the directorship of the Oh Sung Art Center.

Ji-eun consults with Hye-joo and admits that she is the one who made the post about Ye-reong. She calculates the fine that she would have to pay for the fifty defamatory posts she put up, obviously not bothered about being found out. Hye-joo finds her transparency suspicious and asks if there is something she is hiding. Ji-eun threatens to change her lawyer, which instantly has Hye-joo apologizing for overstepping her boundaries.

Bok-geo convinces Ye-reong to sue and let his firm represent her. When Ye-reong asks him why he is willing to give up such a high value article, Bok-geo says that he wants something in its place — access to the TENpatch account’s direct messages. He asks for her promise that she’ll hand it over to him, telling her that he suspects a much more valuable article is hidden in those messages.

Geum-joo overhears Suk-woo talking to a doctor and assumes he came to visit her. When he admits that he wasn’t here for her, she just says that they should pretend that he was and gets him to buy her popsicles. He asks for her help in his case with the stewardess. He asks her to talk to the victim, since she’s so uncooperative even with her own lawyer. Geum-joo tells him that it would be useless, and she can’t focus on a case like this now anyway.

She gets Suk-woo to buy her some snacks before he leaves, and hides them under her covers when Bok-geo comes to visit. Unfortunately, the evidence is smeared across her mouth, and Bok-geo easily catches her. He hands her the TENpatch case files, and Geum-joo is pretty happy with the details.

Bok-geo warns her that the opponent is Oh Sung Law Firm, but Geum-joo is confident. She suggests a joint defense agreement — instead of letting this case be about the warring factions of the Oh Sung Group family, she says they should make it a case about a human rights violation.

After being discharged, Geum-joo discusses the case with Attorney Goo. She’d contacted all of TENpatch’s victims but they were hesitant about suing. Hye-joo arrives at their firm and offers the first terms of negotiation to Attorney Goo, who looks them over and rejects the offer.

Geum-joo asks meditatively why Hye-joo came this quickly to settle the case, and asks her sister if Han Ji-eun has something to hide. Hye-joo — who had been ignoring Geum-joo until then — addresses Attorney Goo and says she would prefer that only the lawyers discuss the case.

Attorney Goo sees red at this insult to Geum-joo, who holds her old frenemy back from attacking Hye-joo. She excuses herself and walks out of the conference room. Manager Hwang follows and points out to a hurt Geum-joo that Hye-joo is clearly afraid of her insight. He adds that Geum-joo is an attorney in all but name, and that she should prepare for her exam again.

Geum-joo gets back to her dorm room that night and begins to study for the case when Bok-geo rings and asks her to get to his office. When she arrives, out of breath and in pain, he just says that he never asked her to run. Turns out he just wanted to tell her that TENpatch has shut down, which is news Geum-joo already knew — she already downloaded whatever they needed as evidence from the site.

This time she gets back to her room and has just enough time to shower when Bok-geo calls and asks her to get back to office. She arrives there with her hair still wrapped in a towel, her patience at an end. She asks if he isn’t too old to play these games, and tells him that she never meant to get stabbed in his place anyway.

It’s clear that Bok-geo is trying to calm her down, but she’s too angry to stop as she tells him that she only meant to tell him to avoid Yoo-ri’s knife and didn’t expect the murderous actress to get there as quickly as she did. At Ye-reong’s laugh behind her, Geum-joo turns around and cringes in mortification. Bok-geo smirks.

Attorney Goo suggests using the company credit card to visit a bar for “investigation,” but Manager Hwang threatens to destroy the card if they so much as order hot cakes on it.

Geum-joo visits Suk-woo and asks him to do a joint defense for their clients. He clearly doesn’t trust Geum-joo not to use his client as a pawn, but Geum-joo points out that Suk-woo isn’t acting in his client’s best interest either. She asks if he knows what his client wants the most out of this case. Suk-woo is struck by the question and looks at Geum-joo for the answer.

We don’t hear what it is, but the two of them then visit the hospital to talk to Suk-woo’s client. The stewardess wants nothing to do with Ye-reong’s case, and Suk-woo gives up. Geum-joo steps forward and asks what the stewardess did that was so wrong.

With genuine sympathy, Geum-joo wonders why people want to tear down the poor who work hard, break the class barriers, and get to a good place in life. Her words affect the stewardess, who admits to pretending that she was born with every luxury, but who also asks if she deserves to die for hiding her lowly background.

With Suk-woo’s client onboard, An-na looks through her messages and finds the one that started this whole mess. Everyone in Golden Tree gathers around her and reads a pretty normal message from a man who texts that he’s taking the stewardess’s flight to Maldives just to see her again. It’s when An-na reveals the man’s profile that things become clear — it’s Han Ji-eun’s husband.

