The Fiery Priest: Episodes 1-2

by solstices

Our quick-tempered, fist-fighting, evil-vanquishing priestly hero is back! Backed by a trusty crew that’s even more fired up this time round, he’ll face off against a whole new league of villains — with plenty of laughs along the way, of course.

 
EPISODES 1-2

Right off the bat, we open with a hilarious scene at Gudam Temple — the monks are being threatened by belligerent thugs, except one monk is not like the others. Turns out a monk’s wooden fish and stick make for handy weapons, and the thugs go flying at the hands of our titular hero KIM HAE-IL (Kim Nam-gil), whose monk robes fall off to reveal his priestly garb underneath. “Both God and Buddha,” Hae-il grins, “are telling me to beat you up.” HAHAHA.

Without further ado, we catch up with the rest of our motley crew. SISTER KIM (Baek Ji-won) attempts to fleece kids in a game of Monopoly, and over in the confessional, cinnamon roll priest HAN SUNG-KYU (Jeon Sung-woo) loses his temper at an adulterer who asks for God’s forgiveness before his wife’s. “Do you think the Lord is some kind of forgiveness vending machine?!”

Ever amusing, SSONGSAK (Ahn Chang-hwan) manages his band of food deliverymen as a proud honorary police officer, while OH YO-HAN (Go Kyu-pil) still stocks shelves at his convenience store. Our bumbling detective GU DAE-YOUNG (Kim Sung-kyun) is still as offbeat as ever, while a supposedly homesick prosecutor PARK KYUNG-SEON (Honey Lee) is taking time off in Los Angeles to sip martinis and ogle men by the poolside. Never change, Kyung-seon.

Our squad gathers for dinner at the church, where they marvel at the peaceful days they’re enjoying thanks to the efforts of Hae-il and the late Father Lee — except a scream rings out. Perched atop the kimchi refrigerator, Hae-il yells that every time they say such things, trouble always follows.

Sure enough, a terrible tragedy strikes. It turns out Hae-il helped out the monks at the request of high schooler LEE SANG-YEON (Moon Woo-jin), who entered the church as a kid and grew up under Hae-il’s guidance, forming a deep uncle-nephew bond. Alas, Sang-yeon’s righteous spirit has him attempting to report a group of drug-trafficking youngsters, and they refuse to let it slide.

The next day, a pale Sang-yeon passes out at the late Father Lee’s fifth memorial mass. He’s rushed to the hospital, where the prognosis is grim: he’s in a comatose state, having suffered brain damage due to cardiac arrest. Sang-yeon’s congenital heart disease had him going into shock, due to a hepanyl overdose. But that can’t be right — Hae-il’s certain that Sang-yeon would never have done drugs voluntarily.

Hae-il’s right to be wary, because the case quickly gets buried by the corrupt prosecutor NAM DU-HEON (Seo Hyun-woo), who pulls strings to silence the media. Tracking down the young drug dealers all the way to their hideout and whacking them into meek obedience, Hae-il confronts the ringleader JANG SHI-TAE (Kim Soo-gyeom), retrieving the headphones Shi-tae stole from Sang-yeon while he’s at it. Shi-tae admits that Sang-yeon witnessed their drug deal and took a photo — in order to make sure he wouldn’t tell on them, they force-fed him drugs. Oof, Hae-il’s devastated expression.

When Shi-tae refuses to give up the name of their supplier, Hae-il summons the theater kid within him, dramatically smashing bricks apart on his head while Dae-young fearfully wails that he can’t let the evil spirit within him awaken. HAHAHA. With that, a terrified Shi-tae screams out a name: “Gerald!”

Off Hae-il, Dae-young, and Ssongsak go to track down Gerald, leading to a fight scene that’s both smoothly choreographed (that one-take drone shot!) and downright hilarious (kind of a given with Dae-young, really). The grim reaper Hae-il catches the escaping Gerald red-handed, punishing him on an exercise machine while his lackeys do squats. It yields yet another name: “Busan Fire Eel.” By the time the corrupt authorities arrive, Hae-il’s team has tied the boys up in neat rows and even helpfully called reporters to the scene. Nice job.

The team may think their work is done, now that they’ve apprehended the direct perpetrators, but Hae-il finds himself musing: “What would Father Lee have done?” Cue groans all around, because they know Hae-il is going to see this through to the bitter end. With that, Hae-il is off to Busan for Sang-yeon’s sake, conveniently accepting the invitation requesting him to be an instructor at a Busan seminary.

Hae-il isn’t the only one tracking down the Busan Fire Eel, because Du-heon approaches the drug traffickers of the Yongsa gang, who all have funny fish nicknames. Ever the wily opportunist, Du-heon requests a list of druggie celebrities from BOSS PARK (Yang Hyun-min) to use as fall guys. But what gives the Yongsa gang such hubristic confidence? Well, we’re about to find out.

