Life on Mars: Episode 3

by Helcat

Sometimes it can feel like the whole world is out to get you—but when you’re stuck in a nightmare past, maybe the whole world really does have it in for you. Tae-joo spends the episode trying to adjust to his new surroundings, with varying degrees of failure. Adrift, he still doesn’t know whom to trust or who knows what—but one thing he does have is sweet Na-young there to help him through the worst of it.

 
EPISODE 3 RECAP

On the rooftop, Tae-joo flashes through the confusing events of the past two days, convinced that it’s all a dream that he came from 2018 and landed in 1988. About to step forward to end his life here, fellow officer Na-young’s cry suddenly pierces the air, halting Tae-joo’s jump.

Na-young pleads with Tae-joo to step down, but Tae-joo remains unpersuaded as he gently explains that right now he’s actually in a coma and nothing in 1988 is reality. Na-young urgently asks Tae-joo to remember that she was the one who put him in touch with Dr. Jang in the first place, which is why Dr. Jang is checking on him.

From below, Dr. Jang is conveniently present as he apologizes for pushing Tae-joo too far and asks him to get down from the roof.

Frantic and confused, Tae-joo shouts that Na-young is simply an illusion and Dr. Jang his subconscious mind trying to keep him from waking up. Desperate to get through to him, Na-young climbs onto the rooftop wall beside Tae-joo.

At her wobbling steps, Tae-joo yells at Na-young to climb back down. The quick-witted Na-young points out that since she’s an illusion, she won’t die anyway if she falls. Tae-joo falters and Na-young presses her advantage by telling him they are both alive and can feel things. Taking his hand, Na-young holds it to her beating heart as proof and says, “Whether you are dreaming or from the future, I’m sure there is a reason you were sent here.”

Reaching out to him, Na-young asks Tae-joo to get down with her. Hesitantly, Tae-joo takes her hand.

As if to prove the folly of his mistakes, that night Tae-joo dreams of his doctor thanking him for staying alive—because for a worrying few minutes it seemed as if Tae-joo had “given up the will for living.” Well, that’s disturbing.

In the broken mirror, Tae-joo stares at his distorted reflection and asks himself, “What is this place?”

Cut to: a half naked man running from a bathhouse, with all four male detectives from Team Trouble in tow, in varying states of undress. A most hilarious chase scene ensues, with jazzy music to boot, that involves their captain Dong-chul pausing to grab an apple mid-chase, Dong-chul getting hit in the face with the suspect’s sweaty towel, and teammate Yong-ki unintentionally bashing Tae-joo with a rogue flying chair. I’m belly-laughing.

Dong-chul can’t catch a break today, as the suspect fires a coal briquette at him that shatters over his head, blinding him. Good ol’ Tae-joo can’t be stopped though, as he barrels into the perp and knocks him over.

Never let it be said Dong-chul is a man of restraint, as he takes his revenge on the suspect with a few well-aimed kicks. Dust-covered, banged up, and half-naked, Dong-chul looks ridiculous as he defiantly asks Tae-joo what he’s staring at.

Back at the station, Dong-chul mutters darkly that he doesn’t have time to attend any moral education seminars on preventing police brutality (though he definitely needs it) and meaningfully tells Yong-ki to go submit the evidence collected.

Na-young asks Tae-joo for a photo to go on the staff board, and hesitantly asks if he has talked to Dr. Jang yet. Tae-joo stiffly answers that he is just suffering from PTSD from his car crash, but he will get better with time. Satisfied, Na-young smiles slightly at the good news.

Two methods of interrogation are on show during the interview for (still undressed) suspect Park Byung-do, as Tae-joo deliberately sets out his police notebook and recorder—and Dong-chul just as deliberately lays out a pack of cigarettes and a very heavy ashtray. Byung-do glances nervously at Dong-chul.

Byung-do isn’t nervous enough to admit to being one of a few men to rob and beat 65-year-old victim Kim Myung-ja though, as he unwisely gets mouthy about not committing any crimes. To make matters worse, Byung-do laughs in Dong-chul’s face when he claims to have evidence to pin him to the crime—and adds that even if Kim Myung-ja was old enough to be a granny, she wasn’t his granny.

Bad move. Dong-chul slams Byung-do’s head into the table, while Byung-do shouts that South Korea is a democratic country that has no place for brutality like this. Furious, Dong-chul replies, “The world has changed into a better place, but you haven’t changed! That’s why I’m still going through all this trouble!”

Undaunted, Byung-do asks for an attorney to be called–because he wants a confinement review of his stay here. Uh-oh, this is directly because of Tae-joo.

