In the wake of a new tragedy, everyone scrambles to find someone to blame. The good news is that decade-old lies are being exposed one by one; the bad news is that each truth unearthed reveals yet another person complicit in the horrible events that were once blamed on our poor protagonist. But the best news? He’s not alone anymore, and his new ally isn’t one to let any criminal, no matter how well-defended, off the hook.
EPISODE 9
Thanks to Chief Hyun’s selfishness, Geon-oh is dead, and his suicide note (plus a partial confession that Chief Hyun throttles out of Byung-mu) reveals a few more crucial keys to the puzzle. Geon-oh had returned to the warehouse just after Byung-mu and Min-soo assaulted Bo-young. In his panic over realizing what his “friends” had just done, he’d startled her. She fled down the stairs, tripped, and hit her head. When Geon-oh tried to call for help, the other two stopped him. They were all interrupted by a fourth person, but we don’t get to see that part just yet — though we do get a few more clues sprinkled throughout the episode. Not least of which is that Chief Hyun made an appearance at the warehouse sometime during that night’s events, and that Geon-oh’s note urges him to tell the truth for once.
While Chief Hyun stews on the tragic consequences of his choices, Na-kyeom tells Bo-young’s parents about Byung-mu and Min-soo. Interestingly, she tells them that evidence was found to convict both men of assault and murder. Even more interestingly, once Dong-min and Jae-hee rush off in tears to confirm her words, Na-kyeom’s own tears give way to a satisfied smirk.
The police are rushing to the warehouse when Bo-young’s parents arrive at the station, but Chief Hyun’s right-hand man KIM HEE-DO (Jang Won-young) stays behind to “set the record straight.” I’ve gone back and forth on what to think about this guy, but now I’m fully convinced he knows what really happened and is actively covering for Chief Hyun. Not only does he bend over backwards to pin the murder on Jung-woo and insist there’s no need to reopen the case, but he also has the gall to claim the sexual assault was somehow consensual. Bo-young’s parents handle that about as well as they handle hearing a similar argument from Byung-mu and Min-soo’s fathers (read: not well at all), and for once I don’t blame them one bit.
Speaking of those two fathers, they continue to spend a lot of time groveling. Even at Geon-oh’s funeral, they beg Chief Hyun to go easy on their sons and plead with Dong-min to accept monetary compensation in lieu of further investigation (Dong-min eventually accepts, and takes out his rage on Jae-hee when she accuses him of profiting off their daughter’s death).
Chief Hyun is disgusted by their audacity, but he has Assemblywoman Ye breathing down his neck, warning him not to let the case garner widespread attention all over again. Turns out, this isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation — she was the one who ordered Chief Hyun to close Jung-woo’s case as quickly and quietly as possible. So, after Byung-mu and Min-soo are released from custody, Chief Hyun drives Min-soo out to the middle of nowhere and threatens him into throwing Byung-mu under the bus.
So where is Jung-woo while all this is going on? Well, he spends a good part of the episode unconscious in the hospital, having been hit by a car while chasing Geon-oh down for answers. As a result, Sang-cheol has to break the news to him about Geon-oh’s death a few days after the fact. He tries to do it gently (though he’s not very good at gentleness), and it’s a good thing he does it in person, because he then has to stop Jung-woo from running off and doing something rash. And oof, Byun Yo-han’s portrayal of being hit by a wave of shock turning to grief turning to rage is just masterfully done.
Sang-cheol also lets Jung-woo stay with him for the time being, pays his hospital bill, and lends him a change of clothes, and the two (finally!) put their heads together to re-examine the rushed investigation of eleven years ago. Right away, they identify three important scraps of information. The first is that none of the three boys present at the warehouse that night could drive, which means someone else must have helped them move Bo-young’s body to the abandoned school. The second is that whoever the driver was, they crashed Jung-woo’s car into a light pole in the process, and no photos of the damage were included in the investigation files. And finally, two shovels were included among the crime scene photos — but they weren’t in the car earlier that day, and they were removed not long after.
Jung-woo is in the middle of confronting Byung-mu about the matter of the driver when the police arrive to arrest Byung-mu due to Min-soo’s “confession.” As they drag him away, Byung-mu yells that Na-kyeom was the real mastermind. And there might just be some truth to that claim, because when Jung-woo questions her about it, she turns on the waterworks and tells him Byung-mu has been blackmailing her all this time… but a flashback shows us that she’s lying about going straight home that night. She was right there in the warehouse when Bo-young died.
I’m all for Byung-mu being punished — unlike Jung-woo, he deserves the betrayal and vilification — but it’s quite horrifying how quick these people are to identify a scapegoat and run with it rather than root out all the parties involved. Jung-woo was an easy target eleven years ago because of his memory blackout, and Byung-mu is an easy target now because he’s shown himself to be an undeniably awful person; meanwhile, all the other less-obviously-awful people carry on looking out for themselves and pretending to care about justice.
As far as Hyung-shik and the second murder are concerned, there still hasn’t been much movement. Someone frightens Hyung-shik even more by sending him a ring in the mail. And a flashback reveals that Jung-woo’s friends — Na-kyeom included — felt neglected after he started dating Da-eun and resented that she was all he could think about that fateful day.
While it seems clear the two girls were murdered by different people, I’m not convinced it was entirely coincidental they happened on the same night. I do, however, think Jung-woo is right that Su-oh holds the key. The problem, of course, is that he’s locked up in the hospital (he wasn’t allowed to attend Geon-oh’s funeral, and it’s possible no one even told him his brother is dead!) and Chief Hyun already burned his painting of the crime scene. But he’s been eyeing those art supplies Seol convinced Hyung-shik to give him, and I have a feeling it won’t be much longer before he takes matters into his own hands.