Flex x Cop: Episodes 13-14
by DaebakGrits
When a man drops dead outside our chaebol’s family home, our detectives are more motivated than ever to find the killer, but in the back of everyone’s mind is the fear that maybe someone from our chaebol’s family is involved.
EPISODES 13-14
After closing the murderous cult case and restoring Hyung-joon’s reputation, life at the police station returns to normal — aside from the fact that Hyung-joon is now a senior superintendent and Team One’s boss. And the fact that Yi-soo and Jun-young are now using banmal and trying to not make a big deal about it. And the fact that Kang-hyun’s eyes linger after Yi-soo when he leaves a room because she’s totally thinking about their near-death experience and how he gave her mouth-to-mouth. Okay, so a lot has changed in the last few days, but nothing that’s going to threaten Team One’s camaraderie or prevent them from being a kick-ass detective squad. (Right? Right?!)
About that… Team One is assigned their next murder case, and the victim’s body was found on the grounds of Chairman Jin’s house. No one was more surprised than Yi-soo when Kang-hyun parked her dirt-mobile outside his father’s house. Some of his initial fear is alleviated when Kang-hyun assures him that their latest victim is an outsider — not one of his family members — but there’s still the very real possibility that someone in his family could be involved. That thought weighs heavily — but unspoken — on everyone’s minds.
Yi-soo’s noticeably reserved when he enters his family home and struggles to retain his objectivity. Of course, he can always count on his stepmother to put him in his place. Hee-ja, who’s nursing her shock with a large glass of wine, immediately goes on the verbal attack when she sees Yi-soo, and for once — and in case there was any doubt that Yi-soo was off his game — he doesn’t have a witty comeback locked and loaded. Instead, Kang-hyun deftly intervenes and reminds Yi-soo’s evil step-mother that they’re investigating a murder and need to ask her some questions.
Hee-ja, like the rest of Yi-soo’s family, claims she doesn’t know the dead guy, but it’s kind of hard to believe that there isn’t a hidden personal connection. After all, the victim drove himself to their house, climbed over a wall, and died on their front lawn from a wound that, according to Ji-won, would not have been fatal if he’d driven himself to a hospital instead. Jun-young, who knows a little bit about knife wounds, muses aloud that Wall Climber must have had a strong reason for ignoring the pain and driving himself to Chairman Jin’s house.
Ji-won gives Jun-young a look — part curiosity, part smoldering intensity — and Jun-young explains he was stabbed once. Then she — omo! — asks to see his scar! Given Jun-young’s momentary shyness, I thought for sure we were about to glimpse some chocolate abs and amp up the sexual tension in the admittedly awkward setting of the autopsy room, but Jun-young lifts his shirt sleeve and flashes his upper bicep instead. A bit anticlimactic after all the verbal foreplay, but the unintended comedy of the scene tickled my funny bone. These two are killin’ me!
As the case progresses, Team One discovers Wall Climber was a gambler who owed some gangsters a lot of money, and they ponder the possibility that he was stabbed in order to motivate him to pay his debts. But then Wall Climber’s phone records come in, and the last number he dialed belonged to Seung-joo. (Nooooooooooooo! Say it isn’t so, Seung-joo!)
Yi-soo volunteers to question his brother, and this time Seung-joo recognizes Wall Climber as someone he’d met and exchanged business cards with at the publication party for Chairman Jin’s autobiography. Seung-joo swears that’s the first — and last — time he met Wall Climber. Yi-soo wants to believe his brother — so do I! — but doubt lingers in the back of Yi-soo’s mind. Before leaving Hansu headquarters, Yi-soo stops by the building’s security office and requests a copy of the CCTV footage on the day of the publication party. It’s true Wall Climber was at the party, but there’s also footage of Seung-joo getting aggressive with him.
As Yi-soo’s faith in Seung-joo wavers, Kang-hyun’s trust in Yi-soo continues to grow — even as her father hands her the report she once wrote requesting Yi-soo’s dismissal. I knew that file was going to come back to haunt her, but thankfully Hyung-joon isn’t adamant that Yi-soo be kicked off the police force. Instead, the document serves as a reminder of Kang-hyun’s former doubts as Hyung-joo warns Kang-hyun that Yi-soo is a ticking time bomb. He’s too close to this case and should be removed from this particular investigation, but Kang-hyun insists that she trusts Yi-soo. And, to really drive home the matter, her parting words to her father are a reminder that she would have died had Yi-soo not saved her.
