Insider: Episodes 13-14

by solstices

Lies upon lies upon lies — deception is the name of the game this week. Our protagonist draws up an ambitious subterfuge to outwit his enemies, but they’re busy enacting their own schemes, too. Ever the master manipulator, our hero seems to have his opponents in the palm of his hand — but does he really?

 

EPISODES 13-14 WEECAP

Byung-wook meets up with Annie to claim the prosecutors’ share of the slush fund, but she hangs him out to dry. Citing the recent money laundering failure at the casino, Annie relays the Deep Pockets’ refusal to pay the prosecutors. She advises Byung-wook to treat Yo-han well since he’s now the casino manager, much to Byung-wook’s ire.

As such, Jae-sun shows up at the casino without warning, intentionally making a fuss to draw Yo-han out. He delivers him straight to Byung-wook, who presses Yo-han about his motives — why is he going this far?

Byung-wook is a tough nut to crack, and he isn’t swayed by Yo-han’s attempt at a pathos appeal. Ultimately, Yo-han offers to turn Byung-wook into one of the Deep Pockets — not only will he receive a sizable sum from the casino’s money laundering, but he’ll also have Yo-han’s support in his political endeavors.

Now that Yo-han’s risen to a position of power, Jin-hyung realizes he’s been utterly played for a fool. Determined to regain the upper hand, Jin-hyung approaches Yang Hwa in the interrogation room where he’s being held.

Jin-hyung offers the chance to make a single phone call, thereby establishing their alliance, and Yang Hwa takes it. He phones little bro Chairman Yang, calmly advising him to lay low until he gives a signal.

Chairman Yang’s not alone, though; Chairman Do incessantly goads him, asserting that the person who goes all-in during a time of crisis always ends up winning the battle. Impressionable as always, Chairman Yang finds himself swayed by Chairman Do’s persuasion.

Soo-yeon’s unhappy that Yo-han isn’t taking more proactive measures against Byung-wook, especially now that they have close access to him and can easily kill him. However, Yo-han wants to minimize any potential collateral damage.

Instead of facing off directly against Byung-wook, he plans to earn his trust and carry out his dirty work — and then he’ll expose it all to the world. In short, he’ll become an insider. (Heh, title drop!)

Frustrated by his passive methods, Soo-yeon resolves to go her own way, but Yo-han confronts her for keeping him in the dark. A series of flashbacks reveal that she’d approached him very deliberately; she’d colluded with Chairman Do in order to take Yo-han under her wing.

Yo-han notes that around the time when Chairman Do began showing an interest in him, his grandmother was killed. Soo-yeon knew that Yo-han’s grandmother had a target on her back, yet she didn’t protect her.

Cornered, Soo-yeon challenges Yo-han to take revenge and kill her, but Yo-han simply entreats her to trust him. He wants to punish Byung-wook in his own way, so that there won’t be any more victims like them.

Oh no — Jin-hyung’s heard that entire conversation, having previously wiretapped the room during the chaos of the casino fiasco.

As per Yo-han’s request, Byung-wook transfers Jin-hyung to a faraway province. Smarting at being cast aside after serving his purpose, Jin-hyung decides against warning Byung-wook of Yo-han’s plan.

Instead, he meets with KIM JUNG-GYU (Yoo Ha-bok), commissioner candidate for the Corruption Investigation Agency. Jung-gyu astutely notes that Jin-hyung’s trying to jump ship away from Byung-wook, and Jin-hyung doesn’t deny it; he offers to assist Jung-gyu in establishing his position.

As a reward for Jin-hyung’s cooperation and assistance thus far, Yo-han offers a tantalizing reward — he gets to lead the charge to take down Shinseondong.

However, after Jin-hyung barges into the prison, he belatedly realizes that Shinseondong has already swapped out the actual VIPs for mere stand-ins. It’s the work of Soo-yeon, who tipped off Shinseondong that Yo-han was going to expose them.

In exchange, she wants to become Shinseondong’s new right-hand man. Soo-yeon claims that she’s cast Yo-han aside, now that she no longer has a use for him.

Has Soo-yeon really severed ties with Yo-han, though? To answer that question, we flashback to four days ago. Yo-han takes Soo-yeon aside, leading her into the casino’s VIP room — the only room that isn’t bugged. Turns out Yo-han was well aware of Jin-hyung’s eavesdropping, and the pair’s argument had merely been for show.

Yo-han does indeed plan to become an insider, but his goal is loftier; he’s going to manipulate the Deep Pockets into cutting ties with Byung-wook and handing him over. Once Byung-wook is in their hands, Yo-han will make him confess his own sins in court.

