The Fiery Priest 2: Episodes 3-4

by solstices

Our crime-fighting crew begins to converge in the heart of Busan, pooling their brains and resources to track down the elusive drug cartel. Meanwhile, operations officially commence for our vicious villains, who will stop at no setback and stoop to every unscrupulous measure in the book.

 
EPISODES 3-4

Picking up right where we left off, Hae-il and Dae-young get arrested by the no-nonsense Ja-young and her team. After being mistaken for con artists (one looks like he’s in costume and the other looks like he forged a heavily photoshopped detective ID), an identity check confirms their stories, and our two troublemakers immediately try to fish for information about the drug cartel. (It doesn’t work, and they’re unceremoniously booted out.)

With an impressive wall vault and a significantly less impressive hiding attempt of flopping onto the grass face-first, Hae-il gets caught returning to the seminary in the dead of night by the dean. He’s let off the hook for now, so Hae-il gets right to his next task: volunteering alongside Do-woo.

As they make their way to the elderly community in the Uma neighborhood, we learn a few heartbreaking facts. These senior folks barely receive any support from their children or the government, so most of them are addicted to drugs — what else but hepanyl — and eat leftovers out of the trash. As such, they dislike the priests because all they do is preach.

Equal parts disturbed and sympathetic, Hae-il advises Do-woo to speak from the heart rather than from scripture. Then the pair help out an elderly woman, GRANDMA SONG (Byun Joong-hee), who kindly invites them in for ramyun. Do-woo cooks, Hae-il cleans, and then the latter gets strong-armed into an impromptu round of Im Young-woong karaoke, hee.

Grandma Song quickly becomes very relevant to the plot, because she shows up again at the nursing home where a freshly clean-cut Hong-shik makes his grand entrance. Distributing gifts to the elderly and offering well-paying factory jobs, Hong-shik endears himself to the old folks by playing up the filial grandson image — and you already know he’s plotting something heinous.

Indeed, he is. Hong-shik’s “snack factory” turns out to be a clandestine drug lab in a refurbished cargo ship, and Grandma Song loses her inhaler while being hurried in by the impatient thugs. With her weak lungs, it isn’t long before she’s coughing up a storm, especially since the gangsters are outfitted with gas masks while the elderly workers are only given thin surgical masks.

Upon hearing Grandma Song’s vaguely-worded anecdotes, Hae-il and Do-woo immediately clock that the factory doesn’t seem legitimate in the least. The quick-tempered warrior of justice Do-woo wants to jump right in, but Hae-il (quite ironically) declares that anger should only be a last resort. With that, Do-woo disguises himself as a deliveryman to tail the “factory workers” who ferry the elderly to and fro, allowing him to discover the abandoned wharf and report it to Hae-il.

Our busy bee priest doesn’t manage to follow up on that just yet, though, because he has bigger fish to fry. Fire Eel refuses to give up any names since he’s dead if he does, and his fears aren’t unfounded. Hong-shik lives by the principle of “one mistake, one life,” which is how two unfortunate underlings get offed as a brutal warning to stay in line.

Ja-young transports the uncooperative Fire Eel to their second team while Hae-il, Dae-young, and Dok-sung observe from a distance, but they’re not the only ones lying in wait. After Ja-young leaves, the corrupt Uma officers barge into the sauna hideout with an arrest warrant issued by Du-heon, taking their upright colleagues into custody. Meanwhile, Hong-shik’s thugs crash into the transport car, though Hae-il and Dae-young arrive just in time to fight back alongside Ja-young. Alas, a fleeing Fire Eel trips over a rock and goes bouncing like he rolled right out of a Saturday morning cartoon, and he ultimately passes away from the impact.

To Hae-il and Dae-young, Ja-young recounts the story of how Du-heon interrupted their stakeout of an assemblyman’s druggie daughter, giving the drug dealers space to attack and fatally wound one of her teammates. Subsequently, Du-heon proceeded to rise in the ranks, while Ja-young’s no-name team began operating independently under the radar.

