Witch’s Court: Episode 4

by Sunny

Some of the hardest things to swallow are your own words, and Yi-deum has a hefty helping to choke back. She’s always drawn a line between herself and the victims, but now she’s forced to see things from their perspective, and it isn’t pretty. Luckily, she has a lot of spunk and a talented team to back her up no matter how fiendish their opponent may be.

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EPISODE 4 RECAP

Arriving home, Yi-deum dances about as she strips, unaware that Sang-yoon is watching her from hidden cameras. It isn’t until she’s out of the shower that she notices that her bathroom mirror is blinking. Pulling off the knob, she is shocked to discover the tiny camera.

Meanwhile, Jin-wook returns to the building and waits for the elevator, spotting Sang-yoon as he exits the stairwell. Jin-wook starts to follow, but the realtor catches him to say that he’s found a new tenant for Yi-deum’s apartment.

Thinking quickly, Jin-wook asks if this person was wearing a black cap like he’d just seen on Sang-yoon, and when the realtor confirms it, he demands the passcode for Yi-deum’s apartment. Panicked, Jin-wook fumbles with the keypad but succeeds in getting the door open before cautiously stepping inside. (Did he just grab a beer can for a weapon?)

Terrified, Yi-deum hides around a corner, clutching a frying pan. As Jin-wook’s footsteps draw near, she squeezes her eyes shut and jumps out, pan flailing. Fortunately, Yi-deum misses, and Jin-wook grabs her arms to stop her swinging again. Finally looking at her presumed assailant, the relief from seeing a familiar face saps the strength from Yi-deum’s legs, and Jin-wook catches her as she collapses to the floor.

Worried, Jin-wook asks if she’s okay, but Yi-deum explodes, demanding to know what he was thinking by barging into her apartment like that. Jin-wook starts to tell her about seeing Sang-yoon, but she cuts him off by asking if he’s entered her apartment before when she wasn’t home, and if he’s the pervert that planted the cameras. Frustrated, Jin-wook can only let out a sigh of disbelief.

Cut to: An officer removing the cameras while another questions the realtor about Sang-yoon. Glancing nervously at Yi-deum, the realtor says that perverts don’t necessarily look like perverts, but while Yi-deum is willing to give him that, she wants to know where he was when Sang-yoon was installing the cameras. The realtor begins to argue that he’d had a business call but trails off under Yi-deum’s gaze, mumbling that he has no excuse.

The officers hand the cameras over to Jin-wook, and he softens a bit at the distressed look on Yi-deum’s face. He tells her that they’ll start by reviewing the footage, but just then, one of the officers learns that Sang-yoon has turned himself in.

Seated in the police station, Sang-yoon morosely gives his statement to an officer. Eyes downcast, he says that that he felt vilified by Yi-deum’s interrogation, but deeply regrets doing such a foolish thing.

Behind him, Yi-deum bursts into the station, and he flinches when their eyes meet. Quickly glancing around, Yi-deum grabs a fire extinguisher and swings it at Sang-yoon, but Jin-wook steps in to catch it. Calmly, he points out that making a scene only helps Sang-yoon, and as if on cue, Sang-yoon drops to the floor to beg for Yi-deum’s forgiveness.

Bitterly, Yi-deum asks if he enjoyed seeing her naked, but Sang-yoon just bows his head and apologizes. Crouching down to his level, Yi-deum promises to break him to pieces, only for Sang-yoon to smirk in response. Whispering so that only she can hear, he not-so-subtly threatens to share the videos if she tries to use them. Visibly shaken, Yi-deum doesn’t even move as Jin-wook hauls Sang-yoon away.

The next day, Investigator Gu explains to Yi-deum and Jin-wook that the cameras only sent the video along and that the actual footage is contained on Sang-yoon’s tablet. Nodding, Jin-wook suggests they watch it, but before Investigator Gu can even turn it on, Yi-deum snatches the tablet away.

