Two Cops: Episodes 17-18

by LollyPip

With time swiftly running out, Dong-tak takes drastic measures to try to discover who’s behind the cover-up of Hang-joon’s murder. The hope is that solving the current case will lead him and Su-chang back to the person who started it all by framing Su-chang’s father. But they may be up against someone stronger than they think, and they have a long way to go before they learn who is responsible for their predicament.

 
EPISODE 17 RECAP

A bus full of newcomers is delivered to a prison yard, to the great interest of the resident inmates. One of the men led from the bus looks familiar to many of them, probably because he had a hand in arresting them. A quick flashback shows that Dong-tak learned that someone tried to kill Doo-shik in prison, so he decided to go undercover and learn who’s trying to silence him regarding Hang-joon’s death.

As soon as he’s led into his new cell, one of his cellmates recognizes him and confronts him for being the reason he’s here. In fact, Dong-tak arrested three of his cellmates, so he says quietly that he won’t cause any trouble.

The story goes that Dong-tak was arrested for assault and sentenced to two years in prison in an investigation led by prosecutor Jae-hee. Ji-an watches as her rival Na-mi reports the story, as her friend Mi-nam tells her boss that Ji-an’s recent bad mood is because her boyfriend is in jail.

Not having been told about the undercover plan, Ji-an confronts Jae-hee, sure that a good man like Dong-tak must have been framed. Jae-hee asks why she’s so emotional about this and tells her that Dong-tak assaulted a suspect, but she keeps arguing that she trusts him. Jae-hee asks if there’s another reason for her reaction, but she refuses to give him an answer, simply saying that he’s wrong about Dong-tak.

Ji-an visits Dong-tak and admits that she’s having a hard time because of this. She offers to get a lawyer and asks if he’s up to something, which gets the attention of the nearby guard, but Dong-tak calmly denies everything.

Wanting to hear him agree to something, she asks if he likes her, but he just asks her to hold her hand to the glass then presses his own against it on his side. He looks at her with sad eyes and asks if she got his answer. Awww.

Watch the video

Do you like me?

 
Dong-tak promises to get out soon, and Ji-an asks him if he’s really not going to tell her what happened the night she kissed him, when he seemed to threaten someone who wasn’t there. She asks what he’s hiding, but his time is up, saving him from having to think up a plausible answer.

Back in his cell, Dong-tak thinks about that night, when he’d yelled at Su-chang for going near Ji-an. Su-chang had looked ill and in pain, and now Dong-tak worries whether he’s okay.

Su-chang is at the hospital, watching as Bong-sook and nurse Da-jung take turns caring for him. He overhears a nurse saying that his vital signs had gone suddenly haywire that night, just like when someone messes with a patient’s IV in a drama, which makes him wonder if his seizure wasn’t from natural causes.

He spots Miss Bong hovering nearby, and she asks if he’s delaying going back to his own body because of Ji-an. He admits that he forgets everything when he’s with her, so Miss Bong reminds him that everything in this world returns to its starting point. She reveals to Su-chang that he and Dong-tak weren’t the only ones there when their shared destiny began.

She tells him, “The person that you’re dying to take in is very nearby.” She reminds Su-chang that he only has forty-nine days to return to his body, and he realizes that there are only twenty-one days left. Miss Bong says that the only way to return is to atone for what he’s done in the past.

During exercise hours, the cellmates that Dong-tak arrested start to bully him, denying him the right to be in the sunlight and tripping him when he tries to pass. One of them punches him, trying to goad him into a fight, but Dong-tak repeats that he just wants to get by quietly before the guards break things up.

Later, he sees Doo-shik being led into the yard by a guard, and a friendly inmate tells Dong-tak that someone stabbed Doo-shik in the shoulder during a movie a few nights ago. Doo-shik had fought back and was lucky to have only been injured, but he nearly beat his attacker to death, so he’s been in solitary until today.

Doo-shik approaches Dong-tak to gloat that he’s just like everyone else without his badge. Dong-tak wipes the smirk off his face by retorting that Doo-shik should have kept quiet if he was going to take the fall (for Hang-joon’s death), referring to his request for a retrial.

Commissioner Noh is worried about that retrial, and that the plans to frame Su-chang and Doo-shik both fell through. Superintendent Ma reminds him that they’re the ones who broke their deal with Doo-shik, but Commissioner Noh tells him to keep quiet and do as he says, worried now that Dong-tak is in prison with access to Doo-shik.

