The episode starts with Eung Joon asking Shi Ohn and Gun Woo to leave. The flash of the ghost on Eung Joon’s face and Shi Ohn’s freaked look at him. She looks over at the ghost, who is crying, and its legs are missing. Eung Joon just glares at her for not leaving fast enough.
Outside, Shi Ohn asks Gun Woo why he’s there. He tells her that he asked Moon Shik to help him transfer to another department. When she says okay, he’s bothered that she’s not upset, but then tries to act like everything’s normal. He grumbles about the prosecutor and how he felt sorry for the guy when he heard the guy was dumped by his fiancée the day before their wedding. This sets off alarm bells for Shi Ohn. Did Eung Joon murder her because she was going to leave him?
Back at the precinct, Shi Ohn looks Eung Joon up on the computer and discovers that her ghost is Eung Joon’s missing fiancée, Jang Yeon Hee. Gun Woo enters since Shi Ohn sent for him. He’s being transferred to the Joint Investigation Team involved with the body parts. Gun Woo doesn’t seem particularly excited, but Shi Ohn tells him that it’s good, since he didn’t like working there anyways. In fact, Gun Woo really looks like he’s bothered that she doesn’t seem to be upset that he’s going. Could Gun Woo be developing a crush on Shi Ohn? We already know he finds her attractive. I actually think that he might like her, which is why her lack of candor bugs him so much. Shi Ohn tells him to do his best and adds that it could help his transfer afterwards. Gun Woo sighs that he guesses he has to go, but before he leaves, Shi Ohn tells him to keep an eye on Eung Joon and to let her know if anything happens.
Later, Gun Woo is at a convenience store with Moon Shik, who tells him that Shi Ohn gave him a strong recommendation, which if why he got assigned. So I guess she does respect you after all, Gun Woo. Gun Woo can’t believe it and he remembers when he told her that he didn’t want to work with a crazy person like her anymore. Now he feels like a complete jerk. Moon Shik tells him to make the most out of this opportunity.
At the Joint Police Investigation Headquarters, everyone is hard at work, including Gun Woo. Eung Joon arrives and gives Gun Woo a look before asking about the forensic results from CSI. The lead detective reports that the body part found at the construction site and the one found in the mountains are from the same body. The crimes scenes are places people are less likely to go, so Eung Joon orders them make a list of undeveloped areas and unoccupied spaces within a 10 km radius of these two sites and then have the local police check them out. Why is a Prosecutor giving orders to the police? Seems odd. Maybe things are different in Korea.
As the Joint Team breaks to go get on their orders, one of the detectives tells Eung Joon that they recovered skin samples from the bag they picked up at the construction site. Gun Woo is nosy, so he takes a look at the pictures too, and recognizes the case as the same as the one the homeless guy retrieved from the Lost and Found Center. Does that mean it had a body part in it when they had it? Because of Gun Woo’s reaction, Eung Joon asks him what he’s thinking. When Gun Woo tells him he’s seen that bag before, Eung Joon dismisses the lead, saying that case is a common bag. Then he chastises Gun Woo, saying that they’re conducting serious police work there, unlike at the Lost and Found Center. Gun Woo looks like he wants to punch the guy, but he holds his tongue. With Shi Ohn, he would have said something.
Shi Ohn has gone to visit Yoon Hee’s mother. The engagement photos of Yeon Hee and Eung Joon show a couple very much in love. Shi Ohn discovers that since the broken engagement, Eung Joon broke off all contact with Yeon Hee’s mother. Shi Ohn delicately asks whether Yeon Hee might have had a secret boyfriend, but her mother denies it, especially because Yeon Hee suffered from severe asthma. The mother begs Shi Ohn to find her daughter.
Even though he’s supposed to be doing something else, Gun Woo is down in the subway, looking for the homeless guy who retrieved the briefcase from the Lost and Found Center. What a great homeless man he is. He finally finds him, drunk and asleep, and offers to give the guy back his ID card in exchange for giving him a description of what the guy who paid him to get the briefcase looked like.
