Babel ramps up its attack on Jipuragi, but the chairman is now more focused on revenge than defending his little kingdom. In our lead’s free time between fending off the chairman’s dangerous, evil plots, he spends some quality time with his estranged mother. Our heroine pushes him to address his relationship with his mother head on, and he might just be ready to start taking that advice.
EPISODE 16
With CEO Oh’s body behind him, Vincenzo is arrested for abduction and murder. One of the officers tells him they received a text from CEO Oh claiming Vincenzo had kidnapped him. Knowing it’s a trap, Vincenzo fights off the cops (without hurting them too badly) and takes off.
The killer watches from above and heads down the stairs. He bumps into CEO Park who finds him suspicious and won’t let him leave. While they duke it out, Vincenzo hops into a surprised Hong-shik’s van and yells at him to drive.
Vincenzo calls Cha-young who’s at the scene. To prove his innocence, he first needs to locate the man he chased onto the roof. CEO Park comes up and boasts to Cha-young that he caught a suspicious man he’ll gladly hand over for a fee. They go through the bound man’s phone and determine he had an accomplice.
While Myung-hee breaks the news to Joon-woo that Vincenzo escaped, Hong-shik remarks that things are getting increasingly complicated now that Vincenzo is sticking his nose in everyone’s business. Hong-shik reveals he used to be in a gang until he realized he was a useless person. Rather than forgetting his past and trying to be a new man, Vincenzo should use his skills for good.
CEO Park, Soo-nam, and Cha-young bring the captured man to Vincenzo since they can’t get him to talk. Everyone waits outside while Vincenzo tortures the man in the car until he gives up his accomplice. Vincenzo wants to go find the man alone, but everyone insists on accompanying him, so it’s a group trip.
When they arrive, Vincenzo doesn’t even have to lift a finger – CEO Park, Soo-nam, and Hong-shik eagerly take on the two accomplices themselves. Vincenzo and Cha-young then drop the three men off at the police station and explain what happened.
The men posed as cleaners in CEO Oh’s office and hit him over the head. They snuck him out and took him to Geumga Plaza where they sent the text to frame Vincenzo. After one man lured Vincenzo to the roof, the other two dropped CEO Oh’s body.
Vincenzo and Cha-young even brought the men’s van complete with murder supplies, bloodstains, and dashcam footage for the police. As a precaution, Cha-young announces they’re keeping a copy of the footage.
The next day, the police arrest one of Wusang’s lawyers for aiding and abetting CEO Oh’s murder. Myung-hee and Attorney Han stay silent as he’s led away in handcuffs.
Vincenzo stops by Byebye Balloon to reluctantly thank CEO Park for helping clear his name. As repayment, CEO Park asks Vincenzo to model for their company’s flyers. Vincenzo steadily refuses while nonchalantly posing for CEO Park who snaps shots on his phone.
At Babel, Joon-woo yells at Myung-hee and Attorney Han for all their failed traps for Vincenzo. Han-seo goes on about Vincenzo being invincible and has to duck to avoid the statue Joon-woo tosses at his head.
Myung-hee assures Joon-woo it’ll be fine now that she’s gotten the case transferred to their branch of the prosecution. Joon-woo ignores her and orders Han-seo to go somewhere with him. Ha, Han-seo is all, “Did you see me dodge?!” before he leaves.
Alone, Myung-hee and Attorney Han start arguing about their methods. Attorney Han wants her to talk sense into Joon-woo and stop using Wusang to contract murders. Myung-hee reminds him that he brought her in to clean up after Babel, as if that naturally entails assassination.
After some coffee PPL in the office, Vincenzo and Cha-young head to the hospital for Kyung-ja’s big day out. They let her choose the day’s itinerary and first up is getting her funeral portrait taken.
Before they leave the studio, Cha-young drags Vincenzo over so they can take a group photo. Then, Cha-young shoves Vincenzo next to his mom and insists the two of them take a photo together. Vincenzo and Kyung-ja both blink back tears as he sits with his arm around her. As the photographer snaps a photo, Kyung-ja gives a wide smile.
Outside, Cha-young excuses herself for a “work call,” giving the mother and son some time alone. As Vincenzo pushes her wheelchair, Kyung-ja says it’s the happiest moment of her life. Vincenzo offers to take her for a walk whenever she wants and encourages her to be strong until her retrial.
Kyung-ja admits she lost all hope after sending away her son who was “my everything.” Vincenzo asks why she never looked for him, but she says she looked for years – she was just too late. Kyung-ja hasn’t searched for him recently because she feels she’d be a burden.
Vincenzo assures her that her son wouldn’t feel that way and has surely been waiting for her his whole life. Kyung-ja’s eyes fill with tears as he continues that her son must’ve tried to grow into a strong person so he wouldn’t be ashamed upon meeting her again.