Outside, Dong-chul is flabbergasted that Tae-joo would do something as silly as offering their suspect his Miranda rights (not introduced to South Korea until 1997), when he has already been convicted of a litany of scumbag crimes like beating up his wife and stabbing people.

Changing the subject, Tae-joo asks instead where Dong-chul got this supposed evidence from, and ignores Dong-chul’s squirrelly reply that it just came from “somewhere.” Following his instincts, Tae-joo is horrified to find Yong-ki and their teammate Nam-shik planting evidence from another case in suspect Byung-do’s clothes.

Angered, Tae-joo argues that following proper procedure will stop Byung-do’s crimes from being thrown out in court for police interference. Dong-chul is unrepentant as he tries to persuade Tae-joo that this is the only way to ensure that Byung-do stops stabbing people in broad daylight and leading his dangerous gang.

Byung-do’s calls from his cell interrupt the argument and fuel Dong-chul’s fury, so he immediately goes down to beat on Byung-do again. Tae-joo tries to stop him (using the ineffective argument that Dong-chul will get sued), but it isn’t going well—until head detective KIM KYUNG-SE walks in to stop the interrogation.

Bummed out, Dong-chul and Yong-ki watch all their “hard work” evaporate as Byung-do is released, attorney by his side. Dong-chul gets increasingly sulky as he fills out an incident report, until he bellows for the news to be turned off—as it fittingly reports on the death of (real life student protestor) Park Jong-chul at the hands of the police.

Unfortunately for sweet, dumb Nam-shik, he chooses this moment to “helpfully” inform Dong-chul that he learned everything they just did was illegal, that there are massive fines attached to tampering with evidence, and thanks Tae-joo for saving them. An irritated Dong-chul runs Nam-shik out of the office.

Dedicated to his work, Tae-joo doesn’t join the others for lunch, but one of the cleaners, Lee Jeom-soon, sweetly gives Tae-joo food left from a party she attended. Tae-joo thanks her.

As I’m beginning to suspect he does every morning, Tae-joo starts his day by asking himself what he’s still doing in this place.

A better start to his day comes as he has breakfast with the barman. The barman shakes his head that he warned Tae-joo not to make “that crazy boar” angry, because now he has no friends at work. Tae-joo neutrally answers that he’s used to it. How sad.

In an even sadder twist of events, Tae-joo arrives to a crime scene to find that the nice cleaner Jeom-soon has been savagely beaten by pickpockets. In flashback, we see that Jeom-soon had been cornered in an alley by the pickpockets, only for things to turn violent as she realized what was happening.

Despite it being broad daylight, and a busy street, the gang warned the horrified crowd away from helping Jeom-soon as she was beaten. Trying to protect her son’s ring from the thieves ended in her hand being broken.

To his horror, Tae-joo is informed that one of the identified men was none other than Park Byung-do.

A watching Dong-chul blames Tae-joo for Jeom-soon’s injuries and throws him to the ground in the puddle of her blood still staining the pavement. Dong-chul hoarsely accuses, “You did this. You know that?”

Stricken, Tae-joo returns to the police station and washes Jeom-soon’s blood from his hands. With hospital bleeps sounding loudly in his head, Tae-joo searches through the bathroom doors looking for someone. His doctor’s voice narrates that although Tae-joo responds to pain, he seems to be in a semi-coma at risk of brain death if he slips into a deeper coma without recovering first.

In the last stall, out comes head detective Kyung-se. Coolly observing Tae-joo, Kyung-se asks, “You want to go back, don’t you?”

Thrown for a loop, Tae-joo asks Kyung-se what he means. Kyung-se smiles sharply and tells Tae-joo that if he does a good job, he’ll be able to send him wherever he wants.

Confused, Tae-joo heads back inside, but pauses near Na-young’s desk. As he stares over at her, clutching his heart, a man’s voice softly croons in his head (the song is “Weed” by trot singer Na Hoon-ah):

“On a windy hill that nobody seeks out
there’s a nameless weed
If you were a flower, you would at least have a scent
But you’re a weed that has nothing”

At his own desk, Tae-joo is reminded of Jeom-soon’s predicament by the food she gave him, and turns to put it away in a drawer. Yong-ki has already left his mark there though, as a sticky piece of gum coats Tae-joo’s hand. Yong-ki obnoxiously stares Tae-joo down and sings part of “Weed” again as the whole station erupts into laughter.

Except for Dong-chul, who is too bothered by everything to even enjoy this childish prank.

