The Fiery Priest: Episodes 25-26

by LollyPip

It’s been a long time coming, and it took an almost deadly encounter to accomplish it, but our oddball prosecutor is finally seeing the error of her ways. Kind of. A little bit. Okay maybe not, but at least she’s decided to join up with our motley crew against the bad guys, even if it’s for selfish reasons, and maybe that’s all we can expect of her. I don’t think I’d want her to truly change, anyway.

 
EPISODE 25

Kyung-seon is attacked in her home, but just as he’s about to kill her, Hae-il comes crashing through her window. He makes the killer drop his knife and spots a star tattoo on his wrist, but the killer breaks out of his grip and escapes. Instead of chasing him, Hae-il checks to see if Kyung-seon is okay, and she passes out in his arms.

Hae-il puts Kyung-seon to bed and does a terrible job pretending he wasn’t watching over her when she wakes later. He tells her that they didn’t catch her attacker yet, and she awkwardly thanks him for saving her, then smiles when Hae-il simultaneously tells her to thank God while preening a little, hee. Hae-il asks Dae-young to stay with Kyung-seon while he takes care of something, then leaves without explaining.

At the station, Seung-ah questions the Russian assassin they caught trying to kill Representative Park in his hospital room. She sees him shaking and yanks up his sleeve to find track marks up his arm — he’s a drug addict. She tries to tell Chief Nam, but he reassigns the case to Detective Lee and even kicks Seung-ah out of the interrogation room.

Dong-ja wants to know who tried to kill Kyung-seon, so Chief Prosecutor Kang says he’ll look into it. Dong-ja is upset that the hit on Representative Park failed and now he may wake up and tell on them, but Chief Nam says it’s more important to make sure nobody discovers their connection to the Rising Moon club.

They’re joined by Chul-beom, and Chief Prosecutor Kang slaps him for failing to kill Representative Park. He raises his hand again, but Chul-beom grabs his wrist and snarls that Chief Prosecutor Kang recommended the Rising Moon drug addicts, and that all he did was follow orders. Chief Prosecutor Kang asks if Chul-beom is saying this is his fault, and Chul-beom says that he’s just stating the accurate cause of the failure.

Further, he adds that killing someone isn’t always the best solution, so today he’s taking a break. He heads back to his car, leaving Chief Prosecutor Kang seething behind his back.

Hae-il kills the lights in the Pentagon club and walks in like an avenging angel here to kick some serious ass. He wades into the Russian thugs fearlessly, and soon they’re obediently showing him their wrists, but none of them has a star tattoo like the two men who attacked Representative Park and Kyung-seon.

Kozayev says that Hae-il is probably looking for someone from Diabol, guys with tattoos on their wrists who used to work for him, but left and formed their own gang. He seems to look down on them, saying that at least his guys don’t do drugs, which accidentally gives Hae-il a clue.

He tells Hae-il that they usually hang out at the Rising Moon club, but probably aren’t there now, giving away even more information. Hae-il asks if they’re on a boat and Kozayev says absolutely positively not, letting Hae-il know that they’re definitely on a boat.

Detective Lee tells Seung-ah that the Russian assassin claims that he tried to kill Representative Park because he doesn’t like his foreign policies. He says they’re sending him back to Russia, but Seung-ah objects on the grounds that his motive makes no sense. But Detective Lee barks at her to process the transfer on Chief Nam’s orders.

Kyung-seon fumes that she’s sure the intruder wasn’t just a burglar while Dae-young tapes her curtains to block the wind. He does a terrible job, so Kyung-seon deadpans that she’ll just enjoy the freezing-cold breeze, ha. She notes that Dae-young seems to be on Hae-il’s side lately, and Dae-young denies it, but Kyung-seon warns him not to make a mistake or they’re all dead.

Dae-young invites Kyung-seon to come with him when he’s called back to the station, but she says she’s fine, happy to see him go. He meets with Seung-ah and Hae-il (who is, again, perched on something), and Seung-ah says that she checked and there’s only one boat departing for Russia, a cargo ship leaving in less than an hour.

Hae-il says that he and Seung-ah will check out the port, and he sends Dae-young to Rising Moon, since the attempted assassins were based there. Dae-young finds Jang-ryong first, who shows him the properly up-to-date greeting among friends (the dance from BTS’s Idol — someone on this production crew loves them some BTS, lol). Dae-young invites Jang-ryong to go drinking again, and Jang-ryong says he can’t go now but he’ll meet him after midnight.

