Diary of a Prosecutor: Episode 4

by quirkycase

Prosecutors may work under the same laws, but there’s a lot of room for interpretation in their jobs. People are messy and their situations often complicated, so each case requires you to make judgments. You can try to be objective, but your own life experience and perspective informs your decisions more than you may realize. And when you’re a prosecutor, that can have serious repercussions.

 
EPISODE 4

At the Fog, Min-ho proudly reads a message from the Prosecutor General praising their work on the fraud case. As they eat, Jung-woo wonders why they frequent this place. There’s no staff or menu, and they never see the owner.

The chopping in the kitchen abruptly stops, and Jong-hak covers Jung-woo’s mouth. The others loudly compliment the food while Myung-joo and Jung-woo watch in confusion. The chopping resumes. Okay then.

Min-ho applauds Myung-joo’s efforts on the case, belatedly including Seon-woong’s detergent discovery when he catches his eye. Someone tries to call Myung-joo, but she ignores it.

Elsewhere, a man gets out of a fancy car and enters a gated house. The sound of something shattering makes him turn around. We see from a first-person, hazy perspective someone hurrying down the street. He looks at the blood on his hands. Is that the protestor from the Jeongsu Industries case?

In the office, Mi-ran distributes the new case files. This happens every day at 4:30, Seon-woong informs us. If they’re lucky, the prosecutors may get cases in their area of expertise.

Jong-hak sits with two men who are arguing over who has the right to their lottery winnings. He gets too into it, focusing more on the details of the lottery than the case. Seon-woong narrates that it’s always possible for two people to settle.

Yoon-jin questions a mother of three (a three-year-old and one-year-old twins) who embezzled due to financial troubles. Yoon-jin looks at the pictures of her twins on her desk. Seon-woong claims your fate can change depending on the prosecutor you’re assigned.

After a team lunch, Myung-joo wants to check if a realtor on the wanted list has come back to his office nearby. The others laugh, and Seon-woong quips that he wouldn’t be back unless he had a homing instinct.

They stare through the window as Myung-joo goes inside to meet the unsuspecting realtor who is indeed in his office. The rest of the team bust in, IDs out, to arrest him.

Min-ho is ecstatic (Seon-woong is not) and asks how Myung-joo knew the man would be there. It’d been three months, so she figured he’d let his guard down. She throws Seon-woong’s words back at him, guessing he must have a “homing instinct.”

Jung-woo, still upset over losing his chance with the flight attendant, heads home exhausted. Seon-woong asks if he’s having a hard time as Jung-woo sighs and sprawls out in their living room chair. With a psychic like Myung-joo for a boss, shouldn’t he be happy?

Jung-woo muses psychics must not get tired. Concerned, Seon-woong asks if she’s helping him learn by going over cases with him. Jung-woo sighs she doesn’t have time for that; he’s not even sure she reads the case summaries he writes for her.

Seon-woong feels vindicated and comments she must just skim summaries and routinely process the files. He speculates that Jung-woo must really miss his former mentor now. Jung-woo’s response is to send a text with an emoticon Seon-woong can’t understand, which earns him another headlock.

They stop messing around when they see the news–a man was brought in for assault last night. It was the protestor! He assaulted Park Jae-shik (of Jeongsu Industries), who’ s now in critical condition, with a weapon. At home, Myung-joo watches the coverage too.

The next morning, Min-ho is surprised to see Seon-woong and Myung-joo outside his office. They both want the case and argue for it. Min-ho is leaning towards giving it to Myung-joo who says the police think the incident occurred due to delayed payment by Jeongsu Industries. Seon-woong scoffs that Myung-joo is ill-informed. Two weeks ago, the company sued the protestor (Kim Young-joon) for obstruction of business.

It’s a common move. Companies settle for a small amount before suing for a larger amount. Min-ho pauses. Didn’t they receive that obstruction case? He’s sure he saw it…

Seon-woong throws Myung-joo under the bus, claiming it went to her office. She quickly says she hasn’t gotten to it yet, but she’ll review it carefully. When they start bickering again, Min-ho throws them out.

