Two Cops: Episodes 15-16

by LollyPip

Aaaargh, our star-crossed detective and con man know they have to work together to solve their mystery and get their lives back, but they just can’t stop being angry with each other long enough to get some focus! It’s like one step forward, ten steps back for those two. At least Su-chang gets his big chance to be swoony for Ji-an, although that does include what looks like the most painful piggyback ever.

 
EPISODE 15 RECAP

Dong-tak pulls over on his drive home, overwhelmed with memories of kissing Ji-an (he’s so cute, he even has the hiccups). As for Ji-an, she stays up late berating herself for closing her eyes and giving in to the kiss. Having witnessed the whole thing, Su-chang visits his comatose body, calling himself an idiot and yelling at himself to just lie there forever.

Watch the scene

Post-kiss hiccups

 
During a work meeting, Ji-an is too giddy to pay attention, and when her boss calls on her, she murmurs, “His lips were sweet…” She wonders what to do about Dong-tak, then pulls herself together, deciding to find some evidence to help out his investigation.

Dong-tak takes the entire pile of discarded gifts he found on assault victim Min-ah’s rooftop back to the station. He confirms that Sung-hyuk got pictures of both Min-ah and her boyfriend, whose name is Kyung-chul.

Still at the hospital, Su-chang tries to push the memories of seeing Dong-tak kissing Ji-an out of his mind. He shoulder-checks a doctor in frustration and belatedly realizes that he was able to touch the man, and it cheers him up.

Further down the hall, Su-chang sidesteps to avoid a woman, and she sidesteps to avoid him at the same time. It dawns on Su-chang that she can see him, and he looks up to see Min-ah’s spirit, who’s equally shocked that he can see her. Su-chang screams at the top of his lungs and flees like a big ol’ ninny.

Ji-an shows up at the station looking for Dong-tak, and she looks through the pile of Min-ah’s discarded things while she waits. She finds shreds of what looks like a ripped up note, so she pieces them together like a puzzle. When she’s finished, she’s shocked at what she reads.

Having been told by forensics that they don’t have time to examine his evidence right away, Dong-tak takes it to Yong-pal and Doc. He tells them that Min-ah was assaulted and is still unconscious, and asks them to look at the evidence pictures to see if they pick up any clues. Doc immediately notices the photo of the slash on boyfriend Kyung-chul’s arm, which he doesn’t think looks like a defensive wound, as Kyung-chul claimed.

Dong-tak and Yong-pal re-enact the supposed confrontation between Kyung-chul and the robber (ha, Dong-tak tricks Yong-pal into playing the robber). Doc confirms that the wound looks as if whoever held the knife hesitated, like you would if you were stabbing yourself.

When he gets back to the hospital and sees Min-ah’s boyfriend, Dong-tak openly says that he’s onto him. Kyung-chul just stares at him, no reaction in his expression.

Ji-an shows the detectives the note, which appears to be an agreement that Kyung-chul wrote, promising to honor her wishes to break up if he ever hits her again. Something makes Ji-an suddenly hurry out of the building, but she comes up short to see Dong-tak walking her way.

He stops at the sight of her, and they both stand for a long minute, unsure of what to say. Finally Dong-tak blurts out that he’s got evidence that Kyung-chul lied, and Ji-an replies that she found evidence that Min-ah wanted to break up. Their excellent teamwork makes them both smile.

Kyung-chul is brought in, swearing up and down that he didn’t do anything. Dong-tak explains about hesitation wounds, and asks if Kyung-chul is the one who hit Min-ah. Kyung-chul repeats that he didn’t, so Dong-tak pulls out the written promise to break up.

He orders Kyung-chul to look him in the eye, but Kyung-chul’s gaze slides away guiltily. Dong-tak says that the worst man in the world is one who hits women, but even worse than that is a person who uses violence and calls it love. Kyung-chul asks for a lawyer.

Dong-tak’s interrogation is interrupted by a call from Chief Prosecutor Tak, who says that he’s with a very powerful lawyer friend who claims to represent Kyung-chul. But then he says that a sword is only worthy if used well, and urges Dong-tak not to become a rusty sword, or to stop even in the face of temptation.

Dong-tak promises to treat Chief Prosecutor Tak to a meal, and when they hang up, Chief Prosecutor Tak dismisses the lawyer, who leaves in a huff. Chief Prosecutor Tak remembers seeing Dong-tak with the con men and thinking he was corrupt, but now he tells himself that that’s not the case.

