The Fiery Priest: Episodes 29-30

by LollyPip

It never fails — just when you think you have everything under control, one little thing goes wrong and suddenly everything is worse than ever. Our favorite avenging priest can’t fix the current situation by himself, and he’ll need to lean on his friends for help, which isn’t easy for him. But he finds that in trusting others, he’s learning to let go of his own demons, and maybe that’s what’s really important.

 
EPISODE 29

Hae-il and Team Tsunami arrest a whole bunch of lower-level thugs, up to and including Chul-beom, but when they take them down to the station, Chief Nam has a fit. Chul-beom says it’s not over until it’s over, and suddenly a strange man turns himself in for giving Anton the orders to kill Representative Park.

Hae-il growls that he knows the guy is a decoy, but the man insists he did it all on his own. Dae-young gently stops Hae-il from losing his temper while Chul-beom laughs quietly to himself.

Kyung-seon is summoned to Chief Prosecutor Kang’s office, and she sits stone-faced as she refuses to overlook murder. She returns the bribe that Chief Prosecutor Kang gave her, saying that her life is worth more than this. Chief Prosecutor Kang follows her out and says that she’s being indefinitely wait-listed, and her idol drug case is being given to Prosecutor Nam.

Detective Lee’s violent crimes team is dispersed and reassigned to other departments. Dae-young and Seung-ah are indefinitely relieved of duty and are confined to a secluded office. Hae-il is called to see the archbishop, who anonymously received his NIS file, including the information on the room full of children he accidentally killed.

Hae-il confirms that the only thing missing is that he was following his superior’s command. But the archbishop says that he’s obligated to report this to the order, and for Hae-il to brace himself for the aftermath. Hae-il is so devastated at letting Father Lee down that he can barely stand.

Dae-young and Seung-ah move all of their things into their new “secluded” office, which is both stinky and tiny. Dae-young apologizes to Seung-ah for being a useless sunbae, but she says she’s proud to be here. Dae-young says they don’t deserve someone like Seung-ah, but his gaze is a little sad.

Agent Lee advises Dong-ja and Chief Prosecutor Kang to keep their distance from Chief Nam, but to leave Chul-beom alone for now because he’d be hard to replace. They’ve arranged for a programmer to come soon regarding the vault’s thumbprint lock, and Agent Lee tells them to find someone trustworthy to guard the vault with Chul-beom.

Chief Nam rants to Chul-beom about the others wanting to send him to prison. He promises to deal with the guy who took the blame for Chul-beom, in exchange for Chul-beom sorting out the Rising Moon accounts for him. Chul-beom agrees, but he doesn’t look very happy about it.

When Hoon-seok picks up Chul-beom from the station, Chul-beom gives him instructions to take a lawyer to shut Geon-woo up, the man who turned himself in. He also tells Hoon-seok to send the Rising Moon accountant to Oahu, and when Hoon-seok asks what to do about Dae-young, who seems to be siding with the priest, Chul-beom says he’ll decide later whether or not to kill him.

Dae-young tells Seung-ah that Chul-beom was released, and that Anton has changed his story. She’s frustrated after everything they did to bring the bad guys in, and Dae-young is frustrated that they can’t reach Hae-il.

Seung-ah has been checking her copy of the hard drive they got from Rising Moon, and on it she hears Kim Kyun-young, Rising Moon’s owner, ordering Chul-beom to get rid of Kyung-seon for him. She takes the recording to Kyung-seon (who still has Chief Nam’s valuable sword, ha), and suggests that they take it to a TV station. They can’t go after Chul-beom because Anton, being on his side, didn’t record his end of the conversation, but he clearly says Kyun-young’s name, so Seung-ah says they can use the recording to get him.

Kyung-seon asks who else knows about the recording, and Seung-ah says it’s just them and Dae-young. Kyung-seon confirms that Seung-ah trusts her a little bit, and only hates her a little bit, and asks her to work with her just this once, with a mischievous grin.

Later, Chief Nam finds little signs posted all around the police station saying “Who owns Rising Moon?” HAHA.

