Miraculous Brothers: Episodes 11-12

by quirkycase

As the number of people making connections between the past and present continues to grow, key players start making their moves. Our writer’s priorities have been steadily shifting from saving his own skin to keeping his superpowered teen safe. And to his consternation, his teen’s penchant for extreme truth-telling and zeal for justice is wearing off on him. Meanwhile, our vengeful witness begins the next phase in his plan.

 
EPISODES 11-12

For how much focus is put on solving the 1995 case and its subsidiaries, there’s little to show for it. I get doling out info a little at a time, but I feel like this mystery is unraveling at a snail’s pace. So much time is spent revealing one piece of information character by character that it feels like we’re at a standstill. This week, everyone is still on the hunt for the video that no one can find but everyone now knows about. At least Dong-joo and Kang-san do get something useful from Hye-kyung’s gift. On the USB is a spreadsheet chronicling Tae-man’s extensive bribery over the years.

Hye-kyung is betting a lot on Dong-joo using the intel wisely because if he leaks it publicly, she could go down too since her club is the room where it all happened. It’s uncharacteristic for Hye-kyung to put her fate in someone else’s hands like this, but she too owes Dong-joo’s father, so she’s trusting Dong-joo to play justice warrior. Lucky for Hye-kyung, he proves savvy enough to hold onto the info for now. Naïve Kang-san wants to publicize it immediately, but Dong-joo is world-weary enough to know that the corrupt dealings would just be swept under the rug. Better to save it for a rainy day when they need some insurance.

Finally, Dong-joo and Kang-san are on the same page and ready to be real partners in crime-busting. But as usual, Kang-san has the upper hand with Dong-joo and only agrees to stay out of danger if Dong-joo agrees to not keep secrets. Except there’s still one big secret: Kai.

Although Kai’s secret-identity days might be coming to an end. I thought Myung-nam already knew Kai was Ha-neul, but he had no clue until the police showed him an aged-up sketch of Ha-neul. When they next meet, they do a round of, “No, I’m sorrier!” as they both regret the cowardice that led Myung-nam not to act when he witnessed the murder and Ha-neul not to step forward when he knew Myung-nam was innocent. And now, Myung-nam feels responsible for Kai stepping into the role of avenger.

Two years ago, after he’d found the fake witness’s body in the woods where Jong-il’s lackey hung him, Myung-nam had relied on Kai to help him scrub his traces from the scene and ensure he didn’t get falsely accused again. That murder was one too many for Kai to bear, and it was then he decided to spread his revenge wings and fly.

Now, Myung-nam tries to convince Kai to stop his mission and lead a normal life. They can farm together, and Kai can read all the books he wants. Because he knows Kai is a good kid and should be free of this. The relationship between these two wronged and broken people is sweet, so I just know Myung-nam is in danger. And sure enough, he’s the baddies’ next target.

Speaking of the baddies, they’re still chugging along but not much has changed. Tae-man is still evil-ing it up and terrorizing his friends and enemies. Myung-seok might just be the only person who doesn’t fear or loath him. After learning that his brother might be involved in the 1995 case that Dong-joo knows way too much about, Myung-seok lays it on thick to try to butter up Dong-joo. He disturbs Dong-joo with his out-of-character apology and then gifts him an expensive (bugged) watch. Dong-joo doesn’t buy his act one bit and regifts the watch immediately to Yong-dae. Unfortunately, he and Yong-dae then discuss the elusive videotape that got Dong-joo’s father killed and how Jong-il covered everything up. So now Myung-seok knows everything, and it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll do about it.

While we know what villains Tae-man and Jong-il are up to, the evil pastor is still largely a question mark. We do learn that his very profitable church, referred to as a cult by the cops, is bankrolled by some high-up players. At this point, it seems like their involvement in the case is likely driven by profit. Jong-il doesn’t strike me as the believer type, but his wife appears to be. She sent their daughter to the pastor (after the fake kidnapping) where she’s being “reformed.” Yikes.

