Diary of a Prosecutor: Episode 6

by quirkycase

Whew, this one’s intense. A high-profile murder case involving domestic abuse takes the foreground, and emotions run high. Some aspects of the case hit too close to home for a member of our team, forcing them to face a past long left-behind. After running for so long, having to face the trauma head-on may finally bring a chance for healing.

 
EPISODE 6

We pick up right where we left off last episode with the man calling out to Myung-joo. She freezes for a second but then ignores him and continues walking. The rest of the team glances at each other and rushes to a secluded spot to speculate.

Seeing as he used her given name, he must know her well. Yet he didn’t come across as a teacher or anything. She comes from a rich neighborhood, so it’s unlikely he’s a neighborhood grandpa type.

Jung-woo notes she hasn’t looked that surprised since she first saw Seon-woong again. Yoon-jin and Jong-hak nod in agreement. (Seon-woong: “She was that surprised?”) They task Seon-woong with getting the details.

While the man waits, his wife comes running up. “Why are you so late?!” he demands agressively, making her flinch like he’s about to hit her. He agitatedly informs her Myung-joo is next door and orders her over.

She peeks around the door and tears up when she sees Myung-joo. Even though she tries to hide, Myung-joo spots her and looks startled.

Seon-woong interviews CHA JOO-HWAN (Jeon Jin-ki) who goes on about how hard prosecutors work. He’d know—his daughter Myung-joo is one and works down the hall. Seon-woong and Man-ok are stunned; only Mi-ran looks unfazed.

Outside, KANG AE-SHIM (Moon Ok-rim) fidgets nervously as she talks with Myung-joo. Is she eating well? Is she sick? Myung-joo is monosyllabic. She finally looks at her mom and says, “You always said you lived that way because of me, so I thought you’d leave Dad if I weren’t around.” With that, she leaves.

Joo-hwan is busy trying to use Myung-joo to weasel out of his charges and insists he was lured to the gambling den unknowingly by a friend. Unbeknownst to Seon-woong, he slips an envelope (full of cash, I’m guessing) on his desk before he leaves. What a sleazy dude.

Man-ok wastes no time spreading the gossip through her network, complete with Seon-woong’s impression of the brief father-daughter meeting in the hall. Meanwhile, Seon-woong notices the envelope on his desk. And, yep, it’s filled with cash. He rushes out.

From her window, Myung-joo watches her parents get in a cab and drive off. Seon-woong chases behind them but is too late to return the cash.

In the hallway, two women grab Mi-ran and whisk her around a corner. They pepper her with questions about Myung-joo’s dad. She leaves them with this gem: “Prosecutor Cha’s father… has the surname Cha.” Pfft.

The team (minus Myung-joo) goes out for lunch where they naturally gossip about Myung-joo’s father. Everyone looks to Seon-woong for answers, but he’s at a loss. When he doesn’t want to dig for more info on Myung-joo’s personal life, they all wonder at how considerate he’s suddenly being toward her.

Min-ho is called into Chief Kim’s office where Prosecutor Nam tries to poach the gambling case for his team since Myung-joo’s family is one of the accused. Myung-joo interrupts their meeting to take herself off the case. Chief Kim agrees to let Team 2 keep the case if Myung-joo steps down.

Instead, Chief Kim assigns her one of Team 1’s cases. He originally wanted it to go to Team 2, but they were all busy with the gambling case. Well, that backfired on Prosecutor Nam.

Mi-ran drops off the case files for the gambling case to Seon-woong’s office. Looking concerned, Seon-woong comments to Mi-ran, “Prosecutor Cha isn’t feeling great right now, is she?” Man-ok claims that’s obvious, but she at least got another case.

The case turns out to be a famous one dubbed “The Birthday Tragedy” in which an elderly woman who’d been abused for decades ended up beating her husband to death. Jang Young-sook was charged with murder, but her lawyer is arguing self-defense due to the abuse and the fact that the husband had a weapon.

Jung-hwan tells Myung-joo the woman attempted suicide after killing her husband. The photos of her badly bruised face remind Myung-joo of similar bruises on her mother long ago.

