Episode 2 of a Heartless City

The 1-2-3 A drama introduction

recap part 2 of 3 | the first 3 episodes 
of a drama in words and pictures

 
Episode 2 :
Only 3 kilos...to hell.
It’s always a nice night for hanging out in Seoul…even if it is off the side of a building —such pretty city lights and all.

A brief step back in time: before Soo and Doc drop in at Scale’s hotel room, they visit their favorite spot to take in the Seoul city lights. The two are standing at the edge of a roof, the Doctor his usual formal self, a stiff figure in dark. Soo’s a little flashier, donning a snazzy blue suit this pleasant evening, and much more at ease. He’s got one foot propped on the ledge and is peering over the drop.

A voice calls up from somewhere below, Soo-ya, I don’t know anything! You know I’m a bad liar. Hey! I might really fall here! HyunSoo, save me! Below, Meth Kim is being dangled off the side of the building by two measly ropes, and he’s freaking out. The Doctor orders curtly, “Cut it.” Soo promptly saws one rope off, and now that Kim’s entire life is at the mercy of one thin strand, he starts begging sloppily and more earnestly for mercy from the Doctor.

“Stop crying. There are no presents for children who cry,” the Doctor says coldly. “Santa gramps knows everything, that tears are only lies, because the good kids have no reason to cry.” Soo moves to cut the second and final rope. Kim starts pleading hysterically. Pull me up, I’ll tell you! “I CAN’T HEAR YOU,” the Doctor snaps angrily. Meth Kim caves as Soo starts cutting through his last lifeline and gives up the hotel name. I’m telling you the truth! Pull me up!

Soo looks to the Doctor for direction, and it isn’t what he wants to hear. Rolling his eyes, he pulls Kim up, but his expression clearly reads: Seriously? Can’t we just drop him?

Ah, remember the time when you threw that cup into my head and made me bleed? Good times… 

The boys walk through the hotel. In the distance the sound of chirpy music can be heard. They kick open the door and Soo greets, “Long time no see!” The Doctor steps in after Soo and faces Scale, “Did you enjoy the music?” Behind him, one of their men sets down chair for their boss. Scale’s son and Meth Kim are taken away, and the Doctor takes his seat, “Let’s continue that conversation we never finished.”

As if an entire day of murder and mayhem hadn’t gone down, as if a bloody hostile takeover wasn’t currently in progress…as if only moments had passed since Scale threw a glass projectile into his head, Doc wants to have a civil conversation between men. Scale won’t take his seat so Soo casually recommends Scale put his ass down, or become a cripple and be forcibly put down. Soo looks like he might prefer the latter way. Scale wisely sits down.

The Doctor informs Scale that he will be taking over leadership and that Scale will be given an allowance for remaining the organization’s puppet leader. Scale scoffs at the notion that he become anybody’s boy on strings. Doc glances meaningfully toward the door where Scale’s son was taken, but even the threat to a son he does love won’t change his mind.

The Doctor comes over to take a seat beside Scale, and leaning in close, says in amusement, “Now why would I kill an innocent when I have such a sinner right here?” He takes a page out of Scale’s nasty father-killing book and tells him, no, his son will live, but he will get to watch while his father is stripped to his tightie whities, made to kneel, then dragged around until nothing is left but a bloody piece of dead meat. Since this is Scale’s favorite game to play, the Doctor is confident Scale doesn’t need too many details on how the rest goes. But he offers anyway, “A father’s screaming and begging for mercy, blood splashing everywhere...what a fantastic memory for a son to keep forever.” 

Scale still tries to keep from pissing his pants, but when Soo and Doc’s lieutenants start heading for the door intending to bring the son back into the room, Scale’s resolve crumbles. Ah, father and sons, and pride, ever a dangerous combination. Defeated by his own game, Scale asks, “What will my allowance be?” 

The Doctor doesn’t even smile at his victory, “Where is the drug manufacturing factory?”

