Cheat on Me If You Can: Episode 4

by quirkycase

The investigation into the missing actress picks up, and our detectives make some headway with the continued unwanted help of a certain morbid novelist. While she’s sleuthing around, her assistant’s suspicions grow, and he finds himself with more questions than his superiors would like. Meanwhile, our heroine’s cheating husband and his bestie might be out of their depth as they attempt to deal with a blackmailer.

 
EPISODE 4

Yeo-joo pulls Woo-sung out of his reverie by asking, “How much is it?” She reads his expression eerily well, guessing that someone he doesn’t want to say no to asked him for too much money. What kind of insurance is it? He’s confused until she reminds him he said he got a spam call about insurance.

She advises him to get a life insurance plan. He might get in an accident one day. Woo-sung gulps like it’s a threat as she says how lost she’d feel then. She’s not pulling in much money right now, so she’d feel reassured if he got life insurance. He reluctantly eats the piece of meat Yeo-joo holds out for him.

Soo-ho watches from his spy hideout and reports to Director Ma about the bloodstain by the fridge. It’s less than a week old and type B which doesn’t match anyone in the household. It does, however, match Soo-jung’s blood type. Director Ma chides him for jumping to conclusions and hangs up.

That night, Woo-sung calls Jin-ho for help putting together the blackmail funds, but Jin-ho’s secret stash is missing. His wife holds up the cash and notes pleasantly that she keeps finding cash all throughout the house. Woo-sung has much better luck gathering his stashed money. From above, Yeo-joo watches him iron the money flat in the middle of the night, although she can’t see what he’s ironing.

The next morning, Soo-ho passes by Woo-sung on his way to work. He notes his suave, celebrity-like styling. Woo-sung catches him staring and offers an autograph.

Once Soo-ho arrives at Yeo-joo’s – sporting Woo-sung’s autograph on his hand, ha – he sighs as he reminds himself of Director Ma’s instructions not to play detective. He’d also said another agent would be helping him. Hmm.

Inside, he takes a breath before greeting a disheveled Yeo-joo who’s lounging and munching on snacks while watching an awards show on TV. He plays along as they discuss what could be used as a weapon and strains to hide his frustration when she sends him to buy more chips and beer.

Filling his old part-timer job at the convenience store is lipstick girl EOM JI-EUN (Bae Noo-ri). Ah, she must be the supporting agent. She remains impassive as Soo-ho tries to strike up conversation, but when he quizzes her on Yeo-joo facts, she answers in impressive detail.

At home, Yeo-joo pauses the program as Soo-jung accepts an award. She takes note of her expensive yellow dress and wonders if Soo-jung has a sponsor.

Meanwhile, Jin-ho tries to skip out on cleaning day, but his son almost gives him away. He whispers to Dong-ho that he’s going to work and sneaks out. The kid immediately goes to his mom to inform her daddy ran away. Ha. She worries thinking about how Jin-ho was going around looking for money.

On his way back, Soo-ho lets out some of his frustrations by pettily swinging the bag of beer around and imagining the beer exploding in Yeo-joo’s face when she goes to open it. He’s surprised to see her all dressed up now and preparing to go out. Yeo-joo explains that she hates the clacking noise high-heels like the ones she’s wearing make, but she loves irritating people with her every step. Ha.

Jin-ho meets up with Woo-sung who explains his plan for dealing with the blackmailer. He’ll give Manager Bae the money he has so far and record the interaction with a camera pen he’ll put in his pocket. Once the blackmail is caught on film, he’ll hit Manager Bae with the law.

Woo-sung congratulates himself for his genius plan, and they wait for Manager Bae to arrive. Except he doesn’t and Woo-sung can’t reach him. In the security room, someone boxes up all of Manager Bae’s stuff, including his ringing cell phone.

Seung-cheol ignores another of Yeo-joo’s calls while he interviews Soo-jung’s neighbor. She heard Soo-jung and a man fighting in the hall several days ago. From her description, it sounds like Manager Kim which Yeo-joo points out as she walks up.

To Seung-cheol and Se-jin’s extreme annoyance, Yeo-joo follows them to their car. In exchange for a ride, she offers to find the trophy Soo-jung got at the recent awards ceremony. They don’t see what that has to do with anything. Yeo-joo explains that it’s infamous for being heavy, and it’s conveniently missing from Soo-jung’s apartment. Manager Kim should know something.

Yeo-joo hops in the car and away they go to Manager Kim’s. Once they arrive, Seung-cheol and Se-jin start heading toward the apartment but notice Yeo-joo isn’t following. In fact, she’s still in the car, unmoving in the backseat. Resigned, Seung-cheol walks over and flings her car door open, after which she immediately exits. HA!