Myung-joo interviews the woman, asking why they fought on her birthday and whether she was regularly abused. Did he hit her that day? Young-sook remains silent.

Myung-joo places a photo in front of her and speculates that she must’ve picked up the wooden stick to defend herself. Young-sook stubbornly refuses to answer. Myung-joo recalls hiding in her room as a child as her father rages, yelling for her to come out and hitting her mother.

This case is clearly too personal for her, and she struggles to stay distanced. Myung-joo guesses that Young-sook never called the cops or sought help. “For 40 years, you just put up with it.”

With tears in her eyes, she argues it didn’t have to be this way. Getting angrier, she spreads out the photos. “This is the result of not doing or saying anything and just putting up with it!”

Jung-hwa intervenes, but she continues: “Why didn’t you run away?” We see a teenaged Myung-joo asking her mom if they should run away. Her mom just smiles and brushes her off.

Young-sook now has tears in her eyes as Myung-joo points out that, after an accident two years ago, her husband couldn’t walk. Why was she still so afraid? Jung-hwan tries to drag Myung-joo out as she gets more worked up. “If you had the courage to pick up that stick, why couldn’t you call the police?”

In the bathroom, Myung-joo throws up. When she gets back to her office, Seon-woong is waiting. He asks for a minute, but she says she’s busy. He hesitantly brings up her father, but she bristles, so he lets it go.

At home, Myung-joo thinks about her mom. She cries as she recalls blasting music in her headphones as a teen to drown out the awful noise and seeing her mother’s bruises the next day.

The following day, she instructs Jung-hwan to cancel the second interview with Young-sook. They already have enough to indict. She gets a phone call and heads out, looking serious. Jung-woo gets a text and rushes out after her.

Chief Kim must’ve called a department meeting because everyone is gathered to watch the footage of Myung-joo’s interrogation. It looks bad. Prosecutor Nam reads out a statement from a guard at the prison stating the suspect has been transferred to a hospital after refusing to eat or drink following the interrogation.

Prosecutor Nam calls for a disciplinary hearing for Myung-joo and for the case to be transferred to Team 1. Myung-joo apologizes and is prepared to accept whatever action is taken.

After the meeting, Prosecutor Nam pretends to be benevolent while rubbing Myung-joo’s loss in her face. Min-ho has had enough. “Are you that happy about getting in the way of one of your juniors, you jackass?” It gets physical and both teams try to break them up. Myung-joo leaves amidst the chaos.

The team heads back, disheveled, and Min-ho reassigns the murder case to Seon-woong who balks. He thinks it’ll be worse if he, of all people, takes the case from Myung-joo. But Min-ho argues that’s exactly why he should have it—they’ll never make up anyway.

Later, Jong-hak questions why Min-ho said Seon-woong and Myung-joo won’t ever make up. He shares the tale of the famed carpenter ruler and then shocks Jong-hak by revealing Seon-woong received it instead of Myung-joo. He even used it as a bottle opener in front of her.

Elsewhere, Seon-woong interviews Young-sook’s son. He and his pregnant wife went over that day for his mother’s birthday and left after dinner. Seon-woong brings up statements from neighbors that claim his mother was abused. The son admits it, saying his father is “old-fashioned.” Seriously?!

Myung-joo watches from behind the glass as he says he doesn’t know if his dad hit his mom that day. Seon-woong asks about his relationship with his father. The son speaks fondly of him, claiming his father had a temper but treated him well.

Seon-woong spots Myung-joo eating alone in the cafeteria and joins her. Right as he goes to talk to her, his phone rings. He mentions the murder case before he catches himself, and Myung-joo excuses herself.

Later, Seon-woong and Man-ok visit Young-sook in the hospital. He breaks out the folksy neighbor routine, satoori and all, but she stays silent. Man-ok laments that his favorite strategy didn’t work. Ha.

Myung-joo walks in just as they leave. Seeing the bruised woman again leads her to flash back to her childhood. She’d watched her mother sleep one night before leaving with a bag. Oh, did she run away? In the present, a woman sees Myung-joo standing in the doorway and approaches.