Gun Woo uses the description to get a sketch of their suspect. Except Eung Joon and the lead investigator dismiss his findings. Eung Joon calls Gun Woo naïve and says that the homeless guy might be working with the criminals to disrupt their investigation. He sure didn’t look like he was working with anyone, since he was drunk and sleeping in the subway. Gun Woo thinks that all of Eung Joon’s reservations would be settled if they found his suspect and arrested him. Because Gun Woo’s persistent, Eung Joon tells Lead Detective Lee to go arrest the homeless guy and get the CCTV footage for a 3-block radius from the crime scenes. Even though Shi Ohn thinks he’s the guy, I think the whole reason Yeon Hee cries when she sees him is because he thinks she left him and she didn’t. So what really happened to her?
At Eung Joon’s apartment, his mother has just brought his recycling out. The doorman intercepts her and takes it to dispose of it. Shi Ohn is there. The doorman asks why she’s looking for Eung Joon’s mother, but before she can answer, Eung Joon has arrived and he’s upset that she dared come to his home. Shi Ohn basically infers that Eung Joon did something to his fiancée, which makes him almost irate, because she doesn’t know anything about it! He warns her that if he sees her messing again, he won't stay put.
The man that matches the sketch, the guy that we know disposed of the body parts, is on the phone. He’s got new orders, whatever they are.
Shi Ohn is slowly walking home after confronting Eung Joon. Gun Woo is there, waiting for her. He wants to know *how* she knew that the suitcase contained a body part. She thinks before she answers and then says she didn’t know, but he isn’t buying it. She can’t be that lucky. She sighs and tells him that she already asked the Chief for a transfer of departments for him, so he won’t have to wait much longer. She starts to go inside but he wants to know if today will be the end of it. When she asks him about his desire to be transferred from the team, be asks her if they were ever on the same team to begin with. Ouch. His words definitely look like they hurt, which angers her, but she tells him to just home because it’s late. He stares after her, also frustrated.
When Shi Ohn enters her house, her lights decide to go out. More ghosts? She’s looking around when suddenly a man with a mask on his face grabs her. She’s able to wrest herself free, using a little of her self-defense training and when she throws her toaster at the guy, Gun Woo hears the crash. Unfortunately for Shi Ohn, there’s *two* guys in the house, so the second one grabs her while the first one picks up something to hit her with. But Gun Woo arrives and he is able to take on the men (since he’s a man with manly strength).
One of the invaders pulls a knife, which Shi Ohn sees, and when he goes to stab Gun Woo from behind, she catches the knife wielding hand, There’s a struggle and the man throws her free, slicing her in the process. This gives Gun Woo the chance to see the guy coming and he’s able to avoid being stabbed. It’s actually pretty cool how he uses the TV remote to fend off the knife.
Seeing that they’re not going to succeed, the two men run out, jump in their car and get away. Gun Woo and Shi Ohn run after them, but they’re too late to see a license plate and then Gun Woo notices the blood trickling down her arm. He yells her for coming after them when she’s hurt and grabs her wrist to pull her back inside. But she pulls herself free and asks him what he’s doing. He yells that they need to stop the bleeding and stomps into the house.
As Gun Woo bandages the slash in Shi Ohn’s arm, he chastises her for trying to take on the guy with the knife with just her hands. She should have used a TV remote. Doesn’t she want to get married? And why would he wonder that, unless he’s looking at her like she’s a woman (as they say in dramas)? He wants to get extra refined in his treatment, but she slaps his hand away, saying that time will heal it. Then she tells him to go home because it’s late. Instead, he groans several time as he knocks the pillows off her couch and then lays down on it. She asks him what he’s doing, but he says that he’s not hitting on her, so she should quit dreaming. You’re the one who’s feeling the attraction, dude. From the day you two met. Gun Woo has decided that he’s going to keep watch, in case those guys come back. Not that I think he’ll do a very good job, since he’s made himself awfully comfortable on the couch and currently has his eyes closed. Shi Ohn just sighs, knowing that having him there does help her odds if the men come back.
