The Fiery Priest: Episodes 33-34

by LollyPip

After this latest strike by their enemies, Team Tsunami has had enough, and none of them more than their priestly leader. It’s time to take real action towards stopping the corruption that’s taken over the city, and if nothing else, we know that our favorite team will make it fun to watch.

 
EPISODE 33

Agent Lee sends his three trained assassins after Hae-il’s friends, who put up a good fight. But the assassins are better, and soon all of Team Tsunami are at their mercy. Ssongsak tries to help Seung-ah, but even he’s overpowered by the assassin — but luckily, Kyung-seon and Hae-il find them and Hae-il kicks the assassin away from Ssongsak just in time.

Hae-il gets a good look at what the assassin did to Seung-ah, then motions to Ssongsak not to try to help. He goes after the assassin with renewed fury, but they seem evenly matched, the same as Hae-il’s fight with the first assassin. The cops arrive and the assassin leaves, and Hae-il turns to his friends.

Kyung-seon and Ssongsak are okay, but Seung-ah is rushed to the hospital, badly hurt. Soon Dae-young joins them looking angrier than we’ve ever seen him. Hae-il calls Agent Lee and screams profanities down the phone at him, but Agent Lee just says that he warned Hae-il ahead of time.

He says that he told his guys not to kill anyone, and they didn’t, and the mercenaries all laugh like it’s the most hilarious thing ever. Shaking, Hae-il tells Agent Lee that he’s going to find him, but Agent Lee just hangs up on him.

When Sung-kyu arrives at the church, he finds Sister Kim traumatized, and she bursts into tears as soon as she sees him. The team stay by Seung-ah’s side at the hospital, thankful that her worst injury is a bad concussion. Dae-young says that the violent crimes team are also hurt, but not badly.

Hae-il, Dae-young, and Ssongsak discuss what happened tonight, and Hae-il tells the guys that the men who attacked them are mercenaries from the special forces hired by Agent Lee. Dae-young puts the clues together, and guesses that Agent Lee is the guy who ordered Hae-il to throw the grenade into the roomful of children.

He demands to know where these guys are, but Hae-il doesn’t know. He feels to blame for what happened tonight, but Dae-young says it’s not his fault. Hae-il doesn’t seem to believe him, and he lies when Dae-young asks if he’s going off do to something by himself. He leaves with revenge in his eyes and takes off into the night on his motorcycle.

Agent Lee is lying in bed when he hears Hae-il’s voice say, “I told you I’d come for you.” He slides his gun out from under his pillow and rolls out of bed, aiming for Hae-il, who kicks the gun away and goes after Agent Lee with his fists. Hae-il does some serious damage, throwing Agent Lee around the room like a rag doll and destroying his face.

Despite having just had the stuffing beaten out of him, Agent Lee laughs that Hae-il hasn’t changed. He tells Hae-il to remember that he loses an important witness to Father Lee’s murder if he kills him. He refuses to say what he means, but Hae-il gives him one week.

He snarls that if Agent Lee fails to tell him within a week or it turns out to be a lie, Agent Lee will regret not telling him today. Agent Lee asks why things are so complicated between them, and Hae-il kicks him in the face one last time, just because it feels good.

Hae-il still has blood on his robes and his face when he returns to the church. Sister Kim and Sung-kyu doctor up his battered fists, and Hae-il hangs his head guiltily, feeling responsible for what happened to everyone tonight. They tell him that nobody blames him and that he can’t give up now.

Chul-beom goes to see Dong-ja in jail, and he sighs that she should have trusted him. But he declares that she’s still his sister, the person who took him from the slums and got him where he is now, and he promises to take care of her.

He heads back to work, and he’s attacked by one of Agent Lee’s mercenaries in the parking garage. Chul-beom defends himself just fine, even stopping Hoon-seok from stepping in. The mercenary says he’s a good fighter and that he’ll see him later before leaving again.

Everyone gathers at the hospital, where they all agree that this was not Hae-il’s fault. Despite their injuries, the violent crimes team gets all fired up to catch the mercenaries, and they even volunteer to help break into Chul-beom’s safe. Hae-il knows by the guilty look on Dae-young’s face who told them about that.

Hae-il thinks to himself: “This isn’t just money. It’s a tower of greed they built over seven years while giving up their humanity. I will topple the tower in front of their eyes, and those who look upon it as if it’s a deity will also go down.”