Now Vincenzo is crying as she says that, as a mother, it doesn’t matter. The most precious thing to her is seeing her son smile. If she meets him again, she wants to tell him, “I’m sorry I broke my promise that I’d come for you soon. I haven’t forgotten you for a single day.” Mother and son silently sob.
Elsewhere, Joon-woo stands on a roof across from Guemga Plaza with Han-seo. We flash back to his conversation with Myung-hee where they’d deduced that Vincenzo must be using the Guillotine file. He’d decided to go the usual villain route of “If I can’t have it, no one can.” Now, he snaps a photo of the plaza and tells Han-seo he’s preserving a piece of history.
At Geumga Plaza, a woman arrives to do a gas inspection. Hee-soo notes she’s not the usual inspector, but the woman says she’s taking over for her pregnant colleague. Uh-oh.
Vincenzo and Cha-young get Kyung-ja situated back at the hospital. Before they leave, she first hugs Cha-young and thanks her. Then, she walks over and embraces Vincenzo. After a few moments, he hugs her back.
A man stands guard outside Kyung-ja’s room – Vincenzo hired him in case Shinkwang tries to harass her about the retrial. In the hall, Cha-young says he and his mom looked good together. She advises him to try calling her “mom” once he’s ready.
At Hee-soo’s, Yeon-jin and Cheol-wook proudly show off their baby’s first sonagram. All the tenants, including Vincenzo, join in the celebratory party at Arno’s that night.
Outside, the “inspector” hits a button on a remote. Gas begins to leak in Hee-soo’s restaurant as a timer counts down from five minutes. The gas seeps through the building, but luckily, firetrucks arrive. The tenants hear the sirens and are struck by the smell of gas in the hall.
The firefighters tell the tenants they got a report about a gas leak and instruct everyone to evacuate. Vincenzo follows the firefighters to Hee-soo’s and hears the gas pipe was cut. His eyes go wide when he sees the watch counting down. It’s at 15 seconds.
Vincenzo runs and grabs it out of the firefighter’s hands. He bolts down the hallway and, with five seconds to spare, tosses it out the window of the building. He watches it erupt in flames on the ground when the counter reaches zero.
Thanks to Vincenzo, no one got hurt. They’re all sure this was Babel – it’s similar to what they did to the villa with their researchers. The real question is who reported the leak.
At Babel, Joon-woo instructs Han-seo not to duck and chucks a statue at his head. With blood trickling down his forehead, Han-seo apologizes (looking not at all sorry) and says he never expected firefighters to show up. Uh-huh.
Han-seo promises to think of another “reckless” plan like Joon-woo’s for next time. Someone’s getting gutsy. Joon-woo sends Han-seo out when Myung-hee arrives bearing photos of Kyung-ja in the hospital, brightening Joon-woo’s mood.
At Jipuragi, the team discusses who could’ve reported the gas leak. Han-seo bursts in, and oh my gosh, what an outfit. He “disguised” himself in baggy jeans and a technicolored jacket that makes him look like he jumped out of an ’80s music video.
Han-seo shows off the “battle scar” he got for saving their lives and smiles like a kid all proud of himself when he asks them to guess who reported the leak. He gets a reluctant “thank you” from Cha-young and Joo-sung, but Vincenzo grins without saying a word.
Han-seo follows Vincenzo around the office, petitioning to be allowed in the club now that he’s saved them. Vincenzo finally agrees to accept him, although he doesn’t pinky swear like Han-seo wants him to.
Later, Cha-young suggests they install more security measures at Geumga Plaza in case Babel strikes again, but Vincenzo argues Babel doesn’t have much time left. He tells her he plans to use a small fish to catch the big fish.
While Myung-hee picks up one of her lackeys from prison, Kyung-ja enjoys some fresh air on the hospital grounds. She pulls the picture of her and Vincenzo together out of her pocket and accidently drops it.
Joon-woo picks it up and oh so kindly returns it to her. When he compliments her son’s handsomeness, she’s all smiles. Nearby, the guard watches the exchange.
At Jipuragi, Cha-young catches Vincenzo staring at the pictures they took with his mom. When he gets up to leave, Cha-young stops Joo-sung from going after him.
Back outside the hospital, Joon-woo plays the attentive listener while Kyung-ja tells him about her story with her son. Joon-woo says he’s jealous since he never got to take photos with his parents; his father didn’t love him like Kyung-ja loves her son. When he asks if her son is precious to her, she responds he’s more precious than her life.
At home, Joon-woo tells Myung-hee she’d better have good news for him tonight. Han-seo finds him in a good mood, but Joon-woo won’t tell him what he’s up to. He does take the vitamins Han-seo brings him, though. Han-seo claims his coloring isn’t so hot and his ears are looking huge. Pfft.
Vincenzo buys some bungeoppang before going to visit Kyung-ja. While Kyung-ja sleeps holding the photo of her and Vincenzo, a man comes by saying he has orders to move her to another room. Kyung-ja wakes and finds a man standing over her bed – the guard lies dead on the ground.
