Ghost: Episode 12

by kaedejun

In light of recent events, and to Rose‘s amazing suggestion, I am officially renaming our main character “Woo-Young.” “Woo-Young” refers to Ki Young with Woo Hyun’s face. “Woo Hyun” will henceforth refer to the one who died in the blast, and “Ki Young” will refer to Ki Young in the flashbacks.

I hope that makes sense! Let’s see if this naming system works!

SONG OF THE DAY

“Tears Come to My Eyes Because of You” by Lee Soo Young – Ghost OST [download]

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So Woo-Young told the truth – that he’s not really Woo Hyun because Woo Hyun died in the blast. I don’t blame Hyuk Joo for not believing him at first – after all, he is staring at Woo Hyun’s face. But slowly it dawns upon Hyuk Joo that he’s really talking to Woo-Young/Ki Young, and that the man in front of him is the one who killed Shin Hyo Jung and Han Young Suk. He dives for another punch, but Woo-Young deftly steps out of the way and handcuffs Hyuk Joo against the car door. Guess he was prepared for that punch.

Hyuk Joo demands to be set free, as he’ll never listen to a word that comes out of Woo-Young’s mouth. Woo-Young: “I don’t care if you believe me or not – just shut up and listen!” Hyuk Joo and I have never heard him yell like that, so we both shut up and listen.

Woo-Young explains that the explosion in the factory was no accident, and that Shin Hyo Jung’s killer set up the explosion too. He insists he’s not Hyo Jung’s killer because if he were, pretending to be Woo Hyun and entering the lion’s den would just be suicide. He only wanted to catch the real criminal, and Woo Hyun knew that criminal.

Hyuk Joo doesn’t believe it; the Woo Hyun he knew was an upstanding man who would have arrested the killer at first sight. Not true, says Woo-Young, and that’s because Woo Hyun was on the same side as the killer. How does he know this? Because Woo Hyun was with that killer when Nam Sang Won was murdered – in villa 15, as was suspected. Hyuk Joo realizes all those anomaly evidences are finally matching up to Woo-Young’s version of the truth, rather than the planted truth that points the finger at Jae Min. Because Hyo Jung kept a video file that proved the real killer, a video that showed Woo Hyun there at Nam’s death, she was killed. It explains why her car was at villa 15 that night too.

It’s a bit unbelievable for our Mad Cow, but suppose Woo-Young is right – then where is this file that Hyo Jung kept? Woo-Young says it was burned in the explosion and so the evidence no longer exists. However, Woo Hyun as a body does – and so he’ll be able to dig for the truth this way. Since Woo Hyun knew the real killer, the photo of him with Hyun Min proves that Hyun Min is the real killer.

There’s more evidence proving that Hyun Min is the real killer too. Kang Mi steps out of the shadows, revealing her involvement in Woo-Young’s ruse. Hyuk Joo is quite mad now, especially when he realizes that she switched the dental reports during the autopsy on Woo Hyun’s body. Kang Mi says that there’s a copy of the hard disk on a USB drive, so they need to find it. Hyuk Joo doesn’t remember coming across a USB though when he was looking for the envelope of photos, so it’s not in the car.

Woo-Young realizes he knows exactly where it is. He and Kang Mi start to leave, but then Hyuk Joo calls them back – are they seriously going to leave him there, handcuffed?! Before Woo-Young would agree to release him, he wants Hyuk Joo to decide if they can work side by side to catch the real killer. Once the real killer is arrested, then Hyuk Joo can do whatever he wants to him as Ki Young.

Hyuk Joo agrees. He’s not going to work with him because he trusts him – oh no! – but because if Woo-Young wrongs him in any way, he’ll put him in jail right away. Fair enough.

And our Three Musketeers head out!

They head back to the local precinct where they find a small USB part of Young Suk’s belongings. A quick check on the USB shows that there’s no copy of a hard drive in it. Uh-oh, was Kang Mi sure about her findings? However Woo-Young finds an encrypted code – one that proves Young Suk was murdered.

