Evilive: Episodes 7-8

by solstices

It’s time for our morally questionable duo to take their enemies down, but the scoundrels won’t go down without a fight. Faced with pressure from all sides and a desperate desire to come out on top, our anti-hero is beginning to realize that he has to be evil to live.

 
EPISODES 7-8

If Dong-soo dipped his toes into evil last week, then this week he’s taken the plunge. Consumed by grief and possessed by rage, Dong-soo pummels one of the arsonist gang’s lackeys, throttling him till he’s gasping for air. Then he shoves him into a pool, staring unflinchingly at the sinking man while Do-young smirks. Just as I think the lackey’s a goner, Dong-soo orders the gang to haul him up, and Do-young orders the wheezing man to round up everyone involved in the arson.

Do-young’s strategy is to divide and conquer, and his men stage a takeover of Shinnam Ferry’s delivery trucks. When morning dawns, CEO Kim’s illegally smuggled goods are strewn all over the street, right on the doorstep of Chairman Moon’s law firm. CEO Kim is taken in for questioning, and Dong-soo marches the arsonist gangsters into the police station to confess their crimes. Dressed in a spiffy new suit courtesy of Do-young, ace attorney Dong-soo nudges CEO Kim towards exposing Chairman Moon’s role in the arson.

Before he can be implicated any more, Chairman Moon washes his hands of CEO Kim. Under the false pretense of transferring CEO Kim out of jail and into the hospital, Chairman Moon has the remaining smuggled goods sold off at half price — this way, CEO Kim will go down for attempting to tamper with evidence, and he can get rid of him.

Dong-soo figures this out and goes to warn CEO Kim, conveniently catching a murderous gangster in the act. For all his fruit knife-wielding bravado, Dong-soo is sorely overpowered, and he almost gets choked to death until Do-young saves him in the nick of time. Dong-soo may have needed rescuing, but Do-young’s impressed by his willingness to brandish a weapon.

Stinging from the betrayal, CEO Kim exposes Chairman Moon’s fiery instigation, and the reporters have a field day with his crimes. The incident that etched Dong-soo’s name onto Chairman Moon’s blacklist is brought back into the public eye, and it turns out Dong-soo was a whistleblower for Chairman Moon’s illicit lover, who had been instructed to embezzle company money for Chairman Moon’s political funds. Dong-soo finally gets his rightful recognition, with the media championing him as an exemplar of justice. Bolstered by the public validation, he even dares to defy Do-young’s orders — asserting that he knows better with regards to the virtual casino’s operations — much to Do-young’s ire.

Unfortunately, our hero’s victory doesn’t last long — Chairman Moon weasels out of prison, leveraging upon his extensive connections to rise above the law. When Je-yi’s body washes ashore, smart cop Chul-jin starts to link Dong-soo to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the Yoosung gang, closing in on his connection to Do-young. Then Chairman Moon counterattacks by smearing Dong-soo’s name through the mud yet again, and it’s the last straw. Dong-soo approaches Do-young with a proposal: get rid of Chairman Moon once and for all.

Except it turns out that Chairman Moon has made Do-young the exact same offer, wanting to eliminate the Dong-soo-shaped thorn in his side. Claiming he can’t choose no matter how he racks his brains, Do-young locks them both in a cargo container. Two men, one knife. Only one can survive — and it’s Dong-soo who emerges victorious, with blood on his hands and determination in his gaze.

Whoa, there’s no turning back now. Then again, all the signs were there, and Do-young recognized it — it’s not that Dong-soo lacks ambition, but that it’s been smothered and suppressed. For that reason, I don’t quite believe Do-young was as indecisive as he claims. He’s not the type of person to leave things to chance, and I’d wager that he calculated all the odds, figured out it’s the perfect opportunity to test Dong-soo’s resolve, and engineered a situation to push him over the edge. Do-young is Mephistopheles to Dong-soo’s Faust, and Dong-soo keeps playing right into the palm of his hand.

It’s quite chilling to see how Dong-soo’s righteous fury can so easily turn to rage, because he’s consistently been positioned as the ethically-upright victim of Chairman Moon’s corruption. Yet here he is now, repeatedly employing immoral methods — and justifying them — in the name of retaliation and self-preservation. Dong-soo has finally rebuilt his backbone, and Do-young has finally acknowledged him as a “true partner,” but at what cost?

 
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