This week takes a dark turn with a case that focuses on cruel abuse and the ways wealth and power can drown out a victim’s cries for help. There’s an infuriatingly high bar for proving abuse as a reason for divorce, leaving many victims trapped with no protection. Our lawyer pair find themselves in the eye of the storm when one such abuser is their client and they must decide where their ethical lines lie.
EPISODES 12-13
Buckle up because this week’s episodes are rough. Rather than one case per episode, we get a single intense case that spans both. But before we dive into the new case that occupies our lawyers’ time, we have to catch up with Eun-kyung after Jae-hee’s hospital visit. Yuri comes running to the hospital after Eun-kyung calls her crying on the phone. They both pretend Yuri is providing post-divorce follow up with her client so they can avoid any awkward mushy feelings, but it’s obvious the women are true friends now. Yuri even makes Eun-kyung cry again by telling her that she needs her and hopes they work together forever.
Luckily for everyone, Woo-jin has not become suddenly power hungry despite accepting his heir destiny. He has the equivalent of a debutant’s coming out in society as his father brings him into the rich circle fold, but Woo-jin looks uncomfortable with it all. He’s also uncomfortable with the way his father is pushing Eun-kyung out and makes his opinion known, but there’s nothing he can do at this point.
Yuri, however, is stunned to learn of Eun-kyung’s precarious position in the firm, which the CEO uses to threaten Yuri into taking a VIP case that should by all rights be Eun-kyung’s. He promises Yuri that he will hold off on firing Eun-kyung if she gets a divorce dismissal for the heir to a hospital fortune (the hospital has deep business ties to the law firm). The CEO’s passing over Eun-kyung in favor of her protégé sets the whole office talking.
This is where we take a dark turn. The drama dealt with abuse in a prior episode, but this case is particularly sinister. Smug hospital heir CHUN HWAN-SEO (guest appearance by Kwak Shi-yang) is accused of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse towards his wife YOO JI-YOUNG (Park Ah-in) who has tried to divorce him several times to no avail – he’s rich and powerful enough to have gotten all cases dismissed by erasing any evidence.
Yuri tries to convince herself he might be innocent due to the lack of evidence, but it’s impossible to ignore how Ji-young shrinks away from him in court and can barely even look in his direction. The woman is absolutely terrified. Then, in the court bathroom, she has a panic attack when Yuri turns on the water faucet, convincing Yuri that Ji-young’s accusations that Hwan-seo water tortures her are true.
Of course, Yuri can’t ignore her sinking suspicions and confronts Hwan-seo who has been claiming innocence. He’s so angry at being questioned by a mere lawyer that he demands Eun-kyung take over his case. Eun-kyung keeps Yuri on but takes lead, and it looks like a cut-and-dry dismissal case. But then Ji-young manages to restore a voice file on an old phone. It’s vague enough to be of little use in court, but it makes it clear to everyone in the mediation room that Hwan-seo is guilty. Ji-young quietly sobs and begs the court to save her before Hwan-seo kills her, but there’s little that can be done legally.
The case illustrates how horrifyingly difficult it can be to prove abuse, which makes it impossible for victims to escape no matter how hard they try. Ji-young has brought several suits against him over a span of years and begged for someone to help her, but nothing has changed. Even her parents don’t believe he’s abusing her – he seems careful not to leave obvious marks and gets ahead of the story so it sounds like she’s blowing things out of proportion.
Hwan-seo’s unabashed viciousness is too much for either Yuri or Eun-kyung to stomach. He can’t even keep his cruelty in check professionally and threatens to hurt Eun-kyung and kill Ji-young if the case isn’t dismissed. Eun-kyung would rather be fired than represent this man and takes herself and Yuri off the case. She was smart enough to record his admission of guilt and threats, which she plays for Woo-jin who supports her decision.
Speaking of Woo-jin, Eun-kyung hears about him being the CEO’s son and successor before he tells her, and she’s pissed. They’ve known each other for 14 years, so she feels blindsided and betrayed by his dishonesty. She’s not one to take betrayal lightly, particularly after Ji-sang.
But they have bigger things to worry about when events take an even darker turn after Hwan-seo calls Eun-kyung to his home one night. Thank goodness Yuri insists on following her there because that man is terrifying. Eun-kyung makes Yuri wait outside, expecting something terrible, and her fears are confirmed when she goes inside to find Hwan-seo casually watching his wife dying on the floor after beating her.
When a panicked Eun-kyung tries to call an ambulance – although it’s already too late – he swipes her phone and attacks her for daring to call him a murderer. She barely manages to fight him off and run for her life while Yuri calls the police from outside the gates. Hwan-seo is arrested on the spot, but he vows to kill both Eun-kyung (and Jae-hee) and Yuri before he’s taken away.
Yuri goes to the station and testifies, lying that she went to the house alone. She knows Eun-kyung is traumatized and also doesn’t want to further jeopardize her position at work. So she’s the one all over the news when the story breaks.
Amid all this, Woo-jin becomes CEO and is immediately in cleanup mode. He’s already proving to be a much kinder, more ethical leader than his father and unhesitatingly backs Eun-kyung and Yuri. He decides to terminate the law firm’s contract with the hospital, despite his father’s and the hospital director’s anger. Woo-jin’s support and unchanging behavior thaw the ice between him and Eun-kyung, returning them to their familiar rapport.
Eun-kyung and Yuri attend Hwan-seo’s trials, both blaming themselves for not helping Ji-young escape. She told them she’d end up dead, and they’re haunted by the fact she was right. Still, Hwan-seo’s threats make standing against him frightening, especially for Eun-kyung because he threatened to hurt Jae-hee too. What pushes both women to act is their care for each other.
When Eun-ho tells Eun-kyung that Yuri is planning to go forward as a witness at court to protect her, Eun-kyung steps up and admits she was the actual witness to Ji-young’s death. And she has a smoking gun: the voice recorder she had on her that night caught him asking how Ji-young wasn’t dead yet after he beat her. It’s enough to change his charge from assault to murder and get him sentenced to 15 years in prison.
One conviction after the fact isn’t enough for Yuri whose penchant for one-woman picketing makes another appearance. She stands in front of the courthouse all day and goes viral for her calls for stronger legal protections for domestic violence sufferers. She inspires the rest of the office to join her as they do what little they can to prevent others from suffering Ji-young’s fate.
Yuri’s courage and conviction in the face of true danger to herself makes Eun-ho even more smitten with her. In good news for them both, Yuri and Eun-ho have now graduated from baby lawyers to full lawyers able to handle their own cases with no hand holding. And they’re not the only ones graduating to new things. Eun-kyung has decided it’s time for her to move on from Daejeong. We end as she breaks the news to Yuri that she’s striking out on her own.
Now that Woo-jin has taken over as CEO, it looks like the firm will change for the better. I’m sure he’d keep Eun-kyung on, but she’s certainly capable enough to go independent and maybe it’d be good for her to have a fresh start. Both her and Yuri have grown a lot since they started working together, and I would love to see them continue to work together – maybe once Eun-kyung gets established, she can poach Yuri.
What an intense week! Despite the domestic violence case being extremely dark, it wasn’t exploitative or done for shock value. Instead, the case was used to highlight the very real ways the legal system fails domestic violence sufferers, often only acknowledging the abuse after the victim’s death. I’m glad the drama shed light on this systemic issue that traps so many (often women) in these vicious cycles of abuse. I can only imagine how it must feel to be a lawyer in Yuri and Eun-kyung’s position, discovering your client is guilty of heinous crimes yet also knowing there’s no legal recourse for the victim. Is it too much to hope we get some lighter cases next week for a breather?