Falsify: Episodes 13-14

by tineybeanie

Our ragtag band of reporters use their individual talents to delve further into the interlinked cases from different angles this episode, but it still seems like we’ve barely scratched the surface of the corruption that lies at the center of it all. Overall, it’s an hour of revelations and confrontations that leads to more questions than answers. But one thing’s for sure: The stakes are steadily rising, as our heroes move one step closer to the finding what lies at the end of their search for the truth.

 
EPISODE 13 RECAP

According to Seok-min’s research, Lieutenant Jeon was involved in a case where an industrial conglomerate heir had been accused in a hit-and-run accident that resulted in one death. He had insisted until the end that it was the heir who was at fault, even though the prosecutors had not deemed him so.

In parallel, Moo-young looks at his wall of news, which contains an article about the industrial company heir, who was apprehended by Lieutenant Jeon. Somehow things had turned around so that Lieutenant Jeon ended up accused of being responsible for the hit-and-run case. Clearly, some switcheroo framing had been at play, but eventually, he was acquitted of the charges. Moo-young stares at the tattoo symbol and wonders what he’ll find at the end of this mystery.

Seok-min and Moo-young meet, and Seok-min asks whether he obtained any other evidence other than the CCTV footage that Lieutenant Jeon hid. Moo-young wants to move forward with pressing Lieutenant Jeon for the hidden evidence. However, Seok-min wants to watch the situation unfold a little bit more so that they can capture a larger prey than just Lieutenant Jeon. Moo-young is concerned that if he stops now to wait for larger pray, they’ll never get justice for Seon-woo or his teammates, who are still in jail.

Even though Seok-min warns him against following up with Lieutenant Jeon, Moo-young makes his own independent decision not to act on Seok-min’s advice. He calls up Lieutenant Jeon on the phone, reveals himself, and arranges a meeting alone with him. He brings up the conglomerate heir’s case, and accuses Lieutenant Jeon of murder in that hit-and-run accident. He makes his terms clear: Moo-young wants his teammates freed from jail and the CCTV footage of the murder scene.

Having been backed into a corner, Lieutenant Jeon pays Lawyer Jo a visit. He’s there to make a deal: Lieutenant Jeon promises that he’ll take care of Moo-young, as long as Lawyer Jo takes care of explaining the situation surrounding Moo-young’s demise and his own escape from the country.

Lawyer Jo looks to be unfazed, but Lieutenant Jeon’s words about Moo-young’s tenacity to find the identity of the murderer seem to make him nervous.

So-ra follows up on Moo-young’s source, who told him off-the-record that Seon-woo’s Noah lawyer was an independent contract hire who was paid to lose his cases. So-ra offers the woman a job and requests that she just look at some photos to see if she recognizes someone. Amongst everyone she presents, the woman is able to point out Chief Gu as someone her CEO would often see and be wary of.

At Splash Team HQ, it’s the first day of work for everyone in the newly recreated department. Reporter Na clearly doesn’t want to be there, while the intern grins from ear to ear at the opportunity to work with her idol, Seok-min.

Lawyer Jo contacts Chief Gu regarding Lieutenant Jeon’s request. Although initially he tries to tell Chief Gu the details, Chief Gu quickly stops him and tells him that their arrangement is need-to-know only. (I guess he doesn’t want to know in case he’s implicated in perjury, but he’s been perpetuating libel this entire time, so… where exactly are his moral boundaries?)

Lawyer Jo just asks Chief Gu to make up a background story for him so that Moo-young’s death will come at a surprise to no one.

At the first Splash Team meeting, Reporter Na brings his idea for his first article about Patriot News having shady ties with mobsters. It’s Chief Gu’s work, using Reporter Na as his mouthpiece, to spread lies. Although Yoo-kyung is miffed that Reporter Na wants to make it his own independent scoop, Seok-min enthusiastically pushes Reporter Na to do what he wants.

In the hallways of the prosecutor’s office, So-ra runs into her boss, who asks how chasing the chickens is going (referring to the chicken poop allegedly poured on her vehicle). She replies that it’s very smelly, but she’s realized that she must chase them until the end.

