My opinion of Soo Bin has definitely softened, while Joong Do’s behavior only seems to get worse with each new episode.
Read Last Week’s Episode Review.
The Perfect Secret
When Woo Jae is leaving the hospital after threatening Ki Young into revealing the land speculation evidence, he overheard a conversation nearby. It was a group of people around his age lamenting the death of their fellow peer’s child due to drowning (or suicide) in the nearby Han River.
Ji Hoon allegedly died due to intoxication, supposedly committing suicide in the Han River. However, this still doesn’t quite add up.
As soon as Ji Hoon got out of jail, he was texting someone.
Many of the messages between Ji Hoon and Soo Bin look incomplete, or even purposefully deleted.
Ji Hoon apparently brought meth but Soo Bin had no clue he was someone who would do drugs, and even admitted that he wasn’t a scumbag who would sexually assault someone.
JD has memories of meeting Ji Hoon in the bar he met Soo Bin in during this episode, where JD was asking Ji Hoon where Soo Bin was as he hadn’t seen her all day.
Nam Joong Do seems all too content to pin all and any criminal activity on his son, yet secretly visits his grave and during a car conversation with Woo Jae admitted that the drugs were most likely not Ji Hoon’s, but did not yet understand why he had them.
Joong do and Woo Jae even seem to want this bill pushed forward not to get justice for Ms. Jo’s granddaughter or his wife, but to possibly pin Ji Hoon’s “death” on Soo Bin – his alleged girlfriend at the time.
Given Woo Jae’s line to one of the party secretaries about “the perfect secret” existing, I am still betting on the fact that Woo Jae, Joong Do, or even JD had a hand in Ji Hoon’s death.
Is Joong Do a Master Manipulator?
Joong Do has shown himself to be a very selfish and manipulative man. As a politician I guess to a certain degree it was to be expected, but as Hye Ju is slowly realizing – there appears to be no difference between his public and private personas.
Hye Ju often made Joong Do vegetable juice in the morning before he left to work. After stepping on his “forgotten” assemblyman pin twice, the juice was soon crushed under his campaign vehicle. Days later, Hye Ju fell apart in the kitchen after her history in Youngsan came to light, spilling the vegetable juice she made for Joong Do.
In this episode, Hye Ju meets with two of Joong Do’s secretaries who are secretly dating. They order 6 coffees in the café, and Hye Ju requests they change one order to a tea as her husband does not drink coffee. The young female secretary assures Hye Ju he does, and explains that Joong Do shared her personal history with them (without her consent).
When Joong Do shows up at the café, the married couple talk and Joong Do pretends to accept the tea as if it were what he normally drank. However, he leaves the tea in front of Hye Ju and when returning to the office, demands coffee after glaring at the staffers who spilled the beans to his wife.
A huge point in this drama’s story was that Hye Ju did not involve herself in politics. It was even a condition the couple set together, despite Joong Do already accepting the offer without first consulting Hye Ju. This pattern seems to have gone on for 7 – 8 years, with Hye Ju living in an insular, fabricated world far from the reality of her husband’s personality and political ambition.
Despite not wanting to go on TV, Joong Do has even resorted to using their daughter to coax Hye Ju into sharing her story while Lee Yoo Shin is hospitalized. Whether or not Joong Do told Yoon Seo about her mother’s history in anticipation for this moment of manipulation remains to be seen.
Did Ji Hoon Know Soo Bin Was Pregnant?
Soo Bin reveals this episode that the father of her unborn child was not Nam Ji Hoon, but her pimp/ “boyfriend” JD. In earlier scenes, Woo Jae alluded to the fact that Ji Hoon may not be the father, and many fans speculated that meant it was Joong Do – as were the initials of Soo Bin’s JD tattoo.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
However, we did have that weird scene where Woo Jae asked Joong Do if there is anything else he should know about his relationship with Soo Bin – implying that he may have slept with her. Given that we’ve seen JD use Soo Bin to aid in his extortion of assemblymen and their secretaries, we cannot count out that Soo Bin may have been “loaned” to high-ranking business officials in exchange for leverage for past or future intended criminal activity on JD’s part.
JD even uses the other girl who was there during the extortion attempt of Hyung Tae, and then again to check Soo Bin’s medical records. Magically a day or two later, the records land in the hands of Hyung Tae’s boss, Assemblyman Kang. Who then blackmails Assemblyman Nam which gives him the opportunity to flip the situation and lie again on his dead son.
What Was Soo Bin’s Relationship with Nam Ji Hoon?
JD uses, lies, and manipulates Soo Bin in an attempt to dissuade her trust in Hye Ju.
When Soo Bin confronted her own mother, she recalled Hye Ju’s tenderness when asking if Ji Hoon assaulted her. Now that Soo Bin is doubting Hye Ju’s (strange) affection for herself, she rejects help from a woman after being groped at the sauna sleeping room.
I don’t know if Soo Bin reporting a sexual assault after deleting all photos with Ji Hoon on her phone is related to what just happened, or is due to Soo Bin realizing somebody else (like JD) had in fact assaulted her.
Either way, I’m excited to watch next episode.
But, tell me your thoughts.
Do you feel sympathy for Seung Hee and Lee Yoo Shin?
Did Joong Do coach his daughter Yoon Seo in order to manipulate her mother?
And…why do you think Yeo Jin has been going to the psychologist so often?
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