Dongjae the Good or the Bastard: Episodes 9-10 (Final)

6 November 13, 2024November 12, 2024

Dongjae the Good or the Bastard: Episodes 9-10 (Final)

by solstices

It’s time to bid goodbye to our lovable weasel, whose story maintains its engaging hilarity all the way to its final minute. But the time has also come for him to bear the weight of his disreputable past — will it drag him down irrevocably, or will it pave the way for a fresh start?

EPISODES 9-10

At Gyeo-re’s trial, maknae prosecutor Shi-woon’s arguments get torn down by Attorney Kang’s experience and eloquence, much to Dong-jae’s dismay. Then Attorney Kang summons Chan-hyuk as a witness, and Dong-jae intercepts Chan-hyuk to have a word before he’s escorted in. The thugs who tortured him have all been apprehended, and as for Wan-sung? Chan-hyuk is the only one who can bring him down with his testimony.

Desperate to dig up dirt — quite literally — on Wan-sung, Dong-jae gets himself hired at the construction site. Then the manager asks for his name, and a flustered Dong-jae blurts out a very familiar one: “Hwang Shi-mok.” HAHAHA. Despite an exhausting day of hard labor that has Dong-jae gobbling down five servings of meat all by himself, no leads surface.

Then all of a sudden, a safety inspection is announced, due to be carried out the next day. All the workers are told to take the day off, which naturally rings alarm bells in Dong-jae’s head. Plus, he’s just noticed a suspicious, differently-colored spot on the ground.

That night, Ji-hee lies in wait outside Wan-sung’s house while the boys stake out the construction site. Two hours of waiting in the cold later, a truck of men — including Wan-sung’s secretary — drives in to dig at the irregular spot. As our trio anticipated, Chief Jeon did indeed leak their suspicions to Wan-sung.

The men unearth a decomposed skeleton to be ground up into dust, and Dong-jae instructs Byung-gun to keep monitoring the situation while he sneaks away to call for backup. Alas, a terrified Byung-gun gets caught, forcing Dong-jae to unplug the machine’s cord before Byung-gun is turned into human mince. Wielding a plank, Dong-jae rushes out for a heroic rescue — only to have the incoming police squad steal his thunder entirely. HA.

At long last, Ji-hee apprehends Wan-sung for proxy murder, holding up a freshly-printed warrant to his face. In the interrogation room, Wan-sung claims ignorance; there’s no proof that he ordered his men to kill. Unfazed by Wan-sung’s shameless sneering, Ji-hee has him transferred to the police station’s holding cell.

In court, the apprehended thugs testify against Wan-sung, while his secretary claims he simply followed Wan-sung’s orders. Chan-hyuk perjures himself and reveals his torture at Wan-sung’s hands, but Jung-ki turns the argument around, accusing the prosecution of coercing a favorable statement with the offer of letting Chan-hyuk walk free.

With that, Jung-ki calls Dong-jae in as a witness, revealing “Shi-mok’s” construction site moonlighting and accusing him of lying to fuel his personal vendetta against Wan-sung. But our wily weasel has come prepared, since Wan-sung’s dashcam has been overwritten and there’s only one person capable of meddling with it.

An audio recording rings out across the courtroom — it’s Wan-sung’s voice, loud and clear, instructing Gyeo-re to check the memory card and make sure the footage is gone. As the judge helpfully informs Wan-sung, all calls are recorded in correctional facilities, including the police station’s holding cell. Thoroughly bested, Wan-sung bursts out into hysterical laughter, losing his temper in a fit of fury. “Cut the crap,” Dong-jae scoffs. Ha, burn.

Unfortunately, Dong-jae still faces disciplinary action for his past actions. (But if it’s any comfort, Ji-hee, Byung-gun, and Shi-woon all submitted testimonies affirming Dong-jae’s recent contributions, aww.) Dong-jae may not have neglected his duties, but the bribes he accepted sullied the prosecutors’ integrity. As such, Dong-jae will be dismissed from the prosecution service. Nooooooo. As he walks out, a devastated Dong-jae drops to his knees, his prosecutor lanyard clutched in his grasp.

Two months later, Dong-jae arrives at the correctional office he’d been instructed to go to. Several other dismissed prosecutors show up, and then the next person who walks in has Dong-jae’s eyes going wide, though we don’t see who it is just yet.

Circling back to our prosecutors, Byung-gun’s dream has finally come true, for he’s being transferred to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office. As the other prosecutors bid him goodbye, Dong-jae waltzes back in with his shoulders confidently squared. “Jo Byung-gun, turns out you were nothing much after all,” remarks Dong-jae, leaving a confused Byung-gun spluttering. LOL, never change, Dong-jae.

In Chief Jeon’s office, Dong-jae confronts her for covering up her son’s school bullying case. Her brother’s case has also been investigated, for Dong-jae is now part of the Ministry of Justice’s Prosecution Investigation TF team — under Attorney Kang. Yesss!

