Ghost: Episode 14

by kaedejun

Just when we’re about to get somewhere! Just like in the last episode, more important plot developments occur, but because the Three Musketeers are doing so well, the writer decides to drop a few bombs to create some more obstacles for them. Smooth sailing? What’s that?

Who’s faster – pressing a “Delete” button, or running up to the 7th floor where the cyber crime offices are located? This is not a trick question.

Eung Jin clicks ‘Yes to all’ (I want to delete all files), and the evidence is gone in a flash. The Three Musketeers run back to the elevators, running into Sang Woo along the way. As they ride the elevator up, Sang Woo realizes that Eung Jin had changed the medication in the jail. Hyuk Joo: “Be quiet!” Sang Woo: “Uncuff me!” Hyuk Joo: “I don’t have the key!”

They reach the 7th floor, but the offices are empty. Eung Jin is nowhere to be found, but Woo-Young immediately logs into the computer and sees that someone logged in recently. Eung Jin can’t be far, so Hyuk Joo and Sang Woo race down the halls to search for him, enlisting every officer they see along the way on this manhunt.

Woo-Young accesses the computer’s log history and sees that the wiping program was used. The program’s history shows that the file he erased was “Shin Hyo Jung’s Original Video.” It’s the original video file that showed the face of her real murderer in the reflection, before Eung Jin had manipulated it and framed the murder on Ki Young.

The police have no luck in locating Eung Jin in the building, and the search moves to his house. However, by the time they get there, no one’s around. Not a single piece of technology is left in the house, and it’s in slight disarray, as if someone had grabbed a few essentials and ran off in a hurry without even locking the door. No more evidence is left for the Three Musketeers to retrieve.

Woo-Young is still stunned by the fact that there was evidence right under their noses in the cyber crime labs, but they had all missed it. I don’t blame them – they weren’t really thinking of their colleagues as their enemies. However, if they had bothered to investigate the computers, they’d have found the truth and the real killer by now. The one question they have is how Eung Jin could have escaped from the police bureau undetected. It’s possible he had help on the inside; after all, Woo Hyun had said before that there were more than one sympathizer in the bureau.

The CCTV cameras had captured Eung Jin leaving the cyber crime office, and based on the direction he was going, he would have passed by a bunch of empty rooms… and Director Jun’s office. So, Director Jun’s a suspect now!? (Again?!) Either way, Hyuk Joo knows one thing: “Besides us three – myself, Yoo Kang Mi, and you, Park Ki Young – no one else is to be trusted.” Can we get a team huddle and put our hands together for a hip-hip-hurrah?

The next morning, a tracksuit-clad Eung Jin steps into a fancy car hiding under a bridge. Inside, Hyun Min congratulates him on a job well done for deleting all evidences. He wishes Eung Jin luck for the future, and then opens the trunk. Eung Jin picks up a steel case – chock full of money. Payday! Now he can disappear…

Back at Se Kang Group, Kyung Shin’s doctor advises him to take a break, as his blood pressure is going up. Thanks Hyun Min! His secretary enters with some terrible news – Daerim law firm has deemed that they cannot make a plea on behalf of Jae Min, as the evidence is too damning to make a good case against it. Even threatening to drop them as a counsel for all contracts of Se Kang won’t make Daerim rethink their stance. Kyung Shin’s blood pressure rises again: “Call the car – I’m heading over to Se Kang Securities!!”

The SI detective in charge of Yeom Jae Hee’s case reports to Chief Shin and Director Jun that the autopsy ruled Jae Hee’s death as suicide. He died from an overdose of antidepressants, so he presumably committed suicide while under severe stress of the interrogation. That’s when Hyuk Joo bursts in with “evidence” that Jae Hee was murdered. Great timing!

