Good Casting: Episode 10

by Sunny

No great spy mission is complete without a heist, but our ladies have their work cut out for them after their official mission is terminated. The stakes are high as they put their careers and lives on the line to catch the mysterious Michael.

 
EPISODE 10 RECAP

When Mi-soon sneaks out to meet Chan-mi, her husband rushes out behind her. She dips into the van before he makes it outside and he looks around, bewildered. Mi-soon and Ye-eun are reluctant to risk their jobs by defying orders and working with Chief Tak. Desperate to catch Michael, Chan-mi earnestly pleads for help, pointing out her job means everything to her, too. Before she can answer, Mi-soon sees her husband trying to peer inside the van and the women duck.

He can’t see anything through the side window and tries the rear. Sighing, Mi-soon asks for Chan-mi’s plan. Her husband isn’t having any luck at the rear window either when the van suddenly speeds away, dropping him to the ground. Mi-soon appears next to him, asking what he’s doing. Her husband stutters he’d woken up to find her missing, demanding what she’s doing? Mi-soon holds up the trash she’d asked her husband to throw out weeks ago.

Unable to stand the smell, she’d taken it out. Mi-soon loudly laments having a husband that holds trash more dearly than her and walks off in a huff, leaving her husband confused. Finding a secret file on the lady spies in Kook-hwan’s desk, Gwan-soo is shocked by a note on Ye-eun’s, establishing her relationship with Min-seok. Meanwhile, Ye-eun is dropped off and uses the burner phone to report Chan-mi’s plan to the person threatening her and her child.

The next morning, Director Myeong jots notes in his secret ledger, hiding it when a secretary brings him tea. Turning to the computer, he grins at the headline declaring Cheol-woong’s death. Out in the van, Gwan-soo balks when Chan-mi informs him of her plan. Gwan-soo reminds her defying orders now will be the end of them, but Chan-mi thinks the risk is necessary to catch Michael.

“If this goes wrong, we might never get another shot at catching him,” Gwan-soo warns, but Chan-mi is sure she’ll succeed. Unfortunately, Ye-eun and Mi-soon are running into snags. With their mission terminated, Ye-eun no longer has access to the NIS database and Mi-soon is stripped of all remaining spy equipment. Gwan-soo says the chance for failure exceeds 50% and not only will Chan-mi lose her agent status – she’ll go to prison.

“Prison life suits me well,” Chan-mi sniffs, asserting either Kook-hwan leaves or she does. It’s enough for Gwan-soo and he declares the mission a “go” as Mi-soon gleefully pulls out a GPS tracker she’d managed to keep hidden from the supervising agent.

Woo-seok announces he’ll steal Director Myeong’s ledger tonight and Seok-ho sighs, wondering if there’s another way. “If something goes wrong,” Woo-seok adds, “you have nothing to do with it.” Seok-ho disagrees, but Woo-seok insists Seok-ho’s father saved him when he was an orphan on the streets, upset he didn’t get to repay him before he died. Seok-ho gently points out he’s done plenty, but Woo-seok remains firm.

Communicating via chat, Gwan-soo says with their limited resources, they’ll have to do it the traditional way. Chan-mi and Mi-soon explain to Ye-eun this is how things were handled before she joined the NIS. Woo-seok returns to his desk and tells Chan-mi to escort Seok-ho to his meeting today. She excuses herself to deliver paperwork and when Director Myeong’s secretary leaves her office, Chan-mi slips in.

The secretary heads for the bathroom, which Mi-soon immediately puts a cleaning sign in front of. She warns Chan-mi she has three minutes and Ye-eun, monitoring from her laptop, asks Chan-mi to lift the camera in her purse to show Director Myeong’s door. She’s stunned to find nothing there, while the secretary is horrified to discover the toilet paper is out in her stall. She calls out, but Mi-soon ignores her (a stack of the toilet paper she’d cleared earlier perched on her cart).

Mi-soon urges the others to hurry and Ye-eun puzzles over the lack of any security device on the door. Annoyed, Chan-mi reaches for the door but Ye-eun says there could be an alarm. Luckily, she seems to get what she needs and Chan-mi manages to slip a packet between books on a desk out of sight of the camera. The secretary returns and Chan-mi presents her with the documents and leaves.

