Evilive: Episodes 3-4

by quirkycase

It’s not so easy convincing a murderous gangster to let you roam freely once you know all his business. Our lawyer quickly finds the only way to keep himself and his family alive is to make himself useful; however, that means diving further into the criminal underworld than he’d like. Meanwhile, said murderous gangster isn’t happy with his homecoming and starts whipping his gang into shape.

 
EPISODES 3-4

While I was hoping this week would dig into Dong-soo’s descent into eeevil, he only takes baby steps to the dark side. He spends most of the time trying to find a way out of his predicament without getting killed. I guess you don’t just go from conscientious lawyer to gangster’s right-hand man overnight. Although, Do-young’s carrot-and-stick approach is proving pretty effective at getting Dong-soo to cross those ethical lines.

Rewinding slightly, we see that Do-young didn’t get stabbed in prison; he managed to catch the blade with his hand before it went into his gut. Hence his ability to go on a shooting rampage after taking a breather. Now, after killing Je-yi, it’s time to take care of her co-conspirator who helpfully shows up to celebrate Do-young’s supposed death. Do-young pulls Dong-soo and Beom-jae out from under the bed and has them watch while he casually shoots the traitor dead.

Dong-soo knows what comes next and quickly proves his worth by convincing Do-young to let them live – they aren’t a danger if Do-young makes them his accomplices. Next thing you know, Dong-soo and Beom-jae are disposing of bodies and cleaning up bloodstains while Do-young goes out and creates an alibi at Dong-soo’s direction.

Beom-jae could barely keep it together while they were at Je-yi’s house, but later it’s Dong-soo who has the crisis of conscience. He goes so far as to make a trip to the police station with video evidence, but right when he’s about to go in, Do-young calls to say he’s with Min-hee. With his family’s safety on the line, Dong-soo instead gives the evidence to Do-young who has declared himself Dong-soo’s newest “friend.” Dong-soo isn’t keen on friendship with a side of terror, but you don’t tell someone like Do-young you don’t want to be his friend.

While Do-young has fun cleaning house (i.e., getting rid of the traitors) and being generally menacing, Dong-soo and Beom-jae come up with a plan. A bad plan. Dong-soo will agree to work with Do-young on the condition he’s allowed access to his full business operations. He and Beom-jae can then find and anonymously report Do-young’s illegal gambling den.

The first part goes well. Do-young agrees to let Dong-soo in on his full operation – Dong-soo argues it’s necessary to know what’s going on behind the scenes if he’s going to keep Do-young out of trouble – and sets him up for a trip to the remote island where his gambling den is. Beom-jae follows Dong-soo via a tracker, and after he confirms the location, calls in an anonymous tip. Dong-soo acts way too shifty on the island, but he does manage to get out while the raid is going on.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the plan doesn’t go as expected. Even after the raid, there’s no news of the gambling den or any arrests. Then, Dong-soo gets the dreaded call from his new pal Do-young. Dong-soo and Beom-jae are brought to the punishment warehouse. Because Do-young isn’t stupid, he assumes they had something to do with the report. The price for that, apparently, is slicing off fingers. Beom-jae’s, specifically. Before he can bring the blade all the way down, Dong-soo grabs it with his bare hands.

In a bout of desperate bravery, Dong-soo berates Do-young for his gangster ways. He’s no businessman if the best he can do is chop people’s fingers off after he loses money. He needs to run a real business like online gambling – it’s more lucrative and less susceptible to raids. While Do-young mulls that over, his minions bring in the man who reported the gambling den. It turns out the brothers weren’t the only ones who leaked the location that day.

However, Do-young suspects his boss of masterminding the report, especially when the boss uses the snafu to scold Do-young for being off his game and takes him off the gambling enterprise. This gives Do-young more reason to consider Dong-soo’s online gambling idea. He digs deeper into Dong-soo’s background and reckons he can stoke Dong-soo’s sense of injustice at his probation and dangle revenge against Chairman Moon (the rich boss who fired him and got his license suspended) to get him to agree to setup the operation.

Meanwhile, Dong-soo takes another step toward the dark side after he learns that Hye-young’s boss didn’t resign and is now taking legal action against Hye-young for defamation. Dong-soo physically attacks him this time and gets himself arrested. In another blow to Dong-soo’s pride, the boss’s lawyer is Attorney Moon from Chairman Moon’s office (his son, perhaps?).

It’s up for debate whether Do-young set that up, but he does take advantage of the situation. As Dong-soo preps for the trial, Do-young pays him an unwelcome house call. He shares that he’s magnanimously helped Dong-soo with his trial by causing Attorney Moon to get into an accident which will prevent him from appearing in court. (What are gangster friends for?)

He offers Dong-soo a hefty sum to spearhead the online gambling business, but Dong-soo is reluctant. Do-young nudges him by asking, “Aren’t you tired of losing every day?” Doesn’t he wish he didn’t have to hold back? He argues that losing becomes a habit, but he can help Dong-soo be rid of that sense of inferiority and humiliation. He gives Dong-soo a choice: release Attorney Moon now and lose fairly or wait to release him until after the trial and win underhandedly.

It’s the day of the trial, and Dong-soo makes his decision. He orders Do-young’s man to keep Attorney Moon hostage. He then takes it a step further and asks that he not only be kept from the trial, but that they derail Attorney Moon’s plans to run for office. Thanks to Dong-soo’s decision, Attorney Moon wakes in an unfamiliar hotel room to police banging on the door. They barge in and find a battered woman in the bathroom.

With that, Dong-soo gets his first taste of power and what it’s like to win. They easily win the trial, and Dong-soo walks out with a big smile on his face. We end as Do-young arrives outside the courthouse to pick Dong-soo up, and for the first time, Dong-soo doesn’t look afraid.

Now we’re getting somewhere. I found myself getting bored with the whole finding-the-gambling-house bit and escape planning that was clearly not going to work. Hopefully, Dong-soo’s active decision to play dirty means we’re heading into more interesting territory with the brewing partnership between Do-young and Dong-soo. I’m here the mind games, villainy, twisted partnerships, and other shady shenanigans – we’ve only got ten episodes, so there’s no time to dawdle.

 
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