Bad and Crazy: Episode 12 (Final)

by mistyisles

The time has come for our hero (and his hero) to confront their past once and for all. His nemesis won’t give up without a fight, however, so he’ll need to trust himself and the lessons he’s learned throughout his journey if he’s going to survive – and win – this time around.

 
EPISODE 12 RECAP

Soo-yeol repeatedly tries to escape from his cell, each time making it a little farther down the gated hallway before he’s caught and dragged back inside. Eventually, he seems to give up, lying expressionless in bed while K tries to convince him to play a game.

Soo-yeol reminisces on all the crazy ordeals K has put him through so far, feeling empowered by the memories of just how much he’s survived. With a look of determination, he grinds the pills he’s collected into a powder, which he stores inside a water bottle.

He uses the powder to drug the shared hot water kettle when he and the other inmates have an art therapy session. Soo-yeol scribbles weird shapes while he waits for the drug to take effect, but there’s a method to it, too – he’s drawn out a map of the facility, with Xs to mark each spot that’s clear of security cameras.

Having discovered that one of the doctors has been peddling narcotics on the side, Soo-yeol blackmails her into helping him escape in an ambulance. Though she tells her underlings to get rid of him on the way, Soo-yeol and K have no trouble fighting their way free.

Upon hearing of Soo-yeol’s escape, Bong-pil throws a tantrum, worried both for Soo-yeol’s future and for his own. Soo-yeol, meanwhile, goes to check on Mom and Dong-yeol, but doesn’t dare approach them.

Jae-sun, Kyung-tae, and Hee-gyeom rack their brains for anywhere Soo-yeol could have gone. Hee-gyeom suggests Geun-soo’s office, but Jae-sun dismisses it since Geun-soo has disappeared. It takes a few seconds for it to dawn on all three that Geun-soo disappearing means his office space is empty.

Geun-soo has actually returned to his office, but Soo-yeol does indeed show up at his door. He smacks Geun-soo for vanishing when he needed his testimony, and then gets down to business.

Elsewhere, Jung-hoon – who’s been released – plays basketball with Joo-hyuk. They’ve both heard of Soo-yeol’s escape, and Jung-hoon worries that Soo-yeol might come after him, since he refused to testify against Joo-hyuk. But it’s all an act – he’s secretly recording every conversation he has with Joo-hyuk, acting on Soo-yeol’s behalf.

Soo-yeol’s objective is to find some kind of psychological weakness they can use against Joo-hyuk. Geun-soo figures Joo-hyuk’s greatest fear must be having his true identity revealed – and if they can make that happen, his entire defenses will crumble. That makes him wonder: if Joo-hyuk is really Yoon-ho, where did “Joo-hyuk” come from in the first place?

They’re interrupted by a commotion just outside. Dae-won and his cronies have followed Soo-yeol’s friends here. While the two groups argue, Soo-yeol bursts out of Geun-soo’s office and flees. Jae-sun and Kyung-tae hold Dae-won’s team back to give him a head start, and Hee-gyeom brings her car around to pick Soo-yeol up. Unfazed, his first response upon jumping into the car is to grin and ask how she’s been.

Cut to: Hee-gyeom throwing him over her shoulder once they’re in a safe place. She’s incensed that he kept them worrying about him for months, and Jae-sun and Kyung-tae do their best to calm her down. When she finally agrees to hear him out, he launches into his plan for exposing Joo-hyuk’s identity, but K elbows him in the side, wanting to be formally introduced first.

With a sigh, Soo-yeol obliges, and the others awkwardly try to figure out where they’re supposed to look. Kyung-tae ends up bowing at empty air when Soo-yeol explains that K was the one who saved him from the fire; Soo-yeol gets all flustered when K wants to confess his feelings for Hee-gyeom; and aw – Jae-sun is disappointed when K has nothing particular to say to him.

But back to the task at hand. There’s one more person who knew about Joo-hyuk’s identity: the guy who killed Andrei. Investigating him won’t be an easy task, though, because his fingerprints were completely mutilated.

To start, Hee-gyeom visits Boss Yong. Boss Yong says bitterly that for all Soo-yeol’s claims of determination, he went and got himself imprisoned. Hee-gyeom acknowledges that things went wrong, but asks Boss Yong for help identifying the man anyway.

