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Player: Episode 4

Though he might seem like an easy target, President Na’s got a few of his own tricks up his sleeve. When the team sputters out of the gate, there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure they can give him the righteous defeat he deserves.

 
EPISODE 4: “Place your bets”

As Jin-woong’s fight is about to begin, Byung-min remotely helps Ha-ri and Ah-ryung sneak through the back hallways of the underground club dressed in security uniforms while tracking the betting money.

In the ring, Jin-woong loses control when his opponent starts to fight dirty. President Na, seeing his fighter on the back foot, decides to initiate his backup plan. A police squadron is on standby nearby, and with a word from President Na, they descend on the club in full force.

Jin-woong, though, manages to take back control of the fight,and quickly disables his opponent to win. As soon as the match ends, alarms ring out and the police move in.

In the back room where the money is being stored, the security team is in a frenzy, trying to get the cash out of the building before the police can seize it. Ha-ri and Ah-ryung join in and are able to steal a vehicle full of cash, though not without gaining the attention of the rest of the security team.

Jin-woong escapes to Byung-min’s van, but shortly after, Jin-woong gets a call from his nephew who informs him that his brother is in the hospital following the attack on the protesters.

Jin-woong rushes to the hospital as fast as he can, and finds that his brother is just out of surgery for a brain hemorrhage. The doctors are unsure of how bad the damage is yet.

Meanwhile, Byung-min rendezvouses with a solemn-looking Ha-ri and Ah-ryung. They tell Byung-min to check the serial numbers of all the cash they just stole, and it turns out they’re all identical, meaning the money is fake.

The real money is still in President Na’s possession, as he planned the whole operation with the police. The car that Ha-ri and Ah-ryung stole was a decoy all along.

The next day, the team (minus Jin-woong) track down the dealer who sold the decoy car, and Ha-ri pretends to be a cop to get the man’s full cooperation.

The man brings the team to his office, and they dig through the dealer’s purchase records in search of the person who set up the decoy van. They trace the purchase down to President Na’s secretary, and realize that President Na must be behind everything.

At the hospital, President Na arrives to make a show of apologizing to the victims of the attack (which President Na secretly ordered). But when he runs into an enraged Jin-woong, President Na and his secretary run off before Jin-woong can get his hands on them.

At the car dealer’s office, the rest of the team build their theory of President Na’s plan. Even with Jin-woong’s absence looming, they decide to carry out their revenge operation without him.

At President Na’s office, Byung-min infects the receptionist’s computer with a virus, and Ha-ri and Ah-ryung arrive under the guise of IT professionals to take care of the virus.

They use the receptionist’s virus as an excuse to give Byung-min remote access to President Na’s computer, but as they’re working, President Na returns. The team manage to avoid detection thanks to some stalling from the receptionist, and they’re able to get out of the building unnoticed.

Byung-min finds all sorts of information on President Na’s illegal operations, including the suspected location of the real funds from the underground club. With the information in hand, they make haste to recover the funds as soon as possible.

In the parking lot, Jin-woong tracks down President Na and fights his way through a barrage of guards to confront him, while Ha-ri and Ah-ryung watch on from a distance. The police arrive on scene, but they restrain Jin-woong instead of President Na.

The cops hold Jin-woong down so President Na can taunt him over what happened to Jin-woong’s brother. When President Na prepares to assault Jin-woong, the team spring into action, driving their van at the group and pulling Jin-woong away so they can escape.

Jin-woong is distraught, so Ha-ri stops the van and lectures Jin-woong that nothing will change if he just beats all of Chairman Na’s henchmen up in retaliation.

Jin-woong scoffs, after all how could Ha-ri know what kind of emotions Jin-woong is feeling right now? But Ha-ri reveals that he experienced something similar in the past himself.

Ha-ri cautions that he also reacted too emotionally when he went through his own trauma, and as a result he failed to get proper revenge for what they did. Ha-ri pulls Jin-woong close and promises “I’ll help you get them at all costs. Trust me.”

Back at headquarters, the team devises their entire plan for retaking the money from President Na, and later that night they’re ready to put their plan into action.

They drop Ha-ri off at a shipping port, and Ah-ryung and Byung-min sneak in after Ha-ri passes security. Ah-ryung uses Byung-min as a distraction to steal a security key, and they head into the main security room of the port.

Ha-ri, meanwhile, now posing as a civil servant, meets with President Na’s secretary. The secretary makes a call to confirm Ha-ri’s identity, which Byung-min re-routes to himself in the security room to get through the check.

From the security room Ah-ryung coordinates with Jin-woong, who follows a group of men to President Na’s container. Unsurprisingly, he quickly overwhelms them.

Elsewhere, Ha-ri tries to casually escape, but President Na’s secretary catches on and initiates a full-on chase through the storage yard to catch him.

Ah-ryung and Byung-min join Jin-woong and they load the contents of the container into their truck. They spot Ha-ri running toward the container, except he’s being trailed by a load of guards, so Ah-ryung and Byung-min drive off without them and leave Jin-woong to help dispatch of the excess guards.

