Shadow Detective Season 2 Episode 3+4 Recap & Review,Explained

Shadow Detective Season 2 Episode 3 Recap

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🔹Kim Taek-Rok has always known that there is more than one “friend”. Although Kook Jin-Han and President Zhang are both dead, the situation is not over yet. Why did President Zhang kill Kook Jin-Han but spare Kim Taek-Rok’s life? Currently, Kim Taek-Rok believes that the person he needs to focus on now is Lee Young-Ho because he was a follower of President Zhang.

However, Kim Taek-Rok must be cautious whether this is a clue left by Kook Jin-Han or a trap. Continuing from Episode 2 of Shadow Detective Season 2, Han Kyung-Chan discovered that Kim Taek-Rok’s room was filled with information about the Geumo City case and found out that Team Leader Han was involved as well.

However, Kim Taek-Rok refused to let Han Kyung-Chan participate and told him to pretend like today never happened if he wants to protect Sung-A. Kim Taek-Rok learned that Yeon Ju-Hyun took a three-month vacation before coming to Geumo Police Station for “self-development”. He knows that Yeon Ju-Hyun came prepared.

🔹Lee Young-Ho went to the foundation and greeted Director Choi Do-Hyung. Of course, this was just for show because Choi Do-Hyung’s popularity has been rising lately. Lee Young-Ho temporarily came here to ride on his popularity wave, but his followers were constantly keeping an eye on Choi Do-Hyung.

Meanwhile, Joo Gwang-Su called Team Leader Han for a meeting and expressed his desire to leave this place. Kim Taek-Rok traced Mr.Kim (the person Woo Jang-Ik mentioned when they caught Ha-Na in Episode 1 of Shadow Detective Season 2) who said Woo Jang-Ik set up shell companies in redevelopment areas for real estate transactions. The people associated with Woo Jang-Ik are Kang Seung-Mo, the president of Lingxi Bank, Won Jae-Gu, the chief prosecutor of Lingxi Local Prosecutors’ Office, and Lee Young-Ho’s nephew Yong Hwan-Ju.

They are all Lee Young-Ho’s trusted allies and they all stand to make a lot of money from redevelopment. This may be one of the reasons why Team Leader Han was persuaded to kill Woo Jang-Ik. However, this means that Yeon Ju-Hyun wouldn’t have had to take risks by stealing the USB drive. So now Kim Taek-Rok knows that Yeon Ju-Hyun is not on Lee Young-Ho’s side.

🔹Kim Taek-Rok knows that Yeon Ju-Hyun is monitoring him closely. He also feels that she suspects him. Kim Taek-Rok plans to use Yeon Ju-Hyun’s suspicion against her and fight back. Choi Do-Hyung goes to the hospital to visit Sung-A who mentions feeling distant from Kim Taek-Rok lately.

During a meeting, Yeon Ju-Hyun suddenly changes her statement and says Yang Gi-Tae is not the arsonist anymore, leaving Team Leader Han dumbfounded. Afterwards, Yeon Ju-Hyun specifically asks Kim Taek-Rok who could be the real culprit and what he might be hiding? Intentionally playing along with it, Kim Taek-Rok pretends as if he knows who is behind it all and acts like he has evidence against them.

🔹Lee Young-Ho gathered all his people together and it seems like they are very interested in Woo Jang-Ik’s explosion case. Lee Young-Ho did this because Won Jae-Gu said that Woo Jang-Ik had information about a timed bomb. Team leader Han is now very scared because both Kook Jin-Han and Chairman Zhang have already died. Han, who has finally caught a lifeline, is constantly doing dirty work without any reward, so he must be afraid of being kicked out or killed one day.

Therefore, after listening to Seo Gwang-Su’s suggestion, team leader Han made an appointment with Yong Hwan-Ju. At the same time, Cha Kyung-Pil thinks that Yong Hwan-Ju might cause trouble during the election period, so he suggested that Lee Young-Ho send Yong Hwan-Ju out of the country first. Yeon Ju-Hyun went to Gu Dong-Bum’s office and stole some photos. This was a trap set by Kim Taek-Rok intentionally to lure Yeon Ju-Hyun into suspicion.