Following that trail, Jae-sun and Kyung-tae chase down someone who bought drugs from the guy, and with a little intimidation, he recalls the man had a connection to a clinic that’s since been shut down. The director of that clinic was none other than Geun-soo.

While Dong-yeol is out getting groceries, Mom is startled by a pounding at the door. Someone shoves an envelope inside, and whatever the letter says makes her eyes widen in fear.

Fortunately, Geun-soo has kept all his old clinic’s records. Soo-yeol sends him a photo of the mystery man so he can search the database. And what do you know – his name was Shin Joo-hyuk.

Just then, Joo-hyuk (that is, Yoon-ho, who’s now going by Joo-hyuk) lets himself into Geun-soo’s ofice. He walks straight to a hidden camera, belatedly realizing Geun-soo has never seen him before and doesn’t know who he is. He explains that he installed the camera about six months ago, to find out what kind of treatment Soo-yeol was getting.

By the time Soo-yeol arrives, Geun-soo is bleeding from a stab wound, and Joo-hyuk is gone. At the same time, Hee-gyeom receives a frantic call from Dong-yeol. She hands it off to Soo-yeol, pushing him out the door so the police won’t find him here.

Soo-yeol rushes home, where he finds Dong-yeol cleaning up broken dishes. Dong-yeol did his best to keep Mom from hearing about Soo-yeol’s escape, but she’s found out anyway, and he had to calm her down from a panic attack. He hugs Soo-yeol repeatedly, relieved that he’s okay.

But when Soo-yeol goes to check on Mom, she looks at him with unfamiliar eyes and demands to know what he’s done with her son. She locks Dong-yeol out of the room and threatens Soo-yeol with a piece of broken glass, shouting about a letter that informed her Soo-yeol is an imposter. He tries to wrest the glass away, cutting both of their hands in the process, and finally gets through to her with her own words about trusting the little boy who ran away to save himself.

While she cries and clings to him, Hee-gyeom’s phone lights up with a call from an unknown number. Soo-yeol leaves Mom in Dong-yeol’s care and steps out to answer. To no one’s surprise, it’s Joo-hyuk. He threatens that the more Soo-yeol tries to help people, the more they’ll get hurt, claiming all he wants is for Soo-yeol to acknowledge that Yoon-ho saved him by killing his father.

Soo-yeol spits back that it’s not true – Yoon-ho only used people to justify murder. That strikes a nerve, and Joo-hyuk says quietly that they should meet. Ack, Jung-hoon is there in his office, looking terrified. Joo-hyuk knows he’s been recording their conversations, and orders him to stop doing so.

Soo-yeol goes to meet Joo-hyuk at his childhood home, where everything began. Just before he enters, K reminds him that what he needs most is trust – not in K, but in himself. Soo-yeol smiles back.

Inside, Joo-hyuk waits, his form obscured in shadows. Again, he states that he saved Soo-yeol back then: if he hadn’t killed Soo-yeol’s father, Soo-yeol might never have escaped the abuse. “Killing your father was the only way to save you,” he insists, then adds, “Just like now.” He tosses a lighter toward the open doorway, setting the house ablaze… with Jung-hoon trapped inside, screaming for help.

Soo-yeol sinks to his knees, immobilized by memories of the trauma he experienced inside that house. Kneeling beside him, K reminds Soo-yeol they’ve faced fire before. Soo-yeol nods, emboldened, and runs inside.

But as soon as he reaches Jung-hoon, Joo-hyuk jabs a syringe in his neck, and K grabs at his own neck in pain. Laughing crazily, Joo-hyuk demands Soo-yeol beg to be spared. Soo-yeol refuses, so Joo-hyuk stabs him in the gut. K sinks to the ground as Soo-yeol falls, and Joo-hyuk sighs in satisfaction. “This was fun, Jae-hee,” he mutters, and leaves. Outside, he pauses for a moment to look back, and an image of young Yoon-ho breaks into a grin.

Soo-yeol begs K to save Jung-hoon, but K collapses. Drawing on all the times he’s failed, and on words of support he’s heard from Mom and K, Soo-yeol finds the strength to stand and carry Jung-hoon out of the house.

