Bad and Crazy: Episode 2

by solstices

In his quest to secure his long-coveted promotion, our protagonist winds up probing deeper into a suspicious murder case. Unsavory implications begin to surface, forcing him to contend not only with his conflicting desires, but also with the enigmatic man in a helmet.

 
EPISODE 2 RECAP

In the aftermath of the previous night’s fiery escape, Soo-yeol regains consciousness in a hospital bed. Bewildered, Soo-yeol asks Jae-sun how he managed to end up in the hospital, but Jae-sun has no clue either.

In another ward, Kyung-tae lies bandaged and unconscious. Soo-yeol catches Jae-sun up to speed on the events of the previous night, but Jae-sun’s heard a different story — the narrative that’s being pushed is that Kyung-tae tried to take his own life because Soo-yeol had been keeping tabs on him.

At a deserted riverbank, Assemblyman Do and In-bum watch the video on the teddy bear’s memory card. It’s a video message from Yoo-na, wishing her daughter a happy birthday. Seething, Assemblyman Do asks In-bum if he’s sure this was the only video on the card. They’ve gone to all that trouble of retrieving the memory card for nothing.

Breaking out into maniacal, crazed laughter, Assemblyman Do then asks about Soo-yeol. In-bum theorizes that Soo-yeol simply saved Kyung-tae without knowing the full situation. As for Kyung-tae, the chances of him regaining consciousness are slim.

Assemblyman Do points out that Kyung-tae saw In-bum’s face during the attack. He warns In-bum that he has to sort this out, if he wants to avoid facing charges for attempted murder.

At the station, Soo-yeol tries to explain that he’d saved a beaten-up Kyung-tae from burning to death, but Bong-pil isn’t having it. Public opinion is strongly against Soo-yeol, blaming him for Kyung-tae’s supposed suicide attempt.

Raising his voice, Bong-pil reminds Soo-yeol that he’d told him to stay out of trouble until the evaluation is over. Now that he’s gotten himself into this mess, his promotion is at stake.

Over lunch, Soo-yeol is fixated on the biker as a potential witness, much to Jae-sun’s exasperation. No one other than Soo-yeol has seen the man, giving the impression that Soo-yeol is simply making it all up. Suddenly, Soo-yeol has a realization — since the biker knew where Kyung-tae lived, perhaps the two knew each other. Perhaps they knew the assailant, too. Jae-sun stares at Soo-yeol like he’s lost his mind, then decides that he needs to get him a shrink.

Cut to: Soo-yeol in a run-down, shady-looking office. Jae-sun’s therapist friend YEOM GEUN-SOO (Choi Kwang-je) welcomes Soo-yeol affably, and despite his initial reservations, Soo-yeol begins telling him about the biker he’s been seeing. He appears out of nowhere, beats him up, and no one else has witnessed him.

Dismissing Soo-yeol’s claims as nonsense, Geun-soo reassures Soo-yeol that memory confusion and hallucinations can happen after a major incident. Soo-yeol refutes that, pointing out that he’d seen the biker even before the incident.

However, Soo-yeol’s retelling of his encounter with the biker in the sauna only serves to stoke Geun-soo’s disbelief. Geun-soo tells Soo-yeol he probably just fell asleep in the sauna, then sends him off with a bottle of sleeping pills.

The next day, Soo-yeol and Jae-sun head to Yoo-na’s apartment complex, having found out that Kyung-tae had visited on the day of the incident. Jae-sun looked into Yoo-na’s credit card transaction, which In-bum had told Soo-yeol about — it turns out that it had been used by her friend, not Yoo-na herself.

Soo-yeol and Jae-sun approach the contractor in charge of remodeling Yoo-na’s apartment, who tells them that Kyung-tae had been looking for a stuffed toy that day.

Entering Yoo-na’s bathroom, Soo-yeol realizes that the dream he thought he’d had of Yoo-na’s apartment had been much too vivid. Maybe it hadn’t been a dream after all.

On their way out, Soo-yeol and Jae-sun conclude that Kyung-tae must have found evidence at Yoo-na’s apartment, and that the incident was an attempt at eliminating him to cover it up. In-bum is clearly a likely suspect, with his prior assault on Kyung-tae, but all evidence thus far is merely circumstantial.

As Soo-yeol passes by a phone booth, one of In-sun’s handmade missing person posters catches his attention, and he asks Jae-sun to search up Yoo-na’s family relationships.