Young-moon and Kozayev are still trying to dig their way into the vault, but Kozayev says they have to stop because the tunnel they’re digging will collapse before they reach their goal. Kozayev quits when Young-moon tells him to keep trying, and his men follow him out, so Young-moon grabs a shovel and goes in himself.

Hae-il tells the team that the vault is dust-, explosion-, and water-proof, with double-plated walls of 100-ton steel. He flips a coin as he tries to think of a way to break into such a vault, then the coin gives him an idea… they need to make the baddies move the cash. Kyung-seon says it won’t even be hard, wiggling her fingers in front of her mouth cheekily.

Two men wearing all black punch their way through the security outside Representative Park’s hospital room, then smother Representative Park to death with a pillow. The following day, Chief Prosecutor Kang grins as he watches the story on the news. He notices that Sung-kyu looks upset, and she says that with Representative Park dead and Dong-ja and Chief Nam in jail, he’s the only person left who can keep the money in the vault safe from theft.

She asks what he’s planning to do with Chief Nam and Dong-ja’s shares, and when he says he’s keeping them, she warns that Chul-beom is probably angry about that. She likens it to trusting a cat to guard a warehouse full of fish, hoping to plant a seed of worry.

She goes to Chul-beom’s office next and accepts his offer of fifty percent of the cash, to help him ditch Chief Prosecutor Kang and Agent Lee. She reminds him that Chief Prosecutor Kang is good at betraying others first, and that everything he says is a lie, planting a few more seeds.

While they wait for Kyung-seon to work her mouthy magic, Hae-il tells Dae-young that Chul-beom will probably gather all of his men together once he learns that Chief Prosecutor Kang will move the money. As good as Agent Lee’s mercenaries are, they can’t win against multiple opponents.

Chief Prosecutor Kang calls Chul-beom to tell him that he’s going to move half of the money, taking his and Chief Nam’s shares, and tells him to do what he wants with Dong-ja’s share. He says that he’ll visit the vault tomorrow and give Chul-beom the date and time of the move, but Chul-beom remembers Kyung-seon’s warning that Chief Prosecutor Kang is a liar. He tells Hoon-seok and Jang-ryong to gather all their men by tomorrow and not to let Chief Prosecutor Kang take a penny.

Hae-il asks Chief Oh, his former NIS supervisor, to come to the church to talk. He tells Chief Oh that he’s about to declare war on the people he’s been chasing, but he needs something. Chief Oh says he’ll help just this once, as long as Hae-il promises to get Agent Lee, too, who’s wanted by the NIS for leaking information.

Chief Oh asks Hae-il if he wants to come back, saying that he’s heard Hae-il hasn’t changed much since he left the NIS. Hae-il says they can discuss it later, and Chief Oh asks what he needs.

Rattled by his encounter with the mercenary, Ssongsak brushes up on his Muay Thai moves (shirtless, and damn, son). He vows that next time Oppa fights, he’ll avenge Seung-ah.

EPISODE 34

Team Tsunami gather at the church, where Hae-il talks about the commotion suddenly happening at Daebum Trading. He’s trying to be serious, but the team gets sidetracked by the thought of all that money and whether it can buy happiness (Seung-ah says no, but Kyung-seon retorts that only people without enough money to buy happiness say that, hee).

Hae-il yells them back to attention and goes over the plan — attach a tracker to the car that will be carrying the money, then follow the car and take the money. That’s the whole plan. Kyung-seon doesn’t like that plan since it leaves her all alone at the vault, but Hae-il promises that they’ll wait for her.

She asks what they plan to do with the money once they have it, but Hae-il doesn’t know yet. Dae-young argues that they need to figure it out before tomorrow since they can’t just leave that kind of cash lying around, so Hae-il promises to give it some thought.

The next day, Jang-ryong arrives at Daebum Trading with his entire gang. They order lunch, which is delivered in a van marked “Fiery Lunchbox,” heh, and the masked delivery girl looks adorably familiar. She leaves a tiny camera on the stoop, and another in a tree pointing to the building, before she leaves.

Chief Prosecutor Kang (“the filthy”) and Agent Lee (“the cunning”) arrive and face off with Chul-beom (“the evil”). Chul-beom recognizes the mercenary he fought with, and he tells the guy that he’ll die by his hand, but the mercenary just laughs.

