Catch the Ghost: Episode 2

by lovelee

Our odd couple police partners may have very different approaches to their work, but they’re starting to get in sync already. One half of the partnership is all ice cold logic, while the other half is all fire and heart. Together, they may be able to catch the murderous rogue haunting the subway system.

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

At long last, having managed to swipe Ji-seok’s keys, Yoo Ryung enters the subway tunnel, determined to catch the Subway Ghost.

Meanwhile, Ji-seok’s on his way to deliver camera footage files to Mi-ra, but he heads back to the station after realizing he left his wallet there. At the station, he finds Yoo Ryung missing and the subway platform doors open.

Yoo Ryung is in the depths of the tunnels when a noise prompts her to turn off her flashlight. She sees a shadow up ahead but a noise stops her in her tracks. Another shadow pops up behind her, and it’s poised to hit Yoo Ryung.

Ji-seok hears Yoo Ryung’s scream and finds her hurt on the tracks, but she’s more concerned about the perp that’s getting away. She gasps, “it’s the Subway Ghost,” before getting up to run. Ji-seok quickly outpaces her, but he trips and the guy escapes, dropping a wallet in the process. Ji-seok opens it up and discovers it belongs to Commissioner Kim.

Ji-seok is dumbfounded by Yoo Ryung’s assumption that the figure was the Subway Ghost. She brings up the Subway Lovers Association again, this time to explain the theory that the Subway Ghost moves bodies through the tunnel. Ji-seok flips out, yelling that a cop should rely on evidence. He hands her the wallet and says it wasn’t the Subway Ghost, she saw the Grasshopper. As they walk away, we see a figure with a bad twitch lurking in the darkness.

The whole team’s gathered to re-watch footage of the 30th anniversary demonstration in the subway. Ji-seok reveals his working theory: everyone was pickpocketed before boarding the subway. As people stepped on, their wallets were pilfered then dropped in the gap between the platform and the train. There’s not one Grasshopper, they’re dealing with a whole cloud of Grasshoppers–and the big-headed police mascots were the culprits.

Ji-seok is convinced the Grasshoppers were in the tunnel to retrieve the wallets and is furious about Yoo Ryung’s behavior, which not only messed up the investigation, it could’ve gotten him fired. Man-jin explains that a detective once went into the tunnels to catch a graffiti vandal. He forgot to close the platform doors and someone ended up getting hit by a train. Ji-seok angrily tells Yoo Ryung not to go back in the tunnels.

A woman, HAN AE-SHIM (Nam Ki-ae), sits outside what appears to be a nursing home. We learn that she’s Ji-seok’s mother, but she doesn’t seem to recognize him. When he sits down next to her, she calls him ajusshi and says she’s waiting for her boyfriend. Before Ji-seok leaves, he asks the nurse to tell his mom that her boyfriend is coming later tonight.

Ji-seok and Yoo Ryung are back on duty by a subway station entrance, with Flyer Lady back in action too. Yoo Ryung eyes the keys hanging from Ji-seok’s waist, then shifts her gaze when Ji-seok catches her staring. Yoo Ryung grumbles that doesn’t understand what she needs to look out for. Ji-seok explains that it will take a while to catch on, but she’ll learn.

While he talks, Yoo Ryung spots something and runs off, thrilled that she’s catching on so quickly. She has her eyes on a man in hiking gear and in her rush, she knocks over an old man carrying a lot of shopping bags. Ji-seok helps the man up before continuing his pursuit of Yoo Ryung. Before he goes, Ji-seok overhears the man talking on the phone about the station’s storage lockers.

The old man’s on the phone with a customer; it turns out he’s a subway delivery man. He finds his way to the lockers and confirms the locker number and code with the caller. The caller has a massive neck tattoo and as he ends the call, we see there’s a bloodied, beaten man kneeling in front of him.

Tattoo Thug tells the man that people always pay their debts to him. The thug kneels to tell the man not to worry, that payment doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of cash.

Delivery Grandpa opens up the locker and takes out a shopping bag, dropping his cellphone in the process. He steps away without noticing his loss.

On the subway, Yoo Ryung spots the strange man covertly taking photos and forcefully arrests him. Right as she takes out her cuffs, Ji-seok stops her and apologizes to the man, addressing him as Chief Inspector Gong. Once Yoo Ryung lets him up, he arrests a man for sexual assault. Chief Inspector Gong tells Ji-seok to stay in his own territory and reminds him that it’s against the Code of Ethics to cross territories.

At the substation, Soo-ho reminds Ji-seok that he needs to report on the Grasshopper case to Commissioner Kim later. Ji-seok gets her wallet from his drawer and hands it to Yoo Ryung, which she puts into a gift bag that looks exactly like the one Delivery Grandpa had taken out of the subway locker earlier. Right then, Delivery Grandpa stops in, looking for his lost cellphone. Ji-seok recognizes the man and helps him with his bags, setting them on the table, right next to the bag with Commissioner’s Kim wallet.