The two sides meet at Golden Tree’s office to start negotiations. With her mentor beside her, Hye-joo submits their terms for settlement: Ye-reong has to give up her director’s seat at the art center. Attorney Goo makes a counter offer that surprises them: Ye-reong gets to keep her directorship, and Ji-eun pays fifteen billion won in damages.

It’s excessive, but Ji-eun clearly doesn’t care and asks her attorneys to accept. Suk-woo speaks up then, adding his client’s condition: a public apology.

Ji-eun scoffs at this and is ready to leave, but the Golden Tree joint defense team hands them a file that takes the fight out of her attorneys. They ask her to look at the content, and Ji-eun finds pages from her husband’s profile as well as his messages to the stewardess. Attorney Goo observes that this was the real reason Ji-eun had started TENpatch and mocks Hye-joo for being clueless.

Battle won, Geum-joo follows her sister out and asks for TENpatch’s account information to be handed over. Hye-joo tells her not to be too happy that she won, since she can’t even leave a case record under her own name.

Suk-woo meets Bok-geo and asks him to take care with the public apology he prints, since it’s important for his client. As he’s leaving, Bok-geo asks how Geum-joo convinced Suk-woo to join their team. Suk-woo says it’s a secret between the two of them.

We flash back to Geum-joo asking Suk-woo if he knew what his client really wanted from the case. “What you need to heal your client is Han Ji-eun’s public apology. Don’t you agree?” she had said.

In the present, Suk-woo tells Bok-geo that Geum-joo is an amazing person, and asks him not to make her do anything that would jeopardize her career again. Bok-geo tells Suk-woo to make up his mind on whether he wants to be in the firm or not, since watching him hang around Geum-joo is starting to annoy him.

Suk-woo is supervising the apology article when he notices Geum-joo going into Bok-geo’s office. Geum-joo assumes that she was called up to discuss incentives, but it turns out that Bok-geo wants her to get to the bottom of who submitted the fake photos of Ye-reong to TENpatch.

Ye-reong meets Geum-joo and gives her personal number to her new friend, then tells Geum-joo to call her if she ever needs help dealing with her celebrity clients. Geum-joo thanks her and then casually asks if she was the one to send in those fake photos of herself. Ye-reong is impressed and doesn’t deny it.

Geum-joo speculates that it was a trap she laid after she heard the rumors Ji-eun was spreading about her. Ye-reong tells her that when she heard about Ji-eun creating the site to target a stewardess, she dug a hole for her sister-in-law to fall in on her own. Geum-joo asks why she chose her, but Ye-reong corrects her — Bok-geo chose the case first.

Bok-geo calls Geum-joo again and makes her attend an art auction. She tries to impress him by confidently interpreting the first painting as an expression of human loneliness, but the auctioneer describes it as a representation of family reconciliation and harmony. As Bok-geo sniggers, Geum-joo insists that you can be lonely amidst family too.

She tries to raise her hand as the bids for the painting rise, but Bok-geo clamps down on her wrist. He keeps holding it, and when Geum-joo taps his hand to get him to let go, he calls it a handcuff.

The next painting to be brought out is a literal Golden Tree, drawn with gold paint. Geum-joo is charmed, and this time Bok-geo raises her hand to bid for the painting. He tells her that this is what they were there to buy. Looking like a deer caught in the headlights, she blurts out the highest bid and then looks guiltily at Bok-geo. They win the painting, and Bok-geo laughs at her horror.

Suk-woo calls the Golden Tree office because he can’t get through to Geum-joo. An-na speculates that Bok-geo might have taken Geum-joo to a movie. Suk-woo hangs up and looks forlornly at the food he bought for her. Aw.

After losing her case, Hye-joo is now given the lowliest clients. She sits blank-faced before a lecherous young man who’s more interested in her clothes than discussing his case. As she leaves the courthouse, she bumps into her old flame, Prosecutor Choi. He tells her that Bok-geo left the legal profession under the cloud of a scandal and warns her to stay away from him. At his use of an endearment, Hye-joo’s anger bubbles up and she tells him that the moment he left her for his pregnant wife, she forgot all about him.

As Geum-joo and Bok-geo walk out of the auction hall, he gets a call that makes him leave abruptly. Geum-joo starts to follow only to be stopped by the management, who insists she pay for the painting first. She hands over her card, but predictably, there aren’t enough funds. The women behind her recognize her and speculate that she must have bid on the painting despite being broke.

Ji-an stands on the ledge of a roof, with only a rope tied to her waist. Tomy Kim stands behind her and says that Bok-geo won’t save her. He asks her again where she hid Min-ah’s body, but she denies any knowledge of the girl’s whereabouts. He tells her that he has less patience than she thinks and pushes her off the roof. As she falls, the rope trails behind her. Please tell me it’s tied to something!

