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My Fellow Citizens: Episodes 11-12

Our veteran police detective faces an impossible dilemma: investigate her husband for fraud or ignore a series of troubling clues. Her crisis coincides with the launch of her husband’s campaign and she’s oblivious of the cost should he fail to get elected. What no one knows is that the Lady Mob Boss’ position is in jeopardy when someone from her past reappears. Determined to save everyone who matters to him and backed by the most politically inept team ever assembled, our conman undertakes the greatest scam of his life.

  
EPISODE 11 RECAP

After submitting his application for the Assembly, Jung-gook returns to campaign headquarters with a suitcase and finds Joo-myung waiting for him. As the National Assembly Building looms in the background, Joo-myung and Jung-gook ready themselves for the campaign.

Jung-gook’s next move is to hold a press conference to announce his candidacy and to reach out to the people in his district. Chief Seo and Sang-jin are both caught by surprise when they learn about Jung-gook’s candidacy from his televised appearance. In her office, Hoo-ja recites Jung-gook’s speech along with him, word for word.

Mi-young completely ignores Jung-gook’s press conference even though it’s on the television in her office. When Detective Na shows Mi-young Baekkyung Capital’s CCTV footage from the night of her attack, she recognizes Jung-gook and recalls Hoo-ja’s claim, “Your husband is a con artist.” Mi-young finally looks up at Jung-gook’s press conference as she tries to make sense of what she’s seeing.

Later during lunch, Mi-young suggests that the man in the video only resembles Jung-gook. Detective Na tries to understand how the security guard at the fake real estate office could have been mistaken as well. When Mi-young doesn’t understand what she’s talking about, Detective Na sends her to Detective Lee.

Detective Lee reports that he tried to check the CCTV footage after their first failed attempt to catch the real estate team but it had been stolen. A man walked past the security guard and broke the computer to retrieve the hard drive, and then handed the guard some cash for the damage. Detective Lee laughs at the guard’s claim that the man looked like the Brave Citizen but Mi-young doesn’t find it funny.

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Shady Citizen Yang Jung-gook?

 

In voiceover, an analyst discusses the election while Sang-jin bikes to his campaign office and Kang Soo-il is driven to his in a sleek sedan. Sang-jin is the political rookie and Kang Soo-il the career politician.

The analyst explains that unexpected variables pop up during an election, such as newly announced candidate Jung-gook. He adds that even though Jung-gook has no experience or the backing of a political party, he does have the trust of the people, something most politicians never enjoy.

At their respective headquarters, the friendly Sang-jin and aloof Kang Soo-il meet with their campaign teams while Jung-gook joins his team — Seung-yi, Charles, Hoo-ja, her younger sister and Henchman Choi.

Kang Soo-il ignores all of the advice from his team because he believes that the only way to win an election is by running a negative campaign. He wants dirt on Sang-jin and everyone close to him.

It turns out that Kang Soo-il is the one who’s dirty but Sang-jin refuses to attack him because he wants to focus on the issues. Sang-jin has a plan for the local reservoir, which is always flooded, but Kang Soo-il won’t even discuss it with his team. Sang-jin’s plan involves fixing the underlying problems in order to transform the site into a suitable location for a cultural center.

Sang-jin mentions low income housing just as Kang Soo-il yells at his team for bringing up that very subject. Sang-jin’s team enjoys a spirited discussion while there’s complete silence in Jung-gook’s office until he suggests ordering lunch. Kang Soo-il shouts at his team, “Negative all the way!”

Sang-jin’s team is fired up once their meeting is adjourned but all that Jung-gook’s team has accomplished is lunch. Hoo-ja’s sister whispers, “Sun-hee is at the office,” and when Kim Joo-myung arrives, Hoo-ja tells Jung-gook, “Get to work,” on her way out.

Joo-myung introduces Jung-gook to Park Wang-go, who happens to be Joo-myung’s nephew and a graduate of Harvard. Joo-myung recruited him to serve as Jung-gook’s aide.

Hoo-ja finds sister Number Two enjoying a cup of tea in her office. Sun-hee is there to gloat, “Jin-hee is getting out. She was granted parole,” and she promises, “I’ll ask her to teach the rude Number Four (Hoo-ja) some manners.”

On her way out, Sun-hee pauses to warn her youngest sister, “Number Five, You should watch out too.” Once Sun-hee is gone, Hoo-ja announces that it’s time to visit the prison, “Number One is getting out. We should greet her.”

Mi-young parks her car outside of the building where Jung-gook’s campaign office is located. Inside, Wang-go quizzes Jung-gook, “What do you think about the president?” When Jung-gook confesses that he’s never thought about him before, Joo-myung has Wang-go question Jung-gook on policies instead.