He takes out two evidence bags with one pill each. One pill is the correct antidepressant drug, taken from the hospital where Jae Hee filled out his prescription. He’s supposed to take a 25mg pill four times a day. The other pill is the one found in his bottle; it’s 100mg, four times the usual dosage. If Jae Hee takes that four times a day, he’s getting quadruple the dosage, and therefore overdosing accidentally. Hyuk Joo proposes that someone knew Jae Hee’s drug habit and had framed his murder to look like suicide.

The question is who? Hyuk Joo says that there is a very good possibility that it was Kang Eung Jin who switched the pill bottles and gave Jae Hee the higher dosage. While no one really saw Eung Jin do it, based on Sang Woo’s testimony he’s the only one who could have done it.

Chief Shin’s not too happy with that – is Hyuk Joo seriously accusing a fellow police officer based on a possibility? If this were to leak to the press, it would be detrimental to the bureau’s image, and the public would lose trust in the bureau. Hyuk Joo fires back that making a homicide seem like suicide isn’t any better. Before the tensions get too high, Director Jun orders Hyuk Joo to stop. While they can’t go accusing police officers freely, Director Jun does believe that they need to investigate Jae Hee’s case further.

Since Eung Jin is missing, Director Jun will put him on a wanted list so that they can get his testimony. In the meantime, Hyuk Joo calls for Woo-Young’s reinstatement, as they need his help.

Woo-Young’s first act is to start confiscating the computers in the evidence analysis lab. Hye Ram comes into work that morning all confused, so Kang Mi and Woo-Young sit her down for questioning. Woo-Young asks Hye Ram if she remembers about the Shin Hyo Jung case, and to recount what she remembers when she analyzed the video file Hades had uploaded of Hyo Jung’s death.

Flashback! When the video first came on all over the jumbotrons in Seoul, Woo Hyun had run to investigate the matter. He later confiscated the computer that was hacked into and gave it to Eung Jin to analyze. He wanted Eung Jin to locate the video file so that they could take a look into it and locate the murderer. Eung Jin then made a copy of the hard drive, which took several hours.

Eung Jin later handed Hye Ram the hard drive copy that he had made and asked her to analyze the video. So she did – and in front of Woo Hyun, Kang Mi, and Eung Jin, she showed them how she cleared up the reflection in the glass and found that it matched Ki Young’s face. Just like Eung Jin, she found no evidence of manipulation. Woo-Young asks if she’s sure, but she repeats herself: “I couldn’t find any evidence of manipulation.”

Woo-Young and Kang Mi report back to Hyuk Joo that Eung Jin deleted the original video file of Shin Hyo Jung’s death, meaning they can no longer find out who the real killer is.

Hyuk Joo: Hey Hades, you’re the one who uploaded it right? Don’t you have the original, huh Hades?

Woo-Young: I had it on a removable hard drive, but it burned up in the explosion.

Hyuk Joo: Can you restore Kang Eung Jin’s files? You’re a genus hacker, right Hades?

Woo-Young: He used the same program as Hyun Min does. Even if you’re a god you can’t restore it.

I love how Hyuk Joo has no qualms about Woo-Young being a hacker and breaking the law to get the evidence. But he is super frustrated that they’re back at square one. Woo-Young assures him that they’re not at square one. It’s more like square 1.5, since they have a better idea on who they’re going up against now.

Woo-Young heads over to his old True Story office, where he has a moment of nostalgia for that small, but now dilapidated, place. He goes into his private office – now unlocked for all to see – and reopens his programs and computers. Guess Hades is making a return!

Kyung Shin arrives at Hyun Min’s office, where Hyun Min had already been waiting for him, with tea set out. Kyung Shin gets to the heart of the matter – did Hyun Min buy off Daerim law firm as well, just like how he bought off all those presidents at the meeting? Hyun Min doesn’t answer, but it doesn’t matter. Kyung Shin warns Hyun Min not to underestimate him, as he’s willing to go all the way to the end as well.

