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You’re All Surrounded: Episode 13

This is a heartwarming episode. Sometimes this show throws cases at us that don’t matter much in the scheme of things, even if there’s a relevant theme to be gleaned from them. But when our newest victim is Soo-sun’s mom, everyone has an emotional connection to the case of the day, and when the team goes into action to take care of one of their own, there’s always that little extra pep in that episode’s step.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Coffee Boy – “내가 니편이 되어줄게” (I’ll Be On Your Side) [ Download ] I’ve posted this song before in a recap of I Hear Your Voice, but it’s used in this episode, which I guess means I’m not imagining the overlap in themes.

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EPISODE 13: “I’ll be on your side”

In the wake of Soo-sun’s mom being beaten by the crazy chaebol bag lady, Dae-gu shows up at the offender’s house to question her. No one is more surprised to see him than Assemblyman Yoo, who turns out to be Birkin Bitch’s father.

Assemblyman Yoo takes everyone inside and watches the video that Dae-gu shows him, and Madam Yoo squirms a little. Her son doesn’t seem the least bit surprised at his mother’s insane outburst, and her husband remains silent.

Dae-gu doesn’t get a straight answer out of them about anything, including Soo-sun’s mom’s whereabouts, so he leaves his card and tells them he’ll simply return with an arrest warrant so that she can be charged officially for her crime.

It’s a ballsy thing to challenge Assemblyman Yoo with, and the grandson even acknowledges Dae-gu with a thumbs-up on his way out the door. It’s too early to tell if he’s a psychopath like Mom and Grandpa, but he seems to rather enjoy watching Mom get grilled by the cops.

Once Dae-gu leaves, Assemblyman Yoo blows his lid, and Madam Yoo just breezes that she’s covered legally. Unsurprisingly, her father is most concerned about that video going viral, and what it does to his political career. He orders his son-in-law to act like he gives a damn, but the husband gives a clipped reply that there doesn’t seem to be much he can do to help, and pretty much washes his hands of it.

Back at the station, Soo-sun is still calling Mom repeatedly to no avail. Tae-il fills Pan-seok in on the case, and then finally Soo-sun gets through to Mom who tries to come up with a lie to keep her away. Soo-sun yells back that she knows Mom is injured, and demands to know where she is.

Pan-seok makes sure to go with her, and when they arrive at the dingy nightly motel where Mom is hiding out, Soo-sun asks to go in alone. Mom cautiously lets her in and then hides in the corner of the dark room, and Soo-sun has to force her to turn and look at her.

Ugh, I can feel my heart in my throat. Her face is covered in cuts and bruises, and she’s desperate to hide her shame from Soo-sun. She tries to explain it away like she just fell, not knowing that the entire world has seen the attack on video. Soo-sun struggles to hold back her tears, and asks what happened to make that woman beat her up like this.

Mom is shocked and embarrassed that Soo-sun somehow knows, but still refuses to explain what happened. She tells her not to ask, and assures her that she was hit because she deserved it. Well now I’m raging mad, if Birkin Bitch made her think she deserved that.

Soo-sun just gets angry at that response, and Pan-seok chooses a good time to knock and intervene, since I think Mom isn’t likely to be honest while trying to be strong in front of her daughter. She’s embarrassed all over again to be meeting Soo-sun’s boss like this, but he’s respectful and calm, and explains that the person who should be afraid is Birkin Bitch, not her.

He reinforces the fact that she was the wronged party here, and if he’s this upset about it, how must Soo-sun feel? That gets through to her, and she finally bursts into tears and tells them what happened. We go back to earlier in the day, when Mom was confronted with the ridiculous 50,000,000-won price tag on the bag she mistakenly took for her imitation version and damaged.

When she asks for leniency in coming up with the money, Madam Yoo happily offers her a contract that states that Mom accepts 50,000,000 won as recompense for “the incident that occurred at W mall,” including physical and emotional trauma, which is then forfeited to repay the cost of the bag that she damaged.

Mom doesn’t really understand the contract, but figures that it means she doesn’t have to pay for the bag, and signs it. As soon as she does, Birkin Bitch beats her repeatedly with the bag, and we see that one of the attendants in the VIP room caught the whole thing on her phone.

Soo-sun just tries to keep her cries silent as Mom tells her story, and then Pan-seok asks for her copy of the contract and takes them to the hospital. Soo-sun only gets as far as the hospital corridor before the tear dam starts to burst, and she makes a quick excuse so she can be alone to have a good cry.

She sits there for a long while just letting herself sob out loud, and the boys arrive behind her. They watch her for a moment with heavy hearts, and turn around to leave her alone.

They can barely look directly at Mom sleeping in her hospital bed, and Soo-sun thanks them for coming by, and sends them home. As soon as they get outside, their anger flares back up as they ask each other what kind of human being does this to another. Dae-gu says that Mom was treated like a bug, not a person, and Gook rallies the boys that they will close this case themselves, no matter what.

Gook wakes up the next morning to find Tae-il making porridge for Soo-sun’s mom, and Dae-gu already gone. He shows up at the hospital with a bouquet of flowers, and Mom lights up at the sight of him, calling him “my son Yong-ah.”

She says that Soo-sun told her last night about who he really is, and declares, “As of today, you’ll be my son, okay? Call me Mom.” I think I’m gonna cry. He gives the tiniest little, “Yes,” in response, and then Mom momentarily forgets that she’s in pain and fawns over her son, wanting to jump out of bed to get him a drink.

He stops her and hands her the flowers he brought, and she acts like it’s the prettiest thing she’s ever received in her whole life. Gook and Tae-il arrive shortly after, and she fawns all over again when her other two sons present her with homemade porridge.

They take Soo-sun out to eat, and Gook promises her that they’ll catch Birkin Bitch. She doesn’t have her hopes set very high since Mom signed that contract, but Dae-gu says it’s illegal to begin with and they’ll fight it. She thanks them sincerely, regardless of what the result will be.

