Kdrama ‘Longing for You’ episode 3 recap and theory, ending explained – Is Park Ki-young a culprit?

Korean drama ‘Longing for You’ Episode 3 Plot

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Longing for You episode 3 plot . After Oh Jin-Woo’s photos on his formatted phone are restored by the police, a photo of an ankle inside becomes one of the reasons why he is suspected by Cha Young-Woon.

Oh Jin-Sung manages to break through Bae Min-Gyu’s alibi, only to find out that Bae Min-Gyu has already left for the United States. Through records of knife transactions, the police trace a suspicious dental assistant at Bae Min-Gyu’s dental clinic.

However, unexpectedly, the culprit leaves behind a suicide note and takes their own life in the end. Despite feeling something is off, Cha Young-Woon still closes the case. Meanwhile, Oh Jin-Woo experiences an attack incident in his hometown.

↓Last Episode (Episode 2)↓

Korean drama Longing for You episode 3 recap

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🔺 Korean drama Longing for You episode 3 recap: Continuing from the events of Episode 2, the police restore Oh Jin-Woo’s formatted memory card and discover that it contains photos of ankles. Under pressure from his brother, Oh Jin-Woo admits to taking these photos because when he was five years old, his mother secretly abandoned him.

His last memory of her is her heels, and whenever Oh Jin-Woo falls down crying, all he sees are other people’s heels, causing him to unconsciously focus on them. Despite everyone believing that Oh Jin-Woo has a motive for committing the crime, Go Young-Joo believes this cannot be considered direct evidence.

At this time, Oh Jin-Sung brings Lee Eun-Byul who reveals that on the night of Liu Shuxian’s case, Bae Min-Gyu was not with her but instead playing in a VIP room with another young actor. Therefore, Bae Min-Gyu is not the one who filmed the video footage which leads Cha Young-Woon to issue an urgent arrest warrant based on lack of presence at the scene.

On another front, Yoo Jung-Sook is unhappy about Cha Young-Woon working overnight. Yoo Jung-Sook wants to have Cha Young-Woon removed from this case through the prosecutor general. Of course, Cha Young-Woon refuses and even suspects that Bae Min-Gyu deliberately went on a business trip to America at just the right time due to connections held by his congressman father in order to leak information internally.

Park Ki-Young’s report criticizing investigative units also causes trouble for Cha Young-Woon; however unlike gentlemanly Cha Young-Woon who remains calm under pressure,Yoo Jung-Sook directly punches Park Ki-Young as retaliation which leaves Cha Young Woon unsettled again.Yet despite witnessing everything unfold,Yoo Jung Sook still can’t persuade Cha Young-Woon to let go of the case.

Park Ki-Young knows that Cha Young-Woon became a prosecutor because he despises privileges brought by his background. Cha Young-Woon decides to personally go to New York and arrest Bae Min-Gyu, but unexpectedly, the male actor who testified for Lee Eun-Byul suddenly changes his statement and claims he is not the one who filmed the video footage.

Go Young-Joo believes that Bae Min-Gyu’s father is manipulating things behind the scenes since this male actor’s career has been doing well lately; if a scandal with a female actress were to break out, it would definitely be detrimental. Therefore, he is willing to compromise.

The office receives an investigation report stating that Oh Jin-Woo’s account used for buying knives and transferring money belongs to “Lee Mi-Jin,” who happens to be Bae Min-Gyu’s dental assistant sister. Coincidentally, Lee Sung-Yong also lives near Lemon Tree Internet Cafe where Oh Jin-Woo frequents.

A shocking discovery is made when they visit Lee Sung-Yong’s home – all drawers are filled with crime scene photos, including a murder weapon. With a background in cooking and two previous sexual offense convictions, Oh Jin-Sung believes this means that Lee Sung-Yong drove Bae Min-Gyu’s car on their third murder case at Yu-jin Mart; otherwise it would have been impossible for him to capture photos of the female student after her murder from behind.

Cha Young-Woon then turns this case into an open investigation.At night, a mysterious person immediately reports that Lee Sung-Yong is in a certain hotel room, but there is no sign of him inside. Instead,his shoes and a suicide note are left behind, and finally, the crime scene is discovered in the bathroom.

After authentication, it was confirmed that the handwriting in the suicide note belonged to Lee Sung-Yong. He admitted his guilt for the three murder cases and requested forgiveness. The content of the note matched exactly with the investigation findings, so we can only close the case.

During dinner, Oh Jin-Sung felt particularly unhappy that Cha Young-Woon received special attention from everyone, as if he were a privileged gentleman (Park Ki-Young seemed to feel uncomfortable upon hearing this).