The next morning, Woo-Young and Hyuk Joo report to Director Jun’s office. They have evidence that Young Suk was murdered, but they’ll need to take him to a car first. Eh? They all pile in to Woo-Young’s car, and Woo-Young shows him the USB. Let’s say that Young Suk was knocked out and injected with large volumes of alcohol to increase his blood content level; the car would then have a fake accelerator like a brick, and be controlled remotely. But there was no fake accelerator on the gas pedal – only the USB. Woo-Young had found that the encrypted code was actually a virus that allowed the killer to hack into the car’s electronic control unit, and take control over the accelerator.

Hyuk Joo straps himself into the backseat using two seat belts, criss-crossed over his body, and grips tightly to the handle above the window. He advises Director Jun to do the same, as Woo-Young is going to do a demonstration. He inserts the USB into his car, then accelerates the car. It starts speeding up as it races through the parking lot… 50km/hr… 60km/hr… 70km/hr… The car nearly reaches 100km/hr, and the wall at the end of the parking lot is approaching ever more quickly!

Director Jun and Hyuk Joo freak out, telling Woo-Young to stop accelerating. But Woo-Young’s foot isn’t even on the gas pedal. At the last minute, Woo-Young slams on the brakes and turns the wheel, swerving just out of harm’s way. Poor Director Jun and Hyuk Joo – both looked like they were going to have a heart attack!

Woo-Young proves that it’s possible to override the hack if one slams on the brakes; Young Suk could have done it too to save himself, but he didn’t because he was knocked out. This all points to premeditated murder.

Director Jun allows them to reinvestigate.

The car is sent to the forensics lab for more analysis, while Tae Gyun analyzes the malignant virus. Woo-Young tries to find evidence of another USB device that could have had a copy of the hard drive, while Hyuk Joo… can’t get over how alike Woo-Young and Woo Hyun look. Haha! He still can’t fully trust a guy who took on another identity to infiltrate the police agency. Woo-Young: “Were you born this way? You know, being suspicious is a disease. You need to go to the hospital.” Hahaha!

It’s not like Woo-Young wanted to change his identity like this, but he’s doing it to pursue the truth – it’s unjust if an innocent man is made a criminal with no real justification.

At the funeral, one more visitor comes to pay his respects to Young Suk. It’s Hyun Min, of all people. The gall of that man. He says that Young Suk “helped him greatly,” and that if his surviving family ever needs anything, they can contact him. Ugh. Young Suk’s wife thanks him gratefully, and so based on her attitude, Hyun Min realizes that she has not received her husband’s belongings from the precinct yet, including a possible USB with the hard drive copy.

So he knows about a copy! His spies are everywhere!

Tae Gyun completes his analysis of the virus and reports to Hyuk Joo and Kang Mi. It’s a never-before-seen virus, and one that has no anti-virus software against it. However, it’s virus patterns (where it looks like a car firmware update, but it’s really not) resemble a test virus created by Safe Tech when they were demonstrating a car hacking. Woo-Young has already gone ahead to check it out, and for once, Hyuk Joo isn’t blustering about why Woo-Young left again without notice.

Woo-Young is led to the seat where the man who made that test virus for Safe Tech sits; of course, it’s Jae Hee. Woo-Young surreptitiously takes a video of all the books on the table, and a report on the car hacking simulation. He notices the ID, and when he sees Jae Hee’s face on it, his eyes widen with fear. It’s the man who had tried to kill him in the hospital, which means, it’s Vans Man, which means he’s the one who set up the explosion.

And when he turns around to see Jae Hee’s smiling face, Woo-Young’s worst fears are confirmed. But he smiles – there’s a face to the real killer, and he’s within his grasp.

Sang Woo returns from forensics with his report: they found that there were two pieces of glass in the car – one from the car window, and another belonging to a pair of glasses. Young Suk never wore glasses, so it suggests that there was someone else in the car. In addition, there was blood found on that piece of glass, and it belonged to a man with type AB – not Young Suk.