She encourages them to eat up, and scoops a spoonful of chives onto Dae-gu’s stew. He starts to make a noise to stop her but he’s too late, and she asks if he doesn’t eat chives. He hesitates, and then lies that he does, adding another heaping spoonful to his bowl.

Gook and Tae-il’s eyes bug out and they watch slackjawed as Dae-gu scoops a mound of chives and shoves it into his mouth without a word of complaint. It’s written all over his face that he hates it, but he swallows and makes sure that Soo-sun is never the wiser. It kills me that he puts so much effort into something like this, because being less disagreeable is the only thing he can do make it any better for her.

The rest of the team gets to work on Mom’s case back at the precinct, and Dae-gu points out that the contract doesn’t explicitly state that the agreement is in effect only if neither party wants to press charges—this is Mom’s legal right, and the contract doesn’t hold much water.

Pan-seok agrees, but doesn’t discount the fact that this will be a tough battle anyway, because Madam Yoo will have the best attorneys that money can buy. Dae-gu is still a little brat and asks if that’s his way of saying they’re not going to pursue the case, and Pan-seok doesn’t even acknowledge him with an answer, heh. After an annoyed pause, he says that their priority is to secure a reliable witness.

Dae-gu and Pan-seok go back to see Madam Yoo, who arrives a few minutes later chattering away on her phone about the massage she just got. She doesn’t even bother to address Pan-seok directly, choosing instead to passive-aggressively answer her side of the phone call with, “What’s he saying? Some people don’t know their place.”

She brushes past them like they’re invisible, leaving the boys standing on her doorstep flabbergasted. Once inside, she tells her assistant to find out more about the cops, especially the younger one who’s been here twice now and gives her a bad feeling.

Pan-seok gets called back to the station by Chief Toad, who makes a big production of letting him know that the Birkin Bitch is actually Assemblyman Yoo’s daughter. Pan-seok plays dumb: “So?” To Chief Toad’s frustration, Pan-seok simply tells him that he can tell the family that the fastest way to make this case go away quietly is to show up for questioning and comply with the investigation.

Toad fumes as he relays all this to Chief Kang, and gets all worked up as he cries that the things that happen to Pan-seok’s team couldn’t happen unless this were a drama. “Next thing you’ll know, there’s a birth secret, and then it’ll be a perfect makjang!” Pfft, listen, you get points for hanging a lantern on it, but that doesn’t make the pending birth secret less lame.

Assemblyman Yoo predictably calls Chief Kang, furious about “that child” standing on his doorstep. She promises to take care of it, but wonders to herself how, after just barely putting Combat Boots’ capture behind them.

Pan-seok drives over to the prison to visit Boots, and says that things just don’t add up—the boat to China, him going after Dae-gu, a second killer coming after him, this elusive Detective Seo he’s protecting. All of it means that whoever wanted Dae-gu dead is alive and well, and still wants him dead.

Boots tells him that Dae-gu came here yesterday but he refused the visitation, and will refuse to see Pan-seok from now on. He tells him not to dig any further, “If you don’t want the kid to be in any more danger. That’s all that I can give you.”

He gets up to go, and Pan-seok stops him with one last thing: “There’s something I never said to you, because it’s shameless… Thank you, and I’m sorry.” He promises to return.

Pan-seok joins Dae-gu on his stakeout outside of Madam Yoo’s house, and it begins in their usual petulant way. Pan-seok suggests they turn on the air conditioning and Dae-gu says no; he offers a snack and a drink and Dae-gu turns them both down flatly. This is going to be a very long day.

But then hours of suffering together in the heat melts the ice, and soon they’re sharing snacks and agreeing about turning on the air conditioner. Pan-seok even asks why Dae-gu went to see Boots, though he just responds by asking why Pan-seok went.

Pan-seok: “I asked you first!” Dae-gu refuses to speak first, but then he’s curious enough about it to immediately ask again why Pan-seok went. It looks like he’s about to answer, when Madam Yoo’s lawyer interrupts them with a knock on the window.

He and Dae-gu get into a debate over the specifics of the contract and why it’s null and void, but the lawyer insists that it doesn’t matter since Soo-sun’s mom signed the thing after the beating. This is the story they’re going with, and Dae-gu and Pan-seok just sit there amazed at the flagrant lie that they plan to back up with eyewitnesses.

They realize it’s a battle of securing witnesses then, and the team splits up to interview every employee in that mall from the VIP room down to the janitorial staff. Gook and Dae-gu track down the attendant who caught the attack on camera in the first place, and manage to catch her just as she’s trying to sneak out of her apartment with a suitcase in tow.

They try to convince her to just tell them what she saw that day, but she’s freaked out and says she only filmed it because that lady is so horrible, not because of some sense of duty or justice. She doesn’t want to be involved in the case in any way, and refuses to answer their questions.

Dae-gu gets especially worked up, and actually goes from pleading with her to blowing up in anger. He asks why she can’t consider the victim’s pain in all this. My, my, how the tables have turned, Detective Eun, when it’s someone YOU care about on the other side. Gook stops him from going overboard, but it effectively makes their key witness even less inclined to help them than ever. She kicks them out.

Chief Kang comes by the hospital to speak to Soo-sun, and prefaces her speech by saying that she’s about to make a difficult request, and that it won’t make much sense to Soo-sun. She tells her about Assemblyman Yoo’s connection to her mother’s case, and asks her to drop the charges for the good of the precinct.

She adds that it’s also to protect the people Soo-sun cares about who are close to her, though she remains frustratingly vague about what she means. Naturally Soo-sun doesn’t understand her in the least. She confesses that she couldn’t even look her mother in the eye for two days because her injuries were so severe; is such a horrible act excusable because this woman is the daughter of someone important?