While I hate that there’s a rift forming between Yi-soo and Seung-joo, I do love seeing Yi-soo’s found family stepping up to be there for him. And he needs them now more than ever because Chairman Jin’s political rival decided to add fuel to the already flaming media fire and expose Yi-soo as Chairman Jin’s illegitimate son. This is the thanks Yi-soo gets after burying the video of Jong-tae’s cross dressing? Rude!
After Mi-sook rescues Yi-soo from a horde of reporters camped out in front of his house, Kang-hyun whisks him away to what is quickly becoming their secret spot overlooking the city. There, she reminds him of all the good he has done since becoming a detective. He is so much more than the illegitimate son narrative that the press has latched onto.
Although Kang-hyun’s pep talk seems to lift some of the weight from Yi-soo’s shoulders, Yi-soo’s feelings of inadequacy are too deeply rooted to be fixed during the span of one conversation. From the moment he stepped foot in Chairman Jin’s house as a boy, he was treated as less than by his father and step-mother. Chairman Jin may have secretly cared about Yi-soo, the product of his true-love relationship with Yi-soo’s mother, but he did not step up to be a father.
It’s almost laughable, then, that Chairman Jin asks Yi-soo to meet him at a bar, where he laments the fact that his poor parenting caused him to miss all of Yi-soo’s firsts and be a part of all the milestones of Yi-soo becoming a man — like teaching him to drink liquor. His present attempts to make up for his past neglect are too little too late for Yi-soo, though, especially in light of the media storm. And before he leaves, Yi-soo kicks back the whiskey his father ordered for him — a subtle way of saying Chairman Jin missed out on this first, too. (How much y’all wanna bet Seung-joo taught him to drink?)
Yi-soo gives himself the night to wallow in his feels, but the next day, he bounces back and joins the rest of Team One on a stakeout. Kyung-jin spent the previous night combing through CCTV footage and identified the two thugs who likely stabbed Wall Climber, so Team One camps outside Thug #1’s place and then follows him to a warehouse. Instead of leading them to Thug #2, though, Thug #1 is having a secret rendezvous with a man in black. After giving chase, Yi-soo makes the startling — and painful — discovery that the man in black is Seung-joo.
At the police station, Seung-joo lawyers-up and gives his witness statement — emphasis on the witness part. He explains that Wall Climber had been blackmailing his mother, who’d had an affair a while back. Hee-ja’s golfing buddy offered to hire the two thugs — just to rough up Wall Climber up a bit and scare him away — but the plan backfired when the thugs realized they’d make more money if they took over Wall Climber’s blackmailing scheme. They stabbed Wall Climber, stole the evidence he had of Hee-ja’s affair, and — for added measure — kidnapped Hee-ja’s friend and locked her in the trunk of their car.
Seung-joo insists he only became involved after Wall Climber’s death, and he met Thug #1 at the warehouse to rescue Hee-ja’s friend. His story checks out, and when Thug #1 finally confesses and tells the detectives where they can find the murder weapon, the case is closed. Hoorah! (Right? Right?!)
About that… even though they have a murder weapon, a confession, and a strong desire to shut the book on the case and go back to solving murders that aren’t personally connected to any members of Team One, something doesn’t feel right to our detectives. What if someone in Yi-soo’s family initially gave the thugs an order to kill Wall Climber? That uncertainty gnaws at Kang-hyun and Jun-young, and even though he doesn’t say it to them, Yi-soo has his own doubts because he knows Seung-joo would do anything for his family. And here comes the biggest shocker yet: Wall Climber is — wait for it — Seung-joo’s biological father!
Seung-joo was also in the dark about his paternity until recently — when he met with Thug #1 and saw the DNA test Wall Climber used to blackmail Hee-ja. Of course, whether they’re blood related or not won’t matter to Yi-soo, but this knowledge does put him in an awkward position — because now Hee-ja and Seung-joo have even more motive to want Wall Climber dead. Instead of telling the rest of Team One what he’s discovered, Yi-soo hands in his resignation letter and puts his family before his passion.
Kang-hyun protests, clearly disappointed. His resignation is an unspoken admission that he knows more about the case than he’s letting on, and his silence breaks the very trust that she’d so eloquently given him just moments before. Yes, Yi-soo is someone who always does the right thing. Yes, he felt like he’d finally found the place where he’d belonged — but Yi-soo loves his brother more. Oof! My feels! I just hate that Yi-soo is protecting the (totally guilty) Hee-ja by extension.
