Mysterious Il-seung: Episodes 15-16

by abirdword

I think we might finally be getting to the point where Jong-sam actually gets to pretend to be a cop and solve some crimes. The newly-formed Hidden Crimes Unit solves its first case together, while some more of the tangles that twist Jin-young and Jong-sam pasts together are unraveled.

 
EPISODE 15 RECAP

In the officers’ new basement office, Jin-young reveals to Jong-sam that she knows he is innocent of the murder of the prosecutor, because she saw him on the 18th floor of the Jinsung Group building at the time of the crime. Jong-sam asks why she didn’t tell anyone, and Jin-young says that she did in fact tell the detectives, but they didn’t believe her because Jong-sam had confessed. When Jong-sam asks what she was doing at the Jinsung Group building, Jin-young doesn’t answer and darts off.

Detective Park checks in with Chief Jang, who says that the team’s new assignment and new team member were all directives from above. The chief says that Detective Park’s team is the best place for Il-seung, so they can keep an eye on him. The detective’s protests are cut short when he gets a call from his team asking him to return.

They’ve called him back because Prosecutor Kim has dropped by. It seems that he’s been reassigned as well to the Hidden Crimes special investigations, and he’s not pleased at all to see Jong-sam in the unit. In fact, he promises to spend some time investigating Il-seung’s qualifications as a police officer.

Detective Park pulls Jong-sam aside to try to level with him. Jong-sam isn’t ready to blow his cover yet, especially as he recalls Ddakji’s final wish for him to be a real cop and punish those who had wronged them, so he confirms that he is really Il-seung, and he’s here to catch bad guys. With nothing left to do but accept what’s been given to him, Detective Park warns Jong-sam about the importance of trust and teamwork.

Prosecutor Kim exits the police station on a mission, and asks his assistant to get a list of all the unidentified corpses from the area morgues. He’s determined to find the real Il-seung.

Back in the station, Detective Park rallies the team around their new work, to solve the unsolved crimes that lack leads. He sends the crew out to gather up those crimes from area precincts, and also officially assigns Jin-young and Jong-sam as partners.

Detective Park asks Jong-sam what year he graduated from the police academy, and thankfully Jong-sam recalls that he was in 282. Dae-woong graduated in 283, leaving him still the maknae, and Min-pyo can’t resist teasing their baby officer. Jong-sam may not be the youngest, but he’s obviously the most inexperienced, as he admits that he didn’t bring street clothes to change into from his uniform.

Detective Park’s wife Cha-kyung drops by with coffee for everyone (Jong-sam has no experience with black coffee either and declines, aww), and then the detective ushers his team out. Dae-woong stops Jong-sam to give him the gossip on Detective Park’s wife, and how she used to be the detective’s partner’s girlfriend until the guy disappeared. Jong-sam doesn’t know enough to connect the dots yet though, so he just takes the info in.

In the Hidden Crimes Unit office, Detective Park plays off his nerves around his wife. Cha-kyung is as doting as always, but he can’t help but think back to his encounter with his old partner, and her former boyfriend, Detective Kang.

The league of corruption has assembled at Chairman Lee’s office when Detective Kang arrives to apologize for his lapse in judgement at the port. The chairman has no punishment to deliver, but lets Detective Kang know that if he’s going to do whatever he pleases, he’ll plan to do the same.

Lawyer Ahn steps out and then reports back that they’ve heard about Prosecutor Kim’s search for Il-seung’s body.

The men in black are going through their receipts to determine what they can write off for work reimbursement when they get the call asking them to confirm that Il-seung’s body has been cremated. Agent Kwak thinks it’s done, but Agent Ki pipes up that he never actually confirmed it and they scamper off to the morgue.

But Prosecutor Kim already has a lead from the morgue documents, specifically of a body that was left by Officer Oh Il-seung. We’ll see who gets there first.

Meanwhile, Jong-sam has stopped by Il-seung’s apartment to change into some street clothes. While he’s there, Ddakji’s phone rings with a call from Eun-bi.

And while everyone else is busy, Jin-young’s mom attempts to sell Jin-young’s necklace, the one that was her last gift from her father, at a jeweler. The store employee is good enough to call Jin-young before accepting the sale, and when Jin-young’s mom is put on the phone, she insists she wasn’t selling it, just pawning it temporarily for a little investment money. Jin-young threatens her mother with putting her on a wanted list if she doesn’t meet her at home right away.

Jong-sam meets Eun-bi at her pizza place job. He returns the phone that Eun-bi gave Ddakji, and she’s also here to return something to him. She hands over the plastic bag Jong-sam gave his friend, still full of a portion of the smuggled money.