Chief Kang doesn’t argue, but presses her to make the sacrifice for the greater good, not because it’s just, but because their precinct depends on it. I’m going to be so pissed if Chief Kang gets her way.

When Soo-sun comes back to Mom’s room she hears laughter inside, and finds Dae-gu sitting next to Mom’s bedside doing magic tricks (badly) to amuse her. He finally gets the trick right and makes a necklace for Mom to wear, and it’s adorable how she encourages him and acts SO impressed, just to make him feel better.

It puts a big smile on Soo-sun’s face, and she just hangs back to watch them from the hallway.

Later they go for a walk outside, and Dae-gu admits that he might’ve ruined their case when he yelled at their witness today. He apologizes for losing his head and blowing their best lead, but she thanks him because it means he was that desperate to make things right.

She asks how he endured it for so long when his mom suffered such injustice—it’s only been two days for her and she can’t stand it. She says every time her heart fills with anger, she asks herself how he endured for all those years.

Dae-gu: “I never endured. I just experienced it. Because the things you have to experience, you have to experience eventually. So you just stop making a fuss, and you experience it.” They’re wise words, way beyond his years, and Soo-sun marvels: “At times like this you seem like an oppa.”

He hands her an MP3 player and says it’s something that helped him. She promises to listen, and they say goodnight. Once he’s gone, Soo-sun pops the earbuds in and gives it a listen. It’s Coffee Boy’s “I’ll Be On Your Side” (posted above):

Who will comfort me?
Who will understand my heart?
It feels like the world is laughing at me
I have nowhere to lean
I said I was okay
I thought I had gotten used to it
But in the face of the despair that finds me
I fall again
I’m left alone

I’ll be on your side
I’ll tell you that everything’s okay
That everything will go well
That you’ll shine
That you’re precious to me

On a day when it seems like everything will end
Remember my voice
It’s okay
It’ll all go well
You’re the most precious person to me

It’s the exact thing she needed to hear, and she sobs as she listens to the song. Dae-gu hasn’t left, and lingers there to watch from a distance as she cries. He stretches out a hand as if to reach out and touch her, and wipe her tears from where he stands.

At the precinct, Eung-do and Tae-il speculate that Assemblyman Yoo went through great lengths to keep his name out of the press—not one of the stories about the bag lady mentions her family connection to the politician.

Gook sighs that what he really ought to be doing right now is comforting Soo-sun, and decides to send her a text reminding her to eat. He wonders if the emoticon with heart eyes is a bit much, and asks Tae-il’s advice.

Tae-il tells him it’s best to play it cool, and so he chooses the nonchalant emoticon, only to accidentally select the one that looks like a sweaty nervous wreck. Ha. He freaks out, and Tae-il laughs that the one he sent actually resembles him best.

Tae-il gets a call that makes him sigh, I’m guessing from his parents. He doesn’t say much, but then later that night he waits outside Sa-kyung’s apartment building with beers. She’s surprised to see him there, and joins him for a drink.

He tells her that his father called him trash, and admits that she’s the only person he’s ever told about his hyung. She points out that he told her those things because he thought they’d never see each other again, and he agrees—you meet a stranger on a trip, and expect to never cross paths again.

But he says that it healed him to tell her those things, and she’s glad to hear it. She asks how he is, and he confesses that he’s not okay. He asks for a hug and she laughs at him like he’s a little kid, but agrees to one sympathy hug.

She throws her arms around him and pats him on the back to comfort him. It’s sweet, and I don’t think even Tae-il misunderstands that she’s just being kind… except of course that’s the exact moment when Pan-seok walks up, unannounced. Cripes.

At first he just sees Tae-il and makes a keep-doin’-what-you’re-doin’ face, trying not to ruin his romantic moment with a girl. But Tae-il pulls away when he sees Pan-seok, and then Sa-kyung turns around.

Ack, Pan-seok looks like someone knocked the wind out of him, and he just drops the bag of food he was carrying and turns around to escape. Sa-kyung runs after him, and he says they’ll talk about it later.

She holds him back and insists they talk now, and he nearly loses his temper. But she argues that when he says they’ll talk about it later, what he really means is that they’ll never talk about it: “I still don’t know the answer to why you signed the divorce papers.”

All he can do is stare in bewilderment (since, as I understood the flashback, she’s the one who handed him the divorce papers to begin with).

We’re left hanging on the rest of that conversation; meanwhile, by morning, Dae-gu has taken it upon himself to become Madam Yoo’s pesky stalker, and he follows her around the gym to very loudly request her cooperation with the investigation. She tries everything to kick him out, but he just waits outside, clearly prepared to do this all day for as long as it takes.

She calls her assistant to bring those background checks on the detectives that she asked for, and as Dae-gu watches from outside the door, she flips through the files. There’s nothing of interest in Pan-seok’s file, but then when she gets to Dae-gu’s, she sees his childhood picture and his family record as Kim Ji-yong, and realizes, horrified, why he looked vaguely familiar and extra annoying.

Panicked, she calls Dad and cries, “Did you know? That that woman’s child is alive?!”

 
COMMENTS

Seriously, I hope you’re complicit in the original murder, lady, because one criminal conviction isn’t really going to do it for me. I’m still going to be thoroughly annoyed if Dae-gu ends up being some secret love child of this horrible disgusting family, but at least in this drama there’s only one trajectory for the bad guys: prison, and lots of it. Maybe if the daughter was the one who murdered Mom, or was at least party to the crime, we can lock up both daddy and daughter in one fell swoop. At this point I’m actually more interested how Boots and Chief Kang fit into this, because their agenda seems counter to both the good guys AND the bad guys, and I want to know what their stake in all this is.