Hae-il and Seung-ah scream up to the dock in a “thunder taxi,” getting there in record time, and they stop two men from getting on the cargo ship. The man carrying the bag tries to run, and Seung-ah is there to flying-kick him to the ground.

Hae-il pleasantly invites the port manager off the boat and soon the two are handcuffed togethe. The manager says he’s only helping people get home to their families, but Seung-ah finds his ledger and he admits that he sometimes works with Kozayev.

Hae-il looks up the date they lost track of the fake witnesses, and the ledger shows that they transported two people for Kozayev on that day. Hae-il asks the port manager what happens to the people on the other end, but the port manager doesn’t want to say any more.

Hae-il creeps up on the manager, laughing his most evil cackle, then “exorcises” the him into unconsciousness. He calls an old NIS contact in Russia to ask him a favor, saying to keep it secret from the NIS.

Chief Prosecutor Kang goes to Rising Moon to visit Kyun-young, the chaebol who got away with drug trafficking. He tells Kyun-young that trying to kill Kyung-seon was a dangerous move, especially since all she did was try to visit the idol (who took the blame for Kyun-young’s drug trafficking and tried to kill himself in prison) in the hospital.

Chief Prosecutor Kang tells Kyun-young that he could get in huge trouble for this, but Kyun-young just says it’s Chief Prosecutor Kang’s job to prevent that. He warns Chief Prosecutor Kang that if this happens again, he’ll be held responsible, and Chief Prosecutor Kang holds his tongue with difficulty.

Outside, Hae-il watches as Chief Prosecutor Kang leaves Rising Moon, recognizing him from the meeting at Chul-beom’s villa. He chuckles at the sight of Yo-han and Ssongsak working as valets, hee.

Seung-ah brings the port manager into the police station and offers to write up the report, but again, Detective Lee takes over. This time Seung-ah loudly protests that if they handle things like this, nobody will trust them. Detective Lee just glares at her, and takes the guy anyway.

Hae-il enters the Rising Moon club, which is full of scantily-clad women that all appear to be drunk or worse, but what really angers him is a statue of the Virgin Mary behind the bar. He’s approached by some men who refuse to put the statue away, and when Hae-il says he’ll put them away, they motion to the rest of the gang to join them.

Cut to: Hae-il running from the club, carrying the Virgin Mary in his arms and panting, “Why were there so many of them?!”

Kyung-seon is called to the station, but Detective Lee tells her that her assailant is being deported because he’s wanted in Russia for dealing drugs. Kyung-seon is angry that they didn’t even take her statement, but Detective Lee says that the man confessed that it was a robbery gone wrong.

Kyung-seon yells that they’re all useless fools, then Hae-il comes sliding in, still carrying the Virgin Mary statue, yelping that they’re all useless fools. He asks if they also sent Representative Park’s attacker to be repatriated, and Detective Lee just walks out.

Chul-beom finds it hilarious that Hae-il stole the Virgin Mary and tells the gang leader that he should be glad Hae-il left. The leader apologizes for being unable to kill Representative Park or Kyung-seon, but Chul-beom says it worked out fine. He asks who gave the order to have Kyung-seon killed and learns that it was Kim Kyun-young, owner of Rising Moon.

Hae-il walks Kyung-seon home and asks if she knows who may have tried to have her killed. He tells her that he saw Chief Prosecutor Kang leaving Rising Moon, and Kyung-seon gets very quiet. Hae-il says that before an assassination, the killer follows his target for a few days, and asks where she went today.

Reluctantly, Kyung-seon says she was a the office, then she went to the hospital to see the idol and straight home after that. Hae-il notices that she seems shy about why she visited the idol.

Hae-il asks if she’s okay alone at home, and Kyung-seon bravely says she’s not scared of anything, but then she coughs pitifully and says it’s cold and windy in her apartment. She coughs again, louder this time, and Hae-il, totally onto her, tells her to go pack her things.

He takes Kyung-seon to the church, and Sister Kim asks why she doesn’t come to church anymore. Sung-kyu tells Kyung-seon that Father Lee loved her a lot and said she does the same kind of work that God does, and Kyung-seon is so touched that she almost cries.

Upstairs, Hae-il prays, saying that the uncontrollable daughter has come back to the Lord. He says there must be a reason God saved her, but wonders if she’s aware that the chance to repent is a huge blessing.