Just when you thought the drama gods couldn’t hurl any more family drama Yi-soo’s way, our story catches up to that very ominous Episode 1 opening scene between Yi-soo and Chairman Jin. The meeting between father and son was prompted by a startling realization: Yi-soo’s mom did not die from an overdose of sleeping pills. She couldn’t have because Yi-soo, who has regained some more of his lost memories, remembers stealing the bottle and hiding the pills from his mother. He also remembers someone knocking on their door the night she died.
Armed with these new memories, Yi-soo confronts his father, wanting know what other memories his father hid from him, but Chairman Jin, who’d just withdrawn from the mayoral race, seems genuinely surprised. The rest of their conversation will likely be revealed next week, but, sadly, it doesn’t look like there will be any sort of reconciliation. The tell-tale way Chairman Jin’s body goes limp in his chair as the camera cuts to Yi-soo walking away from the house suggests Chairman Jin is our story’s final murder-of-the-week. He had so much potential for a spectacular reconciliation and redemption arc, but now it looks like any insights to his character and his affair with Yi-soo’s mother are going to be revealed posthumously. Call me disappointed.
Last week, I’d all but given up on the idea that there was some conspiracy behind Yi-soo’s mom’s death, so now I feel a bit resentful that our final four episodes are playing into the usual tropes instead of giving us fluffy cop antics and family reconciliations. I was lulled into a false sense of security, and now we’re headed towards an iceberg made up entirely of Yi-soo’s angst. Sure, one of Yi-soo’s defining characteristics is his ability to put on a smile and compartmentalize his feelings, but — c’mon — how much is this story going to throw at him in our final moments? First Yi-soo battles a moral dilemma over his brother and step-mother’s ties to a murder, then the reveal his mother was murdered, and then — bam! — Chairman Jin dies, too.
Objectively, though, this week’s episodes were still pretty solid, and the reveal about Seung-joo’s biological father served a purpose. As soon as the story identified Hee-ja as a hypocritical adulteress, I knew there was a possibility that Seung-joo wouldn’t be Chairman Jin’s biological son. However, I appreciate how the writers used the plot twist to test the brothers’ relationship in a way that made me feel genuinely torn and emotionally invested in the outcome of Yi-soo’s decision. From the very beginning, I’ve loved Yi-soo and Seung-joo’s bond, and while I hate to see Yi-soo hand in his resignation letter, I know I’m rooting more for the brothers to hold onto each other despite all the shit the drama gods are throwing at them. At this point, I’m just going to set aside my personal disappointment that our story didn’t go in the direction I wanted and hope that we somehow get a happy ending for our favorite brothers. (And at least one of my ships better set sail, dammit!)
RELATED POSTS
- Premiere Watch: Flex x Cop
- Ahn Bo-hyun joins Park Ji-hyun as Flex x Cop
- Ahn Bo-hyun flaunts his goods in SBS’s Flex x Cop
- Ahn Bo-hyun is a Flex x Cop in new promos
- News bites: December 21, 2023
- Introducing the new partners in Chaebol x Detective
- News bites: November 16, 2023
- News bites: February 11, 2023
- News bites: January 4, 2023
Tags: Ahn Bo-hyun, Flex x Cop, Kwak Shi-yang, Park Ji-hyun
![[K-drama Treasure Hunt] Heart-fluttery bottle opening](https://d263ao8qih4miy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Kdrama-treasure-hunt.png)
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1 Lord Cobol (Kdramas, like water, flow downhill)
March 17, 2024 at 11:39 PM
I thought Seung-joo & Wall-Climber looked a bit similar. Casting dept planned ahead.
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This kind of reconciliation scene is always bad for your life expectancy.
In other countries poor parenting might mean not playing catch with your son, or not teaching him how to ride a bicycle. Just sayin'.
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hacja
March 18, 2024 at 7:56 AM
like teaching him to drink liquor.
How else are the kids going to learn to ride piggyback?