🔹After meeting each other, Kim Taek-Rok took out Yeon Ju-Hyun’s secret phone and asked her to tell the other party that she has explosive information about Kang Seung-Mo. As long as he exposes Kang Seung-Mo’s scandal, Kim Taek-Rok agrees to provide evidence of team leader Han planting bombs for Yeon Ju-Hyun.

The next day, Kang Seung-Mo’s scandal really broke out. It seems like Yeon Ju-Hyun obediently followed instructions but she also seems to have another plan to deal with Kim Taek-Rok (the person she talked on the phone with from the Inspectorate Office is Han Jong-Seok). Kang Seung-Mo’s corruption case affects Lee Young-Ho’s campaign funds; this is why Kim Taek-Rok intentionally exposed Kang Seung-Mo’s secrets, so that Seo Gwang-Su can replace Kang Seung-Mo’s position.

Shadow Detective Season 2 Episode 4 Recap

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🔹Six months ago, Yeon Ju-Hyun was assigned by the Inspectorate General to investigate the truth behind the corruption case in the Women and Juvenile Affairs Investigation department. At that time, Seo Gwang-Su had already been released on probation, as Kim Taek-Rok had anticipated. On the other hand, Lee Young-Ho’s support rate had dropped due to Kang Seung-Mo’s scandal, and now Lee Young-Ho was lacking funds.

Despite Cha Kyung-Pil’s objections, Lee Young-Ho still believed that Seo Gwang-Su could be useful and discarded when no longer needed~ Yeon Ju-Hyun discovered this plan and took the initiative to discuss the details of the case with Kim Taek-Rok. She admitted that what the Inspectorate General wanted to know was how last year’s events unfolded and who ordered Kook Jin-Han and Chief Han. They planned to get rid of them completely. Now Yeon Ju-Hyun threatened Kim Taek-Rok into cooperating together~ She intended to use Kim Taek-Rok as bait and slowly infiltrate.

🔹Lee Sung-A returned to the police station with a report on an arson case which caught Chief Han’s attention. Naturally, Chief Han was angry at Lee Sung-A for investigating this case since he himself was actually involved in it. Lee Young-Ho wasn’t pleased with Choi Do-Hyung gaining more popularity so he specifically sought out Won Jae-Gu for countermeasures.

Choi Do-Hyung invited Kim Taek-Rok for barbecue knowing that he has always complained about him in the past; Choi Do-hyung set up a foundation just so he can find solace within himself while hoping that Kim Taek-Rok would retire early and join his foundation for assistance. Sung-A learned from Ha-Na about Yeon Ju-hyun’s suspicious behavior and also knew that Kim Taek-Rok was hiding something from her.

Despite Cha Kyung-Pil’s advice, Lee Young-Ho went ahead with his plan to take down Won Jae-Gu because he wanted to get rid of Choi Do-Hyung, who was a thorn in his side. On the other hand, Cha Kyung-Pil sent someone to investigate how Seo Gwang-Su managed to get close to Yong Hwan-Ju.

🔹Lee Sung-A didn’t like that Kim Taek-Rok was trying to protect her by keeping her out of the case. She felt that if it were Kim Taek-Rok who got hurt or in danger, she would also be very worried. However, Son Kyung-Chan deliberately exchanged the arson case with another team the next day, which made her feel uneasy.

So she decided to investigate on her own. Now it’s Kim Jin-Sun’s turn to go to Choi Do-Hyung’s foundation and even give a donation as an excuse; however, her main goal is actually to cooperate with Choi Do-Hyung and even help him become a member of parliament. Kim Taek-Rok meets with Seo Gwang-Su who says that their plan is going smoothly so far but they are certain that Cha Kyung-Pil is also keeping an eye on them; moreover, Chief Han demanded an introduction fee today which made Kim Taek-Rok realize that Chief Han had entered Baek Sung-Il’s office – Baek Sung-Il surely isn’t innocent either.

