After the trial concludes, Babel goes on the offensive against Jipuragi, determined to put the little firm in its place. Meanwhile, our lead turns his attention back to the demolition and figuring out how exactly to retrieve his gold. The already challenging situation gets more complicated when the tenants decide moving might not be in their best interest after all.
EPISODE 7
Cha-young calls Vincenzo to the stand, naming him both witness and assailant against Babel. Per their plan, he beat up a group of Babel Chemicals employees in a public space. Now, he accuses Babel of cutting costs by neglecting to install a proper disposal system for BLSD that led to their researchers getting sick.
When Judge Heo yells at him for testifying before he’s even been accepted as a witness, Vincenzo holds up the phone from one of his assault victims, the head of the research team. Vincenzo testifies that they received the phone from an “employee” (Joo-sung in a Babel Chemicals jacket) who happened to read the texts and found incriminating evidence.
Judge Heo has no choice but to accept the submission of this dodgy evidence. Vincenzo then requests an ambulance in advance for his next assault victim: Babel’s doctor Gil Jong-moon who has been lying about the cause of Babel employees’ illness.
Myung-hee objects to this non-expert medical testimony, so Cha-young swoops in and announces a medical expert as her second last-minute witness. It just so happens to be Jong-moon’s wife Yeo-won who is a leukemia expert.
Despite furious headshaking from Wusang, Judge Heo reluctantly allows Yeo-won to testify. They drag a shocked Jong-moon out during her testimony.
Vincenzo first approached Yeo-won at an art gallery. After some flirting, he’d introduced himself and shown her records of the bribes her husband had been receiving. In exchange for her testimony, he promised Jipuragi would ensure she takes her husband for everything in their divorce. She agreed on one condition: an opera date with Vincenzo.
In court, she presents damning emails of her husband’s discussions with Dr. Ramos at UCLA on how to treat BLSD. Jong-moon explicitly acknowledged BLSD’s link with blood cancer and even specified the cause of illness in this case was improper toxic waste disposal.
Since the emails were sent to her by Dr. Ramos – they’re old friends – Myung-hee can’t get them dismissed due to illegal procurement. After Jong-moon is brought back in as a witness, Yeo-won whips out a bag of methamphetamines she found in Jong-moon’s desk.
Cha-young accuses him of habitual drug use, discrediting him as a witness. She and Vincenzo also assert Jong-moon framed Woo-young for drug use, which they can determine by testing the contents of the bag.
Jong-moon loses it and starts yelling at his wife. Yeo-won walks over and throws water in his face, and then she slaps him, drawing gasps from the audience. The couple has it out in the courtroom, ignoring the admonishments from Judge Heo and an incredibly incompetent bailiff who waits until she starts beating her husband with a microphone to intervene (unsuccessfully).
After that disastrous trial, Joon-woo orders Chairman Jang to hold a press conference admitting to the charges and announcing the discontinuance of BLSD. They’ll punish everyone involved and compensate the victims. Joon-woo also scathingly commands Chairman Jang to get moving on the demolition of Geumga Plaza.
On a high after their unprecedented win, Cha-young promises to give Vincenzo anything he wants. As if he isn’t stylish enough, he decides he needs new suits. Cha-young is so exhausted she falls asleep sprawled out on the sofa while he models. Afterwards, she presents Vincenzo with a pen she bought him to “celebrate our partnership.”
Joon-woo is having a way less fun day and rage drives out to the middle of nowhere only to beat the living daylights out of his own car, terrifying Myung-hee and Attorney Han who he forced to sit inside. They get out when he tells them to, and Joon-woo rails at them in English.
Attorney Han sputters while Myung-hee straightforwardly admits she underestimated Jipuragi. Joon-woo is livid they lack the creativity of Vincenzo. He orders them to go after Cha-young and reduce her to nothing – I guess he doesn’t like her that much – while he focuses on Vincenzo.
Joon-woo says he’ll take care of buying off the prosecution office, but Myung-hee asks for the chance to prove herself. He gives her three days. In her office, Myung-hee screams at her juniors to dig into Cha-young and then calls her old boss.
Meanwhile, the tenants all gather by Woo-young’s bedside and celebrate Jipuragi’s success. Team Leader Ahn marvels at Vincenzo’s limitless ability after beating “Goliath.” Vincenzo announces he has good news about Geumga Plaza that he’ll share tomorrow. Everyone is strangely awkward but pretends to be excited when Cha-young calls them out on it.
