Vincenzo: Episode 12

by quirkycase

There’s turmoil both outside and inside Babel as our leads continue wreaking havoc and factions begin to emerge within Babel’s inner circle. It’s a game of survival at this point, and everyone is taking risks. Meanwhile, the gold hunt is ongoing at Geumga Plaza, and new information surfaces that suggests there may be more than just gold buried underneath the temple.

 
EPISODE 12

Right as Vincenzo goes to shoot, Prosecutor Jung shoots a blank into the air. A tear of relief and fear falls from Joon-woo’s eye. Prosecutor Jung is flanked by several officials with guns, and he orders Vincenzo to drop his weapon. Vincenzo yells that Joon-woo is really Jang Han-seok while Joon-woo screams and cries that he’s not.

Joon-woo secretly smiles at Vincenzo and dares him to shoot. Vincenzo tamps down on his rage and finally lowers his gun, allowing the prosecutors to handcuff him. Ever since Prosecutor Jung found bloodstains in the underpass, he’s been keeping tabs on Vincenzo which led him here.

Cha-young meets Joon-woo as he and Myung-hee are leaving the prosecution office. He tries to play innocent and deny his identity, but Cha-young delivers two hard slaps across his face. Even still, Joon-woo begs Cha-young to listen and keeps lying.

She goes off on him for deceiving her all this time but mostly for all the remorseless murders he’s committed. Cha-young says he’s not even human and doesn’t deserve to live. When he again protests his innocence, Myung-hee has to hold Cha-young back from pummeling him.

During Vincenzo’s interrogation, Prosecutor Jung notes that Vincenzo’s gun and bullets were fake. What’s a mafioso doing with a fake gun? Cha-young argues his relation to the Mafia is irrelevant. The fake gun makes his crime intimidation, not attempted murder.

In a flashback, we learn that Vincenzo decided on a new plan. Rather than killing Joon-woo, he’ll go by Mafia revenge rules and hit him with his worst fear, exposing his identity. Then, he’ll take what he most values: Babel. Also, Vincenzo knows Cha-young would keep fighting Babel alone if he were to kill Joon-woo and leave.

The first step was to use Prosecutor Jung to expose Joon-woo’s identity. Vincenzo had known Prosecutor Jung’s people were tailing him and made sure to drag out the scene at Joon-woo’s until they arrived. Now, Vincenzo and Cha-young argue that they’re his only friends in this fight against Babel. Prosecutor Jung looks reluctantly convinced.

When Wusang and Babel hear that Vincenzo was let go due to his fake gun, they assume Prosecutor Jung falsified the evidence. Myung-hee encourages Joon-woo to lay low since Prosecutor Jung is preparing charges against Babel and wants to summon him. Chairman Jang says he’ll appear for the summons and suggests Joon-woo hide out at their father’s villa.

Now that he has some time, Vincenzo meets with Gilbert to suss out the situation. After ensuring Gilbert told no one but the tenants about the gold, Vincenzo passes over two envelopes stuffed with cash in exchange for Gilbert leaving the area and handing over the worker’s phone with the photo of the gold.

Next, Vincenzo meets with the tenants and tries to convince them the photo of the gold was faked and that there is no gold. Mi-ri gives him some serious side-eye but stays quiet. One of CEO Park’s employees happens to overhear the talk of gold and goes running to report back to CEO Park.

Afterward, Mi-ri approaches Vincenzo outside of Jipuragi and scares him with talk of a ghost who haunts the basement. She explains he should never dig there unless he wants to be possessed.

Elsewhere, Joon-woo notes with some trepidation how “reliable” Chairman Jang is becoming and leaves things to him temporarily. Chairman Jang is pleasantly surprised when Joon-woo puts him in charge of auctioning off Babel Tower.

At Geumga Plaza, the tenants decide to leave Vincenzo out of the gold hunt (“What would he know? It’s not his gold.”). They find new resolve after realizing that the gold could conceivably be claimed by Babel as the building owner if they don’t find it first. CEO Park and his lackey barge in and offer to “help” with the gold hunt, but the tenants feign ignorance.