Later, Shi Ohn throws an afghan on Gun Woo. He starts telling her just how much the security of her place fails to actually be secure. Old windows. Old locks. She’s basically asking for people to break in. Shi Ohn pretty much ignores him and drinks her juice instead. When Gun Woo hears that this was wear she lived, even before the accident, he asks about her family. Shi Ohn doesn’t have any: no siblings and her parents died on the day of her middle school graduation. Gun Woo feels bad for her, but she doesn’t seem too tortured by it. I guess she’s used to being alone. And I notice the light shining through Taecyeon’s ears. I can’t help it. Illuminated, like with a flash light.
Gun Woo changes the subject, talking about the guts of the guys who did this, when Shi Ohn announces her suspicion that it was Eung Joon. She says that the victim is his missing fiancée. Gun Woo protests that she’s talking nonsense, but Shi Ohn says that nothing about this makes any sense. He acts like he thinks it’s ridiculous, but something about it does bug him.
In bed, Shi Ohn can’t help but think of Eung Joon’s arrogance, Yeon Hee’s crying when she sees him, and his threat of retaliation.
At his home, Eung Joon is looking at the last texts he shared with Yeon Hee before she ran away, including the one that says that she’s tired and wants to break up. A photo of them together, happy, is still on his desk, and in frustration, he throws it across the room.
The next morning, Eung Joon is jogging. Shi Ohn catches up with him and basically accuses him of sending the thugs to her house. She repeats his threat and then asks if that’s what he said to Yeon Hee (implying that he killed her soon afterward). He grabs her collar and orders her not to say that woman’s name in front of him. This is not a guy who is acting guilty. This is a guy who’s had his heart broken. Come on, Shi Ohn. When she asks him straight out, he’s utterly shocked by the question. Again, grieving fiancé.
Shi Ohn returns home. Gun Woo has left his lighter pistol for her to use as protection. She laughs as she lights it.
Moon Shik is visiting the City Traffic Control Center. Its surveillance of Seoul is pretty extensive. Gun Woo is there, looking at footage outside of Shi Ohn’s place. He’s determined to catch the punks who attacked her. When Moon Shik asks him why he’s involved instead of leaving it the local police, Gun Woo says that they probably won’t be thorough and he’s determined to catch them himself. It sounds like Gun Woo’s getting to do this because Moon Shik used his influence to get them to cooperate. Traffic footage is able to find the car. Gun Woo heads out to take the guys down, asking Moon Shik to send him the address of the owner. He rushes off before Moon Shik can object.
At the Lost and Found Center, the day is going slowly. Sung Chan stops Shi Ohn as she’s going to leave the office and makes small talk before asking about how things are between her and Officer Cha. He’s thinking of finding Gun Woo leaning over her (when he caught the coffee cup, which I still have no idea how you could misinterpret that) and smiles as he asks. She is clueless to what he’s talking about and just tells him to do his work before leaving.
But Sung Chan doesn’t do his work. Instead he texts Hee Bin. They both continue to lie to each other about what they do for a living. Hee Bin’s pursuing the relationship partially because she read her fortune and it said that stealing his power would improve her life. She’s already calling him Oppa.
Hotel Massage Salon. Shi Ohn’s there, tracking Yeon Hee’s movements on the day she died. Her appointment was unusual that day because instead of coming with Eung Joon, she came alone and then met up with someone that the receptionist assumed was Yeon Hee’s mother. Since it wasn’t Yeon Hee’s mother, it had to be Eung Joon’s mother.
Yeon Hee’s ghost visits her in the elevator. The lights go out, freaking Shi Ohn and then she sees Yeon Hee. She’s missing both legs now and she’s not frozen anymore. In fact, she’s glowing. The railings in the car grow hot and there’s lots of smoke. Then Yeon Hee’s gone.
Gun Woo bursts into the address listed with the car’s registration, but the office is trashed and the guys are gone. Gun Woo calls Moon Shik and asks him to track down the location of the car. Quickly!
