Evilive: Episodes 9-10 (Final)

by solstices

Our anti-hero is past the point of no return, doubling down on his convictions in order to justify his descent into darkness. Alas, evil comes at a cost, and it’s time for him to pay the price.

 
EPISODES 9-10

With Chairman Moon missing and CEO Kim behind bars, Do-young is officially inaugurated as the new president of Shinnam Ferry. Loyal sidekick Oh-jae shows a rare moment of concern for Dong-soo, to which Do-young points out that apart from a rare handful of exceptions, most people tend to change after their first kill.

As usual, Do-young is right. Tormented by nightmares of Mom’s death and Chairman Moon’s murder, Dong-soo ends up throwing out his old legal books. All that talk of justice and morality only serves to reinforce his hypocrisy. To Do-young, Dong-soo confesses that he once thought Chairman Moon was the problem, but now he realizes it was him all along — trying to stay righteous and ethical in a corrupt world only brought him misfortune and suffering. Now, he’s sick of living like that.

Dong-soo is officially a changed man, and the newfound assurance in his gaze reflects the worth he now sees in himself. Per Do-young’s instructions, Dong-soo opens a law firm to represent the gamers who lost money to the online casino. It’s basically a follow-up scam, but Dong-soo lies to Beom-jae that he’s wrapped up the business with Do-young.

Of course, he hasn’t — he plans to get his fair share from the casino business, given that it was originally his idea. Dong-soo contacts a rival gang leader to get rid of Do-young, but Do-young instantly finds out about the covert meeting, having put a tail on Dong-soo.

In return, Dong-soo finds himself uninvited from a VIP event he organized, and at the same time, the police get a tip-off. They head straight for Beom-jae’s house — and there, they find Chairman Moon’s corpse. Realizing Dong-soo murdered Chairman Moon, Beom-jae resolves to take the fall. All this while, Beom-jae has been carrying the guilt of introducing Dong-soo and Do-young to each other, and he feels like everything is his fault.

At a loss, Dong-soo approaches Chul-jin for help. Coming clean about his and Beom-jae’s involvement in Do-young’s previous murders, Dong-soo admits that he killed Chairman Moon under Do-young’s coercion. Before he turns himself in, he wants Chul-jin to apprehend Do-young first — and he can do that using the corpse at the bottom of Do-young’s backyard pond. Claiming that Do-young plans to move the body that night, Dong-soo convinces Chul-jin to catch him red-handed.

Meanwhile, Do-young orders Oh-jae to get rid of the rival gang members they’ve been using — but the ambush fails, an entire car crashes on top of Do-young’s gang, and the rival gang leader finishes Oh-jae off.

Do-young’s call to Oh-jae goes unanswered, and he realizes things have gone awry just in time to fend off the masked attackers lying in wait within his house. Do-young puts up a good fight despite being outnumbered, but that’s exactly when Chul-jin walks in on him.

The slew of dead bodies are enough to charge Do-young with murder, and Chul-jin calls for backup — but that’s when one last gangster emerges from the woodwork and fatally stabs Chul-jin. Realizing they’ve both been played by Dong-soo, Do-young makes a hasty escape right as the police cars pull up.

Beom-jae is finally released from prison, but he’s wracked with guilt, knowing Dong-soo had planned the stakeout that resulted in Chul-jin’s death. How can he hold his head high when a man was sacrificed for him to walk free? “I thought it was Seo Do-young’s fault that you became like this,” Beom-jae says. “But now I realize it wasn’t.”

Wanting to leave it all behind, Beom-jae prepares to emigrate with his daughter, but he returns home to an unwelcome visitor. Dong-soo gets a call from Do-young — he’s taken Beom-jae hostage, and Dong-soo must come alone to save him.

Dong-soo immediately speeds over to the abandoned warehouse, where he blames Do-young for dragging him down into depravity. In response, Do-young scoffs that Dong-soo is still unaware of his own nature. He threatens to kill Beom-jae, so that Dong-soo will experience what it’s like to lose everything, and Dong-soo sees red. Shooting Do-young with a revolver he brought along, Dong-soo gains the upper hand in the ensuing tussle. He fires several more shots, and with that the mighty Seo Do-young is dead.

Dong-soo rushes to Beom-jae, but he’s coughing up blood and barely clinging on. Gasping for air, Beom-jae ekes out his last words: he hopes Dong-soo will leave everything behind and live peacefully, free from anxiety. Then Beom-jae’s gone, making him the second family member to die in Dong-soo’s arms.

Laying his beloved little brother to rest, Dong-soo sees only one choice left. There’s a single bullet remaining. Dong-soo raises the gun to his head, and a shot rings out.

Three years later. Dong-soo stands in court as a defense attorney, and as he makes his argument, it begins to sound like his own story — of a single wrong choice, the spiral it caused, and the regret that remains.

However, reality paints a vastly different picture. Dong-soo is now a star attorney with the potential for political candidacy, and he’s taken over not only the online gambling ring but also Do-young’s office and house. (How can he bear to live there, after everything that’s happened?)

When Dong-soo accidentally knocks Do-young’s baseball off its stand, it rolls away to someone else’s feet. It’s an apparition of Do-young, who echoes Nietzsche’s quote about the abyss. “When you gaze deep into a monster,” Do-young drawls, “the monster also gazes into you.”

And so, our tale draws to a close, with Dong-soo becoming the very devil he once denounced. Has he lost himself trying to fight evil, or has he found himself and unearthed the dormant evil within? Dong-soo may have justified his own actions till the bitter end, but ironically, nothing has changed — there’s simply a new head honcho, and a different gang taking over the Yoosung turf. Dong-soo doesn’t stand for justice; conversely, he manipulated it for his own gain.

Nowhere is Dong-soo’s hypocrisy more apparent than the family photo he’s hung up in Do-young’s house. All along, Dong-soo claimed that he was simply doing his best to survive and provide for his family. Yet whenever he had the chance to cut ties with Do-young and prioritize his family, he let his greed guide him back towards the seedy underbelly of crime. Even after everything has blown over, Dong-soo remains estranged from his wife and niece, and it’s telling that we don’t see him visiting Mom or Beom-jae’s graves.

That’s why Chul-jin’s death is particularly lamentable, because his righteous determination and unwavering moral code could have made him best buddies with the Dong-soo of the past — but that train has long since left the station. Dong-soo’s alienation is of his own making; Beom-jae and his mother were targeted because of the enemies he made, he chose to eliminate Chul-jin rather than trust him, and he kept his wife at arm’s length instead of assuaging her worries.

Back when Dong-soo was a struggling, disgraced attorney, he had people in his corner who staunchly supported him through thick and thin. Yet he was too focused on what had been snatched away from him that he hadn’t been able to appreciate what he still had. Now, Dong-soo may have reclaimed his former glory and more, but he’s lost the support network that once had faith in him. Beom-jae’s dying wish wasn’t fulfilled in the least — Dong-soo may have gained reputation and wealth, but he’s still shackled by his sordid past. And I don’t think Dong-soo will ever be able to fill in the gaps that have cracked his soul apart, no matter how hard he tries to convince himself that he’s satisfied and at peace.

 
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