Ghost: Episode 9

by kaedejun

Wahaha! Two cops that hate each other to the core + one car + one case + dash of TaeTiSeo – cyber hacking = good old-fashioned buddy cop episode. I think I even fell in love with Hyuk Joo in this episode for just a moment. Five minutes… multiplied by the three times I replayed the clip.

Song of the Day

“Twinkle” by TaeTiSeo (SNSD) [download]

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Woo Hyun has reached the mouth of the lion’s den. To explain his presence at the villa, he admits to Hyun Min that he’s investigating a crime from one year ago. Um – really? I thought you remembered that old-Woo Hyun was in the video, and therefore “Woo Hyun” would never find a reason to investigate that crime from one year ago. His guard is up around Hyun Min though, as he has yet to figure out the real connection between old-Woo Hyun and Hyun Min.

Hyun Min invites him to sit down, and pours him a drink. Rightfully so, Woo Hyun wonders whether there are drugs in it, since Nam Sang Won had died the exact same way. He calmly asks about the villa and whether Hyun Min visits it often.

Hyun Min: Are you trying to investigate me?

Woo Hyun: Why, do you have a secret I shouldn’t investigate?

Hyun Min: Everyone has their secrets.

Woo Hyun: The secrets will be revealed at one time or another.

Woo Hyun downs the drink in one shot – the challenge is accepted! He leaves, and Hyun Min mockingly wishes Woo Hyun luck in solving the murder case from one year ago. My question is: could Hyun Min be referring to Nam Sang Won’s murder, or Shin Hyo Jung’s murder?

When Woo Hyun is gone, Jae Hee comes down from the second floor. He asks if Woo Hyun really doesn’t remember that Nam Sang Won didn’t die from overwork, but rather was murdered. Of course, that’s the line that Hyuk Joo hears through his wiretapping, having arrived close enough within Hae Myung Resort to get reception from his bug. At that moment, Woo Hyun passes by Hyuk Joo and his little team in his car. Everyone’s jaws drop – did he really just pass by them?

Hyuk Joo urges Sang Woo to drive up to villa 15, where Jae Hee and their prime suspect must be at. Sang Woo is reluctant to do so, because their car will be seen, and they could get caught for illegal wiretapping. So Hyuk Joo orders Sang Woo to never leave Jae Hee’s side, and to track that man’s every movement.

Kang Mi makes a late night visit to Woo Hyun’s home, hoping he found out about Nam Sang Won. Woo Hyun hands over his research: Nam Sang Won used to be a Financial Director at Se Kang Group before starting his own CK Company and becoming a subcontractor for Se Kang. He supposedly died of a heart attack due to overwork. Woo Hyun starts noticing that everything is connected to Hyun Min and believes he is the primary suspect. However, he went through Hyun Min’s records (thanks to hacking), and found that Hyun Min was not in the country during the time of Shin Hyo Jung and Nam Sang Won’s deaths. Well that complicates things…

The only way to prove murder is to get an autopsy and a warrant. Woo Hyun thinks he and Kang Mi are the only ones who know it’s murder, so they can’t go asking for a warrant. He has Kang Mi track down Nam Sang Won’s last activities before he died, while he will go meet with the family.

Kang Mi reminds him that if the truth of Nam Sang Won’s death is revealed, Woo Hyun will be implicated as well because he was supposedly present. Woo Hyun understands the risk, but he believes that old-Woo Hyun must have had another motive for it.

At the same time, Young Suk gives his report to Hyuk Joo. Villa 15 is owned by Se Kang group, not by Hyun Min only, so anyone at Se Kang could have used it. He found no evidence that Nam Sang Won was murdered, but he did note that Nam’s wife is now the general chief at Se Kang Automobiles and received a hefty sum of money from insurance after her husband’s death. She sent her two girls abroad, and moved her sickly mother to a more luxurious nursing home. On top of that, she was the one who most opposed an autopsy on her husband’s body.

She’s a new suspect! (Even though we know she’s not involved… or could she be?)

Young Suk has another hunch, but he reserves it for later as he needs to do more investigating. All he has is a name: Kim Suk Joon.

