Again My Life: Episodes 13-14

by DaebakGrits

So far, our hero has only faced minor inconveniences and setbacks in his quest for revenge, but he’s getting too close to his arch nemesis and can no longer continue flying under the radar. As our bad guy begins to question his motives, some of our hero’s carefully constructed alliances begin to crumble.

 
EPISODES 13-14 WEECAP

This week’s opening fight scene was entertaining, but it comes as no surprise that it was not the final showdown between Hee-woo and Tae-sub’s hitman. They duke it out, and while Hee-woo’s extra training has clearly paid off, he still manages to be shocked that the unscrupulous hired killer would use cheap tricks and throw dirt in his eyes as a means of gaining the upper hand. Thankfully, the sound of police sirens in the distance scares our hitman away before he gets the chance to kill Seung-hyuk or Hee-woo (again).

Following the encounter, Hee-woo cleverly meets with Tae-sub and preemptively reveals that he’s the one who fought off the hitman. He lies that he’d followed Seung-hyuk to try and convince him and Gyu-ri to drop the case against JQ Construction, but then the hitman showed up. After rescuing Seung-hyuk, Hee-woo claims he’s convinced his colleagues to stop their investigation, but now, he wonders aloud, “Should I pursue the monster that attacked Seung-hyuk… or should I leave the monster alone?” It’s a subtle way of Hee-woo saying he suspects that the hitman was sent by Tae-sub and is deferring to Tae-sub for how he should proceed.

Tae-sub is impressed with Hee-woo’s intelligence and likes that he doesn’t whine or beg like the other people who align themselves with him, but he also finds it suspicious that Hee-woo never asks for anything in return. Someone as young and talented as Hee-woo should have ambition, and the absence of it prompts Tae-sub to dig deeper into Hee-woo’s background. He instructs his people to find someone within the prosecutor’s office who can keep a subtle eye on Hee-woo. That someone is Min-soo, but more on that later.

Hee-woo may have told Tae-sub that Gyu-ri and her team have dropped the JQ Construction case, but that doesn’t mean Hee-woo has abandoned his quest to bring down Seok-hoon. He only publicly placed it on the back burner. Behind the scenes, Hee-woo has Jin-yong stoke the political fires, but Jin-yong fears Hee-woo may have crossed a line when he discovers that Hee-woo’s intent was to position Jin-yong to be the next in line as leader of his political party. At the same time, Hee-woo and Sang-man team up with Hee-ah, who has been buying up JQ Construction stock under her bodyguard’s name.

Seok-hoon is appointed the next prosecutor general, and on the day of his confirmation hearing, Seok-kyu simultaneously holds a press conference and announces an investigation into JQ Construction’s wrongdoings. At Seok-hoon’s hearing, Jin-yong receives a notification on his phone, and he interrupts to tell everyone to tune into the breaking news report concerning the JQ Construction investigation.

As expected, Seok-hoon’s reputation takes a dive because of his family’s crimes, but it’s not completely irreparable — not yet, at least. Tae-sub advises Seok-hoon to arrest his own son (to demonstrate he will uphold the law even if his own family members are the criminals) and to shift the public’s attention to another scandal involving one of Jin-yong’s political rivals, which — consequently and according to Hee-woo’s plan — sets Jin-yong to be the next leader of his political party.

And Tae-sub’s scheme might have worked… had Hee-woo’s allies not systemically exposed Seok-hoon’s corruption and ties to various crimes. Han-mi even held a press conference and announced that she is Seok-hoon’s illegitimate daughter. His public image hits rock bottom, and there’s no way of recovering from it. So when Hee-woo sits across from Seok-hoon in the interrogation room, lays out the evidence against him, and reveals that he is Han-mi’s friend — the one who rescued her all those years ago — Seok-hoon resigns himself to his fate and confesses to his crimes.

Unfortunately, with Seok-hoon behind bars, Hee-woo loses an ally: Min-soo, who made a deal with Tae-sub. In exchange for being able to arrest the CEO of Mirae Electronics (the man who framed Min-woo’s father) Min-soo agreed to keep a watchful eye on Hee-woo. In the interest of fairness, though, Min-soo not only warned Hee-woo that he’d defected, but he also declared a truce until Seok-hoon was arrested.

So now Min-soo is supposedly Hee-woo’s rival, but… I’m not so sure about that. Yes, the drama has shown that Min-soo is intelligent and the only person who can potentially outwit Hee-woo. And yes, meaningful camera angles and shifty eyes have suggested Min-soo has ulterior motives. But, is he really willing to overlook Tae-sub’s — maybe unintentional — negligence in his father’s case just because Tae-sub handed him the Mirae CEO on a platter? Surely he’s more filial than that, and I’m inclined to believe that Min-soo will double-cross Tae-sub next week.

I don’t hate the idea of Min-soo becoming Hee-woo’s rival. In fact, I find it quite interesting compared to a lot of the other plot elements that have been thrown at us. However, if that’s the direction the story is taking, I wished it had gone there earlier.

In the meantime, Hee-woo and Hee-ah continue forward with their collaborative buyout of JQ Construction, which Tae-sub wants to own so he and his people can leverage it to buy a controlling portion of Chunha Group (or something like that). Sang-man — under Hee-woo’s instructions — approaches JQ Construction as a potential buyer, but Tae-sub’s lackey dips into his Bando Bank connections to borrow more money and drives up the offering price.

Instead of proposing a higher counter offer, though, Hee-woo corners the director of the Financial Supervisory Service and convinces — blackmails — him to place sanctions on Bando Bank so that they maintain the equity-to-asset ratio, limiting the amount of money that Tae-sub’s man can borrow to try and purchase JQ Construction.

Although Hee-woo has seemingly taken a giant leap forward in blocking Tae-sub from encroaching on Hee-ah’s company, Tae-sub has not been idle. For one, he recruits an attractive, successful, and arrogant woman JUNG SEO-YEON (Lee Yeon-doo) to honey trap Hee-woo as part of some yet-to-be-seen-plan to “leash” Hee-woo. And second, Tae-sub convinces Seok-kyu to be the next chief prosecutor, but is Seok-kyu really on Tae-sub’s side, or is he just working his own angle to take down Tae-sub?

I guess we will find out next week when this show finally comes to an end and puts me out of my misery. Again My Life continues to do well in ratings, but my attention has been steadily decreasing as Hee-woo’s revenge tactics become more and more entrenched in the corporate and political worlds. With only one week left, I should be eagerly anticipating our villain’s impending downfall. Instead, I’m apathetic, and the only thing inciting my curiosity is a desire to find out Min-soo and Seok-kyu’s true alliances.

 
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