The man begins strangling her, and she flatlines. Nooo. On his way up to the room, Vincenzo passes the killer on the stairs. By the time Vincenzo arrives, police are already there and a crowd has gathered outside the room.
Vincenzo sees the bloodstained floor and makes his way into the room. They’ve already pulled a sheet over Kyung-ja’s body. Vincenzo walks forward in shock and drops to the ground. He kneels by her bed and holds her hand.
Cha-young rushes into the security room as Vincenzo watches the CCTV footage from outside of Kyung-ja’s room. Vincenzo recognizes the killer from the stairs and marches out. He asks Cha-young to stay with his mother while he goes after the man who did it. Meanwhile, Joon-woo and Myung-hee celebrate their victory by dancing around his apartment.
After receiving the killer’s identity and address from Team Leader Ahn, Vincenzo loads his gun. (You know he means business when his hair is slicked back.) He rings the doorbell and pushes his way into the house when the man opens the door.
Vincenzo gets ahold of him and repeatedly punches the man in the face until he loses consciousness. When he wakes, the man insists he acted alone – no one ordered the hit. Vincenzo uses his lighter to break the man’s fingers one by one.
Han-seo and Attorney Han are less than pleased upon hearing that Joon-woo had Vincenzo’s mother killed. When Han-seo argues that provoking Vincenzo is a bad idea, Myung-hee scathingly assumes Attorney Han agrees since they’re on the same team. Myung-hee and Joon-woo have been surveilling them and know about their secret meetings.
Outside, Vincenzo makes his hostage lead him to where Joon-woo is. With brutal efficiency, Vincenzo takes out all the guards along the way. Inside, Joon-woo watches satisfied as Myung-hee confronts Han-seo and Attorney Han about their treachery.
The killer bursts in amidst the fighting and begs for them to save him. He’s standing right in front of Myung-hee when two gunshots sound. Vincenzo puts one bullet through the man’s chest and one through his head.
Splattered with man’s blood, Myung-hee shakes in terror. Vincenzo stares coldly, his gun raised in his blood-soaked hand.
COMMENTS
We’ve gotten hints of this dark Vincenzo before, but now he’s not holding back. I’m not sure why Joon-woo thought killing Kyung-ja like that was a good plan. Maybe if he’d taken some precautions to make sure Vincenzo couldn’t come after him like this, he could’ve justified the risk. But he seemed to make no preparations for how to handle a very angry Vincenzo. You’d think after underestimating him over and over, Joon-woo would finally learn. Joon-woo clearly believes he’s invincible, though, and must’ve assumed his guards were enough to protect him if Vincenzo managed to locate him. At the very least, I would’ve expected more of Myung-hee. She’s the brains of this (and every) operation, but I think the power is going to her head and giving her the same god complex as Joon-woo.
I expected Kyung-ja to die, but they had to make it extra tragic by having it happen before Vincenzo got the chance to call her “mom.” I’m glad they did get to talk a little, even if it was in code, and do some mother-son things. She was truly happy in her final days thanks to Vincenzo being in her life again and taking care of her, and Vincenzo can hopefully be more at peace after knowing his mother always loved him and tried to find him. Of course, he’s not going to rest until he gets revenge on everyone involved. We’ve still got four episodes left, so I’d be surprised if he offed Myung-hee and Joon-woo both so quickly. I’m guessing something will go awry, as it usually does. Whatever happens, this war has escalated in a way I’m not sure Joon-woo and Myung-hee are prepared for.
Han-seo is probably super glad he went the extra mile in proving himself to Vincenzo by saving everyone at Geumga Plaza. He might just be spared from Vincenzo’s rampage now. If Vincenzo doesn’t manage to kill Joon-woo this time, Han-seo could be useful as a double agent. He’s gotten a little braver, so I think he might be able to manage it now without giving himself away too easily. Joon-woo already knows he’s not on his side, but I don’t know that he’d expect his “stupid” little brother to team up with Vincenzo directly. Even if Han-seo doesn’t prove overly useful to our team, he’d make a great mascot. He might not have the brains, but he brings the enthusiasm.
I knew Vincenzo would get out of that murder charge Wusang tried to frame him for, but I thought it would take a little longer than 10 minutes of screen time. What even was the point? We already know he’s badass and can Mafia his way out of most every situation. Seeing him scheme and fight his way out of tight spots is fun and all, but it does get repetitive, particularly when it feels superfluous. Since we’re nearing the home stretch, I imagine the last two weeks will be more focused. We’ve still got the gold situation, the Guillotine file, Babel’s destruction, and Vincenzo’s life plan to cover before this is all over. I’m hoping for some epic showdowns and shenanigans in the final episodes because they’ve been teasing Babel’s demise since the start of this series, and I need them to deliver.