EPISODE 26

In the morning, Hae-il calls Dae-young to the church to tell him what he learned while drinking with Jang-ryong: The owners of Rising Moon are the Fearsome Foursome and Chul-beom, with Chief Nam owning the largest share. The man Chul-beom was talking to is Anton, general manager of the club and leader of Diabol.

Because of the drug scene there, Rising Moon attracts people like Representative Park’s son Shin-woo and celebrities, with Kyun-young, the CEO of Hanjoo Group, as their kingpin. Dae-young wonders where all that dirty money is hidden, and Hae-il says they’d need something like, oh, a foundation to launder the money through, which explains why they want control of the welfare foundation.

Agent Lee tells Chief Prosecutor Kang that Hae-il went to Rising Moon, and Chief Prosecutor Kang says that something needs to be done about Hae-il and Chul-beom. Agent Lee agrees, but says they need to change up their methods. He goes to the church to ask Hae-il why he ignored his advice (to stay out of things) and declares that it’s war now.

Kyung-seon gets to work to find that Seung-ah sent them some CCTV footage from Hae-il. It’s video from the hospital showing a man following Kyung-seon, and she remembers Hae-il saying that an assassin follows his target before attacking, which means her attack was definitely not just a robbery gone wrong.

She goes straight to Chief Prosecutor Kang to find out who wanted her dead. Chief Prosecutor Kang yells that she shouldn’t have given Kyun-young a reason, and she asks if visiting the idol was such a sin. He tells her to stay away from Rising Moon and the idol, because if it happens again, he won’t help her.

Sister Kim and Sung-kyu have decided that they need to do something to bring back the parishioners, so they head out to passionately… hand out confession sheets. LOL. They come upon one parishioner playing Go Stop with some neighborhood ajummas, but she’s too upset about losing a few thousand won to talk about church.

Sister Kim makes a deal with her — if she wins her money back, the lady will start coming to church again and bring all her friends. She proceeds to cheat her way to a win, earning five parishioners back to the church and greatly confusing poor Sung-kyu.

Chief Nam is alarmed to find Hae-il in his office, sitting in his chair and wearing his uniform jacket (Hae-il: “Did you get this online?” hee). Hae-il says that Rising Moon will soon go up in flames, but Chief Nam says that he won’t get what he wants. Hae-il retorts that he may not, but God will.

Kyung-seon is a thousand percent done with being treated so callously, so she goes to her office and tells her assistants to dig up everything they can find on Rising Moon. They argue that without an ally for protection, it will be impossible.

But Kyung-seon knows the perfect person — Hae-il. She offers him an alliance, and though he’s deeply skeptical of her motives, she seems sincere about wanting to destroy those who tried to kill her. She’s bluntly honest that this is about revenge, and Hae-il acts all offended to be used this way.

Kyung-seon argues that with a crazy woman like her on his side, they’ll both get what they want. Hae-il is tempted but holds strong, until Kyung-seon promises to give him information on Father Lee’s case. He caves a bit and asks for time to discuss it with Team Tsunami.

Dae-young thinks that it won’t work and the big players will still get away, but Seung-ah wants to do it regardless of Kyung-seon’s motives. Hae-il tells Dae-young that he doesn’t have to join them, and Dae-young confesses that his heart is burdened by something.

Chul-beom waits for Dong-ja in her office, and she asks him why he’s been acting strange. He says that he knows the Foursome have abandoned him, but that he won’t hurt them — unless they provoke him. He also wants Representative Park’s share of the safe money, warning that if Dong-ja even thinks about getting rid of him, the safe will go up in flames.

After hearing Dae-young’s story (about his partner), Hae-il starts screaming that he’ll kill every last one of those bastards, and Seung-ah is equally upset. They get emotional, making Dae-young feel bad that he didn’t confide in them sooner.

Hae-il asks Dae-young if he can go back to being the passionate, righteous cop he was before, and Dae-young looks him directly in the eyes as he says he’ll destroy them all. The three put on their best stankfaces and bump fists, finally united in their cause.

Hae-il has one final question for Kyung-seon — is this really about revenge, or because she’s angry about the things she’s done? There’s just the slightest hesitation before she says it’s not like that, and a longer one when Hae-il says that he thought maybe she wanted to make amends, but she insists that he’s thinking too much.

She asks if her answer determines whether he’ll join up with her. With a big sigh, a roll of the eyes, then a cheeky grin, Hae-il says, “Let’s join hands.” Yay! They do the Badass Strut, Kyung-seon following Hae-il’s cues, putting on her sunglasses and flinging back her jacket tails.

