The First Responders: Episode 11

by quirkycase

It’s time to reveal the full backstory of the kidnapping and missing persons case from seven years ago. The team races to rescue the victim before it’s too late with our cop’s personal stake in the case making him more reckless than usual. Revelations about the case shake his confidence and lead to a drastic decision. But a certain paramedic isn’t about to give up on him so easily.

 
EPISODE 11 WEECAP

This episode is all about Hyun-seo. Actually, scratch that. Like everything else, it’s all about Ho-gae because the kidnapper is obsessed with him for reasons that don’t fully make sense, but we’ll get there. The kidnapper is a nurse named KWAK KYUNG-JOON, someone the team knows well. He was even in the operating room when Ho-gae underwent emergency surgery.

Kyung-joon had been stalking Hyun-seo, as she tried to tell Ho-gae all those years ago. Since then, he’s been holding her captive in his creepy basement, which happens to be in her and Ho-gae’s neighborhood. She’s been under their noses the whole time.

As Ho-gae rages in the empty basement, his father drops in to personally serve him his dismissal from the force. He cites the charges from the judge over Ho-gae’s DNA theft and the now-viral video of Ho-gae beating up the boyfriend who smashed the bottle over his girlfriend’s head last episode.

Although Chief Prosecutor Ji is terrible, it’s not like he’s making up evidence here. I think the drama wants me to be on Ho-gae’s side, but he’s done a lot of things that deserve consequences and make me think he maybe shouldn’t be in a job that allows him to carry weapons.

As I expected, Ho-gae is not about to be sidelined for this case. Since it’s an emergency where a life is in immediate danger, he can legally help as a civilian until the golden time is up. He vows to turn himself in afterwards. There’s nothing his father can do, so that’s that.

Seol and Pil join Ho-gae, helping him locate Kyung-joon in an old warehouse where he used to work. Seol stays in the car while Ho-gae and Pil rush inside to find Hyun-seo chained to a floor grate with a bundle of pipes hanging over her head. Smug Kyung-joon stands with a button for the pulley.

And now it’s time for our hero-villain standoff where the villain whines that this is all Ho-gae’s fault for, I don’t know, ignoring him or something. But it’s really about his jealousy of Ho-gae because Hyun-seo trusted and liked him. So he’s spent several years of his life taunting Ho-gae and playing some sick game, even sending him Hyun-seo’s toes to see if he would figure it all out.

While I’m not particularly bothered by violence, I’m not a fan of it when it feels exploitative, especially violence against women. And this whole Hyun-seo arc feels very exploitative to me. Because it’s not even about her – she’s a violently-treated prop who exists to give the male lead Trauma and a villain to triumph against. At least the other cases we’ve seen have been primarily about the victims.

Poor Hyun-seo ended up in the hospital after recognizing Ho-gae out the window of her cell (after his recent move back to his old house) and frantically banging on the window, trying to get his attention. He didn’t notice her, but Kyung-joon did and got angry. Hyun-seo later tried to commit suicide, so Kyung-joon dropped her outside the hospital.

Then he had a hissy fit Ho-gae didn’t recognize him at the hospital. But, again, I have no idea why Ho-gae would know him since he’s only seen this guy in passing a couple of times. Either way, Kyung-joon decides to “punish” both Ho-gae and Hyun-seo for not loving him or whatever.

So here we are. In a nutshell, Ho-gae asks to trade places with Hyun-seo, which Kyung-joon allows, but then Kyung-joon tries to kill both of them by releasing the pipes. Seol dives in out of nowhere and rolls Hyun-seo to safety, while Ho-gae also throws himself out of the way, so that was a bust for the kidnapper. As he flees, Kyung-joon releases combustible gas into the warehouse. Ho-gae goes after him, and after making sure Seol and Hyun-seo are safe, Do-jin goes after Ho-gae. He catches up just in time to stop Ho-gae from viciously murdering Kyung-joon.

As if the stalking and captivity weren’t creepy enough, we learn while Hyun-seo is in the hospital that Kyung-joon made her think he’s her actual father. She’s lost most of her memory and can’t recognize her grandmother, but she does recognize Ho-gae, blaming him for not taking her call that day. Kyung-joon had promised he’d let her go if Ho-gae answered.

While Ho-gae broods and contemplates his life choices, Do-jin finally makes his romantic move years too late. Outside their apartments, he hugs Seol and says he doesn’t know what he’d do if he lost her. Seol looks markedly uncomfortable. Do-jin, you already know she likes Ho-gae, so why do this now? And it looks like he’s even getting her a ring. *Sigh* I hate that he’s been reduced to the scorned second lead with nothing else to do.

Elsewhere, Ho-gae meets with Kyung-joon in prison and almost kills him a second time as Kyung-joon goads that they’re just the same – Ho-gae merely hides behind his righteous cop veneer. Ho-gae takes his words to heart and has lost all confidence in himself, so he quits the force.

Seol finds Ho-gae brooding some more at his house and takes him to the hospital to the baby ward. She has him hold an abandoned baby like an extreme version of puppy therapy that’s both therapeutic and depressing if you think about it too much. He looks adoringly at the little baby, Seol looks adoringly at him, and her adoptive nurse mom gets that knowing look and invites Ho-gae to come back. We end with Seol and Ho-gae walking home. Seol stops and looks into his eyes, telling him that she thinks she’s found her person. Guess it’s confession time.

With only one episode to go, we’ve wrapped up most of the loose ends. The brief flash of Tae-hwa we got this episode reminded me that there’s still the “mastermind” of his crimes to catch, so I suppose we’ll have to deal with that in the finale. Here’s to hoping Do-jin gets something more to do in the final episode than have his heart broken by his doomed romantic arc.

 
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