Hyun Min insists that Jae Min did kill Nam Sang Won, and because it was premeditated, it’s likely Jae Min will receive a 15-year sentence. On top of that, he shows his uncle the newest headline to hit the media: Jae Min was indicted for raising money for an illegal slush fund. That crime alone would add another 10 years to his sentence. Kyung Shin still refuses to give in, so Hyun Min adds that there are more crimes Jae Min could be indicted for: illegal wiretapping, illegal real estate dealings, illegal political campaign finances, and bribery. It’s never going to end for Jae Min, so Kyung Shin might as well stop.

Kyung Shin cries out that his son is innocent. Hyun Min: “My father was innocent too.” He doesn’t care what Kyung Shin does – he will make sure his uncle never wins. It looks like Kyung Shin is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Hyun Min adds that he prepared a small gift for his uncle, knowing full well that giving up his position in the company for Jae Min would be a very difficult decision.

The gift is the wine. The poisoned wine.

Kyung Shin stares at the Se Kang sign hanging on his office, lost in thought, the wine beside him. He remembers back to when he visited his son in jail. Jae Min was worried about how unwell Kyung Shin had looked, and assured his father that he’d get out soon. He truly believes his father will be able to get him out, and Kyung Shin only nodded in response.

However, now, it seems that Kyung Shin will have to die in order to get his son out. He’s in a similar situation that his brother was in 13 years ago. Kyung Shin stares at the drink, innocently placed on his desk. He raises the glass to the Se Kang Group sign, says “Cheers!” and drinks it in one shot.

Immediately, he drops the glass, and it shatters on the ground. His head goes limp. Kyung Shin is dead.

Hyun Min arrives at the funeral with his entourage, where many employees have already gathered to pay their respects to the late Chairman. They all bow to Hyun Min as he passes, making him look like the king of Se Kang even though he is only a president of Se Kang Securities. Hyun Min pays his respects as well with utmost sincerity, though it feels incredibly false still.

When Jae Min, the Vice President of the entire Group, arrives, he is followed by two police officers. He locks eyes with Hyun Min in the hall, and Hyun Min notes that his cousin ought to change into a black suit to show his respect. That triggers Jae Min’s rage. He rushes forth at his cousin, screaming, “You did it! You killed my father!” but is stopped by the officers and Hyun Min’s men. I wonder if Hyun Min ever did anything like that, but then again, he’s more of the quiet type.

Hyun Min crouches down to the fallen Jae Min, and reassures him that he’ll be freed soon. The best lawyers will defend him, and then, he’ll be given a second chance. “But,” Hyun Min adds, “you will not be able to avenge your father like I did. Because I will never give you the chance to do so.” And he pats Jae Min on the shoulder and leaves. Oooh… beware the quiet ones – their minds are racing and always two steps ahead…

News breaks out that Jo Kyung Shin committed suicide, but it is quickly overshadowed by something more viral – a video of Shin Hyo Jung’s murder again. This time, everyone makes noise about the reflection in the window, which looks very much like Jo Hyun Min. The real video leaked out!?

It’s worrisome to Hyun Min when he discovers the video, especially since he just paid off Eung Jin to remove it. And, since he’s in line to be the next president of Se Kang Group.

Hyuk Joo makes a presentation to Director Jun about the video, and how there are petitions coming in about getting the case reopened and investigated. Director Jun can’t believe it, especially since the accused killer is now Jo Hyun Min, who’s such a high-profile figure. He asks if the cyber team is going to find out who uploaded this “piece of trash.” Not exactly…

Hye Ram gives a demonstration on how she’s going to analyze the video. She first reexamines the initial video and how the reflection in the window matched that of Park Ki Young. Then she moves to the new video and shows how the reflection is an exact match to Hyun Min. The problem is, there are no traces of fabrication on either of the videos. The date and time of the video are exactly the same, so one has to be a fake. But Hye Ram can’t figure out which one is the fake one, or if they’re both fake.

