Cheat on Me If You Can: Episode 15

by quirkycase

It’s taken until the penultimate episode, but we finally get some long-awaited answers about the mess our heroine has been entangled in for almost a decade. Our beleaguered detectives once again have no choice but to turn to their least favorite novelist for help when a familiar face with a link to the case returns. But our heroine struggles to stay focused on the investigation as memories of her traumatic past resurface.

 
EPISODE 15

We open on the confrontation between Seung-cheol and Director Ma nine years ago. Seung-cheol freed Soo-jung and took her to the hospital where Investigator Kwak (then a police officer) questioned her. She didn’t trust the cops and refused to cooperate.

Seung-cheol’s gutsy move of challenging the NIS earned him a spot on Investigator Kwak’s team investigating Assemblyman Park, then a lobbyist married to none other than CEO Yoon. He was using (i.e., pimping out) actresses from her agency to get generals to sign weapons deals.

Yeo-joo and Min-jae listened from outside the room as the team discussed their plan to arrest Yeo-joo’s father in the church he was using as his office. The operation was called … The Secret Prayer Room. And we finally have the linchpin!

In the present, Investigator Kwak tells Se-jin and Seung-cheol that Yeo-joo wrote the article about it, although Min-jae is the one credited for it. That article destroyed Soo-jung’s reputation, so she fled to the States. Investigator Kwak is sympathetic to the detectives’ troubles with Yeo-joo, but not sympathetic enough to help out.

When Seung-cheol spoons some food into Se-jin’s bowl, Investigator Kwak remarks they should date. He misunderstands Seung-cheol’s comment that he’s married and thinks they’re married to each other. They both vehemently deny their compatibility.

Elsewhere, Woo-sung drinks with Jin-ho and contemplates Yeo-joo’s secrecy. He’d confronted her about the perfume, but Yeo-joo had argued the police would’ve gotten the wrong idea if she’d admitted to using it and even being gifted it once by Soo-jung.

Jin-ho misinterprets Woo-sung’s worry and asks if he noticed it, thinking of Soo-ho and Yeo-joo’s closeness. He tries to backtrack when Woo-sung wonders what he’s talking about, but Jin-ho is too terrible of a liar to play it off, so he tells Woo-sung what he saw.

Woo-sung hesitates before going inside the house that night. Soo-ho, meanwhile, grumbles in the basement that he never should’ve saved Yeo-joo if all she’s going to do is work him to death. Thinking about the incident gets him all hot and bothered, though, so he’s clearly all talk.

He spots an envelope under the fallen shelf. Inside is the article Yeo-joo wrote on her father’s “Secret Prayer Room.” Upstairs, Woo-sung starts to panic when he sees Soo-ho’s shoes by the door and can’t find Yeo-joo.

Soo-ho quickly shoves the envelope under the shelf again when Yeo-joo walks up and scolds him for slacking. Woo-sung stands with his hand on the basement door handle for a while but can’t bring himself to go downstairs.

When Yeo-joo comes up, Woo-sung tries to sound casual as he asks what Soo-ho is doing here so late. He pretends he’s just concerned she’ll get in trouble for overworking Soo-ho, but Yeo-joo is sure her 21 former assistants (!) have already ruined her reputation. Downstairs, Soo-ho also finds an old recorder in the manila envelope.

That night, Woo-sung continues to be a hypocrite and worry about his wife and Soo-ho. Yeo-joo gets annoyed at his questions, particularly since she once found a woman in his office cabinet, so he backs off. While they sleep, Soo-ho is at home listening to the recording.

It starts with Min-jae’s proposal and desire to meet Yeo-joo’s father. This time, we see the rest of the conversation. Editor Yang was present and laughed when she realized Yeo-joo was recording to be sure Min-jae was on the up and up.

Min-jae wasn’t so amused at Yeo-joo’s suggestion that he might be flirting with her and adamantly reminded her he had a girlfriend. He got uncomfortable when Yeo-joo held his hand which made her concerned her father wouldn’t fall for it. Soo-ho scoffs to discover her “marriage” was all a ruse and has no idea what to believe now.

