Air Dates: March 28 - May 31, 2016.... Mondays and Tuesdays on KBS2
First episode's rating: 8.6%
Main Cast:
Park Shin-Yang as Jo Deul-Ho
Kang So-Ra as Lee Eun-Jo
Ryu Soo-Young as Shin Ji-Wook
Park Sol-Mi as Jang Hae-Kyung
Kim Kap-Soo as Shin Young-II
Kang Shin-II as Jang Shin-Woo
Jo Han-Chul as Kim Tae-Jung
Jing Won-Joong as CEO Jung
Hwang Suk-Jung as Hwang Ae-Ra
Chol Jae-Hwan as Kang-II Goo
Kind of a big cast but for the most part almost all of attention was focused on the two main characters, mainly on Jo Deul-Ho. Sure that will change with the second episode but is background is the key to the story presume that's why he was in about 80% of the scenes. Wasn't expecting too much coming into this series but this first episode was a pleasant surprise and enjoyed it quite a bit. Because the focus was mainly on Jo and Lee will do things a bit different this time which is to give you the background on the two main characters and to set you up for the upcoming episodes. Have done this format before and found out it worked somewhat well. Would think the rest of the recaps will be in their usual style as the main plot should be more developed starting with the next episode.
Most of this first post will be devoted to Jo as the story revolves around events that started over three years ago. We learn so much about his past yet there's still so many unanswered questions and things we need to learn about him, series is 20 episodes so they can't give away everything quite yet.
Three years ago Jo was working for the Prosecutor's office in Seoul, he was highly respected by all but mainly his immediate bosses. Jo had a bit of an unorthodox style but it was one that worked, if you were a defendant he's one of the last people you'd want to see. However two cases three years ago changed Jo's and many other lives upside down and they haven't been resolved to this day.
The first case dealt with an arson and death at a construction site, Jo was assigned the case which is boss said was fairly easy one to win. It would have been but Jo is an honest prosecutor, it was a frame up and Jo was able to prove the defendant didn't commit the crime of arson. He was able to persuade his boss Shin to drop the case, he did but unknown to Jo the case wasn't closed for Shin. The defendant in the case was someone Jo came to know much better as they both had attended the same orphanage. Jo was much older than II-Goo who was just twenty, he thought giving him a new start in life would set him on the right path which didn't happen.
The second case was what really changed Jo's life as he was trying to sentence the CEO Jung who owned a major corporation. He ran it kind of underhanded and was on trial though don't think it ever came out why he was in trial. Jung had some connections with the prosecutor's office and was expected to get off. That wasn't the case as Jo was able to trick Jung into saying a few thing that made him appear to be guilty but quickly the tables turned on Jo.
In court Jung accused Jo of taking a bribe from him and even doctored much evidence to that effect. Jo was arrested and was pending a prison sentence as his 'bosses' set the whole trial up, after all his two main bosses were also working with Jung. In a setup trial Jo was easily found guilty and was awaiting his sentencing in jail.
Don't know where this story line will go but Jo's wife is an attorney and was representing Jung. After the trial she naturally wanted a divorce and custody of their daughter which Jo refused to. However she told him if he signed the divorce papers he could get a stay of execution for a year, really with no other options Jo signed.
Now it's three years later and a disgraced Jo wanders the streets of Seoul as a homeless person, he really looks like he's hit rock bottom but his mind is sharp as ever. For a while we just see him trying to survive along with many other homeless men, there seemed to be quite a few of them. Then an incident happened which would change his life and the drama's story.
Attorney Lee(So-Ra) is waiting for a train to return home when she notices a pickpocket stealing a wallet from a sleeping man. She gives chase but there's no way she's going to catch him but a stroke of luck befalls her. That man happens to run by Jo destroying a few of his meager possessions, Jo is enraged and chases after him. After a long chase Jo was able to catch and subdue him and to his surprise the pickpocket was II-Goo who he had proved innocent three years before. Jo gave him another break and let him go.
Lee eventually caught up with Jo and thought he was working with the pickpocket and had him taken down to the police station. Luckily for Jo video cameras backed up his side of the story and he was released. Lee felt so bad about what happened she took him out to eat which ended up a disaster. Lee didn't know that Jo had once been a prosecutor and the two hit it off quite bad, one reason for that may have been because Lee was working for the Geom San Law Firm where his ex-wife worked.
We didn't learn many things about Lee this episode, actually not one thing about her past was mentioned. Sure we'll start learning much more about her as she does have the second biggest part in the show and also her role will be much bigger as Jo monopolized the screen time in this show.
Know this is getting a bit long but just have the final scene to discuss. At her law firm Lee hasn't been given too many important tasks to do, rarely does she ever get a case. But to her surprise she's given an old case from three years ago that's going back to trial, it's the arson case that Jo had managed to prevent from going to court.
Jung had persuaded the prosecutor's office to bring the case to trial again, we don't know exactly why yet as the episode ended with the first day of the trial about to start. And what an ending it was as Jo showed up looking like he did three years ago, that homeless style of his appears to be gone forever. Though he went to trial Jo was never disbarred nor was he taken off the arson case which now has a man named Byun as the accused. Jo entered the court with the document stating he was the prosecutor, the whole courtroom was in a state of wonderment. Forgot to mention it but just prior to the court scene Jo's friend II-Goo had been run over by a truck and died, that kind of set things in motion for Jo to return to his normal way of living. There also may be a case of revenge but that and so many other things I'm sure we'll be discovering as this series goes on.
Most everything was covered in this recap, few things may have been left out which will be found in the screenshots. Prefer to do my recaps in the usual way you're all used to but there were so many flashbacks with Jo's life think this style was needed for this episode, hopefully there will be no more like this one.
Unsure how many episodes I'll be recapping as twenty shows are quite a few posts. Will at least be doing up until episode five and then will fill you in on my plans. As I mentioned this first episode was much better than I expected, wish there was more of So-Ra but am positive we'll be seeing much more of her as she does have the second lead in this drama. But that was okay as Park as Jo did such an excellent performance in this episode. Also have no clue what the relationship between Jo and Lee will be, kind of like going into series not knowing too much about them. Here are more screenshots which should fill you in in anything I left out of this recap.
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