Nobody Knows: Episode 12

by Sunny

Eun-ho is awake but the gaping hole in his memory complicates things. Young-jin and Sun-woo are more than willing to help fill in the gaps but they’re not the only ones searching for answers. Both sides race against each other and the clock, trying to find the pieces Eun-ho can’t remember before it all goes up in smoke.

  
EPISODE 12

Young Sang-ho waits on a church pew with an IV drip. Ki-ho and Hee-jung join him, followed by Seo Sang-won and Pastor Kwon. The boy confirms he has no name and Seo Sang-won wishes to give him part of his own. Pastor Kwon likes the idea and takes a syllable from Ki-ho has well. Along with his mother’s family name, the boy is deemed Baek Sang-ho. Pastor Kwon then gives him the New Life Gospel and tells him to let the words become his blood so they may share blood.

In the present, we rewind 24 hours to Young-jin ripping her apartment apart. After checking every book on her shelves, Young-jin called Sun-woo and then left the apartment. At the hospital, Eun-ho borrows Dong-myeong’s phone to check the updates to the stigmata case but Dong-myeong snatches it away. Eun-ho insists he’s allowed to know things unrelated to his accident and gathers from Dong-myeong’s reaction people wrote mean comments about Young-jin keeping her relationship with Soo-jung secret.

Dong-myeong grumbles that Young-jin still caught a killer. Eun-ho confirms with Dong-myeong he’d saved someone and says Young-jin is looking for something that man gave him. Dong-myeong knows nothing about it but remembers Eun-ho was meeting Han-sol that day and might’ve told him. They call and Han-sol says there was a book but can’t remember the full title. Young-jin arrives while they’re talking and asks if he means “New Life Gospel.”

It doesn’t trigger anything for Eun-ho, but Young-jin has an idea and asks Dong-myeong to stay with Eun-ho until Mom gets there. Pausing at the door, she smiles that they boys look good together. Her face falls as she walks down the hall and she calls Sun-woo just as Mom shakily leaves his vehicle (after the meeting with Hee-seob). He races home and meets Young-jin outside with a copy of the gospel.

He hesitates to hand it over, saying he’s starting to really worry and implores Young-jin to be careful. Young-jin nods and speeds off, following Jin-su and Byung-hee’s directions to where they’d lost Nosy Ajusshi. She’s debating what to do next when her phone rings and she answers to hear Ki-ho on the other end. He asks about Eun-ho but hangs up when Young-jin can’t guarantee she’ll let him see the boy.

Cursing, she searches the number and sees it’s from a payphone at a park. She starts to call Jae-hong, but Superintendent Han’s orders to do nothing ring in her ears. Instead, she calls the park and an announcement over the PA tells Ki-ho she has his book. He scrambles back to the payphone and calls her again. That night, he walks out to meet Young-jin and is startled by her headlights.

They drive to a second location while Sang-ho arrives at the shack to find Ki-ho missing and the key on the floor. Young-jin holds her lighter to the book but Ki-ho warns that without it, she won’t be able to do anything – even if she uncovers the truth – without it. Flicking the lighter closed, she locks the book back in her trunk. Ki-ho asks about Eun-ho and she wonders if he knows how Eun-ho got hurt.

Ki-ho nods Eun-ho fell off the Millennium Hotel roof but to his shock, Young-jin corrects Eun-ho jumped. Enraged, Sang-ho orders Du-seok and Hee-dong to get Nosy Ajusshi. Meanwhile, Jin-su wonders if Young-jin found anything, debating whether she’d call if she did. Annoyed, Byung-hee barks he’s trying to sleep and both men jump to see Nosy Ajusshi’s face pressed against the window.

He chides them for stalking an innocent civilian and says he doesn’t know where Ki-ho is. Under threat of filing a complaint, the detectives are forced to let him go without following. Nosy Ajusshi arrives at a picture frame shop only to turn on the lights and find Hee-dong and Du-seok waiting. The room goes dark once more as the men descend upon Nosy Ajusshi.

Sun-woo pulls another copy of the New Life Gospel from the bookshelf and Sun-kyung asks if he’s going to read it. Sun-woo asks if she recalls anything strange when she’d read it, but Sun-kyung shakes her head. Sun-woo muses he’d thought the book familiar, but he now realizes how little he knows about it. Retiring to his room, Sun-woo starts to read. Young-jin can’t understand why Ki-ho gave such a dangerous book to the kid who saved his life.

