Mystery Queen: Episode 2

by HappilyEverAfter

The focus shifts gears to Wan-seung today, and we learn about how things led up to his run-in with Seol-ok at the market last episode. For the most part, Wan-seung’s personality is as prickly as his “thug-like” appearance suggested, but we see a few cracks in his shell, and it seems that there’s a lot to his history that’s left to be uncovered.

EPISODE 2 RECAP

We backtrack to the fight scene that opened the first episode, with Detective Wan-seung pinning a screaming Jang Do-jang to the floor. As Jang futilely tries to escape, Wan-seung reads him his rights; our determined detective keeps a steady hold on the thug and blacks out only when the reinforcements arrive.

Wan-seung is rushed to the hospital in an ambulance as Dong-ki sobs over his unconscious friend. Dong-ki stops his wailing to pick up a call from team leader Kwang-tae, who scoffs at the idea that Wan-seung could die so easily.

Kwang-tae himself is investigating the gang’s home base when he gets a call from his superior, who rips him to shreds for not finding any of the drugs. Frustrated, Kwang-tae leans out a nearby window to get some fresh air… which is when he notices one of the thugs hanging precariously off the window ledge right below. More importantly, tied to the thug’s trembling wrist is locker key #49. Bingo!

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Dong-ki frantically begs for the doctors to save Wan-seung, when suddenly, Wan-seung lets out a loud snore. Haha, oh my god, he was sleeping!

The next day, Dong-ki and Kwang-tae visit Wan-seung at the hospital, and they update him on the drug investigation. Kwang-tae shows Wan-seung the locker key he found, explaining how he had accompanied the thug to the crime scene at Bangtan Market afterwards.

Inside Locker 49 were 2.7 kilograms of drugs, and in the present, Wan-seung comments that it’s worth around eight billion won. Dong-ki worries that they still won’t be able to link the drugs directly to gang leader Jang Do-jang, and Kwang-tae wonders if one of the thugs would squeal on their boss.

At the police station, Kwang-tae yells at the rowdy thugs to quiet down to no effect, and Wan-seung is oddly calm as he stops typing at the computer. He gets up and violently smashes the keyboard onto the desk, bits and pieces of the keyboard flying across the room as the thugs cower in fear. Suddenly, they’re much more willing to cooperate with the investigation.

A smartly dressed woman walks through the police station, her beauty captivating everyone around her. She hands Kwang-tae her business card and introduces herself as Attorney JUNG JI-WON (Shin Hyun-bin) from the high-profile Ha & Jung Law Firm.

She explains that she’s here for Jang Do-jang, and when Kwang-tae tries to send her off to talk to the legal team, she just asks to see the section chief (Kwang-tae’s superior). As soon as Ji-won walks out of the room, Kwang-tae calls Dong-ki and Wan-seung over for an emergency meeting, panicking that they don’t have enough evidence to prove that Jang Do-jang was trafficking drugs.

At that moment, Kwang-tae gets a call from the section chief, and Kwang-tae sighs that Jang Do-jang will probably get released soon. Wan-seung complains that he busted his head to catch that bastard, and Kwang-tae fires right back that he busted his chin to catch that same bastard.

In the bathroom with Kwang-tae, Wan-seung wonders why a lawyer from Ha & Jung would represent a thug like Jang Do-jang. Wan-seung comments that he knows the law firm will try pressuring the police bosses and manipulating the media.

Kwang-tae grumbles that the lawyer is already pressuring the section chief as they speak. Unwilling to let their hard work go to waste, Kwang-tae proposes stalling the section chief while Wan-seung interrogates Jang Do-jang. Kwang-tae reminds Wan-seung that he’s a human lie detector and urges him to get something, anything, from the interrogation.

At the section chief’s office, Ji-won comments that the police sure are violent these days. She describes Jang Do-jang as someone who simply used self-defense against detectives who were abusing their authority, and Kwang-tae indignantly exclaims that one of the thugs hit Wan-seung in the head with a metal pipe — anyone other than Wan-seung (who’s abnormally hardheaded) would’ve died from a concussion!