This woman…is a mega ballbuster. 

It’s even later into the (same?) night, and a well-heeled woman is walking up the stairs to what appears to be a fancy restaurant. Another car pulls up in the parking lot as she’s making her way toward the entrance. An older gentleman steps out, calling after her excitedly. She turns, eyes narrowing at his approach. “Wow! It’s my YiSeul, it’s been so long!” the older man declares happily. He moves in for a hug but she wants him to get his old fart smell away from her, it might rub off. 

Oh, and he’ll be saying farewell to his tongue if he ever calls her “YiSeul” again. Old friends, then, sort of—old acquaintances anyway. She’s not very nice about it, and the remarks are hardly delivered in a joking manner, but it’s clear that this is her normal cool self, and the older man, Chairman Nang, seems very familiar and appreciative of her sass...and ass.

When Nang’s henchman tries to get involved, calling her an insolent bitch, the older man holds him back, and consolingly tells Chairman Lee that he’s merely trying to convey that he’s happy to see her again. Lee JinSook prefers a more modern form of address such as President or CEO Lee. And she also remembers to give Nang’s minion a swift kick in the shin for daring to call her a bitch. As she turns away, the lecherous Chairman Nang looks at her swaying backside fondly.

When a woman looks at a man the way JinSook looks at the Doc—part maternal, part predatory—guaranteed there’s love there, and a dangerous kind of love, at that.

When she sashays in, the Doctor is already there waiting, having a cup of coffee. He rises from his seat to greet her, and with an affectionate embrace, smoothly slips a diamond choker around her neck. She’s delighted and surprised by this suave, flirtatious side he’s showing off tonight. First, to ask her to meet at a nice place like this, and a gift, too? What’s the occasion? “I have nowhere else to spend my money,” he deflects glibly.

Less charmed by his response than of the necklace, she places a hand on his chest, leans in seductively, and whispers in his ear, “In a moment like this, instead of some meaningless comment, you’re supposed to kiss me.” The Doctor raises a brow, and half chuckles as he pulls away, for the advance is not taken seriously, and perhaps, it is not taken for the first time either. What is the relationship between these two? Afterall, teasing is only but a light-hearted skimming of a truth.

And in a perfectly timed interruption, Chairman Nang from outside walks in to see JinSook giggling in enjoyment of her own brazen teasing of the younger man. The two break apart and the Doc greets the newest arrival warmly. Soo waltzes in soon thereafter. Not even remotely close to a romantic rendez-vous between a man and woman, it appears, but purely business. 

It’s immediately clear Soo and JinSook don’t like each other, for reasons yet-to-be fully explained, but there is sexual tension, jealousy, and promise in the air. JinSook warns Soo, with a hint of malice, that the younger man really should watch himself around the ladies.

He in turn wonders aloud that since a plastic surgeon has fixed everything else, is there nothing to be done about that twisted tongue of hers? When they seem likely to continue the bickering, Doc puts a halt to it before JinSook can respond. “Auntie,” he chides her, and JinSook quickly turns to the Doc and scolds him playfully, but firmly, “No. It’s noona.”

Busan. Oh, shit. 

They get down to the reason for the meeting. “Is it true you’re holding Scale?” Nang wants to know. Doc confirms it; they also know the location of the drug factory, but there is only two months worth of product left. And that isn’t even the bad news. Turns out, Scale was only partly involved in the actual drug production. He refined the drugs, but his source for the raw goods was Busan. Judging by the dropping of jaws and the widening of eyes around the table, especially by Nang and JinSook, this is clearly not a pleasant or welcomed twist. The Doctor says, “So now you have to tell me everything you two know about Busan.”