Soo-yeol ends up walking past In-sun, who’s putting up yet another poster by the side of the road. A street sweeper tries to remove it, but In-sun resists. Her protests draw the attention of Soo-yeol, who intervenes and takes her to get ice cream. In a small voice, In-sun asks if her mom ran away, and Soo-yeol doesn’t know how to answer. In-sun takes off the clover bracelet on her wrist, then asks Soo-yeol if he can pass it to Kyung-tae. She’d promised that she would make him a new one, but she hadn’t been able to find another four-leaf clover.

Soo-yeol and Jae-sun stay up all night watching CCTV footage from Yoo-na’s apartment complex, in an effort to find any suspicious vehicles. A van with a stovepipe catches Jae-sun’s attention, and Soo-yeol notes that he’d seen a similar vehicle before — when his family dog had died. Problem is, such cremation services are illegal. Soo-yeol dials the phone number on the van, and as expected, it’s a nonexistent number.

The pair drive out, following the path the van had taken. They manage to find the van parked outside a warehouse, but the vehicle is locked and the windows are heavily tinted.

They head into the warehouse to question the lone worker there, but he manages to escape. With no other options, Jae-sun breaks the van’s window, giving them access to the vehicle’s stovepipe.

Later that night, In-bum confronts the cremation gang. He’s incensed that Soo-yeol managed to obtain the van as well as the ashes inside. Tossing an envelope of cash on the floor, In-bum orders the entire gang to flee overseas.

The next morning, Soo-yeol and Jae-sun receive the results of the forensic analysis on the ashes. A small amount of human bones were found, so they’ll do a DNA analysis next.

At In-sun’s house, Jae-sun collects a DNA swab from Yoo-na’s brother, who informs Soo-yeol that Yoo-na had life insurance with In-sun as the beneficiary. Yoo-na’s brother asks if they can get the insurance payout, and Soo-yeol warns him that he could go to jail if he misappropriates the money that legally belongs to In-sun.

As Soo-yeol and Jae-sun leave, In-sun runs up to them. Hesitantly, she asks if her mother is dead. Soo-yeol says they don’t know yet, prompting In-sun to ask if that means her mom is still alive. More somberly this time, Soo-yeol repeats that they don’t know.

Pleadingly, In-sun says that it’s alright — she doesn’t need to find her mom, so Soo-yeol can stop searching for her. A pained look crosses Soo-yeol’s face, but he doesn’t respond.

Soo-yeol’s visiting Kyung-tae in the hospital when he gets a call from Jae-sun. A DNA analysis confirmed that the bones in the ashes were Yoo-na’s. He returns home to find that his brother has crashed his place. A food deliveryman arrives, and the camera mounted on his motorcycle helmet gives Soo-yeol an idea.

He looks through delivery rider footage from the night of Kyung-tae’s assault, and that’s when he sees it — In-bum was captured on camera, walking towards Kyung-tae’s place. Putting the pieces together, Soo-yeol and Jae-sun realize that In-bum had intentionally beaten up and attempted to murder Kyung-tae in an effort to cover up Yoo-na’s murder.

The pair confront In-bum at the police station. Soo-yeol questions why In-bum went to Kyung-tae’s place on the night of the fire, but In-bum asks a question right back — doesn’t Soo-yeol know that Kyung-tae killed Yoo-na?

That morning, a knife had been found under the water tank at Kyung-tae’s apartment. Kyung-tae’s fingerprints, as well as Yoo-na’s blood, were discovered on the knife. Soo-yeol bites out that only an idiot would hide evidence at his own apartment, but In-bum isn’t fazed. He sneers that the same idiot attempted suicide because he got scared, and that’s the last straw for Jae-sun — he punches In-bum square in the jaw.

In Bong-pil’s office, Soo-yeol insists that the culprit isn’t Kyung-tae, but Bong-pil isn’t willing to believe Soo-yeol in the face of seemingly conclusive evidence. Desperately, Soo-yeol says that they can handle this mess so that Assemblyman Do isn’t affected. He’s sure Assemblyman Do wouldn’t want to be affiliated with a murderer.

Stopping Soo-yeol in his tracks, Bong-pil tells him that Assemblyman Do called earlier to vouch that he’d been with In-bum the night of Yoo-na’s murder. Bong-pil tosses a document folder onto the table, and Soo-yeol picks it up to see his name on the list of people up for promotion. He falls silent, clearly conflicted.

The next day, the news is reporting on Kyung-tae’s supposed murder of Yoo-na. At Yoo-na’s funeral, Soo-yeol fidgets with In-sun’s clover bracelet, while the television airs news of Assemblyman Do’s approval ratings doubling. Jae-sun confides that he knows he shouldn’t have lost his temper and punched In-bum. Yet, if they stop now, that’ll make them scumbags. Soo-yeol nods, gazing sidelong at In-sun.

