This episode was a doozy. It’s really amping up plot wise, but somehow the directing and editing is all over the place. I think the writer knows what he wants, but isn’t very good at communicating how it needs to be executed. And then the director and the editor are not very good in making a seamless episode that isn’t confusing timeline wise. A simple fade in and fade out would go a long way…
Complaints on the editing aside, this episode was a lot more exciting than I thought it’d be. Regardless of the show’s cancellation, the kidnapper’s still sending missions.
Mission 6: Find out Song Jung Ho’s relationship with [a mysterious woman] and have him come on air to reveal it himself
Hye In confronts her husband as soon as the show ends in the hallway. Without a word, she slaps him right across the face in front of other crew members. That’s embarrassing. (Also funny because he technically winces before she even touches his face.) He grabs her wrist and drags her to his office, throwing her on his sofa.
She demands to know why he canceled the show, and he says it’s because he got an investment offer that will save UCN. He no longer needs “Wanted” to keep his company afloat. But we, the audience, heard him say that he’d do as the Police Commissioner says and shut down the show, so it sounds like the Commissioner had something to do with getting that investor in. Jung Ho adds that the show is starting to meet a lot of difficulties with public criticisms, and the police are no longer going to work with them. So it’s about time they pull out of this show.
Of course Hye In won’t accept that, so she plans to find his weakness and play his game of seeing the world in black or red: profit or loss. Joon Goo flashes back to when Jung Ho threatened to make him take the fall for a failed reality show back in episode one, and had set up a paper company on purpose to keep UCN out of any potential legal trouble. Would the existence of a paper company be enough to count as Jung Ho’s weakness?
Hye In heads to her husband’s home office and looks through his desk, but there’s nothing incriminating or suspicious enough. She looks around and notices a very tiny camera stuck below an art piece behind the desk. It’s the same one she saw in her car and son’s room. There’s only one person who could have done this: Kyung Hoon. She responds to his old email about going to look for Hyun Woo alone and asks for his help, because only he can help her here.
That same evening, a new broadcasting team barges in to the ‘Wanted’ team’s meeting room. They were told that they could start using that room immediately to develop a new show, since ‘Wanted’ got canceled. Of course Dong Wook and team aren’t ready to give up on the room yet, and have hope that Jung Ho will change his ming. But Jung Ho arrives and reinforces the fact that the show is definitely over. He does give them until the next day at noon to clear out.
Just then, Reporter Jang jumps in and starts taking a bunch of pictures of Jung Ho. Guess he’s officially part of the team… Reporter Jang starts writing an article aloud with the pictures he took: Song Jung Ho, the mighty leader of UCN, will no longer acquiesce to the demands of the kidnapper and apologizes for the media frenzy surrounding the search for his son. That makes him sound heroic, no? But Reporter Jang implies that he could also write the other side of the story: that Jung Ho got a large investment and is putting his son’s life on the line in exchange for money. After all, Hyun Woo isn’t his biological son, so Jung Ho has no attachment to the boy’s fate, right? This side of the story is juicier and one that will make a ton of people rip him into shreds.
Of course, Reporter Jang doesn’t have to write this story if Jung Ho gives the team a chance to revive their show. Jung Ho coolly replies: “Wouldn’t it make a better story if the team manages to keep fighting when no one would give them a chance?” Touché.
At the police station, Seung In and Young Gwan catch up with Mi Ok to discuss the revelations from the latest broadcast. Mi Ok is really worried about Hyun Woo being with Soo Hyun, who has now been outed as the kidnapper. (What’s worse is that the national headquarters team that officers Park and Yoo are now working with have mostly given up on saving Hyun Woo.) Mi Ok doesn’t think that Soo Hyun’s revenge against Jo Nam Chul is the final endgame. What’s more is that his identity was revealed halfway through the broadcast and he stopped hiding his face and voice. If anything, Mi Ok is more convinced that there’s another mastermind pulling the strings.
She also thinks that Soo Hyun is becoming more reckless because things aren’t really going to plan. First, Jo Nam Chul was not properly arrested, but rather escaped from the car accident. So Soo Hyun had the opportunity to kill Jo Nam Chul, at the expense of exposing himself. Then Hyun Woo managed to run away and call his mom, which was not supposed to happen. But Soo Hyun let Hye In think that it was on purpose, just to prove to her that her son was alive. And finally, Mi Ok doesn’t believe (like me) that Hye In completed the fourth mission. She was supposed to reveal how her husband died, not say, “He ended up not dying from a car accident.” But since Hye In also saw her son alive and well right after, and not maimed as he should’ve been, Soo Hyun pretended that she passed the mission and got proof of her son’s condition. And then he handed her the fifth mission.