Meanwhile, the cops continue plodding along and with how oblivious and heavy-handed they all are, it’s no wonder they’ve been unable to do much crime solving. Jong-il’s plant on the team does everything but wear a flashing neon I’M A SPY sign. He’s always sneaking around, “losing” key evidence, and throwing shifty glances before his super secret calls and meetings with Jong-il.

Byung-man finally starts catching onto this incredibly obvious behavior, but it’s Yong-dae of all people who gets the evidence. From one conversation he overheard, he figured out this cop was sketchy, and then when he tailed Jong-il, he saw the two of them meeting for an evidence drop. Yong-dae gets video and shows Dong-joo who then passes it along to Hyun-soo. So the team finally knows who their mole is thanks to some outside help.

And then there’s Hyun-soo’s super obvious and likely illegal DNA stealing. She stops by Dong-joo’s and has the sudden urge to wash her hands, using that flimsy cover to steal Kang-san’s toothbrush. She really didn’t need to go to those lengths, though, since Kang-san can’t keep anything to himself. He lasts all of 30 seconds before truth bombing her about the whole time-travel story and his relationship to Ha-neul while Dong-joo rolls his eyes to the high heavens. Then, Dong-joo backs him up, and they bring Hyun-soo up to speed.

The one lie Kang-san does manage to tell is to protect Dong-joo. When Hyun-soo later presses Dong-joo again on how he knows so much about the 1995 case, Kang-san jumps in with a story about Dong-joo using his father’s old journals to write his novel. Dong-joo may be willing to lie when needed, but he feels guilty seeing painfully honest Kang-san lie for him; he later tells him that if they need to lie, he’ll be the one to do it.

Dong-joo is determined to protect Kang-san in whatever way he can, so he’s extremely hesitant to let Kang-san help Hyun-soo in her investigation. (But as usual, Kang-san wins out.) As expected, Jong-il sent someone after Myung-nam who is now in a coma. The only reason he’s still alive is that Hyun-soo and Byung-nam happened to go to see him at just the right time and found him unconscious in his car full of fumes.

Kang-san’s powers are still erratic, and they’re starting to take a greater toll on him. After he uses them to do a reading of Myung-nam, Kang-san’s hands start to flicker like Dong-joo’s did. But he does see a memory of Myung-nam and Kai talking, which lets him know his brother is alive. Missing his brother and seeing how distressed he looked in the memory, Kang-san feels helpless and goes to his friend Woo-jung for comfort. Being from his past, she offers familiarity and a respite from his scary new reality.

After Myung-nam’s attack, any thoughts of staying on the straight and narrow disappear for Kai. He calls Dong-joo, asking him to keep his identity a secret from Kang-san and to keep Kang-san safe – he just wants his little brother to live a normal life. Then Kai goes all in, giving Jong-il a taste of his own medicine by kidnapping him. Kai throws precaution to the wind and shows his face and sets up a camera to record what promises to be an intense interview.

Meanwhile, Dong-joo and Kang-san get a sweet family moment. Kang-san waits for Dong-joo at home after a hard day, and they’re both so happy to see each other. Dong-joo has fully accepted that Kang-san is his little brother now and gets all emotional, saying since Kang-san is so fond of him, they’ll just have to live together forever now. They bicker with smiles and tears in their eyes. We end as Dong-joo says come what may, they shouldn’t be disappointed. They can’t change the past, but they can determine the future. “This is the beginning.”

I’m glad we’re getting some more focus on the found family aspect because that’s what drew me to this drama in the first place. I like the grumpy hyung/sunny dongsaeng dynamic and enjoy watching them grow closer. I’m also ready for some interaction between Kang-san and Kai because there’s a lot of complex feelings there to explore. I just hope the final two weeks of the drama figure out a good balance, and we don’t get emotionally shortchanged in favor of watching a drawn-out investigation.

 
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