Safari Moon 

And they have very good reason to be concerned. All the way down south in Busan, the Doctor’s Son and his usurping activities have not gone unnoticed. Through yet another moodily lit hideaway that practically announces “criminal enterprise going on down here,” a man makes his way through. He exudes the mien of a veteran gangster. He’s dressed in a suit that doesn’t quite look right on him over an outmoded shirt, there’s a swaggering to his gait, and he is effortlessly menacing, with a whole lotta patches of rough around the edges. When he arrives at the hushed dining hall smothered in velvety crimson curtains, he greets the older man having his dinner, addresses him respectfully as “President.” 

The older man acknowledges him in low, even tones as he continues to eat his steak dinner, “How have you been these days, Safari Moon?” The new arrival sits down at the large table that suffers only two chairs, one at the head for the President, and one for the minion summoned. The President gets to the point. Safari’s been asked to come because there’s a problem, and that problem is named the Doctor’s Son.

The problem’s identity triggers a shifting of the other man’s expression and the President correctly interprets that to mean there is recognition of the name. He asks quietly, “How do you know him?” Safari fences away from the question, claiming it’s not so great a connection actually. His boss tells him seriously, “It’s time to sever that connection. Completely and cleanly.” Driving to Seoul, Safari gets lost in some long buried memories…

The Doctor’s Son

It’s raining cats and dogs. It’s another night, as some types of people only seem to move around when its all neon and darkness. A less polished and more raggedy version of Safari Moon is making his way through a gang-controled red light district. He’s greeted by the prostitutes who sit out on their doorsteps waiting for callers. Hiya! Did you eat? Long time no see. He greets them all back in a friendly and familiar manner. 

He ends his journey at one particular stoop where a very much younger JinSook is playing cards with a minor, a young boy, who is all smiles and wide eyes. Safari takes a seat beside JinSook and watches the game already underway, watches as the kid keeps winning hand after hand.

Knowing perfectly well that it might annoy Safari, who is clearly not just a platonic friend, JinSook sorta-flirtatiously asks the boy, “ShiHyun-ah, you wanna have a date with your little auntie this weekend? How about Lotte World?” ShiHyun lights up, a big grin on his innocent face, but actually he’d rather go see a war movie than go to the amusement park. She agrees immediately. Safari glances at JinSook, then settles his gaze on the boy, his expression shrewd. JinSook brags that ShiHyun is so smart, he was a master at math even before starting school. In fact, he’s good at everything.

Safari laughs and thinks aloud that perhaps ShiHyun’s unknown daddy (who was one of his ‘working’ mom’s anonymous johns) was a smarty-pants, someone with some sort of doctorate maybe? With his saturi accent making his words sound even more wry, he enthusiastically spins a story, “This guy who planted his seed then ran off, was he a doctor? He was! That makes you the Doctor’s Son! That’s who you are!” He gives the kid a high-five. And now we finally have a name, a real human being’s name, to attach to the man who started a drug civil war in Seoul.

Back in the present night, a car is speeding ahead toward the impending collision of people about to happen. A highway sign overhead announces the way to Seoul, and Safari Moon smiles at the reunion to come. And it is not a good smile.

Seriously. 

ShiHyun, aka the Doctor’s Son, walks to the hotel elevator with HyunSoo, who is fretting. Soo thinks he should be going instead because it might be a trap. Doc counters that’s exactly why he’s the one going, besides, Soo is the only one he trusts to watch Scale. As the elevator door closes between them, Soo looks down at his feet, clearly unhappy with the arrangement.

But the doors slide back open. ShiHyun levels a look at the other man’s gloomy face and says, “Seriously.” Soo breaks into a reluctant grin, and answers the inside joke, his favorite turn of phrase, “Seriously.” The door closes again, but in the elevator, ShiHyun is also smiling.

If there was any doubt, it is cleared away. This is a genuine brotherhood, not just an alliance of opportunity for two power hungry upstarts. These two young men really are friends, and there is a strong bond between them. The kind of messy pretzel knot that comes with a promise that they would die for one another. And the frightening thing is, these are not just empty sorts of promises, in the world they exist, these are the sorts of expensive sacrifices taken every day.