Wang-go mentions labor market deregulation and Charles explains to a clueless Seung-yi, “Maybe it’s a way of killing workers,” while Choi volunteers, “I’ve never used that method.” Oh my.

After much hesitation, Mi-young manages to enter the building. Worried about Jung-gook’s lack of political knowledge, Joo-myung demands, “Do you even know what number president we’re on?” Jung-gook guesses, “The 21st,” and Wang-go applauds but when Joo-myung challenges his answer, Charles asks for a hint while Choi looks it up on his phone.

Mi-young enters an elevator with posters of her husband while Seung-yi, Charles and Choi all answer the question incorrectly. Wang-goo informs them that the current president is the 21st but everyone bickers about their differing search results until an exasperated Joo-myung slams his hands on the table.

Joo-myung sends everyone away but Charles panics when he sees Mi-young in the hallway. Jung-gook has to shout at Joo-myung to get him to understand that his detective wife is in the building.

Seung-yi doesn’t think that Mi-young will recognize them but Jung-gook reminds her that she saw them when they tried to sell Joo-myung’s building. Everyone scrambles to find a hiding place while a confused Wang-go tells his uncle, “I have no idea what I’m doing here.”

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A candidate with lots to hide

 

EPISODE 12 RECAP

Mi-young enters the campaign office and finds Jung-gook pointing to a clipboard while engrossed in a spirited discussion with Wang-go. Mi-young raises her voice to get Jung-gook’s attention and Joo-myung sniggers when Jung-gook acts surprised to see her.

Jung-gook introduces Mi-young to his new aide, Wang-go, and ex-Assemblyman Kim Joo-myung. Joo-myung announces that he has to leave, even though Jung-gook tries to detain him. Wang-go opts to stay behind and tells his uncle, “You yelled at me, so I don’t know what to do.”

Mi-young is worried about the rent for the office and asks Jung-gook, “You’re not borrowing from a loan shark, are you?” Jung-gook laughs as he pours some coffee for the two of them until Mi-young confides, “I’m investigating a loan shark named Park Hoo-ja.”

Jung-gook promises that he won’t borrow money from a loan shark while nudging Mi-young towards the door. When she stoops to pick up some papers from the floor, Jung-gook spills coffee on them and calls Wang-go over to clean up the mess.

The missing trio is squeezed into the closet that housed the fallen papers. Charles can’t keep still and when Seung-yi hits him, he yells. Wang-go and Jung-gook do their best to keep Mi-young away from the closet while Choi covers the mouths of his closet-mates to prevent another outburst.

Mi-young freezes when an unattended cell phone rings and no one answers it. Jung-gook grimaces when Wang-go admits, “It isn’t mine,” so he answers it and pretends that it belongs to Joo-myung, “Hello? Assemblyman, so this is yours.”

Jung-gook promises, “I’ll bring it to you. I’ll go right now,” but when he hangs up, a photo of Henchman Choi appears on the phone. Mi-young offers to leave first and as soon as she’s gone, Seung-yi and Charles tumble from the closet followed by a calm Choi.

Mi-young walks through the lobby and remembers that Joo-myung waved good-bye with his phone in his hand. She also noticed a jacket caught in the closet doors.

No longer in the mood for a meeting, Jung-gook dismisses his team while Mi-young waits in her car, chanting, ” Come out alone.”

Mi-young is crushed when Jung-gook walks out with Henchman Choi and the rest of the team. She pounds on the steering wheel and cries but when she finally sits up, Mi-young looks alarmingly calm.

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Walking with swindlers

 

Hoo-ja and Gwi-nam visit their sister in prison and after they promise to send Jin-hee a gift, she reminds them that they have no money. Hoo-ja corrects her, “I have a lot of money,” but Jin-hee disagrees because everything is rightfully hers.

When Jin-hee asks for the real reason behind their visit, Gwi-nam produces a photo of a house that’s waiting for their oldest sister and outlines a generous financial settlement. Jin-hee ends the visit but when Gwi-nam continues to talk about the offer, she shouts, “Shut your mouth before I rip it off!”

Jin-hee shares the story behind her sisters’ names with the prison guard. After three daughters, Jin-hee, Sun-hee and Min-hee, her father was desperate for a son. A famous shaman advised him that should he have another daughter, she was to be named Hoo-ja, which means, “A son will come next.” Gwi-nam means, “Precious boy,” because their mother died without ever giving birth to a son.

Jin-hee was forced to raise her sisters and when she looks over at Hoo-ja and Gwi-nam, she spits, “…they’re climbing all over me now that they’ve grown up. Those rude little punks have no respect and want to die.”