In her office, Myung-joo angrily asks Jung-woo if they received the obstruction case. She screams at him when he can’t remember the exact date it came in and asks how Seon-woong came to know about the case. Jung-woo admits he mentioned it when they saw Kim Young-joon on TV.

Myung-joo takes him off the case and orders Mi-ran to tell Seon-woong’s office she can’t go there for now. Mi-ran calmly rejects that idea and states she’ll continue doing her job as usual. Myung-joo relents.

Jung-hwan tries to cheer up a dejected Jung-woo who thinks Myung-joo is excluding him because he lives with Seon-woong. But Jung-hwan’s consolation goes unnoticed when Jung-woo gets a text from Hot Flight Attendant. He sets up another date while Jung-hwan obliviously rambles on.

Seon-woong is bothered by Myung-joo’s earlier insinuation (during their bickering) that he leaves cases unhandled and brings it up to Man-ok. She laughs that they must’ve fought again and asks who got the case. His silence is answer enough.

Just then, Min-ho texts him to meet him for dinner. Smiling, Seon-woong boasts that he’s got the case and tells Man-ok to arrange for a warrant.

At dinner, his excitement is snuffed out the moment he sees Myung-joo (and Chief Kim). Thinking Chief Kim intends to designate them co-leads, they’re both against it. Chief Kim clarifies that only one prosecutor would be in charge: Min-ho. They’ll take care of the practical matters together. Reluctantly, they eventually agree. Oh, this should be fun.

Myung-joo and Seon-woong (with Jung-hwan and Man-ok, respectively) meet to discuss strategy. They each try to seat Mi-ran on their side, so she just sits at the head of the table instead. Ha.

They agree to investigate and interrogate on their own. Oh my gosh, they squabble over everything including who gets originals and who gets copies. Poor Mi-ran and the investigators.

They watch footage Jeongsu Industries sent of Kim Young-joon throwing himself in front of (then under) one of their trucks. Seon-woong observes they must’ve held onto this and used it to sue after settling.

The truck contained production materials, and it was delayed by an hour due to Young-joon’s stunt. Myung-joo already scheduled Young-joon’s interrogation with regards to obstruction early the next morning. Not to be outdone, Seon-woong prepares to summon him for the assault case later that morning.

Seon-woong tells Man-ok to arrange for the local disability care center to take care of Young-joon’s son. It’s not like Myung-joo cares about such things. Myung-joo rolls her eyes and leaves.

Yoon-jin interviews two of the embezzler’s neighbors who were involved in the mutual savings fund she embezzled from. Yoon-jin pushes for settlement, but they’re split. The one opposed to settling hesitates, though, when she hears it’d be an arduous process since she wasn’t personally stolen from.

In the bathroom, Yoon-jin asks Man-ok if she’s ever felt more sympathy for the perpetrator than the victim. Man-ok assures her she has and compliments Yoon-jin for getting a settlement. Yoon-jin smiles, saying these moments make her proud of her job.

The woman shows back up in Yoon-jin’s office to thank her. She insists she’ll apologize personally to the victims and quickly pay the settlement. She feels bad for coming empty-handed, but Yoon-jin would rather her buy her kids snacks on the way home. The woman leaves, and Yoon-jin’s subordinates give her a thumbs up.

Jung-hwan and Jung-woo are curious about who’s leading the investigation, but Myung-joo ignores them. “I really like Mi-ran because she doesn’t ask unnecessary questions.” She asks Jung-hwan about Park Jae-shik’s condition, but he says they won’t tell him anything other than he’s in critical condition.

Funnily enough, the “critical” patient is currently busy playing golf in his hospital room. His lawyer Choi Tae-joong tells him to think of this as a vacation–they need to make an example out of Kim Young-joon.

Tae-joong accompanies a Jeonsu Industries employee to the interrogation led by Myung-joo. Seon-woong watches from behind the glass. The employee testifies that it was a critical time for them. Their factories were in danger of being shut down, so the obstruction of business was particularly damaging.

