Two Cops: Episodes 13-14

by LollyPip

Being partners with someone isn’t easy under the best of circumstances, never mind when your ideals conflict… and oh yeah, when they also happen to be a spirit. A cop and a con man are a shaky pairing no matter how you look at it, and it doesn’t help that these two agree on their goal, but refuse to acknowledge that they’re on the same team.

 
EPISODE 13 RECAP

Dong-tak dances around the station break room, happy to finally have his gun back. He poses in front of the mirror… then screams to see Su-chang’s reflection instead of his own. He starts awake, thankful that it was only a dream. He starts to say how horrible it was, only to see Su-chang grinning at him. HA.

Meanwhile, Ji-an gets a dressing-down from her boss for willingly putting herself in danger. Then he smiles and gives her a bonus for the inside story she got on the kidnappers. Her co-workers Mi-nam and Na-mi wheedle for Ji-an to buy them a treat, but she says there’s something she has to buy.

She takes a whole bag of nail art materials to the hospital for Soo-young, the girl who escaped the kidnappers, only to find out that she’s been discharged already. Her roommate, nurse Da-jung, gives Ji-an a note from Soo-young thanking her for catching the bad guy (of course Ji-an latches onto the part where Soo-young calls her “pretty unni,” lol).

Da-jung wants to talk about how Dong-tak saved Ji-an, but Ji-an is annoyed at how often he changes his mind, almost like he has a dual personality. Da-jung sighs over a man who would risk his life to save hers, which gets the attention of a young woman sitting at the next table. She scurries away when Ji-an notices her, and Da-jung says she comes to the hospital frequently with injuries, with her handsome boyfriend always with her.

Su-chang talks things out to himself, trying to figure out how he can get his own body and life back. He agrees with Dong-tak’s theory that catching the original criminal who framed his father is the key, but the time limit of 49 days worries him, since it’s already been two weeks.

Having seen how busy detectives are, Su-chang doubts that Dong-tak has time to catch the real killer on his own. He decides to possess Dong-tak again and catch the killer himself.

Dong-tak and Detective Yoo are brought in front of Superintendent Ma, who’s furious that Dong-tak ignored all the rules with the kidnapping case. He informs Dong-tak that he could be suspended or imprisoned, then turns on Detective Yoo for not controlling his team.

Unable to tell anyone that it wasn’t him in charge of his body during that case, Dong-tak simply says he’ll take responsibility. But he also asks Superintendent Ma why he didn’t step in after Hang-joon was murdered, and says that Hang-joon’s case isn’t over for him.

Superintendent Ma asks if Dong-tak intends to keep overstepping, which reminds Dong-tak that after being arrested, Han-joon’s faux murderer Doo-shik told him that Hang-joon was killed because he overstepped. Detective Yoo promises to be responsible and yanks Dong-tak out before he can make it worse. He tries to cheer him up, but when Su-chang chimes in, Dong-tak tells him to butt out and accidentally hurts Detective Yoo’s feelings.

Su-chang follows Dong-tak to lunch, where he’s amazed to learn that Dong-tak doesn’t like meat in soups. Dong-tak says it’s because his parents drowned trying to save his life, and suddenly Su-chang realizes that it’s their biggest fears that cause the soul exchange: “For me, blood. For you, water.”

Su-chang is excited to have figured it out, and he changes the subject when Dong-tak asks what he’s mumbling about. He flatters Dong-tak on being in such great shape and segues into a request to visit a sauna, insisting that it’s the quickest way to become friends, but Dong-tak says he can’t go to a sauna while on duty.

All the way back to the station, Su-chang pesters Dong-tak about wanting to go to a sauna, then complains that Dong-tak stinks and needs a shower. Dong-tak asks why he’s trying so badly to lure him to water, telling Su-chang to go back to his own body and let him catch the killer.

Giving up, Su-chang argues that he wants to come up with a plan along with his Avengers to help catch the killer. But Dong-tak accuses Su-chang of planning to use his body to cheat and put more people in danger like he did Ji-an.