Hyun Min meets Yeon Joo, puzzled over why Woo Hyun seems to have forgotten that day in May when Nam Sang Won died. Though no official investigation has begun by the police, Hyun Min thinks that Yeon Joo could have been tailed or hacked into. He tells her to run her security programs again and change her car’s black box – just in case. Yeon Joo warns Hyun Min to tread carefully, but he laughs. Police are no match for him!

Woo Hyun heads to the Se Kang townhouses where Kim Eun Sook, a.k.a Mrs. Nam, lives. He introduces himself as from the cyber crime squad and her eyebrows raise in surprise. She invites him in – where Hyuk Joo is sitting in her living room! The two of them study each other carefully, wondering what the other is doing there. Woo Hyun chooses to stay silent, allowing Hyuk Joo to complete his questioning. How long has she worked for Se Kang? Why didn’t she ask for an autopsy? Why does she think her husband died from overwork? Her responses sound like she didn’t care much for her workaholic spouse, and that she wasn’t surprised he died from a heart attack at all.

Meanwhile Kang Mi heads out to meet Nam Sang Won’s former secretary at CK Company. The secretary’s tidbit is that Nam Sang Won seemed worried about his subcontract with Se Kang expiring, but no one in the company was worried because they had faith in his close relationship with that company and met with Hyun Min often. Unfortunately, she didn’t know where they met, but if Kang Mi had questions about Sang Won’s goings-on outside the company, she best ask his driver. The driver no longer works at CK, having quit after finding his boss dead.

Woo Hyun and Hyuk Joo leave Mrs. Nam’s house, still refusing to admit why the other is here. Heh – since they’re at a standstill, they turn to their respective cars to leave. Except – Hyuk Joo’s tire is slashed! Hyuk Joo turns on Woo Hyun, who innocently goes, “It wasn’t me.” Besides, if Woo Hyun really did it, he would have slashed all four tires instead of just one. Hahaha – a point that even Hyuk Joo knows would be true! Hyuk Joo: “I don’t need it! Don’t think about helping me!”

Woo Hyun: “I didn’t say anything.” HEEHEE. He just puts on his shades and heads to his car, ready to ditch his boss.

Next thing we know, Hyuk Joo’s car is being towed away, and Hyuk Joo is riding in Woo Hyun’s car. Ha! Guess he swallowed his pride and asked for help! Of course one of the first things he does is search Woo Hyun’s car for anything suspicious.

After sitting in silence, Woo Hyun asks what Hyuk Joo’s opinion of Mrs. Nam is. Mrs. Nam seemed to be lying to them; when she said her husband died from overwork, she sounded as if she wished that were true. Her actions have been suspicious, but Hyuk Joo is suspicious of someone else…

Woo Hyun pulls over in the middle of the road – so Hyuk Joo believes Nam Sang Won was murdered, right!? Hyuk Joo doesn’t answer, but clearly Woo Hyun thinks the same too, so he asks why Woo Hyun knows about the murder. Woo Hyun simply says he got a tip-off. Hyuk Joo: “LIES!” But the important issue at hand is, do either of them want to know the truth?

Of course they do!

At that moment, Woo Hyun’s radio goes to static, and they hear a muffled voice saying “Se Kang Group is watching everyone!” and then screaming “No! No!”

Kang Mi’s search for Nam Sang Won’s driver, Lee Jong Hyun, leads her to an Inju City apartment across the street from a newly-opened Korean beef store. There are cartons of milk and piles of newspaper deliveries outside Jong Hyun’s door, as no one is home. She has the landlady help open the door for her, and then inspects the cramped apartment. Though Jong Hyun has been gone for several days, he didn’t bring his wallet.

Woo Hyun and Hyuk Joo head over to Inju’s broadcasting station to talk about the recent interruptions. The broadcasting station has no idea what is going on, as their machines are working perfectly fine. It’s more likely that someone is using the same frequency as their radio channel, and therefore it’s interfering with the station’s broadcast. Woo Hyun asks to hear the clip again, but he then gets a call from Kang Mi.