Ji-seok calls Lost and Found, but not before giving Delivery Grandpa a cup ramyun to have with his homemade lunch. Delivery Grandpa rushes to finish his meal–he has no time to lose, his customers await!

He says he’ll be back later for his phone and grabs the bags, including the one with the commissioner’s wallet. Unaware of the inadvertent switch, Ji-seok and Yoo Ryung head to Police HQ to report to Commissioner Kim and return her wallet.

Ma-ri is reporting on her team’s progress to Commissioner Kim, but the commissioner is less than pleased. Ma-ri needs to investigate with her heart, not just her brain.

There’s a knock on the door and Ji-seok presents the gift bag to the commissioner. She takes a look in the bag and says it’s too much. Ji-seok brightly says it’s nothing much (and shoots a pleased little smirk at Ma-ri) before the ball drops.

There’s no wallet, just a bottle of medication for menopause. Ji-seok’s horrified, but that doesn’t stem the tide of Commissioner Kim’s fury. He explains the bags were switched and apologizes for the mix up before making a hasty retreat.

Woo-hyuk spots Yoo Ryung waiting in the HQ’s foyer and watches her leave with Ji-seok. Ma-ri catches a glimpse of them as Woo-hyuk says Yoo Ryung appears to have joined the subway police force. Woo-hyuk reminds a bemused Ma-ri that Yoo Ryung insisted the Subway Ghost is in the tunnels, that’s probably why she joined the force.

The gift bag mix up has some serious repercussions, as we see Tattoo Thug brutally beat Delivery Grandpa in a men’s restroom. Delivery Grandpa swears he’d never steal, but Tattoo Thug continues his beatdown before searching through Delivery Grandpa’s bag.

Ji-seok and Yoo Ryung search for Delivery Grandpa at one of the subway stations he mentioned when a locked public restroom catches Ji-seok’s attention. When Yoo Ryung takes a peek inside, she sees Delivery Grandpa’s distinctive brass lunch box on the floor. While Ji-seok starts to dial emergency services, she grabs a fire extinguisher and breaks through the restroom’s glass doors.

They rush in to aid Delivery Grandpa and just when they’re distracted, Tattoo Thug makes his escape. Ji-seok goes after him, but loses sight of him.

As EMTs take Delivery Grandpa away, Ji-seok suddenly remembers him mentioning the subway lockers. That sparks a realization and he opens up one of the pill capsules–they’re narcotics. He explains that suppliers leave drugs in subway lockers and transport them to dealers through private delivery services. It’s a typical tactic that works to avoid detection. Yoo Ryung is ablaze, ready to track down these drug dealers…but Ji-seok reports the case to the Narcotics Division.

Yoo Ryung gets frustrated; why does Ji-seok keep reporting cases instead of working them himself? Ji-seok says that just jumping into a narcotics case could be incredibly dangerous. What would Yoo Ryung’s family do if they knew she was putting herself into danger? As he walks away, Yoo Ryung picks up Delivery Grandpa’s lunch box and discovers a note from his daughter telling him that she’ll make his favorite soup for dinner.

She calls out to Ji-seok and tells him that Delivery Grandpa has a family too and families relies on the police to help them. Yoo Ryung hands him the lunch box before walking away.

Ji-seok finds Yoo Ryung and tells her it’s time to work. Aw, he listened! The rest of the team is nervous about investigating a drug offense, so Ji-seok tells them they’re just investigating the assault on Delivery Grandpa. Ji-seok divides up tasks and when Yoo Ryung asks what she should do, he asks her to take a seat. She hops to it and sits, all ears for the next order. Ji-seok tells her to park her butt and not move an inch.

Man-jin searches the security footage from the subway station while Soo-ho calls Delivery Grandpa’s phone company for his call history. Yoo Ryung pops up and suggests they take a photo of his tattoos and ask around at the city’s tattoo shops for information on him. Ji-seok thinks her idea is great…if they want to catch the perp next year. Thanks to the security footage, they spot a man with a mustache who frequented the lockers and decide to look for him.

They end up at a club and Yoo Ryung and Ji-seok are clearly out of their element. They awkwardly stand at the bar (LOL Ji-seok perches his knee on a stool) when a very drunk woman (cameo by comedian Kim Nam-hee) accosts Ji-seok. On the dance floor, he tells her he’s a police officer on a stakeout and walks away. He doesn’t go far because she’s grabs his handcuffs; just when he gets them back, she’s taken his taser gun. He tries to get her to hand it over carefully, but right when he gets his hand on it, she shoots. Yoo Ryung comes to his rescue and manages to spot their the suspect.

