Seoul Busters: Episodes 13-14

by lovepark

Thieves abound this week as our detectives must recover a stolen artwork worth more than their collective paychecks (and probably their houses, too). However, as our team dives deeper into the case, old wounds pop up, and our heroine is forced to address the complicated emotions she has been burying for years.

 
EPISODES 13-14

This week opens to a ghastly crime scene filled with pools of red… ice cream. An old man’s apartment was broken into — most likely by some local teens — and the trespassers stole 50 thousand won (approximately $37). It’s a small case by most metrics, but as Min-seo leaves, the old man asks her to find his transit card which has his daughter’s photo on it. The mention of a father-daughter relationship pulls at her heartstrings, and Min-seo promises to recover the item.

After weeks of teasing our heroine’s backstory, we finally learn why our fiery detective shuts down at the mention of her father. While growing up, Min-seo’s father (a notorious master thief) went on the run, leaving his daughter to fend off intrusive detectives and gossipy classmates for three years. Then, on her graduation day, none of her parents showed up, and as Min-seo ate alone, she watched the news of her father’s arrest blasted on the television. What a terrible end to an already horrible day.

While Min-seo occupies herself with the stolen transit card case, the rest of the team investigates a much bigger theft: a priceless artwork was stolen from a collector’s home. At first glance, the case is a conundrum. The artwork was locked in a safe room only the collector’s family knew the passcode to, and the scene shows no signs of tampering. It’s as if the piece disappeared into the air… or maybe it flew away!

Enchanted by his captain’s powers of deduction, hunch-man Joong-ryuk takes a stab at Yoo-bin’s method and zeroes in on the open window. No human could possibly scale the walls and slip into the room, but what if it was a bird? A ski-masked pigeon to be exact.

As Joong-ryuk embodies the spirit of the pigeon thief to re-enact the scene, Jung-hwan mocks his birdbrained senior and films his ridiculous arm flapping. Embarrassed, Joong-ryuk orders him to stop recording, and during their tussle, our older detective knocks over a vase worth 20 million won. Cheapskate Jung-hwan immediately addresses Joong-ryuk by his title and weasels his way out of splitting the cost.

In exchange for Joong-ryuk’s house and an enormous debt, the broken vase leads the team to their first clue: a tuft of white fur. After a three-way body pileup, Yoo-bin nabs the evidence, and the NFS identifies it as dog fur — the exact same breed as the collector’s daughter’s dog. However, that’s not the only important information they glean since Jung Eun-kyung (aka, the one-woman-show over at the NFS) informs them that the vase is a knockoff only worth 50 thousand won. This means Joong-ryuk doesn’t have to live on the streets like the shaman predicted.

As for the case, Yoo-bin wants conclusive evidence before making arrests, so Jung-hwan and Tan-shik go out to collect a sample from the daughter’s dog. One miscommunication-filled mission later, our youngest returns with two balls of fur as well as a bag of stolen dog poop. Tan-shik may have lost his dignity in the process, but at least the team now knows that the furs match.

During the interrogation, the son-in-law admits to stealing a couple of pieces to fund his failing business, but he swears that he never touched the super expensive items. Yoo-bin believes him since the recent theft differs from his usual style, so the rest of the team head off to investigate new leads. As Yoo-bin pieces together the various information the others gather, the puzzle finally falls into place.

Taking inspiration from the transit card case Min-seo was working on — update, some neighborhood middle school students broke in and sold the card — our captain realized that the HVAC technician who visited the home the day of the crime used a drone to film the wife punching in the safe’s passcode. It’s a lot of work for such a spontaneous decision on the thief’s part, but maybe that’s why the technician lost the artwork, too. In order to sell the piece, the thief took it to a gallery, but the shady director recognized the artwork and stole it for himself.

Though the team knows the location of the stolen piece, rushing in without a plan might actually tip the director off and keep them from recovering the item forever. Thus, they seek help from a kingpin in the underground art world, but as expected, the appraiser turns them away. However, at the last second, the appraiser asks Min-seo who her father is, and then nods in approval when he hears his name. Since he owes the master thief a favor, he agrees to help them with the case.

Despite their stroke of good luck, Min-seo huffs at this turn of events, but to her surprise, Yoo-bin comes to her father’s defense. Every year in the academy he learned about the master thief who stole from the 1%, recovered stolen cultural assets, and donated most of his earnings to a children’s cancer center. He always wondered why the elusive thief was caught outside a high school on a graduation day, but now he knows the answer.