And now, the show has been canceled. So if things continue to fall apart for Soo Hyun, he could do something more reckless with Hyun Woo’s life.
Hye In gets a call from Kyung Hoon shortly after sending the email. He wants to meet her in a neutral location where there won’t be any cops, afraid that he’ll be set up again. So they meet in a subway station. Hye In gets pulled into a small store space that’s under construction and he covers her mouth to make sure she doesn’t scream. She immediately asks for the video file to the camera in her husband’s office, and he’s put out that she won’t ask how he’s doing. Um, how about stop being such a creeper and then maybe she’ll care a little more about your wellbeing?!
Hye In strokes his ego a bit, saying that they can’t waste any time in order to save Hyun Woo. Isn’t that what he wanted to do too? So Kyung Hoon hands over the USB with the footage. Before he can justify why he filmed Jung Ho’s office, she says she doesn’t want to hear it and leaves the store. It took a lot from her to face Kyung Hoon though, and when Kyung Hoon comes out to touch her shoulder, still wanting to talk, she shrieks and falls, calling a lot of attention.
Miraculously Young Gwan and Seung In are at the station right at that moment, and they chase after Kyung Hoon. He’s really not going to trust Hye In after this… Hye In remains on the floor, still in shock, and a guy dressed as a clown with a bunch of balloons comes by to give her a hand. The clown hands her the balloons and an envelope; he’s sort of like those special messengers that can dress up to deliver special messages.
Hye In opens the envelope, and it has a picture of Hyun Woo (still alive and unhurt) and another picture of Jung Ho exiting an apartment building with a beautiful young woman. This is her sixth mission: Find out the relationship between Jung Ho and the woman, and Jung Ho must go on TV to admit to it himself.
Seung In and Young Gwan lose Kyung Hoon in the crowds, and they return to question the clown. The guy had no idea he was carrying the sixth mission. He was just paid by someone in a hat and mask to deliver it to Hye In, and that guy just left about ten minutes ago. He never found it suspicious, and didn’t make the connection between Hye In and the ‘Wanted’ show even though he watches it. As a regular person, it’s hard to think that whatever happens on TV is real.
The detectives and Hye In all decide to leave the guy alone, but not before Hye In notices him taking a sneaky picture of her and the detectives. Guess he wanted a souvenir proving that he met real celebrities.
The video files then get handed off to Bo Yeon to listen through and analyze. Somehow the files include conversations that happen in the home office and company office. (I think this is a bit of a plot hole here, but let’s just skip it for now…) Bo Yeon hasn’t found anything suspicious yet, so the team is left to brainstorm what else they can do to pin Jung Ho down. Eventually Dong Wook remembers that Joon Goo alluded to a lawsuit in front of him during an early conversation, and asks for more details.
Joon Goo finally fesses up about the paper company. It’s going to be hard to get legal help to look into it, so Woo Shin volunteers to look into it herself.
Seung In, Young Gwan, and Mi Ok return to the drawing board to outline the series of events. They have the timeline down from when Ham Tae Young and Jae Hyun first disappeared all the way to now where they find Jae Hyun’s body. But the only anachronisms are what Han Sol’s father and Ha Dong Min have to do with any of this. Jo Nam Chul, Na Jae Hyun, Im Hyung Soon, Detectives Ko and Kim, Na Soo Hyun, and Ham Tae Young are all tightly connected to each other. But now they need to know what ties Han Sol’s father, Ha Dong Min, Park Sae Yong and Lee Ji Eun together seven years ago to see if they can be lined up with the rest of them.
The broadcasting team is also on a similar track, but they are more preoccupied with why the kidnapper is targeting Song Jung Ho all of a sudden. It could be because Jung Ho canceled the show, but the kidnapper didn’t bother with any threats or angry messages. Instead he asked for the team to look into his relationship with a woman. Hye In points out that their first mission of finding Han Sol led to the discovery of his abusive father; perhaps the kidnapper is using a similar method of having the team look into one thing in order to discover another relationship or bigger secret.
Hye In thinks she can find out who this woman is, and her method is by breaking into her husband’s car and looking at his recently visited addresses on his GPS. She jots down one that looks right and heads over in her own van. The girl, Kim So Hyun, doesn’t really care much about Hye In when she opens the door. Hye In barges in, following a trail of scattered clothing to the bedroom. She sees a man lying down naked in the bed. But… it’s not Jung Ho!
Kim So Hyun scoffs that Hye In thinks her husband is in her room, but at the same time implies that Jung Ho is her sugar daddy and a lover. What to make of that?