Kwang-tae continues that they have testimony from the underlings, and Ji-won simply responds that testimonies from forced investigations are not admissible in court. She hands a file over to the section chief and reveals the CCTV photos of Wan-seung grabbing one thug by the collar, getting ready to beat him up.

She wonders aloud if it’s okay for a detective to treat a minor like this and spins a sob story about the young thug being unfairly assaulted by the police, commenting that the media would be sure to have a field day with this. She adds pointedly that it’s a pity the section chief won’t get his upcoming promotion after this story comes out.

Outraged, the section chief demands to know if he looks like someone who’d do anything for a promotion, and Ji-won just smilingly denies it. Regaining his cool, the section chief tells Kwang-tae to let Jang Do-jang out, and Kwang-tae protests the injustice. It seems like Kwang-tae was expecting this from his spineless boss, though — Kwang-tae glances the clock as he complains, doing his best to stall for more time.

In the interrogation room, Wan-seung offers Jang Do-jang a cigarette, but the gang boss declines it, explaining that it’s bad for his health. Jang wonders where his attorney is, itching to be released so that he can get back to his international import and export “business.”

Wan-seung responds that if he were Jang, he’d rather stay in jail, as the yakuza won’t be too forgiving when they find out that Jang has lost an important “item” that was supposed to go to Japan. Hiding the worry on his face, Jang pretends like he doesn’t know what Wan-seung is talking about and just comments that Wan-seung must be pretty embarrassed to have no evidence on him after all this investigating.

Making a slicing motion across his neck, Wan-seung replies darkly that quitting smoking won’t do any good for Jang’s longevity if he can’t find the “item” the yakuza are bound to come after him for, and Jang just says that he’ll make sure to check carefully if any “items” are missing or not once he’s released.

Ji-won steps into the interrogation room and begins to introduce herself to Wan-seung, but he refuses to even spare her a glance. It doesn’t bother her in the least though, and she walks out with Jang following behind her.

Wan-seung updates his team with his hunch, convinced that Jang has no idea that they have the locker key. Wan-seung explains that Jang is sure to check on the drugs at the lockers himself because he won’t trust anyone else to do it, and the detectives agree that if they can catch Jang red-handed this time, even an expensive lawyer won’t do him any good.

A quick montage shows the detectives staking out the lockers at Bangtan Market day after day, waiting for Jang to show up. One night, someone spray paints the CCTV cameras and starts breaking open the lockers. It’s Jang Do-jang of course, and he takes a few items from the lockers, not realizing that the detectives are watching his every move from a car nearby.

Suddenly, Jang hears footsteps approaching and readies his knife. The security guard on duty is shocked to happen upon the crime scene, but Jang has already disappeared by then. Dong-ki complains that they weren’t able to catch Jang, but Wan-seung just tells the police to circulate a notice that the lockers will be replaced immediately. He’s sure that Jang will come back for his very expensive drugs.

The detectives stake out the lockers again, and this time, we see Seol-ok arriving at the market after lying to her mother-in-law about her constipation. She calls the police officer, Joon-oh, to let him know that she’s in the photo booth, but she tells him not to come to the scene, reasoning that the criminal won’t show up if he sees the police. Joon-oh tries to tell Seol-ok that it’s too dangerous, but Seol-ok insists that she’ll call when she spots the criminal and hangs up, leaving Joon-oh without recourse.

At that very moment, Wan-seung walks into the photo booth, and both scream at the sight of one another. Seol-ok falls on top of Wan-seung and takes a second to recognize him before running off, screaming even more loudly than before. Wan-seung and Dong-ki chase after her, only to realize that she’s with the police, and they groan at their mistake. Seol-ok urges Joon-oh and Earnest Cop to go after the “criminals,” and they leave her behind.

After clarifying the situation to Joon-oh, Wan-seung rushes back to the crime scene and hides behind a wall. As he expected, Jang Do-jang is back for the drugs, and Wan-seung smiles knowing that he’s caught Jang red-handed.