I love the slow emotional development between Dae-gu and Soo-sun, and the way their relationship is about friendship and partnership, and a shared understanding of each other’s pain. Dae-gu is almost always a child, except when it comes to something like this—he’s the sunbae in learning to live with anger and injustice, and in not letting it turn him into a monster. He understands more than anyone how it feels to be helpless when someone hurts the person you love most, and that moment of connection with Soo-sun in this episode strikes the first real chord for me. Before this, I just thought it was cute that he liked her, since he needs to connect with other people and she and the boys have made a family for him. But now it gets me in the heart, the way they look out for each other, how he knows what she feels before she can explain it, and the way he offers her comfort but respects her distance.

It might be that it took this long for the romance to strike because Soo-sun ends up being the emotional center for the show, which maybe turned out that way because Dae-gu is such a taciturn character. I don’t mind the characterization overall, but he’s so reserved that it’s hard to get anywhere on a deeper emotional level when other people are trying to connect to him. So even when she was comforting him through his rough patch, it was sweet but felt guarded, like that was just the first step to cracking his icy exterior. But this time when she’s hurting and he comes out of his shell to comfort her, it lands with much more resonance. He’s actively searching for ways to make her feel better, looking up magic tricks to entertain Mom, eating vegetables voluntarily like a big boy, and fighting for her cause as if it were his own. I like that it’s both a natural progression and a monumental shift for him, to look beyond himself and see her pain.

Of course my absolute favorite thing is whenever Dae-gu and Pan-seok make any progress bromantically, and their stakeout today felt like a reward for sticking it out through their bitter angry phase. Now they’re like a cute bickering couple, made even funnier by the fact that they’re so similar. I enjoy that Dae-gu is consistent and not suddenly nice or forgiving, but that he begrudgingly starts to accept the little things. It’s pretty funny that being stuck in the trenches with someone does start to chip away at your resolve to hate someone for the rest of your life, because as it turns out, suffering really does build character. Granted, they’d probably never make any headway if Pan-seok didn’t put in all the effort despite the constant rejections from Dae-gu, but hey, progress is progress, be it ever so sullen.

 
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Loving this show.The characters are absolutely adorable...specially our Rookie 4 and their Daddy-leader.

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That bag lady is so annoying.

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I have met such potential "bag-ladies" , or rich women with a peanut for a brain and a rock for a heart, in the museum who come to the front desk to accuse us of something, yell and threaten girls at the front desk personally to get them kicked out of uni and stuff, just cause they are rich, they want something, the museum doesn´t have it and they find someone to blame. they have gotten so agressive that we´ve had to call security to protect our employees. usually, since everyone is polite and diplomatic, they get more confidence and threaten with power and money to do all sorts of things. they think money gives them right to get more than others and do anything. then I, since I can´t hold my mouth shut, say something rather inpolite, but too smart for them to fully understand. they get confused and leave. I have no intention to save my skin or try to be diplomatic with such people. I won´t bend. I have som much disdain and anger towards them I can´t hold it in. my staple answer is: this is our museum, and if you want this or that, you can have it...in YOUR museum. but this is what we have to offer and no one forced you to come.
they have also had expensive things with them and wont leave them for a moment glaring at all of us like we are potential robbers, not realizing those things are way tacky for our tastes. rich people usually have an unbelievably poor taste....
ugh, why did Soo Sun´s mother bow and agree to stuff?

but it is another thing if she is some sort of a murderer. The Son of that family seems like a normal guy though and I wish he would cooperate with the police and shine some light on his familys´ secrets.

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so sorry that you'd have to deal with such crappy people on a daily basis.

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".. rich people usually have an unbelievably poor taste…."

I have seen that among some of the "new rich" myself. Fashion based on price and not looks. What strikes me most though is the huge difference in attitude between American rich and Asian and a few Euro rich. It is not rare at all to see American rich dressed in ragged Levi's.

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And to add to that. Hawaiian rich wear flip flops, shorts, threadbare shirts. LOL. Island kine!

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I know there are some rich who dress casually and normally. but remember, most of the tourists here come from our big neighbor khmmm (Russia). their rich is a different specie alltogether.

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People who are comfortable with their money a) don't spend it as much as we'd think, though they're hardly shopping at Walmart, and b) dress as they want.

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@redfox,
As far as I know, ppl go to a museum to 'look at' exhibits. What can those 'nasty rich women' ask of the staff? Things are either on display or they are not. They are either on sale in the museum shop or they aren't. What are staff members supposed to do????

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precisely, but they have unbelievable demands and they think we are magicians who can make stuff appear out of thin air.

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Bless your heart, you are being so gracious dealing with repulsive people.
I grew up in a privileged environment, and as a teen said few things to people I now regret wholeheartedly. When my father learned about me threatening my teacher for giving bad grades, he set me right with such harsh, painful words, I never did it again. That's why I like the US - the privileged are polite and well behaved. It's even more evident when they come in contact with service, labor workers. Well, at least in my surroundings. Actually, you could never tell who is who in America. No one is fixated on expensive bags, clothes, only houses and cars. And that could be leased by anyone.

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That is very true for the most part. Except for the houses and cars sometimes, Americans just don't seem to care if people see them as rich or not (except rap musicians).

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Or the Hiltons.

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Americans can also be easily sued.

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Annoying is too mild a word to describe her.

What I don't get is how any person can Stand being married to her. I can't imagine living in the same house with her AND her father, much less staying in the same room w her, or sleeping in the same bed, esp. since he must know that she tried to kill his lover and his illegitimate son!

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Awesome recap!

Another great episode! So much sweetness and cuteness!

I’m absolutely loving the chemistry between Seo & Dae Gu! Their partnership is awesome! The car scene was so cute! (eyes with 2 hearts emoticon!)

The writer has an amazing way of bringing out parallel in a subtle and simple manner. Such as, the importance of sole witness for Soo Sun’s mom, and the Masan case.

It’s interesting how this round, Dae Gu is the one needing to persuade the witness to testify. The writer’s effort is evident in trying to help Ji Yong understand Seo’s intention in persuading his mother 11 years ago.