To her, it’s a metaphor about the corrupt players she’s pursuing in this case, so she ends her statement by saying that she strives for a world where justice prevails. But he’s just confused because he’s talking about the actual chickens, ha.

In the pitch black of night, Lieutenant Jeon arrives at Patriot News’s office with several thugs behind him to find Moo-young waiting for him alone. Although it seems like it’ll be a dozen against one, suddenly, the outdoor lights turn on.

Then, the entire gang that supports Patriot News shows up with their formidable boss. The thugs that Lieutenant Jeon brought begin fighting with the army of gangsters, and in the confusion, Jeon makes his speedy escape.

Moo-young chases Lieutenant Jeon out the window, and they begin having their own fight outside. Lieutenant Jeon gains the upper hand several times, until Moo-young uses a golf ball and his judo skills to subdue him. They eventually come to a stalemate, where they pause to catch their breath.

Lieutenant Jeon tells Moo-young that the CCTV tape is long gone, and that Seon-woo was framed because he had no power or money. He then offers Moo-young the opportunity to come to the dark side, an offer which has Moo-young laughing.

He then reveals that he’s been filming their entire encounter all this time on his cell phone, broadcasting it live all over the nation. The mobsters who were watching the fight unfold cheer Moo-young on, and we see Moo-young’s livestream become the number one trending search.

When Chief Gu hears about the livestream, he’s considerably disturbed, while Seok-min also panics at Moo-young’s rash actions, and asks for his police friend to hurry up and get to the scene.

Lieutenant Jeon whips out his police rod and manages to wrestle away the live-streaming cell phone from Moo-young. He announces something different from what he had said before; addressing a mysterious someone, he says that there is indeed CCTV footage showing Seon-woo’s innocence, and that they should keep their promises.

Seok-min catches Reporter Na at his desk, rummaging through his computer files. He reveals that he knew all along that Reporter Na was Chief Gu’s plant. Seok-min accuses Reporter Na of fabricating stories, and rebukes him heavily.

As a reporter, Seok-min says that he should have known better and stopped to verify the truth instead of taking whatever the higher-ups told him to write and publish it, because in effect, Reporter Na has become their mindless lackey.

Seok-min gives Reporter Na a copy of the recreated Splash Team’s first debut article, telling him that this is his last chance. Seok-min still remembers when Reporter Na used to be an earnest reporter seeking truth, so he tells him to think carefully before he makes a choice.

As they’re both being taken to the police station, Moo-young asks Lieutenant Jeon who he was addressing when he made his earlier announcement. Lieutenant Jeon doesn’t answer and just asks for a cigarette, but suddenly, a truck rams into their car, and they roll over.

The killer appears with his trademark lighter-flicking sound. Lieutenant Jeon recognizes him, and Moo-young rouses into consciousness because he remembers the killer’s voice. Lieutenant’s final request is for a cigarette before he dies, but the killer is merciless — he stabs a syringe into Lieutenant Jeon’s neck as Moo-young watches helplessly.

We finally see the killer’s face revealed as Moo-young catches a glimpse of him in the dark: He sees a mustachioed man with dark eyes in a clean suit walking away.

 
EPISODE 14 RECAP

Lawyer Jo watches the news unfold on TV, as does Chief Gu’s wife from her hospital VIP suite. As the news blares in the background regarding Seon-woo’s framing, Chief Gu tells his wife sincerely that without her, even though he’s physically fine, he’s lost a lot of reason to laugh. However, something in the news catches his attention, and he quickly makes an excuse to leave.

Then he makes a phone call to make sure the story of Seon-woo’s suicide follows his proposed narrative. The headlines he issues are: “Who will take responsibility for this framed youth’s death” and “The corruption of the government must be eliminated.”

Someone shows the livestream of Lieutenant Jeon’s inadvertent confession to the Patriot News team, who are still in jail, and they ask the person whether Moo-young is safe.

