Hero: Episode 4

by kaedejun

Ah, a much more satisfying episode. We’re back on track with focusing on Heuk Chul and him using his newfound powers for the good of all Muyeong-Mankind. Plus, Jae In is back! I never realized how much I missed him until I saw him again in this episode. Here’s episode 4: “Face of the Devil”

SONG OF THE DAY

“Nu Hero” by Bizzy from Hero OST [download]

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A super happy surgeon wheels a gurney through a hospital’s dark basement. He acts more like a serial killer than a healer, especially since his “patient” is zipped up in a body bag and struggling to get free. The surgeon wheels him into the operation room and presents a “fresh and lively heart” for another surgeon and his assistant. The surgeon is actually Heuk Chul! The patient is bound up completely because today, his eyes and heart will be harvested.

I’m expecting Heuk Chul to bust out his moves and save this guy, but instead, he smiles under his face mask and walks out the door! I seriously hope this patient/victim is a criminal…

Flashback to a few days earlier!

Young Joon and Yi On visit a neighboring police station for one of their colleagues’ amazing coffee. (It’s like choosing to go to the boutique coffee shop several blocks down instead of the Starbucks around the corner.) They get a surprise guest – a young patient with blood pouring down his head. Yi On is frozen in shock as the patient collapses in front of her, no doubt reminded of her dear Kyung Ho.

They end up bringing in the Special District Welfare Facility Director in for questioning, who looks like your friendly neighborhood grandfather in a sharp suit. Young Joon personally can’t believe whatever it is the patient – named Kang Dong Woo – told them. Myung Chul heads up to the interrogation room as well, and on the way, he sees his shameless younger brother breakdancing to the music in his headphones in the middle of the police department.

Gotta love a man who can dance. Especially when he looks like he’s trying to imitate “Flashdance”.

Myung Chul has a private chat with the Facility Director Baek (despite Yi On’s protests). Turns out this director knows Mayor Kim very well, and has been meaning to visit. But Myung Chul won’t have any of this small talk; he wants to know if the patient’s testimony is true. Baek insists it’s a setup, but he’s quite uneasy at the allegations of illegal organ harvesting.

Meanwhile, Young Joon tries to calm down Yi On, who doesn’t like being ordered around by Myung Chul. She can already sense the corruption within him, and is afraid that Myung Chul will help Baek get off scot-free. It doesn’t help that Young Joon doesn’t feel the need to find out if the suspect is truly guilty or not, as he’ll follow Myung Chul’s assessment. Heuk Chul arrives at the nick of time, and pipes up, “I’m on your side!” to Yi On. I don’t think Yi On really wanted him on her corner…

Heuk Chul insists he was only at the station to check up on her, having heard that she passed out from a “gas leak.” Oh that’s the story, eh? Yi On turns furiously at Young Joon for tattling her private life to her not-so-secret admirer. Hee. Heuk Chul takes her out for a drink (the non-alcoholic sort), and asks who’s been bugging her this time. After a pause, she asks if he knows about the Special District Welfare Facility. Heuk Chul doesn’t. Not wanting to be ignorant in front of her, Heuk Chul has Dong Min help him research about the Special District Welfare Facility.

Yi On returns to the station and finds that Myung Chul won’t be pressing charges, as there’s a lack of evidence indicting the Baek. Yi On declares that Dong Woo will testify against the director. However, she’s not letting Myung Chul meet him yet because he’s still recovering and afraid of facing the director. Myung Chul reminds her that every suspect is innocent until proven guilty under the law, and he is not going to prosecute based on Dong Woo’s story. Dong Woo himself is a sketchy witness because he ran away from the welfare facility and has no background. Baek had also told him that there are a lot of crazed druggies in the facility who tell insane stories.

Dong Min’s research on the facility reveals that it was opened by Mayor Kim, and Director Baek has been given numerous awards for his work. Heuk Chul has him hack into the police records. They find numerous complaints filed against the facility, but most of them were disregarded. But they also manage to find Dong Woo’s file.

Heuk Chul arrives at the police parking lot in time to see Director Baek get picked up by his entourage. When he asks how Director Baek got off free, Yi On tells him to ask Myung Chul. She then heads to the hospital to visit Dong Woo, who wants to know if Director Baek will get charged. “It will take some time,” she replies instead. But Dong Woo understands that Baek went free, because the world they live in only helps powerful people like Baek. No one ever does anything for the helpless like him.

Hear that Heuk Chul?! Do something!

Back in his office, Baek demands his men bring back Dong Woo, angry that the boy has caused him so much trouble. His right-hand man tells him that the Chairman had called several times while he was in the police station, which makes Baek smile: the Chairman was clearly concerned about his third son’s welfare. Hmm – this is getting interesting…

Meanwhile Dong Woo is doing a televised interview about his life, with both Yi On and Heuk Chul watching. Dong Woo was living on the streets when he got caught and was sent to the welfare facility. He noticed that twice a week, an ambulance came to pick up one or two people in the middle of the night, and then he would never see them again. They all lived in fear in the facility, afraid that it would one day be their turn to be taken away.