Chan-mi and Mi-soon join Ye-eun in the storage closet and she shows them the tiny sensor on Director Myeong’s door. She explains it responds to a Bluetooth signal and shows how the light turned green when the secretary walked past. Chan-mi has her zoom in on the secretary’s pin and notes it appears different from her own. Ye-eun agrees it looks like it has the sensor, but the lights indicate that it only works at certain times – so stealing the secretary’s badge is pointless.

They decide they’ll need to steal Director Myeong’s sensor. As it’s easy to duplicate, Ye-eun says it’ll be something he keeps on his person. Loading Seok-ho into the car to head to the NAND Flash construction site, Chan-mi clocks five accessories on Director Myeong: tie pin, badge, two cufflinks, and his ring. While Seok-ho and Director Myeong are surveying the progress, Chan-mi eliminates the badge and cufflinks as Director Myeong removes them without fuss.

After lending Seok-ho one of her embroidered handkerchiefs to dust himself off, Chan-mi excuses herself to follow Director Myeong to the bathroom. She watches him remove his ring to wash his hands, but carefully readjust his tie pin and zip it into his jacket, confirming the tie pin has the sensor. Chan-mi rejoins Seok-ho just as he’s introduced to his guide through the facilities – Chan-mi’s disastrous blind date.

Chan-mi barely manages to cover her face in time. Blind Date soon corners Chan-mi, but he doesn’t recognize her… he just wants to have lunch with Seok-ho. Chan-mi balks and Seok-ho grumpily watches the man paw at Chan-mi. Thankfully, Blind Date turns and cheerfully announces he wants to have lunch with Seok-ho and, unable to resist the cheers of the workers, Seok-ho agrees.

After a brief speech, everyone digs in. Seok-ho notices Chan-mi isn’t eating – as she’s hiding her face with her turtleneck – and she fibs she has a cold. Director Myeong tssks at Woo-seok for leaving a rookie to do his duties and huffs away. Meanwhile, Woo-seok slips into the janitor’s closet and finds the bottle Director Myeong’s cleaning lady placed on her cart to open the door. Mi-soon walks in and eyes him curiously as he ducks out.

Back at lunch, Blind Date asks if he could get Chan-mi something else to eat, once more igniting Seok-ho’s annoyance. He pointedly asks if Blind Date has a girlfriend and another worker laughs he has the worst luck with women. Blind Date proceeds to mention the recent event, referring to Chan-mi as a psycho. He says he’s been getting physical therapy ever since and Chan-mi erupts into a sneezing fit trying to prevent the man from finishing the story.

Chan-mi suggests Seok-ho leave, but he’s interested in the story and innocently denies having another appointment. Chan-mi looks at him pointedly and Seok-ho nods that he does have a very important appointment. Blind Date tries to squeeze in his story, but Seok-ho says he’ll hear it later and they leave before the man can protest.

In the car, Seok-ho frowns at the man’s photo on his tablet as Chan-mi tells the driver to head back to the office. Seok-ho corrects he has a stop to make and when Chan-mi asks if it’s unofficial business, he tells her she’ll see when they get there. As he talks, Seok-ho removes Blind Date from the group photo and slides Chan-mi next to himself, snickering proudly.

News of Cheol-woong’s death continues to circulate, sprouting rumors he killed himself because he hated working with Woo-won. In the wake, criticism has fallen on Woo-won and messages pour out telling him to die. Throwing his phone down, Woo-won pulls a pill bottle from a drawer and chokes back a handful of pills. Ye-eun listens as her rude supervisor, Hyo Jin, loudly complains about Woo-won losing his drama and commercials and tarnishing their brand.

Ye-eun pulls out her phone and her finger hovers over the call button until Hyo Jin barks at her to see their team leader. Reporting to the team leader, Ye-eun is handed paperwork to annul the contract with Woo-won as well as notification that the company plans to sue him. Ye-eun points out the commercial produced a spike in sales, muttering Woo-won will be suffering enough as it is.

The team leader snaps they aren’t a charity and it’s the perfect time to cut the trouble-making celebrity lose. Throwing down the legal complaint, she declares it’s the beginning of Woo-won’s downfall. Ye-eun tries to suggest mailing the paperwork, but the team leader insists she handle it in person. Arriving at Woo-won’s, Ye-eun finds the entrance crawling with reporters. She tries to pump herself up that she’ll finally be free of him… but it doesn’t work.