Ki-ho explains it’s because Eun-ho saved his life that he wanted to entrust it to him. When Eun-ho saved him, Ki-ho said he felt a ripple in his soul and an unexplainable affection from Eun-ho. He wished to share the compensation he received from the book with Eun-ho. Ki-ho tells Young-jin there was a nameless child saved from near death who Pastor Kwon named with a syllable from Ki-ho.

“Eventually, that child not only took my name,” Ki-ho glowers, “but he slowly ate away at my rights.” Young-jin quickly realizes he’s talking about Sang-ho and the other syllable was from Seo Sang-won’s name. Ki-ho nods that he took his mother’s surname and Young-jin notes that Sang-ho, Ki-ho, Hee-jung, and Sang-won all took their mothers’ surnames… and reasons that they share a father – Pastor Kwon.

Ki-ho nods, sighing that he’s the only remaining child of Pastor Kwon. Sang-ho, however, was not Pastor Kwon’s bastard, but a child Seo Sang-won saved whose mother had locked him in a room and disappeared with the key. With no name or birth certificate, he would’ve died without a trace had Seo Sang-won not found him.

Waiting for his lackeys to return, Sang-ho flashes back to Seo Sang-won saying he’s a child Sang-won chose. All who are chosen need not fear for they will meet their maker in the end, but if ever afraid, Seo Sang-won says Sang-ho should remember a passage. In the present, Sang-ho shakily recites: “God is on my side. I will not be afraid. What could men do to me?” His men arrive with Nosy Ajusshi, who wakes and screams through the tape on his mouth.

Ki-ho refuses to say more until Young-jin hands him the book. As soon as he opens it he knows it isn’t his. He furiously demands his book but Young-jin explains Eun-ho can’t remember where he hid it. She questions the book’s significance and Ki-ho says the truth has no power without proof. The book is a guide to finding that proof and only Ki-ho can interpret it. She asks if they share an enemy and when Ki-ho nods, she promises to find and bring him the book.

Nosy Ajusshi cowers before Sang-ho, shaking his head when Sang-ho asks if he discovered what Ki-ho left with Eun-ho. Sang-ho screeches that he did and now Ki-ho has vanished. “Do you know what that means for you?” Sang-ho asks, growing more agitated when Nosy Ajusshi shakes his head again. He declares their deal void and sighs he never told Nosy Ajusshi what would happen if things went wrong – he’ll die. Du-seok stops Sang-ho from bashing Nosy Ajusshi’s head in with a shovel to hear him out. Free of the tape, Nosy Ajusshi squeals that the detectives are watching him, but Sang-ho simply promises to bury him well.

Parking in a dark alley, Young-jin runs into a building and returns with a handful of nondescript paper bags. They contain new clothes and a burner phone for them to keep in touch. She also hands him an envelope of cash and they drive off into the mountains. By daybreak a fresh grave lies in front of the shack while back at the hotel, Sang-ho guesses Young-jin has found Ki-ho and Sun-ah urges him to leave the country.

Ignoring her, Sang-ho continues that Ki-ho’s copy must be special or else he wouldn’t have tried to retrieve it from Eun-ho. Furthermore, Eun-ho can’t remember the book so Young-jin wouldn’t have found it either. Sang-ho concludes he still has a choice and when Sun-ah argues he doesn’t, Sang-ho throws a tantrum and raises his hand (holding a glass) to strike. Hee-dong jumps up, grabbing his arm as everyone freezes.

Hee-dong retracts, stammering his body reacted without thinking. Sang-ho silently overfills his glass as Hee-dong sinks to the ground… but Sang-ho simply orders Hee-dong to clean up the water. However, he threatens to hit him with one of the bottles at the bar if he intervenes again. Sang-ho demands they bring Tae-hyung and he serves the younger man tea, lamenting he can’t check on Eun-ho in person.

Oblivious, Tae-hyung eagerly offers to check on Eun-ho with Dong-myeong. He thinks Eun-ho will surely want to see Sang-ho once he regains his memory, but Sang-ho hopes Eun-ho doesn’t remember: “So what if he doesn’t remember me? We can always start over.” A nurse checks on Eun-ho and wonders why Tae-hyung hasn’t been around. She explains he was Eun-ho’s caregiver and even read him the book on the dresser.