Then one night, Dong Woo did end up getting taken away, led out by none other than Director Baek. He resists and puts up a fight though, so Baek hits him hard and he loses consciousness. When he comes to again, he hears the nurses talking about the druggie third son of NKR Group’s chairman, who is laying down on another table beside him. Because his organs and heart were all messed up, the chairman wanted him to have a complete internal makeover… with Dong Woo’s parts.

Suddenly, the son, who’s under anesthesia, starts crashing and the two nurses rush out of the room in worry. Dong Woo takes the chance to escape. It’s explosive that he outed NKR Group’s Chairman and the third son, so much so that the reporter stops the interview. Messing around with NKR could get everyone fired, and the reporter advises Yi On to stop digging around too.

That gives Heuk Chul an idea… and he races over to the facility to have a good look himself at all the homeless people locked up in prison-like cells. In his office, Director Baek assures the Chairman that he’ll have a healthy heart for the third son in no time, but at the same time he can’t even locate Dong Woo. He grows desperate and angry in finding a new heart, and then hears that Heuk Chul has come to visit.

Heuk Chul sees a couple of “wardens” beating up one of the homeless people in his cell with sticks. They’re just “training,” they say. Heuk Chul demands the door be opened and it temporarily stops the beating. Baek arrives just then and starts groveling – why is a great man like him coming to such a lowly place like the welfare facility? He replies: “I heard you got off from the police so I came to congratulate you. You have a… cozy place.” Baek makes up the excuse that the “inmate”/victim must have been trying to hurt himself.

So… you stop someone from hurting themselves by beating them up? Baek has his men take the victim to the ER, though I’m pretty sure his organs will be harvested there too…

Baek adds that if the mayor were to provide more support to his facility, he’d be able to hire better staff. When Heuk Chul returns home, he confronts his father about the Special District Welfare Facility – if Mayor Kim started it, he needs to go and check up on how it’s run. He needs to check in on the Special District in general.

Heuk Chul – you didn’t seriously try to scold your father into doing his mayor-ly duties, did you? Are you kidding me?

Mayor Kim says poetically, “Where there is light, there is shadow.” In order to have that “brighter city” of Muyeong, there had to be a landfill somewhere else. His vision of the city is actually better because the government 15 years ago had plummeted all of Korea into a depression. By choosing environmental protection over the nuclear power plant, the city lost all of its power, and the government and economy collapsed; Mayor Kim claims to have changed all that.

He reminds Heuk Chul to be aware that he is where he is now due to the sacrifices of others. No one is untainted by the blood shed by the poor. So Heuk Chul makes one call to Dong Min for help – he needs a complete schedule of Baek’s doings everyday.

Yi On visits the hospital the next day, only to find that Dong Woo is gone. Uh oh… Dong Woo has made his escape and gone to find Baek at a church during his daily prayer. He quickly jumps in for an attack, but the old man is too strong for him. His henchmen also jump in and kick Dong Woo to submission. Baek is very happy to see the boy, as he can now fulfill his promise to the Chairman.

Myung Chul reprimands Yi On for not having reported a missing witness earlier, especially since now that witness has attacked an “innocent” person and the police department’s name will be smeared in mud by the media. Baek had promised not to press charges, and in return he would just take Dong Woo back into the facility. Myung Chul warns Yi On that if she were to act out of line again, she might as well resign.

The next day, Baek and his entourage head out, with Yi On on their tail. Young Joon tries to tell her to stop doing things on her own, but she just turns off her phone. But Baek’s ride isn’t so smooth. First, one of the cars ahead has to stop from an overheating engine. Then, at a fork in the road towards the facility, Heuk Chul slips right by with a big truck right behind him that closes off the fork. Baek’s car tries to back up in the one way street, but is blocked from behind by the ambulance.

Baek is totally late now!

From the ambulance comes a mysterious masked figure. He approaches Baek’s men and kicks the living daylights out of them. From above, Hyuk Kyu watches. One of the men decide to just shoot Heuk Chul in the heart and get it over with. Heh – Heuk Chul just gets right back up. He gets rid of the guy and goes right up to Baek, cowering in his car, and pulls him out.

When Yi On runs up to the cars, Baek is gone but she hears banging in the trunk. Inside, it’s Dong Woo, his hands and feet bound.

Then we go back to the beginning. Heuk Chul wheels the gurney inside the operating room, the patient/victim actually being Baek himself. Oooh now this is a dirty revenge. Baek manages to get the gauze around his mouth off enough so he can speak. He demands the doctors let him free because he’s Director Baek of the Welfare Facility. Except, his words hold no meaning – the doctors have never heard of “Director Baek.” Baek: “Do you know how many organs I supplied to your hospital? I paid part of your paychecks!”

Doctor: “I’m in charge, and I don’t know you.”

Baek tries to strike a deal, saying that he’ll bring them bodies better than him. Little does he know, his entire speech is being recorded and broadcast on all the mega screens throughout the city. Everyone can see him vilely promise to sacrifice the lives of the welfare people – including Myung Chul. Baek is anesthetized and Heuk Chul leaves. However, the bullet in his chest didn’t heal well, and started to bleed again.