Just then, Poppy scampers out and Ye-eun runs to Woo-won’s dog, wondering why it’s filthy. Looking up, she sees Woo-won’s mailbox is overflowing and realizes he hasn’t been outside in days. She follows the dog through the gap in the garage door and into Woo-won’s darkened house. Seeing the other half of her note in the coffee table, Ye-eun carefully swipes it before continuing to call for Woo-won.

She finds him passed out on his bed, pills scattered across the floor, and frantically starts to dial 911. Woo-won reaches out and stops her, sitting up and announcing he’s not dying. He says he just took a few sleeping pills and scooping up the mess on the floor, Ye-eun says it doesn’t look like just a few. Ignoring her concerns, Woo-won asks why she’s there. Ye-eun reaches for the paperwork… but decides not to tell him.

Woo-won wonders if she also thinks Cheol-woong’s death is his fault. Ye-eun denies him any responsibility, thinking to herself it was their – the team’s – fault. Woo-won misunderstands her expression as pity and yells at her to just leave, curling back into bed.

PART 2

Seok-ho’s special schedule turns out to be the arcade shooting range. After his turn, he urges Chan-mi to try, offering to help her get the hang of it. Guiding her stance, Seok-ho awkwardly realizes the proximity and steps back as a flustered Chan-mi fires the gun. It hits the target and Seok-ho blinks in surprise at her marksmanship. Chan-mi quickly flubs the next two shots and Seok-ho smiles, thinking the first was just a fluke.

Pointing to the prize corner, Chan-mi asks how many shots it would take to win the big stuffed animal, but Seok-ho declares it impossible. He says the small prize takes 50 shots and Chan-mi scoffs that costs about $50. Seok-ho continues you then can trade 50 small prizes for the big prize and Chan-mi thinks of the cluster of toys in the rear window of Seok-ho’s car. Holding up her keychain, she asks if he comes here every day after work.

Seok-ho says that prize was the hardest to achieve – recalling it took 100 or more shots – and Chan-mi smiles to herself. Outside, Seok-ho tells her he’s won 30 small stuffed animals so far, so soon he can trade them in for the big one. He says he stops by every time he thinks of his dad, who took him hunting often as a child. The hunts were never successful, so mostly they just ate at restaurants afterwards.

Dad had insisted on bringing Seok-ho, saying he was too cowardly for a boy. Seok-ho says he’s always preferred looking at things and holds up the toy he’d won (a pig) next to Chan-mi, musing there’s a resemblance. She warns him she hits men too, and though her hands are small, they hurt. Her words echo what she’d said the first time they officially met and Seok-ho blinks at her until Chan-mi addresses him and he suggests they head back.

Mi-soon and Chan-mi learn from Gwan-soo that Director Myeong wears the pin 24/7 and it’s a limited-edition luxury brand with few purchases in Korea, none of which were Director Myeong. Mi-soon suggests a duplicate and Gwan-soo sighs luxury brands have serial numbers. Chan-mi says they’ll swap it before Director Myeong can notice and the women hang up on Gwan-soo’s protests about the difficulty of using an NIS 3D printer.

Returning to her desk, Chan-mi doesn’t notice Hwa-ran glaring at her from Seok-ho’s office. Hwa-ran came to remind Seok-ho of their deal – she helps him become CEO and he fattens her father’s pockets. Seok-ho says he’s not sure that deal is worth it anymore and Hwa-ran notices the vase she’d filled with lilies is empty. She scoffs that he coveted the position not because of his father’s wishes, but ulterior motives.

Hwa-ran spits only he knows why he changed his mind. Seok-ho agrees he no longer wishes to live suppressing his emotions. “Since when?” Hwa-ran asks just as Chan-mi enters the office with tea. She gives Seok-ho a cup but when she brings the other to Hwa-ran, the ex-wife slaps the tray. The cup smashes and Chan-mi kneels to clean up the mess. Seok-ho rushes towards her but Hwa-ran snatches his arm, sneering she’ll sell her shares if he keeps acting out.