Toad chief confirms that Ji Yong’s birth will be the root of all the evil that has happened thus far. Though I don’t know what Makjang drama meant. (i guess it means the best drama?)

At the end, Yoon Ae Yeon clue us in that Ji Yong is probably her husband’s illegitimate son. After all, that’s usually the case when you hear a women say "Geu Yeo Ja", that woman.

If that’s so, the main objective 11 years ago would be to kill both Ji Yong and his mother. I think the key to help us understand, is when we know the connection between why Ji Yong mom witnessed the partial scene of murder back then, and how that led to her death, when clearly there was a bigger reason behind it.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence that she witness the girl’s death, and her identity was exposed to Yoon Ae Yeon. Either way, Yoon most likely was the murderer 11 years ago, since the girl was also brutally beaten up, just as Soo Sun’s mother.
Chief Kang confirms it for us when she said that Yoon is always the one making trouble.

Anywayyyyssss, more forgiveness is on the way.. woohoo! because, hey! Seo wasn’t exactly at fault for Ji Yong mother’s death after all!

Man se! Man se! Man se!

Dae Gu is also getting sweeter and sweeter for Soo Sun! Awwwwwwww! heart melting sweetness in this episode.

On a side note, I do believe Chief Kang is showing more and more humanity, though with hidden selfish ambition. Her decisions are mostly dilemma between not wanting to go against congressman Yoon, and her concern for Dae Gu. It’s still unclear which side she is willing to give up more.

Cannot wait for tonight’s episode!

By the way…. The mp3 that Dae Gu gave Soo Sun, the female singing at the beginning, is that Go Ara? Sounded like her voice.
So lovely to hear Seung gi’s singing! Dae bak!

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As explained in dramabeans glossary

http://www.dramabeans.com/about/glossary/

makjang :: a sylistic, tonal, or narrative element in dramas that chooses to play up outrageous storylines to keep viewers hooked despite how ridiculous the stories become (adultery, revenge, rape, birth secrets, fatal illnesses, and flirting with incest possibilities are some makjang favorites). Shows can be part of a makjang class of dramas (Wife’s Temptation is a makjang series), or they can have makjang tendencies (Mary Stayed Out All Night went makjang toward the end). Generally considered a negative thing (“Gah, how makjang can you get?”), unless a drama intentionally embraces the style (such as Baker King Kim Tak-gu or Flames of Desire).

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Sorry to disappoint you, but the song was not sung by Go Ara n Lee Seunggi.

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aww man..

haha, the voice quality sounded abit like seunggi's.
i'll just imagine they sang it to each other then.

haha or, maybe they will have a chance to perform this song together.

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Thank you for this!!! I can't believe that we have 7 more episodes to go and considering the fast progress, what more do the writers have up their sleeve seriously?!
(Or perhaps it'll be broken up in parts and Dae-Gu's story will take a backhand when the romance comes into full play...? One can always hope haha)

Dramabeans is the best when you decide to watch the show raw because you can't wait but still need to understand the other half of the context that got lost in a jumble of difficult legal terms. Thanks again XD

Can't wait for today's episode yaye!!

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thx for the recap. I ended up watching this episode in korean so i got a bit confused with the birth secret! I thought everyone knew about it including policeman toad and was about to swear off this drama.

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The preview for the next ep looks interesting!

I'm guessing there's no way out for Daegu Daegu to be part of that crazy family, and crazy bag lady's husband is as much a suspect in Daegu's parentage.

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A family prison cell would work, hey girlfriday! I am confused about Boots, too. I really loved how the boys have rallied around Soo-sun and are giving her mom attention and special care. It's heartbreaking to see how the job has ground Pan-seok down over the years. The toll is tremendous and the pay-off - could he even quit if it isn't there?

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The moment when Combat Boots told PS to stop digging further if he really wants the best for DG is really touching. It sheded some light of his character, that he is not as dark as what we thought he is initially. Killing DG mum may not pricked his consience yet, but I think he is sick and tired of this game. He just wants everything to be put to rest, and for it to be put to rest, PS and DG have to stop digging further. Him not saying anything is not just becoz he has to follow Chief's instructions, but more of that he dun want further damage to be done hence agrreing to her wishes.voluntarily. I like that dramas focus on the side characters development too as it provides some balance.

So Tae ii and PS ex wife relationship is finally revealed. The question is, how did she save him to make him being so fond of her? Coincidences is such a good tool for misunderstandings in dramaland. PS has to come right at that timing right at that place. Sigh.

Looking foward to today's episode. Awww the 'date' looks so cute. Just from SS wearing the sweet looking dress and DG who look like he was swept off his feet by her beauty lol.

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I felt this episode was slow and fast at the same time which I suppose makes me slightly bi-polar. The episode whizzes by really fast but then I look back, nothing significant happens at all.

Soo-sun and Dae-gu's romance is starting to piss me off because its such a slow burn. I completely agree with GF regarding the importance of Dae-gu's shell-crack and if this happened around episode 8-9, then I might be really happy about it too. But with only 7 episodes left, there are secrets to be revealed, dramas to be explored. By now we should've been in a place where both are aware of one another. Basically, I just wish there was some real progress in the love line, starting from Soo-sun feeling something other than care/sibling-y love for Dae-gu.

Dae-gu was really sweet with the magic tricks and openly reading off the book to get it right. It's endearing and charming all at once. I also love his moments with Pan-seok even if they always seem like they'd attack each other. It's a great reluctant bromance and even if they'll never reach the level of Shi-kyung and Jae-ha, I hope we can get to a point where they're ready to stand as each other's partner/shield.

I love Chief Kang. She's possibly my favorite character in the drama for being so grey-shaded and interesting. She always leaves me confused which is so much more entertaining than the utterly bland villain in Assemblyman Yoo. I want her so much to be more on the good side than bad but irrelevant of the outcome, I can't wait to see how she fits in myself.