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vienibenmio
March 18, 2024 at 8:16 AM
Yes, my husband also thought that they were related based on appearance alone
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2 indyfan
March 18, 2024 at 12:00 AM
I'm not as disappointed in the fracturing of the brotherly bond because, I, ahem, have been annoying everyone by repeating of its likelihood in the recaps. As for the mother's mystery, if the chairman was surprised, I suspect some fishiness from his wife, right? Or has the butler been up to no good?
But like the development or not, I felt so much in these episodes for these two brothers. Poor Yi-soo! Poor Seung-joo! Oof. This is how you make us care for characters and their betrayal, another-show-that-airs-on-Wednesday. So well done.
A lot remains to be wrapped up. How will they do it *and* leave us with enough scenes of the happy team and glorious couples? You weren't alone DaebakGrits in expecting some chocolate abs and amping up the sexual tension in the the autopsy room. A bicep? We was robbed! 😂 I'm pretty hopeful we'll get some payoff for these two in the final episodes. As for Yi-soo and Kang-hyun, I think it might be at best the a subtle beginning of a romance. I'd be fine with that.
It's been a great ride show, don't mess up the landing.
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Aigoo-ka-choo
March 18, 2024 at 12:19 AM
TBH it's looking like it's going to fully embrace the 'evil step-mother' trope and wring every last drop out of it! 😒
Whilst her character hasn't been on screen enough to ruin my fun, there is no doubt that she has been given the weakest character development of the entire cast.
The Team 2 leader and even this week's murderer got a redemption arc, but she has been written as one note all the way through. I have no idea what motivates her, she apparently has no other facets to her character than 'mean' and 'alcoholic' and I guess 'clingy' with her own son...
In a show with wonderful main characters and interesting bit parts/cameos she is a low point for me...
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indyfan
March 18, 2024 at 12:39 AM
You are right about that. In of herself, I feel nothing. I can only relate to her thru the suffering she puts the brothers thru, esp. Seung-joo. If she is indeed the main villain, then we deserved a richer character.
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vienibenmio
March 18, 2024 at 8:19 AM
My husband suspects the butler
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indyfan
March 18, 2024 at 8:59 AM
The butler is always a safe bet. But oh boy, he’s been a father figure to Yi-soo.
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Seon-ha
March 18, 2024 at 9:10 AM
Oh, I'd be real mad if "the butler did it."
I think he knows a lot more than he's letting on, though.
You know how @daebakgrits is disappointed in the mother-murder/father-apparently-dead plot line? I'd be with you right there DG if they made the butler one of the real villains...I'd be very, very disappointed.
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indyfan
March 18, 2024 at 6:26 PM
I know. I know. I’m hoping not even tho something’s up. But it makes for more narrative sense and interest than the wicked and incompetent stepmother as DaebakGrits pointed out. And perhaps allows a way for the brotherly bond to stay strong? Still, it will be sad. How laughable was Yi-soo. And look how much we care for him now. Well done show.
DaebakGrits
March 18, 2024 at 9:01 AM
I honestly suspect the butler, too. Step-mom has a lot of motive, but she's just demonstrated that she's sloppy and unskilled when it comes to murdering (or hiring a murder). Whoever killed Yi-soo's mom knew what he/she was doing, and it feels too late in the game to be introducing a new character.
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Aigoo-ka-choo
March 19, 2024 at 1:08 AM
Firstly, just wanted to say a big thank you for your fantastic recapping @daebakgrits! You have been killing it (much like the show itself!)👏👏🙏
I agree that the butler could well be involved, since Step-mom seems like the 'don't get your own hands dirty' type, but there are definitely still questions - about the dad's will, the succession planning etc. that could shift things in different directions and it's great that we still don't have all the answers...
Next week's finale eps can't drop fast enough...
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DaebakGrits
March 20, 2024 at 6:26 AM
I'm glad you're enjoying the recaps! This drama has been a fun one to cover! Eagerly counting down to the weekend with you!
ar_arguably romantic
March 19, 2024 at 6:15 PM
I was also expecting some abs, but they really trolled us. Well-played, writer. Well-played.
I'm also with you on thinking it'd be best to hint at the start of a romance. I'm really happy with their bond and feel confident that they would end up together whether it be in the next week or years from now.
