After the recent tragedy, our leads are out for blood. They go on the offensive and come up with a risky plan to lure out the real chairman. While our ex-mafioso uses his unique skill set to send Babel and Wusang a message, Babel’s chairman investigates our lead’s past in Italy. The stakes grow ever higher as each side gets closer to discovering the other’s true identity and grows more resolute in taking each other down.
EPISODE 10
We flash back to when Chairman Jang had proudly presented his findings to Joon-woo and Wusang: four of the victims’ family members helped Jipuragi commit the arson at Babel’s warehouse. He found evidence through hacking their texts and social media. Joon-woo and Chairman Jang decided to “vent their anger” by eliminating the arsonists and Jong-moon.
As Vincenzo watches the officers collect evidence from the scene, he flashes back to murders he committed in Italy. He’d shot one man in his car. Beside the dead man, we see a hand clutching a teddy bear. Vincenzo’s eyes had widened when he looked inside.
The police plan to close the case as mass suicide – one of the victims even sent a goodbye text to Cha-young. Despite Cha-young’s pleas, they refuse to consider any other possibility. In the mortuary, Vincenzo tells Cha-young not to feel guilty since the victims wanted to help fight Babel.
Vincenzo is determined to act according to his own principles and make the perpetrators pay for taking innocent lives. When Cha-young signals she’s all in, Vincenzo advises her revenge works best with a “cold heart.” Upstairs, the cops ready to report to Wusang that they’ve gotten rid of the evidence.
The tenants hear about what’s happened and are shocked and angered by Babel’s cruelty. Cheol-wook brings up the possibility that by refusing to move, they could be on Babel’s hitlist. They start to panic and decide that only Vincenzo can keep them safe.
At Wusang, Attorney Han panics about his and Myung-hee’s safety given how many people Babel has offed recently. Myung-hee reminds him that there’s no way out for them – they know Joon-woo’s real identity.
Over at Jipuragi, Vincenzo tells Cha-young that he’s planning to kill the real chairman once they find him. She supports him and gives him permission to break their promise of not hurting people.
They start by tailing Cha-young’s ex-colleague and the cops he’s in charge of paying off. Vincenzo approaches the cops as they count their money on a rooftop and snaps a photo. He then gives them a beatdown. They wake up tied to chairs high up on what looks like a construction site.
After a few kicks send their chairs closer to the edge, they agree to get Vincenzo the full case file. Cha-young emerges and gives them one final kick that lands them precariously close to the ledge, and they agree to Vincenzo’s second term: resigning after their mission is complete.
Elsewhere, Attorney Han decides to make a move and throw his support behind Chairman Jang. But when he brings up the idea of Chairman Jang taking Babel for himself, it doesn’t go over well. Chairman Jang yells at him for asking him to betray his brother and insists he’s not cut out to be the real chairman.
Chairman Jang is taken aback by Attorney Han’s impassioned speech about how Babel needs a real leader who doesn’t just kill people. He can’t keep the smile off his face at all the flattery and ends up comforting Attorney Han when he breaks down in tears.
While Cha-young muses about how serious Vincenzo was about killing the chairman, Young-woon tries to bring Vincenzo’s attention back to the gold situation. They need to vacate Nanyak Temple. Vincenzo promises to handle it but needs more time. Young-woon is not that patient and secretly reports Nanyak Temple as corrupt.
Later, Vincenzo gets a call from an Italian friend who alerts him that a Korean person has been asking around about him. When Vincenzo gets home, he’s surprised to find Cha-young there. She fibs that her windows weren’t finished, so he agrees to let her stay.
Vincenzo and Cha-young drink makgeolli and reminisce about Yoo-chan. Vincenzo finally passes along Yoo-chan’s words that only a brazen, tough person like Cha-young is suited to taking down those who are corrupt. She argues she’s just easily angered, but that works for Vincenzo.
When Cha-young guesses that Vincenzo will leave right after they take care of Babel, he stays silent. She cheerily says it makes sense that they’ll part as unexpectedly as they met. After more drinking, they both fall asleep at the table and take turns staring at each other’s sleeping face.
The following day, Joon-woo orders Wusang to set the Geumga Plaza demolition into motion using the contractors his father used to favor. He callously wonders how many deaths there’ll be this time.
At Geumga Plaza, CEO Park gets his new “travel agency” going. His genius idea is to use hot air balloons to smuggle people into other countries. Vincenzo peeks in and warns him not to make trouble before heading to Jipuragi.
The team checks the CCTV footage of the victims’ van and notice a car following the van into an underpass. The van emerges later with a dent and now trailing behind the car that was following.