Horrified at the idea of viewing it together, Yi-deum says that she’ll check it herself. Jin-wook protests, but falls silent when Yi-deum cries that she was caught in the shower. She tells them to recover the footage from the broken PC first and then stalks out with the tablet.

Cradling the device to her chest, Yi-deum glances around nervously and finally darts into the bathroom. Locking herself in a stall, she shakily brings up one of the videos and can barely look at the screen as her eyes begin to tear.

At the team meeting, Prosecutor Min asks about the footage, but when Yi-deum is reluctant to answer, Jin-wook tattles that Yi-deum took the tablet to view first. Annoyed, Yi-deum admits that she’s in shock, and the other two female prosecutors rally to her defense, offering to take her case.

Yi-deum quickly thanks them but declines, citing the need to take care of her own problems. Wary, Prosecutor Min points out that as a victim, Yi-deum interrogating Sang-yoon would be seen as revenge, but Yi-deum clarifies that she only meant that she’d do her best as the original victim’s prosecutor. Seeming to accept this, Prosecutor Min assigns Yi-deum’s case to Jin-wook, much to his chagrin.

On the roof, Jin-wook tells Yi-deum that he refuses to take her case. He knows that she has no intention of handing over the tablet and will only push him around with her seniority, but she argues that they have enough to prosecute Sang-yoon as it is. Despite Jin-wook’s protests, Yi-deum is adamant.

Frustrated, Jin-wook repeats that he won’t take her case, but Yi-deum declares that the incident is partly his fault. She reminds him that he was the one who wanted her out of the apartment, thereby spurring her to put it up on the market. Covering her face, she chokes out that she wouldn’t have been caught on camera and suffered such humiliation… only to be called out by Jin-wook for faking. Hehe.

Admitting that he holds some responsibility, Jin-wook is firm that he’ll only give her a day to hand over the tablet, or he’ll be forced to report her for withholding evidence.

Jo Gap-soo marches through a busy fish market with his campaign posse, enthusiastically greeting citizens but as soon as he’s away from the cameras and crowds, he grumbles with irritation that elections are a bother. His right-hand man whispers something in his ear and the scene cuts to his office, where he tells a man over the phone that they’ll sell Hyunjae Hotel once he wins the election.

The man on the other end tells him not to bother and just send a good lawyer over. As soon as he hangs up the phone, Lawyer Heo enters the office, offering to take the case. She’s taken aback when he swiftly declines, and scoffs when he suggests that they use Yi-deum, but Jo Gap-soo snaps that Lawyer Heo lost to Yi-deum. Dismissing her, he tells Sang-ho to fetch Yi-deum for him.

Having just received his case, Lawyer Heo meets with Sang-yoon in prison. He’s pleased to have her represent him, but Lawyer Heo is wary of all his charges. Sang-yoon points out that they can’t prove that he uploaded anything, plus, he’d threatened Yi-deum that he’d post her video online if she tried to reveal it.

Unamused, Lawyer Heo wonders if he’s aiming to get thrown in jail, but Sang-yoon reasons this is his first offense and thinks that if he acts remorseful, he’ll get off. Lawyer Heo tells him that although she doesn’t normally take cases like this, she’s making an exception because of Yi-deum—however, Sang-yoon needs to tell her everything.

Arriving at their office the next morning, Jin-wook notices Yi-deum’s absence and tries to call her. Turns out she’s lying on one of the beds in their break room, and when his name flashes across her screen, she tuts that she’ll catch Sang-yoon with the original victim’s video. Her phone buzzes again, but this time, it’s Investigator Gu.

Unfortunately, Investigator Gu’s news isn’t good. Although he finished restoring the files on the PC, the video of their victim is corrupted and only the audio is intact.

Yi-deum and Jin-wook meet with Lawyer Heo and the judge. Lawyer Heo argues that the prosecution’s evidence is invalid as the key video lacks visuals, and the other recorded footage could’ve belonged to Sang-yoon’s roommate, since they shared a computer. Her main argument, however, is that they arrested Sang-yoon and searched his house without a warrant.