They locate him in a private room but Ji-Seok stops Yoo Ryung from barging in, warning that it’s too dangerous. They have a tug-of-war until a man inside asks what’s going on. Yoo Ryung thinks fast and pretends to be a clubber. She oppa’s her way into the room and flirts with Mustache Man but he isn’t feeling it. She tells the group that she heard that they have really good stuff and they all stop and stare at her.

Ear to the door, Ji-seok anxiously wonders whether or not he should call for backup. In the room, Yoo Ryung has them right where she wants them. After they’ve revealed all the drugs they have, she distracts them and does an epic table slide to grab all the drugs. She runs out and tells Ji-seok to take the drugs; run toward exit nine at Chungdam Station, there’s no time to explain.

As soon as she’s outside, Yoo Ryung uses her super abilities to analyze Chungdam Station. Ji-seok runs for his life… but ends up at a dead end. He analyzes the situation and decides to take on the seven men by himself. He defeats them! Yay! Just kidding. Turns out it he was imagining the whole thing. Mustache Man punches him back to reality.

A few punches in, it’s Yoo Ryung to the rescue, with a fire hose at the ready. While she hoses the men down, Ji-seok takes the opportunity to slide between Mustache Man’s legs to get away from the hose. Just as Yoo Ryung is about to slip and fall, Ji-seok appears catches her and literally backs her up (cue fun, romantic music).

The next thing we see, all the drug oppas are kneeling in front of Yoo Ryung at the station, while she interrogates Mustache Man.

Meanwhile, Ji-seok suddenly daydreams about their moment together. He imagines her romantically saying, “Do you want another shower?” He snaps out of it when he realizes that question’s directed to Mustache Man, as a threat to hose him down again.

The officers get news from the hospital: Delivery Grandpa was kidnapped by a man with tattoos. Yoo Ryung’s threats and literal ear twisting don’t work, but when Ji-seok takes over to calmly lay out just how much time Mustache Man will spend behind bars, the man sings like a bird.

Every few weeks, he goes to Incheon port to receive drug shipments, while Tattoo Thug takes orders, confirms payment, and calls him to deliver. During one of their phone calls, he overheard Tattoo Thug telling someone to tape a payment to the bottom of a blue vending machine. In order to catch Tattoo Thug, they need to identify the right blue vending machine. That’s no small task as there are hundreds of machines across the city’s subway system and only four of them at the station.

Tattoo Thug has Delivery Grandpa at his warehouse and is making a deal over the phone to sell Delivery’s Grandpa’s organs. After making the deal, Tattoo Thug calls Mustache Man. The police team tell him to answer and play it cool. They manage to get valuable information: Tattoo Thug will be picking up a payment in one hour.

Yoo Ryung tries to use her super abilities to figure out a solution, but it’s impossible because there are too many blue vending machines. Ji-seok tells her to list all the blue vending machines and he’ll handle the rest. He circles all the stations that have blue vending machines and uploads a request for help in the subway police group chat.

Officers respond right away, and with the entire force out to help, they quickly locate the right blue vending machine. Chief Inspector Gong joins the stakeout with Ji-seok and Yoo Ryung, and when they see Tattoo Thug take the money, they follow him.

In the taxi, Ji-seok gives Yoo Ryung his gun but tells her not to shoot–there will be disciplinary action if she does. The gun should be used as a bluff, but if she absolutely has to shoot, then only shoot once. The first bullet is a blank, the others are live rounds.

Tattoo Thug is dragging Delivery Grandpa somewhere when Yoo Ryung appears, gun drawn. She warns that she’ll shoot if he moves. He’s unmoved and Yoo Ryung begs him to just lets Delivery Grandpa go. Ji-seok attacks from behind and just when it seems like he has the upper hand, Tattoo Thug pulls out a hidden knife and stabs him in the chest. Ji-seok falls and Yoo Ryung looks horribly shaken.

Yoo Ryung remembers Ji-seok telling her that the first bullet is a blank…she shoots into the air to get rid of the blank and warns the thug once again to let Delivery Grandpa go. Tattoo Thug dares her to shoot and mocks her. She hesitates…then shoots him in the leg.

Right then, Ji-seok yells, “I told you not to shoot!” He gets up and staggers towards Yoo Ryung like a zombie. She pulls on the knife and sees that Ji-seok had Delivery Grandpa’s brass lunch box in his inner pocket. Ji-seok’s “blood” was just the punctured lunch box leaking kimchi juice. They laugh in relief, but Yoo Ryung’s laughter turns to angry tears. She berates him for letting her think he was dead but he says he thought he was dead too (lol).

