Player 2 – Master of Swindlers: Episodes 3-4

by mistyisles

The plot thickens! As our swindling team works to bring down a new foe, it starts to become evident that they’ve gotten entangled in a massive web of corruption and deceit. They’ve certainly got their work cut out for them, but with new allies at their side and old enemies hiding just out of sight, they’re not about to back down from the challenge.

EPISODES 3-4

It’s becoming clear that Ha-ri is a rather slippery guy by nature, but he doesn’t need to use any tricks to slip through Prosecutor Kwak’s fingers this time. Instead, he’s let off the hook by Prosecutor Jang, who pulls Prosecutor Kwak aside and gives him a burner phone — another gift from Ha-ri. Prosecutor Kwak has two choices: Answer when Ha-ri calls and follow in Prosecutor Jang’s footsteps, or ignore the opportunities headed his way.

While Prosecutor Kwak stews over the dilemma, the team launches into the next phase of their plot to take down CEO KIM YUN-GI (Park Geon-hyung) of KU Entertainment, the company involved in dealing drugs and extorting idol trainees at the nightclub. Soo-min may technically be calling the shots now, but Ha-ri is way ahead of her in the planning department and already in process of laying a multi-stage trap for CEO Kim.

First, Jae-yi goes undercover at KU Entertainment and plants recording devices all over the building, including CEO Kim’s office. In the process, she runs into an old friend who once saved her from high school bullies. He’s an idol now, and being blackmailed into silence about the company’s horrible practices. So Jae-yi sticks around KU long enough to locate and destroy as many of the blackmail videos as she can, giving him the boost of courage he needs to finally go public about the abuse he and his colleagues have suffered.

Next, Ha-ri worms his way into CEO Kim’s social network, making himself appear as CEO Kim’s more successful carbon copy: a well-connected businessman with a lucrative side hustle in illicit substances who manipulates people through a well-timed mixture of flattery and censure. In just a few meetings, he has CEO Kim eating out of his hand, to the point Ha-ri is the one (constantly) warning CEO Kim not to trust people so easily.

CEO Kim’s next supply of contraband is due at the harbor, so the two agree to meet up so Ha-ri can “inspect” the shipment. Secretly, though, Ha-ri calls Prosecutor Kwak for backup. At first, Prosecutor Kwak tries to return the burner phone and walk away, but he can’t resist the chance to put CEO Kim behind bars, especially when Ha-ri has the drug bust all laid out for him.

If it were only CEO Kim they were dealing with, the plan would probably go off without a hitch. But CEO Kim answers to someone else, and that person moves the meeting from the harbor to a remote, abandoned building at the last minute. Ha-ri and his friends are wary of this unknown “MR. SONG” (Go Yoon), but it’s not until they come face-to-face with him that they realize just how bad the situation is. He’s not the Big Boss who killed Ah-ryung, but he is the minion who laughed in their faces while it happened. And he takes great pleasure in mocking Ha-ri and Jin-woong about it, even as they try to hold onto their façade until Prosecutor Kwak can track them down.

Fortunately, Prosecutor Kwak and his police reinforcements come through just in time. During the ensuing fight, Ha-ri gets the chance to shoot Mr. Song with his own gun, but chooses not to. I love him the more for it, but it’s sure to come back to bite him later, as the Boss’s agent helps Mr. Song escape arrest and disappear. That same agent later slips poison into CEO Kim’s prison food so he can’t spill any secrets. As immediate retaliation, though, the Boss’s sniper tries to take Ha-ri out of the mix for good. Thanks to Jin-woong’s quick warning, she only clips Ha-ri in the shoulder, and he’s back on his feet in no time. (Though the show can’t resist throwing in a fakeout with Byung-min sobbing at Ha-ri’s bedside… because he’s watching something really sad on his phone.)

With the KU Entertainment case closed, the team regroups. Ha-ri, of course, already knew that the past few cases were connected to the same dark overlord — after all, Ha-ri pulled the team back together after Ah-ryung’s death with the promise of revenge on that very man. But they’re not ready to face him just yet. First, Soo-min presents a new case with its own puppet master.

See, everyone knows that chaebol families use money and connections to evade legal consequences for their wrongdoings. But what most people don’t know is that there’s one woman behind it all: art gallery director BAEK HYUN-MI (Ryu Hwa-young). When one of her chaebol acquaintances gets into trouble — like a young heir who killed a delivery driver in a drunken hit-and-run — Director Baek negotiates with the prosecution for measly probation sentences. Instead of offering straight-up bribes, however, she “sells” them valuable paintings at a steep discount, which they can then re-sell for enormous profit. The price of art is arbitrary enough that it can easily be written off as a perfectly legal transaction.

That’s the setup for this next case, but the action will have to wait until next week, because Soo-min also answers to some mysterious higher-up, and they want to meet Ha-ri — tonight. By now, Ha-ri doesn’t really question it when Soo-min’s multitalented assistant, DIRECTOR HWANG IN-SHIK (Lee Joon-hyuk), drives him to an undisclosed location for undisclosed reasons. But he’s still not prepared for Soo-min to introduce him to the President of South Korea (played by Jo Sung-ha), of all people.

I wouldn’t say there’s a whole lot of depth to this show, but it sure does know how to have fun! Maybe it’s the twisty way it peels layers off each case, starting with an emotional anecdote about one specific victim and then zooming out to reveal the real threat at large, or maybe I’m just so smitten I’ll buy anything Ha-ri the team tries to sell me; either way, the two hours zip by each week and leave me wanting more.

Prosecutor Kwak, for example, is so very on-the-nose with his fervently denouncing all things gray and yet somehow showing up in gray shoes to the drug bust. But while I don’t expect his journey toward embracing moral ambiguity for the sake of justice to be subtle, I do expect it to be both satisfying and entertaining, and I look forward to many more quips about Ha-ri being both his Santa Claus and the final gift he’ll unwrap once this reluctant partnership runs its course. If it runs its course in the way Prosecutor Kwak thinks it will, that is — which I have a feeling it won’t.

 
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