🔹Kim Taek-Rok discovered that Yeon Ju-Hyun intentionally deleted the records of her father (Yeon Sang-Hoon). Until high school, there were still records of her dad. Someone anonymously reported to the police station that someone in the bureau deliberately concealed the results of Woo Jang-Ik’s arson case and even had evidence of a large amount of money transactions with Woo Jang-Ik.

Seo Gwang-Su planned to meet with Team Leader Han and Yong Hwan-Ju. Yong Hwan-Ju brought in a new investor who wanted to build a drug trafficking business for profit. However, Kim Taek-Rok’s real intention was to lure Cha Kyung-Pil out on his own because Yong Hwan-Ju is a drug addict and Cha Kyung-Pil feared it would affect Lee Young-Ho.

So she took the initiative to appear before Seo Gwang-Su, who showed his greediness to make her believe him. Following Kim Taek-Rok’s plan, Yeon Ju-Hyun met with Team Leader Han (because he demanded an introduction fee from Seo Gwang-Su).

🔹Kim Taek-Rok understood that Baek Sung-Il was behind Team Leader Han’s mission to kill Woo Jang-Ik and deliberately framed him for Woo Jang-Ik’s case (after all, it was also Team Leader Han who planted the bomb). Now that Team Leader Han has been summoned by Baek Sung-Il, it means Baek Sung-Il intends to get rid of him.

Team Leader Han also knows he is about to be kicked out so he approached Seo Gwang-Su for an introduction fee and planned his escape. Baek Sung-Il must have discovered something significant if he wants to eliminate Team Leader Han like this.

That’s why Kim Taek-Rok joined forces with Yeon Ju-Hyun to capture and hide Chairman Zhang, as Team Leader Han can be considered an important witness. However, the plan went smoothly but unexpectedly Sung-A followed Team Leader Han and witnessed everything. She saw Yeon Ju-Hyun fighting with another group of people and trying to snatch someone away. Sung-A even found herself in danger.

Shadow Detective Season 2 Episode 3+4 Review & Explained

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In the beginning of Episode 3 of “Shadow Detective 2,” it starts with a scene from the end of Season 1 of “Old Case Investigation.” Chairman Zhang (played by An Neixiang) calls and says, “My friend, if you continue to investigate, you’ll be next.”

This raises a question in Shadow Detective Season 2: why did Chairman Zhang kill Kook Jin-Han but spare Kim Taek-Rok? This becomes a setup for Shadow Detective Season 2. Based on the ending of Episode 2 in “Shadow Detective 2,” allow me to share my speculation and analysis:

🔺It can now be confirmed that Lee Young-Ho is affiliated with Faction A, as mentioned in Episode 3 of “Shadow Detective 2” that Woo Jang-Ik only knows people close to Lee Young-Ho. Therefore, it can be inferred that Woo Jang-Ik was killed in the first two episodes due to Lee Young-Ho’s survival instinct, leading to the explosion incident (Gu Dong-Bum also mentioned that this explosion was meant to destroy evidence).

Thus, Woo Jang-Ik’s murder was intended to prevent anyone from tracing back upstream for clues. The person responsible for killing Woo Jang-Ik is Team Leader Han, as revealed in Episode 4 of “Shadow Detective 2”. It was also mentioned that Baek Sung-Il assisted Lee Young-Ho and instructed Team Leader Han to handle the situation.

🔺Lee Young-Ho himself is a loyal follower left by Chairman Zhang. In the first season of “Old Case Solving”, Chairman Zhang sent Kook Jin-Han to use Kim Taek-Rok to deal with Seo Gwang-Su in order to fight against the faction led by Seo Gwang-Su and seize control of urban redevelopment.

Therefore, logically speaking, Chairman Zhang and Lee Young-Ho should be on the same side. However, the problem is that someone from a different faction must have taken away the USB drive. After all, why would Lee Young-Ho send someone to steal from his own people? Therefore, it must be someone from Faction B who stole the USB drive.