Kang Mi informs him of her findings on Jong Hyun, but then she gets distracted by the greeters outside the new beef store. She goes over to close the window to block out their muffled sounds, but the sound is familiar to Woo Hyun. He realizes that the muffled noise in the audio clip matches that of the greeters’ cries of welcome outside the apartment. That means Jong Hyun said “Se Kang is watching us all,” and was in his apartment facing the window when he was then dragged away – presumably by Se Kang men.

Hyuk Joo knows Woo Hyun got something, but Woo Hyun won’t share it until Hyuk Joo tells him why he’s investigating Nam Sang Won’s death. Hyuk Joo refuses to say why, so Woo Hyun heads out on his own, refusing to tell Hyuk Joo where he’s off to. Frustrated, Hyuk Joo says he just wants to catch the real culprit. All he wants is to do his duty as a police officer and put the murderer in jail.

OK then – guess we have our new duo!

Kang Mi is surprised to find Woo Hyun and Hyuk Joo come through Jong Hyun’s door together, but she doesn’t ask too many questions why. She has a bad feeling that something happened to Jong Hyun, as he was the main witness to Nam’s death. Hyuk Joo tells her to take the digital evidence back to the bureau, but then Woo Hyun starts unplugging all the cords and looks at the power strip.

Hyuk Joo gets all nosy into what Woo Hyun is doing, so Woo Hyun shuts him up with an urgent ‘Stop!’ motion. He turns on the kitchen sink and then says VERY loudly, “Isn’t it hot in here?!” Hyuk Joo and Kang Mi stare in confusion, not quite understanding what Woo Hyun is going for. Woo Hyun unscrews the power strip and there, he finds a small listening device. He texts Hyuk Joo and Kang Mi as to what it is, and immediately Hyuk Joo starts playing along: “Aigoo – it’s so hot!” He looks out the window and notices a silver car parked outside.

The police are called in, and Hyuk Joo explains that his team will simply take the evidence back to the bureau for further investigation. Just as they pull out, the silver car pulls away as well and starts following them. Casually, Woo Hyun asks if he can refuel the car.

They go to a gas station and get into a car wash. As soon as they’re well inside the car wash and away from their trackers’ view, all three of them start searching the car like crazy, looking for all the possible bugs. Woo Hyun finds it near the gas pedal. Hyuk Joo believes whoever planted the bug also slashed his tires, thus forcing the two of them to move together and then listening in to their investigation. The bug just proves that “Se Kang Group is watching everyone.”

Hyuk Joo holds on to the bug; if they want to listen, then they’re going to have to give them something to listen to!

Tae Gyun and Eung Jin drive up to a nightclub, still not believing that Hyuk Joo called them out here. Hee – it’s like when you realize your bosses have another side to them, but then immediately get deflated when you realize they’re here for work. Within a noisy club, it’d be impossible for their trackers to hear anything. Eung Jin hands over the wireless radios that Hyuk Joo had requested. With them, they’re going to try and locate the frequency the trackers are using for wiretapping. Knowing what the trackers are listening to will help them figure out where they are, and arrest them. It will also lead them to Jong Hyun.

Hyuk Joo and Woo Hyun leave first getting in the bugged car together. They can see the trackers tailing them, and that’s when they start talking about inane topics. Tae Gyun, Eung Jin, and Kang Mi follow right behind with the wireless radios, changing the frequency to try and locate which one the trackers are using. At 398.6 MHz, Kang Mi hears the radio from Woo Hyun’s car – that’s the frequency!

TaeTiSeo is on the radio. What’s worse is, Hyuk Joo is singing “Twinkle” with so much zest it’s painful and embarrassing for maknae Tae Gyun to listen to…

Hyun Min takes his uncle out for some makgeolli and snacks at his uncle’s favorite restaurant. They even close down the place for the entire night, and have bodyguards stationed outside, blocking other drunk kids from coming in. The restaurant holds happy memories for the uncle, so every time he has something to celebrate, he goes to this place.

This time, the good news Uncle is celebrating is that he wants to make his son Jae Min the Vice-Chairman of Se Kang group. He also trusts that Hyun Min will support him in this decision. Of course Hyun Min agrees, though in reality he can’t be too happy about having to answer to his younger cousin at work. It looks like this Uncle is his father’s younger brother, and so Jae Min is younger by default; for Hyun Min it seems to be a slap in the face that he can’t take over the business when he’s more “senior” in the family.