The detectives are befuddled over Dong-tak’s situation as well, though Detective Yoo warns them not to do anything about it. But then we see that they’ve all gone to gangster Yong-pal, plying him with gifts and sucking up — HA, Yong-pal must be the person Dong-tak supposedly assaulted, which means he’s in on the plan.

He sighs that Dong-tak is making him crazy, and he’s annoyed when Ji-an comes to see him. He tells her that she won’t find proof of Dong-tak’s innocence, but he looks cornered when she asks if he disposed of any CCTV footage.

She can tell he’s hiding something and asks why he’s doing this after they worked together on the kidnapping case. She holds out a hand, which he reluctantly shakes, only for her to accuse him of sexual harassment and order him to drop the charges.

After she leaves, Ji-an gets a call from Da-jung, who tells her that she saw a strange woman leaving the hospital room before Su-chang’s seizure. She’d checked the CCTV cameras, but everything from that hour had disappeared.

Ji-an goes to the hospital to sit by Su-chang’s body, while his spirit listens in. She says he must be enjoying his “picnic,” and behind her, Su-chang says he wants to wake up so he can show himself to her. He’s surprised that she heard him say his real name when he was in Dong-tak’s body, having thought she was too drunk to understand.

Watch the video

Is half of the man in your heart me?

 
Ji-an wonders out loud what happened between Su-chang and Dong-tak, recalling that she even met Dong-tak because of Su-chang, when she was looking into Hang-joon’s death. She says that investigating that case was the first time she felt she and Dong-tak could be perfect partners.

That makes Su-chang grin, because that was actually him. Ji-an’s fond recollections also include times when she was with Dong-tak, but Su-chang is heartened anyway, because what he hears is that at least half of her feelings are for him.

Doo-shik is moved to Dong-tak’s cell, where the other inmates scatter and make room as if they’re scared of him. He’s not happy to see Dong-tak and asks if he heard any rumors about him. Dong-tak says that he thinks the people who originally set up Doo-shik plan to have him silenced.

The same cellmate who punched Dong-tak earlier, Salja, takes offense to his helping himself at mealtime, but another inmate argues that he’s not a cop in here. He says that another callmate, whom they call “Moss” because he’s so quiet and gentle, also once took the police exam, and later got busted for collecting money for a voice phishing scam.

When Dong-tak asks Salja what he arrested him for, Salja changes the subject. Another cellmate, called “Puncture,” says that he got angry when he couldn’t find a job and punctured the tires of over a hundred cars, ha.

Dong-tak is still dubious that he’s actually met Salja before, and Salja changes the subject again when asked. He mentions a couple of his friends who are gone because of Dong-tak, but the names aren’t familiar, and Salja again deflects when Dong-tak asks who they are.

The guys ask Dong-tak  who Doo-shik supposedly murdered, having heard a rumor that it was a detective. Dong-tak doesn’t answer and the room grows very quiet. Moss runs out of soap that night, so he asks Puncture if he can borrow his. Puncture frantically grabs his soap holder, yelling that nobody can touch it, and Moss asks if he’s got something hidden in there.

After the guys settle in to sleep, Dong-tak quietly asks Doo-shik when his retrial will be and if he thinks he’ll survive until then. When he gets no answer, he wishes Doo-shik luck and goes to sleep.

A while later, Doo-shik wakes in a panic when a blade, hidden inside a bar of soap, slashes his neck. He flings his blanket over his attacker, and his yells wake the rest of the room. When the lights come up, the cellmates are all fighting each other, and it’s unclear who attacked Doo-shik.

The guards quickly search the inmates’ cubbies and find the bloodied knife in Puncture’s soapdish. He’s dragged out of the room screaming that it’s not his, leaving the others confused, since he’s never seemed to be a bad person.

Helping put pressure on Doo-shik’s neck, Dong-tak asks if Doo-shik knows something important, but Doo-shik doesn’t answer.

EPISODE 18 RECAP

Yong-pal visits Dong-tak, who thanks him for his help — so it was Yong-pal who pretended to be hurt and pressed charges, helping Dong-tak get into prison. Dong-tak asks him who punctures his tire, placing emphasis on the word puncture, which clues in Yong-pal as to who tried to kill Doo-shik.

Su-chang shows up at the prison to see Dong-tak, hilariously feeling very comfortable to be back and greeting some familiar friends. Dong-tak is surprised to see him, because they haven’t seen each other since Dong-tak arrived at the prison.

Su-chang starts to tell Dong-tak that he thinks someone is after him, but he backtracks and just says that Miss Bong told him the person they want is very nearby. Dong-tak tells Su-chang about the second attempt on Doo-shik’s life, but that Doo-shik won’t tell him anything.