Seon-woong messages Myung-joo to talk outside, so she excuses herself. Seon-woong insists she should request documents to back up their claims. Myung-joo orders him not to interrupt anymore and save his comments and questions for later.

Back in the interrogation, Myung-joo asks for a daily log to prove factories stopped running, but Tae-joong claims that’s irrelevant in criminal proceedings. They only need prove the obstruction, not the result. Besides, the CCTV footage clearly shows obstruction.

Seon-woong is working himself into a frenzy and sending “we need to talk” messages that Myung-joo promptly ignores. She insists they submit the documents; she’ll decide if they’re relevant. The employee agrees amid his lawyer’s protestations.

In his office, Seon-woong grumbles to Man-ok about Myung-joo’s terrible interrogation technique. When Man-ok hands him Young-joon’s call history, he tells her to take her time getting it to Room 309.

Going through the call history, he sees that Young-joon’s last call was to Myung-joo the night of the incident. In fact, it seems he made several calls to her. Seon-woong confronts Myung-joo about dodging Young-joon’s 26 calls (!) over the past few weeks.

She admits to ignoring them–he’d called her incessantly. But she did finally answer, which is when she found out about the payment delay. He wanted her to call and pressure them, but she refused and instead told him to contact the Korea Legal Aid Corporation.

Seon-woong concedes the point that his calls were inappropriate and interfering with her work but claims ignoring that last call has consequences. She argues it wouldn’t have made a difference. Does he think things would’ve been different if he’d been on the case? Seon-woong: “Yes. I believe so.”

It’s Seon-woong’s turn to question Young-joon, but to his shock, Young-joon requests a different prosecutor. “Whose fault is all this?” If he’d settled sooner, they wouldn’t have gone this far.

Man-ok incredulously asks if he’s blaming Seon-woong rather than himself or the company. He replies he is and won’t talk to Seon-woong. Without a word, Seon-woong leaves and switches with Myung-joo.

Myung-joo confirms this wasn’t the first time Young-joon went to meet Park Jae-shik. He claims the first time was after he found out he was being sued by the company. When he got to the factory, it had already been shut down.

He felt responsible for all those people losing their jobs, so he went to Park Jae-shik’s house. They dragged him away. The next day (the day of the assault) he went back. Young-joon insists he was drunk but had no intent to murder.

He’d followed Park Jae-shik inside and screamed for his money. Park Jae-shik grabbed a golf club and came at him, but Young-joon had stabbed him in the stomach with the broken soju bottle first.

Regarding the obstruction case, he admits to knowing the trucks contained raw materials. But he didn’t expect the delay to hurt their business like that. Still, Myung-joo pushes, he must’ve known in theory that could hurt them? He admits he did.

Young-joon asks what will happen to him now, but Myung-joo doesn’t know yet. He apologizes for all the calls and begs for her help. She’s silent but stares right into the mirror before leaving, her expression solemn.

In his office, Seon-woong is still down about Young-joon blaming him and heads out. Myung-joo, meanwhile, is re-watching the footage and notices something about the truck’s tank.

Myung-joo sees the woman with the screaming baby leaving Seon-woong’s office with her husband. Remembering the husband was fined for overloading a truck, Myung-joo asks him to check the footage. There’s supposed to be 32.5 tons of chemicals in the tank, but he claims that’s impossible. The lift axle is raised which lifts the middle tires–you need those down if you have a heavy load.

He coos to his daughter, “Baby, isn’t daddy cool?” Myung-joo asks why he calls his daughter “baby” rather than her name. He gives her a blank look. “That is her name. Kim Aga.” (aga = “baby” in Korean). Pfft. Mi-ran’s face says it all.

That night, Seon-woong stops by Young-joon’s to pick up a change of socks and underwear packed by his son. When the young man asks Seon-woong if his dad did it because of him, Seon-woong can’t answer.

Seon-woong and Myung-joo turn in their reports for Min-ho, both recommending different courses of action, naturally. Seon-woong argues for no detainment since he thinks self-dense is more likely than murderous intent. Without hard evidence like CCTV or witnesses to prove it was self-defense as Young-joon asserts, Myung-joo argues for imprisonment.