They surmise the car must’ve rammed into the van which gave them the opportunity to kidnap the victims. This would explain the forensic report’s implication that two of the victims were tasered. The culprits then burned a charcoal briquette in the van, killing the victims through carbon monoxide poisoning.
Team Leader Ahn comes bearing pasta and chimes in on their discussion about the difficulty of tracing a fake license plate. He’s full of his usual ridiculous antics as he badly spies, but the Jipuragi team chooses to ignore his eccentricities.
Elsewhere, Myung-hee informs Joon-woo that she’s working to get the ruling for their last trial overturned now that they’ve got the prosecution in their pocket. When he wonders why she chose to work with him, Myung-hee says she likes to live dangerously.
She in turn asks why he’s ruling from the shadows. Joon-woo calls it an exciting game that makes him feel like a god and also helps him avoid jail if things go south. Myung-hee is a fan of the whole god complex thing and aspires to live like that too. Two evil peas in a pod, these two.
At Jipuragi, Vincenzo and Cha-young are confident the same person is behind the recent string of murders. Vincenzo reasons the real chairman will be close to the assassin since these kinds of orders aren’t given through lots of intermediaries.
Vincenzo suggests they make themselves the next targets and lure the chairman out with public threats and mockery. Cha-young nominates herself for the job. “I’m sure I can make all humankind angry.”
Team Leader Ahn fills the tenants in on what he overheard, so they announce to the Jipuragi team that they want to help with the revenge effort. Chef Baek slips up and references the gold – Vincenzo’s ears perk up – but he sort of manages to cover his slip.
Vincenzo is against the tenants participating, but Cha-young accepts their help. They first set up a green screen in Larry’s studio and record an exposé on Babel and Wusang. Vincenzo is mortified when Cha-young makes them all wear these goofy masks. (Ha, Vincenzo is wearing a bird mask and uses the pseudonym Inzaghi.)
They go all out making fun of Myung-hee for her gangster ways and dancing, Attorney Han for sucking up to everyone, and Chairman Jang for being stupid and incompetent. The targets all get riled up as they watch this little broadcast, but Joon-woo sees through Vincenzo’s plan.
He puts together that Vincenzo knows Chairman Jang is a fake and is trying to draw the real boss out. Joon-woo notes that so long as there aren’t any traitors in their midst – his eyes cut to Attorney Han – they’ll be fine.
Myung-hee calls Cha-young to yell at her and about loses her mind when Cha-young keeps denying it was them. Babel and Wusang have stopped articles on Jipuragi’s exposé, but Vincenzo isn’t bothered since their goal isn’t to get media coverage. Now that the mockery is complete, it’s time for stage two: threats.
Hee-soo and Hong-shik sneak into Attorney Han’s office as cleaners and leave a blood-covered knife sticking out of his name plate. They also draw a bloody “C” on his wall. They hit Myung-hee again at the laundromat where they cut the power, and Zombie Larry terrifies her out of her wits from outside the door. After she faints, he draws a bloody “C” on the glass.
For Chairman Jang, they send a little remote-control jeep with supposed C4 strapped to it. All his bodyguards take cover, leaving Chairman Jang on his own as the little car chases after him. Chef Baek and Team Leader Ahn direct it to chase him until he’s huddled against the wall, screaming. The timer reaches zero … and a little flag with a “C” on it pops up amidst a confetti explosion.
Joon-woo gets text from all his minions with photos of the bloody Cs. He makes a call, confirming someone has arrived at the airport.
At Jipuragi the next day, Cha-young worries that Vincenzo is being too bold with these threats. Vincenzo wants her and Joo-sung to stay away from Geumga Plaza for a while, but Cha-young is insistent that they’re in this together – no running away.
An enraged Prosecutor Jung stops by, ranting about how Jong-moon’s death was also ruled a suicide; they’re claiming he killed the cops and then himself. He wants to cooperate on finding the murderer, but they politely decline.
Prosecutor Jung argues that not everyone in the prosecution is corrupt, but Vincenzo explains that’s not the point. Just like an apple that’s rotten on one side is still a rotten apple, an organization that’s infected with rot is still fundamentally rotten. And if the rot isn’t cut out, it’ll infect the rest.
Meanwhile, Joon-woo looks at photos of Vincenzo’s past brutalities in the Mafia and learns that he was one of the most feared and respected consiglieres in the business. Joon-woo’s face lights up as he asks his informer for the stories behind the pictures, more excited than concerned to learn about Vincenzo’s past.