Returning to the station, Shi Ohn remembers talking to the coroner about the hand’s condition, how it was frozen at least once, before it was disposed of. Then, when her body was frozen, her ghost appeared frozen. But now, it’s as if Yeon Hee’s ghost is on fire. Yeon Hee appears again, but this time Shi Ohn asks her what they’re doing to her. Yeon Hee leads Shi Ohn out of the station.
Moon Shik calls Gun Woo with the current location of the car and sends it to Gun Woo after he gives him a hard time. Gun Woo is on the case!
Yeon Hee leads Shi Ohn to a mortuary. Shi Ohn realizes that the murderer is cremating the rest of Yeon Hee’s remains. She has to get to the furnace before there’s nothing left!
Gun Woo gets a call from Detective Lee. They’ve located the suspect in the body case. It ends up being the same place that Shi Ohn is. He arrives on the scene moments before the rest of the Joint Team does.
Shi Ohn as found the incinerator. Holding up her badge, she knocks on the glass to get the man to stop with the cremation. The bad guy is there and he demands to know what she’s doing. He lies that it’s the remains of his sister. That you just chopped up into a bunch of different pieces? When she asks for something to verify his story, she notices he’s wearing a knife. As she looks at the death certificate, she reaches into her purse for her gun. The man gets impatient and orders the cremation to continue. When Shi Ohn objects, he pulls the knife. Which is blurred out. Why? It’s obvious it’s a knife. That’s so weird. Shi Ohn pulls her gun.
Gun Woo arrives and calls out ‘Team leader’! He’s also carrying an expandable billie club which he uses to make short order of the guy with the knife. The rest of the team arrives to put the guy in handcuffs. And again, I am impressed with Gun Woo’s hand-to-hand combat skills. As the guy struggles, Gun Woo looks at Shi Ohn and wonders why she’s there.
The police are able to recover the body and as Gun Woo drives Shi Ohn back to the station, he asks her what she was thinking, pulling his fake gun on the guy. Good question. What would she have done if he’d charged her? As if it was purely logical, she says that she was just trying to scare him. Isn't that why Gun Woo gave her the gun? Gun Woo tells her that she was supposed to use it in self defense. Which is what she did. Gun Woo reports that the guy had started following her after she found the first body part in the woods, and Detective Lee figure out it was the same person as the one who invaded her house.
Again, Gun Woo wants to know how Shi Ohn knew about Yeon Hee. She tells him that it's a bit complicated to explain. She doesn’t look happy and Gun Woo realizes that she still thinks Eung Joon was involved in the murder, because the body is his dead fiancée.
The coroner was able to use her dental records to identify her and it *was* Yeon Hee. Gun Woo wonders just *how* Shi Ohn knew. Later, he stares at her while they watch Eung Joon’s interrogation of the montage man. Why is Eung Joon conducting the interrogation rather than a police man? After grabbing montage man and throwing him into the wall, Eung Joon demands to know who killed Yeon Hee. He’s trembling, he’s so angry and upset that his fiancée is not just gone but *dead.* The guy pleads with him that he didn’t do it, that she was dead when he got there. And the address of the person who called him to dispose of the body, Eung Joon recognizes. He’s horrified when he realizes who did it.
Now we’re in another interrogation room. Detective Lee is describing the state of the body and how cruel it was what the woman did. Eung Joon practically catatonic as he watches the questioning. And it’s understandable when they reveal the woman’s face: it’s his mother. When she cries that she didn't know that it would go that far, he can’t take it and bursts in to scream at her. Detective Lee leaves the two alone. Is she even human? How could she do this to him? It’s so sad to watch Eung Joon slump to the floor with grief at what his mother’s done. And it’s pretty evil what she did. Not only is she responsible for Yeon Hee’s death, but then she made her son, whom she claims to love, believe that he was dumped. And since she’s living with him, there were plenty of times where she watched him cry and said nothing. Evil. Shi Ohn and Gun Woo feel bad for Eung Joon as they watch from behind the glass.