No one likes it when a past rings up out of nowhere and proceeds to be a bigger smartass than oneself. 

Soo is passing the time by playing cards with his men in the hotel room where Scale and his son are sitting anxiously on a sofa in the background. Waiting is the worst part of every game. When Soo gets a call from his girlfriend HyeSoo, he happily rushes out to take the booty call. 

On the road, ShiHyun is just noticing a cell phone thrown in the backseat beside him. Warily, he picks it up, and doesn’t seem surprised when it starts to ring. The voice on the other line says conversationally, “It’s been a while. How’s life been treating you?” It’s Safari Moon and he’s strolling into an elevator while making the call. ShiHyun snarks back that he’s managed to stay alive, and while his voice betrays none of it, our normally composed man is visibly rattled by the call from his past. 

Safari waxes nostalgic for bit about the good old days of drug trafficking, which ShiHyun snidely acknowledges that, yes, it’s thanks to all the drug lord sunbaes that came before that the young upstarts like himself are doing so well. Then Safari gets to the point, “Let Scale go.” I can’t do that, ShiHyun automatically says. Safari responds the obvious, “Then you’ll die.”

But since they’re old friends, Safari offers to just say hello this time around, and says wryly, “No need to get overwhelmed with gratitude or anything.” And hangs up. Realization dawns and ShiHyun shouts, “Turn the car around. RIGHT NOW!”

Soo, sweetie, remember JinSook warned you about the ladies being a danger to you…do you suppose she’s psychic, or just a traiterous bitch who hates your guts? 

Soo skips into the designated nookie room looking for his girlfriend HyeSoo and is immediately jumped by a couple of thugs.

In the streets, ShiHyun’s car makes a reckless U-turn and gets smashed viciously by another car, sending his vehicle flying and flipping onto its side.

In the hotel room, Meth Kim, who only recently had been subjected to some unwanted fresh air off the side of a building thanks to Soo and ShiHyun, smiles a vengeful sneer as he unsheathes a long blade. “You bastard!” Soo hisses as Kim plunges the knife into his stomach. He falls to his knees, grabbing his spilling guts.

At the crash site, ShiHyun stirs awake disoriented. With difficulty, he pulls himself out the window of his mangled car. Still woozy, he also falls to his knees in a daze. He knows he must get to Soo before Safari does. Both men are on the ground, bleeding and beaten, and miles away from helping the other.

Hotel: With Soo down, Kim then stalks toward HyeSoo, who actually is in the suite and has been fearfully peeking out from the bedroom. As Kim approaches with the already bloodied blade, she begs, “I did everything you told me to do!” Her executioner smiles as he grabs her from behind when she tries to flee. It is his opinion that, well, “A bitch should die with her bastard.”

Streets: Sirens are heard closing in on the car accident. When the police arrive, ShiHyun points them toward the overturned car, telling them that the car’s driver is still in the wreckage…and when the officers turn away from him, he takes off in their car. Fighting his blurry vision and dizziness, with no care to what injuries he might have sustained, ShiHyun rushes to save his friend.

Always, bros before hoes. 

Scale is long gone and Soo and ShiHyun’s men are down. He finds Soo on the floor, but thankfully Kim did a sloppy job of the gutting and Soo is still alive, although barely. Stabbed in the stomach, blood everywhere, he’s slowly bleeding out to his death. ShiHyun reaches for him when a hand grabs at him.

Traiterous galpal HyeSoo has crawled over. “Save me, save me,” she pleads. The choice is no choice at all. ShiHyun coldly shrugs her off and rushes Soo to the emergency room on his back.

Shoving cash into the doctor’s hands, he says desperately, “This patient’s life…think of it as your own!” There’s no hint of obvious threat in ShiHyun’s voice, but from a doctor’s point of view, no doubt it is implied.