Assemblyman Yoo's daughter is a crazy bitch who needs major psychological help more than a short jail term for assaulting someone. I've seen eeeevil people - YFAS, GFB had one of those mustache twirling freak villain but they've been less aggravating than her. The most irritating and idiotic villains are those who think they're really smart but are actually such dumb-asses. If only she were smarter, she'd be more interesting and scary. But she just seems like an expensive bug that can't be squashed which is as frustrating as it is exasperating.

I really don't want this drama to go the birth secret route. It's way too predictable even if there was an obvious foreshadowing. If it does go there, I hope its something more unexpected.

P.s. I think someone mentioned this before but I have to as well. The guy who plays Assemblyman Yoo needs some acting lessons pronto. Crazy eyes makes not an effective villain. This guy challenges the actor who played Yeo-wool's father in GFB for worse senior actor trophy.

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I'm with you on the slow burn. It's a good episode, and I do like how DG and SS's relationship has progressed, with a solid friendship as base and being able to see DG fall for SS despite himself (though not seeing it so much from SS yet). There are other dramas where the leads just become inexplicably and madly in love with scarcely any meaningful on-screen conversation. So I really like that DG and SS know and accept each others' quirks, and can supports each other through their pain.

BUT, having said that, by golly is the progress slow (and not just the romance... all the relationships and the mystery too). I think YAS would work very well with the format of American TV shows, with say 3 seasons of 20 episodes. Actually, I wish it was! I could watch SPS and DG father-son-bromance and P3 bromance and DG-SS romance-denying slowmance solving crime for 3 seasons. But it doesn't have 3 seasons! It has 7 more episodes! I'm getting pretty antsy.

In that sense, I guess I should be glad that this is a 20-episoder, instead of 16.

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LOL! I actually think the exact opposite even if now that you say seasons, it isn't a bad idea at all! But I think for that, they'd need some well-written cases that keeps us on the edge of our seats ala CSI, Criminal minds, etc. I'm uncertain if the writer is capable of that because the earlier cases have been really simplistic.

I actually think this drama dances between really great fast-paced episodes to really slow nothing-happening. Considering that, it would have been great if this was 16 episodes where the writer could speed up the process and cut off some unnecessary plot lines that add nothing substantive in the storyline.

I want a major move-on in the Dae-gu/Soo-sun love line. If not to spare me the agony of not having proper romance then just for a little more variety in the drama. I feel like every episode has lots of chasing and jumping on each other except its not the kind I prefer haha.

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I want to see an I hear your voice cameo..... but I feel like it wont fit into the plot and that lee jong suk is still busy with doctor stranger

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for me I wanna see a Lee Bo Young cameo in Doctor Stranger :)

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what I don´t want to see is a Suzy cameo.

I do want to see some hint to Cha Seung Won´s next movie. Say, having him disguise in Sa Kyungs´ clothes. or maybe just admire her shoes with a strange look.

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I think they did the hint to the movie already, with the man who left his family and fiancee to live as a woman.

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ah yeah I forgot that cause they did it with another person and it was so short

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YAAS sure is doing a good job of introducing minor characters who make my blood boil: the corrupt prosecutor, the Assemblyman who only has two expressions (Eyebrows Up & Eyebrows Really Up) and his awful daughter.

Was Chief Toad's makjang comment also poking fun at SBS's new makjang-free policy?
For the most part, I do like when shows get meta, but I'm hoping the wink-and-nudge to the birth secret will somehow lead to the show subverting that drama trope a bit (crossing my fingers).

Oh, birth secrets. I would like to start a support group for all these fictional secret babies.

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That's what I'm hoping for too. The fact that they made a joke out of the birth secret makes me hope they will go in a different way to what we're all thinking.

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As always, thank you for the recap, GF.
When Soo Sun listened to the song, I thought that's Go Ara 's voice. When I heard the man's voice, in a second, I was like "What!! A duet with Seung Gi and Go Ara??!!!" I realized that I was wrong. Maybe it's because I really want to hear Seung Gi sing a song (or more) for this drama. A duet would also be nice.
Anyway, I love that it's Dae Gu now who fights for Soo Sun. They're compliment each other.

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Also, I'm so glad Dae Gu is back to the romantic Ji Yong, even though it's not for a happy moment. I'm sure we'll get the romantic Ji Yong in a happy occasion later.

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Gosh what an awesome episode! Writernim you are doing such a good job! But seriously this birth secret thing that you are dangling before us ....make me want to gnaw my own teeth! Arrgh!

Well if DaeGu is crazybag ladys husband's illegitimate child, it opens up a whole new can of worms.

Why would this man be married to crazybag lady? Did he know he had a son with his mistress!? Did he know his mistress was murdered by his wife? Has he lived all his life without knowing? Or does he know? Then why has he stayed married to such a crazy person?

And how does all of this connect with the dead girl mystery? Has crazy bag lady commited two murders already? Did she come to scare off the witness to her first murder, but upon finding the witness to be her husbands mistress, killed her in a fit of rage?

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Here's what I was thinking about the whole family thing. Father married Birkin Witch because their parents arranged it (like chaebol families like to do, so that it's more a business merger than a marriage). Father fell in love with Oma. Oma left him when she found out he was married. He let her go because of family obligations and to protect his unborn child, since Birkin Witch is this psycho. 15 years later, Birkin Witch found out that the affair resulted in a son, which means her son isn't entitled to the inheritance since Ji Yong is the eldest. She tried to get Oma to leave the country, but Oma refused because she's not going to be bullied. Birkin Witch smacks Oma over the head because someone dared to say no (and any time before Daddy always cleaned up her messes). In her freaking out over the dying Oma, she loses the pendant. Father doesn't know his wife's involvement but mourns the loss of his one true love and the son that love made. As time goes by he becomes more dead on the inside (hence his current state of apathy) because he should have just divorced BW. He betrayed their (his and Oma's) love by not divorcing her, and if he had, Oma would still be alive. (I'm good at the makjang :)

I'm hoping that when he finds out that Ji Yong/Dae Goo is still alive, it causes him to kick Birkin Witch to the curb. And Son abandons her too because that's just too much her trying to kill family/ his hyung. They abandon both BW and Moon Bae. And Moon Bae suffers a debilitating heart attack in reaction to being exposed for being the corrupt politician that he is. Yes, a little vengeful, but they both just make my blood boil.