As Tae-joo walks home later that night, Na-young hurries to catch him up and reassure him that Jeom-soon will be fine since she is out of critical care now. But that isn’t all Na-young wanted to say, as she asks that Tae-joo not think too badly of Dong-chul and not to deliberately keep people away. Na-young perceptively points out, “It’s as if you’re denying everything around you.”

Na-young adds that she is sure Tae-joo will start to like it here—and all of the people here—if he would just give it a try. Smiling, Na-young leaves Tae-joo with this thought to chew on.

Instead of going home, Tae-joo visits Jeom-soon in the hospital. Guilt-ridden, Tae-joo apologizes to Jeom-soon’s bandaged body that he never expected this to happen.

Dong-chul enters the hospital room, and by the dark look he sends Tae-joo’s way, he still hasn’t forgiven Tae-joo for his part in this. Scratch that, Dong-chul definitely hasn’t forgiven Tae-joo, as he swings a hook to Tae-joo’s face out of nowhere.

Tae-joo sputters in disbelief, while Dong-chul looks inappropriately pleased with himself and hushes his subordinate from making too much noise in front of the sleeping Jeom-soon. So Tae-joo punches him instead. And does the same hilarious shushing motion when Dong-chul indignantly demands to know how Tae-joo could hit his superior.

Finally, Tae-joo is speaking a language Dong-chul understands. A square kick to the chest sends Tae-joo flying into the bed railing opposite.

And so the two men try to have the quietest fight ever fought, as they work out their grievances with fists and kicks instead of words. They’re rolling around on the ground, Dong-chul on top of Tae-joo, as Tae-joo tries to gouge Dong-chul’s face when a horrified nurse walks in and demands that they stop… and the two cops immediately turn to shush her, ha!

The nurse scurries out after Dong-chul and Tae-joo prove they’re cops, and leaves them alone as the two continue the fight, slamming each other into walls and through the open hospital door across the corridor. It’s pretty great.

Finally, the fight subsides. Dong-chul points out that even if Tae-joo thinks his team is a bunch of wild animals, sometimes forensics and following the law isn’t enough to save people from dying. Clearly affected, Dong-chul sighs over the tough breaks in life Jeom-soon’s has been handed—a dead husband, sick son, and too many bills to pay for surgery.

In a gesture of repentance, Tae-joo offers to step away from the case, but Dong-chul states that Tae-joo can’t be that selfish—he must stay and help clean up the mess he made.

The next day, Nam-shik bounds up to Dong-chul and Tae-joo with Jeom-soon’s wallet, pleased that he could contribute to the case—and even suggests that they could get the prints from the wallet. Tae-joo’s face as he asks why Nam-shik is holding it with bare hands is priceless, as is Nam-shik hurriedly trying to wipe off his prints (along with any others) on his shirt.

It’s not good news though, as Yong-ki informs the team that the four pickpockets, including Byung-do, never meet up except when they plan an attack, which makes it more difficult to track them. Dong-chul looks thoughtful as Tae-joo notes the pickpockets only ever target women.

Yong-ki lays out how the four men work—Byung-do operates as an “antenna” on the lookout for good marks, two of the men knock into the target in an alley, and the last man slits the mark’s bag to steal the contents in the confusion. Yong-ki adds that it was this last man who beat up Jeom-soon.

Dong-chul orders Yong-ki and Nam-shik to search all the inns the pickpockets stayed at, and Tae-joo says that Byung-do’s former prison cellmates should be questioned as well given that the gang formed while he was incarcerated. Yong-ki grumbles that Tae-joo should do it himself, but surprisingly, Dong-chul backs up Tae-joo and orders a disgruntled Yong-ki over to the prison.

An interesting tidbit of information arises as Tae-joo speaks with Na-young—the women’s money wasn’t taken, but all their IDs were. Tae-joo muses on the implications, and offers to accompany Na-young to deliver evidence to the inspection team.

On the way, Na-young shows him that she kept the scraps of paper with letters on them that Byung-do had in his pockets, and they try and determine what flyer they were from. As Tae-joo goes to step on the bus, he recognizes the red writing on the advert and the same letters—it was from an advert for a large shopping mall sale, that just so happens to offer world credit cards.

Tae-joo and Na-young explain their theory to the rest of the team—the pickpockets deliberately target women they know own this credit card, and then steal their IDs to order a new card. Unfortunately, none of the cards have been used yet, so they can’t be tracked—Tae-joo suspects they are waiting to use the cards outside of Korea.

A thought sparks in Dong-chul’s head as he looks at Na-young examining the credit card… and all the men turn to her one by one as they catch on.