They have a Team Tsunami meeting at the church, where Hae-il says dejectedly that they have nothing incriminating to tie Rising Moon and Chief Nam together. Seung-ah confirms that none of the Rising Moon ledgers name the clubs’ actual owner, but Hae-il says they have to destroy Chief Nam before it’s too late.

While staring at the connections diagram, Kyung-seon has a sudden epiphany — the ledgers are fake. They need to find the real ledgers, which will lead them to evidence regarding the real owner and all sorts of other goodies. They haven’t checked Rising Moon’s accounting firm yet, and she assigns that job to Seung-ah.

LOL, Hae-il makes Dae-young wear a hard hat as a helmet to ride his motorcycle, and he whines at Dae-young holding onto his waist. They’re on their way to intercept two Diabol gang members escorting Rising Moon’s accountant to the airport for his trip to Oahu. Dae-young is spoiling for a fight and plows through the Diabols, then Hae-il goes after the accountant.

They go back to the accountant’s office, where they make him count money while answering their questions (and he’s so nervous he keeps getting the amounts wrong, hee). Hae-il demands the real Rising Moon account books, but the accountant whines that they’ll kill him if he turns them over. Hae-il just shrugs that he can die now or die later.

The accountant admits that he doesn’t have the ledgers because he gambled them away and didn’t tell anyone. He doesn’t know where the gambling house is located (then how did he gamble there??), but Dae-young was smart enough to find some guy named Jerry in the accountant’s phone records, so he and Hae-il find Jerry and hold his hands to the heating vents in his car to torture the gambling house’s location out of him. (Hae-il is so inventive, ha.)

Kyung-seon puts on a show for Chief Prosecutor Kang, wailing dramatically and claiming to have bipolar disorder to explain why she sided with the enemy. He returns her idol drug case, mostly to get her to stop crying, though he warns her that his trust in her is thin. Kyung-seon thinks to herself that the last time she kneeled it was survival, but this time it’s to gain momentum.

Back in Kyung-seon’s office, Seung-ah throws a huge tantrum about Kyung-seon turning on the team, and Kyung-seon slaps her. It’s all an act for Kyung-seon’s benefit, and when Seung-ah sees him peeking into the room, she grabs Kyung-seon’s ponytail and they have to be pulled apart. It works, and Chief Prosecutor Kang mutters that that’s what he wanted to see from Kyung-seon.

A bit later, Kyung-seon sneaks out and jumps into Seung-ah’s car and apologizes for hitting her so hard, but they’re satisfied with the results of their “fight.” Kyung-seon asks what Seung-ah likes so much about Hae-il other than his looks, long legs, and wide shoulders, ha. Seung-ah says he’s like a magician with his ability to change people and situations.

At Ssongsak’s restaurant, Jang-ryong complains about Chul-beom making Geon-woo, his right-hand man, falsely turn himself in. He takes out his frustration on Ssongsak, slapping him for bringing the wrong pickles, but Ssongsak is done being pushed around. He stares hard at Jang-ryong and tells him to get his own pickles, calling him a “long dragon bastard” in a terrifying voice.

EPISODE 30

Jang-ryong laughs at the insult, and Ssongsak tells him to come outside. Jang-ryong scoffs that Ssongsak can’t even fight, but Ssongsak says that he has three levels of power, and will only use Level One, because Level Three would kill Jang-ryong. Jang-ryong recognizes Ssongsak’s Muay Thai moves and says that he knows it too, and he attacks.

Within three seconds, Ssongsak lands a painful thump on Jang-ryong’s head, rattling his noggin so hard that Jang-ryong accidentally switches to capoeira for a second. He remembers where he is and attacks Ssongsak again, but Ssongsak easily evades him and nearly breaks his leg. He even manages an insulting slap that makes Jang-ryong sniffle, then sweeps his legs out from under him. One final kick to the head, and Jang-ryong is done.

Hae-il and Dae-young arrive at the gambling house, where they punch their way in through the security guards. They finally find Bookie Kim, who proudly informs them that he’s “the Horse Head of Daegwallyeong,” expecting them to be intimidated. Instead, Hae-il and Dae-young dissolve into giggles, so Bookie Kim tells his bouncers to take care of them.