He runs out to the street, leaping in front of Joo-hyuk’s car. Joo-hyuk smirks, not entirely disappointed, and gets out to face him. Soo-yeol taunts that Joo-hyuk must be afraid since he can’t control him, then starts throwing punches. But Joo-hyuk is in better physical shape, and lands blow after crushing blow.

Still, Soo-yeol persists. Eventually, he gains the upper hand, flashing a crazed K grin and bashing his own head against Joo-hyuk’s. They both fall to the ground, barely conscious. Sirens approach as Soo-yeol’s surroundings fade.

Soo-yeol wanders the memory hall, calling for K. Finally, K pokes his head out of a door, and Soo-yeol excitedly relates how he beat Joo-hyuk. K smiles fondly, but then says it’s time for him to go – he wants to say goodbye coolly, like a hero. Soo-yeol’s face falls at the word “goodbye,” so K decides to give him a parting gift: his full name.

It’s King. (Of course it is.) And, of course, Soo-yeol cringes and tells him to just go already. After a little more teasing, K claps him on the shoulder and says sincerely that Soo-yeol is a good person. He turns to go, and the door at the end of the hallway rushes forward to meet him. Just before he reaches it, Soo-yeol calls out and thanks him. K says wistfully that he hasn’t heard those words in a while, and waves goodbye.

Only then does Soo-yeol remember that after he’d run away from Yoon-ho, K had followed to check on him. Soo-yeol had thanked him for saving him, but K had said to thank himself instead – because he saved himself.

K walks through the door and disappears. But Soo-yeol can’t stand it and runs after him. He screams K’s name into the darkness, but there’s no answer… because K is sitting just inside the door trying to muffle his own tears. Awww. Soo-yeol pulls him up into a hug. Above them, the lights in the hallway go out one by one.

When Soo-yeol wakes, his three teammates are hovering above his hospital bed. He immediately asks about Jung-hoon, whom they assure him is fine. As for Joo-hyuk, he’s back to being Yoon-ho now, since it’s been revealed that he stole the real Joo-hyuk’s identity (among others). They have all the evidence they need now to clear Soo-yeol’s name. (And don’t worry, Geun-soo will be just fine, too!)

They’re more concerned about Soo-yeol, however, because they saw him crying and laughing while he was unconscious. He chuckles and mutters, “That crazy jerk,” and looks around for K, but he’s really gone this time.

After he recovers, Soo-yeol appears before a panel for reinstatement. The official story, according to Bong-pil, is that the split personality was all an act as part of a sting operation to catch Yoon-ho. Soo-yeol goes along with it, but when Bong-pil laughingly refers to K as a made-up story, his smile fades.

He can’t stop thinking about K’s sincerity and friendship, and how he’d declared himself Soo-yeol’s personal hero. “He was real,” Soo-yeol says firmly. He adds that K may have been crazy, but he was a good person, and he liked having him around. Standing, he thanks the panel for their time, and walks out.

When we catch up to him again, he’s poring over Dong-yeol’s finances, tsking at all the times Dong-yeol has “borrowed” money from his own business. Jung-hoon walks in while Dong-yeol and Mom are bickering, and Soo-yeol jumps up with a huge grin to thank him for testifying. But Jung-hoon isn’t here for thanks: he’s here to apply as a part-time delivery driver. Soo-yeol happily hires him on the spot. Aw, and Dong-yeol immediately offers him his first on-the-job meal.

Later, Soo-yeol sits on a seesaw alone, reminiscing about reluctantly sharing it with K. That’s when Hee-gyeom shows up, and the two take a walk together. She shares that he has a lot of support if he wants to come back – in fact, his story has opened up an outlet for discussion about officers’ mental health, especially their struggles with PTSD.

He can tell there’s something else she wants to ask, so she shyly brings up the night they went back to her place for a band-aid. Soo-yeol nods, all, “Yeah, that was unforgettable. What about it?” Stumbling over her words, she asks who he was that day – himself, or K. Meaning, which of them kissed her?

Realization dawns, but before Soo-yeol can answer, K jumps on his back, shouting that he knew something had gone on between them. Soo-yeol gasps that he should say hello first, since it’s been a while, but K only wants to know the details. Soo-yeol sputters that nothing happened…

But it’s all in his head. Hee-gyeom waves her hand to get his attention, asking if K showed up again, and he says sadly that K doesn’t show up anymore – he was just imagining how K would have reacted if he knew they’d kissed. She smiles shyly.