The ambitious Du-heon isn’t stopping in his tracks any time soon, especially considering he’s found a new hand to hoist himself up by. In his first meeting with Hong-shik, the pair snipe at each other in a test of wits, and their mutual lack of scruples drives them to strike up a partnership of ruthless ambition. Hong-shik: “South Korea might seem like a lawful and democratic country, but its core is corrupt and rotten.” Not wrong, but Hong-shik, you and Du-heon are part of the problem…

In any case, who better to deal with Du-heon than a fellow prosecutor? Touching down in Busan at long last, Kyung-seon’s all fired up to avenge Sang-yeon, and she gets herself transferred to Du-heon’s branch so she can keep an eye on him. That also gives her the avenue to remove Ja-young from the wanted list and forge a debt-ridden gambler background for her in order to dissuade Du-heon from pursuing her further.

Meanwhile, after a long bout of searching that yields puffy dark circles, Sung-kyu and Sister Kim finally find an excuse to go to Busan: a church is recruiting members for their musical theater group! Sister Kim can play the piano, and former child actor Sung-kyu can sing! (Which is extra hilarious on a meta level, since Jeon Sung-woo is a musical actor.) Exasperated by their tenacity, but perhaps also deeply touched by their loyalty, Hae-il makes the pair promise not to get involved in anything dangerous.

Except danger comes knocking on their front door anyway. Hong-shik shows up at the church just then, and Hae-il’s spidey senses immediately tingle — this guy has bad news written all over his face. When Hong-shik makes an exorbitant donation to the church, Hae-il attempts to return it, and the resulting back-and-forth concludes with a wary Hae-il and an intrigued Hong-shik.

Realizing they’re the only ones who know Fire Eel is dead, Hae-il and Dae-young dress Dok-sung up in disguise, using Ja-young’s “history” of corrupt bribery to lure the gangsters out with a ransom. Cue our team dressing up for the occasion in full Halloween costumes at the abandoned amusement park, hee.

The bumbling thugs threaten our heroes with Fire Eel’s mother, whom they abducted as collateral — except the supposedly paraplegic lady stands right up and cracks her sore joints. Turns out she’s a part-time actor hired by our quick-witted priest, who already moved Fire Eel’s actual mom to a safe location with Do-woo’s help.

With that, the not-corrupt Dohan police arrest Boss Park and his men, but Hong-shik’s underlings from Laos wreck the police vans and help the whimpering goons escape. When Hae-il catches up to one of the Lao gangsters, he realizes he’s finally met his match in a fight. Hae-il’s tinnitus relapses briefly (noooo!), and then more Lao men arrive. Pulling himself together with a smirk, Hae-il beckons them forward — all while an amused Hong-shik watches from afar.

The comedy is really dialed up to eleven this season, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your watching tastes. For one, poor Fire Eel’s abrupt death after that comically exaggerated fall caught me off guard, and some of the jokes were fairly predictable due to the blatant setup. On the other hand, I’m still having fun turning off my brain and laughing along — the actors are absolutely hamming it up, and their enthusiasm is infectious.

I mean, the running joke of Hae-il and Kyung-seon going to ridiculous lengths to have clandestine conversations in public? Absolutely priceless. Then there’s Dae-young and Ja-young, who are apparently descended from the same Gu clan — except she’s not his niece, but his aunt. LOL. Cue Ja-young scolding her wayward nephew and Dae-young grudgingly switching to formal language.

Despite the farcical comedy and textbook villainy, Hong-shik’s wide arsenal of resources and connections is indeed formidable. With so much at his beck and call, it almost feels like everyone is dancing in the palm of his hand — especially when Hae-il’s ailment is rearing its head at the worst possible time. His blasé dismissal of it is concerning, but it’s sweet to see others like Kyung-seon worry for him. Even if it comes with a side of bickering and finger-twisting, heh.

 
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