Soo survives his injuries and ShiHyun manages to sneak him out of the hospital before uniformed officers arrive to question them. Back at the hideout, Soo’s second in command is furious and wants to find the people who did this and exact immediate retribution. ShiHyun’s own thoughts are not too dissimilarly inclined and he storms out, seemingly with a destination in mind.

Just sit wherever. 
As long as it’s not in this room. 

Back at the dine and death throne room, the big chair has been uprighted again, but when Scale tries to take his seat, Meth Kim is there to shove him away. Safari strolls in and takes the boss-chair for himself. “What’s the big deal?” Safari says at Scale’s seat-ousted outrage. His tone is falsely courteous, “Just sit wherever.” When Scale moves to take another seat, Kim follows to kick that chair out from under him as well. Safari murmurs, “Ah, but I guess there is no longer a seat for you here.” 

Scale demands to talk to President Jo, but Safari chides him, obviously if Safari had to travel all the way to Seoul, he was sent by Busan. This isn’t his own idea, after all, he’s only a minion. This is the President’s idea. Scale realizes how deep of a shitpile he’s in, and falls to his knees. And Safari magnanimously tells him how he will survive the situation—Scale is going to turn himself into the police and blame everything, the entire operation, on the Doctor’s Son and let the Special Unit bring the bastard down.

So who’s powerful enough to get someone like Scale scrambling to the cops? 

The SIU’s Team Leader Ji HyungMin arrives at the sushi joint where Scale is scarfing down raw tuna like it’s his last meal. Well, it is in a way, as he knows this will be his last meal in a long while as a free man. HyungMin wants to know what’s making a bigshot like Scale suddenly turn himself in like a sniveling coward. Is it because he’s afraid of the Doctor’s Son? Scale absolutely agrees with HyungMin’s train of thought: “Yes. I’m doing this to save myself.” And he hands over a USB flash drive chock full of manufactured data implicating the Doctor’s Son as the criminal mastermind behind the entire drug organization.

Back at the SIU headquarters, the crew is understandably having a bit of a hard time wrapping their intelligent heads around the convenience of this intel. None of the ‘proof’ actually really substantiates Scale’s all encompassing claims that this Doctor’s Son is in charge of everything. But HyungMin says they already know the man is dangerous and they know he’s a significant player, so he’s the closest thing they have right now to getting at the core of this organization so they’ll act on the info, even though it smells a little fishy.

Oh, one more thing, he mentions that Detective Lee will no longer be a part of the field work, but in research only, sorting and sifting through information. Not surprisingly, KyungMi is incensed at being put behind a desk, but HyungMin won’t budge. “Have you even once thought about how I must feel?” he argues back. It does little to defuse her fuming.

Whatever the motive, a betrayal is still a betrayal, isn’t it? 

JinSook is sitting at home in her lavish surroundings nursing an afternoon drink. She’s upset about something, lost in thought. A knock melodically announces a visitor at her door. Safari Moon practically skips into the room. “We agreed you wouldn’t come here,” she snaps at him. When was this? Years ago? Or days ago? Safari instead suggests they share a drink for old time’s sake.

As he enjoys his grudgingly given drink, he studies her, then tsks knowingly, “Oh…is that a hint of regret I see on your face? You won’t last very long in this business if you hold onto your regrets.” Safari goes on to say that JinSook knows as well as he does how President Jo operates, he won’t be satisfied until he sees the Doctor’s ashes flying in the wind. She warns him seriously, “Don’t touch ShiHyun. Promise me.”

He reaches over and caresses her upper thigh. “That will depend on you…” A phone call interrupts them: “Hyung-nim has arrived.” JinSook tells Safari to leave because the Doctor’s here. “See you again,” Safari practically sings as he exits.

“I heard Soo got hurt. Is he dead?” Oh, snap. Wrong move, sister. You never were the better card player, even when ShiHyun was half your height. 

