Two Cops: Episodes 9-10

by LollyPip

Realizing that his time is limited and angered by some recent discoveries, Su-chang is tempted to strike out on his own. But can a person go through the things he’s gone through and remain unchanged? Su-chang has a lot to learn while on this journey, and he’s about to get a very hard lesson in loyalty.

 
EPISODE 9 RECAP

Dong-tak and Su-chang realize, at the exact same time, that they met as children when Su-chang and his father were in a car accident. Su-chang had asked Dong-tak for his help catching the person who’d framed his father. But something must have gone wrong in the past, because now Su-chang looks at Dong-tak with utter disgust and calls him a con man.

They’re distracted when Ji-an runs towards Dong-tak and into the path of a car, and they both rush to her. Dong-tak pulls her to safety and asks if she’s okay, and it becomes clear by his voice and grin that it’s Su-chang, back in Dong-tak’s body.

He’s thrilled to be able to talk to Ji-an again, though he says obliquely that he wishes she could see inside him. They discover that they’re both at the hospital about Soo-young, the missing girl who was just found, so they go to her room together.

Soo-young is unconscious, badly dehydrated, and severely injured. Ji-an tells Su-chang that she met Soo-young once before, feeling guilty that if she’d given her a better talk then, Soo-young might not be in this situation now.

She promises the girl’s sleeping form that she’ll catch whoever did this. Nurse Da-jung notices Soo-young’s pretty nail art and mourns the fact that she’ll have to remove it, but Ji-an asks her not to take it all off, because “her nails are her swag,” recalling the words Soo-young had used.

Su-chang talks Ji-an into visiting his comatose body next, and when she asks “Dong-tak” if this is the con man he mentioned, Su-chang stammers that he might not be a con man anymore. He tries to get her to agree that he’s more handsome than Dong-tak, but he just confuses himself.

He leaves, muttering that he’ll just see her again once he’s awake. He turns back when Ji-an addresses his sleeping body, though he can’t quite hear what she says as she tells him to come back soon because Dong-tak is worried about him.

As they leave, Su-chang remembers again that Dong-tak is “that son of a bitch” who conned him as a child. He thinks how interesting it is that he’s in Dong-tak’s body now, then wonders how he got in this time.

He thinks about the first time, when they jumped into the river, then this time when they leaped in front of a car, but decides that figuring out how to get back into his own body is more important. When Ji-an calls out to him, he wonders if she’s seeing him or Dong-tak.

At the station, rookie Sung-hyuk finds a website for teens who want part-time jobs, where it seems that a lot of teenage girls end up deleting their accounts and disappearing. Detective Lee calls in to report that Soo-young’s teacher said she was worried about college tuition. Two days ago, she’d texted her teacher saying she wasn’t going to college, then didn’t show up for school.

Su-chang and Ji-an visit the hospital room of the recruiter who was attacked by Soo-young’s boyfriend. He claims that he’s never seen Soo-young before, even when Ji-an reminds him that she saw them together at the coffee shop. She tells him that the girl went missing, but Su-chang interrupts and lies that she hasn’t been found yet.

He pulls a protesting Ji-an out of the room, and the instant they’re gone, the recruiter jumps out of bed and makes a phone call. He reports that he said what he was supposed to, and that he thinks the detective believed him.

Ji-an is angry with Su-chang, who asks what he was supposed to do when the guy said he didn’t know Soo-young. Ji-an says that this isn’t like him, because Dong-tak has a sense of justice and never gives up.

But Su-chang looks a bit angry as he says, “You’re wrong, Song. Cha Dong-tak isn’t who you think he is.” He decides he’s too upset to take her home and leaves her confused.

There’s a meeting at the station, where the team discusses the temp agency that Soo-young was speaking with, Dream International. They’re shady brokers that work with the employers, who fire the kids soon after hiring them. The teens go back to the agency for new jobs, paying a finder’s fee each time. The man who was attacked by Soo-young’s boyfriend is only a puppet boss—the real person in charge is someone named Manager Park.