On his flight back into the country, head honcho KIM HONG-SHIK (Sung Joon) nonchalantly mentions to an adjacent passenger that his mother had her throat slit because she couldn’t pay up a mere five bucks. Uh, way to overshare. Upon landing, Hong-shik promptly puts the arrogantly corrupt police in their place by pulling up human popsicles made from the fools who dared to threaten the Yongsa gang. As if that wasn’t threatening enough, Hong-shik murders a mouthy detective right in front of them all.

It seems Hae-il was right on the money when he left behind a letter asking the team not to follow him into danger, but of course, that just makes Dae-young all the more determined to join. Our wacky detective acts off his rocker (full face of panda makeup included) until the chief gives him a month off work, and then he’s right on Hae-il’s tail.

So, what is our hero up to? Well, Vladimir Gozaev from Season 1 returns as the naturalized GO DOK-SUNG (Kim Won-hae), who’s currently running a restaurant in Busan as a loan shark “lone shark” LOL. That makes Dok-sung a handy source of intel, allowing Hae-il to threaten a lackey with an ice bath until he gives up Fire Eel’s location. Then after Dae-young pops up and startles Hae-il out of his wits, our Busan duo expands to three.

With Hae-il’s furious fists and Dae-young’s skull of steel, our bickering manchildren beat the whole gang into submission. Just when they’ve subdued Fire Eel, though, they find themselves surrounded by the police. Despite our pair’s insistence that they’re not the bad guys, detective GU JA-YOUNG (Kim Hyung-seo a.k.a. BIBI) isn’t having any of it. Held at gunpoint, Hae-il and Dae-young can do nothing else but raise their hands sheepishly.

It seems Ja-young has had her sights on this drug cartel for a while, because she’s been sidling up to a Yongsa lackey in an undercover disguise. Apparently the club scene in Busan is peppered with addicts, because Du-heon winds up stepping in when drugged-up rich boy KIM IN-SEOK (Kim Sung-tae) beats several clubgoers bloody. Though he splashes his drink in the impertinent In-seon’s face, Du-heon lets the boy walk off scot-free on account of his assemblyman father KIM MAN-CHUN (Park Ji-il).

Circling back to the seminary, while DEAN LEE (Lee Dae-yeon) is unreasonably uptight, there’s one young priest who breaks from the mold. Sharp-eyed CHAE DO-WOO (Seo Beom-joon) has been labeled as a troublemaker by Dean Lee, who dispatches Hae-il to keep him in line. Hae-il collects Do-woo from the police station (by turning on the waterworks, ha), and it turns out Do-woo might just be a mini Hae-il in the making — he beat up three guys for their ableist insults against a young deaf couple. Hae-il lectures Do-woo for throwing punches in priestly robes, which is really just the fiery pot calling the feisty kettle black, LOL.

Over in LA, it turns out Kyung-seon’s date is a drug-trafficking murderer. She ends up in the middle of a police shootout and taken hostage by her date with only a cloche as a helmet, but several swings of the cloche and Kyung-seon’s knocked the criminal out cold, ha. Alas, her heroism pales in the face of her involvement with the man, and Kyung-seon gets interrogated under suspicions of involvement in the drug cartel.

She’s eventually rescued by a Vatican priest, who plays exposition fairy with a helpful explanation of Hae-il’s title “Bellator,” which means “warrior” in Latin (I was right!). A chosen few priests were anointed by the Pope, granting them the authority to uphold justice while operating covertly like the Vatican’s secret agents. (The priest’s words, not mine.) Apprehending the foreign cartel boss was a mission Hae-il tasked Kyung-seon with, for she’s his aide — “Comes,” meaning “companion.” Last but not least, the surrounding people who protect and support them are aptly named “Fautors.”

Hae-il may have a noble mission endorsing his valiant quests, but he can’t keep fighting forever. He’s been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, owing to his long list of trauma that spans both mental and physical. If Hae-il doesn’t scale back on the action, he risks becoming paralyzed. It weighs heavy on Hae-il’s mind, but for now, his sense of justice burns stronger than his self-preservation.

This week flew by in a burst of laughter, and I’m glad to reunite with our endearing crew. If they played both the enablers and disablers to the furious Hae-il last season, then this season, they’re all boiling with rage right alongside him, LOL. (Their tomato-red faces!) I’m laughing at our maknae Sung-kyu developing a temper, because it’s so new seeing Hae-il be the one to calm someone down for once. Surely it won’t be long before the rest of our squad joins Hae-il in Busan — it’s time to reel in some drug-peddling fishes. (Also, make sure to stay tuned till the end of each episode for the hilarious bite-sized epilogues!)

 
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