However, Oh Jin-Sung was even more displeased with Park Ki-Young’s attitude of spreading false news. With the sudden closure of the case, Cha Young-Woon felt a bit unfamiliar. Upon returning home, his parents demanded that he resign from his position as a prosecutor because Cha Young-Woon had to bear the burden of inheriting their family business and could not afford any mistakes.

Longing for You ending explained episode 3

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🔺 In the finale of “Longing for You” Episode 3: The next day, Oh Jin-Sung receives praise and a promotion, so he is in a good mood and immediately buys a camera for his younger brother and a pair of shoes for Go Young-Joo.

Yoo Jung-Sook can’t wait to help with Cha Young-Woon’s heart transplant because Cha Young-Woon’s heart condition is showing signs of imminent failure, so they plan to initiate the project. Meanwhile, Oh Jin-Woo has bought a lot of groceries to prepare a meal for his family but unexpectedly, Oh Jin-Sung is called by his superior in Seoul for dinner, Go Young-Joo needs to rush on her document work, and their mother has a date with Chu Young-Choon.

So once again, Oh Jin-Woo finds himself alone~ Later that night, following his mother’s advice to catch fish and make sashimi for Chu Young-Choon to enjoy, he is ambushed and attacked by mysterious individuals wearing black clothing near the coast. He sustains serious head injuries.

Longing for You Review and Theory Episode 3

Who is secretly filming and observing Oh Jin-Woo?

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Park Ki-Young is a character who plays the role of a journalist. However, the timing of his appearance and his involvement in the case seem to be related. Currently, I have two suspicious lists of people who may be involved in secretly filming and observing Oh Jin-Woo:

❌ (1) Jung Woo-No, who is close to Yoo Jung-Sook: Because Yoo Jung-Sook herself seems to be constantly concerned about whether Oh Jin-Woo will be arrested or not. In episode 3 “Longing for You,” Jung Woo-No also reports on Oh Jin-Woo’s situation when he was taken to the police station.

This indicates that Jung Woo-No has been observing him all along. However, if Jung Woo-No is the one monitoring Oh Jin-Woo, then it would be related to Yoo Jung-Sook’s motives. Her goal might be wanting Oh Jin-Woo’s heart for a transplant for Cha Young-Woon? So that’s why it’s called “Longing for You.” It is highly possible that what she longs for is Oh Jin-Woo’s heart. This way, Yoo Jung-Sook would have a motive to send someone to monitor Oh Jin-Woo, and that person could possibly be Jung Woo-No.

But based on reasoning, he wouldn’t frame Oh Jin-Woo for murder (only assisting Yoo-Jung Sook with her task of monitoring this potential heart donor). After all, framing Oh Jin-woo for murder goes against Yoo Jung-Sook’s desire to see Oh Jin-Woo released as soon as possible. So, Yoo Jung-Sook is not the one planning to frame Oh Jin-woo. That leaves us with Park Ki-Young.

⭕ (2) Journalist Park Ki-Young: As part of the main cast, it seems unlikely that his role would only revolve around being a journalist. I have some doubts that he might be secretly observing Oh Jin-Woo, but I also have reservations about my suspicions because I can’t figure out his motive for doing so at the moment. Could it be that he has discovered the relationship between Yoo Jung-Sook and Oh Jin-Woo and is secretly investigating the underlying reasons?

He seems to have a good relationship with the Cha Young-Woon family (especially Yoo Jung-Sook), but Yoo Jung-Sook mentioned that he seems to have an inferiority complex towards Cha Young-Woon.

So if he knows some of Yoo Jung-Sook’s family secrets and wants to investigate them, then he would have a motive to observe Oh Jin-Woo. In episode 3 “Longing for You,” it appears as though Park Ki-Young might actually be the real culprit.

Case consolidation

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➊ The killer injected the victim with an anesthetic drug (chloral hydrate, a medication used in dental clinics for sleep therapy) before committing the murder.

➋ They also severed the Achilles tendon (the fact that the victim’s Achilles tendon was cut indicates that the killer is highly skilled in knife techniques or may have a profession related to handling knives).

➌ Furthermore, they drained blood from the victim’s body and hung it on a railing like drying clothes, as if to display it to others.

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🅰 Victim 1 (2022/5/12): Liu Shuxian, museum curator (Bae Min-Gyu’s wife): Bae Min-Gyu has an alibi stating he was singing with an actress at that time. There is footage of the actress singing, but Bae Min-Gyu does not appear in the frame.