ShiHyun enters through a different door. He left Soo’s bedside furious...and came straight to JinSook. Hardly a good sign. JinSook greets him warmly, “ShiHyun-ah, what brings you here in the middle of the day without calling first?” The use of his real name makes him pause. He asks why she’s tossing out old things from the past all of a sudden? So it’s unusual for her to use his name, which makes it noteworthy to a suspicious man like the Doctor. “It’s only the two of us here,” she defends lightly. He shrugs out of his jacket, says simply, “Don’t.” She relents, “Alright…Doc. Happy?” Then she adds offhandedly, but cattily, “I heard Soo got hurt. Is he dead?”

If looks could kill, this one would definitely at least maim. ShiHyun spears her with a frozen stare, it is cold, controlled, and it is also full of judgment. If JinSook is testing whether ShiHyun cares more for her or Soo, she may not like the answer. Instead of responding to the question, ShiHyun updates her on the events so far. Scale has turned himself in to the new narcotics task force and offered them a better name to chase: the Doctor’s Son. Basically, Busan is sending a message. They won’t do business with ShiHyun and they’re using the police to catch him. JinSook wants him to leave town, hide in Japan, but ShiHyun assures, “The police will never be able to catch me.”

Well, there’s your answer, madam, he loves you, but he loves the guy who always watches his back a little bit more. 

“No word from him?” ShiHyun asks, oh-so casually.
“Who?” Too innocently.
ShiHyun won’t look at her directly. He sips his drink, looking at the amber liquid swirling in the glass in his hand. “Safari-ahjussi, of course. Who else would be called to this stage now that Scale is gone?” ShiHyun knows damn well that Safari has a spy among them. The man went into the hotel to grab Scale and take out Soo as soon as ShiHyun left. “It’s most likely someone the closest to Safari,” ShiHyun concludes, and finally looks up at her.

“Are you suspecting ME?” JinSook exclaims in perfect outrage. She meets his gaze unflinchingly. “Why would I? I’ve cut ties with him a long time ago!” ShiHyun looks away from her again and starts laughing, and it’s a strained sound, more hysterical than anything.

Right, right, he agrees dryly, why would his noona do that? But he raises a finger as he finishes off his drink and explains to her that unfortunately people are really not that easily figured out. There’s a double-edged meaning to his words. Does the comment apply to her, or to him?

He abruptly stops his strange, hollow laughter by violently smashing his empty glass into the coffee table, the shards splintering under his palm. JinSook jerks in her seat, staring at ShiHyun’s bloody hand in the broken glass. She’s startled by this unexpected show of violence by him.

He looks her straight in the eye, and vows, “Whoever did that to Soo—I will NEVER forgive it.” It’s pretty clear that there is more certainty than doubt that she sold Soo out for dead.

As she pulls her hair back, JinSook’s hand trembles ever so slightly. ShiHyun leaves, but on his way out, he tells one of his men, “Watch her carefully.”

Two yellow cards equal to an automatic red; Halibut is no longer a player on this pitch. 

In the interrogation room, HyungMin names organizational front after dirty organizational front used to wash narcotics money, including—he scoffs at the sick irony—a drug rehabilitation center. Scale keeps insisting all the money went to the Doctor’s Son. He knows nothing about the money laundering end, and jokes that he doesn’t even launder his own clothes. According to Scale, even the meetings captured in the incriminating pictures Prosecutor Ahn gave HyungMin were all done because he was following orders that came directly from the Doctor’s Son.

HyungMin gets nowhere at all playing word games with Scale, and things becomes even less transparent when news arrives that supposedly Park TaeSoo, aka Halibut, committed suicide in his hospital room, completely stopping any prosecution case of money laundering in regards to Donghae Construction. Later, HyungMin confides to Director Min that he finds all of this suspicious. Scale’s been blaming everything on the Doctor’s Son and now Park is dead, the only person that can verify or deny Scale’s version of the truth. He’s certain that Park’s death was no suicide. HyungMin is even more certain someone very powerful is pulling strings, someone powerful enough to have Park killed while in police custody and even get a guy like Scale to turn himself in and blame everything on one specific designated person, in this case, the Doctor’s Son.