Afterwards, Jong-sam finds himself in front of the night duty room where he last saw Ddakji before the accident. He notes the CCTV in the ceiling and knows that whoever grabbed Ddakji has to be on tape.

At Jin-young’s house, Mom is too excited about her investment plans to register the fury Jin-young directs at her. Jin-young decides that Mom can’t be trusted around her valuables and decides to wear the necklace to prevent future pawn attempts.

Jin-young asks where all Mom’s money has gone, and Mom says that she was offered a chance in on a big investment from another rich friend. The interest rates sound impossible, so Jin-young asks what kind of investment it is, and Mom throws her hands up like little antennae in response.

“Crickets,” Jin-young takes the info back to the station. Her mother has been conned into a pyramid scheme involving crickets, and Jin-young recruits her unit to help her expose the scam ring leader. Min-pyo suggests that Jin-young get her mom to introduce her to the people who made the offer so they can infiltrate.

Jin-young’s already done that and they plot a way for them to impersonate interested investors, but everyone’s a little concerned that they don’t look rich enough to convince anyone. Jong-sam, they decide as he enters the office, looks especially too dull for the part.

Jin-young gets the call from Mom, and next thing you know Jin-young and Mom are at a restaurant waiting to meet Mom’s contact. Mom mentions that Jin-young knows the man who extended the invitation, but Jin-young’s still surprised to see her father’s former employee, Mr. Choi, approach the table.

Mr. Choi has heard, incorrectly from Mom, that Jin-young is a diplomat, so he doesn’t suspect that she’s here to bust him. Jin-young assures him that she got rich investing in foreign stocks while abroad, so she’s down for the cricket investment.

Before Mr. Choi can get her signature on anything, however, Jin-young peppers him with questions about the business. It turns out that Mr. Choi himself is the CEO, and he agrees to let Jin-young see the cricket farm before she signs. And it’s not just Jin-young who wants to see it—she’s invited some other investors along.

Cue Min-pyo and Dae-woong, who walk through the door decked out in their best impersonations of rich dudes, a glorious burst of stiff winter coats and purple suits.

Meanwhile, Detective Park and Jong-sam didn’t make the cut and wait to tail the car in the parking lot. Jong-sam is distracted by his earlier efforts to follow-up on the CCTV footage from the night shift room. Jong-sam hoped to find evidence of Ddakji’s abductors, but the cameras recorded no one entering or exiting the room.

Jin-young and company eventually leave for the farm, and Detective Park draws Jong-sam back from his thoughts so that they can follow the car.

While the police are busy with their new case, Prosecutor Kim requests an autopsy for the body he suspects is Il-seung. Down the hall, the men in black see the results of their misstep and decide that they’ve got to report it to the chairwoman.

At the cricket farm, Detective Park and Jong-sam listen in via phone to Mr. Choi’s sales pitch. Detective Park wants the transaction ledger and bank account documents as evidence, and Jong-sam suggests they just go through the suspect’s car. Detective Park, upright police officer that is he, can’t imagine how they could accomplish that without the car keys.

Jin-young gets a call from Mom, who hasn’t received any money yet from her investment and instead watches as all of their furniture is repossessed. Mom begs Jin-young to ask Mr. Choi to send the money that he promised.

Mr. Choi is a little preoccupied, however, pitching the plan for the crickets. HE says they will use them as high protein food products, and because they’ll be getting in just as their use is approved in Korea, they’ll profit. The room is oddly silent for a cricket farm, and the farm workers/goons make sure to pry the officers away when they try to peek under the sheets covering the containers.

Mr. Choi reaches into one container and does pull out a real, live cricket to show off. But any further attempts to see the crickets is declined with the excuse that the crickets will get stressed. All of Mr. Choi’s bluster is no match for Jin-young, however, as she bursts in after hearing just how much money Mom has invested in the bogus scheme.

Jin-young throws off the cloth to reveal nothing but empty boxes. The goons pull knives to face off with Min-pyo and Dae-woong, but they’ve made the mistake of bringing knives to a taser gun fight, and the officers easily knock them out.

While Detective Park runs to help, Jong-sam picks the car lock in search of documents. Jin-young knocks Mr. Choi to the ground to make the arrest, and Jong-sam produces the company ledgers as the final piece of the puzzle.

Meanwhile, the men in black report back to the chairwoman. They’re pretty confident that they’ve covered their tracks in terms of fingerprints and dental records, but they do have the issue of the photos on both Jong-sam and Il-seung’s records matching Jong-sam. The agents have all sorts of drama-worthy potential explanations, like a case of doppelgangers or a secret twin birth secret. The chairwoman tells the men to ready Baek Kyung, just in case.