It’s going to be an uphill battle, but they’re not alone. Yo-han has the backing of Jung-gyu, who had offered him a win-win deal if they teamed up — Yo-han gets Byung-wook, and Jung-gyu can take over the CID.

As such, Yo-han and Soo-yeon plan to split forces and turn the prosecutors and Shinseondong against each other. Killing two birds with one stone, Yo-han escapes from Bon-chul’s surveillance by having Jin-hyung kidnap him to use as a hostage against Shinseondong.

In an effort to extract information on Shinseondong out of Bon-chul, however, Jin-hyung shoots him up with arrhythmia-inducing drugs. He doesn’t manage to get anything useful out of him, but either way, Bon-chul’s down for the count.

There’s a new player in the game, and it’s KIM WOO-JAE (Lee Ha-yool), an upright prosecutor who’s been tenaciously going after a high-profile CEO for embezzlement and fraud.

Incorruptible prosecutors are a dying breed, and Woo-jae seems like the perfect candidate to lead the legal battle against Byung-wook, so Yo-han engineers a meeting with him.

Revealing Chief Prosecutor Hong and Byung-wook’s collusion with the casino’s money laundering operation, Yo-han offers to tell him more — and Woo-jae accepts.

Since Bon-chul is incapacitated, Soo-yeon offers his vacated position to Jin-hyung. She reaches out to Chairman Yang, extending an olive branch and claiming to share a common goal of taking Yo-han down.

Chairman Yang’s understandably hesitant to mend the bridge, given how Soo-yeon backstabbed him before. So when she asks to meet, a recently-escaped Yang Hwa sends Chairman Do over instead — he’s their wildcard, and their only hope at shaking up the playing field.

To their credit, their plan works. Chairman Do sniffs out Soo-yeon’s pretense within mere minutes, quickly seeing through her deceit and realizing she’s still on Yo-han’s side.

Chairman Do texts Yang Hwa to inform him as such, but Soo-yeon pulls on a glove and aims her gun at him before he can call Byung-wook. However, she can’t kill Chairman Do without incriminating herself, and he ends up taking the gun from her.

Soo-yeon hangs her head in defeat as Chairman Do saunters out — but she’s merely acting, because he collapses just as he reaches the elevator. Soo-yeon had coated the gun with a liberal dose of animal tranquilizer, and as Chairman Do struggles to breathe, she presses her gloved hand over his face until he loses consciousness.

Meanwhile, Yo-han enacts the next part of his plan — namely, manipulating Byung-wook into instigating murder, so that he can expose him for it and take him to court. He reveals to Byung-wook that Soo-yeon is actually the Yeon-soo from his past; in other words, she knows his part in the framing and cover-up of her mother’s death.

Yo-han knows that this won’t be enough to push Byung-wook into taking such drastic measures, which means his strategy’s success is contingent on Soo-yeon using Yang Hwa to pressure Byung-wook. But now that her deception has been exposed, it remains to be seen whether they still have a fighting chance, or if they’ll have to switch tack.

Worse yet, there’s another even more formidable foe on the scene. Having received Chairman Yang’s tip-off about Yo-han and Soo-yeon’s scheme, the Macau triad has grown tired of all the instability, and LAM (cameo by Fan Bingbing) shows up to relieve Annie of her position and take over.

She doesn’t hold back one bit — her first order is to send out the message that whoever kills Yo-han will become the new manager of the Goldman casino. The hunt is on.

One thing this show never fails to do is to keep its viewers on our toes; nothing can be taken at face value. This week is no different, with reversal after reversal, throwing our protagonists’ strategy into flux. It can get challenging to keep up with it all, though; this drama definitely requires a hefty dose of concentration and then some.

Still, what makes this drama so captivating is how its characters are always locked in a tense battle of wits. The mind games are intricately layered and complex, opening up a multitude of potential outcomes. Our hero doesn’t get success served to him on a silver platter via protagonist plot armor, nor does he fail simply because the story needs an underdog tale.

Rather, he earns his triumphant victories through his own tenacity and merit, and he falters because his opponents are equally shrewd and competent. It’s what keeps me engaged week after week, because I can never predict who’s going to come out on top.

As we head into the drama’s final week, I’m a little apprehensive at how much there is left to tie up, but I also have faith in the drama to weave it all into a thrilling and satisfying conclusion. There are still so many characters waiting in the wings — Sun-oh is one example, and so are Woo-jae and Seung-hwan — and I’m excited to see how they tie in to Yo-han’s plan.

 
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