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3 Aigoo-ka-choo
March 18, 2024 at 12:08 AM
I’m still enjoying this show a lot: both the shallowness - see my wall post about the ML make-up and hair!)
https://www.dramabeans.com/members/Aig00iness/activity/1551634/
(come for the lols, stay for the Wiki rabbit-hole 😊)
and the depths (character Wounds that are actually relevant to the drama (!), which makes a pleasant change)👏
BUT there was one thing that reaaaalllly bugged me in these 2 eps. I hate it when writers don’t find a clever way around a story problem/contrivance but just hope the audience doesn’t notice. Newsflash- we notice! 😁
When our surly, but sweet, 2ML detective Jun-young finds the packet of photos in the dead man’s car, that was obviously going to be a very important clue. And given, at that stage, they hadn’t identified the man who died, the sort of clue that he would have handed to his boss, our FL detective, and shown to Yi-soo, given the connection to his family.
But no, the photos just ‘disappeared’ in story terms and weren’t mentioned – except in my head, where I was chanting – ‘what happened to the photos?’ every other scene!! 🤦♂️
Then they conveniently reappeared at the end to confirm what some of us had guessed from the very beginning (well, from the mother’s reaction to the discovery of the dead man).
I don’t mind guessing the ending/reveal/secret, etc. that happens a lot and it doesn’t bother me, but when they try and cheat with the plot points, that is not OK! Sigh. Rant over. Here's some cake to make up for it 🎂
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4 Kurama
March 18, 2024 at 12:26 AM
On the one hand, I liked that Yi-Soo could grieve his mother's death and move on, on the other side, I'm happy for him she chose him over sleeping pills and didn't take her own life when he was at home with her.
I'm sad that Seung-Joo chose to protect his mother who spent her life to lie to her husband and himself and abuse his "half-brother". He could break the only sincere relationship he has.
I don't know how the serie will end but the fact the SBS already announced a second season is a good thing for the romance :p
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indyfan
March 18, 2024 at 12:34 AM
There's a Season 2! Yay! I can wait for the romance then. In fact, then I'm sure we'll have to all wait for it. XD
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Kurama
March 18, 2024 at 12:48 AM
Yeah, now it would have been a little rushed or it would have been an open end for the couple.
But with a second season, they can focus on Yi-Soo's family drama in the first season and let the romance for the second one, it will feel more "earned".
Now, they have to wait for the actors to be free to produce it.
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Lord Cobol (Kdramas, like water, flow downhill)
March 18, 2024 at 9:20 AM
Ya mean when they Signal they are ready?
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Annie
March 18, 2024 at 2:28 PM
I need to count the approximate number of years that I have left to live on this planet... will they be enough to get to watch Signal season 2?
Aigoo-ka-choo
March 18, 2024 at 12:40 AM
say what now?? Season 2!! 👀OMG I hadn't even considered that.
My thoughts are: Firstly- great news!😍 Now I understand why both the FL/ML and 2nd FL/ML's romances have been so slow burn they are barely alight!
On the other hand, they seem to have crammed all the backstory trauma and wounds into this first season, so what will they have left to play with in season 2??
I guess it's going to be a story of how they actually met randomly as children when she saved him from a child molester/ToD and they realise they are fated to be together....
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Kurama
March 18, 2024 at 12:49 AM
soompi confirmed it :
https://www.soompi.com/article/1649385wpp/flex-x-cop-confirms-production-of-season-2-ahn-bo-hyun-and-park-ji-hyun-in-talks-to-return
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Mrs Buckwheat
March 18, 2024 at 1:23 AM
O to the M to the G.
Woo hoooooooo!!!
The wait will be too long.
So happy for the Flex x Cop team, this is excellent news.
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Kurama
March 18, 2024 at 1:28 AM
I'm usually not for a second season but for this one, it's totally a good news!
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Elinor is trapped in the timeslip
March 18, 2024 at 10:51 AM
I agree, but ONLY if they can get the leads and the police team back - and if Yi-soo gets his ridiculous chaebol style and stunts back. That was half the fun of the early episodes and I miss it.
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vienibenmio
March 18, 2024 at 8:17 AM
Oh wow, season 2! I hope it's just more fun and procedural, with focus on the romance and "case of the day" rather than family drama
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Kurama
March 18, 2024 at 8:43 AM
It will be interesting to see how he will get back in the police because he gave his resignation.
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abalyn
March 18, 2024 at 4:33 PM
I imagine that means we may get a brother redemption/reconnection arc next season too. I could see them wrapping up with brother in prison from covering up the killing. I doubt they will make him the killer, but I see a love/hate prison visit at the end of 16 coming up.