No one answers when they knock on Manager Kim’s door. Yeo-joo offers to open the door, but Seung-cheol chooses to break the glass “accidentally” with a rock instead. But he still can’t open the door. Yeo-joo waltzes over to a flowerpot and lifts it to reveal a key. Ha! She gives Seung-cheol an infuriating smile as she unlocks the door.

Seung-cheol is steady grumbling as they go inside, but he abruptly stops at the sight. The apartment is covered in Soo-jung’s face: posters, merchandise, news articles, and life-size cutouts. His whole apartment is like one big serial killer wall.

Se-jin wonders why they’d hire a stalker as Soo-jung’s assistant. “I also hired a stalker as my assistant,” Yeo-joo admits. Obsessive people tend to do well at their jobs. Pfft.

Se-jin finds a box of photos from Soo-jung’s interview show and notes the way she’s leaning in towards Woo-sung in one of them. It’s hard to tell if Yeo-joo sees the photo or not when she walks over to show them her own discovery: the missing award trophy.

While Woo-sung learns that Manager Bae quit his job with no warning, Seung-cheol and Se-jin (sans Yeo-joo this time) go to speak with the PD of the talk show Woo-sung appeared on with Soo-jung. The PD claims that Soo-jung had a one-sided interest in Woo-sung judging by the fact that he never reciprocated her flirting.

She mentions “Demon Kang” and is surprised they don’t know Woo-sung’s wife is Kang Yeo-joo. Se-jin recalls Yeo-joo’s irritated face as she glanced at the picture of Woo-sung and Soo-jung. Ah, so maybe she did see it.

That night, Woo-sung lies awake worrying about how he’ll get the footage now. Yeo-joo isn’t sleeping either and gets up to work.

Soo-ho thinks of how Yeo-joo sniffed out his money and goes to the convenience store to buy cheaper hair products. He also buys Yeo-joo’s favorite canned beer complete with straw. He’s startled to find Ji-eun following him down the street.

She finds it strange that he’s drinking Yeo-joo’s favorite beer, but he claims it’s to build up a rapport. Ji-eun thinks befriending the target will hinder mission. When Soo-ho assures her Yeo-joo isn’t interested in friendship, she observes he must not be her type then. Soo-ho barks at her to go home. Heh.

Ji-eun spots Yeo-joo, so they hide around the corner and follow her when she drives off. They end up losing her on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere when a truck wedges itself between them. Thanks to Ji-eun’s encyclopedic knowledge, they know where each fork in the road leads. They decide on the one leading to a cemetery since it seems the most Yeo-joo place to go.

They don’t see Yeo-joo at the cemetery, so they cut their lights and wait around the corner. Soon after, Yeo-jin’s car comes into view. As they follow, Soo-ho can’t ignore the “coincidence” of Soo-jung going missing and now Yeo-joo making a late night trip to a cemetery – a great place to hide a body as Yeo-joo has shown in many a novel.

They drive through the night and are still tailing Yeo-joo in the morning as she goes to her usual supermarket. She stands seemingly entranced by the butcher as he works, making Soo-ho wonder what goes on in her head.

At university, Mi-rae tactfully rejects a classmate’s invitation to a party. He notes that makes 47 rejections and drives away undaunted (because maybe the 50th time’s the charm…). She joins the members of her club Green Ivy, the same volunteer group that was at the orphanage.

At work, Jin-ho finally gets around to passing Woo-sung the box from Mi-rae. Woo-sung is astonished to find his pen inside and when Jin-ho mentions a student brought it, Woo-sung realizes that must’ve been why Mi-rae tried to approach him after the lecture.

Mi-rae is told off by a fellow club member for her unimpressive painting (they’re doing a mural) despite her being an art major. But then, another member sees the long line of male students ogling Mi-rae as potential club recruits and thinks she’s doing fine.

Over lunch, Woo-sung asks if the student who brought the pen was female. Jin-ho lies it was a male student and scolds his friend for still chasing after women. Woo-sung insists he’s changed and has learned his lesson.

Her club members ask if Mi-rae is attending the river cleanup, although she usually doesn’t attend those activities. When they mention that the “celebrity” Woo-sung is joining them, she seems interested. Even so, she says she has plans that day.

Woo-sung doesn’t see how he can run for political office in this situation, but he still intends to attend the cleanup event. He wants to break the news to Consultant Nam in person.

Now that Seung-cheol and Se-jin know about Yeo-joo’s connection to Soo-jung, they can’t help but wonder if she’s involved in the disappearance. Whatever the case, they can’t let her keep interfering in the investigation.

Elsewhere, Soo-ho reports to Director Nam that the DNA results show the blood is Soo-jung’s and is surprised that Director Nam has already heard. Soo-ho wonders to himself if Ji-eun informed him. He shares his concerns with Director Ma that Yeo-joo may be interfering in the investigation to cover her tracks.

At the station, Seung-cheol and Se-jin learn the results of their DNA test – the blood from the apartment is Soo-jung’s. Seung-cheol looks oddly bothered, which Se-jin doesn’t miss. He had hoped the blood wasn’t Soo-jung’s although evidence suggested otherwise.