Feeling confident, Dong-tak tells Kyung-chul that he just got very unlucky. Later Kyung-chul sits in the bathroom stall, freaking out about having been caught, and Detectives Park and Lee come in. Kyung-chul listens as they discuss the lack of CCTV cameras around Min-ah’s building, so there’s no real evidence that he assaulted his girlfriend.

Feeling smug, Kyung-chul goes back to his original story, that Min-ah was attacked by a robber. He claims that he almost made a false confession because he was scared of Dong-tak, and he practically dares them to arrest him with only circumstantial evidence.

Without a witness statement, the detectives know that they’ll have to release Kyung-chul soon. Detective Yoo asks why Kyung-chul came back from the bathroom with such a different attitude, and Detectives Lee and Park look guilty.

Ji-an brings Dong-tak a drink, and she tells him that she’s not worried the bad guy will go free because she trusts Dong-tak. He says she’s even better at investigating than reporting and should have been a cop, but she sighs that two cops in one family would make a home feel like a police station.

Dong-tak is surprised to learn that there’s a cop in Ji-an’s family, but he gets distracted by her lips when she takes a sip of her drink. She catches him staring, then does the exact same thing when he takes a drink.

Jin-an asks Dong-tak if he has anything to say to her, but he pretends he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She starts to mention their kiss, but Detective Lee summons Dong-tak inside, and he practically runs Detective Lee over avoiding Ji-an’s question. She’s left wondering if she’s the only one who felt butterflies.

Knowing that only a statement from the victim will help the case, Dong-tak heads to the hospital and goes to Su-chang’s room to look for him. He’s there, but so is Bong-sook, watching over his body.

She thinks Dong-tak followed her and worries that Su-chang will wake up and see them together, so he tells Su-chang to come to the hall. Still confused, Bong-sook follows him, but he tells her coolly that he has no business with her.

He tells Su-chang to follow him, so Bong-sook follows again, and Dong-tak tells her to stay put. I could watch this bit all day. As she watches him go, Bong-sook realizes that he was calling her “agasshi,” (Su-chang calls her “Go Bongs”), and guesses that he must like her an awful lot.

Dong-tak asks if Su-chang really saw Min-ah’s spirit, and Su-chang says that he can see her, but she seriously creeps him out. Dong-tak asks for Su-chang’s help, giving him his most earnest puppy-dog eyes, but Su-chang still refuses.

He’s being petty after seeing Dong-tak “shove his face into Song’s,” he mutters to himself, sure that the person Ji-an likes is actually him. But Dong-tak says that the guy he’s trying to catch is a woman-beater, asking Su-chang sincerely, “Help me.”

Su-chang caves, and they find Min-ah’s spirit sitting on a bench outside. Su-chang says over and over that he’s a spirit too so he’s totally not scared, but he still looks like he could take flight at any second as he sits next to her.

On Dong-tak’s urging, Su-chang tells Min-ah that he’s a spirit like her, and he almost cries with fear when she looks at him, ha. He says that Dong-tak is trying to arrest her boyfriend and needs to know if Kyung-chul put her in her coma. Min-ah doesn’t speak, so Su-chang begs Dong-tak to let him leave.

He says Dong-tak should just talk directly to Min-ah, but sees that she’s wandered off. He tells Dong-tak she’s still sitting next to him, and he giggles madly when Dong-tak introduces himself to an empty bench. Dong-tak almost figures out that Min-ah is gone, so Su-chang pulls the same act he played on Yong-pal, pretending to beg her to stop crying.

Meanwhile, Ji-an interviews Min-ah’s neighbor, who describes the fights she used to hear from Min-ah’s apartment. Min-ah’s friend remembers her mentioning someone who was a victim of dating violence, and feels guilty for telling her that her “friend” was stupid for not leaving.

Even the policeman who previously said Kyung-chul was a hero for saving Min-ah’s life admits that he saw Min-ah outside the police station a few times, as if she wanted to report something. Ji-an imagines that she sees Min-ah walking in her neighborhood, looking lost and frightened.

Su-chang swears that he did his best to talk to Min-ah, but Dong-tak has another idea. He thinks that since Min-ah came looking for him once before, she might be willing to talk to him. But since he can’t see or hear her, he asks Su-chang to possess him, listen to her story, and convince her to wake up.