Yi-deum points out that there was no choice but to act before obtaining the warrant for fear that Sang-yoon would destroy the evidence, but the judge argues that they violated procedure and then kept quiet about it. Dismissing the video from evidence, he asks where Yi-deum’s video is, and she and Jin-wook hesitate before Jin-wook admits that there’s a problem.

To Jin-wook’s surprise, Yi-deum quickly assures the judge that the video is being restored, but she looks anxious as Lawyer Heo notes their expressions carefully.

Outside, Jin-wook accosts Yi-deum, demanding what she plans to do now that the victim’s video was dismissed and Sang-yoon may go free. He asks her again where the tablet is, but she tells him that she threw it out. Their voices rise as he warns her not to joke, and she shouts that she’s telling the truth.

Cut to: Mi-young and Investigator Gu dragging Yi-deum, who’s literally kicking and screaming, down the hallway. They shove her into the interrogation room and lock the door, apologizing before running away as fast as possible. Hee.

Investigator Gu then leads a search of Yi-deum’s office while Jin-wook braves the mess in Yi-deum’s apartment. Surveying the clutter, Mi-young says that it doesn’t look like Yi-deum’s been home in a while, but Jin-wook mutters that it always looks like this. She then says that she wouldn’t have wanted to sleep where cameras had been either, which gives Jin-wook an idea. Spinning around, he confirms if the break room at the office has lockers.

Back at the office, Prosecutor Ma chides Jin-wook for letting Yi-deum get out of hand. She tells him to write a report and then book Yi-deum for withholding evidence, but Jin-wook asks her to let Yi-deum slide. He explains that although he doesn’t want to let Yi-deum off either, she is a victim, and taking that into consideration, he can understand how she must feel. He adds that he’s also positive that Yi-deum isn’t so thoughtless to have thrown away the tablet.

Next thing we know, Jin-wook is releasing Yi-deum from confinement. As she stomps off, he asks if she’s hungry, and though she scoffs, he stomach betrays her by growling loudly.

In a restaurant, Yi-deum shovels food into her mouth while Jin-wook asks again for the tablet. Annoyed, she demands to know if he looks down on her because she’s a renter and was secretly filmed. Sighing, he says that he doesn’t look down on her, but it was somewhat gratifying that after she’d brazenly declared she’d never be videotaped, she could now see that no one becomes a victim by choice.

Jin-wook says that the reluctant second victim had decided to come forward, but without Yi-deum’s video, Sang-yoon could go free. She asks if he’s telling her to choose between resigning and baring her naked body to the public, but he amends that she’s choosing to either prosecute the perpetrator or run away as a victim.

Afterward, Yi-deum goes into the break room and retrieves the tablet from her locker. With a determined sigh, she turns it on… and finds the video files erased.

We flip over to Lawyer Heo meeting with Sang-yoon as he tells her that he’d installed an app on his tablet that deletes videos an hour after being viewed. Confidently, he tells her there’s no way the prosecution considered this, or else they would’ve submitted the video into evidence. Thinking back to Jin-wook and Yi-deum’s anxious behavior at the meeting with the judge, Lawyer Heo smiles to herself.

The day of the trial, the woman who’d been reluctant to testify sits in the witness box (albeit behind an obscuring partition) and gives her statement. She laments that she’d been fearful of pressing charges when her video was released, but she realizes now that she could have prevented more victims by speaking up sooner.

Lawyer Heo begins by asking if the video was taken with the victim’s consent, and while the victim argues that Sang-yoon had promised to delete the video after, she can’t deny that she had agreed to filming it. Lawyer Heo then asserts that the victim never saw Sang-yoon upload it, nor did he ever threaten or ask her for money. Arguing that Sang-yoon stood to gain nothing, and that the so-called videos cannot be produced by the prosecution, Lawyer Heo declares that Sang-yoon cannot be found guilty of the crimes of which he’s accused.

Sang-yoon takes the stand, and Jin-wook presents the cameras from Yi-deum’s apartment. Although he confirms installing them, when asked why, Sang-yoon flounders and looks to Lawyer Heo, who mouths for him to just apologize. He does.