But suddenly a man sits up from the couch he was sleeping on, complaining that they should just talk this out. He says his name is Oh Kwang-doo, and he asks what they want. Hae-il explains that he just needs the Rising Moon ledgers, but Kyung-doo says that this is a gambling house, so he’ll have to gamble for whatever he wants.

Later at the church, Seung-ah asks why they can’t just get a warrant and raid the gambling house, but Dae-young says that gamblers can smell the cops a mile away and will be gone when they get there. They wonder where they can find a good gambler, and when Hae-il mentions Kyung-doo’s name, Sister Kim suddenly freezes. She claims not to know Kyung-doo, but she leaves the room and prays to God not to let her sin again.

Hae-il gets a call from his coroner friend who seemed to recognize Sister Kim. He says that a body came into the morgue twenty years ago of a man who had been stabbed while gambling. Sister Kim was his older sister, and she’d blamed herself for her brother’s death. Hae-il’s friend says that he learned later that she was a gambler known as the “Ten-Tailed Fox.”.

Kyung-seon’s assistant has heard of her, and he tells Kyung-seon that Ten-Tailed Fox was one of three notorious gamblers in Korea twenty years ago, along with Kyung-doo and someone called The Flounder. Legend said that Ten-Tailed Fox would hide her cards under her tenth tail (the first nine being her gumiho tails).

One day the three legendary gamblers played a game, and the police found out and planned to arrest them. Ten-Tailed Fox won the game, but when the police came to arrest Kyung-doo and the Flounder, Ten-Tailed Fox had vanished and has never been seen again.

Kyung-seon takes this information back to Hae-il, who decides that Sister Kim can be their gambler. Kyung-seon reminds him that gambling is the reason she became a nun, but he argues that he still punches people after becoming a priest.

He concedes the point when Kyung-seon says that Sister Kim left the secular world for different reasons, but he doesn’t see why she can’t just win a game and help them out. Kyung-seon says he should talk to her since he’s apparently a magician.

Chul-beom shows up at the gambling house to introduce himself to Kyung-doo, who asks if he’s also here for the ledgers. He wrangles an invitation into the game they’re playing for the ledgers, but he knows he’s no match for Kyung-doo, so he tells Hoon-seok to find some good players.

Again, Chief Nam finds himself in an elevator at the station that’s practically wallpapered with signs asking who owns Rising Moon. LOL.

Sister Kim thinks seriously about how badly the team needs those ledgers, and how she’s the only one who has a chance of winning them from Kyung-doo. Hae-il asks if she’s worried about Kyung-doo and she screams in frustration, startling him, then asks how much he knows.

He says he heard about her brother and that she was the Ten-Tailed Fox, and she screams again that he knows everything. She knows that he wants her to gamble against Kyung-doo, but she says it’s not that easy, because her brother got killed trying to be a gambler like her.

She tells Hae-il that Kyung-doo’s men killed him the very evening she won against him. Hae-il gets all upset and offers to send Kyung-doo to Hell for her, which makes her smile. He says that people were hurt because of him, too, but that he shouldn’t waste his God-given talent for fighting. He asks Sister Kim, if she hasn’t decided yet, to consider thinking about her talent his way, and she says that she understands why Father Lee loved him so much.

Up in his room, Hae-il prays to Father Lee, saying that he and Sister Kim both had to face their darkest secrets today. But he says he wasn’t as scared because he could share his burden with her, and he asks Father Lee to tell God to stop asking Sister Kim to take care of him.

He tells Sung-kyu about Sister Kim’s past the next morning. He says he doesn’t want to push her to gamble again, and that he’ll accept whatever decision she makes. But he’s also a nervous wreck, chewing his fingernails as he worries that Chul-beom has probably already made his next move.

On her way home from the store, Sister Kim gets caught in a sudden rain and trips, dropping her groceries. Someone stops to help her then walks away without a word, but when he turns to acknowledge her thanks, he looks exactly like the Bright Rain Card in a Go-Stop deck. She takes it as a sign, and squishes back to the church to tell everyone that she’ll play.