Wan-seung continues watching when Seol-ok approaches Jang, wondering how this ajumma is involved in the case. That’s when Wan-seung notices Jang reaching for his knife and rushes in to save Seol-ok; Wan-seung’s arm gets sliced in the process, his blood splattering over Seol-ok’s blouse. (Ah, so she wasn’t stabbed after all.)

Seol-ok faints from the shock as Wan-seung wrestles with Jang, forcing him to the ground. From the corner of his eye, Wan-seung spots the unconscious Seol-ok, and it brings back memories of himself as a teenager, crying over a bloodied and unconscious girl while surrounded by flames.

When Dong-ki arrives on the scene and grabs onto Jang Do-jang, Wan-seung subconsciously makes his way towards Seol-ok as he recalls his traumatic teenage memory. He had somberly carried his “Eun-soo noona” through the streets as blood dripped from her body; in the present, Wan-seung carries a limp Seol-ok in the same way, barely able to hold back his tears as he runs to save her.

As Seol-ok comes to, she blinks a few times before Wan-seung’s face comes into focus… and then she screams, flailing her arms around for good measure. The dramatic moment is cut short, and they fall to the ground. Seol-ok shrieks as she flails and tries to crawl away from Wan-seung, and he grabs onto her to clarify the misunderstanding.

Luckily, Joon-oh happens upon the scene and explains that Wan-seung is a detective. Joon-oh asks Seol-ok if she’s all right, pointing out the blood on her clothes, and it’s only then that Seol-ok realizes that Wan-seung’s arm is bleeding heavily.

Kwang-tae arrives on the scene and urges Wan-seung to get his arm treated lest he die of an infection. Dong-ki walks past them with a subdued Jang Do-jang in hand, but oddly enough, Jang looks completely unafraid. He even turns back to shoot Wan-seung a smirk.

At the pharmacy, as Seol-ok helps Wan-seung apply the ointment, she asks him why he cried earlier. He brushes it off, and she doesn’t press the issue, only reminding him to apply the ointment often.

Outside, Joon-oh offers to give Seol-ok a ride home, but Wan-seung interjects, insisting that Seol-ok needs to be investigated too. Joon-oh argues that he can vouch for Seol-ok’s innocence, but thanks to Seol-ok needing to hide the truth from her mother-in-law, Joon-oh knows nothing about Seol-ok — not her name, not her age, and not even her phone number.

Seol-ok then plays the prosecutor-husband card, expecting Wan-seung to back down, but he just asks for her husband’s name. She hesitates a bit before revealing that her husband is Prosecutor Kim Ho-chul, and Wan-seung stares at her in shock.

Thinking that she’s won, Seol-ok smirks — only for Wan-seung to respond, “I really don’t like prosecutors, but I especially hate that jerk Kim Ho-chul!” Haha. He tells her there’s even more reason for him to investigate her now as he drags her over to his car.

In the car, Dong-ki and Wan-seung ask Seol-ok how she knew that Jang Do-jang would come back to the lockers, and she answers timidly that it was just her curiosity. She apologizes for interrupting their investigation and begs Wan-seung to take her home.

Wan-seung does take Seol-ok home, but not before yelling at her for getting herself into so much danger. He reminds her that a crime scene is no place for games and threatens to arrest her for interfering in official investigations the next time she appears in front of him.

On her way back to the house, Seol-ok sees an ambulance in front and asks the paramedic what’s going on. He explains that there’s a constipated patient who collapsed inside the bathroom, and it dawns on Seol-ok that she’s the constipated patient. She begs the paramedic to help her, so he lets her sneak into the bathroom when her mother-in-law, Kyung-suk, gets distracted by the ringing phone.

When the paramedic tells Kyung-suk that she can open the door now, Kyung-suk frantically bursts inside the bathroom, and Seol-ok pretends that she has just regained consciousness. She explains away the blood as a nosebleed from pushing too hard, and assures her mother-in-law that she’s fine.