The detectives notice that Su-chang is quiet, and he grumbles when they say he isn’t acting like himself. He mutters that he doesn’t want to do any more good deeds in this body and just doodles about revenge. After the meeting, he heads over to the Information Division and asks a female cop about the file on a car accident from sixteen years ago, but it’s locked under a high security clearance.

Su-chang tries to flirt her into helping him, and from the look on her face, she agrees just to get him to stop, heh. She manages to get into the file and discovers that the witness is the victim who died in his last case.

On his way out, the two internal affairs investigators see Su-chang and report it to their boss, Commissioner Noh, who tells them to keep an eye on him. Commissioner Noh then takes a call from Manager Park, the same Manager Park from Dream International, whose van Soo-young escaped from.

He’s got Detectives Lee and Park in his office, and he asks if they’re suggesting that he offers jobs to teenage girls and then does something with them. But rather than deny their accusations, he just asks if they have proof and says that Soo-young will never wake up.

The detectives call Detective Yoo, who tells them that they’re off the case, effective immediately. We see that the order came from prosecutor Jae-hee, and Detective Yoo complains that Manager Park must have connections.

Su-chang is preoccupied with how Dong-tak suddenly became able to see him. He wonders if it happened because Dong-tak learned who he was.

He realizes that Soo-young’s boyfriend is watching him. Angry that Su-chang (who he thinks is Dong-tak) is just sitting around, Kid reminds him that he said he believed him and promised to catch the guys who hurt Soo-young.

Su-chang says dismissively that he has too much on his mind to bother, so Kid tells him to just lock him up, since he has no money or connections. Su-chang tells Kid that if he goes to prison, then all he’ll learn how to do is go to prison. He says that in fact, once you’ve been in prison a few times, it’s the outside world that starts to feel dangerous, like a minefield.

Kid asks how he knows, and Su-chang confesses that he’s been to prison five times. Kid asks if he conned his way into being a cop, and Su-chang is all, Sort of… unintentionally…

He goes running when Ji-an calls him, having heard that he’s off the case. Su-chang says that something more important came up anyway, uninterested in pursuing a closed case. Ji-an argues that he said there was someone he wanted to catch more than anything, and it reminds him of Dong-tak’s promise to help him find the person who framed his father.

Su-chang denies that he cares about catching Soo-young’s attacker, but Ji-an remembers that he even noticed the girl’s dirty feet in the hospital and commented that she must’ve run barefoot, proving that he does care. She says that she wants to catch the person who did this, “Not just because I’m a reporter, but because I want to be an adult for her. I need your help.”

With a rueful laugh, Su-chang admits that he’s lost the fight. But he tells Ji-an that they’ll be doing things his way.

First they go back to the hospital, tie up the recruiter, lay him on his stomach, and crank the top half of his bed up until it looks like his spine will snap. He caves and tells them that his job is to send messages from the girls’ phones to make it look like they want to disappear.

But he doesn’t know what Manager Park does with the girls, or who his connections are. Su-chang decides they need to gain his trust. He asks Ji-an how much she trusts him, and she says she trusts him enough to risk her life, which cheers him up considerably. He tells her that she’s to do nothing, while he summons “the Avengers.”

He calls gangster Yong-pal first, who wants to know what’s in it for him. Next he calls the bakery trio, Sung-hyuk’s friends, who are more than willing to help out in return for brave citizen awards.

By following Manager Park for a few days, the team determines that he’s a creature of habit, doing the same things at the same times every day, and doesn’t trust anyone. They note that he dresses in luxury brands, which tells them that the recruiting agency is just for show, because he wouldn’t make that much money conning schoolgirls.

Su-chang decides that they need to discover Manager Park’s weaknesses. He starts with the one weakness all men share. Yong-pal: “His mom?” HAHA.

Su-chang’s former accomplice, Bong-sook, is at a coffee shop claiming that her father owns the building and the shop owes a maintenance fee. Sung-hyuk wanders in flashing his badge, and one of the employees turns out to actually be the building owner’s daughter. Oops.

Bong-sook tries to run, but Sung-hyuk easily catches up to her. He asks her name and address, saying it’s because she bumped into him recently and hurt him. Bong-sook swears she never bumped his shoulder, and Sung-hyuk points out, “I never said it was my shoulder.” Ha.

