Cheat on Me If You Can: Episode 11

by quirkycase

A clandestine meeting gives us a peek into the past as old memories resurface for our heroine. She’s involved in a dangerous game, although it’s unclear if she’s even aware she’s playing. Her new book continues to cause a stir that reaches far beyond her own personal and professional life, and those in the intelligence community are beginning to make their moves.

 
EPISODE 11

We jump back to the day before Yeo-joo meets Director Ma. Per Yeo-joo’s request, Soo-ho does his utmost to find the sender of the envelope. He obtains CCTV footage from the post office and stops on an image of a young woman.

He pays a visit to Yoo-ri at Yeo-joo’s publishers and after some pleasantries, directly asks if she sent the envelope to Yeo-joo. She initially denies it then “remembers” that Editor Yang asked her to send it.

After Soo-ho reports back to Yeo-joo that it was Editor Yang, we flash back to a conversation between Editor Yang and Yeo-joo years ago. Editor Yang asked if her name was originally Park Yeo-joo, which she’d heard from some guy. Yeo-joo wasn’t happy and confronted the guy, who we don’t see.

It’s now 12 hours before the meeting, and Editor Yang admits to Yeo-joo that she sent the invitation. She wasn’t threatening her – she just wanted Yeo-joo to give up on this book. Yeo-joo scoffs at the idea she’d be affected by this “ancient history.” Editor Yang is shocked and angered that she’d so easily dismiss the tragedy.

Yeo-joo is willing to sue over Editor Yang’s “threatening” behavior if she won’t let her out of her contract. No matter what, she won’t give up on this book. Editor Yang can only watch her leave.

Elsewhere, the sketchy agent listens in to an uncharacteristically pleasant-sounding Director Ma’s phone call as he arranges to meet someone at Shinho Publishing House. Looks like they bugged his office.

With six hours to go, Director Ma calls Ji-eun to the garage and has her forge an identity: an editor in his 40s who’s been single since breaking up with his fiancé 10 years ago. Elsewhere, Yeo-joo drives and thinks back to when she’d casually agreed to marriage with the faceless fiancé.

At the publishing house, a crestfallen Yoo-ri apologizes to Editor Yang for telling Soo-ho about the envelope. Editor Yang doesn’t blame her since she knew she couldn’t keep it from Yeo-joo forever.

Director Ma surveys his “publishing house” and dictates any changes to Ji-eun. He gives her two hours to fix everything and warns her it better be perfect.

As Yeo-joo and Director Ma each head to Shinho Publishing House, the sketchy agent sets up his spy gear across the street. “They’re finally meeting,” he observes.

Before Yeo-joo arrives, Director Ma assures someone over the phone that the stage has been set to remind Yeo-joo of nine years ago. He knows her weakness, so she won’t be able to refuse. Director Ma looks through some old K-pop CDs and puts on “Trouble Maker” by the eponymous duo (Holy crap, that song is nine years old?!).

Suddenly, Director Ma closes the curtains on the windows. As the sketchy agent tries to figure out what’s going on, a gun is pressed against the back of his head. He greets Director Ma, noting the déjà vu.

We flash back to nine years ago when they were in the same position. The sketchy agent had asked if he was abandoning his mission. Director Ma knocked him out and ran inside a burning warehouse. He made his way through the flames to Yeo-joo who was unconscious and tied to a chair. As he carried her out, a burning shelf fell, and he used his body to shield her.

While he’s being tied to a chair, the sketchy agent asks why Director Ma went against their mission of killing Yeo-joo and instead risked his life to save her. Director Ma says he wishes he knew, too. He hears Yeo-joo pull up and rushes back to his “office.”

Yeo-joo arrives and comments on the old pop song playing which Director Ma claims he listened to in the hospital. As they recall that day, we’re taken back to the warehouse where Director Ma and the sketchy agent douse everything – including copies of “The Secret Prayer Room” – in gasoline while Yeo-joo is unconscious in the chair.

Yeo-joo remarks that he saved her life, but we see that he was the one who lit the flame. He’d stood with the burning warehouse behind him, sweetly talking to his girlfriend on the phone. On a second phone, he’d received a call ordering him to save Yeo-joo, so he was forced to run into the flames and retrieve her.

At the hospital, Editor Yang was amazed that this publisher had rushed in to save a stranger. Yeo-joo watched in concern as a nurse tended to Director Ma’s painful burns.