Team Leader Ji sure hates his father’s guts, but to be fair, Commissioner Ji does smell mighty dirty. He stinks even more than Prosecutor Ahn—Ahn smells like scavenger, but his father smells like a predator. 

HyungMin meets up for lunch with his father to ask why the Prosecutor’s Office never brought Scale to justice even with all the evidence they had against him. They knew he was a dirty rat. The head of the Prosecutor’s Office, Commissioner Ji, won’t tell anything to a mere police officer, but if his son came back to his side to work as a prosecutor, he could learn that answer.

“So you can turn me into my brother?” HyungMin retorts angrily. Team Leader Ji HyungMin is not exactly a calm person in the best of circumstances, but he’s even more agitated than usual in the presence of his daddy. “That person paved his own path,” is the cold response, which doesn’t make Commissioner Ji seem any less a creep. HyungMin counters exactly so, that only a heartless man like Commissioner Ji would refer to his very own son as “that person,” just as he probably treated his mother as a stranger, too.

Apparently KangMin, his older brother, is currently under 24-hour care at a rehabilitation center after frying his brains out on a drug overdose. The circumstances are not clarified, but what is frighteningly clear is that HyungMin’s chase for the drug lords that push narcotics into Seoul is a very personal war, and he’ll stop at nothing to see this to the end. He has vowed to his broken brother, “I am going to kill all the drug pushers who made you this way!”

Seems like Safari is actually going through a great deal of trouble to get the Doctor’s Son in jail, and not just plain dead. Some affection still leftover for that little boy perhaps? 

Two new arrivals from Busan show up to help carry out the end game in Safari’s master plan to bring the Doctor’s Son down. EunSoo and Tooth arrive in very cheerful spirits, eager to participate in some big city crime games. They are as giddy as children playing dress up. Safari catches them up quick to the sting: the Doctor has the means for distribution, but he has no way of securing more product with Busan. His crew should be getting pretty desperate right about now.

And sure enough, the cell phones in ShiHyun’s desk are ringing angrily and JinSook is frantic about their dry state. Furthermore, Safari explains, Scale is currently well-placed in police custody and enthusiastically digging the Doctor’s grave. He’s singing to all who would listen about the Doc’s criminal enterprises. Safari has it all planned out right down to the final climactic moment.

They’ll set up a meet between their designated drug dealer and their victims—JinSook and the Doctor—and when the drugs and money are all laid out for easy incrimination, Ji HyungMin’s Special Unit will show up to scoop everybody up in one big net. This will give those narcotics cops something to brag about, satisfy their hunger to bring down some drug lords, and more importantly, clean up this whole Seoul mess with minimum fuss.

And best of all, it’ll all get done without a single drop of blood spilled. EunSoo asks the obvious question, so who’s going to be their drug dealer, the unfortunate bait that’ll be transporting these drugs right to the cops?

3 kilos to hell 

Safari pays a visit to Meth Kim at his factory hideout and briefs him on his role in the final portion of the game, but tells him a very abbreviated version of the plan, in that, Kim knows practically nothing about the real operation. Meth Kim will meet with Scale’s ex-lover, get the 3 kilos of drugs from her, then give it to Lee JinSook and the Doctor’s Son.

Meth Kim is a master at keeping his own skin safe and catches on pretty quick that it sounds like he’s the bait to lure an angry Doctor out. He rips off a piece of chopstick and chews on it thoughtfully. Safari says, “Look, just go in, do a spin, and you can have Scale’s seat when you come out.” Kim agrees to do it only if Safari will guarantee it’ll be Kim on the king’s throne when it’s all done. Safari assures him.

Betrayal upon betrayal…whatever happened to honor among thieves? 