Clearly interested, he pretends he’s still sore and asks her to buy him a coffee in lieu of compensation, but Bong-sook takes it as a threat. She runs again, and this time Sung-hyuk lets her go, sighing that he was trying too hard.

The next day, Bong-sook is caught with her hand in a lady’s purse by Su-chang, who fusses at her for stealing from a pretty woman. It briefly reminds Bong-sook of Su-chang telling her not to steal from pretty people. Su-chang says he won’t arrest her, in return for her help.

Soon after, Bong-sook saunters through Manager Park’s gym in skin-tight workout clothes. She sits at the machine next to Manager Park, loudly wondering how it works and squealing daintily to get his attention. But it only annoys Manager Park, who storms off complaining that she sounds like a dolphin, ha. Su-chang pays Bong-sook anyway, telling her to use it for food and not coffee or alcohol.

Since Manager Park’s weakness doesn’t appear to be women, Su-chang determines that it must be money. He goes back to the hospital and has the recruiter send Manager Park a text threatening to take his share and run. Manager Park calls a lackey, who tells him that the recruiter took everything and disappeared.

It works, and now that they know his weakness, the bakery trio’s job is to hit Manager Park where it hurts. They plan to fake a car accident, but the first guy jumps in front of the wrong car. The big guy waits futilely for Manager Park’s car, but it’s the last guy who finally gets hit, and they all relocate to a cafe to discuss compensation.

Manager Park accuses them of faking the accident for money, and they’re terrible actors, so he threatens to call the cops. Su-chang walks in right on cue, and when Manager Park asks who he is, he says innocently, “You asked for me, so I came. I’m the police.”

 
EPISODE 10 RECAP

Manager Park starts to look nervous when Su-chang flashes Dong-tak’s badge. He concludes that he’s being blackmailed by Su-chang, who doesn’t correct him and waits patiently while Manager Park calls the station to tattle on him.

He wonders out loud which of them will have more to lose when the cops investigate, which makes Manager Park decide that paying up will be safer. Su-chang keeps doubling the payout every time Manager Park hesitates, until eventually he coughs up the cash.

Su-chang takes the bakery trio to his underground doctor friend to patch them up, and Doc asks if “Dong-tak” is still hearing Su-chang’s ghost. The boys ask about the money, but Su-chang says he has big plans for it. He takes them to donate it to a nun who’s soliciting donations on the street, ha.

Superintendent Ma has lunch with Chief Prosecutor Tak and his lackey, Commisioner Noh, who hears all about the money being donated. Chief Prosecutor Tak only chuckles that the best part of his job is getting to eat good food and feed his “family,” while detectives don’t provide for their men. He doles out choice bites of sashimi as he tells Superintendent Ma to set up a meeting with Dong-tak so that he can “feed him something nice.”

When Su-chang gets back to the station, Detective Yoo links arms with him, which startles him since it feels like being arrested. Detective Yoo tells Su-chang that Chief Prosecutor Tak wants to meet with him, and wheedles for Su-chang to take him along, eager to meet the powerful sunbae who started out a detective like them.

The cop from the Information Division brings Su-chang a list of all the detectives who worked in Incheon, where his accident occurred. She mentions that one of them killed himself around that same time, which seems strange.

Sung-hyuk reports to Su-chang that he did as asked and told Detective Yoo about Manager Park. He’s curious about what Manager Park will do next, and Su-chang says that with his minions gone, low on money, and the cops closing in, he’ll decide to make one last big score, then leave the country.

They need some bait to lure in Manager Park, which is where Ji-an comes in—literally, she shoves her way into Su-chang’s planning meeting, ha. Su-chang takes her aside, reluctant to let her pose as a high school girl, and he laughs when Ji-an assumes it’s because she’s old.

Ji-an tells him again that she feels bad for not being a better adult for Soo-young that day, and that she feels responsible for what happened to her. Su-chang mutters under his breath that this is going to mess up his plan, but when Ji-an asks if he’s planning something other than catching the criminal, he agrees to let her help.