In costume (oh, those oversized blazers), Na-young poses as a woman with cash to burn, excited about her chance to prove herself to the team. Nam-shik worries over Na-young’s safety and swoons over how pretty she looks, while Dong-chul warns him and Yong-ki to look less conspicuous. Maybe you shouldn’t be here at all then, Dong-chul, ‘s all I’m saying.

Byung-do marks Na-young, and Na-young picks up an entourage as the rest of the thieves and all the cops pile on to the escalator. But Nam-shik’s concern spills over and he squeaks when one of the thieves goes to slit Na-young’s bag. This spooks the pickpockets, and Team Trouble tries, and fails, to look nonchalant. The pickpockets take off, and the chase is on.

In the small confines of the shop, our cops can’t get a good grip on the pickpockets, and most of them slip away. The chase spills out onto the streets as Dong-chul and Tae-joo pursue Byung-do, but they halt as Byung-do runs down a side street and takes Na-young hostage by the throat… only for Na-young to expertly tackle Byung-do and restrain him on the ground. Go Na-young!

Dong-chul looks happy enough to let Na-young do the dirty work, and cutely claps at her efforts. When it turns out that Yong-ki and Nam-shik lost all the others, Dong-chul even complains that Na-young is better than they are at the job. Having witnessed Na-young’s fighting prowess, when she abruptly makes a move, Dong-chul and Tae-joo reflexively flinch away, protecting their manly bits from her. Hee!

Back at the station, Dong-chul reluctantly lets Tae-joo take the lead in Byung-do’s interrogation. Tae-joo warns Byung-do that even though he can get a lawyer if he wants one… it would be better if he cooperated because his crimes of identity theft, data protection violation, and smuggling (once the card is used overseas) come with a very hefty prison sentence.

Taking Tae-joo’s hint, Dong-chul takes on the (unfamiliar) role of good cop, offering a visibly apprehensive Byung-do a cigarette and lamenting over how unfair it will be if he takes the fall while his friends swan around freely. Dong-chul entices Byung-do with promises of putting in a good word with the judge… and Byung-do jumps to flip on his accomplices.

The team hunts down the various pawnshops, trying to figure out which one is complicit in selling the stolen women’s items. Pawnshop owners not being a particularly scrupulous bunch, when Dong-chul and Tae-joo find the right one, it’s only because Dong-chul spots Jeom-soon’s ring that the duo gets their guy.

Dong-chul and Tae-joo lay in wait for the three pickpockets to arrive, and with a bit of luck (in the form of clueless Yong-ki and Nam-shik) and tomfoolery, two of them are captured immediately. The third escapes, with Tae-joo in hot pursuit. Determined, Tae-joo corners the man and subdues him in a fight, just in time for Dong-chul to show up.

Except Dong-chul decides he hasn’t had enough excitement in his life, and leaves Tae-joo to continue fighting with the pickpocket, sitting back and commentating from the sidelines. Ha!

Dong-chul’s game, of course, was to add another charge to the man’s rap sheet for assaulting a police officer. It’s only when Tae-joo is losing that Dong-chul saunters over to knock the thief unconscious—and he even has the gall to complain that Tae-joo wasn’t even more injured.

As the team wraps up the case at the police station, Dong-chul’s attempts to make amends with Tae-joo fall flat, as Tae-joo (understandably) backs away from Dong-chul as if he’s nuts. Resigned, Tae-joo says he knows that Dong-chul doesn’t want him on the team, to which Dong-chul deadpans, “Good, I’m glad you know.”

Dong-chul offers to send Tae-joo back where he came from, and although Tae-joo is wary, you can see the hope that Dong-chul might actually be able to deliver. Tae-joo really should have known better though, as Dong-chul phones the doctor and asks him to treat the crazy guy in the office. More seriously, Dong-chul informs a thoughtful Tae-joo, “You didn’t come here because we asked you. You came to us, because you wanted to.”

On a final visit to the hospital, Tae-joo gives Jeom-soon back her ring, and looks sadly down at her ill son (he of the multiple surgeries)… except Dong-chul was totally lying. The son’s “major” surgery was a circumcision, and Jeom-soon’s husband never actually passed away—he runs into the room to dote on his wife. Dong-chul, you’re incorrigible.

Their budding relationship growing, Tae-joo accompanies Na-young as she visits a camera shop, where she snaps a surprise photo of Tae-joo (under the pretense of hanging it on the staff board).

As he’s looking around, Tae-joo spots something that shouldn’t be there—a photo of his family, hanging prominently on the shop wall. Why am I so creeped out by that?