He asks what she wants to do now, flustering her until he clarifies that he wants to know if she’ll stay with his team or not. Aw, he is coming back! She teases that with K gone, she’ll have to keep an eye on him to keep him from going corrupt again.

Yoon-ho’s lawyer agrees to argue that his crimes were caused by his trauma, but he’s not hopeful that will get Yoon-ho out of anything. A guard takes Yoon-ho away, but in the bathroom, that same guard is attacked and strangled by a prisoner. But it’s not Yoon-ho – it’s Boss Yong. Yoon-ho is there, though, and when they come face-to-face, she strangles him, too, biting his neck like a zombie.

One year later.

Soo-yeol saunters into the same club where Assemblyman Do humiliated him so long ago. Inside, Dae-won and another detective shower him with flattery and offer a cash bribe. Soo-yeol balks, so the detective pulls out another envelope of cash.

Just like in the old days, Soo-yeol grins and admires the money. But then he changes his stance and snaps photos of it. He calls his team in for backup, and they easily fight their way past the corrupt cops’ minions. Desperate, Dae-won warns Soo-yeol that he’s taking on a fight bigger than he can handle – he’s backed by the commissioner, who’s accepted his own share of bribes.

So Soo-yeol goes straight to the commissioner. Just like K did with Assemblyman Do, Soo-yeol charges down the steps and aims a flying kick at the commissioner’s head, spurred on by a montage of K’s most heroic and outrageous moments.

 
COMMENTS

Aside from a few lingering questions (Why was Boss Yong even in this show if she was going to be so underutilized? How did Yoon-ho finagle his way into becoming psychiatrist Joo-hyuk – how did he get all the certifications, qualifications, background, etc., when the original Joo-hyuk’s identity wouldn’t have given him any of that?), I leave this final episode with an overall sense of satisfaction. This show has certainly had its share of crazy, but its characters really tugged at my heartstrings along the way, so it felt good to see most of them get nice little send-offs.

Jung-hoon, for example, was a pleasant surprise. (And while this the first of his projects I’ve watched, I’ll be keeping my eye on Park Min-sang from now on!) I didn’t expect him to become such an important person to Soo-yeol, or to become so invested in his happy ending myself.

But Yoon-ho was absolutely right when he compared Jung-hoon to Soo-yeol’s past self – I’m sure that’s why Yoon-ho chose to target him in the first place – and bringing him in to become part of the family felt like Soo-yeol extending the same warmth and welcome he received from his mother and Dong-yeol. Perpetuating a new cycle of kindness instead of abuse.

I also find it fitting that both the first and last episodes of this drama involved saving someone from a fire – first Kyung-tae, and then Jung-hoon. But, at the beginning, Soo-yeol had to be pushed and prodded by K into doing the saving. Whereas in the end, he had to make the choice and find the strength all on his own.

That message of learning to trust oneself and find the courage internally to do what needs to be done – to become one’s own hero – was probably the biggest takeaway of the show for me. I can’t speak to the accuracy of how it handled the real-life experience of having multiple personalities, but I did appreciate it as an analogy of sorts for a person’s relationship with their own self. Soo-yeol went from quite literally beating himself up over violating his conscience to looking at himself with pure affection and appreciation. That’s a powerful transformation.

Which is why it was so important for Soo-yeol not to brush K’s existence aside as a cover story. K may have “left,” but he’ll always be a part of Soo-yeol – both of his past and also the person he has grown to be in the present. Dismissing him as a lie would have been disrespectful to all the growth and suffering Soo-yeol has gone through. And, like the final scene with the commissioner, it showed that Soo-yeol is no longer going to take the easy way out or bow to intimidation. Instead, he’s going to listen to his conscience, even if it causes him to take stands that others call him crazy for.

All in all, I enjoyed Bad and Crazy a lot more than I initially thought I would. The characters really grew on me (though let’s be real, I probably would have watched the whole thing just for Kyung-tae…), and while it took more than a few confusing turns, for the most part it was a fun and exciting ride.

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