Yeo-joo sees a picture of a younger Director Ma and observes that he was handsome. He demurely denies it but admits life was good back then. Director Ma waits, giving her time to feel guilty, before talking shop.

He assures her he’s the best publisher in the business but doesn’t want her to feel obligated because he saved her life. Yeo-joo takes a beat before announcing her decision: she’ll let him publish her new book.

Outside, Woo-sung is relieved to overhear she’s just signing a new contract and wonders why she’d keep that from him. In the other building, the sketchy agent manages to get himself untied and asks someone over the phone if they heard everything. Soo-ho responds he did.

We see that Soo-ho had snuck into Shinho Publishing House and planted a bug when Director Ma went to confront the sketchy agent. Now, he relays that Yeo-joo is signing a publishing deal with Director Ma. Soo-ho is impressed with Director Ma’s skills in getting her to sign so quickly.

Inside the office, Yeo-joo warns Director Ma that her book could get him in trouble. It even addresses the real culprit of both the fire incident nine years ago and Soo-jung’s murder. Soo-ho listens intently as Director Ma asks if Yeo-joo knows who killed her. “I do,” Yeo-joo admits. But when he asks who did it, she laughs that the culprit changes as she writes.

Yeo-joo’s eyes land on his ring, surprised he’s still wearing it. After learning he’d been lying to her about his job, his fiancé had broken off their engagement. He’d been devastated.

Yeo-joo wonders if he doesn’t hate her and regret saving her life. It’s not until she leaves that Director Ma lets his anger come through and says he’s sick of dealing with Yeo-joo.

Soo-ho and the sketchy agent listen to the recording of Yeo-joo and Director Ma’s conversation, but Soo-ho isn’t ready to hand it over just yet. He wants something first.

Meanwhile, Woo-sung follows Yeo-joo home and puzzles over why she switched publishers. He tries to casually bring up Editor Yang that night, but Yeo-joo doesn’t say much. Woo-sung worries over how many secrets Yeo-joo seems to have lately.

Elsewhere, Attorney Park can’t hide her concern as she thinks over her conversation with Consultant Nam. He’d stressed he doesn’t support just anyone and declared her an enemy if her goal is to bring down Woo-sung. He laughed and advised her to get a new assistant since her current one is too chatty.

The next day, Attorney Park visits the precinct and gets the scoop on Yeo-joo from Team Leader Hong. She’s startled when he lists her charges: kidnapping and inciting violence. Team Leader Hong is all smiles as he asks how Attorney Park knows their police chief.

At the airport, Secretary Jin picks up SEO JAE-HA, a peppy young man he addresses as CEO. Jae-ha asks where Mi-rae is and guesses she must still be mad at him. Mi-rae, meanwhile, zones out in the car and tells Secretary Choi she’s too busy to go see Jae-ha.

Team Leader Hong berates Se-jin and Seung-cheol for making them look foolish when their warrant for Yeo-joo was dismissed. Determined to get answers and convinced Yeo-joo isn’t clean, Seung-cheol and Se-jin question Manager Kim again. Although he claims he killed Soo-jung, he says he stabbed her in the stomach, seemingly unaware that her stab wounds were on her back and neck.

The detectives decide to start from scratch by reexamining the crime scene. The more they look, the less Manager Kim’s claims about the murder ring true. They’re interrupted by CEO Yoon who came to collect Soo-jung’s belongings.

CEO Yoon reminisces about how she turned Soo-jung into a star, but she always had issues with men – married men, in particular. One such married man is stunned to find a massive poster announcing his candidacy for assembly member. Woo-sung is speechless as he enters his new campaign headquarters which is abuzz with activity.

Consultant Nam didn’t even tell him he was setting all this up. (So, who’s paying for it all? Is Consultant Nam even getting paid?) Woo-sung is still concerned about Yeo-joo, but Consultant Nam is one step ahead. He already got her promise to support the campaign.

Yeo-joo demanded there be no female employees under the age of 50 and no predominately female events. She ordered Consultant Nam to always inform her in advance of Woo-sung’s schedule. Yeo-joo even went to the mural painting event and saw Woo-sung acting friendly with Mi-rae.

Consultant Nam thinks it’s all handled, but Woo-sung insists he doesn’t know Yeo-joo. She’s not that easy. He isn’t happy with this “surprise” and walks out fretting about his wife.

