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Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Kim Ah-Joong: "Wanted" drama episode two recap and screenshots


 Air Dates: June 22 to August 18, 2016 on SBS, shows aired on Wednesdays and Thursdays

Episode two rating: 7.8% (+1.9%)

Main Cast:

Kim Ah-Joong as Jung Hye-In, the heroine, recently retired actress whose son was kidnapped
Ji Hyun-Woo as Cha Seung-In, detective investigating another kidnapping
Uhm Tae-Wong as Shin Dong-Wook, recently fired producer hired for Jung's reality show
Park Hae-Joon as Song Jung-Ho, Jung's sleazy husband and owner of the UCN network
Lee Moon-Sik as Choi Joon-Goo, producer at the UCN network
Jun Hyo-Seong as Park Bo-Yeon, one of the four staff people on the "Wanted" show
Park Hyo-Joo as Yeon-Woo-Shin, one of the four staff people, also had worked with Shin
Shin Jae-Ha as Lee Young-Gwan, young assistant to Cha
Kim Byung-Ok as Jung Jung-Ki, supervisor of Cha and Lee
Park Min-Soo as Song Hyun-Woo, Jung's kidnapped son

 Would suggest reading the recap for episode one if you haven't or if you don't know what this series is about. Briefly though Hye-In is a recently retired 33 year old actress and a very popular one too. On the day she announced her retirement her son Hyun-Woo was kidnapped and at the scene a phone was left. There were some messages on it from the kidnapper, things Hye-In needed to do if she wanted her son to be returned safely.
 The demands are that she start a reality TV show where she has to be the host, the show has to run for ten nights and all of the episodes need to have at least a rating of 20%. The kidnapper will be having her do certain 'missions', if she can complete them successfully and also do the other demands then as mentioned her son will be returned but the show has only two days before it's air date. One other demand was that the police are not to be involved or else it's annyeong to her son.




 At the conclusion of the first episode Hye-In was on the very popular talk show 'Kiss and Talk". On it she revealed to the public for the first time about her son being kidnapped. Also she told the viewers some of the kidnapper's demands and pleaded with them to watch the reality show so it would obtain a rating of 20%. The above was a continuation of that scene from the first episode, no one involved with the new reality show knew Hye-In would be appearing on that talk show.
 That was the first five or so minutes of this episode, it kind of got stretched out a bit as the new reality show with Hye-In didn't start almost to this episode's conclusion. There wasn't too much filler but the suspense and pace really didn't pick up until the second half of this hour long show.
 Of course the police are now involved in the case after seeing Hye-In on TV but to what extent is unknown as Hye-In's sleazy husband has bribed the police commissioner not to have his force get too involved. There are two detectives assigned to the case and they are trying to come up with clues about the kidnapping but think the ones who will have a bigger impact on the case are Cha and Lee.
 We met them briefly in the first episode as they're also investigating another kidnapping. That one involves a young woman named Lee Ji-Eun whose kidnapping was caught life on camera at her home. There are similarities between the two kidnappings and by the 2/3 mark of this episode Cha and Lee are on the case though not officially or at least not yet.




 As mentioned not too much took place in the first half of this episode but at least it wasn't boring as we got to know some of the characters better. Mainly it was the staff doing the preparations for the reality show, they had less than two days to get things ready and the kidnapper still hadn't told them what the first 'mission' would be.
 The second half was quite fast paced as all of it took place on June 22nd which was the day of the first airing of the show. Finally the first 'mission' has been sent to Hye-In, there's a picture in the package of a car and what she has to do is find the car and to see what's in the trunk. Not an easy task as it looks like an ordinary car which it is, it's up to the staff to figure out where it's located.
 A major development in the case took place though when the package arrived as Hye-In and her manager were able to capture the delivery man. He ended up confessing that it was an old chum of his Park Se-Young who had told him to deliver the package, now the hunt was on for Park. The two detectives Cha and Lee were also working on their other case and found him first.
 They didn't find him in good condition though as he was hanging from a ceiling at this residence in an apparent suicide. At the scene they met Hye-In who had discovered Park's address, this is where Cha and Lee start to get involved with Hye-In's case. They were able to deduce that Park was the person to kidnap Hye-In's son, he was also the person to kidnap Lee Ji-Eun. But the case grows cold as there's no connection between the two cases and Park certainly cannot explain anything to them.




 That discovery of Park's body has taken up quite a bit of time, Hye-In's show is supposed to start at 10:00 pm and it's getting close to that deadline. Luckily one of her staff was able to deduce where the car should be by the picture's background, now it was a race to beat the clock as Hye-In, the show's staff plus Cha and Lee only had minutes to get to that scene.
 The car was discovered near a pier in Inchon, seems everyone got there about the same time with very few seconds to spare. The first person to check out the car's trunk was Cha, we don't know what he saw as he quickly closed the trunk. Forgot to mention it but the show was airing live, Hye-In started it with airing herself via cellphone enroute to the scene.
 With all cameras on Hye-In and the car she ran up to the trunk and quickly opened it. To her surprise and all of us viewers it seems to be her son Hyun-Woo in the trunk, I'm 98% sure it was but we never saw his face completely as he wasn't facing the screen. The next episode's preview was starting to air as that scene ended the show, didn't watch the preview as not to spoil things. Would presume there's a major reason for it but the kidnapper wasn't supposed to return Hye-In's son until ten of the reality shows had aired, can't think of a reason though. Plus we haven't learned the fate of Lee Ji-Eun, wonder if that kidnapping is going to be a part of the reality show.




 Sure those last two questions plus many more will be answered in the next episode or at least hopefully they'll start to be answered. Bit of a slow first half but it was interesting all the way through, but in the second half there didn't seem there was time to even take a breath as it was so fast paced. Not sure when the third episode will be reviewed, thinking this weekend as I'll first be watching the next two episodes of "W" which air tomorrow and Thursday. Plus I'm watching the "My Lawyer, Mr. Jo" series and will be doing a recap for that's show's third episode before this one.
 Realize I still have some work to do but these recaps to me are getting better, been able to keep the length of them down while being able to explain the major details for each episode. Not that this was short but compared to a few other reviewers out there it is as some reviews I've tried to read must be 10,000 words long. Will give them credit for being able to write something so long but sure I speak for many others as who wants to read a review for 25 minutes or so that has every single detail? Few more screenshots for you to follow the story, almost all of them were from the episode's second half which is when most of the action happened.


























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