Seok-min arrives at the hospital where Lieutenant Jeon and Moo-young have been transported. The intern fights to be at the front of the reporter lines, while Yoo-kyung hangs out in the back taking photographs leisurely, like an experienced veteran. After checking out the situation with the intern, Seok-min asks Yoo-kyung whether her acting skills are still the same.

Her eyes light up, and she’s game for a ruse. The two of them go into a doctor’s office, where she pretends to be a family member of the truck driver who rammed into the cop car carrying Moo-young and Lieutenant Jeon.

While the doctor is preoccupied and distracted by her crocodile tears, Seok-min enters the room with the deceased “truck driver’s” body. From the contrast between the freshly bought new clothing and the worn socks in the possessions box, he realizes that the body is not the real truck driver. He’s caught by his cop friend, who becomes irritated by his overstepping of case boundaries.

The cop insists that this is just a simple DUI crash, but Seok-min tries to tell him that there’s a larger conspiracy at work. Thankfully as the cop walks away, Seok-min has already procured a fingerprint of the corpse in the mortuary. Yoo-kyung is impressed with his quick thinking skills, and Seok-min also compliments himself as he tells Yoo-kyung to check the identity of the fingerprint.

So-ra visits Moo-young in the ICU, wondering why he’s so devoted to this case at the risk of his own life. Seok-min enters the ICU behind her, and after visiting Moo-young, they have a conversation outside. She tells him that although she wants to pursue Seon-woo’s case until the end, because he’s no longer alive, it may be difficult to get things processed in court.

She then asks about Seok-min’s relationship with Moo-young, and he tells her about who Chul-ho was to him, describing him as possibly the worst reporter on his Splash Team. He expresses his regret about Moo-young turning into an obsessed man regarding his brother’s murder, and So-ra connects the dots.

She remembers how Moo-young tried to hide his investigation wall in his room and her talk with the source who recalled Chief Gu from the photos. She asks Seok-min about Chul-ho’s relationship with Chief Gu, and he tells her that they were closer than they appeared.

Reporter Na is troubled by the ultimatum Seok-min gave him. He receives a call from Chief Gu to go ahead with the new story that he was planning to release regarding Patriot News’s role in Seon-woo’s death, and he asks who will take responsibility if it’s revealed that the news is false.

Chief Gu tells Reporter Na that he will be the one who takes responsibility, and that not all of the reports from Daehan are true. Chief Gu’s narcissism shows clearly when he says that all the reporters aren’t motivated by truth — instead, they’re striving to be the one in Chief Gu’s position: one who can create the truth from lies.

Meanwhile, Seok-min visits Moo-young again when he’s in a regular hospital room and waits for him to wake up.

So-ra breaks into Moo-young’s house to get a glimpse at his investigation wall again. She realizes that some of Chul-ho’s reports were fabricated, and ends up realizing that maybe Chief Gu may have used Chul-ho to create falsified news reports. She calls Seok-min (who is still by Moo-young’s bedside) and asks him directly whether that is the case.

Seok-min tells her that it’s exactly what he suspects, because Chul-ho was the one who fabricated Chairman Min’s dementia all those years ago. He lets her know that Moo-young doesn’t know the truth of his brother’s corruption yet, but that he plans on telling him soon. Seok-min then tells her another shocking truth about Seon-woo.

The next day, Chief Gu is hard at work trying to make Patriot News out to be the bad guy who forced Seon-woo’s suicide. He asks Editor Jung what the Splash Team is up to, and he learns that Seok-min has refused to release Reporter Na’s article regarding Patriot News’s ties with the gangsters.

He knows that Seok-min is up to something, but after checking his computer that can surreptitiously enter screen-sharing mode remotely with Seok-min’s laptop, he’s mollified when he only sees an article about tax fraud in the Splash Team’s to-publish archives.

The killer enters Moo-young’s hospital room with his syringe in hand and nods, having suspected Moo-young to be the one behind all of this. Just as he’s about to stick the syringe into Moo-young’s throat, Moo-young’s eyes burst open, and he stops the needle from penetrating his skin.