Unruffled, Hoo-ja stands up and leans closer to the glass that separates her from Jin-hee, “Come at me with your life if you want my money.” As Hoo-ja and Gwi-nam walk away, Jin-hee screams out, “I’ll kill you once I get out!”

Joo-myung is alone at the soondae restaurant when Jung-gook walks in. When Jung-gook sits down at his table, Joo-myung asks about Mi-young and the conman confesses that even though he escaped, he feels badly about it.

Jung-gook wonders if someone as ignorant as he is can become an assemblyman. Joo-myung admits that Jung-gook isn’t at all suited for politics, so he advises, “Use your specialty. Let’s con them.” Joo-myung wants Jung-gook to use his charisma to win votes instead of stealing money from people.

Joo-myung takes Jung-gook to a public bath where he asks, “How did a punk who sold land and went on TV saying, ‘You’re fired,’ become the U.S. President?” According to Joo-myung, President Trump won the election because he managed to win the votes of disaffected white Americans and suggests that Jung-gook needs a similar strategy.

The men have moved to the sauna by the time Joo-myung discusses Jung-gook’s competition. Kang Soo-il runs a negative campaign and won’t try to win votes. Sang-jin’s impeccable qualifications and pure intentions aren’t enough to win an election and Joo-myung advises Jung-gook, “You must look at the trees rather than the forest.”

Sang-jin is in a meeting of his own where he rejects Myung-im’s proposal to push for the subway in their district because a neighboring district needs it more. According to Joo-myung, Sang-jin, “…is looking at the forest and has no idea trees are being uprooted.”

Joo-myung explains, “Politicians think about the next election…And great politicians think about the next generation. But you’re neither. You’re a con artist…think only about this election. That’s how you win.”

On the first official day of the campaign, Kang Soo-il pays his respects at the National Cemetery while Sang-jin reaches out to weary students studying for national exams. According to a news report, the candidate drawing the most attention is the Brave Citizen, Yang Jung-gook, and as he campaigns his connection with the people is obvious.

This time, Mi-young watches Jung-gook’s televised coverage but what she can’t see is his ability to recognize an accent. Jung-gook uses that talent to bond with the people that he meets by claiming that he’s from their neighborhoods.

Hoo-ja does her part and has Henchman Choi fills bags with cash to distribute throughout the district. One of the thugs passes a winning Go-Stop card to a woman and tells her, “This is from Number 5.” She later urges all of her friends to vote for Number 5.

Another thug gives a bag of money to a grade school teacher, who later instructs all of her young students to tell their parents to vote for Number 5. She rewards each of them with five lollipops at they chant, “Number 5.”

Wang-go catches on quickly and backs up Jung-gook’s ever changing claims that he’s from a constituent’s neighborhood.

One of Hoo-ja’s thugs delivers some money to a fortune teller who predicts, “Number 5 is shining brightly.”

Jung-gook campaigns with fervor, “If you send me to the Assembly, I will repay our great citizens of Seowon for the rest of my life!”

In the meantime, the fortune teller warns all of her clients to expect bad fortune unless they vote for Number 5.

As Hoo-ja watches Jung-gook from their car, Gwi-nam reports that he trails Kang Soo-il and Sang-jin by five percent. Pleased, Hoo-ja replies, “Bring just five percent. Then it’ll be over.”

After Hoo-ja and Gwi-nam drive away, Mi-young parks in the same spot and checks the surveillance photos on her camera. She has photos of Hoo-ja and Gwi-nam as well as some of Jung-gook with Seung-yi, Charles and Henchman Choi.

In a reversal of roles, Jung-gook drives Wang-go home after a day of campaigning because the aide doesn’t drive. Mi-young calls to invite Jung-gook for dinner so he offers to drop Wang-go off at the closest bus stop but it’s obvious that the aide doesn’t know how to take a bus either.

Jung-gook arrives home and finds Mi-young staring at some half chopped vegetables. She confesses, “I wanted to try to do what you did. Prepare dinner and wait nicely. But that wasn’t as easy as I thought.”

Unable to ignore the issue any longer, Mi-young tosses the surveillance photos at her husband and demands to know, “What do you do, Jung-gook?”

  
COMMENTS

Well, well, well, what have we here? Another strong, scary woman ready to challenge Hoo-ja’s hold on the chairmanship at their father’s company. I actually feel sorry for Hoo-ja and Gwi-nam, whose very existence has been both disappointment and a burden. Of course their eldest sister, Jin-hee, feels that she deserves everything that her father built, because he succeeded thanks in part to her sacrifices. What she fails to appreciate is that Hoo-ja and Gwi-nam are no longer dependent babies, quite the contrary. They are now grown women with resentments and baggage of their own and neither one of them will give in to Jin-hee without a fight. How this rivalry will impact Jung-gook’s campaign remains to be seen, but I can imagine an alliance between him and the youngest Park sisters to escape the wrath of Jin-hee.