Close up on Jae Hee, and we see him cleaning his shiny new glasses, and a small cut right over his cheekbone. Woo-Young remains neutral when he comments on the risks of Jae Hee’s virus being leaked out. He asks where the cut came from, and Jae Hee dismisses it as an accident when he walked into something. In Woo-Young’s mind’s eye, the more likely scenario is that while Jae Hee was injecting the alcohol, Young Suk was feigning sleep. As soon as Jae Hee got close, he attacked Jae Hee and knocked his glasses off. Jae Hee then chloroformed Young Suk, and then retrieved his broken glasses.

Woo-Young compliments Jae Hee on his new glasses, which raises Jae Hee’s eyebrow. It’s a weird comment, but not too impossible – what if Woo Hyun had met him before, and saw the old glasses? Woo-Young also did see a glasses case on Jae Hee’s table…

Kang Mi comes up with no results on the DNA of the blood sample, or a match on the prescription of the glasses as their databases don’t have this “particular person.” Thankfully Woo-Young bursts into the room with the answer. He has the broken glass pieces from Jae Hee’s old glasses, having visited Jae Hee’s optometrist to find out what happened. Hyuk Joo is all suspicious on how Woo-Young knows exactly that the suspect visited his optometrist (hacking again!?). But Woo-Young has more solid proof – he met with Jae Hee, and he fits the profile. He reminds Kang Mi about the Vans shoes, and suddenly she realizes he’s right about Jae Hee, having run away from him before in the hospital.

Se Kang Group is doing badly with the recent fund losses from their affiliate companies, all due to Jae Min’s scandal. Kyung Shin has already made it known that he’ll be firing Hyun Min at the next meeting, and Director Moon advises Hyun Min to get rid of Jae Hee. The police are circling around Jae Hee, and if he gets arrested, Hyun Min’s involvement will be revealed.

Hyun Min decides to meet with his uncle first, and “beg.” He’s not going to resign or allow himself to be dismissed. Kyung Shin taunts him – will he write a will like his father? Hyun Min replies, “You sent that bottle of liquor to my father, didn’t you?”

Flashback! Young, innocent, happy Hyun Min finds his father despondently staring at a good bottle of liquor on the table. He tells his father he’s not going back to Japan for studies, choosing to stay by his dad’s side instead. Kyung Moon knows he’s blocking his son’s future, as he’ll be labeled a criminal, and won’t be the owner of Se Kang anymore. “You have to remember why I had this drink,” he tells his son, and then has Hyun Min get him so ice from the liquor cabinet.

By the time Hyun Min turns around with ice in hand, his father has collapsed on the floor, dead from the poisoned alcohol. Oh God – so not only did his father die in front of his very eyes, but poisoned alcohol would make sense as his preferred method of revenge killing.

Kyung Shin reminds Hyun Min that it was suicide, not murder. He specifically told Kyung Moon that there was poison in it; Kyung Moon just chose to drink it, which makes it suicide. Kyung Shin thinks Hyun Min has nothing now – and boy is that smug look on his face annoying – but that’s not true. Money and bribery may have worked for Kyung Shin in the past, but not anymore. There are more hidden cards up Hyun Min’s sleeve than just Prosecutor Im. He hands his uncle a white envelope; this is one of them. Kyung Shin can just retire quietly, or even die, to protect Jae Min.

Jae Hee leaves his company, notifying Hyun Min that he’s going to go on vacation until suspicion dies down. When he gets into his car, he sees a USB attached to his car; from the rearview mirror, he sees Woo-Young pointing a car key in his direction. Jae Hee freaks out and stumbles out of the car – only to see Woo-Young press a button, and his car behind him beeps. Nice fake-out. Woo-Young: “Were you afraid you’d end up like Detective Han?” There’s no point in Jae Hee running now – they matched his glasses to the lens found in the scene of the crime. He’s the killer.

Jae Hee dashes back into the building and runs up the stairs – only to bump into Hyuk Joo. He slowly inches back into the parking lot and dashes off in a different direction… while Hyuk Joo and Woo-Young calmly follow. Jae Hee’s path is blocked off by a car – and Sang Woo steps out, drawing out his gun to stop him. One more escape route: Jae Hee runs up the ramp to exit the parking lot – only to be blocked by Kang Mi, her gun drawn out as well. He. Is. Screwed.