Jin-wook then points out that Sang-yoon had admitted to resenting Yi-deum and asks why he chose to film her illegally as revenge. Sang-yoon doesn’t have an answer, and Jin-wook wonders if Sang-yoon had intended to make Yi-deum feel ashamed, as his other victims had.

Lawyer Heo addresses Sang-yoon’s intentions with installing the cameras, and he fervently denies planning to film anything. He tells her that he regrets his actions, and when Lawyer Heo asks why he did something he was going to regret, Sang-yoon admits that while he did film his girlfriends, he was also hurt when the videos were leaked. Despite this, Yi-deum had treated him like a criminal, and he’d become enraged.

Addressing the jury, Lawyer Heo proclaims that Sang-yoon admits his faults and is deeply remorseful, but Yi-deum can’t take it anymore. She snaps at them to drop the theatrics, since it’s becoming confusing as to who the victim and offender are. The judge admonishes her, but Lawyer Heo takes the opportunity to call Yi-deum to the stand.

Lawyer Heo attacks by demanding to know why the original victim’s video was not presented at trial, to which Yi-deum retorts that Lawyer Heo is the one who complained about something minor and had it removed. Aghast, Lawyer Heo wonders if illegally obtaining evidence is something “minor.”

Jin-wook raises an objection for irrelevance, and the judge tells Lawyer Heo to get to the point. Turning to the jury, Lawyer Heo declares that Yi-deum is known as a prosecutor that’s willing to anything to win, so she can’t help but wonder why Yi-deum didn’t submit the most crucial evidence in her case: the video.

Lawyer Heo asks if there’s a special reason Yi-deum withheld it… such as it never having existed, or somehow being rendered useless. As Yi-deum falters, Lawyer Heo smirks cruelly.

The judge recalls the prosecution promising to submit it, but Jin-wook doesn’t have a response. As the spectators begin to mutter, Lawyer Heo goes in for the kill and shouts that Yi-deum is lying about a nonexistent video in order to corner Sang-yoon.

Demanding an answer, Lawyer Heo is perplexed when Yi-deum smiles and looks over at Jin-wook, who nods as she cocks her head in a “go ahead” motion. Standing, Jin-wook holds up a flashdrive, which he submits as Yi-deum’s video.

A flashback shows us that after Yi-deum discovered the files missing on the tablet, Jin-wook had burst into the room and snatched it from her. She had demanded it back, but he’d refused, deftly avoiding her attempts to kick his shin. Exasperated, she’d told him she’d had her reasons and explained about the app Sang-yoon had installed to wipe the files.

Shocked, Jin-wook had desperately swiped at the tablet before Yi-deum cheekily held up a flashdrive. Continuing her explanation, she’d recalled how he’d had the original victim’s video destroyed and figured there was no way he’d save her video nicely. After she’d viewed the footage, she’d copied it and the next day found it missing from the tablet.

Sighing, Jin-wook had begun to ask why she hadn’t told him, but she cut in that they should use this to their advantage, allowing their opponents to think they were empty-handed and then BOOM, they’d surprise them like mail bombs from the Zodiac Killer (to which Jin-wook deadpans that she’d meant the Unabomber). Heh.

Back in the present, the spectators have been cleared out so that only the judge, jury, and council watch as Yi-deum’s video is played. Although she stares straight ahead, Yi-deum’s fingers fidget and her eyes are glossy as her shower scene plays behind her, and Jin-wook notices.

Yi-deum: “I’m a prosecutor. I’ve prosecuted numerous cases and thought only about how to prove the crime, and how to maximize the punishment. At times, I didn’t consider… the victim’s pain. Now that I’m here as a victim myself, I think… I can understand that pain for the first time. I showed that video, which may follow me and humiliate me for the rest of my life, as a penance for the victims who may have been hurt… by the person I used to be and what I did in the past.”

Pointing a finger at Sang-yoon, she pleads for the judge to punish him severely.