As he drives, Bok-geo remembers the fateful day in court when Ji-ah changed her testimony. Bok-geo laid out the facts that Ji-ah had remembered the license plate number of the car her friends had got in and then waited for her agreement. But Ji-ah said she had never seen the car. When Bok-geo quietly asked if something had happened, Ji-ah simply wept and apologized.

Bok-geo arrives at the hospital room where Min-ah is staying. (Oh, so that call wasn’t about Ji-ah!) Min-ah is awake but unable to speak. The nurse tells him that she seems to understand what is being said and can communicate through blinks. Bok-geo asks Min-ah to keep pretending that she can’t talk even after she regains the ability to do so, and to only confide in him. Min-ah blinks her agreement, and Bok-geo sighs in relief.

Geum-joo takes a bus back home and firmly tells herself that she is not embarrassed, but she also makes the decision to stop humoring Bok-geo’s ridiculous contract.

But when she reaches her street, he’s waiting for her with a smile. He coaxes her to eat with him first and then get angry, but Geum-joo won’t be placated. She tells him that they should stop, and Bok-geo pretends to misunderstand, asking if they’ve even started anything yet.

She takes out the contract from her purse and goes to tear it, but Bok-geo grabs her hand. Geum-joo says she doesn’t need his permission any more. Bok-geo says that it won’t do. He moves closer, driving her back and grabbing her by the shoulders. “I’ll never let you go, Cha Geum-joo.”

COMMENTS

Using reverse psychology to make Geum-joo take the bar exam? Good plan. I like Manager Hwang’s take on her phobia, that what had previously fueled her fear was the burden of supporting a family and paying off their debts. Over the years, Geum-joo managed to take care of all her financial responsibilities, and the fears that had shackled her then have no hold on her now. Clearly, today, she wants to be a lawyer because she loves her work, and fighting her own cases is the next natural step. So this time, when she takes the exam, it’ll be just for herself.

I’m very confused about why the writer had Geum-joo get stabbed at this point in the story. It didn’t seem to serve any narrative purpose, plus it’s too early for a grand gesture of love. And anyway, I believe Geum-joo when she says it was completely accidental, which makes Bok-geo’s genuine remorse kinda funny in retrospect. Of course, in an effort to hide any softer feelings, he seems to often go overboard while ordering Geum-joo about. I’m so, so glad Geum-joo is ready to tear that ridiculous contract to pieces. That joke became tired after their first discussion of “owner” and “acquired goods.” As tongue-in-cheek terminology put into the contract to irk Geum-joo, it had appeal, but when two supposed legal experts act like a contract controlling free will is in any way valid, it gets old pretty fast.

I find that this show does humor between the protagonists best when it’s in response to situations around them. The art auction scene was a perfect example. It’s when the writer tries to manufacture banter between the two that their interactions become completely wooden. Bok-geo and Geum-joo have a natural rapport that emerges any time the show stops trying to make them flirt. It’s largely due to an overabundance of forced jokes in this episode that I enjoyed their separate plot lines more than their scenes together. There is also the fact that Bok-geo’s last case has suddenly become enormously interesting. As the protagonist of a crime thriller, Bok-geo is imminently watchable.

This drama has an ongoing recurrence of catty female coworkers that is beginning to grate on me, though. The story centers around a strong female protagonist, and even portrays female friendships positively. But it can’t seem to get over its internalized misogyny and stop implying that only women ruin lives through spreading malicious gossip. In Oh Sung law firm, it was Attorney Goo’s female colleagues who were making fun of her outburst. In case of the stewardess, a victim of rumormongering, it was her female coworkers who hounded her to resign. The women at the auction were the only ones to mock Geum-joo’s poverty. These are background details to the larger story which the audience absorbs without much thought as they keep watching, because it aligns with pre-conceived social conditioning. But it hurts the larger cause of portraying women as just human beings with ordinary faults and decency.

On that note, Hye-joo seems to be falling in line with the jealous second lead stereotype. I had really hoped for a more complex character than the one she’s portraying now. While it’s clear that Hye-joo has enjoyed years of financial support from her elder sister, I don’t believe that that naturally obligates her to love Geum-joo. I also think that Hye-joo has been used as a puppet by her sister for years. However, when Hye-joo did finally get out from under Geum-joo’s shadow, she failed to even prove herself competent in her field. She has neither the patience nor the humility to learn from more experienced seniors. In contrast to Geum-joo’s eagerness to do the most menial task just to keep working, Hye-joo clearly believes herself to be above the kind of case her mentor handed her at the end of the episode. This degree of self-absorption can be fun to watch if there is any hope of a character arc in the future — I want Hye-joo to struggle in earnest and find her own strengths and dreams. She’s not so far gone that she can’t be redeemed. But I’m getting the really bad feeling that Hye-joo is turning into a two dimensional narrative device, who now exists solely to motivate Geum-joo to achieve the height of her ambitions.

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