Seol-ok’s sister-in-law, Ho-soon, who had been outside with a lover when she spotted Seol-ok sneaking back into the house, arrives home and asks suspiciously what happened. Realizing that Seol-ok has lied to her mother, Ho-soon asks Seol-ok for some money in return for keeping her mouth shut, and Seol-ok can only reluctantly acquiesce.

At the police station, Kwang-tae gets a congratulatory call from the section chief, and Wan-seung reminds Kwang-tae to get him promoted this time. Kwang-tae heads off to the section chief’s office, where the section chief begins with a vague apology.

The section chief passes a file to Kwang-tae, telling him that it’s the headliner for tomorrow’s newspapers and — oh no, it’s the pictures of Wan-seung beating up the young thug! The section chief suggests to Kwang-tae that they dispatch Wan-seung to a police substation for now to avoid the public backlash, and Kwang-tae groans in frustration.

At karaoke, Wan-seung and Dong-ki sing their heart out happily, celebrating their success as Kwang-tae looks on with a pained expression. Boiling over the indignity of Wan-seung’s demotion, Kwang-tae grabs the mic and yells at Wan-seung: “You put your life at stake to catch a culprit, but look at the result you’ve reaped!” Kwang-tae chucks the mic aside, but Wan-seung remains oblivious and responds cheerily that he’s reaped a promotion.

Kwang-tae tries to give Wan-seung a vacation, asking if he has a girlfriend, but Wan-seung just exclaims that he’s married to the citizens of the country. Nervously beating around the bush, Kwang-tae suggests that Wan-seung go on a honeymoon with the citizens of the country, to a nice and quiet place… like a police substation. At that, Wan-seung drops his mic and glares at Kwang-tae, finally realizing that he’s been demoted.

At the police station, Wan-seung sits in front of Jang Do-jang, thinking back to his times with Eun-soo, his girlfriend from when he was a teenager. He recalls both the happy memories and the traumatic ones (like her covered in blood) as he continuously kicks at Jang Do-jang’s cell, and finally annoyed with the nonstop kicking, Jang gets up to confront Wan-seung. Wan-seung, however, just turns to leave, leaving Jang to comment that he thought Wan-seung had something to ask him — something personal.

In the morning, Lazy Cop complains to Earnest Cop about the arrival of Wan-seung, who’s currently snoring away on the bench of their police substation. Joon-oh greets him, and Wan-seung just asks brusquely if he was the one who submitted the detective-dispatching proposal.

When Joon-oh explains excitedly how he expects this initiative to improve the neighborhood, Wan-seung just reminds Joon-oh that his nickname is the “Seodong Station Drug Sniffing Dog.” Wan-seung (literally) barks at Joon-oh, warning him, “Be careful, or you might just get bit.”

At home, Seol-ok is busying herself with the chores as her mother-in-law nags. Kyung-suk tells her that there’s a timed sale on eggs at the supermarket today and asks her to buy five cases, unwilling to listen to Seol-ok’s protests that buying even one case would be difficult.

At the supermarket, Seol-ok uses her sleuthing skills, taking note of the uniforms and movements of each employee, to deduce the exact location of the timed sale. She successfully obtains the five cases to the awe of the other ajummas, who wonder how she knew the eggs would be sold at that exact spot.

On her way home, Seol-ok runs into Joon-oh at the site of a burglary investigation. He tells her that because the homeowner called the police while he was drunk, he doesn’t remember reporting it, and Joon-oh notes that even the homeowner’s statement is completely incoherent. Seol-ok asks Joon-oh if she can take a look around the site, but Joon-oh hesitates, worrying that Wan-seung would find out.

Inside the house, Wan-seung carelessly walks around the crime scene, sure that the burglar came through the now-shattered window, cleaned out everything in two of the rooms, and left through the front door.

He reminds Joon-oh that he’s a human lie detector and then leans in as he accuses Joon-oh of hiding something. Cut to: Seol-ok and her shopping cart of eggs hiding behind a wall in the house, waiting for Joon-oh’s signal.