As they wait on the steps outside for a verdict, Jin-wook asks Yi-deum if she meant it when she said she’d done it to pay for hurting victims in the past. Smiling, she recalls that he had been a psychiatrist. Jin-wook confirms it, and Yi-deum asks if people change. He thinks for a moment before saying no, to which Yi-deum smiles and agrees.

Looking at her, Jin-wook can’t help but release a small laugh, but his gaze is soft. Yi-deum catches him and asks what’s with the “gross smile,” and it quickly disappears as they both look away. But a minute later, he laughs again.

Jo Gap-soo’s man, Sang-ho, arrives at the courthouse with orders to bring Yi-deum as soon as her trial finishes.

Jin-wook receives the call that the verdict is in, and he and Yi-deum make their way back inside just as Sang-ho comes up the steps, spotting them. Strangely, he recognizes Jin-wook and has a brief flashback where a high school Jin-wook asks the then-police officer, Sang-ho, to find out the address of a woman, whose picture we can’t see.

In the present, the judge sentences Sang-yoon to three years in prison, and Sang-yoon glares at Yi-deum, who fiercely holds his gaze as he’s guided out of the room.

Prosecutor Min praises the team for their hard work, particularly Yi-deum. Prosecutor Jang suggests they celebrate, but Yi-deum takes a rain check, preferring to drink alone tonight. She excuses herself, and Jin-wook’s eyes follow her as she goes.

Investigator Gu proposes that they celebrate anyway, prompting the remaining female prosecutors to excuse themselves. Jin-wook remains lost in thought, and Mi-young looks less than thrilled as Investigator Gu looks up bars on his phone.

Back home, Yi-deum starts to undress only to stop, her eyes darting around suspiciously. She shakes it off and tries to use the bathroom, but freaks out when she looks up at where the camera had been in her shower. Cautiously, she checks behind the bathroom mirror, but there’s nothing there.

Regardless, we cut to violent thrashing beneath her comforter, and when she emerges, she’s changed into her sweats. For a moment, Yi-deum thinks she sees the blinking of a hidden camera, but when she looks back, there’s nothing. Shaking her head, she mutters, “I can’t do this.”

Jin-wook arrives home, but before keying in his combination, he glances at Yi-deum’s door. He steps in front of it, hesitating for a moment before pressing the bell.

But Yi-deum isn’t home. She’s at a table outside a convenience store, on the phone with a telemarketer. Clearly drunk, Yi-deum thanks the woman for calling since she was soooooo lonely today. She whines that the eight cans of beer she just drank are stuck right before releasing a tremendous belch, at which point the telemarketer promptly hangs up.

Jin-wook appears and sits across from her, but Yi-deum says that she didn’t offer him a seat. He argues that she just said she was lonely, and she wonders if he had the place bugged. Scoffing, Jin-wook informs her that he has patience for everything but drunken stupidity.

She urges him to sit down, promising to give him a mental workout. Ignoring her, he asks if she wants to sleep at his place. Shocked, she asks loudly if he wants to sleep with her just as some women walk by. Heh.

Leaning down to meet her eyes, Jin-wook clarifies that he was offering to let her sleep at his place if she was nervous about the cameras that had been in her apartment, likening it to providing damage support as a prosecutor. Yi-deum playfully calls him a punk and giggles that he must like her. Unamused, Jin-wook tries to leave again, but Yi-deum calls him back, admitting that she was teasing.

Jin-wook takes Yi-deum to his apartment, and she marvels at how clean it is. Making herself at home in his recliner, she muses he must come from a rich family. Jin-wook ignores her and fixes the bed with clean sheets, telling her that he’ll sleep at her place, but when he turns around, she’s already passed out. Picking up a blanket from the couch, he watches her for a moment before throwing it roughly on top of her.

Elsewhere, Jo Gap-soo asks Sang-ho about Yi-deum and is shocked to learn he knows her mother, but that’s not all. Sang-ho also tells him that Jin-wook is the son of a woman called Go Jae-sook, which apparently also rings some bells.

