The Brothers
Episode 11 of Inspector Koo begins with Kyung-Yi reminiscing over the last time she rode a train. She sits with her husband who offers up a “Kyung-Yi special”; a medley of random food items. When K is mentioned though, Kyung-Yi flashes back to the present. Meanwhile, K helps Seong-Tae on the bridge, disguised as a helper at the park. She feigns over-the-top excitement, claiming it’s cool that he’s a politician and pretending to be really excited. While holding his arm, she questions where Heong-tae is. “He’s probably home,” He says hurriedly. The jig is up. K reveals who she really is and entices Seong-Tae to approve letting Heong-Tae die. After all, without his pesky brother around then he’ll win the Mayoral vote without any opposition. However, it’s Kyung-Yi who finds him first. He’s bundled in the boot and served up to Yong-Sook on a plate. He’s still alive – but only because Je-Hui and Kyung-Yi want to use him as leverage to take Yong Sook down. However, she refuses to budge and remains stubborn. In order to keep her son safe, Yong Sook has Heong-Tae take to an underground bunker. Meanwhile, Santa identifies everyone aboard the boat that night. He has all the information needed – and just in time too. Video footage of the boat trip is leaked, including the drugs and the dying man. However, one of the presenters on the news tries to spin this as a doctored engineering, claiming it’s definitely not Heong-Tae’s voice… despite it sounding exactly like him. While mainstream news can be persuaded to go with this narrative, those on YouTube and independent news not funded by the big corps aren’t so easily swayed. Yong Sook seems to know this too and actually drops to her knees, asking Kyung-Yi for help. Kyung-Yi was obviously the one who released the video, knowing that it would put K on the back-foot – and it’s clearly worked too! Seong-Tae’s campaign is a complete mess, given he’s dealing with this scandal, while K changes her attention to the survivors. Each of them receive that same black doll from before. Gyeong-Su receives a message on his computer to meet K at a scheduled rendezvous spot, which happens to be the men’s bathroom. Reluctantly, he hands over the USB stick to her, promising to catch the maniac next time. Yong Sook gives a fabricated speech about Hyeong-Tae but everything comes to a sudden stop when someone in the crowd throws acid in her face. She’s bandaged up hastily at the hospital, prompting Kyung-Yi to take numerous pictures of her. With Hyeon-Tae in the underground bunker, he receives a video message asking for 1 billion won. There’s also an accompanying voice message from Seong-Tae, telling K to kill his brother. He’s paranoid, and falls for this completely. He decides to leave the country after the upcoming press conference. When he drives off, K shows up and knocks Mr Kim out, incapacitating the vehicle. Meanwhile, Hyeon-Tae’s press conference goes ahead with numerous people showing holding placards and with signs of encouragement. However, someone in the middle of them all claims the Rabbit is lying. It’s complete chaos, and eventually leads to the group of women piling onto the stage. K holds a gun up to Yong-Sook and puts a bag over her bandaged head, throwing her in the back of her car. At a secluded theatre, she’s given an impossible choice. However, there’s a big (and slightly predictable) twist. It turns out this bandaged woman is not actually Yong Sook. Nope, it’s Kyung-Yi in disguise! K realizes this and unbandages her, revealing she’s been outsmarted.
The Episode Review
So another spanner is thrown in the works for K as Inspector Koo continues to develop its mysteries…while leaving lots and lots of plot threads dangling. Not only have we got the drama surrounding Santa and quite who he is, there’s also the subject of Kyung-Yi’s history and the tepid rivalry between K and Kyung-Yi. Unfortunately, this show seems to be more focused on its political scandals and stopping the brothers than it is about building up the K and Kyung-Yi rivalry. Y’know, the element of this show that actually drew people in in the first place! It’s not that this is a bad move per-se, but it is a disappointing one given how this show started with so much promise. Inspector Koo is certainly not a bad drama but it’s also not quite living up to expectations either. Hopefully things improve for the finale, rounding things out with a big, triumphant ending – but it’s going to have to do something rather special in order to do that.