Meanwhile, President Na pampers his wife in celebration of their anniversary, but is interrupted by his secretary who informs him about the situation at the shipping yard, and President Na rushes off to intervene.

Ha-ri helps to finish off the last of Jin-woong’s opponents, and the two of them make their escape together.

Elsewhere, Ah-ryung brings their getaway truck to a dead end. When the guards arrive to search the truck, Ah-ryung and Byung-min pop out of another nearby truck they prepared in advance with a getaway motorbike, and they fly right past the guards.

President Na arrives at the getaway truck to find it filled with counterfeit bills bearing President Na’s own face. Ha-ri, meanwhile, calls to taunt President Na, as all the real cash is now in Jin-woong and Ha-ri’s hands back at the original location.

In the prosecutor’s office, Prosecutor Jang wonders aloud why Ha-ri isn’t keeping him in the loop, and Chief Maeng suggests they open their own separate investigation.

Meanwhile, the whole team gathers outside the underground club. Ha-ri, though, tosses Jin-woong a briefcase of money and tells him to go to the hospital and take care of his brother, and Jin-woong smiles at Ha-ri’s thoughtfulness.

Ha-ri finally calls Prosecutor Jang (who immediately starts yelling at Ha-ri for never calling, ha), and asks for the prosecutors to come to the underground club to finish up with President Na.

At the hospital, Jin-woong recalls his brother’s justification for the protest. “I have to do this to make the world a little better,” he argued. “People just fight in any way they can.”

Recognizing the wisdom of his brother’s words, Jin-woong decides to head back to help out the team with ending their operation.

President Na, meanwhile, arrives at the underground club, and he and his lackeys run into Ah-ryung. She baits the men into chasing her through the club, and the doors automatically lock behind them as they chase her.

Some of the lackeys corner Ah-ryung at a locked door, but Byung-min unlocks it for her from the control room, and then blocks the men from chasing her through it. They eventually manage to catch up to Ah-ryung, and she continues to lead them deeper into the building with Byung-min’s guidance.

A couple of the men catch Ah-ryung, and though she manages to fend them off, she loses the earpiece that connected her to Byung-min. Meanwhile, President Na gets separated from the rest of his men, and searches through the halls on his own.

Ah-ryung loses her way without Byung-min’s help, but eventually manages to locate him as he’s closing a gate to secure his own escape.

Ah-ryung barely manages to slide under the gate herself, and the trailing men are all left on the other side, unable to pursue. Byung-min gets a little over-excited celebrating her narrow escape, hugging Ah-ryung in relief, so she casually slaps him for invading her space.

Elsewhere, President Na stumbles through a directed path the team set up for him, and he finds himself alone in the main auditorium.

The lights flick on to reveal Ha-ri in the middle of the fighting ring, with all the real cash next to him. Ha-ri chastises President Na for his greed, brandishing the evidence of President Na’s crimes.

President Na, annoyed, claims he deserves to be successful because he worked hard to avoid associating with scum like Ha-ri.

But Ha-ri bites back that all President Na did was flirt with a chairman’s daughter to get his position. President Na admits that he considers the seduction of his wife hard work given how unattractive she is.

Just then, Ha-ri reveals they’re not alone in the auditorium, and he flicks on the lights to show President Na’s wife sitting in the audience, taking in every word. She angrily tells him that their marriage is over and storms off.

When President Na turns back around, Jin-woong now stands before him in the ring, and with one stiff punch, President Na collapses to the ground, knocked out cold.

Later, a news report announces President Na’s arrest. The footage shows Prosecutor Jang’s team making the arrest and confiscating all the money and files Ha-ri collected for them as irrefutable evidence.

Back at the prosecutor’s office, the Deputy Prosecutor calls Prosecutor Jang in to congratulate him on a job well done. He also approves the formation of a special team for Prosecutor Jang to lead, which will target wealthy criminals like President Na.

Prosecutor Jang pitches the idea to Ha-ri’s team, and they all agree that it’s a worthwhile endeavor for them. Thus, the Proceeds of Crime Restitution Team is officially formed.

Back at his home, Ha-ri considers an old photo he took 17 years ago. The photo is of Prosecutor Jang, on the day he became a prosecutor, being congratulated by an older prosecutor.

In a flashback, the young Ha-ri congratulates Prosecutor Jang, who identifies him as Shi-hyuk, and the other prosecutor from the photo as Ha-ri’s father.

The quote at the bottom of the photo reads, “The process should be righteous, and the results should be just.”

Ha-ri questions whether his own process follows this motto, but agrees that the second half is fair. He sets the photo down and opens up a secret wall to reveal a large chart detailing some sort of criminal conspiracy.

Elsewhere, a man whose face remains unseen gauges some photos of Prosecutor Jang’s recent work, and smiles smugly at an apparent challenge to overcome. The scene transitions meaningfully into Ha-ri staring at the center of the conspiracy’s web, where an unknown person seems to be the key to the entire thing.