Later, Vincenzo meets with Deok-jin who informs him Chairman Jang threatened to fire him if he doesn’t demolish Geumga Plaza within a week. Vincenzo doesn’t give him any specific instructions, and after warning Deok-jin not to cheat on his wife again, he takes a call from Young-woon and walks out.
Young-woon got in touch with a professor who believes they can get into the basement without fully demolishing the building. He’s arriving in Korea tonight.
Elsewhere, Myung-hee and Attorney Han meet with Myung-hee’s former bosses and try to buy them off by suggesting Babel can boost their careers. Chief Prosecutor Hwang angrily refuses and threatens to throw Wusang and Babel in jail if they try something like this again.
That night, Vincenzo hears strange noises and creepy laughter coming from the beauty salon in Geumga Plaza. He sneaks in and peeks behind a curtain to find a person who appears to have an upside-down face. Vincenzo freaks out, but it turns out to be Young-ho who’s started some weird comedy channel. He argues he’s a productive, non-delinquent now.
The professor arrives in Korea that night, so Young-woon calls the monks out and distracts them with awkward questions while Vincenzo takes the professor to assess the temple. It’s bad news: the condition of the structure is too poor to get into the basement without demolition.
Meanwhile, Joon-woo and Chairman Jang bow at their father’s memorial altar. Joon-woo says it’s just them now and has come to agree with his father that you can’t trust anyone. Chairman Jang vows that he only trusts Joon-woo and earns the condescending remark that he’d be adorable if only he were a bit smarter.
Emboldened by drink, Chairman Jang asks sincerely if Joon-woo will get rid of him like he did their father if he keeps disappointing him. Whoa. We flashback to when their father was in a coma, and Joon-woo – causally munching on gummy bears – had instructed a nervous Jong-moon to inject something into his IV that killed him.
Joon-woo is surprised to hear his little brother is smart enough to figure out what he did. He laughs and says he’s proud of him, but then he turns cold and starts toying with him again. Joon-woo terrifies Chairman Jang by saying he’s resembling their father too much these days, only to laugh it off as a joke.
On the roof, Vincenzo and Young-woon discuss their options. With no way to get into the basement, they have no choice but to stall for time. And, as usual, Vincenzo has an idea.
The tenants all go through their day distractedly, musing over what Gilbert – whose nickname is actually “gilbeot” which means traveling companion – told them four days ago. Three years ago, he overhead men at a bar talking about how they’d moved millions in gold into Geumga Plaza. Then, he’d watched as they’d all been killed.
Naturally, the tenants are suspicious, so he shows them the phone he picked up from one of the slain workers. There’s a photo of the worker posing with the gold bars. The tenants laugh it all off, but they’re clearly affected.
The Jipuragi team watches Chairman Jang’s apology press conference, and Cha-young finds an anonymous post online about Myung-hee’s failed attempt to bribe the chief prosecutor. According to Cha-young, he already has a powerful backer and is in no need of money.
They head to meet with the tenants and are again met with a strangely lackluster reaction to the news that Vincenzo is making good on his promise to move them for free. CEO Park crashes their meeting and tells them to sign the settlement before moving out.
“But we’re not leaving,” Cheol-wook announces calmly. They have come to the realization they need to protect their precious Geumga Plaza. Vincenzo and Cha-young watch in confusion as the tenants talk like they’ve suddenly joined a revolution and will fight to the death for the place.
Back in the office, Cha-young and Joo-sung marvel about how handsome Vincenzo looks even when he’s yelling angrily in Italian. They’re interrupted by police officers who are there to arrest Cha-young with a drop list of charges.
At the station, the officers display several USB drives that supposedly have irrefutable evidence against Cha-young. This time is much more serious, but Cha-young is confident “Mafia lawyer” Vincenzo will find a way.
His eyes widen in surprise when Cha-young notes it’s getting harder to play dumb. With all his Mafia references, arson, and schemes, it wasn’t hard to put it together. When he sighs that he’ll handle it, Cha-young grabs him in a hug through the bars and tells him not to come back until it’s done.
In the car, Vincenzo clicks his indestructible lighter and follows Myung-hee to a casino. He joins her uninvited and offers a deal: he’ll handle Chief Prosecutor Hwang for her if she releases Cha-young. She laughs at the contract he provides, finding it ridiculous that he wants her to trust him after he almost killed her. Vincenzo argues trusting your enemy can bring luck.