Su-chang decides that as a soul, he should wander around the prison and see what he can learn. He heads over to where Doo-shik is sitting and witnesses Moss offering Doo-shik some boiled eggs, but Doo-shik angrily knocks them out of Moss’s hand. Su-chang remembers that Doo-shik would never eat boiled eggs, back when they hung out together.

He recalls a time when he yelled at Doo-shik for stealing from an old woman, angry at him for breaking the rule of never stealing from the needy, the kind, or the sick (apparently, the rule has changed). Doo-shik had called Su-chang crazy, and Su-chang had declared their friendship over. Now Su-chang sighs heavily, wondering how they both came to this.

He follows Dong-tak back inside, vowing that he won’t possess him while he’s in jail because it’s too dangerous. He warns Dong-tak to beware of water, then recognizes the angel wing tattoo on Doo-shik’s neck, saying that he’s seen it somewhere before.

Dong-tak stops short when he nearly walks into a puddle of water where some inmates are mopping the floor. He avoids getting wet, only for an inmate to toss a bucket of water in his direction — and Su-chang is suddenly in his body. Dammit! But he decides to make the best of the situation and try doing things his way.

He runs across Doo-shik, who says to leave him alone, thinking he’s Dong-tak. Su-chang asks what Doo-shik accomplished by putting himself in here, but Doo-shik tells him to mind his own business.

Su-chang sees Dong-tak’s cellmates and confuses them by acting very different, giving romance advice to the inmate convicted of stalking women. But he wins over the guys with his new friendly demeanor, though Salja looks at him like he’s gone nuts. Stalker asks what to do if he meets the woman of his dreams, which reminds Su-chang of Ji-an, and he says you’ll feel butterflies in your stomach even if she doesn’t recognize you.

Ji-an catches Yong-pal doing a shady loan deal and says it’s proof that he sent Dong-tak to prison unfairly. He badly wants to tell her the truth, but he can’t, and the poor guy looks like he could cry with frustration.

Ji-an goes to see Chief Prosecutor Tak and tells him of her belief that Dong-tak was sent to prison for something he didn’t do. Chief Prosecutor Tak acts very fatherly towards her, and he promises to look into Dong-tak’s case on her behalf. He invites her to eat with him, and the jjamppong they order reminds him of Ji-an’s father, who would take his time eating instead of gulping down his food and rushing off like the other detectives.

Ji-an half jokes that that dedication is why her father divorced her mother and practically lived at the police station. Chief Prosecutor Tak sighs that she still blames her father for that, and that he died so young. But Ji-an says that actually, her father was coming to see her the day he died, and that Superintendent Ma told her that he didn’t kill himself.

As she tells him of her plan to look into her father’s death, Chief Prosecutor Tak goes very still. Then he snaps out of it and says supportively that she should eat well and be prepared, and Ji-an digs into her meal.

Ji-an visits the prison again, but this time it’s Su-chang she’s talking to, and he sighs over the circles under her eyes. She tells him that she’s going to investigate why he’s here, but he grows serious and warns her not to do that, saying that he’s worried for her to deflect the guard’s sudden interest.

Ji-an agrees to sit back and wait, and laughs when Su-chang breathes on the glass and draws a heart in the condensation. She tells him to hurry up and get out, because she has a case for him to look at for her.

Su-chang’s next visitor is Yong-pal again, this time by force and accompanied by the entire detective team because he was taking too long to bring information. Yong-pal says that he looked into the guy who “punctured his tire” but found nothing, so Su-chang gives him another assignment — to watch over Ji-an.

Meanwhile, Ji-an takes a photo of Doo-shik to the shop where Doo-shik got his angel wings tattoo. The tattoo artist clearly remembers the date as November 10th, which was several days after Hang-joon was killed. Lurking in the doorway, Yong-pal realizes that this proves that Doo-shik didn’t kill Hang-joon.

On Christmas Day, Su-chang tries to talk to Doo-shik again, only to get snapped at. Later he overhears that it’s a guard’s wedding anniversary, so he mentions to the guard that missing an anniversary can haunt him for a long time. He talks the guard into sending the Bakery Boys to his wife with a cake and a song, which delights his wife.

In return, several boiled eggs are delivered to Su-chang’s cell, decorated with little Christmas trees. He passes them out, but when Salja brings out a bottle of soda for them to share, Su-chang gets an idea and picks the eggs back up again. Doo-shik slams his eggs against the wall then knocks the bowl out of Su-chang’s hands, smashing the remaining eggs and starting an all-out cell brawl.