At home, Soo-ho finds a zoned-out Yeo-joo lounging on the couch, sipping beer. When she gets up, she enlists Soo-ho’s help finding a business card. As soon as he plucks it from underneath her computer, she grabs it and rushes out.

Woo-sung now realizes how Yeo-joo knew all about Mi-rae and the paint incident. With horror, he realizes he even held Mi-rae’s hand to help her up and opened a water for her. He starts to panic, wondering how much Yeo-joo saw that day.

Soo-ho has Ji-eun investigate the office from the business card and discovers it belongs to a top private investigator named Kwak Jung-moon. There are rumors that he’ll do anything for money, even kill people.

When Woo-sung returns home, Yeo-joo is watering her murderous garden. He treads lightly, unsure of how much Yeo-joo witnessed between him and Mi-rae. He breaks into nervous laughter when Yeo-joo says she cooked blowfish soup just for him.

In his car, Jae-ha looks over Kwak Jung-moon’s profile. Secretary Jin informs him Investigator Kwak was once was a powerful police officer who fell from grace due to his involvement in a political scandal. Jae-ha approves of him and moves onto more important things: clubbing and being a douchey rich dude.

Meanwhile, Mi-rae stares at a photo of her finished mural and goes to send it to Woo-sung. She rethinks after remembering how Woo-sung had asked her to stop contacting him, but she accidentally presses send.

Yeo-joo hears Woo-sung’s phone buzz on the dressing table and picks it up. Seeing the message, she guesses it’s from Mi-rae. Yeo-joo recognizes the jacket on the male figure in the painting and pulls the matching one from Woo-sung’s closet. It’s the one he was wearing in the photos from the politician’s boat.

In her office, Yeo-joo stares at ex-cop Investigator Kwak’s business card. “Can you really kill a person?” she ponders. “But I’m sure you wouldn’t leave any evidence.” On his way inside, Woo-sung finds his jacket in a trash bag by the door.

Elsewhere, Mi-rae is fast asleep when a man sneaks into her room. Hearing him enter, she wakes and thinks it’s Secretary Choi. She pulls of her sleep mask and screams as a hand clamps over her mouth.

 
COMMENTS

This Investigator Kwak smells like trouble, especially if Jae-ha hires him. Despite Yeo-joo’s musings over whether Investigator Kwak kills people, I find Jae-ha way more concerning. Something about his flippant demeaner with that empty smile gives me the creeps. I kept wanting to yell at the girl in the club to run when she was alone with him. He seems so predatory. I’m assuming he’s related to Mi-rae – a brother or cousin, perhaps. Are they in competition for inheritance rights? Mi-rae doesn’t appear all that interested in the company, but if the other option is Jae-ha, I think she needs to take one for the team.

We finally got some answers this hour about what went down nine years ago. Some, of course, but not all. There are clearly warring factions either within the NIS or between the NIS and some other organization. One of these factions wanted Yeo-joo dead, and from the book burning, I’d say it had something to do with the all-powerful “The Secret Prayer Room.” With all the focus on politics and Soo-ho’s colleague’s comments about political influence in the intelligence world, I’m guessing the different factions are related to political party drama. Director Ma and the sketchy agent are answering to different people who have very different goals. Director Ma seems pretty loyal to his side given he even went against original mission orders when he was told to save Yeo-joo and is still protecting her, although he’s not a Yeo-joo fan.

Once again, Yeo-joo has captured everyone’s attention with her book. She obviously knows something, but it’s all so vague. She said she knows who was behind the fire incident and who was behind Soo-jung’s murder, but she could be overstating things. Whether she has evidence or just a theory, people are starting to take action. Director Ma is in the lead now that he’s secured the publishing rights to her new book. Seeing as the other side tried to kill Yeo-joo before, maybe his team being ahead is a good thing. I guess it depends on what they want from her.

When it comes to Soo-jung’s murder, I’m pretty confident Yeo-joo knows more than the detectives, at least. Manager Kim’s fake confession has sent them back to square one, and they still have no idea what Yeo-joo’s role in any of this is. Manager Kim doesn’t know much about how Soo-jung actually died, but he did have that USB that supposedly contains evidence. Hopefully, he managed to hide it somewhere safe. Otherwise, it’s likely in the hands of whoever told him to accuse Yeo-joo. Since Director Ma’s side is seemingly protecting Yeo-joo, it’s more likely that the sketchy agent’s side was behind Manager Kim’s false testimony. Of course, that’s assuming there’s only two sides here which is by no means a given.

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