However, we next see a newly-promoted Soo-yeol, with bouquets of flowers adorning his desk. He’s now the team captain, and a betrayed Jae-sun gives him the cold shoulder, snubbing his meal invitation.

When Soo-yeol gets off work, Hee-gyeom is waiting by his car. When he unlocks it, Hee-gyeom gets in and asks him why Kyung-tae killed Yoo-na. She’s looked into it, and the two hadn’t had any connection until she was reported missing. Given the lack of a motive, he could have been framed.

Soo-yeol asks what her point is, and Hee-gyeom reveals that Yoo-na had been the informant of the late cop Min-soo. Min-soo had commissioned a spy camera to be made in the form of a necklace. Hee-gyeom shows Soo-yeol a photo of Yoo-na’s necklace, asking whether he’s seen it. Soo-yeol chases her out of his car, saying he hasn’t seen it and that he’s not on this case anymore.

Soo-yeol heads home, but all of a sudden the elevator malfunctions and halts. He presses the alarm bell to call for help, and as he’s waiting, Hee-gyeom’s words ring in his ears. The elevator lights flicker ominously, making Soo-yeol press the alarm bell again, but there’s no response this time.

Just as Soo-yeol works himself up into a panic, someone begins to pry the doors open. Soo-yeol’s relief is short-lived, though — it’s the biker.

Biker (whom we’ll come to know as K) prances eagerly around the elevator, causing it to shake violently with every jump. With a cheeky “God bless you,” he makes a final, giant leap, sending the elevator crashing down amidst Soo-yeol’s terrified shrieks.

Soo-yeol passes out for a second, and when he comes to, he’s riding reverse pillion on the back of a motorcycle — which K is riding through the apartment lobby and into a shopping mall. Soo-yeol clings on for dear life as K speeds through the mall and out onto the road. Screaming himself hoarse, Soo-yeol calls K a crazy lunatic.

All of a sudden, K brings the motorcycle to an abrupt stop. HAHAHA, K’s waiting for an old lady with a walking aid to slowly cross the road. He gives her a friendly smile as she passes by, and then it’s back to speeding off again.

Soo-yeol’s close to passing out by the time they arrive at their destination, which is the cremation gang’s hideout. It turns out they haven’t left the country yet, due to their leader’s greed to clear their remaining stash first.

Soo-yeol busts the door open, with K instructing him what to say and do. While Soo-yeol is hesitating, the gang leader starts to get irritated, so K takes things into his own hands and punches him. The other members of the gang get riled up, but K swiftly takes the approaching attackers down.

Meanwhile, Soo-yeol tries to escape up the stairs, and accidentally stumbles upon the gang’s stash of stolen jewelry. Right on top is Yoo-na’s spy camera necklace, which Soo-yeol quickly pockets.

Soo-yeol escapes by jumping down from the second floor, and when he comes face-to-face with K through a window, he takes off running and ditches him.

K’s doing fine on his own, though. He uses the spilled oil from toppled barrels to his advantage by slickly maneuvering in between the men. As they gape at his fighting prowess, K removes his helmet and laughs gleefully before taking the rest of them out.

Back home, Soo-yeol removes the memory card from the necklace and inserts it into his laptop. It’s a recording from the night Yoo-na died, with a drunk Assemblyman Do caught on camera screaming at her corpse. Shaken, Soo-yeol closes his laptop.

The next day, Soo-yeol stands atop a bridge, the spy camera necklace in his hands. Before he can toss it into the water, however, K speeds past on his motorcycle and swipes it right out of his hand.

Indignant, Soo-yeol gets into his car to chase after him, but K swerves right back to smash Soo-yeol’s car window with the wheel of his motorcycle. Soo-yeol manages to dislodge K, sending him crashing to the ground. As K gets back on his feet, Soo-yeol storms up to him, accusing him of attempted murder and demanding that he give the necklace back.

In response, K pulls off his helmet and grins at Soo-yeol. Taken aback, Soo-yeol asks who he is, and K responds that he’s a hero — he’s here to punish the people akin to rotten garbage.

Soo-yeol stares at him like he’s lost his mind, sending K into a fit of laughter. Amused that Soo-yeol still doesn’t know who he is, K tells him to watch closely to figure out his identity. Then with a wink and a grin, K climbs over the railing and lets himself fall backward into the water below.