I’m also nervous now we’ll get a cliffhanger and nothing will be resolved.
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ar_arguably romantic
March 19, 2024 at 6:22 PM
That is great news! I feel like a lot of kdramas don't lend well to a second season so matter how beloved the characters, but I think Flex x Cop could work.
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5 Elinor is trapped in the timeslip
March 18, 2024 at 12:27 AM
I finally caught up! And I have a question: why does Yi-soo have so many more medal ribbons on his dress uniform than his senior colleagues? He’s got about 12 (4 rows) of them, same as Kang-hyun’s dad. KH and her team have two rows. I wouldn’t put it past him to award himself a bunch of Boy Scout badges (helicoptering! scuba!), but other cops would catch on at a glance.
Overall I love this show and am having fun, but I'm disappointed that it's making Yi-soo such a punching bag for evil fate - traumatic loss of his mother, family coldness and outsider status, undermining of his bond with his hyung, and now - if the Floppy Hand of Deadness is real - the loss of his father. It's a bit much.
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indyfan
March 18, 2024 at 12:36 AM
It's a lot. While hopefully the brothers will reconcile, I'm thinking of it as a clean break for Yi-soo from his awful chaebol roots so he can be with his newfound family in, apparently, S2.
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Seon-ha
March 18, 2024 at 4:31 AM
I had been assuming they gave Yi-soo all of those badges to pander to his
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6 Mrs Buckwheat
March 18, 2024 at 3:16 AM
Thank you for the wonderful recap DaebakGrits. I'm with you, really hoping they don't throw his brother Seung-joo under the bus with the baddies,"(Nooooooooooooo! Say it isn’t so, Seung-joo!)" He alone has been his one steadfast support through his life. It's just too brutal to consider.
I agree with everyone, that was a lot of trauma for poor Yisoo and a bit overdone with his father at the very end. The writers didn't need to hit us over the head with it for it to have an impact.
Poor ABH, every character has so much emotional baggage and trauma lately but he certainly has the talent to bring all the feels.
I have loved watching his character develop over the episodes, they have written Yisoo with a lot of heart and put a lot of thought into how he has changed. His wardrobe now is much more sedate and dark compared to the flashy style of earlier episodes.
This is one of the few shows where I really enjoy watching the whole ensemble cast and I really hope that all the actors can come back in the second season. The acting has been stellar from everyone.
I also want to give a hurrah to Jun Young who called out Kang hyun in the scene at the restaurant when she was drinking alcohol on an empty stomach and he told her it wasn't healthy. Finally there has been someone sensible in a show regarding drinking alcohol. Seriously, who would've thought that would've come from FLex x Cop instead of say Dr Slump, a show about numerous health professionals.
I want more bromance between Yisoo and Jun young and romance with Ji won and Jun young. Although the two J's haven't had a lot of screen time together their chemistry is fabulous and who would've thought there could be so much sexual tension and anticipation in an autopsy room of all places. Maybe the writers of Impossible Heir should watch to see how this has been accomplished so well here.
I'm looking forward to seeing how they wrap this up next week. Hwaiting show.
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7 Kafiyah Bello
March 18, 2024 at 4:09 AM
I was so upset the writer decided this was the route to take. I just, SIGH. The first 12 episodes were so great and then the writer decided the last 4 would suck. Why? Why? Why? SIGH, but I did hear there would be a season 2, so maybe they will course correct then, because the writer has made this season a wash for me.
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vienibenmio
March 18, 2024 at 8:19 AM
I would have liked the drama to have stayed the way it was in the first half. Things would have been just as interesting with the "case of the week" and developing both romances
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Kafiyah Bello
March 18, 2024 at 8:22 AM
Agreed.
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8 Seon-ha
March 18, 2024 at 4:41 AM
We knew Flex x Cop was gonna have to take a darker bent focused on Yi-soo's family. @indyfan has been frequently reminding us of the first (foreboding) scene of the drama--which I do recommend everyone go back and watch. It's not quite matching up with what we have so far seen, so there's more to come? Or it was the first scene a red herring in terms of what we hear? At any rate, I think that we have two, whole more episodes to unravel Yi-soo's family trauma is a good sign. That's plenty of time to do it right.
As for the chocolate abs moment...I gotta say, I did wonder what body part of Jun-young was going to be revealed, and might have been a wee bit disappointed like so many others, but when Ji-won touched his shoulder scar oh-so-gently and (something like) "It's so nice to see wounds that have healed," I swooned. At this point, I look forward to season 2 for these two, mainly. Sorry OTP.
