Nothing Uncovered: Episode 1 (First Impressions)

by solstices

This premiere does not pull its punches in the slightest, dishing up a tense mystery that traps its heroine in a vortex she can barely see past. With illicit deals, incorrigible villains, and a plethora of secrets to uncover, will she succeed in grabbing the truth by its collar?

Editor’s note: This is an Episode 1 review only. For a place to chat about the entire drama, visit the Drama Hangout.
 
EPISODE 1

The star of our show, and of her news program, is the investigative journalist SEO JUNG-WON (Kim Haneul). Exposing the collusion between a politician and a journalist, at the expense of her colleague, Jung-won is unwaveringly tenacious and highly committed to her values.

After work, Jung-won is greeted by her doting husband SEOL WOO-JAE (Jang Seung-jo and his soulful smitten eyes), who sweetly offers her a piggyback ride and grins giddily when she takes his arm instead. He celebrates her program’s third anniversary with a limited-edition necklace, and staunchly defends her from the spiteful criticism of his chaebol dad (hello there Jung Woong-in with a mustache).

The nature of Jung-won’s job, and the ruthlessness with which she exposes unethical behavior, inevitably earns her more than a few enemies. One of them is ASSEMBLYMAN MO (Yoon Je-moon) — the politician she’d exposed at the start of the episode — and he’s a nasty piece of work with a side of arrogant elitism.

Following the rumors of Assemblyman Mo sponsoring the actress CHA EUN-SAE (Han Ji-eun), Jung-won continues her investigation of this corrupt congressman. She’s been relying on her trusty informant to dig up intel for her, despite how thoroughly they conceal their identity with a voice changer, and she pursues the lead they give her about the politician’s aide.

That is, until it leads her to a dead end. The only trace left is a trail of blood on the asphalt, and at the other end of it is a dead body hanging over a windowsill. In a panic, Jung-won rushes up to the unlocked apartment, but the woman is long dead.

As the first to discover the corpse, Jung-won inadvertently becomes the prime suspect. The victim had been Assemblyman Mo’s housekeeper, and her house had been ransacked, lending credence to the theory that Jung-won either murdered her or contaminated a crime scene for a scoop.

The detective on the case is KIM TAE-HEON (Yeon Woo-jin), a competent ace capable of rescuing a hostage and disarming a suspect with just his bare fists. His restrained concern for Jung-won hints at a shared history between them, but the turmoil of the case and the positions they’ve found themselves in doesn’t afford much room for a proper reunion.

Plagued by traumatic flashbacks of her father’s dead body — he’d also been stabbed in his own home — Jung-won can barely pull herself together. Her distress is further exacerbated by an ominous message from an unknown number that goads her into suspecting her husband, though it doesn’t specify the reason.

Then a month later, Eun-sae brazenly blindsides Jung-won with the claim that she’s together with Woo-jae, and three months pregnant. Oh, and she sent that text. A journalist through and through, Jung-won doesn’t buy the flimsy evidence of Woo-jae’s books on the shelves and the ultrasound photo that could belong to anyone. She keeps her head held high in the face of Eun-sae’s scornful provocations, but in private, she buckles from the revelation and her burgeoning suspicion.

Ever since the housekeeper incident, Jung-won has been seeing a psychiatrist for her insomnia and PTSD. After one of her sessions, the receptionist informs her that they’ll be texting her the address of the building they’re moving to — and this immediately sets off my warning bells, because surely any reputable establishment would have their new location ready before transferring patients over.

Sure enough, when Jung-won arrives at the designated location for her next appointment, it’s an apartment shrouded in shadows. I suppose her career must have made her accustomed to shady locations, because I most certainly would not enter such a place, but Jung-won bravely walks in.

The first thing she’s greeted by is a portrait of Eun-sae, before her gaze falls to a very familiar sight on the floor — a dead body lying prone amidst her own blood. Eun-sae has been stabbed too, bringing this episode’s death toll up to a total of three.

Ooh, color me intrigued. The characters may fill familiar archetypes, but the mystery is unfolding at a satisfying pace while still keeping some secrets close to the vest, and we have a solid heroine at the center of it all. Jung-won is an admirable protagonist that’s easy to root for, both in the way she unflinchingly holds her ground against misogyny in the workplace, and the way she sheds her defenses and melts into an affectionate wife around Woo-jae.

As for Woo-jae’s supposed infidelity, I dearly hope there’s some other reason for his visit to an OB-GYN. Jung-won saw him enter alone, and Eun-sae wasn’t able to cough up any damning proof of their supposed affair — say, photos or videos of them together. I know dramaland trends come and go, but I would very much like the cheating husband trope to enter the “go away and never come back” phase.

It’s for this reason that I dearly hope Eun-sae’s claims are fabricated, because her flimsy evidence and convenient timing don’t seem to hold much water. Her alleged connection to Assemblyman Mo puts her in a prime position to be a pawn in a revenge smear campaign against Jung-won, especially with how abruptly she inserted herself into Jung-won’s life right after the exposé was aired.

From a narrative standpoint, it’d also be much more interesting for Woo-jae to be falsely accused, and for Jung-won to navigate between her instinctive feelings of betrayal and her commitment to trusting her spouse. It’s a little too early to tell, but I do think this story has potential if it plays its cards right. Is the mysterious informant friend or foe? Is Woo-jae loyal, or has he already crossed the line? May our heroine uncover the truth, and leave no stone unturned.

 
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