Reeling from the meeting with Mom, Hee-seob frowns at Eun-ho’s records. Mom had praised Eun-ho growing up well despite not having a father or a decent mother. She’d looked straight at Hee-seob as she said perhaps it was best he wasn’t influenced by his parents. Now, Mom returns to the hospital and angrily snatches Young-jin’s book away from him, deeming it inappropriate.

She mentions hearing about the sun allergy from Sun-woo and questions why Eun-ho asked her about it. He mumbles that it’s hereditary, but she doesn’t have it, so he’d thought his father did. Mom says he didn’t and implores Eun-ho to be straight with her. “If I’d said everything I wanted, we would’ve been broken,” Eun-ho replies.

He admits knowing since he was 12 Dad didn’t share his blood type. Mom is horrified he’s been bearing this alone, but Eun-ho interjects he was okay with just the two of them. Conceding he also had Young-jin, Mom admits that after Eun-ho’s accident, she was more concerned about how she’d survive without him. Eun-ho says he doesn’t understand Mom, she makes him sad and frustrated, “But I still like you.”

Sobbing, Mom says she never understood him either, always thinking he blamed her and would abandon her someday. Eun-ho says he’d feared Mom would abandon him but never thought to leave her. He reminds her she’s headed to work, and Mom wipes their tears. She asks if she looks okay and they both smile.

PART 2

Sun-woo confronts Hee-seob about his relationship with Eun-ho’s mother since Hee-seob had dated Sun-kyung in high school and then married her. Waving it off as “just a few times” Hee-seob says he wants to visit Eun-ho. Sun-woo argues there’s no need and Hee-seob hesitantly wonders if Eun-ho showing up at their house was a coincidence. Sun-woo asks if he thinks he could be Eun-ho’s father.

Hee-seob admits he’s unsure but worries about Sun-kyung finding out. Sun-woo angrily agrees that she’ll kick him out if she does. Shaking off the meeting, Sun-woo brightens when Dong-myeong arrives to ask for a pass to see Eun-ho. Sun-woo agrees but rejects Dong-myeong’s request for a new desk mate. Returning to class, Dong-myeong plops next to Min-sung.

Catching Dong-myeong’s gaze at his hand, Min-sung assures him he hasn’t self-harmed since leaving the hospital. Dong-myeong asks him to tell him if he feels the urge. He promises to find them another part-time job since Min-sung said it helped. Min-sung asks if they’re still friends now the Eun-ho is awake and they fall into awkward silence.

At the office, Superintendent Han checks on the team and grows agitated to find Young-jin missing. He orders them to call her but when Ja-young does, Young-jin answers she’s in the parking lot. Ja-young and Jae-hong run out to find Young-jin passed out in her car. She wakes up in the hospital from malnutrition. Jae-hong reports that the other team was discovered while following Nosy Ajusshi and then runs off to check with the doctor.

Tae-hyung is rebuffed outside Eun-ho’s room, but Dong-myeong joins him and they’re allowed inside. Although he can’t remember, Eun-ho repeats what the nurse had told him and Tae-hyung smiles that he read a good book thanks to Eun-ho. He particularly liked the last line but refuses to tell Dong-myeong, telling him to read the book. Eun-ho asks about Han-sol’s surgery and Dong-myeong explains that a man who does good deeds handled it.

Satisfied, Tae-hyung steps out to call Sang-ho and report Eun-ho’s memory loss is genuine. It’s enough for Sang-ho, but Sun-ah insists they kill Ki-ho asap. Sang-ho tsks if they find the book, Ki-ho is harmless, whereas if they kill him before finding the book, the map is useless. They need Ki-ho.

Sun-woo finds Min-sung standing outside the elevator leading to Eun-ho’s floor. He tries to run when he sees Sun-woo, but Sun-woo drags him along. Min-sung stands awkwardly next to Eun-ho’s bed and Sun-woo offers to get drinks only for Dong-myeong to return with Tae-hyung. After a curt greeting, Tae-hyung tells Dong-myeong Sun-woo was his teacher. Tense, Sun-woo suggests they talk outside, and the older men leave the boys with Eun-ho.

Outside, Sun-woo regrets not calling after the incident and Tae-hyung sneers that Sun-woo thinks he cares but fails to act on it. When asked, Tae-hyung says Sang-ho helped him when he ended up in prison. He laughs no one helped him when he was innocent and Sun-woo apologizes. Tae-hyung tells him to just care about his current students and Sun-woo vows not to make the same mistake.