I hadn't considered the murder that Oma was witness to -- I've always assumed it was Moon Bae, but now I'm wondering... Who was the girl then and why would BW try to kill her? Plus, it seems like it was 2 men running from the scene way back then.

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Wow, Assembly Yoo is the crazy bag lady's father? They look like they could be similar in ages. I thought they were married.

The grandson is that slacker guy from School 2013!

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ikr! she looks so old as well. haha!

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Aaawww this episode has so much heart. Thank you for the recap GF! :-)

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The theory of dae Gu being the illegitimate son of Madam Yoo's husband is probable cause I am so sure it's Madam Yoo who's hit that vase to dae Gu's Mom's head :) U need to pause at the scene to see his lurid red lipsticks Lol

hmm unless there is another reason for her to go nuts. Maybe she has sth to do with the case Dae Gu's mom was a witness of :)
Anyway thanks for the awesome recap ;)

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While I am sure that Crazy Bag Lady is the killer of his mother, I am not buying into the birth secret part just yet.

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Wow lol that foreshadowing by Chief Toad when he's ranting to Chief Kang... subtle but VERY very effective.
I applaud the writers for that scene man.

Damn it's definitely going down that route (birth secrets).
Kinda sad at the fact that JiYong's mom lied to him.
but I guess it had to be done?

I really think of Chief Kang as the anti-hero in all this. From what I see, she's trying to please Chairman Yoo while trying to protect Jiyong which must be very very difficult.

This is all so difficult man.
But still I can't believe Jiyong's related to all those people. :S

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Maybe it wasn't a lie... could Ji Yong's dad be an older son of the Yoo family, who died before he was born? (Maybe a nice person, who I guess would've been a "black sheep" in that awful family!) Ji Yong could then still be a problematic person for the Yoo family without his mom having been somebody's mistress.

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That's my favourite scenario about Ji-yong's true parentage as well. His father, who is the older son of a very rich family, and mother are very much in love. He dies after their relationship is consummated but before they are able to marry. This opens up the possibility that his father was murdered because we don't know how he died. So Madam Yoo's husband is actually Ji-yong's uncle, not father, and her son is his cousin.

It seems like there is a lot of money in the family but maybe it's Madam Yoo's husband who has the wealth. He doesn't accept his father-in-law's authority over him at all. He gets up and walks away saying, essentially, I'm not going to get involved. Not at all what would be expected if he was a poor man married to a rich man's daughter.

So maybe Ji-yong's father was killed so that Assemblyman Yoo can get direct access to the family money without the complications of an older brother with a wife and son to mess things up. Ji-yong's mother leaves, perhaps after being assaulted by psycho Madam Yoo, and is living quietly in a small town with her child.

When Pan-seok tries to get her to testify as a witness in a totally unrelated case, she comes to the attention of the Yoos. If Madame Yoo's husband finds out about his brother's child, the Yoos might be afraid he will be delighted to have a connection to his dead brother, will welcome him into the family and give him his due as an heir. And the pendant which Soo-sun now has will prove his parentage. So Ji-yong must die rather than dilute the family money.

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Hahaha, "Birkin Bitch", I love the term!

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The scenes that made me squeal in excitement this time:
1. DG eating green onions for SS and the guys’ reaction. DG constantly contradicting his rigid character is hilarious.

2. The scene where DG and Gook go to find the girl who posted the video and actually catch her walking past them. Stale drama trope successfully circumvented! (I really must look up this writer, they are doing an amazing job, I want more!)

3. When Chief Kang told SS to cover up the case, because we KNOW SS is not going to let this slide and this hopefully will kick-start the P4’s – and Big Daddy’s – going after the bad guys and freeing Korea’s police force from corruption thus reorganizing that whole institution, as was the premise of the show. Can’t wait for that awesome!

4. THE PREVIEW. In my mind it pans out like this: DG is embarrassed by the lame first kiss, so he is sworn to make the next one stick. (And HANDS, give me some LSG hand porn, I beg you, show‼) They sure managed to get me excited for tomorrow.

The only thing I’m missing is precious child-SS. Where are you? Come back!!

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Oh, and thank you girlfriday and everyone for the comments, they seriously make my day :D

I love how we always agree to disagree - and this week it's birth secret/no birth secret. Haha. Personally, I think there must be some kind of secret since DG does NOT now who his father is.
However, I do not think that his Mom lied. He had a nice, reasonable Mom. Don't make Mom a liar! DGs father probably did die before the marriage. But this obviously leaves us at a loss how to connect the evil Yoo clan to all of this.
(Could Yoo have had a son that died? That would make BagLady DGs aunt, huh?)

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Oh yes! LSG porn hands! Love how you phrased it! Lol! Love his hands, and boy was he handsy in TK2H!

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Dae Goo saw through the ball cap of invisibility because he uses one and that made him immune to its powers.

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My only real complaint is I wish they'd speed up DG/SS a bit. Feels like the writer is missing out on some obvious chances to move along their relationship and she's just not really doing it. Though on the plus side she sees him as an oppa at times, not a kid. Some awareness of her side would be much appreciated though!

The father/daughter pair are quiet irritating and a lot crazy, if there is a birth secret I hope Dae Gu is not in any way blood related to those two. I do wonder what the writer is doing them though since the other two villains (Boots and S) manage to both be pretty nuanced and even a little sympathetic. These two just aren't at all.