She dresses in a high school uniform, complete with a rolled skirt waistband to make it shorter. She and Su-chang head out to see if she passes a test to blend with other teens, but when she does too good of a job flirting with a teenage boy, Su-chang gets jealous and yanks her away.

The real test is to see if she can convince some teen girls, and even Ji-an looks nervous. While she’s working up her nerve to approach the girls, a boy approaches to ask her out.

That brings over one of the girls, who yells at Ji-an for flirting with her oppa. She assumes Ji-an is a first-year student, which delights Ji-an so much that she doesn’t even mind when the girl starts pulling her hair, ha.

Watch the scene

Ji-an goes undercover as a schoolgirl

As Su-chang and Ji-an head back, prosecutor Jae-hee sees them crossing the street. He calls Ji-an to find out why she’s with that detective again and she lies that she’s doing research, leaving Jae-hee huffing indignantly.

That evening, Ji-an waits to meet with Manager Park, but he never shows up. Eventually she texts him, and he texts back asking her to wait a bit longer. On the street, Su-chang stakes out the place with Sung-hyuk and Yong-pal, who talks a mile a minute and drives Sung-hyuk crazy. Sung-hyuk finds it odd that as he’s talking about how many hours a cop has to work, Su-chang is on Yong-pal’s side and wonders what they work so hard for.

Finally Ji-an gives up, so Su-chang takes her for dinner. He teases that she’s even prettier when she eats (as she’s gnawing on a bone, lol), and she says she knows. She starts to say her dad used to tell her that, but then quickly changes the subject.

Su-chang wants Ji-an to give this up, but she refuses. He makes her promise to lie low if things get dangerous, but she reminds him that Korean women are brave. He notices that her hands are shaking, but Ji-an loudly insists that it’s just from working hard.

Bong-sook is annoyed when she can’t stop thinking about “Dong-tak” being so nice to her. Sung-hyuk pulls up and asks her again to take him for coffee, and this time Bong-sook agrees, though it’s mostly because she’s enchanted by his sexy car. He’s totally smitten when Bong-sook casually calls him “oppa,” and she says she’d rather go out to eat, since someone told her to eat instead of drink coffee.

Ji-an gets another meeting with Manager Park the next day, showing up with bright red fingernails for some “swag.” Manager Park makes her stand and do a turn, and Ji-an barely manages to hide her disgust as she complies.

Su-chang watches from nearby as Ji-an follows Manager Park out to his van, and she hesitates when she sees that there are already three girls in the backseat. As Su-chang waits elsewhere, he thinks back to last night.

The real reason Manager Park didn’t show up to meet with Ji-an is because Su-chang intercepted him on the way. They’d sat across the street and Su-chang had offered to work for Manager Park, taking the place of the former recruiter.

He’d asked what Manager Park’s real scheme is, and Manager Park had confessed that he’s in human trafficking. Su-chang had pointed out Ji-an waiting across the street and told Manager Park to leave her out, because she’s actually a reporter working with Violent Crimes.

Now as Manager Park drives, Ji-an realizes that all three of the other girls have passed out in the backseat. Manager Park tells her that there are better-paying jobs outside the city, and Ji-an furtively texts Su-chang about the other girls.

A few minutes later, Manager Park calls Su-chang to tell him that he got rid of “the annoyance,” and will continue on with the other girls. He asks if Su-chang will really lead the cops away from him, and Su-chang tells him to have faith.

We go back to when Ji-an asked him to let her help, and Su-chang had asked if she still trusted him with her life. She’d nodded, and he’d said she shouldn’t trust him that much. He’d told Ji-an, “If you become extremely disappointed in me… don’t ever get disappointed.”

Back in the present, after hanging up with Manager Park, Su-chang drives away… with the bag of cash in the seat next to him. He says softly to himself, “Song, there’s something I haven’t told you. To be honest, I conned everyone, including Manager Park, the detectives, and even you.” Nooo, Su-chang, what are you doing??

He gets a text from Ji-an saying that Manager Park ditched her, and he smiles to hear that she’s safe. He brightens, telling himself that it’s time for the next part of his plan.