And indeed, Prosecutor Kim’s office has managed to pull a fingerprint from the corpse. It matches Jong-sam, not Il-seung, on paper, but the paper clearly shows a photo of the Jong-sam we all know and love.

Prosecutor Kim starts to finally piece things together, and he’s got an idea. He believes that fake Il-seung can serve as their witness. As the prosecutor rushes out, his assistant makes a call to Lawyer Ahn to let him know what’s going on. Ah, so here’s our inside man who’s been leaking info to Chairman Lee’s side. And this information seems to make the chairman nervous.

The police return to the station triumphant, but Jong-sam’s victory is cut short by Prosecutor Kim, who calls out Jong-sam’s inmate identification number.

EPISODE 16 RECAP

In his office, Prosecutor Kim lays out all the options he sees for Jong-sam. Option one: Jong-sam can admit that he’s an escaped convict and serve as a witness against Chairman Lee and the NIS before returning to prison. Option two: if Jong-sam continues as Il-seung, Prosecutor Kim will use the autopsy evidence to convict him, as Il-seung, of murdering Jong-sam.

Meanwhile, Chairman Lee continues to worry over this turn of events. The chairman recognizes and even appreciates the play that Prosecutor Kim can now make. His loyal lackeys are there to advise.

Chairwoman Gook seems downright eager to just murder Prosecutor Kim, but Lawyer Ahn thinks that kind of plan would be absolutely mad.

At Jin-young’s house, she tries to deal with her mother now that the bad guys are arrested and the house has been cleaned out of its furniture. Mom just doesn’t register how foolish this whole scheme was, and now she has a massive debt that she’s coy about how she intends to pay it back.

Jin-young won’t let it go, and Mom eventually breaks down, sobbing about how she wishes she at least had money to comfort her now that her husband is gone. Without the pursuit of money, Mom believes that she has nothing left in life. Jin-young listens to this tirade in silent resignation and finally holds her sobbing mother close.

After the confrontation, Jin-young heads out into the night. The bobby pins in her car remind her of the pivotal moment in the past when she last saw Jong-sam before he was imprisoned.

That night, young Jin-young had meant to surprise her father on his birthday with her early return from school. Mr. Choi spotted her first and took care of her bags while she headed up to her father’s office.

A noise in the hallway drew Jin-young’s attention, and that was when she spotted Jong-sam lurking around her father’s office door. When Jin-young returned with the birthday cake, Jong-sam was gone and her father’s office was empty. Jin-young saw her father’s will on his desk, under the jewelry box containing Jin-young’s necklace.

The phone rang in the office, and Jin-young picked up before rushing to the window. Down below, her father’s body lay in a bloody heap. Jin-young rushed to the street in tears, as Mr. Choi held her back from her father’s body.

Back in the present, Jong-sam lingers in the dark police office. It’s both his first and last day, and his empty desk shows that he hasn’t had the chance to accomplish anything yet. Prosecutor Kim’s offer lingers in his mind.

He’s surprised to see that Jin-young has also returned to the office this late at night. Jin-young is in no mood to be judged, and instead flips the conversation by making digs at Jong-sam’s name. Jin-young lists off the various crimes Jong-sam is committing by impersonating Il-seung, and she demands that he submit a letter of resignation.

Jong-sam has some questions for Jin-young first. She says that she told the police that he was in the Jinsung Building, but how did she know he was a murder suspect, when nothing had been released in the news yet of his arrest?

Jin-young, of course, was at the police station herself, trying to convince the police that her father’s death wasn’t a suicide. And specifically, that Jong-sam was her father’s killer.

Jong-sam doesn’t deny or try to explain anything, and just assures Jin-young that he’ll be fired soon. And then he thinks back to his answer to Prosecutor Kim, when he confirmed that he’ll go the Jong-sam route.

On his walk home, Jong-sam also recalls that the prosecutor plans to have a press conference at 8 p.m., and if Jong-sam fails to show up, he’ll issue a manhunt for him instead.

But of course, the evil league rolls up to intercept Jong-sam on the street. Chairwoman Gook presents herself officially to Jong-sam for the first time, though he recognizes her as the woman who told the agents to save the money before they helped Ddakji. She lets Jong-sam know she’s heard about the press conference, and then nods to the backseat, where a banged-up Detective Kang sits between the two ex-agents.

The chairwoman asks Jong-sam to trade himself for Agent Kang, while Agent Kang wags his head no from the backseat.

The time for the press conference approaches, and a knock at the door interrupts Prosecutor Kim’s nervous pacing. But the knock isn’t from Jong-sam, because he’s tied up in a warehouse somewhere, while Agent Kang has been released.

The prosecutor’s assistant arrives to tell him that the reporters are waiting, and so Prosecutor Kim grabs the file that details the murder case of Kim Jong-sam.