He tells Su-chang that it’s only until the case is solved, then he wants his body back immediately. He says Su-chang will have to figure a way to bleed to get himself kicked out, but Su-chang gets a mischievous gleam in his eye, as if he intends to do no such thing.

They head to the men’s room, where Dong-tak gets wet and lets Su-chang in. Su-chang decides he needs a new hairstyle and pulls out the hair gel, coolly slicking his hair back.

 
EPISODE 16 RECAP

Once settled in Dong-tak’s body, Su-chang nervously approaches Min-ah’s spirit. She’s shocked he can see her, but seems unable to speak. Su-chang talks to her like an oppa, saying that guys like Kyung-chul need to be punished.

Waving off some onlookers who think he’s talking to himself, Su-chang reminds Min-ah that she came to him for help, and he can tell he’s making progress by her fidgety hands. To gain her trust, he reveals that he’s actually a spirit like her, using Dong-tak’s body to seek revenge on the person who put him in his coma.

He says that he can’t wake up but she can, but she still shakes her head and says nothing. Changing tactics, Su-chang leads Min-ah to the emergency room, reminding himself not to look at any blood. He shows Min-ah a woman whose husband gave her a concussion for talking back, then a guy who got hit by a brick while walking past a building, laughing that their injuries are their own fault.

A woman is brought in who was beaten unconscious by her boyfriend, and Su-chang wonders out loud what she did to deserve it. Distressed and upset, Min-ah finally bursts out, “Why? Why?? Why is that their fault?”

Su-chang says that she’s right—they did nothing wrong, and neither did she. He tells her it’s time she wakes up and tells the world the truth. Min-ah asks tearfully what would change, sobbing that she doesn’t have the courage to go back to the way things were, and she runs away.

Su-chang wipes away a tear of his own and watches her go, thinking that he was trying to get to her, but she got to him instead.

He sees Ji-an entering the hospital and follows her to Min-ah’s room. She sits with Min-ah and plays the recordings she took of her friends and neighbors, all of them expressing concern for her and saying that she did nothing to deserve Kyung-chul’s abuse.

Ji-an tells Min-ah that she really envied her while she was working her case, because there are so many people on her side. Su-chang watches her through the window as Ji-an asks Min-ah to “come back from her picnic.”

With no concrete evidence against him, Kyung-chul is released. At the same time, in the hospital, Min-ah opens her eyes. She gives a statement, but when the detectives go to Jae-hee for a warrant for his arrest, he says he can’t do it based solely on the victim’s statement.

His assistant reminds him of a similar case, where the supposed victim was found to have staged her assault to frame her boyfriend after he broke up with her. Dong-tak argues that Kyung-chul really did beat his girlfriend nearly to death, insisting that they may lose him if they don’t arrest him for assault right now. But Jae-hee says this is no assault case—he plans to indict Kyung-chul for attempted murder. YES!

The detectives go after Kyung-chul right away, arresting him for attempted murder. Chief Prosecutor Tak learns that Jae-hee helped Dong-tak with the case while having tea with Commissioner Noh and Superintendent Ma, and he slams his phone down and dismisses them.

On their way out, Commissioner Noh tells Superintendent Ma that he’s disappointed in him, warning him not to forget who he works for. Superintendent Ma says that Chief Prosecutor Tak may be worse than they thought, but Commissioner Noh refuses to listen to him.

Superintendent Ma catches sight of Chief Prosecutor Tak’s ever-present server, recalling that Chief Prosecutor Tak told him she can neither hear nor speak. He’d assured Superintendent Ma that he needn’t worry about her leaking information, but he doesn’t seem so sure.

Flying high after solving the case, Su-chang decides not to return Dong-tak’s body right away. He goes shopping, buying himself a snazzy new coat and watch. He talks to Sung-hyuk with an eye on his nice car, saying that a cop’s car should have a few dents and scars to really look good. Sung-hyuk buys it, and asks Su-chang to trade cars for the day.

Sung-hyuk has a date with Bong-sook, and he follows her as she goes on a shopping spree, grabbing anything and everything she likes. She gives Sung-hyuk a pointed look when it’s time to pay, which he misunderstands to mean she wants privacy, so he leaves, HAHA.