Flashback of what happened: Mom is an evil, spiteful witch who didn’t like Yeon Hee from the beginning. She viewed Yeon Hee as a gold digger, looking to raise her status by clinging to Eung Joon. After meeting Yeon Hee at the hotel spa, she made her take. When they’re parked, Evil Mom proceeds to berate Yeon Hee. Yeon Hee doesn’t object until Evil Omma insults her parents. Evil Omma repays that with a slap across the face. Yeon Hee dares talk back. Evil Omma calls her a bitch and proceeds to berate her as Yeon Hee cries. Yeon Hee reaches for her phone and caresses it, because it’s mid-texting with Eung Joon.
Enraged, Evil Omma sntaches away Yeon Hee’s bag and throws it out the window. Yeon Hee starts to have an asthma attack. She gasps for her bag but Evil Omma just berates her instead. Finally Evil Omma realizes something is wrong and she goes for the bag. But as she finds the inhaler, she keeps it from Yeon Hee, and the poor girl suffocates. Evil Omma calls the guy to dispose of the body and she dumps her son using Yeon Hee’s phone. After all, a dead girl can't become alive again and their lives would be better without her.
Later, at home, Eung Joon is writing his Resignation Letter. The looks at that picture of him with Yeon Hee and apologizes for not being able to believe in her and for hating her and for not being able to protect her.
Shi Ohn has gone to ice cream with Moon Shik. He appreciates how she’s looking after Gun Woo. She mentions his transfer and Moon Shik sighs. He thinks that Gun Woo would be hurt if she sent him to another department. He might bluster, but he has a deep affection for those around him. Shi Ohn smiles, because she knows it’s true. She tells Moon Shik that Gun Woo is fortunate to have him for a subae. She also mentions that he seems very familiar. He should. He used to be your boss. Moon Shik deflects that saying that he has a very common face. People say that he looks like the guy next door. Someone even told him that he looks like one of the kings in a drama. I knew there had to be a story behind that one, so I looked Kim Chang Wan up and he played the king in the k-drama, ‘Iljimae.’ Heh. Moon Shik asks, “Have you ever seen a king that looks like this?” And I just have to wonder why he doesn’t tell her that he used to be her boss? Is he trying to protect her from whoever attacked her the first time?
Eung Joon is making his final farewells at the office, after turning in his resignation. He sees Shi Ohn and Gun Woo outside the entrance. He thanks them for their hard work, because it brought Yeon Hee some justice. Shi Ohn apologizes for suspecting him and he waves it off and Gun Woo tells him that he would like to work together again. Shi Ohn tells him that she’s sure that Yeon Hee has forgiven him. She doesn’t say she has it straight from Yeon Hee. As Eung Joon walks away, Yeon Hee is waiting for him, happy that he knows she loves him. She looks gratefully at Shi Ohn and says a silent goodbye. And I have something in my eye.
Shi Ohn’s view of Yeon Hee is suddenly blocked by Gun Woo’s face (he’s really close to hers) as he asks her what she’s staring at. He tells her that he heard she’s the one who got him on the joint task force. She shrugs. He asks her why she did it. She says it’s because he said he didn’t want to work with her. He responds that they keep ending up together. When she tells him that there will be a transfer, he refuses to leave. Especially since he’s certain that she’s not telling him something. He’s going to figure it out. Or die trying. It’s cute to watch their interchange, especially when he imitates her. After her declares that he’ll investigate her until the end, she gets in his face and tells him to give it his best shot. And Gun Woo is uncomfortable because she was really close to him. Because you totally like her, you just don’t know it yet.
Later, Shi Ohn and Gun Woo are cataloguing items in the Lost and Found. They’re working well together. This last case has helped Gun Woo see that she’s on his side, really. He finds *the box.* I’m guess it’s the box that holds the ring that Hyung Joon was going to use when he proposes. This is the second time she’s seen it. Gun Woo tries but can’t get it open. When he hands it over to Shi Ohn, she gets a very physical reaction to the box, which includes intense pain including a splitting headache. Seeing that she doesn’t feel good, Gun Woo says he’ll finish up the rest.