Sang Woo and Seung Yoon camp out outside of Safe Tech, listening to Jae Hee. Sang Woo hears something through the bug: it’s Jae Hee answering a call from Hyun Min. They hear Jae Hee saying that the cyber crime team took some CCTV videos from the security company that protects Hae Myung Resort, but that “they didn’t find out yet.” Hmmm… Sang Woo muses over what Jae Hee means by “yet,” and then gets an epiphany.

He’ll need to go back to the bureau, but to do so, he’ll need Seung Yoon to get out of the car. No way is he taking her to the bureau!

Hyuk Joo assigns a radio and certain locations to Kang Mi and Woo Hyun to investigate individually. They’ll try to see if they can overhear something from one more wiretap, as Se Kang Group is likely to be bugging a bunch of people. If they hear something, it also means the trackers are nearby.

Meanwhile Director Moon updates Hyun Min that the police are poking around the Nam Sang Won case. What’s more important for Hyun Min is locating Nam’s laptop. Hmm – I wonder why! They couldn’t find the latpop, so all Hyun Min can rely on is on Woo Hyun.

As Kang Mi drives around her neighborhood, she starts hearing static from her radio. She heads towards a hospital, and overhears a Doctor Go Jae Sung’s conversations; he’s being bugged. She informs Woo Hyun and Hyuk Joo, and Hyuk Joo recognizes that Dr. Go is the one who did the autopsy on Nam Sang Won. Woo Hyun points out that the bugged people so far have a connection to Nam Sang Won’s case; the only person left who is associated with the case is Mrs. Nam.

Woo Hyun and Hyuk Joo race over to Mrs. Nam’s home, only to find it completely empty. Hyuk Joo loudly announces that he now knows where Jong Hyun is, which worries the trackers. The trackers call their people and tell them to get Jong Hyun out of their current hiding place. They think they’re following Hyuk Joo and Woo Hyun, but actually it’s the cops who are following them! Hyuk Joo had just lied that he knew where Jong Hyun was to get the trackers to unwittingly lead them to the real location.

Woo Hyun calls up Kang Mi, who’s situated outside the hospital where another tracker car is parked. He warns her that those guys may drive off to Jong Hyun’s location, and to follow them. Instead of driving off though, they enter the hospital. Jong Hyun’s inside? Kang Mi runs in to the hospital while Hyuk Joo calls for backup.

Woo Hyun’s following Hyuk Joo to the hospital when he’s suddenly stopped by an older lady running across the middle of the street, blocking him from going any further.

Back at the bureau, Sang Woo is going over the surveillance videos again for that night in May. As each car passes by the camera, he tries to match its license plate number to the list of Se Kang’s company cars. He finds a match, and quickly hurries to Young Suk to tell him whom that car belongs to.

But Young Suk has new information regarding the case. He found Lee Jong Hyun’s bank statement, where last year someone had regularly sent him a large amount of money. Hush money? Sang Woo is surprised to see that the name of the person who sent the money matches the name of the person who went to villa 15 that night in a company car.

Inside the hospital, Jong Hyun is being wheeled through the psychiatric ward in a gurney. The trackers have been keeping him cooped up inside the hospital, but now they need to transport him out of there, stat! At this point, Jong Hyun is also crazed, trapped in a straightjacket and probably all drugged up by his captors. Kang Mi just misses them going down the elevator and runs out to the parking area, where the trackers are transporting Jong Hyun in an ambulance.

She chases after the ambulance, but thankfully Hyuk Joo arrives just in time to block their path right outside the hospital. The police gather, and Hyuk Joo has the trackers arrested. He opens up the back, where Jong Hyun is shaking like crazy. He can’t answer their questions straight about Nam Sang Won, denying that he saw anything and that he doesn’t know anything.

They only thing they can get out of the traumatized man is this: “That person [who killed Nam Sang Won] will never get arrested. Even the police won’t be able to catch him.”

Hyuk Joo and Kang Mi take Jong Hyun out and sit him on a bench, hoping he will calm down when he realizes he’s no longer in danger. Kang Mi hopes that Jong Hyun can give them a testimony for what happened that night. Jong Hyun says that after he finished Nam Sang Won’s errand, he headed back to the resort. However, he stumbled upon the scene where Nam Sang Won was murdered through a poisoned alcoholic drink.