The Jipuragi team, meanwhile, decides to start with investigating Babel Chemicals’ illegal anti-union activities since Cha-young knows from her spy that Wusang is working on that charge first. When Cheol-wook pops in begging to help, Vincenzo finally relents. He sends Cheol-wook to join his minions who have been keeping tabs on Joon-woo and currently watch him arrive at his hideout.

At Wusang, the team discusses how to deal with the anti-union charge. Myung-hee’s decision to handle it the “classic” way – her mention of having enough money to compensate lost lives makes the nature of that method clear – worries Attorney Han who argues the times have changed. What if they let Chairman Jang negotiate with the union leader? Myung-hee sees through him and advises Attorney Han to choose his ladder carefully to avoid falling to his death.

Cha-young’s ex-colleague spy witnessed the confrontation and reports back to Jipuragi. Unfortunately for them, he’s not happy with her vague promise of Boston and refuses to help further. Vincenzo’s connections save the day again when he offers the spy a position on the “Lomborgheni” (pfft) sports car manufacturer’s legal team. Now he’s very helpful and even uncomplainingly does some impressions for Vincenzo.

Afterward, Vincenzo and Cha-young stop by a food cart for some bungeoppang (carp-shaped pastry filled with red bean paste) and start arguing over minute differences between types of the pastry. They decide to bet on it and make penalty a forehead flick again.

CEO Park stops them when they get back to Geumga Plaza and tries to pall around with Vincenzo who takes issue with his claim that they’re in the same line of business. CEO Park isn’t daunted and offers to let them use his hot-air balloon service on the house if they need to flee.

The tenants invite CEO Park and his crew for dinner at Hee-soo’s. It looks like they’ve decided to bring CEO Park int the gold hunt now that Vincenzo is out. CEO Park just happens to know who he claims is the best gold prospector in Korea.

Mi-ri seems like the one to watch in this gold hunt business. She has an entire hacker-y setup in her apartment, making the comments about her being “pretty good” with computers quite the understatement.

Meanwhile, Joon-woo watches the drama “Time Between Mutt and Mountain Wolf” (Ha!). He clicks it off in frustration at the scene where one man kills another to take his place.

Joon-woo downs a bottle of water and hops in the bath. Suddenly, he starts to feel weak and slips under the water before he can call for help. He falls unconscious.

Elsewhere, Myung-hee tries to bribe the union leader, but he finds the whole thing dirty and wants no part in it. He leaves after vowing to report this to the prosecution. Uh-oh, there’s a crosswalk which you know spells Truck of Doom. Sure enough, as Myung-hee stuffs her face in the restaurant, a Truck of Doom runs over the union leader outside.

A now conscious and angry Joon-woo calls Vincenzo who admits to spiking his bottled water. Cheol-wook and the minions had held the delivery truck up and smuggled in the drugged water. Joon-woo mocks him for this second failed murder attempt, but Vincenzo argues he never meant to kill him.

They’d tested the drugged water out on Joo-sung (with his consent) to figure out the right dosage. Vincenzo promises to kill Joon-woo soon – he doesn’t want him to have the honor of being Babel’s chairman in his obituary.

Joon-woo denies being scared yet rails at Attorney Han and Myung-hee for not protecting him better and demands new guards. Myung-hee perks him up with the news that the union leader is dead. Joon-woo grabs her in a hug and makes her do a fist bump. (But no fist bump for Attorney Han.)

At Jipuragi, Cha-young wonders where Wusang finds all these people to do their dirty work. Vincenzo, clearly speaking from experience, says that there’s plenty of options when you offer to lighten people’s sentences.

Hee-soo and Hong-shik drop by and draw confused looks from Cha-young and Joo-sung when they tell Vincenzo his gold-hunting services are no longer needed. Once they leave, Cha-young confronts Vincenzo, shocked that his story about the gold was true.

Joo-sung feels left out, so Vincenzo shares the truth with both of them: there’s actually over 1 trillion won buried under the temple. Joo-sung and Cha-young suddenly say they’re all like family and go in for a group hug.

While Joon-woo gets his hair styled by not one but two stylists, Chairman Jang suggests they go hunting together. Joon-woo is all in. Somehow this seems dangerous for both brothers.

Back at Jipuragi, Vincenzo reveals that his share of the gold is 70% with the other 30% going to Young-woon. Cha-young and Joo-sung are gung-ho to protect the money once Vincenzo says they’ll each get a cut.