As Shi Ohn walks down the hall, she walks by a man wearing brown trousers and a blue shirt. Kinda like what Hyung Joon was wearing the day he died. She glances at him and they keep on walking in opposite directions. But something makes her stop and turn around to look at him. He keeps walking, so she sets off again. What she doesn’t see is him stop and turn around to look at her, sadly. It is Hyung Joon. And even though we’ve barely seen him, his face causes a pain in my chest at how sad he is.
Thoughts
I’m glad to see that the conflict between Gun Woo and Shi Ohn seems to be resolved, at least the one where he felt like she was looking down on him and intentionally wanting him to feel stupid. There’s definitely more camaraderie on his part since he found out that she really values his abilities and contributions, even if she doesn’t tell him. I do like the dynamic that they’re starting to get. With a caveat.
One of the things that bugs me about this series is the power dynamic between Shi Ohn and Gun Woo. And it bugs me about this show. It seems the Gun Woo is always coming to her aid, like her knight in shining armor, even though she's a competent and capable cop and *his boss.* Take the attack in her home. She gets cut and when Gun Woo sees it, he yells at her for chasing her attackers. Because *she's bleeding!* But I don't think that he would have had the same reaction if she had been a man. He definitely wouldn't have grabbed the guy's wrist to drag him inside. And why does he have to save her all the time? Why can't she save herself?
All this speaks to the paternalistic system they have in Korea. Even though she has a supervisory position, she's still treated as less. And Gun Woo doesn't treat her like she's his boss. While I would argue that he'd been disrespectful and rebellious to a male superior, he wouldn't do it such a way that it's like a flip of the power structure, where he's her equal. Because he's not. She's his boss. Which means that he should *never* be telling her what to do. But he does. When Gun Woo got dressed down by Eun Joon, he didn't say anything, even though he was thinking it; if it had been Shi Ohn, he would definitely have yelled at her or tried to manipulate her emotions so that she'd go along with it.
I don't necessarily object to them having that dynamic, except for the fact that SHE'S HIS BOSS. If they were partners, even if she was the one with the seniority, I could totally accept it, without too much quibbling. Then the paternalism would just seem like a natural outflow of Korean culture. It might still bother me, because of the sunbaes aspect, even though he doesn’t view her that way, but not to the level that it bothers me at present. In fact, I doubt it would bother me at all, because then the masculine lead dynamic would be something that was understandable. Now it's out-of-place and it makes Shi Ohn a little schitzophrenic for me. One moment, she's tough. The next she's helpless. One moment she's the boss, the next she completely lets Gun Woo run all over her.
But I think this issue speaks to a problem that the writers have. They're trying to create this independent woman, but they're being hampered by their own mental limitations. I don't think that the audience, a majority of which are women, would object to a strong woman character who can take charge and lead the guy. Look how much Suzy's Dam Yeo Wool was loved and embraced in 'Gu Family Book.' Yeo Wool could stand with the boys and often told them what to do. But I think the writers don't understand how the dynamic of a woman in leadership would actually work. I think the strong paternalistic bent of Korean culture bleeds through to where the men are manly and the women need to be saved by them. And conceiving of a relationship beyond that, where man and woman are truly partners instead of the woman taking the man's orders, I think that it's beyond them. I think it's possible to have the man still be the man, but the woman can be competent and capable, too.
This begs the question, though, what do I think Shi Ohn and Gun Woo's relationship would be like, if the writers really knew how to give a woman a little authority? I think that Gun Woo would still question, but I think that Shi Ohn would demand the same respect and deference that he would give a man. And how would that translate into a love relationship (because we all know that they’re headed there eventually)? I think it could, because there, she can defer to him, give him is masculine victories, not fight him necessarily where he expects her to, which would help him feel even more respected as a man. I think it could definitely work. But, there again, the writers can't seem to decide who Shi Ohn is, let alone how she should navigate a predominantly male police force environment.
Off this topic, though, why doesn’t Moon Shik tell Shi Ohn about her past? Why isn’t it accessible to her? Why doesn’t anyone say anything? And there’s Hyung Joon. Why hasn’t *he* said anything to her up to now?
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