The following day, Yeo-joo gets ready for an outing. In a flashback, she stands guard while Min-jae installs a hidden camera in her father’s office at the church. They later review the footage which reveals Assemblyman Park opening a secret door behind a bookcase.

Min-jae is gung-ho to get this to the police immediately. In the car, he tells his girlfriend he needs to drop something off before dinner. He starts the ignition, and the car explodes.

Now, Yeo-joo and Editor Yang visit Min-jae at the columbarium. Editor Yang wants to let the past go, but Yeo-joo can’t ignore it anymore – not now that Soo-jung is dead. Editor Yang is shocked by the implication that it’s all connected. Yeo-joo is only guessing for now, but she’s expecting the culprit to visit her soon.

Soo-ho hears everything as he eavesdrops around the corner. Realizing Yeo-joo may not be the culprit, he wonders how Soo-jung’s blood ended up in her basement. We cut to Mrs. Yeom vigorously cleaning the basement fridge.

At the Saemirae department store, newly professional Mi-rae forgoes her classes – which Mi-rae 2.0 has no time for – and tours her domain. Meanwhile, a sad Woo-sung eats a sad breakfast on his birthday that Yeo-joo appears to have forgotten.

When he arrives at work, Woo-sung is surprised to see the interior of his office building being redone. Jin-ho informs him the new landlord is picky about aesthetics. It’s Mi-rae, isn’t it? There are flowers everywhere, which Woo-sung seems to enjoy.

Sure enough, Mi-rae creepily looks at surveillance photos of Woo-sung at his redecorated office building. She smiles to see him happy and wonders if he had seaweed soup for his birthday.

Woo-sung and Jin-ho have lunch at a strangely empty restaurant that happens to be serving seaweed soup today. And Mi-rae strikes again. The guys are speechless at the ridiculous number of dishes accompanying the “soup meal” for no extra cost.

At the station, the PD meets with Seung-cheol and Se-jin who are frustrated that they haven’t been able to get ahold of CEO Yoon to question her. The PD one ups them by sharing that he just talked to her. She agreed to cooperate with the investigation with the stipulation that Yeo-joo must be present.

The detectives are forced to ask Yeo-joo for her help, but Yeo-joo has no interest. She thinks it ridiculous that they’re asking her, their suspected culprit, for help finding the culprit. Backed into a corner, they admit she might not be the culprit and politely request her help. Yeo-joo is loving their humiliation.

Mrs. Yeom gets home right as they’re all leaving and hides around the corner. Yeo-joo plays with Seung-cheol some more by making him open his car door for her before saying she’ll take her own car. Thinking they’re dating, Yeo-joo doesn’t want to be the third wheel. She even gets them to let her bring Soo-ho.

As Soo-ho drives them to Yeo-joo’s stepmother’s, he notices Yeo-joo’s nervous fidgeting and recalls the sketchy agent telling him that CEO Yoon brings Yeo-joo’s trauma to the surface. Meanwhile, Woo-sung “wins” a new car in a raffle he supposedly entered. Secretary Choi surreptitiously takes a photo of Woo-sung’s happy reaction for Mi-rae’s stalker collection.

On their way up, Yeo-joo shares her suspicions with the detectives that CEO Yoon could be the culprit and warns them that she always has bodyguards. She brought Soo-ho as her backup, but they’ll need to fend for themselves. Yeo-joo turns to Soo-ho, “You’ve killed someone, right?” The cops stare at him wide-eyed as he denies it.

Seung-cheol and Se-jin only just learned that Yeo-joo is Assemblyman Park’s daughter, but they know nothing of the dynamics between Yeo-joo and her stepmother. When they get to CEO Yoon’s door, Yeo-joo starts to have trouble breathing and struggles to maintain her composure.

CEO Yoon clearly has a flair for drama as her bodyguards open the doors to reveal her backlit in sunlight and posing at the entrance. Elsewhere, Jin-ho cleans Woo-sung’s old car – which Woo-sung agreed he could now have – and discovers what looks like a hidden camera.