He laughs in delight and shows the grisly photos to a terrified Chairman Jang who asks what the bloody “C” means. The informant explains Vincenzo leaves a “C” for Cassano as his signature before a kill. Chairman Jang panics at the implication that he, Attorney Han, and Myung-hee are next.
Joon-woo, of course, is having a ball learning that his “sparring partner” is the real deal. But he’s not crazy enough to keep playing with him. He’s knows this is a kill or be killed situation and sends assassins out that night.
At Geumga Plaza, Joo-sung stands guard outside with a bat while Cha-young sits on Vincenzo’s couch holding a rock and wearing her running shoes. Vincenzo begs her to go home now – he knows she’s lying about her window not being fixed. Cha-young admits, even though she agreed, she’s worried because he said he’d kill someone.
They’re conversation is interrupted by a call from Joon-woo saying he has intel on Wusang for Cha-young. She rushes out and asks Joo-sung to look after Vincenzo while she’s gone.
Five men wearing masks stalk into Geumga Plaza. When they come across our chef and assistant duo in the hallway, they beat them up with no explanation.
Upstairs, Vincenzo has Joo-sung record a video revealing that “Inzaghi” will make an important announcement live from the underpass. He heads out and tells Joo-sung to call the police if he doesn’t hear from him within an hour.
The commotion downstairs draws out the tenants who realize these intruders aren’t playing around. For perhaps the first time ever, they’re happy to see CEO Park arrive. But it doesn’t do any good since they beat him up too.
After noticing a tattoo of the Twin Swords Gang’s symbol on one man’s wrist, CEO Park yells “run!” and takes off with his subordinates. The men warn the tenants to move out within two days or suffer the consequences. When one of the men grabs Mi-ri and goes to stab her in the neck with a piece of broken glass, Hon-shik appears and stabs him in the neck with his scissors first.
So it looks like Hong-shik is a closet badass because he fights those men off singlehandedly, efficiently stabbing with his scissors at lighting speed (non-lethally). The tenants watch open-mouthed as he threatens to slit the men’s necks if they don’t leave. The men go running.
Right before Cha-young arrives, Joon-woo watches Joo-sung’s broadcast and sends his assassins to the underpass. Cha-young runs in and immediately asks what his intel is, but Joon-woo admits he lied to get her to meet up. She gets a call from Joo-sung about Vincenzo going to the underpass and stands in a panic. Joon-woo offers to drive, and they go pick up Joo-sung and Cheol-wook on the way to Vincenzo.
At the underpass, three assassins with guns stalk toward Vincenzo who’s hiding in an archway with a gun. They get into an intense gunfight, shooting at each other from behind parked cars (which they’ve now riddled with holes). It’s a close call, but Vincenzo manages to take out all three, although it doesn’t look like he killed them.
On the way over, Cha-young cries as she tries unsuccessfully to reach Vincenzo. At the underpass, Vincenzo swipes one of the assassin’s phones and asks who the chairman is. When the man won’t talk, Vincenzo presses his knee into the bullet wound on the man’s leg.
In the underpass, Joon-woo’s car screeches to a halt, and everyone rushes out. Cha-young reaches Vincenzo first and throws her arms around him. Joon-woo watches them embrace with a sour look.
Cha-young chides Vincenzo for going off and doing something so dangerous without her. Being partners means sharing the danger. Vincenzo cuts in to say he knows the identity of the real chairman. He turns and looks straight at Joon-woo.
It feels like everything up until now has been a prelude to an all-out war between Vincenzo and Joon-woo in the second half. What I would love to see happen is Chairman Jang and Attorney Han defect to Jipuragi’s team to help take down Joon-woo. Attorney Han has already literally gone crying to Chairman Jang and is working on a coup, and Chairman Jang is fearing for his life now that he knows who Vincenzo is. And it’s not like there’s any love lost between the brothers. Myung-hee and Joon-woo are too far gone, but I feel like Chairman Jang and Attorney Han could be scared straight. Of course, I want them to pay for their crimes too, but helping take down Joon-woo would be a great first step. Joon-woo is on another level of evil, even for drama chaebols. It makes me wonder if this writer has some deep-seated grudge that he’s working out here.
At first, I was a little worried about the episode count, but we haven’t had much filler so far. I like how the story keeps evolving and that we’re given information bit by bit as it becomes relevant. We still have a lot to cover with both the plot and our characters, so I’m hopeful there’ll be enough material to fill the remaining 10 episodes. They’ve been pushing the romance more lately which I’m still meh about. It’s not that I dislike Vincenzo and Cha-young as a couple, but there’s so much going on that the romance feels more like a side plot. My main hope is that the romance doesn’t take over since I find it to be the least interesting element of this eccentric drama.