We rewind to the team’s first meeting, where Attorney Kang informs them that their role is to sniff out corruption within the prosecution. In other words, the ones who truly besmirch the prosecution’s name. Since they’re all disgraced prosecutors, they’d know best how their colleagues evade detection to commit dirty deeds. Omg, this job was practically tailor-made for Dong-jae!

Settling into his new role, Dong-jae remarks that he’s glad he’s still useful, though he wonders why Attorney Kang quit his law firm. The answer is simple: Attorney Kang didn’t want to continue defending the people he would’ve put away in the past. In an uncharacteristically mild tone, Dong-jae admits that he liked being a prosecutor, then regretfully muses that it’s a ridiculous sentiment since he’s the one who messed it all up. Attorney Kang points out there’s always a chance he could work as one again, to which Dong-jae remarks that’s even more ridiculous. After Dong-jae leaves, Attorney Kang can’t help but wonder: is it just him, or is Dong-jae less mouthy now?

Perhaps Dong-jae has indeed matured from his latest trials and tribulations, but as we all know, he bounces back fast — especially now that he’s found a new purpose. As Dong-jae walks out, he smugly slides on a sleek pair of sunglasses. “F***ing bastards, you’re all screwed,” declares our favorite weasel. And with that, we’ve come to the end of our offbeat tale, replete with a hilariously quirky soundtrack.

What a satisfying end to a downright entertaining show! From its witty humor to its endearing cast of diverse personalities, this show truly shone in its deft storytelling. I have to applaud the scriptwriting team for crafting a tale that feels faithful to the original Forest of Secrets series, while carving out a distinct color for itself.

My only complaint, if you can even call it that, is that we didn’t get a Shi-mok cameo beyond his name. But I love that Dong-jae is now in the perfect position to join hands with Shi-mok and Yeo-jin in weeding out corruption, making me anticipate Season 3 all the more. (Because surely it’s in the works, right? Please let it be so!)

The cases may have been wrapped up fairly simply and quickly due to the show’s short run time, but I liked how the first case — with Kyung-hak getting caught moving his victim’s skeleton — turned out to be foreshadowing for Wan-sung’s downfall. Plus, with Gyeo-re out on probation and a bankrupt Wan-sung left to rot in prison in the same cell as a smugly cackling Kyung-hak, I’m pretty satisfied with how our final case closed.

Dong-jae’s turn in the spotlight proved to be both his undoing and his making, displaying a delightful range of weasel personas from his silver tongue to his softer edges. Also, it’s hilarious that for all his moonlighting and disguising, the only outfit Dong-jae never got to wear is his prosecutor’s robe, LOL. In a way, it’s fitting — Dong-jae may not quite fit into the expectations of an ideal prosecutor, but that doesn’t make him any less capable, or any less deserving of the title. If you close one eye to his vain preening, his petty squabbling, and his shrewd scheming, that is. But that’s precisely why we love him, isn’t it? See you again, our lovely weasel!

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1 Kafiyah Bello

November 13, 2024 at 8:43 AM

Did I miss who killed Yu Ri? I feel like I did. I liked the ending though.

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gadis

November 14, 2024 at 1:16 AM

It was the main distributor (Kang Soo-min), who was then killed in the drug laboratorium by the drug maker. Kang thought the drug maker found another channel to sell Purple so he took action against Yu-ri, before trying to off the drug maker in thr lab. Dong-jae briefly explained this in eps 7 or 8 iirc.

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Kafiyah Bello

November 14, 2024 at 5:36 AM

Thank you so much, I missed that.

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2 gadis

November 14, 2024 at 1:12 AM

What a roller-coaster of a final week.

It was apt, though, that the prosecutor office needed to use every single thing in their arsenal to pull down someone like Nam Wan-seong. That they even have to work with fellow prosecutors they have problem with, the police evn, and against their own corrupt boss. From the beginning, I have a feeling that Nam's harried lawyer could be his downfall, especially with Nam's ungratefulness and liberal use of threat. But it was extra satisfying when his arrogance and instinct to distrust others that bit him back in the end. In a true FoS-like fashion, the good side found one small incident and recklessness that was somehow the crucial thread to unravel the stacked lies that covered Nam's years of shady dealings.

What I didn't see coming was Dong-jae's ending. It's nice to see that at least in this drama world, no one got to walk away scot-free after the crimes they committed. Dong-jae might have come a long way after his evidence falsification back in 2017, but in the ideal world, the law should still punish him so that he properly learned from that experience. Yes, there was a nice twist in the end that might not as easily happened in real life, but at least we could live vicariously through him that there's "reward" for someone who has learned to do the right thing after all his previous struggle with the temptation from the dark side.

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3 marblebees

November 15, 2024 at 9:33 PM

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4 marblebees

November 15, 2024 at 9:38 PM

I had so much fun watching! the Si-mok bit was hilarious, it bit the weasel back so fast lol.

I loved the mix of thriller and comedy, it fit the character Dongjae really well. The new cast members were also great, they had a lot of personality despite the limited screen time!

I do have a few tiny nitpicks, but besides that, I loved the writing. They did a great job for writers that weren't involved in the production of the og stranger!