Woo-Young slaps the handcuffs on Jae Hee: “You are under arrest for the murder of Detective Han Young Suk, and Lieutenant Kim Woo Hyun.”

Outside, Hyun Min watches from his car Jae Hee being led to the police station. He allows Jae Hee to have one good look at him. Uh oh… I think Jae Hee’s gonna die…

In the interrogation room, Woo-Young tries to get Jae Hee to confess to his crimes, but Jae Hee wants his lawyer. So Woo-Young turns off the camera. Off the record, he tells Jae Hee that he tried to kill him twice – in the factory and in the hospital. Jae Hee’s not sure what he’s talking about, and I’m not sure if Jae Hee knows he’s talking to Ki Young and not Woo Hyun.

All Woo-Young wants is Jae Hee to admit to a name: Jo Hyun Min. He might as well confess, since Hyun Min will kill him whether he does or doesn’t. Jae Hee is crazy stubborn – he won’t say a word without his attorney.

Woo-Young and Kang Mi leave the interrogation area to pick up Hyuk Joo – they’re all going to the funeral to give Mrs. Han her husband’s belongings. It’s a heartbreaking moment for all of them – with Woo-Young being more emotional than I expected him to be. Hyuk Joo tells the wife that Young Suk was never drunk, and that he was “sacrificed” for investigating a murder case. Though still painful, it’s more comforting for the family to know that Han Young Suk died a hero.

The next day, an investigator hands over the clothing that was with Young Suk on the day he died. It’s time for that to also be returned to the family. Kang Mi accepts it, and removes it from the evidence bag to refold the blazer. She hears something clink against the table, and rifles through the pockets. It’s a USB.

Flashback! And we see that when Young Suk first discovered the contents of that laptop, he made a copy of it on his USB. The safest place he could think of was his blazer pocket.

Kang Mi hands it over to Woo-Young and Hyuk Joo, and they quickly check the contents. It’s really a copy of the hard drive. Files are broken up into years, dating from 1991 to 1999. In the 1999 folder, they find documents related to the political slush fund case, and a report on illegal compensations made to various people – including Nam Sang Won (Kyung Moon’s financial director), Im Chi Hyun (the prosecutor), Kim Suk Joon (the head of the investigation), and Kang Yoon Ho (Kyung Moon’s secretary). All of them were closest to the case or closest to Kyung Moon. All of them were paid off… by Kyung Shin.

When Kyung Shin opens the envelope that contains Hyun Min’s “first card,” it is a copy of that same records, showing that Kyung Shin paid off all these people to frame his brother.

Kang Mi is confused though – this document does not lead to Nam Sang Won’s real murderer, because if it were leaked, it would be very favorable towards Hyun Min. However, a conversation that Hyun Min and Director Moon have on the side proves otherwise. Though on the surface, people would think that the files are just painting Kyung Shin in a bad light, Hyun Min knows that if they dig deeper, they’ll find the truth. That’s why Hyun Min is still desperate to get that file.

And our Three Musketeers would dig deeper, because they know the truth – they just need the evidence to prove the truth. Woo-Young orders them to search the USB for any more suspicious files in it, and then gets a call from the front desk. They have a guest – guess who!?

Our Three Musketeers march down the hallway to come face-to-face with Hyun Min! Hyun Min claims that he wanted to visit his employee being held in the station. Woo-Young can’t allow that – if there is risk of an accomplice coming to destroy evidence or aid an escape, then no visitors are allowed. Hehe – Hyuk Joo is practically hiding his glee at seeing Hyun Min stonewalled.

But Hyun Min doesn’t want to waste his trip to the station – so he invites Woo-Young for a cup of coffee. Woo-Young agrees, and Hyuk Joo’s eyes widen. What!? Doing one more thing without my approval!? Or under my gaze?!