They engage in a fierce battle for control in a graceful dance of punches and kicks. At one point, Moo-young has the killer pinned down, and asks him who he is. However, he’s still injured, and the killer soon overpowers him. But Moo-young is able to gain a small upper hand as he fights for control of the syringe…

 
COMMENTS

Whew, I feel like we’ve made so much progress because we finally know what the killer looks like, but then again, Moo-young’s Patriot News team is still in prison and the power behind Lawyer Jo and Chief Gu has yet to make an appearance, so it’s almost like we’ve gotten nowhere at all. I have so many questions about the mysterious murderer: Is he a contract serial killer? Or does he have more permanent ties with the elders (i.e. is he the hidden bastard scion of a chaebol, who has become a killer to cover-up his parent’s dirty deeds)? I didn’t expect him to be so young, so I’m really curious to find out what made him choose to walk down this path of work.

I have a confession to make: This is probably bad, but I’m much more interested and empathetic toward the evil characters than our heroes. I find legal political thrillers interesting when the protagonists have to grapple with complex moral dilemmas, especially when the delicious shades of gray are infinite. But so far, everything in the Falsify world has been starkly black or white. Either you’re a good guy who has never bent your morals, or you’re a bad guy on the side of the evil elders. But at least most of the bad guys seem to have once been on the side of the light, so unraveling their descent into corruption should be interesting.

For instance, Chief Gu clearly has a loving side to him, as evidenced by his tender behavior toward his bedridden wife. Perhaps what tipped him over was something regarding hospital bills or getting the best medical care, which I’m sure the powerful shadowy forces would have been able to arrange. From what I gathered, it looks like Lieutenant Jeon may have been an upright cop at one point who ended up being blackmailed, and once he succumbed, he just never looked back, knowing that the regrets would all come tumbling down on him. I think his last words to Moo-young may have been part of his redemption, though. He said it with such purpose in his eyes that I’m pretty sure it’ll pop up as a clue somewhere down the line.

Perhaps the only character who is in any quandary at all regarding his future choices is Reporter Na. And even though I think he’s a pretty slimy skeezeball who’s almost completely on the evil side already, I hope his character arc will begin to show a change. He’s a direct foil to Chul-ho, being set up in the exact same situation as a falsifying snitch in the Splash Team, but I don’t want his ending to be the same.

Hands down, my favorite scenes were the fight scenes, though. They were perfectly choreographed, smoothly flowing from one action to another, with quick reversals and takedowns. There was always a sense of thrilling danger—I could literally go on forever about how much I loved Moo-young’s fight with Lieutenant Jeon in front of the gangsters, and then his subsequent fight with the unmasked killer at the hospital. Suddenly his background as a judo champion is all starting to make sense.

I’ve noticed in so many other dramas I’ve seen, the hero is often magically wonderful at fisticuffs. It doesn’t matter if he’s a chaebol who probably has never had to lift a finger and has had bodyguards all his life, or a lawyer who realistically probably would never have the time to get into fights because they need to work and study. But, they’re always able to protect the heroine or the victim from a much more narratively stated experienced fighter’s attacks. Every time, I’d just have to suspend my belief in reality for the story’s sake. Sure, dramaland is full of black holes of reality, but I can only take so much as a given. So I appreciate how Falsify is thoughtfully and carefully weaving Moo-young’s background into the narrative, and it exponentially enhances my enjoyment of his hand-to-hand combat scenes.

Ratings-wise, Falsify has been at the head of the Monday-Tuesday pack since the beginning, so I feel like I should be enjoying it much more than I think I am. The overarching plot and character archetypes feel so recycled and predictable, even if the exact details of how the mystery plays out are unpredictable. I just can’t seem to become more emotionally invested into the show. At this point, it’s still all surface-level enjoyment for me, with brief moments of enjoyment during the beautifully crafted fight scenes and cerebral satisfaction as pieces of the puzzle click into place. Especially with such a talent-ridden cast, perhaps my expectations were too high, but each week, I’m left with this emptiness that comes from wanting to be emotionally moved by the show but never quite reaching that level yet. I guess there’s always next week?

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