Hyuk Joo reminds Director Jun that Ki Young was made a suspect of the Shin Hyo Jung case after the video came out. However, they could not verify the truth. The only thing they can do is to reopen Hyo Jung’s case, and make Hyun Min a suspect. Jumping the gun ahead of Director Jun’s orders, Woo-Young already sent Hyun Min a subpoena… and has him coming to the station this very second.

Hyun Min is immediately taken to an interrogation room, and Kang Mi and Hyuk Joo watch in the adjoining video room. Hyuk Joo’s pleased that Hyun Min has taken the bait. Huh?! Turns out, Woo-Young had gone back to his True Story office to help create a fake video file on Shin Hyo Jung’s death. With Kang Mi and Hyuk Joo watching, he fabricated the video so it would have Hyun Min’s reflection in the window, and then uploaded it to YouTube, where it went viral. Woo-Young was sure that this video would prompt Hyun Min to come to the station because he would be so confident that he wouldn’t lose to something like this.

Woo-Young enters the interrogation room, and thanks Hyun Min for cooperating. Hyun Min: “No problem. It’s my duty as a citizen.” Besides, he thinks the video was made well since he was not there that evening at Hyo Jung’s apartment. They begin talking about Hyo Jung and Hyun Min’s relationship. Hyun Min admits that they were dating, but didn’t tell anyone because it would not have been good for either’s careers.

Next question: What was Hyun Min doing on the night Shin Hyo Jung died? Answer: He was abroad. Immigration documents prove that Hyun Min was abroad from May 13 to May 17 in Japan, and from May 28 to May 31 he was abroad again for vacation. Woo-Young notes the excellent timing – on May 16, Nam Sang Won died in Hae Myung Resort, and on May 29, Shin Hyo Jung died. Both of them, unfortunately, knew Hyun Min.

Woo-Young then takes out a document and shows it to Hyun Min. On May 16, Shin Hyo Jung was caught speeding along the road towards Gyeonggi with Hyun Min in the passenger seat. That was the night Nam Sang Won died, and Hyo Jung’s car was seen by the CCTV at villa 15 in the resort. Hyun Min doesn’t respond to Woo-Young’s supposition that he and Hyo Jung were together that night.

Woo-Young tells him a story of what could have happened: Hyo Jung and Hyun Min were together at the villa that night, and got an unexpected guest in the form of Nam Sang Won. Nam Sang Won was then murdered, and Hyo Jung managed to record the whole thing on video. Because Hyo Jung was threatening him with the video, Hyun Min killed her too. To create an alibi, he fabricated the immigration documents. However, because he wasn’t the driver of Hyo Jung’s car, and therefore never received the speeding ticket, he didn’t know that his face was captured by the traffic camera, proving his presence in Korea on the days he was supposed to be in Japan.

Hyun Min finally responds: “From what I’ve been told, there was one other person at villa 15 that day. It was you, Lieutenant Kim Woo Hyun. Let’s say your story is all true. Then you, Kim Woo Hyun, are an accomplice.”

Woo-Young has nothing to say, and Hyun Min dares him to prove which document – the speeding ticket or the immigration document – is a lie. He hopes Woo-Young will investigate Shin Hyo Jung’s case thoroughly, as his pride is at stake. Hyun Min then leaves the room, and Kang Mi quickly takes out the recording of the interview on a disc, and deletes the local copy on the computer.

Hyuk Joo storms into the interrogation room. What was he doing with his interrogation? What if people found out Kim Woo Hyun was an accomplice to the crime? Woo-Young is more concerned with why Nam Sang Won was trying to give him/Woo Hyun the entire laptop if the slush fund files were just documents that could have been sent over via email or USB. There’s something more to those files, and so Woo-Young goes off to look deeper into that. He orders Hyuk Joo to go look into Kang Eung Jin further. Hyuk Joo: “Who does he think to boss me around!? He thinks he’s the team leader!” Hee.