At the same time this happens, Seung In and Young Gwan interview Park Sae Yong’s mother again and learn that Sae Yong grew depressed a year ago. He planned on making a bomb and hurting society because it was their fault that he and his mother were suffering and couldn’t make ends meet. It probably aligns with when he found out he was dying from illness too. Sae Yong’s mother never believed he could have hurt a fly, and so his decision to help kidnap Hyun Woo came as a surprise to her. Seung In asks if he can check out Sae Yong’s room again, and he looks through the secret room that had pictures of Jung Hye In everywhere. He finds a small container with a USB inside and a post-it with the name ‘loadagun’.
Seung In suspects that ‘loadagun’ is a username, but it’s not tied with Kyung Hoon. The USB also contained footage that Kyung Hoon took with his hidden cameras, so it’s likely Kyung Hoon sold it to Sae Yong (unwittingly?) or to another person who then gave it to Sae Yong. Seung In has cybersecurity check into ‘loadagun’ to see if that username will lead them to the real mastermind of the kidnapping.
And as this is all happening as well, Officer Park and Yoo go to the broadcasting station to interview Dong Wook and Joon Goo. Everyone is a suspect for murder now, but Joon Goo is pretty high on the list as he seems to have the biggest grudge against Jung Ho.
Suddenly we cut to the studio where Hye In is back on ‘Wanted’ and confirming that the show hasn’t been canceled. Whut!? It’s like we went from everyone scrambling to find out what happened to the show being back on. But everything gets explained in flashbacks, and I’ll try to make sense of it:
First, on air, Hye In dispels all rumors that her husband doesn’t care for Hyun Woo because of parentage. His real reason for canceling the show came to light when she was assigned the sixth mission. At first she thought that Kim So Hyun could have been a mistress, but that was quickly dispelled when Woo Shin made her own discovery into Jung Ho’s many paper companies.
Nine hours earlier from broadcast, Woo Shin found another movie production paper company that had Kim So Hyun as one of the board of directors. She was paid every month, but no one did any work in that company. Seung In and team then found out that the rest of the board of directors were all related to one person: the Police Commissioner. Bo Yeon also heard a conversation from Jung Ho’s office where he said he’d do as the Commissioner says before he got on stage. All evidence pointed to the Commissioner.
What does this mean then for this sixth mission? Maybe the kidnapper wanted ‘Wanted’ to reveal Lee Tae Kyun’s slush fund and mistress? But Seung In and Mi Ok think this doesn’t fit with the rest of the missions. This isn’t as big of a crime as child abuse, experimental drugs, and murder. So they decide to look into how Lee might be connected to Na Jae Hyun’s case… and find it. He was the superior to Detective Ko during that case and told Ko to shut down his investigation. Aha. So Seung In, Young Gwan, and Mi Ok hurry to the station to try and catch Lee Tae Kyun for questioning.
As this is all happening, Reporter Jang makes his way into the broadcast control room because he wants to be involved. However Dong Wook and Woo Shin won’t let him touch or see anything. So Jang decides his next best approach: he asks Dong Wook’s control room guy to record what goes on in the broadcasting room. Of course it won’t be free, and we don’t know what Jang offers, but the control room operator does start recording Dong Wook and Woo Shin arguing about morals and ethics for the show.
This could just be juicy gossip for Jang’s book.
It’s soon time for Jung Ho to also go on stage and tell his part of the story. Commissioner Lee arrives at his office, freaking out that this was not part of the deal. But Jung Ho simply invites him to stay and watch what happens.
Jung Ho goes on stage and reiterates that he’s never betrayed his wife. Rather, he became involved with Kim So Hyun because he respected and was close friends with Commissioner Lee. Kim So Hyun is actually Commissioner Lee’s daughter from an extramarital affair. He found out about her recently, and Jung Ho helped set up a paper company so that Lee could provide for his daughter. However Lee also restricted her movements a lot because he wanted to maintain the image of being a pure and innocent man of the law. At one point Jung Ho chokes up when mentioning how Lee pressured him to cancel the show at Hyun Woo’s expense. Either Jung Ho’s a decent actor, or he actually has some affection for his son.
To back up Jung Ho’s statement is Kim So Hyun. Yep – the girl decided to go on the show herself. She was convinced to go by Hye In, who advised her to take her life into her own hands. Though Kim So Hyun might be financially supported, does she really want to live a life in hiding behind her father’s shadow? So Kim So Hyun decides to go onstage and affirm that what Jung Ho said was true. (This is part of the moral argument Woo Shin and Dong Wook have, as both disagree whether or not Kim So Hyun should go on the show. Woo Shin says no, it will ruin a young girl’s life. Dong Wook says yes, this is good TV.)
Right after So Hyun admits that she’s Commissioner Lee’s daughter, a phone rings on set. It’s Jung Ho’s. And all he says is, “Commissioner, why don’t you come and tell the public what you have to say about all this yourself?”