Su-chang thinks that it may have been a police officer who provided Doo-shik’s alibi, but Dong-tak stands firm in his belief that his team is trustworthy. He says he’ll handle this his way, and in his frustration, Su-chang swings a foot at a can and launches it across the parking lot.

It hits the head of a cop who’s busy power-washing the station’s front steps. He swings his sprayer wide, and Su-chang sees the water heading right for Dong-tak. He takes a giant leap to enter Dong-tak’s body…

Watch the scene

Su-chang leaps to enter Dong-tak’s body

 
…then lands on the pavement when the cop turns the water off just in time. Su-chang hits a casual pose when Dong-tak looks down at him, pretending that he’s just enjoying the weather, pfft.

The young woman from the hospital comes to the station asking for Dong-tak by name. But she sees the detectives telling a man that they can’t intervene in a domestic dispute between him and his girlfriend, so she leaves without a word.

Rookie Sung-hyuk informs Dong-tak that a woman came to see him, but Dong-tak just tells him to check on Doo-shik. He notices that Sung-hyuk is wearing his sneakers and demands them back.

Ji-an’s boss tells her to write a follow-up report to the kidnapping case, adding that she should interview Dong-tak as well. She yells that she doesn’t want to, but she ends up at the station anyway, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world right now.

But not having actually been there, Dong-tak can only recite the bare bones of the case. He asks Ji-an under his breath if she’s still mad at him, and promises never to put her in danger again.

Ji-an tries to redirect him to the interview, but he asks if they can talk privately. They go to a coffee shop, where Dong-tak softens up Ji-an by saying that she was brave. She asks why he told the kidnapper that she’s a reporter, but he can’t tell her that it wasn’t him, so he just says it was a strategy.

But Ji-an won’t let it go, and she asks why his personality seems different sometimes. Dong-tak says that if he ever asks for her help or tries to get her involved in an investigation… but she interrupts and asks if he’s saying he doesn’t mean it, or that it’s a different person who does that.

She also notices that he’s speaking formally again, after using banmal with her up until yesterday, and Dong-tak says that he prefers to use jondae with women. That makes Ji-an perk up and ask, “Am I a woman to you?”

His stunned expression encourages her, but all he can say is, “Are you a man, then?” She takes that as confirmation that she’s a woman to him, and even though he snaps a denial before leaving, she doesn’t believe him.

Watch the scene

Am I a woman to you?

She heads off alone, Su-chang following unseen behind her. A delivery scooter threatens to knock Ji-an over, so Su-chang jumps to pull her to safety, only he goes right through her and she lands hard on the sidewalk. Su-chang watches her sadly as she brushes herself off.

As he works, Dong-tak can’t stop thinking about Ji-an asking if he sees her as a woman. He’s still cranky that she called prosecutor Jae-hee “oppa,” when she always calls him “Detective Cha.” He’s so cute when he’s grumpy.

Sung-hyuk reports that Doo-shik is still in prison, and that nobody has visited him lately. He learned from one of Doo-shik’s minions that he’d been looking into killers who are good with knives, and Dong-tak asks if he was looking for a killer who stabs and twists.

Jae-hee is called up to a high rooftop to speak with Chief Prosecutor Tak, who takes in the view with nostalgic fondness. He tells Jae-hee that investigating is like stabbing people with a knife, urging him to be careful.

He continues, “You must stab, but you must never twist,” and tells Jae-hee that he’s becoming a good prosecutor. Well, that was incredibly weird.

Dong-tak goes to gangster Yong-pal’s club, where Su-chang intercepts him at the door, but Dong-tak refuses to let him come in. Inside, Yong-pal demonstrates scary-looking knife skills to the Avengers (who now include his lackey, Dokki), but just ends up carving a radish into a cute little radish-bunny, hee. He follows it up with a carrot dragon and preens at his talent.