Myung-joo thinks stabbing in a place that could kill (the stomach) implies intent. Seon-woong argues it’s hard to claim murderous intent when he stayed until an ambulance arrived. They go back and forth on whether he should be detained prior to trial, but Min-ho finally sides with Seon-woong. He agrees to no detainment on the condition that Seon-woong take responsibility no matter what happens.

They move on to the obstruction case, but unbeknownst to Seon-woong, Myung-joo already closed it. Jeongsu Industries withdrew their suit. Min-ho scolds Seon-woong for not figuring out the truck was empty himself.

Min-ho is interrupted by a phone call. He hangs up, looking serious, and tells them both to rewrite their reports. Park Jae-shik is dead. Huh?!

He died of acute sepsis. Now they have to arrest Young-joon. When Myung-joo enters her office to see Jung-woo trying to get Mi-ran to help him pick a tie, she asks if he has a black one. Jung-hwan silently hands him one as Myung-joo sits with her eyes closed tight.

As they sit in Seon-woong’s office, Young-joon wonders where it all went wrong. Struggling to hold it together, he asks Seon-woong to get his son proper care.

We see Seon-woong and Myung-joo looking somber as he narrates, “If I hadn’t been the prosecutor in charge, maybe the situation would be different. Maybe a person wouldn’t have died.” That burden is a prosecutor’s responsibility, even though you never get used to it.

Poor Jung-woo unintentionally stands up his date for the second time. While trekking home with an armload of groceries, Yoon-jin sees the embezzler woman all done up and driving a fancy car with a guy next to her. She’d faked her tears and sob story.

Although it may not be fair, depending on the prosecutor you get, the outcome can change. Because prosecutors are human too, Seon-woong narrates, as he and Myung-joo silently ride the elevator, too tired to even fight.

  
COMMENTS

Aw, there’s no epilogue. I’ve been enjoying those. Moving on, I like that the episodes tend toward thematic rather than a standard case of the week. Last episode was about responsibility and blame, while today’s episode was about bias and the way prosecutors can influence a case. We saw from Yoon-jin’s situation that being too empathetic in a job like this is problematic and can leave you susceptible to emotional manipulation. That woman flawlessly worked that situation to her advantage by playing on Yoon-jin’s sympathies, knowing she could get her on her side by appealing to her experience as a mother.

But on the flip side, being uncaring or not making any allowances can obviously have consequences too. While I don’t think Myung-joo is uncaring, she does seem to expect the worst of people and makes decisions based on that assumption. She chronically doubts people, which sometimes turns out to be wise and others not so much (like with the baby named “Baby”). Even though she takes a non-emotional approach to her work, I do think Myung-joo believes it’s the best way to act justly and avoid situations like Yoon-jin found herself in. It’s a hard line to walk, being objective and caring. I will say that I think Seon-woong does pretty well walking that line, although he can get a bit too involved in some cases. Really, I think both Myung-joo and Seon-woong’s core problem is the same: they’re too stubborn and self-righteous.

But seriously, those two bring out the ridiculous in each other. Two grown people fighting over who gets the copy of the document versus the original? It feels less like a war and more like an, “I know you are but what am I?” sibling fight. Which is exactly how Man-ok treats their “war,” at least. If they were worse people, they’d be able to do some real damage by sabotaging cases or something. Instead, they’re decent people and are stuck petty fighting. I’m just waiting for the hair pulling to start. Or maybe a kimchi slap.

It’s an interesting choice to distance the audience from Myung-joo as a character. I get why they’ve made her fairly opaque until now since we’re meant to be confused about her like Seon-woong and the rest of the office is. It’s clearly intentional, so I don’t mind; however, it does make it harder to connect with her character. I don’t dislike her, but I would like to know more about her motivations. I have a feeling we’ll get there, so I’m not worried yet, but I hope we’ll get her side of things before too long. Particularly because I love Jung Ryeo-won and would like her to have more to do than be mysterious. And I really want answers as to why she has such a strong reaction to Seon-woong.

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