They obtain a warrant for Rising Moon and take it to the police station, Kyung-seon quipping that the team doesn’t have to come if they’re too scared. Dae-young and Seung-ah follow them out, and the four head to Rising Moon, where Kyung-seon’s prosecutor’s badge gets them right in.

Seung-ah bellows for anyone who’s sold drugs to step forward, and Kyung-seon gives them one minute to line up voluntarily. From a back room, Kyun-young calls Chief Prosecutor Kang to tell him that Kyung-seon is here with a priest. He says he’s going to get out of this his way, and for Chief Prosecutor Kang to clean up after him.

Anton says gleefully that he has permission to kill the intruders, and he calls in his army of druggie gang members. Seung-ah draws her gun (Kyung-seon: “Good thinking! Shoot them in the legs.” HA), but she quietly admits that they only have blanks.

Hae-il says that he expected this and brought some backup, then calls for Choco, the giant from Wangmat Foods. Choco joins Team Tsunami, and Hae-il adorably rests his chin on Choco’s shoulder and aegyos at him. Hae-il tells Seung-ah and Dae-young to take Kyung-seon outside while he and Choco handle the gang, then he aims Choco at the baddies and it’s on.

Choco easily takes down the entire gang by himself, with Hae-il cheering him on. The others get out, but are surrounded by even more thugs. Dae-young and Seung-ah end up fighting, and doing a pretty good job of it, and even Kyung-seon gets a chance to twist some arms.

However, they’re badly outnumbered, so eventually the thugs have Dae-young and Seung-ah on the ground and are beating them badly. Yo-han and Ssongsak are watching, scared out of their wits, but when one gang member goes after Kyung-seon with a bat, Yo-han snaps into hero mode. He takes the blow meant for her, and that’s enough to make Ssongsak forget all about his vow to let go of anger.

He goes flying into the fight, and it quickly becomes obvious that Ssongsak has some serious marital arts training. He’s just finishing off the last thug when Hae-il comes outside, and the team looks at him with a whole new respect.

 
COMMENTS

I’m not the least bit surprised that what finally spurred Kyung-seon to align with Hae-il wasn’t a desire to right wrongs or see the bad guys pay for their crimes, but selfish and petty revenge. This whole show is filled with people motivated by revenge, and I actually find their honesty about their reasons refreshing. Dramaland is filled with good-hearted people doing the right thing simply because it’s right, sacrificing themselves for others, and generally being saints, and there’s nothing wrong with that — I love those dramas and those characters. But it’s also fun to see these people, some of whom are not much better than their enemies (~cough~ Kyung-seon ~cough~), just get pissed off and want to make the other guy pay for insulting them. Kyung-seon had a point when she told Hae-il that it doesn’t matter why she wants to align with him, so long as they both get what they want. But I think that Hae-il sees that a lot of that is bluffing, but he’s smart not to push it. He’ll let her come around to being a genuinely good person — as much as she’s able — in her own good time.

I don’t think I’m imagining it when I say that it feels like there’s a real connection developing between Hae-il and Kyung-seon. I expected it, and I also expected it to feel odd considering that Hae-il is a priest, but somehow, it doesn’t. I’ve been trying to figure out why I don’t find the attraction between Hae-il and Kyung-seon icky, and I think it’s because at first, the attraction seemed to be completely one-sided. Even then it was mostly just Kyung-seon appreciating that Hae-il is awfully pretty. Hae-il only recently started showing signs that he might possibly find Kyung-seon attractive in return, and not until after we learned that he entered the priesthood as a way of escaping his personal demons, which for me, makes the difference. If things between them ever become serious, I wouldn’t think it odd for Hae-il to ask to be released from his vows, since his reasons for becoming a priest were very different from someone who takes vows because they feel a holy calling.

Is it just me or did it feel like things just clicked into place once Kyung-seon joined Team Tsunami? Hae-il, Dae-young, and Seung-ah were managing some pretty amazing stuff already, but Kyung-seon gives them the clout to get into places they need to go and face people they need to face in order to pursue their ends. I love that she just fit right in like she belonged there, and even though Hae-il is right to worry about her current motives, I think she is starting to feel some guilt and remorse, especially regarding the callous way she handled Father Lee’s case. But she can make up for it now, and I think that before long she’ll realize that she’s much happier when she does the right things for the right reasons.

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