Then Dong-tak opens the door right into Yong-pal and makes him stab himself in the side, HA. It’s a superficial wound, and Dong-tak patches him up while he asks if Yong-pal has learned anything about the stabber who twists his knife.

Downstairs, Su-chang notices Dokki supervising the bartender, who’s pouring water into silver bowls. Dong-tak walks their way, and when Dokki picks up a canister of water, Su-chang sees his chance.

He musters just enough energy to give Dokki a push, splashing his canister of water all over Dong-tak. Dokki braces himself for Dong-tak’s fury, but he just gives him a big hug of thanks. Ha, Su-chang got back in.

Watch the scene

The con man gets back in control

 
Now back in Dong-tak’s body, Su-chang runs back upstairs to Yong-pal to ask what they just talked about. Yong-pal thinks he’s nuts, but says that he heard a rumor that Doo-shik met up with the real killer a while back. Su-chang heads to the prison to speak to Doo-shik, who’s not so cocky after his alibi didn’t come through and he was sentenced to thirty years.

He asks Su-chang if he threw away the photo proving his alibi. Su-chang doesn’t know of any photo, and says he’s here to ask why Doo-shik framed Gong Su-chang for murder.

He mentions that Su-chang is still in a coma, and he knows he’s won when Doo-shik’s eyes waver. He asks Doo-shik about meeting Hang-joon’s murderer, pleading with him to turn in whoever he’s covering for.

Doo-shik tells Su-chang that when he finds the one who sent him his picture, to say that if he wants Doo-shik to keep quiet, he’ll have to give him more than a suit. While they’re talking, the guard calls Superintendent Ma to say that Dong-tak is here, only he signed the visitor’s log with Su-chang’s name. Oops.

Worried at how thin Doo-shik looks and thinking of their old friendship, Su-chang goes to withdraw money from Dong-tak’s account for the prison commissary. He’s surprised to see the low balance in Dong-tak’s account, so he calls the bank and learns that Dong-tak sends almost all of his money to Hang-joon’s son, Joon-soo. Awww.

But Su-chang doesn’t know that Joon-soo is a kid, and assumes that Dong-tak is sending him bribes. He finds the number in Dong-tak’s phone and calls it, and soon finds himself at Joon-soo’s school, being informed that Joon-soo hit another kid with a rock.

Su-chang remembers Hang-joon visiting him in prison and saying that he sent him the money that was supposed to be for his kid’s tutoring classes. He takes Joon-soo to the playground and asks how many tutoring classes he takes. Joon-so tells him that he used to take three, but now only takes one.

Joon-soo tells Su-chang that he threw that rock at his classmate because his girlfriend decided she likes the other boy better. Su-chang tells him that if a girl doesn’t like him anymore, he should just let her go, thank her for making him happy, and welcome the next girl.

He sends Joon-soo back to his class to find a new girlfriend, then runs into the kid who stole Joon-soo’s girl. When he arrives at the station in the back of a patrol car a little later, Detective Yoo asks if he’s happy to have been reported for a physical altercation with a seven-year-old. PWAHAHA.

He’s called back to Superintendent Ma’s office, where he sees photos of Dong-tak with Hang-joon and Superintendent Ma on the desk. He confirms that he went to the prison today, but says that he was only there to send a prisoner some money. Then he realizes that Superintendent Ma would only know this if he was spying on him, and asks why.

Superintendent Ma looks nervous, and Su-chang reassures him that he never goes to saunas while on duty, thinking that’s what Superintendent Ma wants to know. Later, he decides that he only has one option for solving this whole tangled situation.

 
EPISODE 14 RECAP

Su-chang presents Detective Yoo with a letter of resignation, but Detective Yoo just sighs and empties an entire box of resignation letters onto his desk. HAHA. He chooses one of his own—his will—and reads it with dramatic sarcasm.

He makes pointed eye contact with Su-chang when he gets to the part where a traitorous teammate has decided to quit, so he’s going to kill that guy and then himself. Su-chang leads the team in a round of applause, and Detective Yoo tells them that they can all quit whenever they want, after they’ve caught every criminal on the most wanted poster.