Jin-wook picks his way through Yi-deum’s filthy apartment and wonders what he’s got himself into. Just then, his phone rings, and he panics when he sees it’s his mother who has seemingly just finished an interview. We don’t know what she does, but the plaque on her desk indicates a high position.

Flustered, Jin-wook answers his mother’s video call, and she immediately notices he’s not at home. He fumbles that he’s at a friend’s house, but his weird reaction has his mom wondering if it’s a girlfriend’s house. He awkwardly denies it before quickly asking what she wants. Apparently, she’d sent a housekeeper to his house earlier and she’d forgotten to plug his fridge back in.

Back in Jin-wook’s apartment, a woman is cooking in the kitchen with her back turned. Yi-deum snaps awake and looks over, surprised to recognize her mother. Mom chides her for sleeping so much, but Yi-deum just grins, saying it’s been a while. Mom holds out something for her to taste, but Yi-deum declines, saying that she can see Mom longer if she stays where she is.

Eyeing the meal, Yi-deum guesses that her mom came because it’s her birthday. Mom jokes that no one else would celebrate for someone so mean, and Yi-deum admits that she’d thought a lot about her today.

But it’s all a dream because at that moment, Jin-wook is bending to plug in the fridge in the dark kitchen while Yi-deum sleeps in the recliner. As he’s sneaking back out, Jin-wook hears Yi-deum call for her mother.

In the dream, Mom says she needs to run to the market, and Yi-deum pleads with her to stay a little longer. Finally, Mom turns to face her and asks if she’s sick, reaching out to touch her forehead. In the real world, Jin-wook sees tears streak down Yi-deum’s face as she whimpers for her mom.

He reaches out to touch her forehead, and as she takes her mom’s hand, cupping it to her cheek in her dream, she does the same thing with Jin-wook’s hand in reality. He stares at her softly as she cradles his hand and weeps for her mother.

 
COMMENTS

Ooof! That really tugs at the heartstrings. The loss of her mother has always been Yi-deum’s driving force, so it makes sense that on her toughest day (and birthday to boot?), she dreams of the person she most wants to see. That entire exchange was lovely and sad, and it just drives home how deep Yi-deum’s scar runs. It makes you wonder if part of the reason she avoids empathizing with the pain of others is because her own pain is so great.

This episode was so satisfying. As much as I love Yi-deum, her disregard for the feelings of the victims tended to leave a bad taste in my mouth so, like Jin-wook, I felt gratified to see Yi-deum forced into their shoes for once. It was a hard lesson, and while I don’t think Yi-deum will suddenly be as empathetic as Jin-wook, I do think that she’ll be a bit more cautious in regards to victims going forward.

Yi-deum’s always argued that winning cases requires sacrifices, and this time, it was her turn to pay up. I was impressed with how she handled it and applaud her for her instincts in copying the evidence, but I only wish she’d felt able to trust Jin-wook rather than leaving him in the dark until nearly the final hour. Having basically grown up on her own, she lacks the ability to rely on anyone other than herself, and I’m looking forward to seeing Jin-wook break down that wall.

I really loved their exchange on the courthouse steps because I think there’s more than one way to interpret what was said. You could take it at face value that while she made a lovely speech in court, people don’t really change… but I think she meant that she’s not really as cold-hearted as she would have everyone believe. And how cute was the way that Jin-wook just smiled at her? He’s slowly starting to see that she’s really not made of stone, and that final scene where he looked at her so tenderly as she cried just goes to show that he’s already got one foot in the danger zone.

I’m nervous about Jo Gap-soo’s interest in Yi-deum, and now that he knows who her mother is, that concern has only intensified. It’s not hard to do the math, and if he really is her father, it won’t take long for him to put the pieces together—and who knows what he’ll do with that information?
Not to mention that there seems to be something with Jin-wook as well. Who was a teenaged Jin-wook searching for? And does Jo Gap-soo only know his mother professionally, or is there something more sinister at play?

 
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