At Wusang, Attorney Han rushes into Myung-hee’s office to inform her that the prosecution discovered there’s been leak from the International Security Intelligence Service. They’ve been covering up that a file called “Guillotine” was stolen in a hack, and now that it’s been revealed, there’s chaos.

Over at the intelligence agency, Director Tae orders Team Leader Ahn to return and help handle this leak issue. Team Leader Ahn isn’t ready to leave his precious consigliere yet, though, and argues he can’t leave things hanging. He promises to wrap things up quickly and literally runs away before Director Tae can stop him.

Team Leader Ahn rushes into Jipuragi to ask for Vincenzo’s advice about his agency’s issue and doesn’t notice Joo-sung standing there. Now they have to explain his identity to Joo-sung who laments that he was again left in the dark.

Breaking all sorts of protocols and probably laws, Team Leader Ahn shares that a former president ordered the Guillotine file created to detail influential public figures’ corruption. Cha-young astutely guesses it was insurance against retaliation from the president’s enemies once he left office.

The file was swiped and deleted off their servers by Chinese hackers, a fact the agency managed to hide until recently. They found the man who ordered the hacking and discovered he hid the file and his slush fund in Korea. However, he died a year ago. Well, this further complicates the gold situation.

Team Leader Ahn asks where Vincenzo thinks Wang Shaolin would’ve hidden the file, but he’s uncooperative and flatly says he doesn’t know. At Wusang, Attorney Han tells Myung-hee that Babel has been paying off the agency because of whatever is in that file. They agree to hold off informing Chairman Jang while they search for it.

Alone that night, Vincenzo muses over the implications of Wang Shaolin and the Guillotine file. He scoffs to realize the report is likely on a USB hidden in one of the gold bars.

The next day, the Jang brothers head into the woods to hunt together for the first time in years. Joon-woo reminisces about their first hunting trip with their father. The brothers had just met, and their father wanted them to bond.

Joon-woo spots an animal and shoots. When he runs over to check, Chairman Jang hangs back looking conflicted. Attorney Han had encouraged him to use this opportunity to kill Joon-woo, saying he could be Abel with a happy ending, one where he doesn’t have to fear Cain. (I think he missed the point of that story.)

Chairman Jang nervously loads his gun while yelling over to Joon-woo that he’s spotted something up ahead. While Joon-woo raises his rifle in the direction Chairman Jang indicates, Chairman Jang aims his rifle at Joon-woo’s back.

Oh, snap, he actually fires. Chairman Jang hits him in the side, and Joon-woo goes down. Chairman Jang creeps over, gun still trained on his brother’s prone body. Slowly, Joon-woo gets up and angrily limps toward his brother.

Chairman Jang backs away wide-eyed as the blood-soaked Joon-woo advances. Joon-woo stops and tells his brother he should’ve aimed better. He collapses unconscious. Before Chairman Jang can shoot again, a man happens upon the scene. Chairman Jang plays the concerned brother and cries for help.

Things are a lot more light-hearted at Jipuragi where Cha-young revels in winning the bet about bungeoppang. She’s now the one torturing Vincenzo by making him wait in anticipation for the forehead flick. In a mirror image of last time, Cha-young steps closer and gets caught up staring at his face while his eyes are closed.

Vincenzo opens his eyes to tell her to get a move on and finds her very close. They stare at each other for a charged moment before Cha-young panics and delivers a vicious flick that sends him reeling back.

They’re saved from more awkwardness by a phone call informing Vincenzo of what happened to Joon-woo. They don’t buy that this was an accident and from the look on Myung-hee’s face at the hospital as she watches Chairman Jang, neither does she.

The doctor reports that they were able to successfully remove the bullet and stop the bleeding – Joon-woo will make it. Chairman Jang scrubs his bloody hands in the bathroom and tells his shaking self not to regret or be afraid.

Joon-woo wakes in his hospital bed with Myung-hee by his side. He tells her about his nightmare where someone was burying him in a cemetery. He suspects that nightmare could come true and wants her opinion. “Please answer me, my consigliere.”