Over tea, Commissioner Noh asks Chief Prosecutor Tak if he plans to accept the job of Minister of Justice, and asks him not to forget him. Chief Prosecutor Tak chuckles darkly that Commissioner Noh has nothing to worry about, while he himself is just a mongrel with many weaknesses.

Commissioner Noh remembers telling Superintendent Ma that they needed to discover Chief Prosecutor Tak’s weaknesses, and he knows that Superintendent Ma ratted him out. He apologizes for not reprimanding Superintendent Ma, and starts telling Chief Prosecutor Tak about Superintendent Ma’s meeting with Dong-tak and how he used his influence to catch a petty crook. What a toad.

He leaves, and Chief Prosecutor Tak’s server opens a hidden door to reveal Superintendent Ma, who heard every word. Chief Prosecutor Tak tells Superintendent Ma that mongrels will chase their own tails in circles all day, because to a mongrel, his tail is as important as his body. He tells Superintendent Ma to be a tail with a purpose, and later, Superintendent Ma realizes that Chief Prosecutor Tak can make it so Dong-tak suffers Hang-joon’s fate.

Sung-hyuk drags a reluctant Su-chang out to chase pickpockets. They hear a scream and see a woman run past, and when Su-chang recognizes Bong-sook, he deliberately sends Sung-hyuk in the wrong direction and goes after her.

Once he catches up to her, Su-chang takes Bong-sook for something to eat and tells her that she either needs to get better at picking pockets, or learn to run faster. He asks why she’s still going after small payoffs, and she says she’s doing it for her boyfriend, even though he doesn’t know.

Su-chang assures her that he knows and doesn’t approve, but Bong-sook is convinced that he’ll be very thankful when he wakes up. Su-chang tries to get her to give up by telling her that he doesn’t have feelings for her, but he can’t bring himself to say the words to her face.

Bong-sook completely misunderstands and thinks he’s Dong-tak, trying to confess to her. She attempts to talk him out of it, and he tells her to stop picking pockets before a real cop sends her to jail.

When he’s gone, Bong-sook spots a guy with his wallet in his back pocket and follows him into a cafe. She reaches for his wallet as he’s ordering, and the guy reaches back, trapping her hand on his butt. Bong-sook looks up to see Sung-hyuk grinning at her.

Bless his innocent little heart, he thinks she’s flirting with him. He buys her a drink, and Bong-sook has to let him keep thinking that they’re dating or confess that she was picking his pocket. He asks what Bong-sook does for a living, saying that anything is fine so long as she isn’t a gold-digger, a con artist, or a pickpocket. Uh-oh.

Meanwhile, Su-chang follows Ji-an at a distance, ducking sideways whenever she looks behind her. He stops to buy a necklace she admired from a street vendor, and a little further down the street, Ji-an finally calls out, “When will you come and say hello?” HA, busted.

Su-chang asks if she’s still angry, and she huffs at him with a smile. He’s relieved, and she asks why he pushed her away earlier but now wants to pull her in. Su-chang is shocked to hear that he supposedly said she’s not a woman to him, and he reassures her that he considers her a very beautiful woman. Ji-an peers at him suspiciously, noting that he’s acting very different again.

They walk on, and Su-chang tries to convince Ji-an that cuddling is the best way to get warm on such a cold night. But she’s not listening, having caught sight of something interesting, and she grabs him and pulls him over.

They end up sitting in Miss Bong’s parlor, Miss Bong herself looking very polished and professional this evening. Ji-an tells her that Dong-tak frequently changes his expressions, speech patterns, and even different mental states. She wonders if he’s possessed by a ghost, and Su-chang grumbles that she can’t discover the truth.

Miss Bong says that they have a fascinating fate, and that there’s also someone near to her whom she should never meet. Su-chang nods happily, interpreting Miss Bong’s words to mean that he and Ji-an are meant to be together, but Miss Bong just ignores him and says she may have already met that person she shouldn’t meet.

