Letting Go
Episode 15 of Beyond Evil begins with Joo-Won learning the truth about his Father. He hurriedly leaves his car, snatching up a golf club and walking purposefully through the rain. The reason for this comes from more of the conversation left out last episode. It turns out Ki-Hwan called his son pathetic and admitted that he would get rid of him if he ended up as a mistake. It’s a horrible thing to say about your own flesh and blood, and something that sees Joo-Won snap. As he stands in the rain he starts chuckling – a defence mechanism to handle the pain similar to that used by Dong-Sik earlier in the season. Joo-Won heads over to Dong-Sik’s place, devastated by what he’s just heard. Silently, he plays the audio footage he’s captured from the car. Joo-Won grabs Dong-Sik’s shoulder and promises to find him and use himself as bait to trap his own Father. Joo-Won pleads with Dong-Sik to help stop this, dropping to his knees and pleading, deciding to be tormented. We then skip forward in time slightly. Councilwoman Do decides against quitting the mayor ship and greedily settles on pushing her career forward. Jung-Je confronts her though, until the truth about the deer comes clear. When Jung-Je was younger he used to lock the kid in his Father’s deer farm. This despicable woman decided to wipe her hands of Jung-Je and disregard herself as his Mother. As she walks away, Jung-Je is left shocked. Dong-Sik messages Joo-Won and invites him out to eat. The respect these two have for each other now, compared to the early episodes in the season, is really great to see. The pair eat their noodles; after all, Joo-Won needs his strength for that fiery pit he’ll be descending down soon – at least according to Dong-Sik anyway. Joo-Won eventually heads over and confronts his Father, playing the audio file to him. Ki-Hwan strikes the table in anger. With bloodied knuckles he grabs Joo-Won by the scruff of his neck and challenges his son. Joo-Won has his number though and strikes a deal to make him Commissioner General. In doing so, that will allow Joo-Won to rise up the ranks himself. After shaking hands, Joo-Won asks to be reinstated at the station. Only, this is obviously part of that aforementioned trap given it shows him backpedaling on everything he told the hearing. Jung requests a meeting with Chang-Jin down by the docks. With a pipe in hand, and on the back of a particularly unpleasant meeting with Do, he looks set to kill Jung. Only, Dong-Sik suddenly shows up and shouts out “nice shot.” When Chang-Jin leaves, Dong-Sik informs Jung that he’s just saved his life. Well, Joo-Won shows up next and escorts Chang-Jin down to the station. There, Joo-Won and Dong-Sik play good cop/bad cop while they investigate Chang-Jin. They ask him about that fateful night Jin-Mook died, where the truth is revealed. He mentions Councilwoman Do and how he didn’t need her, which seems to hint that this pair left her out of their grand plans, at least according to Chang-Jin. His mention of Jung-Je being locked up though is enough to spur the officers into action. When they arrive at Do’s house, they learn the truth that she’s taken him to the institute. News breaks that Ki-Hwan has now been made the Commissioner General. He’s obviously beaming but Joo-Won is ready to strike. Before that though, he receives a message from Jung telling him to meet alone as he has news that can be helpful. The pair split up, with Dong-Sik heading for Jung-Je and Joo-Won going for Jung. He heads into the building alone, although Ji-Hwa is not happy with this arrangement and eventually decides to head in. Dong-Sik too changes his mind and heads up to the housing area. When Joo-Won walks out the house though, his hands are covered in blood and he claims Jung is dead. In fact, he even tells Dong-Sik that he thinks he killed him. As he and Joo-Won stare at one another, the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
Did Joo-Won really kill Jung? Given what we’ve seen over the weeks, I have my doubts. The stare from Dong-Sik toward Joo-Won feels like one that’s hinting toward searching for the truth; detecting whether Joo-Won is lying or not. The acting throughout this show has been excellent and it’s backed up by a really captivating story that has twisted and turned through the episodes up until this point. Everything is in place for a dramatic and dark finale to end things, in what’s otherwise been a really solid K-drama. With the news that this one is dropping on Netflix tomorrow, it seems like the show is designed perfectly as a binge-watch, given how incredibly well written this one is. Beyond Evil has certainly gone beyond expectations, delivering a promising bright spark this year – and a high bar for the small screen.