Delivery Grandpa is being wheeled to the ambulance when his daughter appears. It’s Flyer Lady! She thanks Ji-seok but he tells her she should thank Yoo Ryung. A call from the nursing home prompts Ji-seok to head off as tells the team that he’s going to go see his family. Man-jin and Soo-ho head off for quality family time too, and Yoo Ryung’s left alone.

Ji-seok’s mom refuses to eat because her boyfriend promised to bring her favorite chicken. Just as the nurses wonder when he’ll come, Ji-seok arrives–decked out in retro fashion. Ae-shim calls him Myung-chul (I’m guessing that’s his dad). He watches her as she eats and takes out the picture of his family from his wallet. He tells his dad that he’s lucky to have a wife who still loves him even after death.

Yoo Ryung walks back to an empty apartment and sits alone on her sofa. In the darkly lit room, she remembers a time when her twin sister, Yoo Jin was still safe and with her. Yoo Jin had loved to turn the TV on and off, which would annoy Yoo Ryung to no end. In the present, she sits in the dark and cries as she turns the TV on and off.

Out on the tracks, Ma-ri and Woo-hyuk are investigating the Subway Ghost. Ma-ri’s convinced the end-station holds is the only way the perp could get bodies onto the train, but they’ve had no luck finding leads there. Woo-hyuk wonders if Yoo Ryung is right about the tunnels having the answers.

Ma-ri can’t wrap her head around it, “How could he have gone in the tunnels and gotten the bodies on the train?” Even if the culprit did take the bodies via the tunnels, the only way out would be to the end-station, but there was no one on the camera footage. Ma-ri orders Woo-hyuk to bring all the case files from the past two years and decides to start again from the beginning.

Somewhere, we see a figure dressed in black walk through a lair with locked chests. There are photos of people and news clippings taped to the walls, and as the dark figure walks off we see one more photo: it’s an unconscious and bloody Yoo Jin.

 
COMMENTS

This was a very full episode, with so many details that I kept worrying I’d miss out on an important clue. It’s important to keep an eye on the things that seem insignificant because you never know what might turn out to be a valuable clue. (Who would have thought the Flyer Lady would have a connection to the grandpa-thug case?) It was nice to see how Ji-seok’s approach slowly changed, while still being true to his respect for rules. He definitely still hates it when Yoo Ryung goes against the rules, but sometimes she’s right. If the police care too much about jurisdictions and rules, what will happen to the victimes? When the commissioner told Ma-ri to investigate with her heart and not just her brain, I thought of Yoo Ryung. Yoo Ryung seems to be the heart that the police agency needs.

Speaking of loved ones, we learned a lot about Ji-seok this episode. It was nice seeing that softeness to his character under his gruff exterior. His treatment of the Delivery Grandpa was quite sweet and seeing how he dressed up as his dad to meet his mom was so touching. I’m curious as to how Ji-seok ended up in the subway police force. I feel like there’s more to this story. I wonder if his family had an influence on his decision to become a transit officer. I’d like to know more about his family but for now, it was nice to see the love his mom has for his dad. Like Ji-seok said, his dad is lucky to have a wife who still loves him so much, even after his death.

I love the chemistry between Yoo Ryung and Ji-seok and I hope that romance is on the cards for them. Although we’re not seeing it as much from Yoo Ryung’s perspective yet, that rose-tinted slow-mo recollection of their fire hose incident definitely points to a budding attraction for Ji-seok. The mystery is so intense that I need those moments of comedy and light. Like the fire hose scene, I couldn’t stop laughing at their adorable, yet hilarious moment. I’m also looking forward to see how Ma-ri and Woo-hyuk’s investigation unfolds. I actually didn’t recognize Woo-hyuk, played by Ki Do-hoon from Arthdal Chronicles (he played the ever silent and masked Yang-cha). It was refreshing to see him without the mask and eyeliner, and we finally got to hear his voice.

Also, the ending! Did they just reveal what happened to Yoo Jin? Despite Ma-ri’s skepticism, it was obvious there was a connection between Yoo Jin’s disappearance and the Subway Ghost, but I didn’t think they would unveil it so soon. Is Yoo Jin really dead? If she’s dead, what happened to her body? What do all these victims have in common? Ah! There’s so many unanswered questions!

RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Catch the Ghost
• Compatibility and chemistry in new Catch the Ghost teaser
• Subway cop team prepares to Catch the Ghost in upcoming tvN drama
• Moon Geun-young drama Catch the Ghost releases new teaser and poster
• Moon Geun-young, Kim Sun-ho patrol the subways in new teaser for Catch the Ghost
• First Script Reading for tvN’s Catch Yoo-ryung with Moon Geun-young, Kim Sun-ho
• Moon Geun-young returns to dramaland in new tvN rom-com