In the morning, the detectives are called to a crime scene. Su-chang is fine until he spots blood on the floor, and he tries not to look at it, terrified. Detective Kim tells them that an intruder broke in early this morning, and that the victim, whose name is Min-ah, is badly hurt and in the hospital.

Detective Lee continues that Min-ah’s boyfriend came home and fought off the intruder, who had a knife, and that the blood is the boyfriend’s. A forensics investigator bumps Su-chang, causing him to trip and fall to the floor with his face inches from a pool of blood, and a bloody scrape on his forehead. Su-chang’s soul flies out of Dong-tak’s body, and when Dong-tak sits up and glares at him accusingly, Su-chang says sheepishly, “It’s the blood.”

Outside, Dong-tak rails at Su-chang, having figured out that water lets him enter his body. Su-chang pretends not to know how he got out, but Dong-tak recalls that he was bleeding every time he woke up after Su-chang’s possession and figures it out on his own.

Meanwhile, the policeman who was first on the scene says that Min-ah had passed out after being beaten by the intruder, and that her boyfriend saved her life. But her friends tell a different story—they say that Min-ah changed after she started dating her boyfriend, and that she stopped hanging out with them.

Min-ah is still unconscious when the detectives get to the hospital, and her doctor agrees that even though she was badly beaten, she should be awake. Dong-tak notices an old bruise on Min-ah’s wrist, and her boyfriend (cameo by Ji Il-joo) says she fell down the stairs once.

He sobs that this is all his fault for coming home so late, begging Dong-tak to catch the attacker. Sung-hyuk thinks that Min-ah looks familiar, and he speaks to her boyfriend privately. He asks if the boyfriend is okay, and though he minimizes his injuries, Sung-hyuk is alarmed at the large gash on his forearm.

Joining them, Dong-tak asks if the boyfriend remembers anything about the attacker. He says that he only remembers him as being very big, and as he starts to cry that he failed Min-ah, Dong-tak watches his expression very closely.

Su-chang arrives at the hospital, kicking himself for letting Dong-tak figure out how he possesses him. The doctors pass him with Min-ah on a gurney, and a few seconds later her soul follows. She glances up at Su-chang for just a second, and as he watches her walk through some people, he realizes that she’s a soul like him.

He screeeams that he’s seen a ghost and breaks into a panicked run, only to skid to a stop in front of Dong-tak and land on his butt. He freaks out and gasps, “I saw a ghost!” but Dong-tak just walks past him like it’s no big deal, ha.

In Dong-tak’s car, Su-chang confesses that he and Ji-an saw Miss Bong. Dong-tak is all, “You did what in my body?” and Su-chang deadpans, “I was disappointed that I was in your body too, I’m much better looking than you.” That gets him kicked out of the car, hee.

Ji-an shows up at the hospital, having heard from Da-jung that the woman who comes to the hospital all the time was attacked. She recognizes Min-ah as the same woman who overheard them talking, and she’s so preoccupied later that she doesn’t hear Mi-nam’s invitation for an after-work drink.

Dong-tak goes back to Min-ah’s apartment, and we see that earlier, Sung-hyuk remembered her as the woman who came looking for Dong-tak at the station. Dong-tak finds it interesting that she would be attacked one day after trying to find him.

He goes up to the building’s roof to find a large pile of discarded items that look like old gifts and stuffed animals. Dong-tak finds a shirt with what looks like blood on it, then hears Ji-an’s voice teasing him about going through trash.

She says she figured he’d be here, and he tells her that these things were thrown away before Min-ah was attacked. Ji-an notes that it looks like Min-ah was breaking up with her boyfriend, because when a woman breaks up with a man, they toss everything the guy gave to them. He asks jealously if she’s done a lot of breaking up, and she says you don’t have to do it to know what it looks like.