Once the fight dies down, the guys manage to salvage two eggs, then one by one, they each contribute something to the pile of food. Once they have a modest offering, Su-chang tells Doo-shik to come over and bow, because this is his sister’s memorial ceremony. Oh, that is so sweet.

Looking stunned, Doo-shik remembers telling Su-chang once that his sister died when she stole a boiled egg, and was struck by a car while running away. No wonder he doesn’t eat boiled eggs. He’d asked Su-chang to observe her death anniversary if anything ever happened to him.

The cellmates hold a solemn ceremony, and Doo-shik stays with his forehead on the floor for a long time to cover his sobs. When he finally gets up, he screams at Su-chang, “Who are you?!” Su-chang just stuffs a boiled egg into his mouth, saying that he should at least taste them since his sister loved them, which makes Doo-shik cry even harder.

Su-chang eats the second egg, then pounds on Doo-shik’s back when he starts to choke. Su-chang also chokes, so Doo-shik hits his back too, until they’re chasing each other around in circles whacking each other. Cute.

A pair of guards notice that Su-chang seems comfortable in prison, and is even helping other inmates solve their problems. Su-chang says he just wanted to help, but the guard tells him not to try anything funny before dismissing him.

On the way back to his cell, Su-chang suddenly falls to his knees clutching his chest in pain. The resulting nosebleed kicks him out of Dong-tak’s body, and Dong-tak sees that Su-chang is in distress and asks if he’s okay. Su-chang sends him on his way, recovering fairly quickly this time.

In the work room, Dong-tak notices that Doo-shik isn’t glaring at him with such malice anymore. Later Doo-shik slips a note into Dong-tak’s hand which says, “There’s something you want to hear from me, isn’t there?”

Dong-tak thinks about how he and Su-chang planned to get him into prison. Su-chang had talked Dong-tak into meeting with Jae-hee, who had agreed to help get Dong-tak in prison. They’d set up a CCTV camera to record Yong-pal beating himself up, so that he could claim Dong-tak did it, but the video could be used later to prove his innocence.

Dong-tak follows the directions on Doo-shik’s note and goes to the workshop to meet with him, hoping to finally learn what he came here to learn. But instead of Doo-shik, it’s Salja waiting for him in the abandoned room, looking prepared to pound Dong-tak into a pulp.

Watch the video

Did Dong-tak just walk into a trap?

 
COMMENTS

What is Salja’s deal, anyway? Obviously he knows Dong-tak and blames him for something, but Dong-tak doesn’t seem to know him. I wonder if Doo-shik set up Dong-tak to get attacked by Salja, or if Salja just followed him to the workshop and that Doo-shik will help Dong-tak out, which would be vastly preferable. Dong-tak and Su-chang need Doo-shik on their side, because he’s the only link to the person who killed Hang-joon, and to whoever ordered his death. They need to convince him to help them out, or they’ll never find out what really happened.

Speaking of which, I was glad to get back to the primary mystery of Hang-joon’s death, because while I don’t mind a good case-of-the-week format, I’m getting worried with how much time Su-chang and Dong-tak have wasted. They know they have to solve this case, and thus the mystery of their own shared past, but it was as if the moment they decided they needed to work together, they promptly forgot all about it. I’m happy that they seem to be working as a team a bit better now, at least in terms of seeing themselves as being in this together and not as enemies.

As time goes by, I’m becoming less and less sure that Chief Prosecutor Tak is behind everything — I’m beginning to think he’s a red herring, and that the real mastermind is someone else. I could be horribly wrong, but we’ve never actually seen him do anything or order anyone hurt, he just looks somewhat shady at times. I think that Chief Prosecutor Tak definitely knows what happened to Ji-an’s father, which would make him almost certain to also know what happened back when Dong-tak and Su-chang were kids. But I’m no longer so positive that he had a direct hand in events, back then or more recently.

I think it’s interesting that Dong-tak thought to go into prison to be near Doo-shik, since he knew that Doo-shik was refusing to talk to anyone and the only way to get to him was to connect with him something. I do think it’s strange that Dong-tak was the one to go inside, since being on the inside only brought a lot of attention to him, because half the guys in there know him as a detective.

But I liked that Su-chang got to interact with his old friend and mend a few fences, even if Doo-shik didn’t know who he was or why he was doing it. I want to see Su-chang doing more active participation in things and to use his time in Dong-tak’s body for more than mooning after Ji-an, particularly now that Miss Bong has told him that he has to right his past wrongs in order to get back into his own body and resume his life. I just worry that there’s not enough time left, because more than half of the 49 days has passed and Dong-tak and Su-chang are no closer to solving the mystery than when they started.

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