Elsewhere, Kyung-seon (“the one who repented yesterday”) and Dae-young (“the kind yet crazy”) join up with Hae-il (“the cool yet short-tempered”). They send in Kyung-seon, who’s wearing an earpiece, and they watch everyone enter the building through the cameras that Seung-ah set up.

Hae-il checks out the truck they’re planning to use to move the money and realizes that they can’t use a tracker because there’s a jammer on the vehicle. He radios Detective Lee and gives him a heads-up, so Detective Lee says they’ll just tail the truck visually.

The key players head downstairs to the vault, while Jang-ryong and his men hide in the stairwell waiting for a pre-arranged signal. Chief Prosecutor Kang and Chul-beom open the vault, and Hae-il tells Kyung-seon not to be nervous, but she’s so nervous that she accidentally answers, “Okay,” then she does it again when he tells her not to answer.

LOL, it’s Ssongsak all over again. Kyung-seon even starts singing and dancing, and in the van, Hae-il, Dae-young, and Seung-ah pass around a bottle of soju for their frazzled nerves.

Chul-beom isn’t even surprised when he mentions that Chief Prosecutor Kang is only supposed to be taking half the money, and suddenly Agent Lee has a gun to his head, and Chief Prosecutor Kang says he’s taking it all. Chul-beom says he planned for this and that Chief Prosecutor Kang won’t get out of here with the cash.

Ah, the soju was part of the plan — Hae-il and Dae-young stagger up to the building, bellowing drunkenly for Chul-beom to come out. Jang-ryong hears their voices and investigates, but he has difficulty, as his belly is starting to rumble.

Jang-ryong steps outside to tell Hae-il and Dae-young to get lost, but they just mock the way he always pushes his hair back and tell him to get his boss. They pretend to be sooo scared when Jang-ryong’s men pour to of the building, but they notice that the gang is looking very uncomfortable so they literally moonwalk there way out of there. Okay, this is the silliest heist ever.

One of the mercenaries stayed outside to keep watch, and he messages one of the guys inside that Chul-beom has his men waiting. Agent Lee sends his guy upstairs to check, and Chul-beom calls Chief Prosecutor Kang a bastard, so Chief Prosecutor Kang grabs Agent Lee’s gun and points it at Chul-beom himself. Chul-beom says that if Chief Prosecutor Kang kills him, everyone here will die.

Hae-il and Dae-young jump back in the van with Seung-ah, who tells them that the fight is about to start. We go back a bit and see that when Hae-il and Dae-young were brainstorming, Dae-young had gotten a tummyache, which had given them the idea to drug the gang’s food to make them sick.

The flower extract they needed is banned in Korea, which is where Chief Oh’s favor for Hae-il came in. Seung-ah had spiked the food before delivering it, and they’re all feeling its effects of the flower extract right on time.

Jang-ryong gives the order for his gang to kill the mercenary who came up to check for them, but they all clutch their bellies instead. A stench fills the room as they lose control of their bowels (which we see as flower petals bursting from their backsides — equally bizarre and hilarious), and Jang-ryong and the mercenary escape in different directions.

The mercenary reports back downstairs, with Jang-ryong following right behind him. Jang-ryong tries to explain what’s happening, but his gastric distress has him barely able to speak, and soon “flower petals” are flying from his own rear. Chief Prosecutor Kang orders his men to start moving the money, as Kyung-seon retches and Chul-beom curses.

The mercenary from the truck sends two masked men inside, who start stuffing the cash into bags, as Kyung-seon thinks that it’s all going according to plan. Agent Lee tells Chul-beom, Hoon-seok, and Kyung-seon to go in the vault, where he plans to kill them. Chief Prosecutor Kang tells Kyung-seon that he knows she and Chul-beom were colluding together, and they both deny any partnership, but Agent Lee says they heard them, having bugged Chul-beom’s office.

Outside, Dae-young and Seung-ah panic, knowing that anyone locked in the vault will suffocate within minutes. Hae-il jumps out of the van and runs to the rescue, leaving Seung-ah sighing that he’s dreamy. He runs into the two masked men pushing a huge suitcase full of money and quickly knocks them out, then continues downstairs.

He faces the two mercenaries at once, and Chul-beom tells Hoon-seok not to get involved and wades in… to help Hae-il, saying only that he has a debt to repay. He goes after the mercenary who attacked him while Hae-il takes on the other one, but just as they’re getting the upper hand, Agent Lee fires his gun and ends the fight.