Meanwhile, Manager Park gets stuck in a traffic jam caused by an accident. But it’s only the detectives pretending to have gotten into an accident and blocking the road, and when Sung-hyuk starts to make his way towards his van, Manager Park begins to look nervous.

In flashback, we see that the nun Su-chang “donated” Manager Park’s money to was actually one of his con artist friends. He’d left her with instructions to put half of it in a subway locker, and give the other half to Bong-sook with instructions to stop stealing.

Su-chang tries to walk away, but he can’t stop thinking about the mystery surrounding his father’s death, and the detective who killed himself around that same time. He tells himself that he’ll be back in his own body soon and should have something to show for it.

But he catches his reflection in a store window and glares at Dong-tak’s face. He tells himself that he hates how he pretended he was Dong-tak and forgot that he’s really a con man.

Watch the scene

Su-chang cons everyone, but the con man cons him back

 
Manager Park calls him again and asks, “Did you just con me? Because I just conned you, too.” Su-chang suddenly thinks of Ji-an, and how Manager Park likes to use girls’ phones to text people after he’s kidnapped them, to put them off the trail. Sure enough, it was Manager Park who sent that last message to Su-chang from Ji-an’s phone.

Ji-an wakes to find herself tied up, lying on the filthy floor of some abandoned building. At the same time, Su-chang breaks into a run, thinking about how Ji-an said she trusted him with her life.

 
COMMENTS

AUGH, Su-chang, how could you! Now I see why he didn’t want Ji-an involved, and why he said she was going to mess up his plan. I think he intended to con Manager Park out of his money and steal it, then use it to start a new life once he got his body back. On the one hand, I’m mad at him for backsliding into his old ways, but on the other hand, I can’t really blame him for doing what comes naturally to him, because conning is all he knows. I suppose it’s something that he arranged for Ji-an and the other girls to be rescued and Manager Park to be arrested, but he’s been conning people for years, and he has to know that cons don’t always go as planned.

I did feel like it was very realistic for Su-chang to behave the way he did when he again found himself in the body of the very man he’s been wanting to get revenge on for most of his life. I don’t know what happened between them, or why Su-chang feels so betrayed (honestly, the way he acts about whatever Dong-tak did feels more like disappointment and hurt than true anger), but I can’t even blame him for wanting to just get his own life back, and not caring how it affects Dong-tak. It feels very genuine for Su-chang to behave the way he did in this episode, because it makes sense for him to feel depressed and scared. And if there’s one thing life has taught him, it’s that he has to take care of himself, because nobody else is going to do it.

And I think that Dong-tak has the same outlook on life, though for different reasons. He also grew up under difficult conditions and seems to be affected by whatever happened when he and Su-chang were kids, though he got lucky enough to meet someone who helped him find a way out of it. Then his mentor is killed and nobody will help him find out why or make the killer pay, so he’s also having to do everything on his own. He and Su-chang need to find a way to heal from their shared past and help each other, which is exactly why they’re in this situation in the first place.

I was a bit frustrated when Su-chang didn’t pursue his thoughts on how he got into Dong-tak’s body again, because I’m dying to know! Thinking about both times it’s happened, I’m wondering if it’s because they were both near-death experiences—once when they almost drowned, and once when they were almost hit by a car. But then why did Miss Bong say that Dong-tak had to give Su-chang permission? Either there’s more than one way to accomplish the soul-switch, or Miss Bong isn’t telling the truth. Regardless, the only way they’re going to get out of this is to solve this mystery together, so I’m ready for them to stop going off on their own.

I really hope the show doesn’t make us wait much longer to learn about what happened when Su-chang and Dong-tak were kids, because it’s definitely the key to why they’re sharing a body now, and how to make things right and get their lives back. I think it’s very interesting that they came out of those events feeling very differently about them—Su-chang blames Dong-tak for ruining his life, while Dong-tak was wishing good things for him and expecting him to be living well. I’m very anxious to know what exactly happened, and why both men have such wildly different recollections of the events that shaped their lives.

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