 
COMMENTS

Huh. It’s not surprising, I suppose, that there’s a proper villain in play behind the scenes who is connected to everything. It’s just odd timing, I feel, because there’s been very little in the way of setup of a larger conflict thus far. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for there being a larger force at work, but I also think that for the better part of four episodes now, we spent the majority of the time whizzing through in a case-of-the-week style. For the most part, too, I think that style largely worked, giving us a breezy, fun ride that wasn’t taking itself too seriously.

So to suddenly throw in a deep conspiracy into the middle of that formula comes across as a bit out of left field. If they had just hinted at this more explicitly in the very beginning, that would have been a better solution than giving us 3.9 episodes with minimal indication before throwing us down a deep rabbit hole.

At least this confirms the speculation that Ha-ri and Prosecutor Jang were connected through Ha-ri’s father. It does add to their dynamic a little bit, especially since only Ha-ri actually knows about the connection right now. Even without an explicit connection, though, their partnership was already intriguing.

There’s obviously a big clash of styles between the two, but they both clearly have the same sense of justice driving them. Prosecutor Jang is more straight-laced while Ha-ri is more willing to get his hands dirty, and it’ll be interesting to see if Ha-ri’s influence “corrupts” Prosecutor Jang. Will Prosecutor Jang become more willing to do some dirty work himself? But I doubt the reverse will happen, with Ha-ri dialing back the conning due to Prosecutor Jang.

One reason I think it’s more likely to be the case that Ha-ri will be the influencer is because Ha-ri possesses a gift for swaying people. Sure, that’s generally true for most con artists, but with Ha-ri there appears to be a lot of genuine concern for his colleagues mixed in.

Take his confrontation with Jin-woong in the car for example. Ha-ri doesn’t just persuade Jin-woong to calm down, he relates with Jin-woong on an emotional level and through that connection he can diffuse the anger. Even knowing that Ha-ri is a con artist and is certainly capable of lying for the sake of manipulation, you still get the sense that he’s being genuine and that is a big reason why Ha-ri managed to build so much trust within the team. It’s that trust which will make them a formidable force in the future, and if Prosecutor Jang can harness them for good, they’re going to be hard to stop.

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I get confused at times with their plans but the execution seems slick and the team is a fun bunch. Hopefully it maintains being fun and not being too serious 😎

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hmmmmm, this was definitely Jin-woong's episode and he did a really good job!!!

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The big bad was introduced in the first episode itself. When seong gu, the villain of the first week, tried to assault the waitress and caused her accident, his friend hired a guy to arrange the accident and also kill her in the hospital in case she woke up. They showed a shadowy figure then.
The execution of their con feels haphazard and disjointed because they don't show us the entire process. Like how did chairman Na know that someone was trying to steal his money? Also how did he find them after they stole his actual money? Did ha ri give them the location or they tracked him down?

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Thank you for your recap, @regals! It was mighty satisfying to see our heroes trounce the despicable President Na. Prosecutor Jang, please throw the book at him -- and then throw away the key.

How low can you go, President Na? I can't believe he called in a police raid so he could stiff all the bettors. What a greedy creep.

Hats off to Lee Do-yeon who portrayed Na's wife. I instantly recognized her from GO BACK SPOUSES, in which she played the similarly aesthetically-challenged wife of a cad who married her for her family's money. I'm afraid that she's being typecast, but perhaps she views it as job security. Hwaiting, Lee Do-yeon!

ROFLMAO at President Na's face on the counterfeit bills! They should have been in the W3,000 denomination, i.e., $3. LOL! I'd much rather look at Shin Saimdang. ;-)

Now we know a bit more about Ha-ri's background. I was surprised that he had known Prosecutor Jang so long ago, and was more surprised that Jang didn't recognize him. It seems that Ha-ri may have actually targeted the Prosecutor from the very beginning.

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This is what I've been wondering, if Prosecutor Jang recognizes Ha-ri. The answer seems to be no ..... which I also found surprising because Ha-ri was not a young child when they met. However, we don't know if any contact between them continued through the years, even sporadically, or what happened. Perhaps it'll be explained later.

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@korfan,

Yep. Curiouser and curiouser. It may have to do with the passage of time. But if Ha-ri were really such a hotshot law student that he aced the bar exam while still a freshman, I would have expected that to have been memorable news. I doubt that he took it under someone else's name, as in SUITS. ;-)

Instead, I think that Ha-ri is using an alias. Or maybe his family emigrated years ago. Maybe it's a matter of Jang's seeing Ha-ri in an unexpected environment.

I just hope to heck that Prosecutor Jang
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does
not
have
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(drum roll)
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prosopagnosia!

It's epidemic in Kdramaland at the moment. ;-)

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Haha! Probably not face blindness, but plastic surgery?

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Thanks for the recap! I am safely going through the episodes now with your recaps as my guide. All the banter is hilarious, and the chase scene with the gate was awesome.

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Read the recap quite late. But thanks for posting as always!

I loved that the team thought to bring in his (now ex) wife to help enact their justice.

The connection between Ha-ri and Prosector Jang surprised me, but I really like it! It has the potential of bringing up some great emotional scenes later on.

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