Heuk Chul stumbles back home, where Hyuk Kyu discovers that the serum is not exactly working the way it should have been. There is a black, veiny pattern that is starting to grow on his neck as well – one that was seen on the past dead soldiers in the morgue. Hmm… there must be a special bullet that can override this serum…

Baek wakes up with a start, his eyes and organs intact. He’s left alone in the operation room, and so he grabs a scalpel and warily makes his way out the door. Outside are a bunch of reporters and photographers, waiting to hear his statement on organ extractions. And then Yi On and Young Joon come up to him and arrest him. Sucker…

Back to Heuk Chul – his chest has healed, thank goodness. Dong Min comes in crying, “What happened?!” and then turns on the TV to show a replay of Baek’s unwitting confession. Dong Min thought Heuk Chul just wanted to have “fun” but their actions turned out to have more political ramifications than he had signed up for. All Dong Min did was make sure the broadcast went on air live. Meanwhile, Heuk Chul hired a couple of actors to be a doctor and a nurse, and paid them handsomely.

Heuk Chul: “It was fun.”

Dong Min’s worried that Heuk Chul will get caught for his actions, and then freaks out that he’ll be implicated too as an accomplice. Hee.

But Myung Chul is slick. Though they may have arrested Baek for his illegal organ deals, Myung Chul wants them to go after the man who orchestrated the kidnapping. This kidnapper has messed up the law and order of the police department.  I bet Yi On, Myung Chul, and Mayor Kim all have an idea on who it is…

In another part of the city, Jae In sets up his sniper rifle and aims towards a small apartment where two other soldiers reside. One of them is the leader, played by Kim Hyun Sung, The Musical and Vampire Prosecutor alum! He orders his comrade to go back in and gather the “rest,” but that’s when he notices that his comrade has the black veins crawling up his skin and face. It looks like this vein thing is actually poison now; it doesn’t kill right away, but is a definite cause of worry. Jae In kills this poisoned comrade and starts shooting inside the apartment in hopes of killing the others.

The leader jumps off from the balcony and starts shooting back at Jae In, who gets scraped by a bullet. Jae In hides from view as the leader-soldier chases after him, and allows for his injury to heal. Jae In is a superhero – just like Heuk Chul! He manages to escape from the leader in time.

At the police station, Heuk Chul offers some burgers for lunch to Yi On, who accepts it with a smile this time. Heuk Chul: “You must be in a good mood! I never see you smile, so I thought you had Botox gone wrong.” HAHAHA. He then asks how their investigation is going in finding the kidnapper. Yi On: “Oh you mean ‘The Idiot’?” They can’t find him yet, though everyone is searching for him. Heuk Chul is disturbed by the fact that he’s been nicknamed ‘The Idiot’ by the police force. However, Yi On adds that she thinks this “idiot” is pretty cool.

Ha – she must totally know Heuk Chul is involved.

A few floors above, the leader-soldier watches Yi On laugh with Heuk Chul, a faint, pained smile on his face.

OMIGOD HE’S GOT TO BE YI ON’S BROTHER!

Comments:

Finally we have Heuk Chul doing something right for once! I’m glad he challenged his father and his brother by outing Director Baek, making them both look like fools for having appointed him as director, and for having him released from the station respectively. I was hoping that Heuk Chul would be able to get away with a few more vigilante victories before getting on the police’s radar though. But now that Myung Chul, Mayor Kim, and Yi On are onto him, it could make for an interesting dilemma for each of these characters. How would Myung Chul and Mayor Kim deal with the fact that their own family member is working against them? I’m pretty sure they won’t feel any sentiment, but they will rather worry about the media frenzy and public backlash that could result. As for Yi On, I’m hoping she’ll be inadvertently helping Heuk Chul even though she’s been ordered to arrest him.

The case in this episode resolved quite quickly, which left plenty more room for Jae In’s side story. Jae In as a superhero makes another showdown between him and Heuk Chul much more likely. The first fight they had in episode 1 was not as fun because Heuk Chul wasn’t as strong; now, Heuk Chul has some skills. As for why Jae In is targeting soldiers, I’m starting to form a theory about this black vein/blood pattern that’s been popping up. I bet some experimental tests with the life-saving serum were being made on these soldiers, and a few of them escaped, led by Yi On’s brother. Jae In is just hunting them down one by one, though all of the soldiers are having odd reactions to the serum themselves. I bet the soldiers had a prototype version of what was given to Heuk Chul and Jae In. After all, Heuk Chul started to react badly to the bullet that hit his chest in this episode (and I think it was the same area where he was shot the first time around in episode 1), so that’s why the blood pattern was starting to form on his neck. Also, Yi On’s brother jumped several stories from a balcony to the street, hinting at him having super power strength.

Oh fun. Oh fun fun fun! I want more of this serum/superpower story! Maybe we can have a face off between Jae In, Heuk Chul, and Yi On’s brother!

Please note – let’s keep the spoilers on future episodes to a minimum! Imagine that I’m watching this series for the first time, episode by episode. Thanks!

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