Dae Gu is adorable now that he's felt some closure about his mom. And I'm so freaking glad Soo Sun's mom accepted him. I feel he's going to be a mama's boy from now on. :D

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It seems they got DG/SS in an angsty friendshipzone corner - so they probably don't have too many options on how to get them out of there. :D
Today's episode should do it, though.

*fingers crossed*

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Omo, what an episode! Thanks GirlFriday! ^^
Meanwhile, am I the only one who thinks that Congressman's whole family (maybe except for the grandson, but who knows?) is involved in this?

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With Chief Toad confirming it, now I am convinced that it's not birth secret after all. (At least not that birth secret in Mom as Chaebol's Mistress)
Now I am more willing to believe Mom's explanation, Dad is already dead. There might be another scenario though, as in Ji-yong is the son of chaebol's dead brother. Oh, well....

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Love this series.

Also, I SWEAR that Bitch Burkin's son is Lee Yi Kyung from School 2013 ( one of Oh-Jung-Ho's sidekicks). Does anybody else see it?

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I'd say you are right. He was also a henchman in YFAS.

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Damnnn. I laughed at the makjang drama part adding to the hilarious Toad's expression! And the congressman's daughter really look like the same age that made me wonder if they are siblings in the show but they turn out to be father-daughter relationship. Oh. And anybody knows what is the actor of his grandson? He looks so familiar and I saw someone pointed out that he acted in School 2013 but I still couldn't recognize the role he played, and is it me or he looks a lil handsome as well?

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I think he's also Jaekyung's secretary in YFAS

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That's Lee Yi-kyung. In School 2013 he played Yi-kyung, one of the two guys, who always hang out with Jung-ho. And he is also that secretary in You who came from the stars. I think he became more handsome in YAS..

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the cameo its namjoo a pink right ?

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What happen to Tae Il's hyung?

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As always nothing beats to GF fast and detailed recap.. I never knew reading recaps could be this detailed and makes you think your watching the drama rignt into your screen..

"Dae-gu: “I never endured. I just experienced it. Because the things you have to experience, you have to experience eventually. So you just stop making a fuss, and you experience it.” They’re wise words, way beyond his years, and Soo-sun marvels: “At times like this you seem like an oppa.”

-----Just love how you put these words soo perfectly GF!
It really got into me..I didn't feel much feel onto this while watching the drama with subtitle..your doing much better than the subtitle.. in your recap it stuck onto me.. your translation is just too awesome!

Since the last episode i was vocal with my opinion that im not a fan of a birth secret idea yet, no matter how much im shoo~ing away the birth secret route..it seems like we're probably heading down that path-:(
Like others i don't want Daegu to have any kin to the Assemblyman in any way. I want to stick to the idea that Daegu's mother was the sole witness of the murder case eleven years ago that was related to Assemblyman. But i don't like the idea of the story to be intertwined with Daegu life being a part of those freak family.

Anyway way to conclude since i haven't watch ep.14 yet.. Also i wish that SS & DG's skinship will develop a little faster.. C'mon were 7 episodes away..

I'm really hoping that if ever Writernim will take that route there will be a more solid or substantial relation behind it.

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Is the Assemblyman like totally ancient? Birkin bitch (love that name!) looks old enough to be his wife not his daughter.

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I watched ep 14 live, and gotta say...(no worries, NO SPOILERS!!!)...this episode was DAEBAK!!!!

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So who else thinks Daegu is Bag Lady's husband's son?

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That is absolutely what I think.

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Me, but luckily, it only makes Dae Goo related to the nice side of these people.

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Ohhhh gosh. How badly do I want behind the scenes footage in order to get a glimpse of the real life CSW/LSG bromance? Aaaaggghhhhh gimme!

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I'm still convinced Tae Il's brother was kicked out of the family for being gay. It explains too much.

I'll admit to some confusion about Dae Gu's parentage. I assumed that the DNA test PS had performed on the sly was to see if Dae Gu was related to Ji Yong's mother, and that match was 99.99%, thereby implying Dae Gu was Ji Yong.

So how could there be a storyline in which he might be Bag Lady's son?

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Dae Gu's mom said his dad died.
What if his dad is Bag Lady's brother? If she though her brother died because of "that woman" for some reason, it would explain some of her (and her own father's) anger.

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The idea of secret birth is possible, yes, but we seem to forget the fact the Masan Nurse murder is because Ji Young's Mom decided to become the witness of a murder of a schoolgirl, probably linked to the Assemblyman's daughter, not because of some secret affair between whoever in that crazy biatch's family with Ji Young's Mom.
Besides, I think the scriptwriter is a pretty smart guy, as it's shown in the kind of lines he comes up with (the reference toward makjang is hilarious, and I think it is meant to be ironic, not the other way around). I believe he would reveal a rather different outcome, since creating an ending like that is probably too lame for such a smart writer.

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Well, the conversations between Moon Bae and the Chief seem to point to there being a deeper reason for the murder(s). Him telling her that the story is that it's retaliation for being a witness is what needs to stay the story, plus him saying that Ji Yong/Dae Goo is a child that shouldn't exist, that makes me think that there's something more going on.

Plus, the plot developing music that starts to play makes me lean toward Dae Goo being the illegitimate eldest son. Since Moon Bae's Birkin Witch's father, the fact that the husband had an affair on his little girl is an insult, so I can see him feeling entitled to bumping off Dae Goo.

I agree that the scriptwriter(s) are doing a great job. I haven't been this in love with a k-drama for a while now. But I think that we're not going to be disappointed by getting some cliche trope, but that the writer has planned a good reveal and resolution.

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My theory is that the handbag bitch was the reason why they had to kill a school girl, which was seen by Mom, thus the reason to pursue killing Mom.

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