Black Out: Episodes 12-13

by mistyisles

We’re nearing the finish line, which means some characters are finally uncovering the truth while others are finally facing down the consequences of their choices. But the real masterminds who kept the truth buried all these years are determined to wash themselves of culpability — and they’re very good at it.

 
EPISODE 12-13

After fatally shooting Min-soo’s father, Dong-min runs home and barricades himself inside with his gun. When the police arrive, he agrees to let Chief Hyun come in — but only if he comes alone and unarmed. Though Sang-cheol slips in through a back door to intervene if things go south, there’s no need. Chief Hyun plays on Dong-min’s guilt towards Bo-young and successfully convinces him to drop the gun.

At the police station, Dong-min expresses no remorse for avenging Bo-young. But he does feel immense regret and shame for how he treated Jung-woo’s family. He practically begs to be punished for pushing Geum-hee off the overpass. Later, at Bo-young’s funeral, Dong-min bows out early to relieve Jae-hee of the burden of his presence. Perhaps some people can change after all?

In stark contrast, Byung-mu’s dad shamelessly asks Jung-woo to write an appeal to spare Byung-mu from prison. Jung-woo looks him straight in the eye and delivers a supremely satisfying rejection to the tune of: “I also had a father who loved me.” Byung-mu can rot, thank you very much.

Speaking of shamelessness, Chief Hyun has found a new scapegoat in Hee-do (by which I mean he set up this backup plan from day 1). As more of the truth comes to light and it becomes impossible to deny that Jung-woo was innocent all along, Chief Hyun blames Hee-do for botching the initial investigation. Playing the part of a magnanimous superior looking out for his wayward underling, he advises Hee-do to resign honorably while he still can and let Chief Hyun clean up his mess.

Eleven years ago, Chief Hyun had used circumstantial evidence to convince Hee-do that Jung-woo must be guilty, and that if they couldn’t prove it, they’d be letting a murderer walk free. So Hee-do planted blood from the crime scene on Jung-woo’s shoes, sealing Jung-woo’s fate. Now, Hee-do realizes that Chief Hyun played him. He doesn’t dare tell Sang-cheol everything on record, but he leaves the shoes and a written explanation for Sang-cheol to find.

As for Chief Hyun, he continues to throw everyone but himself under the bus while making it sound like he’s humbly shouldering responsibility. When Assemblywoman Ye threatens him with Su-oh’s painting of him at the warehouse, he threatens her right back with Su-oh’s other painting of Hyung-shik murdering Da-eun — plus photo proof that Hyung-shik groomed Da-eun prior to the murder. They land in a stalemate: He agrees to wrap up the case (with the promise of a promotion once she’s elected governor) and she returns her “hostage” (Su-oh).

Meanwhile, Na-kyeom seethes with jealousy over Jung-woo’s growing friendship with Seol. When the CEO of her entertainment company confirms that Jung-woo doesn’t and has never returned Na-kyeom’s feelings, Na-kyeom throws an absolute screaming fit and refuses to go back to Seoul. Instead, she devises a scheme to turn things back to the good old days when she was the only person Jung-woo could rely on.

After luring him to her place with the promise of definitive evidence (the video she took of Da-eun’s murder), she tries once more to convince him to leave the past behind and come away with her. When that doesn’t work, she drugs him and enlists her unwitting manager to help carry him to Seol’s apartment. That’s right — she thinks that if she kills Seol and frames Jung-woo, she can put him “back into the bird cage” and have him all to herself again. Which, it turns out, was the reason she didn’t tell him the truth eleven years ago — because she was jealous of his feelings for Da-eun.

Thankfully, Sang-cheol has already discovered the tracking app Na-kyeom installed on Jung-woo’s phone. He reverse-tracks her location, beats Seol to the door, and grabs the knife out of Na-kyeom’s hands before she can hurt anyone else. Then it’s just a matter of finding where Na-kyeom hid her old phone’s SD card (in an old yearbook that she plastered with Jung-woo’s pictures like the creepy stalker she is) and turning the video in as evidence against Hyung-shik.

This is bad news for Assemblywoman Ye, who has been working round the clock to cover up her husband’s mistakes. Honestly, it’s almost comical how badly he keeps screwing up and how she keeps having to tell him to stay put, shut up, and let her do the thinking for him. Finally, when the news breaks that Hyung-shik killed Da-eun, she orders him to turn himself in. She has no intention of actually letting him go to prison, but he’s so distraught by the idea of her abandoning him that he decides to take matters into his own hands.

He’s nowhere near as good at strategy as she is, though, so his plan consists of having a former patient sneak money out of his office for him so he can, presumably, make a run for it. Jung-woo interrupts and promises to hand over the money in exchange for answers, but Assemblywoman Ye’s minion gets there first. But the time Jung-woo identifies Hyung-shik’s car, it’s full of toxic gas and Hyung-shik has passed out from whatever the minion injected him with. Jung-woo smashes the car window and drags Hyung-shik out, but we’ll have to wait until next week to find out whether Hyung-shik lives to face proper punishment for his crimes.

In the meantime, we need to talk about Su-oh. As I mentioned above, he’s back home now, and spends most of his time in the basement of his greenhouse. And as I feared, Chief Hyun has not told him about Geon-oh — instead, he lies that Geon-oh went back to the States to do some more traveling. But the big reveal about Su-oh this week is that he has a secret room inside that greenhouse basement that only he knows about… and that’s where he keeps Da-eun’s body, which he carried out of the greenhouse after Hyung-shik killed her. In Su-oh’s mind, this room is picturesque and fairytale-like, and Da-eun’s body is perfectly preserved. (When I said Su-oh holds the key to the truth, I didn’t mean it like this!) It’s as sad as it is horrifying, and I can’t help wondering what, if anything, it will take to convince Su-oh to stop “protecting” Da-eun’s corpse from being discovered.

As for the two murderers, good riddance I say (assuming Hyung-shik is actually dead, of course). But poor Jung-woo getting so close to answers only to have them repeatedly ripped from him at the last second. Technically, those directly responsible for Bo-young and Da-eun’s deaths are being punished, but not in a way that’s truly satisfying. And the powerful people behind them — namely, Chief Hyun and Assemblywoman Ye —still manage to wiggle free of consequences. I think Chief Hyun’s most chilling moment this week was him pulling Jung-woo aside to “apologize” for “messing up” eleven years ago, because this kind of mistake just happens sometimes, my bad. He’s gotten this far because he knows just what to say to make himself look like a halfway decent person. But Jung-woo and Sang-cheol have caught onto his manipulative ways at last, and I look forward to seeing his downfall next week.

 
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