As Hyun Min leaves the station, he asks Director Moon when the Safe Tech vaccine programs will be installed in the police bureau. Once it’s installed, Hyun Min will be able to break the cyber crime team unit apart, and get rid of Woo Hyun once and for all. Uh oh…

Hyuk Joo goes to find Sang Woo to retrieve his handcuffs. Sang Woo holds out his arm, handcuffs still around his wrist: “You mean this symbol of betrayal?!?!?!” HAHAHA. Sang Woo is so pissed off that Hyuk Joo seriously mistrusted him and thought he was a criminal. Hyuk Joo just twists Sang Woo’s arms backwards (in the hope that the pain will make him stop complaining), and unlocks the cuffs. Sang Woo: “You know, you’re arresting a lot of innocent guys recently. Percentage of catching the real guy? ZERO.”

Sang Woo even goes so far as to call Hyuk Joo “hyung,” to which Hyuk Joo reminds him that at work, he must address him as “Team Leader.” Poor Sang Woo – his heart is hurting so badly… 😛

Woo-Young goes to visit Prosecutor Im about Jae Min’s case. Jae Min is clearly not the killer, but why is he prosecuting him as such? Woo-Young also finds it hard to believe that Prosecutor Im is helping Hyun Min so much, since they should naturally be enemies. All witnesses and those involved in the political slush fund case that put Jo Kyung Moon in jail are dying one after another. Is Prosecutor Im working with Hyun Min because of the money?

Prosecutor Im asks if Woo-Young is scared of money himself, since he’s not scared of money, but of something even greater. Hmm… I wonder what that card Hyun Min is holding over Prosecutor Im then… The prosecutor leaves Woo-Young unsatisfied, but not without some food for thought.

Hyuk Joo goes on the hunt for Eung Jin. Armed with Eung Jin’s recent calls history made on his phone, he finds that Eung Jin contacted someone with an internet phone. Kang Mi had helped him locate the true IP of the internet phone’s location, thus narrowing down the location of Eung Jin’s contact. At a stop light though, he sees someone following him on his rearview mirror. It’s Seung Yoon!

Hyuk Joo stops at a nearby sportswear store and waits for Seung Yoon to catch up. She’s incredibly angry with him – he was supposed to contact her when he had a scoop! What scoop? The suspect dying in the police bureau, of course! Why didn’t he answer her calls? Hyuk Joo: “Are we dating? Do I have to answer your calls all the time?” He puts on some jackets and asks for her opinion, but of course Seung Yoon says they’re ugly. He points to one behind her, and when she turns to get it for him, he hooks a jacket on her backpack without her noticing.

Seung Yoon continually insults his picks for jackets, so Hyuk Joo leaves, exasperated. She tries to follow him out, but the store clerk calls her out on the jacket hanging on her backpack – if she wants to leave, she has to pay for it.

Seung Yoon: “Honey!! You have to pay for this! Didn’t you say you’d buy this for me?”

BWAHAHA. Poor Hyuk Joo – he seriously got made to look like a sugar daddy just now. Embarrassed as heck, he’s forced to pay for the jacket and take her along for the ride. I thought he should have ditched her and ran, but I guess Hyuk Joo secretly has a soft spot for her.

Woo-Young drives back to the office, deep in thought. Why did Nam Sang Won have to give him the whole laptop when it was just the files that needed to be checked out? He then remembers a conversation he had with Hyun Min on the DDOS attack, and how Safe Tech profited from the attack after proving it could fight it. Had it been a set-up all along by Hyun Min, it would have been a very dangerous gamble because too many agencies were watching the company.

He also recalls his conversation with Prosecutor Im on what he’s so scared of, that there’s something worse than just bribery. Woo-Young wonders if a program was installed in the laptop… and he hits an epiphany. A program from Safe Tech!

Woo-Young hurries to CK Headquarters to ask about whether they used Safe Tech’s vaccine program at any point last year. A manager says that they did, having agreed to do beta testing for the program for a few days. They installed the program in the secretary’s and the CEO’s computers, and after a few days, Safe Tech came in and exchanged all the computers for new ones in case of malfunction. Woo-Young asks if they don’t have a single computer from those testing days left, and the manager gives a hesitant yes.