Tae-hyung laughs bitterly and walks away, but Sun-woo warns him not to trust Sang-ho. Tae-hyung asks why he should believe the teacher who never trusted him over the man who helped him and stalks off. He runs into Young-jin and she suggests he listen to Sun-woo, adding he was the one who believed in Dong-myeong when she doubted because of the incident with Tae-hyung.

Dong-myeong asks if Min-sung came with Sun-woo but he says they met outside. He decides to leave and Eun-ho thanks him for visiting. Min-sung doesn’t answer and Eun-ho asks what’s wrong. Dong-myeong tries to usher Min-sung out, but he blurts out an apology, crying Eun-ho got hurt and Dae-hoon died because of him. It triggers a memory and Eun-ho grasps his chest as his heartrate skyrockets.

Min-sung frantically asks if he’s okay and Eun-ho shoves him off, asking why Min-sung did it. Young-jin and Sun-woo arrive and Sun-woo takes the boys home. Eun-ho rejects a tranquilizer and asks Young-jin why Min-sung did it. She says she only has part of the story and Eun-ho argues that she pursued the stigmata killer knowing she’d only get the culprit’s side of the story. Young-jin points out he’s different from Soo-jung – he’s alive.

Ashamed, Eun-ho apologizes but Young-jin says she’s sorry. She admits she’d only thought of Eun-ho’s memory and he guesses she’d planned to show him New Life Gospel. He insists she show him, and when she shakes her head, he confesses he’d seen Soo-jung’s photo and a red cell phone. Young-jin explains he’d gone into her locked room and Eun-ho points out his memory is returning already.

She fetches the book, but it doesn’t trigger anything, so Eun-ho asks to see a picture of Ki-ho. He remembers the heart attack, the book, and reading it at home. Eun-ho recalls taking it to school and putting it in his locker before going home. Young-jin knows it isn’t there but smiles at Eun-ho and gets him a drink. Instead, she asks about the six-winged angel.

Mom arrives and Young-jin bids them goodnight. Sun-woo returns to school and sits at Eun-ho’s desk. Young-jin finds him there and announces she needs his help, to which he immediately agrees. She points out she hasn’t said what she needs but Sun-woo trusts her. When Young-jin adds she might’ve killed someone, Sun-woo smiles he’s confident he’s done nothing worth being killed over.

She tells him Eun-ho remembered meeting Ki-ho and bringing the book to school. Since they didn’t find it when they checked his locker. Du-seok checked the locker before Eun-ho put the book there and snatched the backpack afterwards. They kidnapped Eun-ho, not realizing it had been at school the whole time. She says they need to find the book before Sang-ho and Sun-woo grins at her use of “we.”

Young-jin warns him he could get in trouble and Sun-wo laughs that he can always bail. She’s unconvinced, pointing out he’s had many chances and Sun-woo confesses he’s willing to get hurt in order to protect Eun-ho and Young-jin. She assures him she can protect herself, but asks him to protect Eun-ho.

Sun-woo asks about the angel drawing and she says Eun-ho saw it at Sun-woo’s house when Ji-won showed him her dolls. Young-jin wonders why Eun-ho would’ve been near Sun-woo’s house, adding he’d seemed nostalgic recalling the event, rather than just repeating a memory. Meanwhile, Sun-woo can’t sleep and Mom relents to let him read Young-jin’s book.

Young-jin meets Superintendent Hwang at the office. He’d been reviewing Soo-jung’s case and thinking if he hadn’t told the lie about receiving the killer’s call to protect Young-jin, she would’ve never had the chance to investigate the case. He reminds her she’d promised to quit after solving the case and reasons she must stay until she’s done so.

Realizing he means to take the fall, Young-jin starts to protest but Hwang says she should consider who has the best chance of solving the case. Young-jin cries that everyone around her suffers but Hwang says misfortune isn’t her fault. He argues she’s stopping their misfortunes from developing into unhappiness by being there. Young-jin says she’s glad to have met Hwang and he smiles that Eun-ho surely feels the same about her.

The next morning, Sun-woo announces to the class Eun-ho is recovering well. He nonchalantly adds Eun-ho lost a book with a blue cover, but he can’t remember the title. Afterwards, the bullies come forward to say they’d taken the book as a prank. Sun-woo says he was going to scold them, but he’s proud of them for being honest and asks where they book is. The boys tell him they brought it to the library when they couldn’t return it to Eun-ho.

