Stealer: The Treasure Keeper: Episodes 7-8

by mistyisles

Our little team is growing, but so is the danger of their mission. Theirs is a game of wits, and one that requires thinking ten steps ahead of their opponent — but they’ve got more than one opponent to stay ahead of, and none should be underestimated.

 
EPISODES 7-8

Dae-myung retrieves the coin from Boss Jang’s laser-filled safe, but there are two problems: 1) moving the coin made the laser patterns change and 2) Boss Jang’s minions are on the way. Thinking quickly, Dae-myung slides the coin harmlessly across the floor to Min-woo and Chang-hoon, so they can get it out of the hotel while he and Choon-ja figure out how to disarm the lasers.

Fortunately, there’s another power switch on this end of the room. Unfortunately, it’s password-protected. But fortune wins out, because Boss Jang did give Min-woo the second password, and she’s stayed behind to help Dae-myung.

After disabling the lasers, the two have to fight their way through Boss Jang’s minions, and they make a pretty great team. Things get a little hairy once they escape out into the hotel common areas — Dae-myung has to shield Min-woo from a volley of bullets, and they end up swinging to ground level together on his wire — but in the end the whole team gets out safely. Everyone lets out a huge sigh of relief, and Dae-myung logs out of his suit for some much-needed rest and alone time.

Correction: they’re all out, but they’re not all safe. On the way back, Chang-hoon is waylaid by Hwin-dal, who knows he’s carrying the coin. Chang-hoon puts up a tremendous fight, even after Hwin-dal pulls out his stabbing pen, but Hwin-dal bludgeons him senseless and takes the coin. With Skunk AWOL, the team can’t get there in time to catch Hwin-dal. But — thank goodness! — Chang-hoon just needs a quick trip to the hospital to get patched up and back on his feet.

So how did Hwin-dal know where the coin would be? Dr. Go sold them out — and that’s why he joined the team in the first place. Not only does Hwin-dal take Boss Jang’s coin from Chang-hoon, but Dr. Go takes the other coin (the one he handed over when Tae-in caught him) and rejoins Hwin-dal elsewhere. Now Chairman Kim has the whole set of seven coins, and Team Karma has… one?

See, the betrayal may have been Dr. Go’s plan from the start, but it was actually Tae-in’s plan all along. He asked Choon-ja to make an exact replica of Dr. Go’s coin (with a slightly adjusted design so as to make it useless for treasure-hunting), confident Dr. Go would steal it back. Best of all, the tracker Choon-ja placed in the fake coin tells them both where it is at all times and whenever it’s close to the other coins.

It’s not long before Chairman Kim moves the coins to his super-secret, super-secure vault. Even Choon-ja can’t discover what all is in there, but she does dig up an interview with the award-winning Japanese architect who designed its booby-trap system: a creepy old man who seems to delight in trapping people in his “games” and who kinda makes the show feel like it’s heading into horror territory. Especially when paired with that unexplained, sinister-looking wooden doll that makes its way into Min-woo’s dreams.

While scoping out the vault facility, Team Karma spends some time getting to know each other better. A surprise party for Min-woo’s birthday, full of food, laughter, and a few tears, drops hints for two potential romances: Dae-myung and Min-woo, of course, but also Tae-in and Choon-ja.

Everyone’s a bit tipsy, and both couples end up in a stumble-and-catch kind of situation, with Tae-in saving Choon-ja from falling in the pool, and Dae-myung stopping Min-woo from tumbling down the stairs (and reminding her of her close encounter with Skunk back in Jeju).

We also learn how Dae-myung and Choon-ja started working together, as she reminisces to distract him from a thunderstorm-induced panic attack. Turns out, she was his first “target.” He’d attempted to “borrow” an artifact from her house just long enough to catch the thieves who sold it to her before the statute of limitations ran out.

She’d incapacitated him and brought him inside for further questioning, partly moved by his passion and the story of his father’s life and murder, and partly intrigued by his intent to find his father’s killer in the process of recovering national treasures. Now, he’s not sure if revenge still drives his mission, but his determination has only gotten stronger.

And finally, Team Karma gets a new team member to replace Dr. Go. Dae-myung’s co-worker, JIN AE-RI (Choi Seol), accidentally finds his Skunk suit while they’re all in Jeju. She initially writes it off as a kink thing (and judges him hard for it), but when the video of him and Min-woo rappelling down to the hotel lobby gets plastered all over the news, Dae-myung has to tell her the truth so she won’t turn him in to the police.

Having found herself sucked into a secret agent caper, Ae-ri assumes her new role with gusto. She even creates passwords for herself and Dae-myung to use at work if they need to talk about secret plans. Dae-myung has no intention of letting her do anything for him, until it becomes clear she’s the perfect person to get Chairman Kim’s fingerprint so they can enter the vault.

With her many masseuse licenses, Ae-ri has an easy in to get up close and personal with Chairman Kim. And she’s so great at the job, too! She gets Chairman Kim talking, laughing, and playing a little game, all so she can put him at ease and convince him to leave his fingerprint on her arm (I’m no expert, but I’m not sure that’s how fingerprints work…).

When it’s finally time to break into the vault, Min-woo and Dae-myung (as Skunk) go in together, while the others watch from their van. The fingerprint works perfectly, but as they enter, the door closes ominously behind them.

That’s because there’s one last reversal in store, and it’s a doozy: Chairman Kim was never fooled. He gave Ae-ri his fingerprint knowing he was letting Team Karma into his vault, and he’s very excited to watch them try to get out alive, let alone steal the coins.

A quick flash-forward sequence shows our heroes separated and in various states of pain and distress, seeming to confirm Hwin-dal’s warning to Dr. Go that death awaits anyone who tries to enter that vault.

Between the giant death trap Team Karma has just stepped into, a new hitman being called in (who massacred a roomful of people and stole their teeth for some reason), and that demon-eyed doll, things are getting dire. But there’s also some interesting movement on Hwin-dal’s side, like letting Chang-hoon live and killing the mentor who made him a killer.

And then there’s Dr. Go, who’s conflicted about sending Team Karma to their doom (probably because he’s Min-woo’s longtime anonymous benefactor). There’s an awful lot of manipulation and betrayal going on, so it’ll be interesting to see where everyone is standing — and who’s standing — when all’s said and done.

 
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