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DaebakGrits
March 18, 2024 at 6:36 AM
I was hoping the initial opening scene was a red herring. So many other skeletons could have been in their family closet besides a murdered mom trope. Oh, well. Even though this drama didn't give us something new in that regard, the execution of it is still great so I'm not going to complain too much. :-)
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Seon-ha
March 18, 2024 at 6:57 AM
Yeah, I know. I guess I'm just not as bothered by this ending--I hadn't really gotten my hopes up for anything else.
What I have gotten my hopes up about is Seung-joo "making it to Season Two." It's OK if the father needs to exit stage left...but I want Hyung to be a complicated character who remains with us. I still think he really loves his brother, and isn't going to be a "villain," per se. Also we've not had any time to see him come to terms with the fact that he's not only not the son of the "man of the house" but that his mother is a real creep (who did indeed deserve more attention to her characterization).
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Kafiyah Bello
March 18, 2024 at 8:26 AM
But but but, it didn't have to.....
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Seon-ha
March 18, 2024 at 9:12 AM
As a one-season drama, I think it did. Now that there are (probably--it's not happened yet, folks!!!) two seasons, it may not have had to do this so quickly.
However (하지만!!), I do think that eventually they would have had to make Yi-joo's family past a dark one for the genre--in this case, the murder-mystery chaebol drama genre.
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vienibenmio
March 18, 2024 at 8:52 AM
I love both couples. The main one is the SLOWEST burn but I'm really loving the emotional build-up. The secondary couple I love so much that whenever we get a dead body I'm like "YES we're going to see the pathologist, and probably with Jun-young!" Which, like, is probably not the reaction I SHOULD be having, but hey...
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♡Peach_Mochi♡
March 18, 2024 at 9:27 AM
Haha, same with the dead bodies! Although I hadn’t realized it until you pointed it out.
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Seon-ha
March 18, 2024 at 9:34 AM
This may be a tidge off-subject on this recap, but clearly there's a lot of Jun-young love here...so...
I just can't un-see the utterly delightful "teen" dance moves made by Kang Sang-joon (우리 Jun-young) over on Dr. Slump.
https://i.ibb.co/XCBhXRm/calculus-Rocks.gif
Look at HIM. Of the three things KSJ was in simultaneously (Marry My Husband, Dr. Slump and FxC) I love him most here in Flex, but I sure did enjoy seeing him in all of them!! I hope his career continues to soar.
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9 vienibenmio
March 18, 2024 at 8:23 AM
I wanted to see abs, too! Those two have SO MUCH chemistry and I feel like the show is wasting it lately. Ditto with the main couple. I thought I'd have more development by now. I'm happy we might get a season two, but this also means I probably shouldn't expect much by the finale. I had already resigned myself to this being like Behind Your Touch in terms of romance closure, but maybe I'll get even less now. Especially since Yi-soo resigned.
I'm so sad that the stepbrother bond has been fractured. I wish the stepmother was a better character. She's a cardboard cutout right now. Shout out to my husband for predicting that the blackmailer was the brother's bio father really early on. Also, it's funny they called it a "sleeping pill" when it's actually a benzodiazepine - specifically, it was alprazolam. It was not great for her to go off of it cold turkey, by the way, usually we taper people off of them.
Not at all deep or insightful comment, but one I have to say regardless: Yi-soo has Johnny Bravo hair, lol.
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DaebakGrits
March 18, 2024 at 8:46 AM
I can't unsee it!
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10 hacja
March 18, 2024 at 8:50 AM
I'm with @daebakgrits in my disappointment on the show wallowing in Mom-traum after it looked like it was just going to spend a couple of mid-episodes on it. We already know from kdramas that Korean men are the humans most psychologically battered by mother difficulties on earth. That's why they have male only "collapse n' cry" rooms every other block in Seoul. But can't shows just deal with this fact in the opening episodes?
Maybe the first episode could have had Jisoo's step mom say--
"Jisoo, I murdered your Mom. No point in getting stressed about it. Just throw me in jail and get on with building camaraderie with your police team" Then the show could have moved on to other, more interesting cases, and we still would have been able to enjoy the more light hearted interplay between the lead characters.