Standing, Dong-tak says that they may have to change the direction of their investigation, because these items are evidence that her boyfriend could have committed the assault. Ji-an blames TV and movies for glamorizing violence, and to make a point, she grabs Dong-tak’s wrist.

She says that it’s violence, yet you see it romanticized all the time on television. She pushes him down onto a platform, looming over him as she says that women don’t find this as sexy as men think they do. She starts to get up, but Dong-tak grabs her wrist again, using it to pull himself to a sitting position.

He immediately relaxes his grip and asks Ji-an if this is also violence. Clearly shaken, she stammers that it isn’t because they’re both on a case and he’s a detective and she’s a reporter. Dong-tak reaches up to brush his fingertips against her cheek, then breathes, “This detective is going to make some trouble.”

He pulls Ji-an down and kisses her, and once she gets over the shock, her eyes flutter closed. Dong-tak deepens the kiss, never realizing that just a short distance away, Su-chang is watching them.

Watch the scene

Dong-tak swoops in for the kiss

 
COMMENTS

Oof, poor Su-chang. His crush on Ji-an is starting to get painful, for him obviously, but for me as a viewer, too. He genuinely likes her, but the only times he gets to show her his interest are when he’s in Dong-tak’s body, so all he ends up doing is pushing her feelings for Dong-tak even further along. And now he has to watch Dong-tak kissing the girl he likes, knowing that at least half the time she thinks she’s with Dong-tak, she’s really with him. I actually think that Ji-an is more attracted to the real Dong-tak, because Su-chang seems to annoy her a lot when he’s in control. But Su-chang’s charm can’t be denied, and the more he tries to get her to see him, the more she sees Dong-tak. I can tell that his advice to little Joon-soo on the playground is going to come back to bite him: When a girl chooses another guy, all you can do is thank her for making you happy for a while, and wish her well.

These boys, I swear! Both of them so stubborn—the more I learn of their personalities, the more I see why Hang-joon wanted them to meet. Dong-tak is taciturn while Su-chang is bubbly, but underneath they’re both mule-headed, distrustful, and convinced that their way is the only way. I was so hopeful last week when they agreed that catching the person who framed Su-chang’s father was the way to put things right, because I thought that they would start working together. But instead, Dong-tak is adamant that he’s going to do it all himself, while Su-chang doesn’t trust him to be able to do what needs to be done within the confines of his detective job. Neither of them is wrong, it’s just that they need to figure out how to do this together, and I want to smack them for not figuring it out yet.

Finally, we know what triggers Dong-tak and Su-chang’s soul exchange—their biggest fears. For Dong-tak it’s water, and for Su-chang, it’s blood. Obviously they don’t have to be afraid in that moment—just the presence of the water or blood is enough—because they’ve successfully switched when one or both of them was unaware that the catalyst was even present. But their fear makes total sense as an agent, and I love that the show gives us a vehicle for the switch, if not an explanation for how they got this way. I still want to know where Dong-tak goes when he’s not in control, because surely with such a detailed explanation of the mechanics of the switch, there has to also be an explanation of what happens to Dong-tak when Su-chang is using his body, and why he can’t remember those times like Su-chang remembers his out-of-body time.

I’m still very much enjoying Two Cops, which isn’t perfect but is remaining consistently entertaining as we near the halfway point. At times the editing can be confusing, but for the most part it’s a fun ride with an interesting mystery at the heart of it. My one major complaint is Chief Prosecutor Tak and his bizarre speeches, which make absolutely zero sense. Metaphors have their place, but this guy only talks in metaphors. I have no clue whatsoever what he, Commissioner Noh, and Superintendent Ma are even doing in the story at this point, or why they keep meeting to talk about nothing. I get that they’re the bad guys, but at this point they have shown no motivation for their actions—in fact, I don’t even know what they’ve done other than promise Doo-shik to save him if he confesses to Hang-joon’s murder, then back out on the deal. The show needs to clarify their purpose soon and tell me why I should even care, because right now, they’re just making the show feel bloated with pointless information, and taking us away from the scenes with the characters we want to see.

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