Yeo-joo fights her panic at the sight of CEO Yoon serving tea from her mom’s old china. She glances out the window of CEO Yoon’s high-rise apartment and has flashbacks to her mother’s death. After her mother’s body fell, Yeo-joo had looked up to see CEO Yoon framed in the window, her cold visage starkly contrasting with the smiling, perfect hostess we see now.

CEO Yoon currently plays the concerned stepmother and gently asks if Yeo-joo is alright. “Are you still ill?” She oh so kindly explains to the detectives that Yeo-joo was in a psychiatric hospital for a while. Yeo-joo sits with her eyes closed, trying to calm herself.

We flashback to when CEO Yoon had terrified a traumatized teenage Yeo-joo into silence. When the cops visited the hospital to ask what Yeo-joo saw regarding her mother’s death, CEO Yoon told the police that Yeo-joo’s trauma made her lose the ability to speak. Yeo-joo’s eyes filled with angry tears.

In the present, Soo-ho has been watching Yeo-joo with concern and suddenly grabs a nearby umbrella. He strides over to the window and blocks the sunlight, casting a shadow over Yeo-joo. She opens her eyes and seems marginally calmer. Soo-ho tells the confused group that he has a sun allergy.

Seung-cheol brings the conversation around to Soo-jung, and CEO Yoon turns somber. Yeo-joo asks if she knew about the “special fan” Soo-jung referenced when receiving her award, but CEO Yoon stays quiet.

Yeo-joo downs her tea and stands, prompting CEO Yoon to ask if she’s uncomfortable and get in some digs about whether she’s well enough to function daily. Yeo-joo scoffs that she’s merely worried about Soo-ho being uncomfortable due to his allergy and tells him to follow her. Elsewhere, Woo-sung is stunned to see the secret camera and tracker Jin-ho discovered in his car.

Back at CEO Yoon’s, they relocate to her dimmer living room and watch footage of the awards ceremony. Yeo-joo points out that despite Soo-jung disappearing the day after, the awards ceremony didn’t draw interest.

We see CEO Yoon in the car while she watches Soo-jung’s acceptance speech. She becomes livid when she hears Soo-jung reference how she returned to acting for a particular fan. CEO Yoon demands her driver turn the car around.

Yeo-joo explains that Soo-jung had planned to meet someone that night. We see Manager Kim trying desperately to stop her while CEO Yoon makes her way there. When Soo-jung discovers that Manager Kim has been reporting all her activities to CEO Yoon, she throws her trophy at him.

The detectives are surprised Yeo-joo knows so much, but she claims Manager Kim told her personally. She’d left her contact info with the president of Soo-jung’s fan club and instructed him to have Manager Kim call her.

CEO Yoon taunts that her novel is boring this time, but her smile drops when Yeo-joo asks if she should write about that special fan. We flashback to Yeo-joo asking Soo-jung at the café for the identity of the fan she met in “The Secret Prayer Room.” Soo-jung had boasted that he’s a bigger deal than she’s thinking.

Now, Yeo-joo announces, “That fan is in this room.” Se-jin’s eyes land on the photo of Assemblyman Park shaking hands with a politician. Yeo-joo corrects CEO Yoon when she asks if she’s accusing her father of being this fan. Se-jin’s eyes widen to realize Yeo-joo is referencing the man shaking hands with Assemblyman Park: the current president.

When Soo-jung had told Yeo-joo directly that it was the president, Yeo-joo first assumed she was lying. But Soo-jung was being serious and expressed her determination to make him divorce his wife. She’d even been meeting him in the States.

Yeo-joo had tried to talk sense into her, reminding her she almost died nine years ago. Soo-jung brushed it off as a misunderstanding, and Yeo-joo couldn’t get through to her. That’s when she’d thrown the water in Soo-jung’s face.

Presently, Yeo-joo points out that were Soo-jung to have a scandal with the president, it would be hard for someone from that same party to get elected. Assemblyman Park is the current forerunner of the party. CEO Yoon is silent as the implication sinks in for everyone.

