Red Swan: Episodes 1-2

by starrygazer

Disney+’s action melo Red Swan has burst on the scene with a wild ride. We’re thrown right into the story with a quick-moving plot full of explosions, betrayals, and all kinds of antagonism, yet we don’t yet know where the loyalties lie and what is driving the decisions being made. One thing is for sure, our female and male leads have great chemistry together. Whilst sitting here on this fence of mine, I’m not sure how things are going to pan out for them, but I’m looking forward to seeing where this show takes us in the coming weeks.

 
EPISODES 1-2

As we open the drama, the heroine of our story and head of the NOW Foundation — OH WAN-SOO (Kim Haneul) — has arrived in New York at UNICEF headquarters. She’s there to give a talk on how her foundation helps women and children in war-torn countries. When Wan-soo receives a formal death threat from ISIS because of her good deeds, she does not seem flustered, and it does not shake the ideology she has about her work or herself at all (which I commend her for).

The drama backs up a bit later on to give us as a little insight into how Wan-soo has got to where she is today. When Wan-soo was a child, her mother worked as a golf caddie at a private golf club. One day her mum (Jung Kyung-soon) is fired for doing her job after crossing paths with the Vice Chairwoman (at the time) of Hwa-in Group, PARK MI-RAN (Seo Yi-sook). Chairwoman Park (as she is now) happens to have a nasty temper and a way of throwing a tantrum that is completely unique to her character. In retaliation for losing her job, Mom steals two golf clubs off Chairwoman Park’s son and gives them to Wan-soo. Wan-soo goes on to spend years practicing and ends up becoming a very successful pro golfer.

After becoming wildly successful, Wan-soo gets into the golfing hall of fame. On the day Wan-soo wins the championship Mom is dragged to her by a group of loan sharks, who want Wan-soo’s prize money to pay Mom’s debts. We learn that every penny Wan-soo has earned in prize money over her career to this point was taken by her mother. Wan-soo, rightfully so, cuts Mom out of her life from that point forward, donating all future profits to charity and earning Wan-soo her “angel of charity” title and a squeaky clean image.

Being an angel of charity, Wan-soo travels to help relief workers and while in Africa, she has the misfortune to meet her now-husband KIM YONG-KOOK (Jung Kyeo-woon). (On a side note, Jung Kyeo-woon plays a great villain!) Yong-kook asks Wan-soo to marry him and give up golfing, which she does. The show purposefully doesn’t care about us getting invested in this relationship, since their courtship takes up about five seconds of the drama. Instead, the story is more interested in showing us Wan-soo’s first meeting with Chairwoman Park, which is quite unsettling, even for us viewers. (Chairwoman Park jokingly tells/warns Wan-soo that she killed Yong-kook’s ex-girlfriend, and in all honesty I believe her.) And with that chunk of flashbacks, we’ve gotten a pretty good picture of our heroine’s morals as well as the current situation she’s in as a part of Hwa-in Group.

Switching gears over to our story’s hero, he’s SEO DO-YOON (Rain). We find out that Do-yoon was a senior inspector with the police agency back in Seoul, but Do-yoon has been in Manila for three months investigating his partner’s murder. Do-yoon was really close to his partner SHIN JU-HYUK (Sung Hyuk) — so close that Ju-hyuk had given Do-yoon a kidney. In another character-building flashback sequence, we see that Do-yoon is devastated over Ju-hyuk’s brutal murder, and he will stop at nothing to find out who was behind it.

While in Manila, Do-yoon has followed a lead to a group of thugs operating out of a casino. After eavesdropping, he hears that Mr. L (code name for the assassin that killed Ju-hyuk) has another job in Manila today. Do-yoon disguises himself as a cleaner and heads into the head honcho’s office to find out more. Here, Do-yoon unfortunately see’s a face he knows well: PARK KYUNG-JU (Hwang Tae-kwang). Mr. Park (as I’ll be calling him) used to work alongside Do-young at the police academy before he took over as head of security for Hwa-in Group.

And so, both our leads find themselves in Manila at the same time — Do-yoon on his personal manhunt, and Wan-soo for some press for her foundation. Of course, this is where their paths are set to cross. Wan-soo, who is not concerned about the supposed threat to her life at all, goes out to run an errand with one security guard.

This turns out to be a massive oversight on Wan-soo’s part when she ends up in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle. The sniper misses Wan-soo, hitting one of the shop assistants and then her bodyguard. Wan-soo is frozen in fear just as Do-yoon — also on site — swoops in and hides her behind a car. Do-yoon, however, notices one of the cars is leaking gas so he instructs Wan-soo to run when he tells her too. Just in the nick of time they start running as the cars parked around start blowing up. Our sniper has lost his temper and is not hiding anymore, standing and spraying bullets everywhere desperately trying to kill Wan-soo. (Okay, this dramatic rescue scene is equal parts enjoyable and ridiculous. It’s also about at this point that I realized exactly what sort of drama we were going to get with Red Swan.)