The next day, Seon-woong and Min-ho discuss the case. Min-ho thinks they can indict, but Seon-woong wants a statement as to motive. After the husband’s accident, the abuse must’ve lessened. He finds it strange that things blew up now.

Seon-woong sees Myung-joo in the hallway, and right as he goes to talk to her, she calls him into her office. The daughter-in-law told Myung-joo that Young-sook’s husband did hit her that night. He struck her with his cane, making her head bleed. The son and daughter-in-law left at that point. Wow…

Myung-joo warns that the daughter-in-law is reluctant to give a statement. The incident has caused a rift between her and her husband. She’s currently staying at her parents’.

They both sigh. Then comes the longest awkward pause ever. He thanks her. She deflects. They get awkward again. Silence. I’m laughing and cringing. She actually has to nudge him out, stating “That’s all I had to say.” Haha.

He goes to leave and exclaims, “Ah, right!” making her jump. He shuts the door and blinds before handing her the envelope. Embarrassed, she cuts off his explanation, understanding exactly what happened. Seon-woong asks her to return the money and leaves.

In his office, Man-ok tells him Young-sook still won’t eat. She’s brought in again but doesn’t utter a word. They try to get her to eat with them, but that’s a bust too. Later, even her cellmates try to get her to eat to no avail.

They interview the son again who, after being prodded, admits the abuse started when he was in kindergarten. Seon-woong comments that means he watched his father beat his mother for about 30 years. As an adult, did he ever try to intervene or call the police?

The son hedges and claims he couldn’t call the cops on his own dad. Uh, yes you could’ve. Seon-woong’s line of questioning is getting to Myung-joo who is watching from behind the glass again.

Seon-woong accuses the son of lying by saying he didn’t remember his mom getting hit that day. The son asserts he wasn’t lying; it’s just that it was a normal occurrence. Myung-joo closes her eyes and tries to hold it together.

With his mother bleeding from the head, he calmly got up and left. Did he lie because he was ashamed? The son: “Why are you doing this to me? I didn’t do anything.” Seon-woong responds, “Yes. You didn’t do anything.” Myung-joo and the son both hang their heads.

That night, Myung-joo holds the envelope and steels herself before calling home. Her mom picks up the phone and guesses it’s her from the silence. Myung-joo cuts to the chase. She wants their address so she can return the money.

Her mom replies softly that they haven’t moved. Everything’s the same. Myung-joo hurriedly says she’ll send it and hangs up before she starts crying.

Meanwhile, the son goes to see his wife. He confesses he closed his eyes to the abuse and got used to it over the years. They both cry.

When they visit his mom in prison, he tries to smile and encourages his mom to eat. But soon he’s sobbing that he’s sorry, again and again.

The next time she goes to the prosecution office, she requests a meal. Relieved, Seon-woong and Man-ok watch her eat from behind the glass. Afterwards, she finally gives her statement.

It was her first birthday after her son got married. She was thrilled. But after her son and daughter-in-law left, her husband suddenly started beating her. They didn’t realize the kids had come back.

It wasn’t until she saw her daughter-in-law’s horrified eyes that she realized how wrong it all was. How inhumanely she’d been treated all these years.

She remembered being a newlywed and getting slapped for the first time because the soup was cold. From there, the abuse quickly escalated. She resigned herself to her fate. But seeing those eyes… she got up and fought back.

Seon-woong presses that she didn’t really want to kill him. It was self-defense, right? Young-sook corrects him: she intended to kill him. Seon-woong keeps pushing for a statement that can be read as self-defense, but she won’t budge and unequivocally states she intentionally struck his head to kill him.

Seon-woong’s report only calls for a two-year sentence and three years’ probation. He argues both the son and neighbors testified on her behalf. Min-ho worries the light sentence will be a problem during inspection, but Seon-woong is willing to take the risk.

At her parents’ house, Myung-joo tries to drop the money and take off, but she runs into her mom. Inside, her mom fixes her tea, and they sit. She assures Myung-joo her dad “isn’t like that these days.”