Back inside, Wan-seung reassures Joon-oh that he was just kidding and comments that there’s nothing left for him to do here, so he’ll let Joon-oh wrap up the investigation. As soon as Wan-seung leaves, Joon-oh calls out to Seol-ok, and she eagerly runs out.

She spots a cart of sand outside the house and notes it curiously before dragging her shopping cart of eggs to the front of the house. Seol-ok looks around the inside of the house and comments that it’s strange. “This isn’t the scene of a burglary,” she says. “Something else happened here.”

Outside, Wan-seung is still around, and he spies on Seol-ok through the window, noting that his hunch about Joon-oh lying was right. He scoffs to see Seol-ok again and says he’ll show her how serious of a crime it is to interfere with official duties.

As Seol-ok explains that the criminal is someone who’s familiar with the house, Wan-seung quietly takes a seat on her shopping-cart of eggs (uh-oh!) and observes her making her deductions.

Seol-ok suggests that the burglary is being used to hide another crime, something much worse, like murder. The police officers are all shocked, and Seol-ok reaffirms it: “Someone was killed here.”

COMMENTS

I’m not usually a fan of the mystery genre, but I absolutely love the interplay between the comedic and dramatic moments in this drama. Sometimes, there are moments where the viewer can tell that the show is making a joke about typical drama tropes — Dong-ki’s exaggerated sobbing over Wan-seung in the ambulance was a clear sign that Wan-seung would be perfectly fine — but sometimes, the comedy comes as a surprise; never in a million years did I expect Wan-seung’s tragic memory (complete with sad piano music and a rainy backdrop!) to be interrupted by Seol-ok’s hilarious screaming and flailing.

I do wonder what happened between Wan-seung and his Eun-soo noona though, and it came as a surprise that Wan-seung might have a personal grievance, related to Eun-soo, against Jang Do-jang. For the most part, even though Wan-seung was rough with Jang, it had always seemed like an average detective-criminal relationship prior to the jail cell scene, and the drama had portrayed Wan-seung to be pretty levelheaded when dealing with Jang, especially during the interrogation.

Jang’s smirk after his second arrest worries me — it’s almost like he was waiting for Wan-seung to catch him. There’s definitely something bigger than just the yakuza here if Ha & Jung Law Firm are willing to defend a thug like Jang, and it makes me wonder how deep the story goes. Seems like Wan-seung and the rest of his team could use a logical thinker with a love for complex mysteries on their side.

Speaking of Seol-ok, this is a heroine that I can definitely get behind. I love her earnestness for solving mysteries, even if she’s resigned herself to being an average housewife for now. Undaunted by her near-experience with death, she just can’t help her curiosity — can you imagine what she would be capable of if she didn’t have to sneak around behind her mother-in-law’s back?

As patronizing and passive-aggressive as Kyung-suk can be, however, I did appreciate that she at least seemed to genuinely care when she thought that Seol-ok fainted from constipation. Kyung-suk is by no means a warmhearted mother-in-law, and perhaps my standards are pretty low thanks to all the terrible mother-in-laws in dramaland, but I’m glad that at least she’s not heartless.

For that reason, I’m not sure that I’m really rooting for Seol-ok to get divorced yet — I definitely want her to stand up to Kyung-suk and show her mother-in-law exactly what she’s capable of, but I believe there’s hope for Kyung-suk to redeem herself. Besides, divorce should probably be decided based on Seol-ok’s relationship with her husband, and while she doesn’t seem overly attached to him, she doesn’t seem to detest him either.

I’m curious about this high-and-mighty Prosecutor Kim Ho-chul, though. It’s already the second episode in and he hasn’t made his appearance yet, so I’m wondering if he’s just going to be an insignificant part of the story, or if he just has a larger role to play later on. His very career as a prosecutor means that Seol-ok is bound to run into him on one of her mystery-solving escapades, and his reaction will be a telling sign of whether or not Seol-ok should remain with him.

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