🅱 Victim 2 (2022/9/7): Park Ji-hwi: café owner. Similar “salt content” and “trace amounts of blade material powder identified as Japanese steel” were found on this deceased person. This type of weapon is commonly used for slicing raw seafood. Cha Young-Woon discovered that Bae Min-Gyu also possesses a similar set of tools; however, he claims his knife was stolen and has previous records of reporting such incidents. In Episode 1 of “Longing for You,” Oh Jin-Woo went to see a photography exhibition and later waited at a café during nighttime. It seems like he had been waiting for someone who never showed up or perhaps he was “waiting for time.” Additionally, surveillance cameras at his accommodation were tampered with, suggesting an attempt to conceal evidence regarding Oh Jin-Woo’s whereabouts.

🅲 Victim 3 (2022/9/8): Hui Zhu, student. Blood footprints wearing shoes were found at the crime scene indicating that someone walked towards the pavilion railing while bleeding and then took off their shoes. On the night of the incident, Bae Min-Gyu’s car was involved in a collision with a delivery driver in the small town (Episode 3 of “Longing for You” speculates that Lee Sung-yong intentionally crashed into Bae Min-Gyu’s car to enter Yeojin Town). Bae Min-Gyu claims he doesn’t know who drove his car away, and he also appeared in an online live course.

The real culprit may be Park Ki-Young?

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In the third episode of “Longing for You” it completely overturned my speculation because I found Park Ki-Young to be very suspicious! In the second episode, I initially thought that Oh Jin-Woo was either the culprit and deliberately left clues to frame Bae Min-Gyu, making the police suspect him.

Or he was an accomplice helping create an alibi. However, in the third episode of “Longing for You,” Park Ki-Young becomes even more suspicious~ Although Oh Jin-Woo is questionable, he really seems like one of the manipulated pawns. Here is my deduction from the third episode, assuming Park Ki-Young as the culprit (this is just a current speculation; if you have your own reasoning, please go with that):

What could be Park Ki-Young’s motive? Yoo Jung-Sook and Jung Woo-No mentioned that Park Ki-Young seems to have insecurities, which reminds me a lot of Oh Jin-Woo. Although we can’t see his insecurities yet in only three episodes of “Longing for You,” there must be some special connection between him and Yoo Jung-Sook’s family.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t get close enough to Yoo Jung-Sook or cook meals for him~ Additionally, since Park Ki-Young is also part of the main cast and not just a journalist character, it wouldn’t make sense if his role were merely that. He has been consistently interested in knowing about progress on serial murder cases; therefore, it feels highly likely that he might actually be the real culprit intentionally framing Bae Min-Gyu while simultaneously using Oh Jin-Woo who holds secrets within Yoo Jung-Sook’s family (which may explain why I felt earlier that he seemed like someone monitoring Oh Jin-Woo).

Especially considering how eager Park Ki-Young appears to challenge Cha Young-Woon and question her as being responsible during press conferences. So perhaps Park Ki-Young’s insecurities are directed towards Cha Young-Woon (especially since she is a prosecutor who has never failed, making the real culprit want to challenge her).

So Lee Sung-Yong’s role is “Lemon Tree,” the person who sells knives to Oh Jin-Woo. If Oh Jin-Woo is the real culprit and committed premeditated crimes, it wouldn’t make sense for him to leave such clues for the police to investigate. Therefore, the process of selling knives and Lee Sung-Yong himself appearing in Youjin village seems to be manipulated by Park Ki-Young.

It seems like he wants to divert the attention of the police towards these people. That’s why in Episode 3 of “Longing for You,” Park Ki-Young intentionally accuses Lee Sung-Yong as the real culprit. As for Oh Jin-Woo, he was designed to appear at all three crime scenes, making him one of the suspicious individuals according to the police.

Now, why does Park Ki-Young seem to have extensive knowledge about Cha Young-Woon’s investigation progress and direction? In Episode 3 of “Longing for You” there was a joke where Cha Young-Woon mentioned that their office might be bugged. Coincidentally, this episode also happens when Park Ki-Young enters their office (he may have secretly planted bugs while bringing coffee).

It feels like the writer-director is hinting at the existence of bugs in their office or that Park Ki-Young installed them discreetly while delivering coffee. This way, just when everyone starts suspecting Li Xingyong, someone reports his suspicious identity and sets up evidence and weapons at his residence as well as his whereabouts at a hotel.

The real culprit could be Oh Jin-Woo?