Hyun Min makes it clear to Woo-Young that Se Kang will not get involved with Jae Hee, and so Woo-Young can investigate as much as he wants. Woo-Young finds that strange, as if they do get to the truth of the matter, Hyun Min would end up in trouble. But Hyun Min’s not scared – he’s not hiding anything.

Kang Mi and Hyuk Joo return to their office, with Kang Mi off to analyze the USB and Hyuk Joo to question Jae Hee about  it. However, when Kang Mi sits down at the computer – the USB is gone! Neither Hyuk Joo or Woo-Young have it. It’s missing!

When Woo-Young gets the call from Kang Mi about it, he excuses himself quickly. Suddenly he realizes that Hyun Min was just there to lure them all out of the office. He was acting as a distraction for his inside man to go and steal the USB. Cripes.

When Hyun Min leaves the station, he passes by Jae Hee, being led away in handcuffs by two officers. Jae Hee has a small smile, thinking that Hyun Min has come to help him. However, Hyun Min coldly says, “Let’s go.” The smile fades quickly from Jae Hee’s face, and his legs go weak. Yep – he’s been completely abandoned by Hyun Min.

Kang Mi hits herself on the head for being so stupid and leaving the USB unattended. Then again, they are at a police station, and they thought they were safe. But there are spies within the bureau for Hyun Min, just as Woo Hyun had said before. The spy knew that Young Suk had the laptop, but they didn’t necessarily follow him; if they followed him and saw him make a copy, they would have stopped it before it got any further. Only our Three Musketeers knew about the laptop… plus Tae Gyun – whom Young Suk had called to ask on how to turn on the laptop.

NOOO! Not my cutie Tae Gyun! He can’t be a spy!!

But when Tae Gyun took the call, Sang Woo, Eung Jin, and Hye Ram were all in the room as well, and they heard about the laptop Young Suk found. Any one of those four people could be the spy.

Jae Hee fidgets in his interrogation room. He’s going to die soon – he can feel it! – so he requests to meet with Woo-Young and confess. At that same moment, Woo-Young remembers that Hyun Min has effectively abandoned Jae Hee. Now that he has the USB, thanks to his trusty spy, he can get rid of Jae Hee.

The three of them rush to the interrogation room, hoping to get to Jae Hee before he is put into danger. But it’s too late… someone – the spy – has already entered the room and given Jae Hee the scare of his life. By the time Hyuk Joo, Kang Mi, and Woo-Young reach the interrogation room, Jae Hee is dead.

Their evidence is all gone.

Comments:

UGH STUPID WRITER – WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!? DELETE EVERY SINGLE PATH TO THE EVIDENCE! GRRRR! THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU! I HATE YOU BUT I LOVE YOU!

Rant over.

Once again, our wonderful Three Musketeers must start from scratch and try to find a way to nab Hyun Min. (On a purely scriptwriting note, I feel that this gives us an opportunity to have a new case, separate from Hyun Min, for an episode or two.) The writer did the same thing with Sign, where every time new evidence popped up, it disappeared thanks to some inside job. So frustrating! But it makes it so good, because our protagonists are forced to be creative and dig even deeper in searching for the truth.

(By the way – it feels nice to be able to write Three Musketeers and have Hyuk Joo and Woo-Young on the same team. Better than writing about how they keep yelling at each other back and forth.)

We always knew there would be spies in the cyber crime team, and that there were sympathizers within the bureau towards Hyun Min. However, I didn’t expect to have to confront it just yet. I was still stuck on believing Director Jun is evil in some way, but it’s less likely that he’s a sympathizer for Hyun Min now. Chief Shin is glaringly absent in recent episodes too. I’m betting that our spy is either Eung Jin or Hye Ram. Eung Jin – because he’s capable of it. Hye Ram – because she’s quiet, and one should always be wary of the quiet ones. I refuse to believe it’s cutie pie Tae Gyun, or my dear Sang Woo, because if it’s either of them I will lose all faith in humanity in this series.

Once again, I find myself torn in whether I want Hyun Min to succeed or not. He’s ruthless – but so is his uncle. I want both of them taken down – but maybe I want the uncle to die first, and then Hyun Min to get caught.

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