Bong-sook abandons her shopping and they go to the same noodle place where she used to eat with Su-chang. She asks if Sung-hyuk is rich, and he says that he’s pretty well off, so Bong-sook assumes he’s just cheap.

When their food comes, Sung-hyuk watches Bong-sook eat with the same besotted intensity with which she used to watch Su-chang. He asks to see her wallet so he can check her age, thinking that he’s probably younger than her even though she calls him oppa.

He frowns at a picture of her with Su-chang, and complains that he looks like a con man. It reminds Bong-sook of when Su-chang saw Ji-an’s ID photo and called her pretty, which made Bong-sook jealous.

After dinner, Sung-hyuk offers Bong-sook a ride home, but instead of his sleek sports car, she gapes at Dong-tak’s old beater. Sung-hyuk proudly tells her that a cop’s car should have some scars, but Bong-sook snaps irritably that she’s not riding in that thing.

Ji-an gets a visitor, her father’s old partner, who tells her that he’s retiring, and he’s tired of her constantly calling him. He came to tell her that her father wasn’t corrupt, and had no reason to take his own life. Ji-an thanks him, saying that’s what she wanted to hear.

After their talk, she walks in a daze, and Su-chang sneaks up beside her driving Sung-hyuk’s car. Ji-an gets in, and he tells her to look in the glove compartment. Inside, she finds the bracelet she noticed at the street vendor the other night, that he’d secretly bought her.

Tickled, she asks if this is him confessing to her, but Su-chang says that not every gift is a love confession. He notes her annoyed response and asks if she was expecting a confession, and she blusters that she wasn’t. But she cheers up when he mutters that he’ll have to do that soon.

He takes Ji-an to a nice steak restaurant for dinner, and when she asks if it’s not too expensive, he says they can have fun and “let him clean up the mess.” He tells Ji-an that he saw what she did at the hospital, and she tells him she learned from him how to speak from the heart. Knowing she’s referring to Dong-tak, Su-chang asks petulantly why she’s talking about him.

Watch the scene

Don’t talk about him in front of me

Ji-an points out how things just work out when they work together, and says that when he apologizes and promises not to get her involved in things again, it just makes her want to get closer. Su-chang interrupts, sighing that he hates this and asking why she’s talking about another man when she’s with him.

Ji-an is confused, and Su-chang continues that this isn’t why he handcuffed her, referring to the bracelet as a handcuff. He says, “From now on, look at me and be with me, not him.”

The moment is ruined when his phone rings, and Ji-an grabs it to answer. It’s the detectives calling about another urgent case, but when they rush over, they find the team just out drinking. Su-chang is grumpy about them ruining his fancy date, but Ji-an happily sits and starts drinking.

She fits right in with the guys, pouring and accepting drinks and getting drunker as the night goes on. At one point she pouts a loud “Oppaaa!” and Su-chang is thrilled to realize she’s talking to him. Right in front of everyone, Ji-an whines that he kissed her but hasn’t confessed to her yet.

The detectives all growl at Su-chang for stealing a kiss without a confession, and he tries to tell them that it wasn’t him. Ji-an walks over to him and grows serious, touching his face the same way Dong-tak touched hers, and Su-chang goes very still. Ji-an giggles and goes back to drinking, but Su-chang stays shaken for a while.

Watch the scene

Piggyback promise

 
He ends up piggybacking Ji-an home, and she grabs him by the hair and yanks his head around, drunkenly forbidding “Dong-tak” to ever leave her. Su-chang is forced to make the promise or risk losing his scalp. Then Ji-an demands a cake she sees in the bakery window, and when the Bakery Boys hand it over, Su-chang promises to pay them later.

Eventually Su-chang stops for a break, setting Ji-an down on some steps. She drops her head to his shoulder and murmurs that he smells like her dad, calling him Detective Cha. It upsets Su-chang, who tells her that he’s not Dong-tak, but Gong Su-chang.

She drunkenly repeats his real name, then looks up at him. She stares at him for a long time, then leans in and kisses him. It’s gentle and sweet, and when it’s over, Su-chang looks into Ji-an’s eyes, and she returns his gaze unabashedly.

Then suddenly Su-chang clutches his chest in agony. Oh no. His body has gone into cardiac arrest again, and the doctors shock him over and over while in Dong-tak’s body, Su-chang struggles to stay conscious. His nose starts to bleed, and when he wipes it away and sees the blood on his hand, he’s ejected from Dong-tak’s body.