Vincenzo approaches Chief Prosecutor Hwang at his son’s soccer practice and introduces himself as an acquaintance of Myung-hee’s. He tempts Chief Prosecutor Hwang with what he most wants – his son being scouted by a European league.
Chief Prosecutor Hwang is sold when Vincenzo’s famed Italian soccer coach friend drops by with an offer for his son. Of course, he doesn’t hear the coach call his son the worst player on the team in Italian. Shortly thereafter, Myung-hee is speechless when Chief Prosecutor Hwang calls her to reconsider her offer.
Once Cha-young is released, Vincenzo nervously admits that he cut a deal with Myung-hee to get her out and apologizes. Instead of berating him, Cha-young compliments him for a job well done. Vincenzo leads her away as she loudly muses to some officers about how fascinating it is that Vincenzo is with the Mafia.
Meanwhile, the next phase of Vincenzo’s plan begins. He ordered Deok-jin to have CEO Park raid Geumga Plaza so they can catch the assault on camera. To ensure no tenants are harmed in the making of this video, Vincenzo and Young-woon will replace them with stand-in demonstrators wearing signature red jackets. Newly non-delinquent Young-ho will film the incident.
Things don’t go quite according to plan. Team Leader Ahn happens by wearing a reddish jacket and is attacked. Young-ho runs in to tell the tenants who rush out to defend one of their own. It’s mayhem, but the tenants hold their own, attacking CEO Park’s men with flagpoles, pans, and flour.
Vincenzo and Cha-young come upon the scene and stare in shock at the wild tenants who clearly have the upper hand. Standing atop a mound of people is Hee-soo holding a flag aloft and wearing a battered white dress in a scene reminiscent of Delacroix’s painting “Liberty Leading the People.”
COMMENTS
Why can’t courtroom trials always be that exciting? If all trials had that much drama spicing up the proceedings, lawsuits would be way more fun. Getting Jong-moon’s wife to testify certainly was impactful. Vincenzo seems to have the perfect scheme for all occasions, which makes his ineptitude when it comes to hiding his own identity kind of baffling. I’m glad to know Cha-young figured out he’s with the Mafia. He’s been so obvious about it all, it would’ve been ridiculous if she hadn’t caught on. I love that Cha-young isn’t scared of Vincenzo at all but just finds his Mafia background useful and intriguing. She’s an observant person who trusts her instincts, and she’s put her faith in Vincenzo for the person she sees regardless of his past. It probably also helps that they just get each other; both of them are opportunistic and don’t conform to others’ morality, but instead live by their own (often laxer) principles.
So far, Vincenzo has always been able to outsmart his opponents and gain the upper hand. It’s helped that his opponents have been underestimating him. Now that they know what he’s capable of, he won’t have that advantage anymore. Joon-woo’s patience has run out, and he’s gunning for Vincenzo now. He’s even willing to destroy Cha-young at this point. We know he killed his own dad and isn’t what you’d call a stable person, so it’s safe to assume he’ll go to extreme lengths to pay Jipuragi back for Babel’s embarrassing loss. Wusang already got Cha-young arrested, although they also released her quickly. I imagine Joon-woo won’t be happy about that, but I’m sure they’re not done trying to destroy Cha-young’s life. The more we see of Joon-woo, the more I feel bad for Chairman Jang, even though he’s problematic too. Living in fear of your crazed, abusive brother who you know killed your father must be a terrible existence. He’s clearly an emotional and sensitive person, and it makes me wonder how he could’ve turned out had he not been subject to his family.
Now that the court case is over, we’ve returned to the gold debacle. I find it highly amusing that Vincenzo can take down an insanely powerful conglomerate in court within a couple of weeks, but he can’t get his own gold out of the basement. Things weren’t looking good anyway, but this whole gold business is going to be a mess now that the tenants have discovered its existence. The tenants may be all over the place, but they’re scrappy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they launch a haphazard search and somehow stumble upon the gold. They don’t appear to know Vincenzo is involved yet, but it’s not that hard to put together. They’ve got quite the bargaining chip, even if they haven’t realized it, and Vincenzo might end up having to split the gold a few more ways than he’d intended. Brace yourselves for some more angry rants in Italian.