Do-yoon and Wan-soo speed off away from the city and end up on a remote dirt track when the car gives up the ghost and conks out. Wan-soo is trembling, asking Do-yoon who he is and what happened to her security detail. Do-yoon has a very calm and confident demeanor and reassures Wan-soo that she is safe; he is just a “passerby” he isn’t one of them (okay, I just swooned). While Do-yoon fixes the car (of course he can), he notices a GPS tracker. When Wan-soo asks Do-yoon if she can call the police, he thinks it’s a bad idea after finding the tracker.

Needing a safe place to hide out, Do-yoon takes Wan-soo back to his place before driving her to the embassy. Shell-shocked, Wan-soo is still very untrusting of Do-yoon. Do-yoon gives her his phone and suggests she calls someone to meet her at the embassy. Do-yoon recognizes how shook up Wan-soo is and never pushes her with demands or expectations. Do-yoon handles Wan-soo with care, which she notices. It would seem that this is something Wan-soo has little experience of, and it gives us some great heated moments between the two.

After tending to wounds and wiping the blood off them (well, mostly), they head back to the embassy where Yong-kook picks Wan-soo up and suggests she cancel the party that night. Wan-soo is not about to back down from her fundraising, so this is just not going to fly with her. Wan-soo seems to throw herself into work to keep her mind off literally everything else in her life – and after seeing the way the Hwa-in family is, I can’t say I blame her.

When Wan-soo and Yong-kook arrive at the party — surprise, surprise — they are greeted by Do-yoon, who has just joined their security detail. Mr. Park had seen that he was the witness who looked after Wan-soo and called Do-yoon offering him a job. Yong-kook is polite to him, but poor Wan-soo looks utterly beside herself. As the night progresses, though, she gets over her surprise and back into Angel of Charity character.

During the party, Yong-kook disappears with Wan-soo’s supposed friend, JANG TAE-RA (Ki Eun-se.) When Tae-ra’s son is looking for her because he’s tired and wants to leave, the kind Wan-soo goes looking for her… only to find Tae-ra and Yong-kook in a very compromising position. (What a snake.) Wan-soo, however, is not as daft as they think she is, and she already knows all about their affair. Wan-soo chastises them for getting caught and leaves. Even though Wan-soo seems shocked to have seen them together with her own two eyes, she is as poised and gracious as ever — even going back to the party and even dancing with the snake Yong-kook.

Later that night after the party, Wan-soo visits Chairwoman Park, only to find Tae-ra already there. Chairwoman Park already knew what Yong-kook was up to and was hiding the fact. (Even with her crazy moon dancing, I dislike everything about Chairwoman Park – she’s abhorrent.) Wan-soo is no doormat, informing Chairwoman Park if she doesn’t keep her hands off the NOW foundation she will divorce her son and drag their name through the mud. Wan-soo leaves gracefully with her head held high as Chairwoman Park throws yet another tantrum. (Must be exhausting.)

But it seems that Wan-soo might not be as unaffected as she lets on. She drinks one too many at the hotel bar that night, clearly wallowing in her trap-like circumstances (you know, crappy husband, no true friends, a mother-in-law that hates her, and a son that we’re left to infer she’s been separated from).

Being on the job — and maybe a little into her? Or seeing her as a way into the mystery he’s trying to solve? — Do-yoon follows Wan-soo as she wobbles her way back to her hotel room. She’s clearly drunk, but she comes on to him pretty strong. However, when he asks, she denies that she’s unhappy or lonely. Nothing happens between them, but sparks are surely flying. It’s a strange balance the drama is trying to take with all this cheating and attraction going on; we’ll have to see where they take it.

In the meantime, our setting now shifts back to Seoul at the Hwa-in Group mansion. Do-yoon is being shown to his new quarters by Mr. Park, and as he unpacks, he takes a photo of him and Ju-hyuk and places it gently on his desk. When he knocks it over by mistake, he noticed that there’s a memory card taped to the back of it. Do-yoon plugs it in to have a look, and it is a video of Mr. Park overseeing the removal of a dead body. Simultaneously, Wan-soo is sitting nearby waiting for Do-yoon, remembering the honorary chairman telling her he trusted her, and asking her to stay in this awful family. Poor Wan-soo.

Well, that was quite a lot of action for the first two episodes. Despite being a little crazy and packed with slightly awkwardly fit in flashbacks for both leads, the episodes kept me interested and I want to know what will happen between them. Everyone seems to have a secret or two, along with a hidden agenda, so let’s hope our leads can overcome what is thrown at them. It’s entirely plausible that getting to the truth will not be easy for any of them, but it would be nice if they can both find someone to trust.

 
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