Hae-il tells them to let Kyung-seon go, and he’ll take her place in the safe. Chief Prosecutor Kang figures out that they’re working together, and Chul-beom sneers that she was lying to him, too. Dae-young and Seung-ah run in to back up Hae-il, guns drawn, but Agent Lee calls their bluff that they only have blanks.

Hae-il attempts to talk Agent Lee into sending him into the vault, saying that his life will be a lot easier with Hae-il gone. Agent Lee thinks about it, then agrees — but when his men finish loading all the cash into the van, they lock all four members of Team Tsunami into the vault with Chul-beom, Hoon-seok, and Jang-ryong.

As soon as they step outside, Agent Lee’s mercenary turns on Chief Prosecutor Kang, and Agent Lee says that he’d never help a mere chief prosecutor. He promises to make good use of Chief Prosecutor Kang’s money, and he leaves him a small bag as a gift, saying that at least he didn’t leave him in the vault with the others. He warns Chief Prosecutor Kang not to try and catch him as he knows all of his weak spots, then he and his men drive off with the entire mountain of cash.

Down in the vault, an extra security system kicks in that sucks the oxygen from the air after the door is closed. Team Tsunami and Chul-beom and his men realize that they only have a few minutes to live, but nobody has any ideas of how to escape the situation.

 
COMMENTS

Well, I’ve been wanting to see Hae-il and Chul-beom work together, and this is certainly one way to do it! Even if it’s just a grudging, temporary partnership to escape and go after Agent Lee, I think it will be fun to see them force themselves to get along for a while. They have to find a way out of that vault and go after Agent Lee, to get the money back and to bring Agent Lee to justice for everything he’s done to betray both of them. What Hae-il and Chul-beom do after that is anyone’s guess, because it’s not like they’re friends, but I feel like they’ve been coming to this moment since they first met.

I don’t know why, but as evil as Chul-beom is and as many terrible things as he’s done, I just can’t make myself hate him. I don’t think he’s a good person and I don’t trust him at all, but there’s just something very likable about him, regardless. He’s just as bad as the Former Foursome, if not worse since he’s the one who carried out their deadly orders, but the truth is that he’s taken a lot of abuse and for that, I can’t help cheering him on when he does things like help Hae-il fight, even if it’s for his own selfish reasons and not because he’s actually a good person. Is it crazy that I kind of hope Chul-beom and Hae-il can come to some sort of agreement, and that Chul-beom gets to escape prison? Of course, that would only happen if Chul-beom somehow had nothing to do with Father Lee’s death, but since Father Lee died in Chul-beom’s house, I know there’s a slim chance of that. Still, I can’t help wishing there was a way for Chul-beom to somehow end up okay at the end of all this.

The show is doing a good job of building up the tension as we come closer to the end of Hae-il’s story. The enemy are getting stronger as they weed out their own weak links, and Agent Lee is frankly terrifying as he brings even more personal insult to a situation that was already very personal for Hae-il. At first when Agent Lee showed up, I was scared that Hae-il would crumble when faced with the man who’s responsible for the worst trauma in his life. And you can see Hae-il struggling not to buckle under the weight of his guilt when his friends are hurt, but he keeps managing to find his anger and remember to get mad, and not back down.

I’m not surprised at all that Agent Lee betrayed Chief Prosecutor Kang and took all the money himself. He’s easily the most evil of all the people Hae-il has had to face, and has been since they were in the special forces together. As soon as he showed up, I’ve felt like Agent Lee was going to end up as Hae-il’s “final boss,” the one he’ll have the hardest time going up against because he knows how to push all of Hae-il’s most vulnerable buttons. But defeating Agent Lee is necessary for Hae-il to heal and move on, because he needs to really get it, that what happened to those kids all those years ago was Agent Lee’s fault, not his for following orders. Beating Agent Lee to a pulp will go a long way towards helping Hae-il feel better so that he can break the stasis he’s been in since he became a priest and move forward with his life.

RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Haechi, Item, The Light in Your Eyes, The Fiery Priest
• Kim Nam-gil, Kim Sung-kyun paired up in new stills for The Fiery Priest
• The Fiery Priest releases character posters for main players
• Kim Nam-gil and Honey Lee bicker in upcoming drama-comedy The Fiery Priest
• The Hot-Blooded Priest fights his way through a sinful city in SBS comedy
• Go Joon joins cast of drama Hot-Blooded Priest
• Kim Nam-gil, Kim Sung-kyun, and Honey Lee cast in Hot-Blooded Priest