The relationship between our young auditor and the vice president becomes the talk of the town, but thankfully, none of her team members believe the baseless accusations. Unfortunately, they are not the ones our auditors have to convince, so in order to clear their names, our heroes need evidence to prove that someone else is trying to take them down.
EPISODES 9-10
Rumors concerning Seo-jin and Dae-woong circulate throughout the company ranging from curiosity to salaciousness, but while most people jump to false conclusions, level-headed Cha-il treats this like any other auditing case. After interviewing the accused parties and reviewing the hiring data, our team leader reports back to the president that nothing untoward occurred. Alas, Se-woong is not bighearted enough to let an opportunity slip through his fingers — especially not when his reputation is in the toilet — so he hires an external auditor for a more objective opinion.
Dae-woong confronts Se-woong for his underhanded tactic and warns him to leave his family alone. Seo-jin’s mom was the only person who truly took care of him while he suffered in that house, but Se-woong scoffs at his half-brother and mocks him for getting close with the help. With no one else to help him in this fight, Dae-woong turns to Han-soo and asks if the auditing team is abandoning one of their own. While he cannot divulge the details of their work, Han-soo explains that Cha-il ordered the team to continue their investigation into the hiring process since they believe the true culprit used Seo-jin to misdirect.
This leads to an unexpected tag team between Cha-il and Dae-woong as they both interrogate the previous HR department team leader, and our cold auditor actually becomes the “good cop” next to the vice president’s more threatening aura. Their blossoming bromance continues as Dae-woong catches a ride with Cha-il (in the backseat of course), and the subtle expression changes Dae-woong’s brazen attitude elicits from the usually stoic Cha-il are downright hilarious. Why are we only getting these gems in the second to last week? I want more of this reluctant buddy relationship!
The auditing team finds the “misplaced” (aka, intentionally hidden) hiring documents from four years ago in an off-site storage center, but two men attack our auditors in an attempt to steal the data. Luckily, Cha-il and Dae-woong arrive right in time to block the thieves and work together to apprehend them. However, all their efforts are for nothing since they receive a call that some other thugs attacked senior auditor Moon’s car and took the documents.
Though our heroes figure out that the assistant manager from the HR department hired the first group of thieves, without the stolen documents, they have no evidence against her. As they stand at an impasse, something else about this case does not add up. Thus, our main trio investigate on their own from different angles and come to the same conclusion: Auditor Moon lied. Cornered by his team, Auditor Moon confesses to uploading the pictures of Seo-jin because he, too, committed fraud to get hired at JU Construction.
After graduating from college, Auditor Moon never got passed the first round despite his good grades and skills. He wondered if his education was holding him back, so as an experiment, he lied about his school on his resume. However, when he got hired at JU Construction as a result, he decided to maintain the ruse. Auditor Moon apologizes to Seo-jin for dragging her into this mess and returns the documents he stole. With this, the auditing team fires both their own member as well as the HR department’s employee and clears Seo-jin’s name.
As Auditor Moon leaves the office, he walks into traffic crestfallen, and Cha-il pulls him to safety. This incident reminds Cha-il of another case from his past, and he yells at the younger man for giving up. He believes Auditor Moon can succeed if he tries again and gives him enough hope to live. Unfortunately, Auditor Moon is not the only one thinking everything is over since the HR employee also attempts to take her life in the office breakroom. Thankfully, she is taken to the hospital in time, but now the accused becomes the accuser.
Se-woong cut ties with Cha-il after his recent stunts since the hunting dog he hired turned out to be a wolf, and he orders an external audit on the team leader. Cha-il reminds the president of his special clause — he cannot be fired for two years — but Se-woong corrects him since it is only valid under the condition that he brings no harm to the company. The same outside auditor who investigated Seo-jin is now inspecting Cha-il, and Se-woong gives her vague instructions to take down the auditing team leader no matter what it takes.
While Cha-il’s methods are aggressive, none of his cases at JU Construction warrant termination… under normal circumstances. However, life is rarely so clean-cut, and Cha-il’s past rears its ugly head in the form of a one-woman protest. Word gets out that Cha-il once killed a man because of his forceful auditing, and this event becomes the basis for the external auditor to deem Cha-il dangerous. These rumors even cause Han-soo to doubt, and as Cha-il finds himself all alone, help comes from a rather unusual place: Dae-woong.
Repaying his debts, Dae-woong connects Han-soo with someone from Cha-il’s old team, which allows the two youngest auditors to learn about their leader’s past. Two years ago, Cha-il was investigating an embezzlement case and believed the frontman was shielding two higher-ups. He pushed the man to confess despite knowing that he was taking the fall in order to pay for his wife’s medical bills, and in the end, the man chose to stop the investigation by taking his own life. Feeling guilt over what happened, Cha-il never told the wife the truth about her husband’s motivation, and instead, shouldered all the blame.
After learning the truth, Han-soo and Seo-jin make it their mission to restore Cha-il’s reputation, and in order to do so, they tell the wife what happened. In turn, they learn that the HR employee contacted her which was why she came to protest outside their company. The final piece of this puzzle is another employee who confesses to helping their colleague fake her suicide attempt, and her testimony turns the tide for Cha-il as the external auditor clears his name of this defamation case. Guess Se-woong hired wolves instead of hunting dogs.
While our auditors were busy with these recent cases, the Hwang brothers were also occupied with their own battles. The eldest finally wakes from his coma, and the first word he speaks is Se-woong’s name. His wife excitedly calls him about the good news, but that very night after everyone goes home, a mysterious person exits the previous president’s hospital room. Seconds later, the eldest’s heart stops, and he passes before he can reveal what he knows.
Overall, the hiring case was fine with an interesting twist, and though a lot of the plot points were recycled from previous episodes, the fast pace helped make the storyline feel less redundant. However, I wonder if all the rule-breaking by our heroes is an intentional setup with consequences down the line especially concerning Han-soo and his hacking tendencies. Even his friend could see the hypocrisy of Han-soo’s actions, so maybe the show will have its young hero reevaluate his choices. While I want to believe that the creators will actually do something with this, with only two episodes left, I wouldn’t be surprised if they focus on the Hwang brothers instead and forget about Han-soo as per usual. Still, one can hope!
For the most part, the humor within the show is subtle, but every time it happens, it does make me chuckle. Granted, the writing is so ridiculous at times, the show is unintentionally a comedy, but ignoring that flaw, I like the quirky subversion of expectations and reversals, particularly when it comes to Dae-woong and his reactions to Cha-il. The back-and-forth between these two characters was fun this episode from their joint interrogation to their one-way squabbles, and I wish the show would have capitalized on their chemistry more. It feels like Dae-woong is the only who can get Cha-il to crack — even if it’s only for a millisecond — and Cha-il gets under Dae-woong’s skin like no one else can. It also helps that both actors are great at their jobs and are able to deliver jokes without making it obvious that they’re trying to be funny or silly. It seems like a missed opportunity by the creators, but maybe the finale will rectify some of that.