Beyond Evil: Ep 1

Intro:

The episode starts with 2 boys (Dong-sik and Ji-Hun) in a reed field at night. When Ji-hun falls, he comes face to face with a corpse. Dong-sik stares at this for a long time…interesting.

The next scene is daytime, and the year is 2000. There is a church choir practice happening. We are introduced to Yu-Yeon, a young girl playing the piano in church. Yu-Yeon recently got into Seoul National University. She has a twin brother named Dong-sik…hmm. He’s apparently not as accomplished as Yu-Yeon. We meet Dong-sik in another scene, “playing” the guitar at a cafe and singing his heart out, before the cafe worker, Ju-Seon, kicks him out. He is told he’s a nobody compared to his sister. This infuriates him, but he leaves the cafe. Before he leaves, Dong-Sik creepily tells Ju-Seon that he will see her later.

Back home, Yu-Yeon texts Dong-Sik to come home, and he texts her to come out instead. Yu-Yeon sneaks away from home and walks into that reed field we saw at the beginning of the episode. While someone is screaming, the lights on the walkway go out, and Yu-Yeon starts running. Daylight comes around, and we see a young woman tied up with a pink bow, bloody, lying in the grass. Yu-Yeon’s mother checks the mail and sees 10 fingers lying in the garden.

10 minutes:

20 years have passed, and we see a man shaving about to start his day. It’s grown-up Lee Dong-sik. He has newspaper articles on his wall about a woman with fingers removed and an article about a victim who was a waitress at a live cafe.

We are introduced to our other main character. He drives past a sign that says, “help us find Yu-Yeon. Tips of her ten fingers are missing”. 

Dong-sik is now an assistant inspector. He responds to an assault case: some woman in a salon fighting over a card game. He does not do a good job breaking up this fight, and the women start swinging. Dong-Sik gets upset and charges all the women with fraud, assault, and illegal gambling. His fellow coworkers are irritated with him, but he is persistent on charging the women. One of the fellow officers is the husband of one of the women. lol. Our other main character shows up at the police station during all of this. We learn his name is Han Ju-won. He is a recent transfer. Ju-Won is played by Yeo Jin-Goo. I know him from the male lead in Hotel Del Luna. The Chief is going over his transfer notice. He tells Ju-Won that he doesn’t start today. Ju-Won said delaying things is not his style. The Chief says he asked for more officers over a year ago. Ju-won asks about his new partner, but the lead officer’s computer freezes, and he restarts it. The other workers are looking Ju-won up online. Ju-won is 27 years old and an only child. He graduated top of his class. His father is a deputy commissioner, Han Ki-hwan, at headquarters. His dad is the number 2 cop in Korea. This news gets a weird reaction from Dong-sik. 

A worried dad comes into the station saying that his son has disappeared. The police aren’t worried because it’s a son, not a daughter…They said daughters go missing, sons run away. Oh lord. Dong-sik says he will register him as a runaway first, but the dad is insistent he is missing. Dong-sik recites articles of Korean laws that would classify someone as missing. Because the son does not fit into the description of a missing child, he cannot file a missing child report. Ju-Won makes a self note that Dong-sik knows the law well. 

At a restaurant, we meet Jae-i. She owns the restaurant/butcher shop. Ji-hun asks Dong-sik how he can eat when he wrote up 6 women today. We meet Dong-sik’s friends at the restaurant: Chief Park Jeong-Je from General Affairs and Ji-Hwa from the victim’s unit. They are all officers. Ji-Hwa is apparently Ji-hun’s older sister. It comes to everyone’s attention that Dong-sik arrested the women because he didn’t want the out-of-towners falling into the wrong crowd, so he put an end to it. Apparently, Dong-sik has a habit of pretending to be clueless but has excellent deception skills. 

We meet the deputy commissioner in the next scene. He is having a meal with his son Ju-won, and he tells Ju-won to not cause trouble. It’s a pretty short scene, but foreshadowing?

Dong-sik introduces himself to Ju-won at the station, and Ju-won tells him he doesn’t shake hands but bows to him and walks away. The team is deciding on who should be Ju-won’s new partner. Ji-hun volunteers to be Ju-won’s new partner, and Dong-sik gets upset and starts furiously texting. The Chief asks Dong-sik if he wants to volunteer; he says no, and Ju-won says he’s good too on him not volunteering. The Chief says okay and assigns Dong-Sik and Ju-Won together as partners because they are the only ones who don’t get along.