Kim Joo-myung proves that he’s indispensable to Jung-gook’s campaign now that we’ve seen how politically uninformed the rest of the team happens to be. Watching Seung-yi, Charles and Henchman Choi fumble with Wang-go’s questions was fun to watch, they are just so dense. Joo-myung and his brainy nephew, Wang-go, who happens to be incredibly sheltered for a grown man, will have to supply the brain power. Jung-gook will do what he does best, smile and charm everyone within hearing range. Unfortunately, that charm will no longer help him where Mi-young is concerned since her investigation brought Jung-gook’s shady connections to light.

Mi-young proves over and over again what a strong person she is. This episode found her struggling with a choice – pretend that Jung-gook is an innocent man who happens to resemble a criminal, or use her investigative skills to uncover the truth. To her credit, Mi-young doesn’t hesitate for long and not only does she gather damning evidence, she confronts Jung-gook with it. Mi-young is one determined woman who won’t be distracted, so just how will Jung-gook deal with a cop who has discovered his deep, dark secret and keep her safe at the same time?

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I love the meeting sequence of the three teams. What a hoot !

Haha....the scary Number One sister is Sister Kim from The Fiery Priest. And her appearance would make the drama even more chaotic.

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Yes, it was certainly funny

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She’s Park Bo Gum’s mother in Encounter 😂

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The director did a great job at highlighting that meeting sequence. The back-and-forth between the 3 teams are just too funny.

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At this point the answer to Teriyaki's question appears to be that Jung-kook will have to tell his wife the whole truth- including why he is running for office as well as what he actually does for a living. The cards have simply been stacked against him from the beginning.

Then again, this show keeps throwing incredible twists at us. So who knows what the real answer will be.

Perhaps we will get an O'Henry ending - one where there is an unexpected moment of grace. It might come about because Mi Young remembers that she too pulled a con by concealing her job from him until after the wedding.

Why shouldn't this happen? This is supposed to be comedy-thriller.
The appropriate end would be for Hoo-ja and all of her sisters to go to prison while Jung-kook ends up go to the Assembly where he does a lot of good things, in part because he brings a different perspective to that body- and because the people skills his family taught him are actually valuable tools for getting things done there.

Of course, we are not guaranteed happy endings in K-dramaland.

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So ready for Sister No. 1 to be released and wreak havoc against the other sisters, for Jung-gook to find this out and to see how he takes advantage of this situation for his election.

In the meantime, he better have a good (truthful) explanation for Mi-young because I don't think she'll accept anything else!

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I hope Jung Gook will pay for making Mi Young cry, with jail time preferably. And I'm so ready for sisters fighting and taking everyone down with them, I wonder if we met no.3 soon.

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I so looooved the sisters' storyline!
Now I wonder where is sister number 3 and when she will pop up.

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Omo, how can he wiggle his way out from Mi-Young now... but considering the number of episodes, i think it'll need 3-4 episodes more for things to blow up. The campaign poster actually looks like an ad with Siwon's face in it 😆. Hoo-Ja's five-sister family is no joke considering their fierceness to one another, you know how girls can be very mean to each other. I'm curious about sis no. 3, maybe she'll be a "chill" type since she's right in the middle and tired of all her sister's tension.

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Thank you for recapping this. There are so many things to comment on in this episode, but I will just say how much I loved the switch between all the strategy meetings of the three candidates and how they were used to describe the political process.

LOVED how the former assemblyman used the story of tRump and how he got elected by using people's fears.

As to sister #3 - I bet she left the family and is the only one who isn't a thug in some way. I'm guessing she is the woman who is helping Sang-jin run his campaign. I love that actress and it would be the perfect way to show how different the sisters are from each other.

Mostly I want to see Sang-jook and Mi-young be honest with each other and find a way to rebuild their relationship.

Lots of fun hijinks to come methinks....

(oh, and thank you for the sauna scene instead of the requisite brooding shower..)

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I loved the Trump reference too. It was interesting to see their perception of the most recent presidential election in the U.S. and the show won me over even more because of it.

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Jung-gook conning people out of their votes for the upcoming election might seem too elaborate and unbelievable of a scam. But I couldn't help questioning just how much of an exaggeration is that compared to what happened in real life politics. At least Jung-gook and his team never pretended that they did all that for the greater good or something as lofty as that. They know they are just swindlers doing questionable things to stay alive. And I wonder if that very fact was what makes Jung-gook slightly (or much??) better than politicians in our world.

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