So the Commissioner emerges from Jung Ho’s office and goes onstage. And he denies everything.
Of course he would!! But So Hyun’s expression says it all. She’s horrified that her father just publicly denounced her and she realizes she never wanted a father like that. She always trusted him because he was her father, but now she sees that he really doesn’t care for her. She tries to walk off set but collapses on the ground instead, crying. Commissioner Lee does his best to hold a stoic expression but eventually crumbles to his knees as well.
So what made Jung Ho turn his back against the Commissioner and decide to restart the show? Well – it’s because of SG Group. Hye In approached her brother-in-law and asked him to make a higher bid than Jung Ho’s other investor for UCN. She knows SG Group has been looking to buy a media company for a while, so this would just speed things up along. If he invests in Jung Ho’s company, then the condition could be that ‘Wanted’ goes back on air, and she’ll get Hyun Woo back.
The brother-in-law is impressed with Hye In’s business savvy and strikes a deal with Jung Ho. Normally they should be enemies, and I don’t think Jung Ho is too happy his company is owned by Hye In’s former in-laws. But money wins over everything in Jung Ho’s mind. So when the episode of ‘Wanted’ ends, there’s a huge banner that shows SG Group as a major sponsor of the show.
With that, the episode is over and the sixth mission complete. Dong Wook tries to catch some z’s while Bo Yeon monitors the forums about the show. She sees the clown guy’s post with Hye In’s picture as he boasts about delivering the sixth mission to her.
And then Commissioner Lee goes to Jung Ho’s office again to ask why Jung Ho revealed all of that. Why did his friend ruin his and his daughter’s life on national television? “I didn’t do that to your daughter,” Jung Ho says. “That was your choice [to denounce her and hide her from the world].”
Commissioner Lee lunges and a scuffle breaks out. Seung In and company arrive at Jung Ho’s office and find the door locked. And from within, they hear a gunshot ring out.
Some Thoughts
Okay – bets on who’s dead? I say the commissioner because this show has pretty much killed off or eliminated every criminal involved in each mission. And we can’t get rid of Jung Ho yet – he’s a juicy character. The commissioner’s work is more or less done because we know how he’s tied into the puzzle; he was the one who called off the investigation on Na Jae Hyun, so he’s someone Soo Hyun would have a grudge on. I bet that this mission was set in stone even before Soo Hyun found out about it through Detective Ko. I bet that the mastermind already knew about Commissioner Lee’s involvement.
I had a lot of problems with the timing of the flashbacks as well. I don’t think the times were right, as it implies that Hye In, at one point, gets some information from Kim So Hyun, leaves her to go see her brother-in-law, and then goes back to Kim So Hyun (who hasn’t changed from her lingerie and robe) to convince her to go on the show. I had problems with how the latter half of the episode was edited too, as I couldn’t tell when the characters were being questioned by the police in relation to when Hye In scrambles to get the show back on its feet.
But all that aside, the show is really amping up on the plot. We really need to know how Han Sol’s father, Ha Dong Min, Park Sae Yong, and Ji Eun are all tied together, because they are the missing link. I at first thought they were going to remain outliers for being part of the first mission, but it’s very interesting now that they might have something to do with what happened seven years ago.
My favorite part about this episode was the scene with the clown. I actually hated that character but loved it too. I really like that this show manages to insert some moments where we see the ‘Wanted’ team being confronted with the public who watch the show. We get to hear different sides of how the public perceives the show and it’s almost like a passing commentary about our society. You’ll have people who love it for good entertainment, people who think it’s morally wrong, people who will try to be part of the show in order to get some monetary reward, people who will use it for their own prestige and bragging rights, and people who won’t do anything because they think it’s not real. ‘Wanted’ is not only twisting up the hearts of Dong Wook, Woo Shin, and Bo Yeon, but it’s also corrupting the public.
Though I would love Hyun Woo to be okay, I would like to see the stakes in this show to be raised. I’d like to see Hye In fail a mission by not completely answering the task at hand. I’d like to see the show not manage to hit high ratings because people have become so turned off by it. I’d like to see Hyun Woo hurt a little because I’m starting to think that he’ll forever be okay regardless of what Hye In does on television. And that loses some of the tension for the show.
Related Posts
Wanted: Episode 7 Recap
Wanted: Episode 6 Recap
Wanted: Episode 5 Recap
Wanted: Episode 4 Recap
Wanted: Episode 3 Recap
Wanted: Episode 2 Recap
Wanted: Episode 1 Recap
Tags: ji hyun woo, kim ah joong, korean drama, park hyo joo, uhm tae woong, wanted
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