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“Longing for You” director deliberately used several shots to present Oh Jin-Woo’s eerie expression, as if hinting that Oh Jin-Woo could also be the culprit. In this part, I speculate that “Oh Jin-Woo” may be the direction to reason out his possible guilt (although it is worth mentioning that due to the limited amount of information available at present, please rely on your own reasoning.

However, personally, I still think Park Ki-Young is more suspicious of the crime. So take this part as a reference only because there are significant secrets behind Oh Jin-Woo’s background story and in addition to being attacked in episode three’s ending, it implies he should not be the real culprit).

In episode 2 of “Longing for You,” when certain investigators speak about him, Oh Jin-Woo pays special attention. Therefore, if he is truly innocent and framed, it means he himself does not know what is happening and would not have such an eerie expression.

Hence my deduction that Oh Jin-Woo might have this eerie expression because he heard police suspecting him and fears being suspected himself; thus leading him to format his phone memory card.

I’ve been wondering why this drama is called “Longing for You.” Is someone waiting for something or seeking revenge? Looking at the English title of this drama “Longing for you,” who exactly longs for whom? Based on the preview of episode three, Yoo Jung-Sook seems to be waiting for an opportunity! She says: “We’ve waited so long; let’s begin.” Could it be that Yoo Jung-Sook is actually Oh Jin-Woo’s biological mother?

Assuming Oh Jin-Woo is the culprit, considering motive from a psychological perspective: Does his perpetual feeling of inferiority within his family lead to inner turmoil? In episode two of “Longing for You,” why does Yoo Jung-Sook show special concern for Oh Jin-Woo’s innocence? She even says: “After all the effort to raise him safely, now we have to keep him away from this murder case.” Therefore, Yoo Jung-Sook herself should be the one who hired someone to observe Oh Jin-Woo so that he could grow up, and her ultimate goal is probably to obtain Oh Jin-Woo’s heart for Cha Young-Woon.

In the beginning of Episode 3, “Longing for You,” we learn that Oh Jin-Woo was abandoned by his mother when he was five years old. Given the title of the drama, “Longing for You,” it suggests that Oh Jin-Woo may be waiting for someone or something, which echoes Yoo Jung-Sook’s words, “We’ve waited so long, let’s begin.”

As mentioned earlier in this text, could it be possible that Yoo Jung-Sook is actually waiting for Oh Jin-Woo to give Cha Young-Woon his heart? The abandonment of Oh Jin-Woo by Oh Jin-Sung’s mother at the amusement park may just be a subplot. However, I believe that initially when Oh Jin-Woo was still a baby, he might have been adopted by Oh Jin-Sung’s mother and given her some money (especially since she seems to like money).

Then when Oh Jin-Woo turned five years old, Oh Jin-Sung’s mother no longer wanted him and abandoned him. There is also a scene where someone appears in front of a crying young Oh-Jin Woo; this person could possibly be Yoo Jung-Sook who later takes him to meet with oh jin-sung’s mom.

If we assume that Oh Jin-Woo is the killer, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence but you can take a look at this section because there are two instances where his expressions seem strange and they seem to coincide with the time of murder: 1) On the day of the café murder case in the afternoon when Go Young-Joos’ mother came boasting about Go Young-Joos being a prosecutor in town and then later on in evening time oh jin-woo appeared near cafe area where incident happened; 2) On the afternoon before female student was murdered on same day as well ,Oh jin-woo met Cha Young-Woon for the first time and Go Young-Joo mentioned that Cha Young-Woon is an excellent prosecutor with a 100% conviction rate.

At this moment, Oh Jin-Woo’s expression seems particularly focused on Cha Young-Woon, and then later in the evening, the female student case occurs. So I’m guessing if Oh Jin-Woo committed these crimes due to his own insecurities and anger? It feels possible. But I think Park Ki-Young has captured Oh Jin-Woo’s insecurity and it is related to Park Jung-Sook, which is why he framed Oh Jin-Woo.

It can be seen that Yoo Jung-Sook is trying to find a way to clear Bae Min-Gyu of suspicion, which is normal considering their vested interests. However, why does Ryu Jin-Seok want to help Oh Jin-Woo? Perhaps Yoo Jung-Sook is worried that Oh Jin-Woo will continue to be suspected, which suggests that there may be a connection between Oh Jin-Woo’s identity or past with the Bae family or Yoo Jung-Sook.

Could it be possible that Oh Jin-Woos isn’t actually Oh-Jin Sung’s biological brother? Because Yeo jung-sook did say “I finally managed to raise him safely,” indicating she knows about oh jin woo’s identity or maybe she herself is oh jin woo’s birth mother who wants to give his heart to cha young woon