Director Ma asks if the police suspect Yeo-joo. Soo-ho doesn’t think so. He’s stunned when Director Ma then orders him to erase all traces linking Yeo-joo to Soo-jung’s disappearance. Later, Soo-ho confronts Ji-eun at the convenience store about reporting the DNA results, but she doesn’t deny or confirm it.

They get started erasing Yeo-joo’s tracks, and Soo-ho can’t believe Ji-eun isn’t even curious why they’re being asked to do this. Unlike him, she’s completely content to follow orders. Soo-ho tasks her with obtaining all the CCTV footage from near Soo-jung’s place. Thanks to the corrupted hard disk, don’t need to go through the footage from her building.

At the cleanup, Woo-sung tells Consultant Nam he’s hit a snag in running for office. Rather than mentioning the affair issue, he just tells him Yeo-joo is against him running. It doesn’t do much good though, since Consultant Nam confidently says he has some solutions for that.

Now that the police have confirmation that the blood is Soo-jung’s, they widen the net and start gathering more security camera and dashcam footage from the area. Elsewhere, a man who seems to be a politician (or at least influential) arrives at the cleanup.

Consultant Nam notices some men nearby and asks how fast Woo-sung can run. He grabs a confused Woo-sung’s hand and begins sprinting. They’re pursued by a gaggle of men in suits. What the heck? They split up and Consultant Nam heroically holds them off while he yells at Woo-sung to run.

Consultant Nam joins back up with him at the pier. When Woo-sung runs up, he gives him a boost and sends him flying into a boat … where the influential man is sitting. Pfft, all that so Woo-sung can network and get a photo op?

The boat Woo-sung was catapulted onto will haul the bags of trash in, it seems. Woo-sung isn’t even given time to fully put on his life vest before he’s nominated to hang off the front of the boat and bring the bags onboard. No one seems concerned that he can’t swim.

Of course, the swimmer in the scuba diving gear who hands the bags over is none other than Mi-rae. Woo-sung is so startled he loses his grip on the railing and falls into the river. Mi-rae dives after him as he sinks.

Nearby, reporters go running after getting word that there’s a body. A woman wearing a familiar yellow dress floats face-down in the water.

 
COMMENTS

So it looks like Soo-jung is actually dead unless someone else is wearing her dress. Manager Kim is particularly suspicious, but it does seem odd that he’d alert the detectives right away and then take off. Then you have Soo-jung’s blood in Yeo-joo’s basement. It’s all pretty tangled at this point. I’m really curious what Seung-cheol’s connection to Soo-jung is. Why would she ask for him specifically to be notified if something happened to her, and why does he seem so affected by the blood being hers? There’s got to be a story there.

I loved watching Yeo-joo insert herself as an unwanted partner with the pair of angry detectives. She’s just so entitled and smug, and it makes it all the worse that her instincts are usually right. Yeo-joo has a particular talent for annoying people, and it’s so fun to watch. Seung-cheol was looking almost as close to losing it as Soo-ho has been. Speaking of Soo-ho, I’m afraid he’s going to get into major trouble if he doesn’t quit asking questions. He’s getting a little too involved in this mission, and his curiosity is not an asset in a job that requires you to unquestioningly follow orders. Someone like Ji-eun – who I’m finding quite endearing and fun – is much more suited to that position. But I don’t think he’s wrong that there’s something odd about everything surrounding Yeo-joo. Director Ma clearly doesn’t want the police sniffing around her, which is interesting.

If this body really is Soo-jung’s, the investigation is about to get much more intense which may be bad news for both Woo-sung and Yeo-joo. The detectives have already linked them to Soo-jung and are suspicious. Director Ma’s interference may keep Yeo-joo out of trouble, but Seung-cheol and Se-jin are already suspecting Woo-sung’s affair. Now that Manager Bae has disappeared, Woo-sung is panicking harder and might make things worse for himself. I was surprised Woo-sung decided he’d rather pull out of the race than tell Consultant Nam about the affair(s) and have him help. Either way, I don’t think Consultant Nam is going to let Woo-sung back out of the race so easily. Judging by that dramatic dash to the boat, I’d say he’s intensely serious about his candidates.

I’m not sure where they’re going with the Mi-rae storyline yet, so I’m going to save any comments on that for later. But as a character, I’m finding Mi-rae very bland. We’ve seen her enough that it’s clear she’s at least somewhat important to the story going forward, yet the only thing I know about her at all is that she’s pretty and apparently entrances every male in her vicinity despite having about as much personality as a wooden post. Although not every character in this drama is likeable (looking at you, bro pair Woo-sung and Jin-ho), I wouldn’t call any of the others dry. I’m hoping there’s more to Mi-rae than what we’ve seen thus far if she’s to be a main-ish character.

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