Back in control of himself, Dong-tak looks at Ji-an, and an expression of rage comes over his face and he roars, “I warned you!” He looks around and sees Su-chang standing nearby, and he reminds him angrily that he told him not to go near Ji-an again. Confused, Ji-an looks to see who Dong-tak is talking to, but sees nobody there.

Watch the scene

A heart-stopping confession

 
COMMENTS

So wait, did Ji-an know she wasn’t kissing Dong-tak? She was drunk as a skunk, but she did hear him tell her who he is and repeated his real name back to him, so who knows what she understood. I know she thinks it’s Dong-tak she’s with when Su-chang tells her how he feels about her, but the truth is that Dong-tak, other than kissing her, hasn’t ever led Ji-an to believe that he has feelings for her. In fact, he refused to confess to her, even after kissing her. I know I said before that I think it’s Dong-tak that Ji-an really likes, but now I wonder if I’ve been wrong and it’s actually Su-chang she’s falling for. But it’s not that simple, and things are going to get really complicated when Ji-an learns that the man she’s falling for is actually two different men.

In addition, I’m torn on this whole “don’t go near her” attitude that Dong-tak is adopting in regards to Ji-an. It’s true that he kissed her first, but if it weren’t for Su-chang advancing the relationship whenever he’s in control of Dong-tak’s body, there might not even be a growing romance between them at all. And like Ji-an said, Dong-tak kissed her but he didn’t confess to having any feelings for her. But Su-chang isn’t really in a position to woo her considering that he’s using someone else’s body to do it, and Dong-tak is correct to warn him away from starting anything using someone else’s body. But I don’t think Dong-tak has the right to act like Ji-an is his, because as things stand at this moment, she’s not. If Su-chang were awake and in his own body, he’d have just as much right to pursue her as Dong-tak (provided that Ji-an allowed it, of course).

Both Dong-tak and Su-chang annoyed me in this episode, because I get that this case was important and they did finally start working together in the end, but I’m so frustrated that Su-chang’s time is running out and they’re letting petty personal squabbles get in the way of solving the mystery of who framed his father. They realized two episodes ago that solving that case was the key to getting Su-chang his life back and Dong-tak his body back, but they’ve done nothing about it since. They should both be feeling some urgency to start looking into that, because not only is Su-chang’s actual life on the line, but Dong-tak feels guilty that his efforts were thwarted back then and you’d think he’d be interested in making good on his promise. But no, they’d rather argue over a girl than focus on what’s really important. They have a month left to get everything wrapped up—the girl issue can wait!

That said, I did like that they finally, though begrudgingly, agreed to work together to solve the domestic violence case, and it was an interesting story. Min-ah was deliberately keeping herself in her coma to avoid her abusive boyfriend, and she needed someone to talk her into facing life again so they could put the creep away. The solution was great, to use Su-chang’s ability to see her and Dong-tak’s face to earn her trust, even though it was ultimately Ji-an showing Min-ah how much she’s loved that did the trick. But then Su-chang betrayed Dong-tak again by using his body past the point where he had permission. Not only that, but he used Dong-tak’s body to take advantage of Ji-an’s emotions and spend time with her, and that makes me really, really angry with him. I don’t think he’s a bad guy at heart, but he’s lived in survival mode for so long that he doesn’t realize how his actions hurt others. He’s got a lot of growing to do before he becomes a trustworthy person.

And once again, I’m baffled by Chief Prosecutor Tak’s actions. Why would he call in a colleague to say he’s the abusive boyfriend’s lawyer, making it seem as though he’s going to help the abuser go free, only to instantly negate the whole thing? Why call Dong-tak to tell him all this, then encourage him not to let anything deter him from his goal? It felt like Chief Prosecutor Tak was pushing Dong-tak to continue his investigations into Hang-joon’s death, but that seems counter to what we’ve been led to believe, that he’s in on the cover-up. I’ve been assuming all this time that Chief Prosecutor Tak is corrupt and that he intends to make sure Dong-tak doesn’t discover the truth about the past, but now I wonder. Is Chief Prosecutor Tak actually one of the good guys, pretending to be one of the bad ones to earn their trust? Will he ultimately help Dong-tak? I guess time will tell—it would be an interesting twist.

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