The leering old timer crime boss Nang-ahjussi brings JinSook a new possible broker for some good product. It’s Tooth, Safari’s man. All of this guy smells untrustworthy and greasy, from the tips of his hair to his leather jacket to his silver chains. The guy immediately tries to get inappropriately touchy with JinSook, who asks casually, “Would you like to try wiping your ass without any hands?” 

Fine then. Tooth gets onto business, spinning a yarn about the choice North Korean product he’s got a line on. There was some misunderstanding between the Labor Party and the triad and now he’s got drugs, but nowhere to distribute. JinSook’s willing to give him a try and tells him to arrange the buy.

Tooth wants to have some celebratory hanky panky sexy times with JinSook, but she calls one of her prettiest girls to entertain him, for a deal well struck. And the lovely woman that walks in…is a young lady we’ve met before…it is SooMin’s friend JooYoung, the girl who had forgotten to take her cell phone to work.

Kim EunSoo: and we have a bonafide sociopath in the games now. Always like it when badass women come out to play, even if they are playing for the other side.

KyungMi is going through police reports from various narcotics busts and stumbles onto one that she’s meant to stumble onto, according to Safari’s plan. Working off an anonymous tip, a woman named Kim EunSoo claiming to be Scale’s lover was picked up recently with 3 kilos of powder. She’s told the cops that she needs to deliver it to a man named the Doctor’s Son. KyungMi personally goes to collect the witness.

The sociopath EunSoo is doing a pretty convincing job of playing a pitiful woman fallen in love with the wrong man. The cops all mostly fall for it, especially the men who are impressed by her pretty looks…except, of course, our always suspicious HyungMin, who smells a set up. On the interrogation table, the woman’s cell phone starts ringing but EunSoo claims she’s too afraid to answer it because the Doctor’s Son is supposed to be a “monster.” In a flashback, we see that Safari has directed EunSoo that her primary goal while in police custody is to make sure the cops make it to the drug exchange.

EunSoo keeps playing the fear card and KyungMi, to HyungMin’s dismay, grabs the insistent phone before anyone can stop her. “Sister-in-law?” Meth Kim’s voice asks. Who is this? Meth Kim says he’s the Doctor’s family and tells her it’s time to meet since she has something of theirs that needs returning. Naturally, KyungMi’s immediate instinct is the desire to go undercover as EunSoo to the arranged meet. HyungMin resists the idea of sending his woman into such a dangerous situation but KyungMi argues that the witness is too shaken up to participate. She can do this! Besides, he’ll be watching over her. What could go wrong?

Woe, you stupid cops, play your damn part and stay stupid, stop trying to outsmart the script! Ironically, in this case, playing dumb may have saved more lives. 

HyungMin decides he needs to verify that this overly convenient witness is legit. He pays Scale a visit in prison. The wily ex-crime boss has already been briefed on the basic layout of the plan so he croons about the prettiness of his lady love even in a picture. HyungMin leaves smugly satisfied. We see on his way out that the picture was of another female cop, and not the witness at all.

When Scale updates Safari about Team Leader Ji HyungMin’s visit (a crooked guard casually hands him a cell phone to make the call), Safari immediately asks, “Was there a mole beneath her chin?” Scale doesn’t know anything about any beauty mark. Safari grits his teeth in annoyance at the damn dedication of these cops. He crows in annoyance, “Ji HyungMin!”

No thanks to your being such a damn good cop, HyungMin, more people might die. 

HyungMin’s back in the interrogation room and he’s got EunSoo pinned against the wall. He wants to know what kind of bigshot bastard has 3 kilos of drugs to throw away all to take down the Doctor’s Son? Who is her boss? Who sent her? He chokes her, and is pretty convincing in his anger, but she’s a pro (and a psycho), so she just won’t break character. HyungMin snarls, “Do you really think the police are so easy to manipulate?”

Go to Episode 3 recaps!