Seok-ho looks amused as she sashays out of the office, shooting a final glare at Chan-mi. He asks if Chan-mi is all right, offering to clean the mess himself, but Chan-mi insists she’s fine and his help makes her uncomfortable. Chan-mi runs out with the tray and skids to a halt to see Hwa-ran waiting just outside. Walking to Chan-mi’s desk, Hwa-ran muses it’s in perfect view of Seok-ho’s: “Now I know why you sit here.”

Messages ping on Chan-mi’s computer and before Hwa-ran can open them, Chan-mi demands if that’s why she sent someone to follow them. Hwa-ran counters if Seok-ho knows her true identity and Chan-mi notes she’s awfully interested in a nobody. “If I had known you weren’t a nobody, I would’ve removed you ages ago,” Hwa-ran says and leaves. Checking the computer, Chan-mi finds a message from Gwan-soo: “Package en route.”

Dressed as a bike messenger, Gwan-soo tosses an envelope in Mi-soon’s trash bin. Inside is the duplicate pin and Gwan-soo warns her it has no serial number, so they need to wrap things up quickly. Dropping the pin in a cup of coffee, Mi-soon “bump” into Director Myeong, spilling it down his front. As she wipes him off, she slips off the real pin and then hands him the fake one from the floor, apologizing profusely.

Director Myeong snatches the pin and eyes it carefully, but before he can check the back, his phone rings and he saunters off to the bathroom. The call is from Gwan-soo, pretending to be a telemarketer, and Director Myeong hangs up. He finally takes a good look at the pin, turning it over just as Mi-soon checks the serial number on the real pin… to find there isn’t one. Back in the bathroom, Director Myeong wonders if he should’ve engraved random numbers on it but decides no one could tell it’s a fake.

That night, Woo-seok dons a black cap and mask and takes the cleaning lady’s bottle from his desk while Chan-mi skips down the hallway. Woo-seok shoots paint at the security camera outside Director Myeong’s office while the security team pigs out on the snacks he’d brought them. One of the team notices the black feed and they assume it went out. Meanwhile, Mi-soon is also jamming as she heads downstairs and flips the breakers, plunging the building into darkness.

The security team rushes out and Woo-seok lets himself into Director Myeong’s office. He rifles through the desk as Chan-mi sneaks down the hallway. Woo-seok finds a notebook conveniently labeled “top secret” just as Chan-mi enters the office and finds Director Myeong’s door ajar. Woo-seok jumps out from his hiding place and they fight. The notebook goes flying and they grapple for it.

Finally, Woo-seok manages to plunge a letter opener into Chan-mi’s hand while Ye-eun, acting as lookout, warns them the security team has reached the basement to check the breakers. Woo-seok releases Chan-mi to run and she grabs a shard of broken glass to slice at his ankle. He falls but jabs a finger in Chan-mi’s hand and escapes. She stumbles out as the lights flicker on and the security team leaves before discovering Mi-soon in the basement.

Unfortunately, Chan-mi is blocked by Director Myeong and the rest of the security team. She quickly wraps her hand and when he pushes past her to see the devastation of his office, she says she’d also found it suspicious and was about to report it. He asks how she got the door open and we see in a flashback, he’d swapped his pin for a fake before Mi-soon swapped them again.

Chan-mi says the door was open when she got there, realizing she’d been set up. Director Myeong demands why she was in his office in the first place and Chan-mi says she’d dropped an important letter in there delivering documents earlier. She fishes the envelope from the place she’d hidden it and he tears it open to find a chain-letter. Ha!

Director Myeong demands they review the footage, but the head of security says nothing was captured due to the blackout. Director Myeong insists they frisk Chan-mi and she strips off her jacket, holding her arms wide for them to do so. At the same time, Woo-seok opens the ledger to discover only the first few pages had entries and realizes it’s a fake, while Director Myeong calls Seok-ho to report his secretary snooping in his office.

Thinking of Woo-seok, Seok-ho rushes over only to find Chan-mi sitting there. Seok-ho orders Chan-mi released since nothing was found, but Director Myeong argues it’s suspicious and Seok-ho will be the one in trouble if it becomes known his secretary was snooping around Director Myeong’s office. The head of security says the police are better to handle this as Chan-mi is a temp.