An alert for the press conference pings Agent Kwak’s phone, and he offers it over to the chairwoman so that she can pull it up on the tv. The press conference starts out as expected, but then Prosecutor Kim lifts up his evidence—he’s got the money that Jong-sam had given Ddakji, and has traced it back to the former NIS director Gook.

Once that is revealed, Agent Kwak dunks Jong-sam’s head into the barrel of water that sits in front of him. Prosecutor Kim isn’t done yet though; they’ve also found Chairman Lee’s fingerprints on the money.

Released from the water, Jong-sam recalls the moment when he was able to pass the money to Agent Kang as he was released from the agents.

Agent Kwak just keeps on dunking Jong-sam, but Prosecutor Kim has one last reveal, and Jong-sam keeps his head above water for this. The prosecutor shares Il-seung’s last words to him: “If you find me dead, that means I’ve been murdered.” Well, there goes any chance of the agents killing Jong-sam and staging a suicide.

The chairman demands Jong-sam’s presence, and the chairwoman tells Jong-sam to not get too excited about his efforts to bring the chairman down. Jong-sam scoffs; he’s not excited about any of this. He’s still mourning the death of his friend, a friend who was no threat at all to all the powerful people in the room, and he cries out in anguish.

The chairman is unimpressed with Jong-sam’s emotional outburst and waves him away. But Jong-sam has one last warning as the agents drag him away: the recovery of the money is only the beginning of the chairman’s undoing.

After the press conference, Prosecutor Kim meets Agent Kang in the bathroom to confirm that he’ll postpone Jong-sam’s murder charges. Agent Kang insists that the prosecutor knows that Jong-sam is innocent, and should just close the case instead.

At the police station, Min-pyo and Dae-woong take Mr. Choi’s written statement regarding the pyramid scheme. He complies but also asks to speak with Jin-young, and they call her in.

Later, Jin-young soaks in what Mr. Choi had to say. He told Jin-young that her father fell from the roof of the building, not his office, proving that it wasn’t a suicide (and also that it wasn’t Jong-sam who killed him).

Jong-sam makes his way back to the station and stops Jin-young to talk. He wants to tell her in person that he won’t resign being an officer until he arrests Chairman Lee. And finally, he tells Jin-young that he didn’t kill her father, and she tells him that she already knows.

She asks what he was doing up on the 18th floor, and he says that he was looking for her, so that he could finally tell her that he’s not some thug, he’s Kim Jong-sam, and to ask her name. But now here he is facing her at last, and his name is now Oh Il-seung. Jong-sam walks away, leaving Jin-young to watch his melancholy departure.

COMMENTS

I thought we would live to regret holding on to that small portion of the money, but instead I was never more grateful to see it reappear one last time (this is the last time, right?). Finally things came together in a way that felt like a win, instead of a scramble to just hang on.

The show took four weeks to get to its premise, and everything it did previously just made it seem an even more improbable setup. A convict escaping prison and impersonating a cop sounds like a far stretch, and when you pile on all the mishaps that have basically unmasked his secret identity to absolutely everyone, it’s hard to understand how anyone thinks it’s reasonable to put this fake Il-seung on a police squad.

But I guess that’s actually kind of the charm of the show as well. Logic doesn’t stand up well, so if you just let go and run with the action, it’s all pretty fun. I think that’s why some of the side characters, like the NIS agents and the other police officers, tend to shine, because they get to really play around in those scenes where it’s not so much plot driven as much as it is fun driven. I giggled every time I watched Min-pyo and Dae-woong strut into that restaurant in their fancy outfits because I mean, why not?

But also, what good villain puts all of his adversaries into one big unit? Doesn’t he understand that their strength will only grow? Who thinks pairing Jong-sam up with the one uncorrupt police team and the dogged prosecutor out to get him is the path to success?

And now the Hidden Crimes Unit has been tasked with gathering up all of the unsolved cases and taking a crack at them, so I’m guessing we’re heading into mystery-of-the-week territory. I’m actually kind of looking forward to it; I could use a break from Chairman Lee and his brand of evil.

I’m not sure how Jong-sam will turn out as a police officer. The man is a little dumb. And that’s not his fault. He’s been part of a society that has made sure he hasn’t had access to an education. But he did manage to pass the police exam, so will he still have some of that information tucked away from ten years ago? And how useful is that information when he’s never had the chance to actually use it in a real-life situation? I feel like practical on-the-job experience is more important than book smarts for a detective, so I’m not sure that will pan out for him. But we’ve seen that it’s his thief skills that might add a new element to the team, so perhaps everything will be fine even if he’s a bit of a bumbler.

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