When Soo-yeol rushes after to peer over the railing, though, there’s no sign of K anywhere.

The news broadcast reports on Assemblyman Do’s re-election, and later that day, Soo-yeol is called for a meeting with the police chief, Bong-pil, and Assemblyman Do. Soo-yeol’s a superintendent now, thanks to Assemblyman Do pulling strings.

They head for lunch, but Soo-yeol suddenly gets a sharp headache. He heads to the toilet to gather himself, only for K to walk out of a stall. Soo-yeol’s stunned to see him, but all K says is that he watched the spy camera video.

Incensed, Soo-yeol gives chase after a smugly sauntering K. He realizes that K is heading straight for Assemblyman Do, and he panics, yelling futilely after him. Interestingly, Hee-gyeom turns as K walks past her, as if she recognizes him. Then K yells “Do Yoo-gon,” making Assemblyman Do stop in his tracks and turn around. Flashing his trademark grin, K jumps and aims a flying kick right for Assemblyman Do’s face.

Before the kick can land, everything pauses. We see the previous events again, except this time it’s Soo-yeol in K’s place. It was Soo-yeol who had investigated Yoo-na’s bathroom with luminol, and it was Soo-yeol who had beaten up the gang while clad in motorcycle gear.

Back in the present, the camera pans around K’s kick, and we see that it’s actually Soo-yeol wearing K’s signature grin.

 
COMMENTS

What a fun ride! It’s shaping up to be a satisfying tale of rooting out corruption and serving justice, sparked by an earnest young cop and carried forth by our morally ambivalent protagonist and his vigilante conscience. If you’re a seasoned crime thriller viewer, it likely isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, but the execution makes it an entertaining and engaging watch. The drama injects humor well through offbeat comedic moments and small details, like the green duct tape holding Soo-yeol’s battered car together.

I’m a little sad we barely got to see Kyung-tae in this episode — his earnest sincerity and dogged pursuit of the truth makes his character a compelling one to root for. I hope he regains consciousness soon, since I’d love to see Soo-yeol and Jae-sun take him under their wing. Kyung-tae’s righteous idealism would serve as a good foil to Soo-yeol’s jaded pragmatism, and it’d be nice for Kyung-tae to have people backing him up so he doesn’t have to go running headfirst into danger alone.

Also, I’m quite impressed by how the drama has been tying its threads together. I’d initially written off Min-soo as a plot device to demonstrate Soo-yeol’s moral ambiguity and relative lack of scruples, so having his character tie back into the main plot this episode was a welcome surprise. I wonder what information Yoo-na was acquiring for him, and if that was what led to her death at the hands of Assemblyman Do. I’m looking forward to seeing what roles the supporting characters, such as feisty Hee-gyeom and loyal sidekick Jae-sun, will play in uncovering this conspiracy.

I’ve always preferred Lee Dong-wook in comedic roles over romantic ones, and I think his tendency to overact lends itself well to this role. The drama doesn’t take itself too seriously, so his over-the-top expressions add to the fun, comic-book-superhero feel.

And of course, Wie Ha-joon! We’ve barely seen much of him, but he’s already a hoot. He plays the unpredictable enigma K so convincingly, with the wildness in his eyes and the devilish mischief in his grin. In the hands of a lesser actor, K’s rampages could come off as campy and cringeworthy, but the K we’ve gotten is the epitome of chaotic good. I wonder when and how he started appearing to Soo-yeol.

Thus far, it seems that every time K takes over, Soo-yeol’s consciousness perceives K as a separate entity he’s interacting with. It’s not that Soo-yeol has no memory of the event entirely (apart from the car destruction in Episode 1), he just remembers it differently from how it actually played out. I wonder if this sheds light on Soo-yeol’s inner conflict — does he actually feel guilty, and is merely repressing it by projecting his conscience onto a separate persona? I think that’d be an interesting angle to explore, rather than a dissociative identity that he has no control over. Either way, though, I’m looking forward to more bickering, hijinks, and vigilante justice.

RELATED POSTS

• Premiere Watch: Bad and Crazy, Snowdrop, Bulgasal: Immortal Souls
• Lee Dong-wook, Wie Ha-joon tussle in the shower for Bad and Crazy
• Lee Dong-wook and Wie Ha-joon become unlikely partners in new promos for Bad and Crazy
• New promos for tvN’s Bad and Crazy with Lee Dong-wook, Wie Ha-joon
• Lee Dong-wook, Wie Ha-joon face off in Bad and Crazy
• Cha Hak-yeon confirmed for new tvN drama from The Uncanny Counter production team