Director Myeong insists they call the NIS, suggesting Chan-mi could be a corporate spy. Seok-ho grabs his arm, while back in the van, the team has lost contact with Chan-mi and worry about their fate. Director Myeong sneers he’ll make it his personal mission to throw Chan-mi in jail if she was sent to steal, wondering if Seok-ho is involved since he handpicked her. Chan-mi watches the men glare at each other, unable to hear their exchange.

Seok-ho and Chan-mi leave and Chan-mi apologizes to Seok-ho. He reminds her he’d rather work with someone bad at their job over someone he can’t trust. Chan-mi says she’ll accept any punishment. “I don’t give people second chances,” Seok-ho answers, “You’ll be the first.” He bids her goodnight and drives off. The van honks once he’s gone and Chan-mi climbs inside. They wonder how she got out and Chan-mi admits she doesn’t know either.

We now see Director Myeong had demanded the rights to the NAND flash tech in exchange for releasing Chan-mi. Seok-ho had accepted without hesitation and taken Chan-mi out. In the van, Chan-mi hands over the letter, saying the safe requires Director Myeong’s fingerprint and she’d found it under the table (during her fight with Woo-seok). They lift the print from the letter and Mi-soon knocks out the usual cleaning lady to enter Director Myeong’s office before he arrives.

She quickly finds the safe but the fingerprint doesn’t work. Director Myeong arrives and Mi-soong tries again as he makes his way upstairs. Finally, the safe clicks open and Mi-soon pulls out the ledger. She tosses it in her waste bin and leaves just in time to pass Director Myeong in the hall. Mi-soon tries to slip by, but Director Myeong calls for her to wait and eyes the waste bin.

Epilogue — Chan-mi’s blind date heads to his physical therapy appointment and ends up next to the driver Chan-mi terrorized at the rest stop. Their therapist asks how they got injured. Both men reply they were hit and the therapist wonders if they were attacked by a mob. Blind Date says it was one-on-one and the therapist guesses it was a professional, deeming the men lucky. As he turns on the machine, both men regret getting involved with Chan-mi. The driver is shocked when Blind Date refers to his attacker as “her” and Blind Date screams Chan-mi’s name.

COMMENTS

Now I love a good heist, but our heroes hit so many road bumps it’s a wonder they’ve survived this long in their line of work. Chan-mi’s chain-letter excuse was funny, but even if Director Myeong hadn’t been forewarned, I doubt he would’ve bought it. The kicker is, Chan-mi was mostly telling the truth. She did find the door already open and she didn’t take anything from the office. So even though both she and Woo-seok seemingly went through a lot of trouble for nothing, it was fortunate things worked out as they did. Neither of them knew a trap had been set and they both happened to cover for each other – there’s no real evidence Chan-mi actually did anything, and no one even suspects Woo-seok.

I had really been hoping Ye-eun would’ve told her team the truth about the threatening phone calls, but it’s still too early for things to go smoothly. Not to mention, after the big reveal last episode with Chan-mi and Seok-ho shook everyone’s trust. And that’s bound to happen again when Ye-eun discovers more about Min-seok’s death… especially if Kook-hwan gets in her ear first. Man, there are so many bad guys it makes my head swim, and while Seok-ho’s story is finally folding in nicely with the rest of the plot, Woo-won’s has deviated completely. His tenuous connection with the plot has waned significantly after the kidnapping incident and with the media surge over Cheol-woong’s death, he’s relinquished his hold on the comedic relief and delved into serious issues around his insecurities and guilt.

There’s a lot of threads dangling in the wind and still too many bad guys to contend with. Our heroes don’t fully know their enemy, and no one is working at a greater disadvantage than Seok-ho, who’s been kept entirely out of the informational loop (aside from what he’s dug up himself). Right now, he’s flying blind and it’s left him vulnerable to Director Myeong. As someone who highly values trust, I both anticipate and fear what happens when he learns the truth and I wonder how his father ties into everything. Regardless, I want Seok-ho to have the ability to be an active participant in this mess because he’s shown himself to be able to hold his own (just not with a gun) and with the Villains Coalition on the hunt, our heroes could use all the allies they can get.

 
RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Good Casting
• Lee Sang-yub to join Choi Kang-hee in new SBS drama Good Casting
• Choi Kang-hee becomes ex-black ops agent for Miscasting