30 minutes:

In the patrol car, Ju-won is sanitizing everything down. He asks Dong-sik if he gets to drive because he’s older. Dong-Sik asks if he’s sure he wants to drive; the steering wheel is filthy. Dong-sik also goes on to tell him that Ju-won tends to drive aggressively. Ju-won is confused by this statement. Dong-sik recalls him aggressively making a right turn 7 days prior and recalls his license plate. He advises Ju-won to be careful in town because someone is always watching. Dong-Sik (DS..typing their names out is becoming a lot) gets a phone call and tells Ju-won (JW) they got a report. JW asks why he gets reports on his personal cell. DS tells him if that’s a problem, then report it. The report is of a 74-year-old man, Mr. Bang, with dementia in a reed field. JW asks why not check the security cameras first. DS tells him the area has not been redeveloped yet; there are no cameras. They go searching for Mr. Bang in separate ways. JW gets a bit lost in the reed field, and DS pulls him out. DS tells him to not hesitate when the wind blows, or he’ll get slapped in the face by the reeds. DS finds the old man, Mr. Bang. Mr. Bang says he’s looking for his granddaughter, Ju-seon. OMG it’s the dead waitress’s grandfather. He is out there looking for her. My heart! Mr. Bang recognizes Dong-sik, not as a cop but as a young neighborhood boy. JW shows up and introduces himself as an officer, triggering Mr. Bang. He goes into an episode saying cops are useless. They wrestle in the mud to restrain Mr. Bang. Mr. Bang is returned home. JW tells his (daughter?) to not call DS’s personal cell, but DS tells her to keep calling. JW asks what their situation is about, but DS ignores him. 

Back at the station, they are cleaning up. In conversation, JW says he doesn’t have friends cause they all ask for favors. DS says life can’t be that simple. He questions what makes him so important that people come to him for favors. Ji-hun offers JW tea, but he declines, saying he doesn’t like shared things. The other officer’s joke saying he must have mysophobia. Mysophobia is a type of OCD, meaning fear of contamination. JW becomes upset by this but tries to play it off. DS notices this. JW says he doesn’t have mysophobia. The Chief says that’s good because they are all going to Jae-i’s for dinner.

Outside Jae-I’s, JW is sitting in the car typing a text to the Chief saying he can’t attend the dinner. Jae-I appears at his car and tells him to park behind the restaurant. JW decides to go in. JW seems fond of little Ji-hun. Here we meet Jin-muk, the owner of the Manyang Grocery store. They start talking about JW’s dad, the deputy commissioner. JW says he doesn’t like talking about his dad. They all start laughing about their own dads. Later JW leaves the dinner without saying bye and runs into DS cutting more meat in the butcher shop next door. Before leaving, JW asks DS what the Bang family has on him that he calls their personal cell. DS says he killed Mr. Bang’s youngest daughter. He then laughs then says he’s joking. JW leaves. Creepy.

JW is meeting with Prosecutor Kwon in the next scene at a bar. He asks Prosecutor Kwon for a file about Ju-seon’s murder. While JW is going over the file, Prosecutor Kwon is rambling on about his life. Apparently, Prosecutor Kwon was hired as an in-house tutor for JW when he was younger. He considers himself as part of their family.

Back at his place, JW receives a text from his dad saying to keep quiet and not disgrace him. In his office, we see that he has been tracking a murderer. 

Flashback: 9 months ago, JW was giving a presentation on Dong-sik. He recalls Dong-sik’s twin, Yu-Yeon, going missing, but her 10 fingertips being in the mom’s garden and Ju-seon’s body being found on that same morning. The other officers in the meeting know who Dong-sik is, and they say he is a lunatic. He was an RIU inspector who couldn’t explain how his former partner died. He was then demoted. JW explains that he was a prime suspect for his sister’s and waitress’s murder. Flashback ends.

JW drives past DS and Ji-hun putting up a new sign to help find Yu-Yeon. DS gets a call that Mr. Bang left him again. The Chief tells JW to help DS and Ji-hun find Mr. Bang in the reed field. JW looks at his nice shoes and is hesitant. In the reed field, we resume where the episode started. Ji-hun falls and comes face to face with a corpse.  DS in his head says it’s Yu-Yeon. JW notices how hard DS is staring at the corpse. The corpse is missing fingertips and has a distinct ring on its finger. JW sees this and takes a step back. DS looks at JW and tells Ji-hun to go to the car. DS grabs JW and asks who the woman is. JW asks how he knows it’s a woman so quickly. DS tells him to report the unidentified body. JW asks about a suspect. DS tells him if he has a suspect, then to report it. JW asks DS if he really didn’t kill his twin sister.

Super interesting first episode! Definitely grabs your intention. There seem to be many characters and essential people in this show, so hopefully, I can keep up.

Prediction: Dong-sik is the killer and will try to keep Ju-won off his back.