The Head Nun doesn’t love the idea of Sister Kim gambling again, and Hae-il says to think of it as her helping them catch Satan, but he gets shushed. The Head Nun says that in her opinion, no lives are at stake so the situation isn’t that dire. Sister Kim agrees, but she argues that she wants to be part of making the world a more just place.

Hae-il and Sung-kyu say that Sister Kim put a lot of thought into this, and offer to help her as much as they can. Sister Kim says that she’ll do it even without permission and face her punishment, and Hae-il’s eyes nearly pop out of his head.

On the day of the game, Chul-beom takes his gambler to the gambling house, and when Hae-il is late, they figure that he chickened out. Chul-beom offers to pay Kyung-doo cash for the ledgers, but Kyung-doo says no, adding that he’ll destroy the ledgers if Chul-beom tries anything funny during the game. He answers his phone, and when the caller says she’s Ten-Tailed Fox, Kyung-doo suddenly looks nervous.

Meanwhile, Hae-il tells Dae-young his plans, then Dae-young goes to the station to gather up the former violent crimes unit.

Chief Prosecutor Kang takes Kyung-seon to the vault along with Agent Lee and Dong-ja, surprising Chul-beom. The programmer opens the thumbprint locks, and Kyung-seon hides her surprise at the massive pile of cash inside. At a signal from Chief Prosecutor Kang, Agent Lee levels his gun at Kyung-seon’s head.

At the gambling house, a trio of fancy-dressed high-rollers enters the room. HAHA, it’s Sister Kim with Hae-il and Sung-kyu, all of them dressed to the nines. Hae-il looks hot as hell in his trenchcoat, and Sung-kyu’s flower-print suit is probably the best thing I’ve ever seen.

In her sleek, sexy suit and makeup, Sister Kim looks amazing, and she stares Kyung-doo directly in the eye as she approaches the table.

 
COMMENTS

I knew Sister Kim had a shady past! She’s normally so sweet, but there have been signs from the beginning that there was more to her than a milquetoast personality and a nun’s habit. Whenever there’s a conflict, you can see her wanting to jump in and scrap, and several times, she’s even put her tiny self in between Jang-ryong and whoever he was threatening. I’ve always thought that Sister Kim has no sense of self-preservation when it comes to protecting others. That would make sense if her little brother died because of her gambling — she would naturally want to protect others from being hurt. I love how consistent the show has been with characterizations in this way… even small actions by the characters turn out to have pretty important motivations behind them later.

I’m excited, they’re going to gamble for the ledgers and I can’t wait! I don’t blame Kyung-doo for that expression on his face — Sister Kim looks terrifying, and since she’s the only person who’s ever won in a game against him, Kyung-doo has every reason to be afraid. The only thing I’m unclear about is why Kyung-doo even wants the Rising Moon ledgers in the first place, and how they hold any value for him. It seems to be one of those plot points that don’t make a ton of sense so the show sort of breezes over them to keep the audience from thinking about it too much. But that works for me, because sometimes I just want to be entertained and not think too hard, and since everything else going on in this episode was so much fun, I’m happy to swallow a little nonsense in the process.

Now that Dae-young has his old confidence back, he’s hilariously cocky, and I love it. He was cocky before, but it was based in fear and evasion, but now that he’s kicking butt and taking names again, he just thinks he’s all that. He’s not even wrong — it turns out that he’s a great fighter and good at thinking on the fly. He even anticipated a few things before Hae-il even thought of them, but that just makes his swagger that much funnier. Hae-il also seems to find it highly amusing, and seeing the two of them banter and play together like old friends is my new favorite thing.

Hae-il is certainly changing a lot lately, he’s much calmer and less likely to fly off the handle these days. He’s still willing to use his fists to solve problems, but as he said, he sees his fighting abilities as a God-given gift, so it makes sense for him to use the strategy that works best. But he no longer loses his temper, or when he does, it’s easy for his friends to calm him down, and sometimes he even seems to be having fun. I think that he felt betrayed by Agent Lee lying to him when he was in the NIS, so he wasn’t willing to trust anyone for a very long time, but he’s finally found people he can trust and it’s really having an effect on him. I just hope that he doesn’t do something stupid and try to sacrifice himself for one of them.

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