Back to our Odd Couple. Hyuk Joo has Seung Yoon go into the hair salon where the internet IP address had led them to. She looks around awkwardly, but sees nothing to note of. Hyuk Joo doesn’t trust her, but he’s not about to go and investigate himself. They get back into the car, not noticing a young man come out from a convenience store nearby, watching them.

That young man returns to the Dae Young offices, located in an obscure building nearby. He informs Dam Sa Myung that there might be detectives outside, but Sa Myung isn’t worried – they’ll never locate them with the internet IP address. He then gets a call from Hyun Min, who wants all the latest files from Prosecutor Im. Sa Myung hacks into Im’s computers and then forwards all documents and reports to Hyun Min.

Woo-Young returns to the bureau with one CK computer that still has the vaccine program. He got it from one of the employees who had taken the computer home instead of giving it back to Safe Tech. Because that program was in Nam Sang Won’s computer, it’s a program that was also in Young Suk’s copy of the hard drive. Woo-Young has Kang Mi analyze the Safe Tech vaccine program. She finds nothing off about it, so Woo-Young runs an analysis on the beta version of the vaccine program.

The beta version is actually a hacking program. Disguised as a vaccine program, it actually hacked into the computers and allowed Safe Tech access to all of the files. A year ago, Nam Sang Won must have realized his computer was hacked and went to Woo Hyun for help. This program was actually a criminal program, and so Hyun Min must have wanted the laptop to delete all traces of the beta version.

Hyuk Joo arrives just in time to hear the tail end of the conversation, and so Woo-Young brings him up to speed. After the DDOS attack, a lot of public companies have begun using Safe Tech for their vaccine program. However, Safe Tech is also hacking into these companies, and so they must be stopped. Woo-Young wants to go to Director Jun, but Hyuk Joo is still wary of him. Nevertheless, Woo-Young knows that they can’t stop Safe Tech themselves, so they’ll need Director Jun’s help.

They hurry to Director Jun’s office, where it just so happens Prosecutor Im is there waiting for them. Prosecutor Im: “Lieutenant Kim Woo Hyun? You left something that you shouldn’t leave. You are under arrest for violating the law of communication protection.” He holds up the USB in an evidence bag; it’s the USB that Seung Yoon gave Jae Hee that had a listening device on it. That USB ended up in the prosecutor’s office when all evidence was transferred over there. However, Prosecutor Im is choosing to believe that Woo-Young left the bug there on purpose to listen in on the prosecutor office’s plans.

Back in his office, Hyun Min smiles gleefully. Woo-Young is down!

Comments:

That’s a crazy twist. Once again Woo-Young is getting arrested, but this time for something he did not do. Instead, he’s paying for Hyuk Joo’s misconduct and will most likely be fired, and perhaps receive jail time. That gets him out of Hyun Min’s way for a few years perhaps. I do like that certain plot points are coming back up later in the series, such as the DDOS attack and the USB bug. They were important when they were big issues in the earlier episodes, but they’re now coming up as important clues and plot points again, either to help the Three Musketeers move forward or to act as obstacles.

I can see how Prosecutor Im is far more fearful of Hyun Min’s mind than he is of money. I think he knows Hyun Min’s hacked into his computer and has some files to hold against him. What’s worse than money is loss of privacy. Hyun Min is powerful because he has information, and it’s information that his victims usually think no one else in the world will ever have access to. Prosecutor Im is basically living his life while on thin ice, as he knows that Hyun Min can destroy him anytime, anywhere. Only the brazen ones who think they can outsmart Hyun Min get killed.

On a lighter note, I find it really funny that no one is sure whether they can trust Director Jun or not. I guess they’re more worried about him than other officers because he’s their direct superior. But they’re so suspicious that it’d be quite amusing to me if Director Jun ends up not being on Hyun Min’s side. And then he can be all affronted like Sang Woo.

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