Also, I have to say, rather than being happy that there is a second season in the works, my heart sank on hearing the news, for two reasons: even in the traditional U.S. t.v. model, where multiple seasons are the norm, the second, third, fourth years are only rarely as good as the first. I'm sure we could all come up with a few examples, but they would be the exceptions that we remembered because they were rare. Its just hard to keep developing interesting cases of the type suited to Jisoo's insight, which is part of the fun of this season, and then I think the show's concept isn't so fascinating that you need a full years worth of episodes.
Also, a second season guarantees that we are not going to get any resolution of either romance this season, and probably never, because maintaining unresolved sexual tension between male/female coworkers is the classic way to maintain interest in police procedural shows. Plus, a second season means a new male trauma involving mothers--probably Jun Young's Mom abandoned him, but it will turn out she did it because she had to save his life, but before he discovers that, there will be more scenes of mournful brooding by a male character.
Excuse me while I go collapse to the ground as I contemplate the sad scenario that will develop around this show, with nightmare flashbacks to the time my Mom made me watch The Brady Bunch while she and my Dad went out to dinner.
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Seon-ha
March 18, 2024 at 9:17 AM
Meanwhile, the women have to do this at home alone in their kitchens/bedrooms/bathrooms.
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11 Jingbee
March 18, 2024 at 2:41 PM
While I did hope that Seung-joo and Yi -soo's relationship remain steadfast and unmarred, but I cant say this is unexpected mainly because they wont cast Kwak Shi-yang here for a bland character. Definitely needed an actor who can portray the emotional turmoil that Seung-joo has with the painful choices he had to make.
Not much comedy this week but I did love the scene with the brothers especially the scene with the baseball, a call back to when their bond started.
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12 Annie
March 18, 2024 at 2:47 PM
So let's recap what we know until now: the Chairman had a first love before even meeting his wife (he tried to tell the story to Yi-soo, but he didn't want to listen). He married the wife and Seung-joo was born.
I suspect the wife had an affair with the Wall Climber and, when she got pregnant, she realized it's better to marry the rich Chairman. So she probably made him drunk and made him believe that they are going to have a baby.
So Chairman married her and, after some years in which she probably just gave up keeping the appearences, he met again his first love and they had uri Yi-soo.
Yi-soo's mom chose to raise her child and didn't care whether the father would help or not (and that's why I never thought she committed suicide; I thought that maybe she took the sleeping pills and dozed off in the bathtub, but why would she be dressed when taking a bath?).
And Seung-joo's mom continued the charade so that her illegitimate son would get a part of the inheritance and maybe become chairman (since Yi-soo doesn't seem interested in business).
But I don't know what to do about the butler. Is he Yi-soo's uncle and he hid the relationship with the mom - his sister - so that he could get into the chairman's house and take care of the child?
I'm really curious about how they will tie all these ends.
I just wanted to see more of our chaebol's shenanigans and the great work of the police team! Plus all the bromances between the brothers, Yi-soo and Jun-young / Yi-soo and the puppy policeman!
I love all the characters (except evil step-mom) and I really hope Yi-soo doesn't become a ticking bomb. Wait... what if they end season 1 with his "explosion" and we have to wait until season 2 to pick up the pieces? No, Show, noooooooooooo!
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13 Xococo
March 19, 2024 at 8:01 AM
What makes this such a good show isn’t just the story, although it’s enjoyable on its own, but the fact that you have a lot of seasoned actors, seasoned production staff. It’s greater than the sum of its parts, ya know?
My favorite relationship in this show is that of Seungjoon and his mother. We see how loving Seungjoon is (at least, I think) to his dongsaeng, but take that love and devotion to an unhealthy relationship like with his mother, and that devotion becomes something a little darker. I wonder what Seungjoon will do now that his beloved mother has killed his bio dad and adoptive dad is also dead. Will this rupture their bond? Or is he going down with the ship?
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14 ar_arguably romantic
March 19, 2024 at 6:32 PM
I was so relieved that the man in black at the end of episode 13 was Seung-joo- which meant he was the red herring before the real villain is caught, like how the first "suspect" isn't the actual suspect in the other cases. I don't think it's the stepmom who is the killer. And I really hope it's not the butler. Who else could it be who is so determined to control the Chairman.
It's really sad for the drama to off the Chairman. I know father and son weren't close, but it's too much to have both Yi-soo's parents be murdered.
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