🔺But who could Faction B be? Regardless of whether their goal is to gain benefits from urban redevelopment or not, an important foreshadowing was mentioned in Episode 3 of “Shadow Detective 2”: “Why did Chairman Zhang let Kim Taek-Rok live?”

This implies that Kim Taek-Rok’s existence poses a significant threat to exposing corruption in urban redevelopment cases. If at the end of Season 1 of “Old Case Solving”, Chairman Zhang wanted Kim Taek-Rok to stay behind, it means he hoped that Kim Taek-Rok would continue investigating in “Shadow Detective 2”.

By reverse inference, we can reasonably speculate that although Lee Young-Ho is a follower of Chairman Zhang, it’s highly likely that Chairman Zhang knew about Lee Young-Ho’s betrayal and deliberately spared Kim Taek-Rok.

🔺In this case, I believe that as I mentioned in the previous episode of “Shadow Detective 2”, whoever stole Woo Jang-Ik’s USB drive wanted to draw attention from Kim Taek-Rok because he is capable of eliminating Lee Young-Ho. Episode 3 reveals Yeon Ju-Hyun as a member of Faction B (her motives are indeed not driven by personal gain, and I suspect it may be related to her father, Yan Sang-Hoon).

As for why Yeon Ju-Hyun suddenly changed her statement in Episode 3 of “Shadow Detective 2” and claimed that Yang Gi-Tae is not the culprit of the explosion, I think it’s likely because she doesn’t want Kim Taek-Rok to suspect her intentions. After all, the more she falsely accuses Yang Gi-Tae, the more suspicious Kim Taek-Rok will become.

🔺What’s interesting is why the Inspector General assigned Yeon Ju-Hyun to investigate the truth six months ago? Yeon Ju-Hyun saw a few photos, and I think they might be either her father’s photos or related to a case. Or maybe she has some connection with Kook Jin-Han (?) (This is just my guess because there seemed to be tears in Yeon Ju-Hyun’s eyes).

There was also a scene where she looked like she wanted to cry while watching Kim Taek-Rok from behind (Kim Taek-Rok also noticed that Yeon Ju-Hyun intentionally deleted records of her father, so Yeon Ju-Hyun’s goal of catching Lee Young-Ho may not be for personal gain but perhaps for another motive).

So there must be something that motivated Yeon Ju-Hyun to join this mission. I believe she was used as a pawn by Han Jong-Seok when he assigned her to the Women and Juvenile Affairs Investigation department. It is highly likely that Yeon Ju-Hyun “doesn’t know” that she was sent as bait to lure Kim Taek-Rok into exposing Lee Young-Ho (because the USB drive in her possession contains powerful information that can bring down Lee Young-Ho), so it’s possible that she doesn’t know about other people’s hidden agendas.

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🔺Currently, there are two possible objectives for Faction B: ➊ To seize redevelopment benefits; ➋ It could really be as I speculated earlier, not for redevelopment benefits but rather to expose Lee Young Ho. The character Choi Do Hyung makes me feel suspicious, and both Choi Do Hyung and Cha Kyung-Pil around Lee Young Ho seem tense. Or maybe Cha Kyung-Pil is suspecting Choi Do Hyung because in episode three, Cha Kyung-Pil kept an eye on him. This seems to suggest that Choi Do Hyung may not be as upright as we initially thought (?).

🔺Kim Taek-Rok cleverly used the character Seo Gwang-Su to establish a connection with Team Leader Han, which is a smart move because Cha Kyung-Pil’s investigation led him to introduce Seo Gwang-Su to Yong Hwan-Ju (Kim Taek-Rok doesn’t need to reveal his identity yet).

Of course, Seo Gwang-Su would be willing to cooperate with Kim Taek-Rok because he was destroyed by Zhang Zhuang’s faction in the past. In episode one of “Shadow Detective 2,” Seo Gwang-Su told Kim Taek-Rok that it would be right to destroy Lee Young-Ho’s faction, so Seo Gwang-Su has a concept of seeking revenge. His character can also lure Cha Kyung-Pil out and make it easier for them to get closer.