Her mom jumps up to fix her dinner and freezes when Myung-joo promises, “Next time, I’ll call first.” Her mom rushes to her and grabs her hands. She sobs, “I didn’t know if you were dead or alive. You never called. How could you do that to me?”

We flash back to when Myung-joo ran away as a teenager. Her mom had watched her leave, knowing she wasn’t coming back. Now she watches Myung-joo walk down that same street. Myung-joo turns and they smile at each other.

In voiceover, her mom asks how she survived back then being so young. Myung-joo says she worked as a live-in tutor and lived well. Ah, that explains her going into the mansion.

Her mom admonishes her for not calling or letting her help with her tuition. But Myung-joo asks how she could do that. “I’m the daughter who abandoned you to live alone.” Her mom smiles with tears of joy as Myung-joo walks away, knowing she’ll be back this time.

Seon-woong narrates that some moments completely change your life. But you have to keep fighting in order to not regret.

In a familiar scene at Seon-woong’s place, the doorbell rings in the middle of the prosecutors’ gambling. But it’s a kid who walks in and addresses Seon-woong. “Dad!” Whaaat? Shocked, Seon-woong asks, “Jae-hoon, how are you–?” before realizing his wife had been trying to call.

 
COMMENTS

What a fantastic episode. Domestic abuse is a heavy topic to tackle, but here it was handled sensitively and thoughtfully. I was especially glad learned helplessness was addressed. From the outside, it’s easy to say abuse victims should just leave, but the psychological effects of prolonged abuse are complex. You’re conditioned by fear and manipulation into inaction as you convince yourself the situation isn’t as bad as it seems. Young-sook’s initial shock and fear turned into resignation until she forgot she had the power to stand up for herself. It wasn’t until she saw herself through the eyes of someone on the outside that her illusion was shattered to devastating effect.

Seeing through the eyes of the kids, both Young-sook’s son and Myung-joo, was another nice touch. They each responded so differently. He coped by distancing himself and identifying more with his father, choosing to ignore reality and pretend things were fine. Myung-joo couldn’t shut it out and instead grew angry that her mother wouldn’t fight for them.

Watching a loved one go through the same abuse again and again without even trying to escape their situation can be maddening, like it was for Myung-joo. She even came to resent her mom for not trying hard enough, which is understandable from her position. Her mom may have been the one getting hit, but she was a victim too. As a child, you expect and need your parent to protect you. In her case, that meant her mom protecting herself. When she realized her mom would never take that step, Myung-joo chose to save herself.

That has to be a terrible situation to find yourself in, especially as a child. She was too young to really be able to help which left her the options of staying and continuing to be traumatized or leaving alone. The domestic abuse and the fact that she’s been entirely on her own since her teens provides a lot of insight into Myung-joo and her approach. She knows what it’s like to fight for survival and have no one but yourself to rely on. Despite her circumstance, she managed to put herself through school and build a life for herself. It’s made her tough and disillusioned, preferring to place trust in the process rather than people.

Her animosity towards Seon-woong’s entitlement makes a lot more sense now. To someone who’s made serious sacrifices and had to make a living for herself from a young age, Seon-woong’s blasé approach to money and hardship probably felt like a slap in the face. Of course, he clearly had no idea how his words and behavior were received. And we know he thinks she is from a privileged background, making her attitude toward him all the more confusing. I’m curious to see how things change if and when they clear things up between them.

This episode seemed like a possible turning point for Myung-joo and Seon-woong. Although he enjoys annoying her, when she was actually down, he was sympathetic. It’s clear he doesn’t truly want her to suffer, just be a little inconvenienced. It’s harder to read Myung-joo’s current feelings toward him, but her attitude comes across more as competitive than anything else. I think they could be friends (you know, the kind who annoy each other) if they would give each other a chance.

Seon-woong has a kid?! Is he married or, maybe, divorced? Either way, that came out of nowhere but not necessarily in a bad way. I like that we don’t learn everything about a character at once. It unfolds as it becomes relevant, much like in real life. We don’t get a full backstory with a host of personal details when we meet people. You get to know each other over time. And sometimes, that process can take a while.

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