We see CEO Yoon meeting Soo-jung at her apartment and laughing at her plan, warning her she’s courting death. Besides, she’d only ever be a mistress. Soo-jung throws that back in her face and suggests she could follow CEO Yoon’s example by killing the first lady and taking her place. CEO Yoon attacks and stabs her.

In the face of these accusations, CEO Yoon says Yeo-joo still misunderstands her. “Is it my fault your mother killed herself?” She wanted Yeo-joo to visit so she could ask who killed Soo-jung. “You know the culprit, don’t you?”

Suddenly, Yeo-joo understands what CEO Yoon’s endgame is. “I’m sure it’s just a story,” CEO Yoon responds cryptically. Everyone watches them in confusion until Seung-cheol gets a call. Someone confessed to killing Soo-jung.

 
COMMENTS

So CEO Yoon is clearly evil, but if she murdered Soo-jung, why would Mrs. Yeom have the missing perfume bottle and knife? Whether or not Mrs. Yeom is the murderer, she’s obviously involved in some way. I wouldn’t be surprised if CEO Yoon orchestrated Soo-jung’s death somehow from behind the scenes. That woman seems like a snake, so even if Yeo-joo’s version of events is off, her theory is reasonable. It’s unclear what CEO Yoon’s exact role in Yeo-joo’s mother’s death was, but she’s been taunting Yeo-joo about it in a way that does not make her appear innocent. Why is Yeo-joo surrounded by such awful people? She keeps getting blamed and suspected for everything thanks to the shadiness around her, even though we’ve never seen her do anything criminal. She already shed her identity once, and she still can’t escape. Is she ever going to catch a break?

At least we now know the story behind “The Secret Prayer Room” and the things that happened nine years ago. If I have it all straight, Assemblyman Park and CEO Yoon basically pimped out her actresses to men in power to make deals. Soo-jung was sent to the now president, and their relationship continued even after she got kidnapped because of it. Yeo-joo was in on the operation to take her father down – creating a fake marriage with Min-jae to gain intel – and wrote the article that outed all his dirty deeds. That article also implicated Soo-jung who then blamed Yeo-joo for ruining her career. Since Min-jae died before he could get the file to the cops yet he was credited as the author of the article, I’m guessing Yeo-joo wrote the article under his name when she published it. Sometime after that, Yeo-joo wrote a book about it all, and Director Ma was given conflicting orders to kill and save Yeo-joo. We still haven’t learned who exactly ordered that hit, so I guess that’s one more thing to cover in the finale.

We’ve sorted out most of the past events, but we still have a murder to solve and Yeo-joo’s personal life to deal with in the last episode. Oh, and we’ll probably have to spend some time on Mi-rae. I’m so frustrated with her as a character. From the beginning, I wasn’t clear on what her purpose was in the story, and in the penultimate episode, I still don’t know. Even if she’s tied into the plot in an innovative way at the last minute, it’ll be too little, too late. Maybe it would’ve worked had her character been more compelling, but she’s just so aggressively boring. I wish they’d gotten a stronger actress to play her because I think there was potential to make her complex and intriguing, but instead, we got a tepid rich girl with a sad backstory. I feel sympathetic towards her situation as a victim of abuse, but that doesn’t change the fact that now she’s an entitled stalker who is trying to steal someone else’s husband. Although, I’m sort of okay with her having him since Yeo-joo could do better. Woo-sung’s hypocritical jealously over Soo-ho made me mad, but I have to say, I did derive some satisfaction in him getting a taste of his own medicine.

There’s also that opening scene with Woo-sung in the warehouse to circle back to somehow. I’m not sure if that’s reality or something Yeo-joo is envisioning for her novel, for example. Whatever the case, they’ve got stuff to work out. Now that Woo-sung knows Yeo-joo has been spying on him, things should finally come to a head. I need them to have it out and get everything out in the open because I am over all the secrets. While Woo-sung’s duplicity is the primary problem, Yeo-joo’s secrecy isn’t great either. At this point, there’s so little communication and trust between them that they’re bound to implode. I’m rooting for them to divorce, but I’m not sure the drama will go that route. My main hope is that Yeo-joo isn’t done dirty anymore and can find happiness with people who care about her.

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