Pride and Prejudice: Complicated … Relationships

Gosh, as if the last week(s)’ few tangled cases are not enough, this week’s case is AGAIN related to the entire mess. AND the mess is related to Han Yeol-moo’s family (and the death — or non-death? — of her dongseang). (tears hair out)

Synopsis

It all started with Prosecutor Lee Jang-won (Choi Woo-shik) and his subpar dealing with a plaintiff (Ko Young-min). Prosecutor Moon dumps a huge amount of work on his team, in the bid to make them forget about dealing with Yoon-hee + Ah-reum + Man-shik‘s cases. Jang-won receives a case where a young man (Young-min) has filed a total of 22 complaints against Daehan Bank (a big banking corporation), and other govt agencies. During the interview, Jang-won belittles Young-min, telling him right out that he isn’t good enough to work in Daehan Bank, and that’s why he is rejected in favour of another man (Joo Sang-wook). Young-min insists that Daehan Bank practises corrupt hiring, and leaves in a huff. On his way out, he sees Jang-won drives off and tails him to a club. While Jang-won is busy partying with Detective Yoo Gwang-mi, Young-min takes away Jang-won’s briefcase, which contains files of other lawsuits he is working on. Panicking, Jang-won and Gwang-mi give chase but lose him. They try to persuade Young-min to return the case files, but Young-min tells them to look into his cases and indict the parties involved first.

Given Jang-won’s ineptitude, he asks Dong-chi for help… and that’s when the relationship with last week’s cases start. Apparently, Joo Sang-wook is a relative of the sleazy plastic surgeon, and also related to officials who are suspected of corruption. When the team brings this up to Prosecutor Moon, he is naturally wary of pursuing the case. Dong-chi, however, questions Prosecutor Moon later and asks him why he particularly chose this case for Jang-won, knowing full well the relationships between this and the previous cases. Prosecutor Moon doesn’t answer.

And now for the link between the cases, Prosecutor Moon, and Yeol-moo’s brother — Han Byul. Dong-chi manages to convince Yeol-moo that he isn’t Byul’s murderer, by kissing Yeol-moo. (i’m serious. but then, it’s Choi Jin-hyuk) He also reveals the evidence he has gathered on Byul’s case since he became a prosecutor. However, before he can complete investigation, someone uses the name of Prosecutor Choi (the lead prosecutor in Byul’s case) to seal and close the case. All evidence and files are also destroyed. Yeol-moo also compares notes with Dong-chi, on where Byul is last seen. When Dong-chi brings Yeol-moo to his father’s house to show her the shoe he has picked up years ago at the factory, Yeol-moo says it doesn’t belong to Byul. Which leads both to suspect that Byul isn’t dead. And what is more fishy is Byul’s body was severely burnt beyond recognition. Plus, before Yeol-moo’s parents can agree to an autopsy, the body was cremated.

And the link between Byul and Prosecutor Moon: Prosecutor Moon goes for a dinner one night, and 3 other prosecutors are also present. They are Prosecutor Choi (that same prosecutor who is in charged of Byul’s case), a Prosecutor Oh and a potential candidate for the next Chancellor for the District Attorney Office (a Director Lee). Prosecutor Oh seems the sneaky type, and we learn later he is involved with the sleazy plastic surgeon and may be also one of the officials who closed Byul’s case secretly. Director Lee later meets with Prosecutor Moon and makes reference to THAT case years ago, and warns him to keep an eye on Yeol-moo/ Dong-chi. However, Director Lee also hints to Prosecutor Moon that he should rock the boat a little, in order to shake his competitors off. Director Lee’s competitors to the Chancellor position happen to be those corrupt officials related to Yoon-hee/ Ah-reum/ Man-shik/ Young-min’s cases. Thus, the next morning, Prosecutor Moon recalls the team for a meeting and approves their proposals to investigate the suspects.

As for poor Jang-won, he gets his case files Fedex-ed back to him. But not before Young-min leads him and Gwang-mi on a wild goose chase around town for them. Well, the upside of putting Jang-won through Hell has the effect of maturing him — and giving him courage. He bravely kisses Gwang-mi (whom he had a crush on) and confesses to her that evening. 🙂

If the intertwined stories are not confusing enough…

…the relationships (and potential relationships) may juz kill you.

A) Kang-soo

On the surface, he plays the second male lead aiming for Yeol-moo’s affections. However, certain incidents in eps8/9 strongly hint that his relationship to Yeol-moo may run deeper than potential lovers.

Kang-soo MAY be Han Byul.

Kang-soo has been having recurring nightmares ever since his arrest. It may be cos he fell into the water with Panda, or it may be he nearly drowned in the past. And I link it to Dong-chi’s recollection of seeing the boy (whom he assumed to be Byul) getting dunked in a barrel of water in his dad’s factory.

Also, Kang-soo doesn’t have parents. Or he can’t remember them. Although he claims to be older than Yeol-moo by a year, he may not actually know his birthday — if he is adopted by Granny, that is. Yeol-moo’s mum also has a strange affinity with him. Most importantly, when he receives the case file on Byul from Dong-chi, certain facts trigger memories buried within. Byul’s reported missing date is his birthday. And he has a yellow jacket which Byul is seen wearing on the day he went missing.

But it’d be quite sad for Kang-soo if Yeol-moo turns out to be his noona. (that poor puppy — he juz declared war with Dong-chi to gain Yeol-moo’s affection)

B) Jung Chang-gi

And that leads to the strange relationship Chang-gi (the itinerant jail bird) has with Kang-soo. Kang-soo really treats Chang-gi as a form of surrogate dad, even paying up a 2m won settlement for him. We learn in ep6 that Chang-gi was actually a prosecutor in the past too — and his sunbae is Prosecutor Moon. One night, when he was driving Prosecutor Moon home, Chang-gi fell asleep at the wheel and killed a pedestrian. Prosecutor Moon was the one who placed him in jail.

However, at the tail end of ep9, we see that there is another witness to Chang-gi’s road accident — Byul. I suspect that Prosecutor Moon and Chang-gi tried to cover up the accident, but due to complications from Byul as a witness, and possible threats by Prosecutor Oh, Prosecutor Moon had to indict Chang-gi.

C) Prosecutor Moon

Dong-chi suspects that a prosecutor is behind Byul’s murder, and a high ranking one at that. Although I do hope Prosecutor Moon is a straight arrow, he is really too sly and cunning to be the 100% good guy. Ep9 strongly hints that Prosecutors Moon, Oh and Choi (and Director Lee) are privy to some secret case that happened years ago.

My speculations at the moment: Chang-gi’s road accident was witnessed by Byul, and Prosecutor Moon (or someone) tried to cover it up by killing the boy. Unfortunately, the almost-murder didn’t happen. Either Byul escaped, or someone (Chang-gi?) rescued him where Dong-chi failed. The cover up was possibly discovered by Prosecutor Oh. Another child probably died in the place of Byul, and if Chang-gi was the one who rescued Byul, he might be suffering from guilt for causing Byul to have memory loss and thus, adopted him as a son. The adoption papers are used to blackmail Moon and Chang-gi in the present day, as a warning to stop helping Director Lee attain the Chancellor’s seat.