As Min-seo listens to these details, she admits aloud that she always knew the truth but denied it because of her pride. She agrees with Yoo-bin’s assessment of her that she gets too close to cases, leaving her with blind spots, but he tells her that sometimes he envies her ability to get near because somethings can only be seen up close. He thinks she should follow her heart to avoid any regrets, and gently reminds her that asking for forgiveness and accepting it are limited by time.

With the appraiser’s assistance, our detectives learn that a Korean-Japanese buyer appeared, so armed with this knowledge, they come up with an undercover plan to trick the director. Yoo-bin offers to go in as one-half of the broker couple and assures the others that he is, in fact, a card-carrying member of the Hamlet Society. “To be or not to be,” he bellows to the boisterous applause of his crew.

However, once it hits showtime, Yoo-bin reveals that he only did Hamlet, and he literally leaves Joong-ryuk (aka, the buyer) behind to march onto the stage to flub his lines. Thankfully, Min-seo is there to cover for him, but the director throws another curveball when he addresses Joong-ryuk in Japanese. Min-seo comes to the rescue once again, and she ends up sandwiched between a stroke patient and man with hyperhidrosis.

In spite of all the hiccups, the director continues with the exchange and brings out the stolen artwork. His smile disappears, though, as soon as our detectives verify its authenticity and drop their acts. While the director escapes, he jumps into what he believes is his getaway van, but in reality, he stepped right into the arms of our waiting crew.

As promised, the commissioner rewards Yoo-bin’s team — at the behest of our captain who wanted the others to gain the accolades — and our silly detectives accept it with gusto. Starting with Joong-ryuk’s hearty introduction, none of our detectives want to be outdone as they state their titles, and the poor commissioner practically begs Tan-shik to take it easy before his request is dutifully ignored with an ear-splitting shout.

With their major case resolved, Min-seo returns to her previous one in hopes of finding the man who bought the stolen transit card. After scouring the subway CCTV footage, she discovered the buyer’s commuting route and waits at the station for him to show up. Yoo-bin drops by to keep her company, and though Min-seo eventually finds the card, the photo is gone.

While returning the old man’s card, Min-seo learns that he, too, has a strained relationship with his daughter. He tells her that he was a bad father and husband which is why his family cut ties with him and he only had that one photo of his child. He feels like asking for forgiveness would be too shameless of him now, but Min-seo tells him to try since his daughter might be waiting for exactly that.

The conversation makes Min-seo reflect on her past, and she remembers her father not as the criminal who never showed up to her graduation but as the hero who jumped in front of a runaway cart to save a stranger’s child. It makes sense why the truth must have felt like such a betrayal to young Min-seo who thought the world of him. As she finally accepts the duality of her father’s legacy, she gathers up the courage to see him. With a smile, she wishes him a happy birthday as tears stream down her face.

This week was probably the most emotional storyline yet, but instead of feeling overly saccharine, I found Min-seo’s backstory sweet and insightful. The show took its time to establish the story in previous episodes so the reveal didn’t feel too unexpected. They also told her history in layers so the audience became privy to the whole picture in tandem with the character’s own self-discovery. Because the plot was centered on Min-seo rather than her father or her circumstances, it allowed the audience to experience her emotions alongside her, therefore making the final scene feel earned rather than forced.

Since the spotlight was on Min-seo this week, we also got some nice moments between her and Yoo-bin, highlighting the growth in their relationship as well. I absolutely adore how our stiff captain is opening up as the show goes on, and while I love his oddball side, I appreciate his thoughtfulness, too. Since the show has established him as blunt and socially inept, there’s no hidden agenda behind his words, which gives his affirmations more weight. When Yoo-bin compliments you, he isn’t being facetious or manipulative. He simply states things as he sees them, and his no-nonsense attitude is often what our detectives need to wade through all the unnecessary baggage that weighs them down.

What I particularly liked about Min-seo’s story and Yoo-bin’s role in it was that the show always uplifts her agency. Rather than force her to make up with her father because he is family, the show gives her room to grieve, be angry, and resent her father for very legitimate reasons, but then gives her grace to accept the fact that she was also being petty, selfish, and prideful. Yoo-bin gives her advice by merely steering her in the direction she always chooses and reserves judgment because he knows that it’s not his place. He just hopes that she won’t regret her decision because, in the end, she doesn’t have to forgive him because he is her father but she can forgive him because he was her hero which makes all the difference. She still loves her father as the man she once knew him as, and deep down, she knows that her memories of him aren’t wrong. Thus, she can finally accept him as a flawed man without denying all the good she saw in him, and instead of letting the past hold her back, she can move on and rebuild.

 
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