Myung-hee honestly states this could happen again and advises him to publicly take the role of chairman so he’s not buried namelessly. He’s hesitant, but she pushes that his secrecy is becoming his biggest vulnerability. She encourages him not to jump to conclusions about Chairman Jang’s intent, so he agrees to accept that it’s an accident for now. He offers Myung-hee his hand which she takes in both of hers.

Meanwhile, Young-woon politely asks Vincenzo if they can speed up getting the gold since he needs the money. Vincenzo offers to give him what he needs but spits his water in surprise when Young-woon asks for 30 billion won. Young-woon got reckless with gambling and investing knowing that he’d be rich soon.

Vincenzo enlists Cha-young and Joo-sung’s help in planning how to get the monks out of Nanyak Temple for a few hours. They decide to set up a spa trip, paid for by Jipuragi, for all the tenants. Some of them are excited, but the monks as well as a few others are reluctant to leave. As a last resort, Joo-sung spontaneously proclaims that whoever takes the best vacation photo will receive 20 million won.

Elsewhere, Chairman Jang gathers Babel’s big backers and promises to give their strongest supporters a part of Babel Tower. His presentation is interrupted by Joon-woo in his hospital clothes, wheeling in his IV. Joon-woo has some fun scaring Prosecutor Hwang before Myung-hee announces to the room that Joon-woo is the true heir of Babel.

Joon-woo plans to take the reigns now and thanks Chairman Jang for all his hard work. He grabs his shocked brother in a hug and whispers that it hurt so much he thought he’d die.

At Geumga Plaza, as soon as everyone leaves for their group trip – including Cha-young and Joo-sung – Vincenzo and Young-woon rush to Nanyak Temple. They offer a little prayer of apology before ripping off the floorboards and prying open the cement covering to reveal the hatch.

They open it with the stolen biometrics and descend the ladder. At long last, they see the pile of gold with their own eyes. Vincenzo moves away to look at the artifacts and finds a gun pressed to the back of his head. He slowly turns to face Young-woon who keeps his gun trained on Vincenzo.

 
COMMENTS

I knew something would go wrong once they got down there. I was half expecting Mi-ri to somehow already be down there waiting for them. I’ve never fully trusted Young-woon, so I’m not surprised he’s betraying Vincenzo. I’m not sure if it’s just greed or if he’s working for someone else. I’m leaning toward there being a reason besides the money since I don’t think his friendship with Vincenzo is faked. Young-woon has been pushing a little too hard for Vincenzo to quickly retrieve the gold, and his debt story is kind of suspicious. Vincenzo’s immediate response was that the spending was out of character for Young-woon, so I doubt he’d blindly believe his story. Also, it doesn’t seem like Vincenzo told him that Cha-young and Joo-sung are involved now, which suggests he doesn’t completely trust Young-woon. Given the way this usually plays out, Vincenzo probably predicted everything and set another plan in motion with his Jipuragi team. Or maybe the drama will surprise me, and Vincenzo will be completely unprepared.

Of course, now we know there’s more than just the gold at stake. Vincenzo is currently the only one who knows Wang Shaolin hid the Guillotine report with the gold; if he gets his hands on it, that’s quite the leverage. Not only would the intelligence agency be at his mercy, but from what Attorney Han said, there’s damning evidence against Babel in it, which I’d imagine could greatly help Jipuragi take them down. Now that Joon-woo is in the open, he’s less vulnerable, so Jipuragi could use the extra leverage. I’m glad Vincenzo decided to go the more creative route with getting revenge and didn’t outright kill Joon-woo. Destroying his reputation and company will be the most satisfying revenge, and it has the advantage of being less murder-y.

That’s assuming Joon-woo lasts long enough for them to succeed – Chairman Jang was this close to taking him out. I was surprised he had the guts to pull the trigger, but his bid for power has seriously backfired on him. Like Joon-woo said, he really should’ve made sure his aim was on point before he did something that drastic. I’m sure Joon-woo isn’t going to let him off the hook for this, even if he’s letting it slide temporarily. And now that Joon-woo has gone public, Chairman Jang is expendable. Chairman Jang’s best bet for survival is to team up with Joon-woo’s enemies. He probably has a lot of intel that Vincenzo and Cha-young could use both about Babel’s business dealings and Joon-woo personally. I don’t know how much he cares about Babel, but I’d wager it’s less than he cares about his own life.

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