Unfortunately, Sun-woo finds 4 copies of the New Life Gospel in the library and reports as much to Young-jin. She recalls Ki-ho knew the book was fake after checking page 120 and Sun-woo finds one that’s different. He runs off to copy it while Young-jin answers her burner phone. Ki-ho asks for an update and Young-jin fibs that they’re still looking. Sun-woo tries to take a photo of the page and sighs when it comes out blank.

He calls Young-jin to report that the ink has been altered so he can’t photograph or copy it. She sighs they’ll need to copy it by hand and Sun-woo volunteers, pointing out he’s better suited to find a secret in the book than her. In her locked room, Young-jin hangs Sang-ho’s picture on her wall, wondering how he fits in. Thinking of Eun-ho’s recollection of seeing Soo-jung’s photo and phone, she runs out.

Eun-ho finishes the book just as Young-jin arrives to ask whether the phone was in a photo. “No,” Eun-ho answers and his heartrate skyrockets as he remembers that night in Sang-ho’s office where he’d seen a creased photo of Young-jin and Soo-jung next to a red cell phone in Sang-ho’s desk. In the present, Young-jin asks what’s wrong and Eun-ho says, “I remember… where I saw it.”

  
COMMENTS

How does this show consistently end each episode on such a high-tension point? It was surprising to see Eun-ho regain his memory so quickly, but I’ll never complain. The way his amnesia was handled was very well done and I love how Young-jin and Sun-woo managed to puzzle out the location of the book from just fragments. They’re a dynamic duo for a reason and I was screaming when Young-jin not only asked for help, but Sun-woo readily gave it, no questions asked. His desire to protect her and Eun-ho was just so sweet and while Young-jin is perfectly capable of handling herself – and told him so – the sentiment counts. As much as Young-jin thinks she keeps people at arm’s length, Hwang was right that she has a talent for drawing people in. Her endearing traits are more subtle than Eun-ho’s, but just as compelling, and the reason why Eun-ho, and the rest of the ducklings warmed up to her so quickly.

I am increasingly impressed with Sun-woo. He’s grown a lot from a man unwilling to interact with his students for fear of getting too involved… to diving headfirst into an investigation that not only threatens his career, but his life. His run-in with Tae-hyung was a long time coming and I love that he continued the apology train and admitted to Tae-hyung he was wrong. Right now, Tae-hyung is still too bitter to accept, but I’m hoping this chat with Sun-woo and then Young-jin will be enough to protect him from Sang-ho (who’s unraveling quickly). I also applaud him for confronting Hee-seob about his infidelity and fathering Eun-ho. Hee-seob was such a skeeze about the whole thing, being very dismissive of his own wrongdoing and asking Sun-woo to keep quiet. No wonder Sun-woo was disgusted. First Seo Sang-won, then Sang-ho, and now Hee-seob – Sun-woo is finding he’s been surrounded by crappy people his whole life. Thank goodness he met Young-jin!

Sang-ho is becoming more unhinged and violent as the story progresses. The more we learn of his childhood, the darker it becomes. At this point, it’s really no wonder he turned out so twisted and more a miracle Sun-woo made it out of New Life Church as a decent human being. The church itself is equally disturbing and I never picked up on the clues that Seo Sang-won, Im Hee-jung, and Ki-ho were all Pastor Kwon’s bastard children – that’s next level messed up. And yet, Pastor Kwon kept tabs on Sang-ho’s crimes enough to have evidence squirreled away which can only be found through a map with magical ink that can’t be photographed. It’ll be interesting to see if Sun-woo can crack the code that Ki-ho claims can only be done by him. Although if Sang-ho has kept Soo-jung’s phone and that photo of her and Young-jin as souvenirs, I wonder what the “real” evidence is.

For all the horrors this episode held, there were a lot of highlights. Eun-ho’s heart-to-heart with Mom was long overdue and hopefully it has cleared the air so there’s room to heal. Min-sung’s guilt was hard to watch and the pain on his face when he asked Dong-myeong if they could still be friends hit me right in the feels. I was proud of him for apologizing and Eun-ho’s reaction was so heartbreaking because what happened to him was truly traumatic. What Min-sung did was wrong, and while Eun-ho is by no means obligated to forgive him, I hope they can work it out because I really want to see them become an adorable Three Musketeers with Dong-myeong. There’s still two weeks left for things to go horribly wrong, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a happy ending!

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