Tae-joo recalls the memory of the day the photo was taken, his father smiling and calling to him while his mother hugged him tight. In a strange coincidence, this is the very shop the family portrait was taken in.

For some reason, this scene of family harmony sparks panic in Tae-joo—and a nurse in the present time calls out that Tae-joo is having a seizure, as the machine bleeps ever louder in his ear. The wail of an air raid drill punctuates the moment as Tae-joo is deafened in both 1988 and the present time by the sounds of danger.

 
COMMENTS

A thought springs to mind watching this show—that life is nasty, brutish, and short (so says the philosopher Hobbes). It certainly seems nasty in 1988, as Tae-joo is put through the ringer for trying to uphold modern-day ethics, an innocent woman is mercilessly beaten, and rampant police corruption is deemed normal, even honorable. Tae-joo is really starting to feel the disconnect between 1988 and 2018 now, as his actions directly lead to Jeom-soon being placed in hospital. The longer that Tae-joo doesn’t understand how this world operates, the more I fear he will make a blunder that can’t be fixed. Not that anything he did in this episode was wrong, but there are complexities here that make it more difficult for Tae-joo. Modern forensics are not available, Tae-joo is working from incorrect police procedures, and he doesn’t understand the criminal context of the times—added altogether, it’s little wonder that he isn’t working at full capacity.

That isn’t to say that Tae-joo is dead weight in 1988, not by a long shot—rather that his methods aren’t a good fit right now, and he will need to adjust a little to survive. Which is exactly what he did at the end, as he used his own logical, evidence-based methods to leverage a confession out of Byung-do. Tae-joo might not have used his fists to apply pressure to Byung-do, but make no mistake—the threat of jail time was even more effective. I do wonder if 2018 Tae-joo would have been so willing to talk Byung-do out of his right to have a lawyer, and just how much of that can be attributed to Tae-joo’s guilt over Jeom-soon.

This episode also marks a thawing in relations between Tae-joo and Dong-chul, largely due to that incredibly cathartic (and frankly, hilarious) fight in the hospital. Here are two difficult and forceful personalities that clash at a fundamental level, but inch closer together as they find common ground in a release of tension. Even though Tae-joo is by far more civilized than Dong-chul, I find that it makes perfect sense he would be so willing to fight back—violence is the language Dong-chul understands best and logical Tae-joo knows this. Plus, Tae-joo isn’t exactly a stranger to violence himself, in necessary doses. It’s just a small amount of respect that Tae-joo has earned from Dong-chul, but I still smiled when Dong-chul trusted Tae-joo’s instincts by ordering Yong-ki to follow Tae-joo’s request and again when he trusted Tae-joo to lead the interrogation with Byung-do.

As much as I enjoy Dong-chul as a character though, I would like to take a beat here to point out how deeply uncomfortable it is to watch him violently and repeatedly beat up prisoners in his care, as well as scheme to plant evidence on Byung-do. These are not actions I can condone, no matter how upbeat the accompanying music is. Fortunately, the show knows this too, as Tae-joo stands against Dong-chul in these moments as an audience surrogate. In addition, the news report of Park Jong-chul’s death that upset Dong-chul adds a heavy reality to his actions. Park Jong-chul was a real-life student protestor who was tortured and died at the hands of the police in 1987. Park Jong-chul’s death sparked the June Democracy Movement, which led to the democratization of South Korea, as well as advance human rights laws in the country, particularly regarding the judiciary’s willingness to hold the government and police accountable for their crimes. The show isn’t shying away from this unsavory aspect of Dong-chul’s character, and I’m hopeful that Tae-joo isn’t the only one who recognizes the need for change. Dong-chul can learn as much from Tae-joo, and perhaps has already begun to do so, as Byung-do’s change of heart came directly from Tae-joo’s methods, where Dong-chul’s failed.

Thankfully, this show knows how to balance the dark with the light—and boy, is Tae-joo and Na-young’s blossoming relationship just lovely. Na-young is such a sweetheart; I just want to hug her, and on top of being empathetic, dedicated, and incisive, she is also a surprising badass. She really would be a fantastic police officer if she were offered more than mere drudgery work, and after her display in combat, I can’t help but think that Dong-chul will recognize this. Dong-chul is uncouth, but he’s no fool, and Na-young’s talents are wasted on paper-chasing.

Mystery of the episode: Why did Tae-joo react so negatively to his parents/father; and why was his family photo hanging up on a random shop wall?

Tune of the episode: During the chase scene, ’80s hit “Round and Round” by Nami plays.

 
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