That morning, the board and shareholders of Se Kang Group gather to vote on the next vice-chairman for the company. Jae Min shoots a superior smile at Hyun Min; even he knows he’s going to get all the votes to be vice-chairman.

Meanwhile, Woo Hyun drives to a remote countryside with his female passenger – Mrs. Nam. She had run out wanting to speak to Woo Hyun in private, somewhere where they wouldn’t be overheard by any wiretapping. Mrs. Nam knew that she was being watched in her own home, and that is why she couldn’t tell him and Hyuk Joo the truth when they visited. Back when her husband died, she had wanted an autopsy, but the police couldn’t do anything about it because her husband’s death was ruled as a heart attack.

Moments after she had asked for an autopsy, someone called to tell her her daughter had gotten into a car accident. That’s when Mrs. Nam noticed a patten: every time she tried to tell the truth about how her husband died, she would be a victim of a robbery, or of an arsonist. Someone wanted to shut her up, and so Mrs. Nam complied. For an entire year, she lived in fear, knowing that she was being watched and bugged. That’s why she sent her daughters far away overseas and made sure her mother was safe somewhere else.

Woo Hyun is curious as to why of all people, Mrs. Nam would admit this to him. Mrs. Nam: “Because – you’re Kim Woo Hyun.” So she knows him from before! Her husband had given Woo Hyun (or, old-Woo Hyun) a notebook that has a lot of evidence that could prove the real culprit in the murder. She wants to know where he’s kept the notebook, but Woo Hyun doesn’t know either! He doesn’t know where the most important piece of evidence that could prove everything is located!

Jae Min is voted as the vice-chairman after the vote, and he bows in acknowledgment to everyone clapping. Just then, Hyuk Joo bursts into the room, flashing his police badge. Hyuk Joo strides forward to the stage and looks right up at Hyun Min and Jae Min.

Who is he going to arrest?

Hyuk Joo goes right up to Jae Min: “You’re under arrest for the murder of Nam Sang Won.” Imagine the shock on Jae Min and his father’s face!

But for Hyun Min? He just smirks. His plan on framing his cousin just worked.

Comments:

Hyun Min, you sly dog. He’ll do anything to get his way and become the leader of the company. He’s already been able to manipulate his records so that it seemed like he was out of the country when Nam Sang Won and Hyo Jung died, so anything is possible with him. By giving his cousin a bad name, he’ll manage to oust both his uncle and his cousin. I bet he used his cousin’s company car and brought Shin Hyo Jung to the villa in it. Then he fooled with the records and made it seem like it was Jae Min who sent the money to Jong Hyun. That’s why the police thought that Jae Min did everything.

But aside from that, I’m really happy that this episode focused so much on the Nam Sang Won case, which is tied to the bigger picture of getting Phantom. What’s cool is that it’s not just Hyuk Joo, Kang Mi, and Woo Hyun who are looking for this killer because each have their own motives; Young Suk is slowly getting pulled deeper into this mystery with the mysterious “Kim Suk Joon,” who I’m hoping is going to play a bigger role in the “Phantom Case” sometime in the future. This was also the requisite episode where everyone starts catching up with each other. If we ever have an instance where two teams are on parallel paths on an investigation, at some point they’re going to have to converge, share their findings, and then capture the culprit together. To see Hyuk Joo and Woo Hyun work together in this episode was awesome because they’re such enemies, and yet the two of them can set aside their differences just this once for the greater good. I also love that you have the two best minds in this series coming together.

The conversation with Mrs. Nam though is a game-changer. She’s suddenly given hints that old-Woo Hyun is actually good. I was ready to accept that old-Woo Hyun was helping evil, but he could have just been a double agent. Based on what she said, it sounds like old-Woo Hyun had done his own investigations on Se Kang Group with Nam Sang Won’s help, and then got close to Hyun Min in order to nab him. This also gives Woo Hyun/Ki Young that much more power; apparently the truth rests on him now – as long as he can locate that notebook.

And this writer is infamous for making evidence appear and then disappear like that. 

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