Cat and Mouse
Episode 4 of Inspector Koo begins with Santa in the parking lot being stalked by K. She waits until he’s gone before breaking into their office and finding incriminating photos from the crime scene. She also finds a whiteboard full of details, all of which pointed toward finding K. Santa though, who happens to be on his way home, realizes something is amiss and returns to his office. When Santa gets there he races into the room, watering the plants. The thing is, just prior to that K happened to be messing about with the lights. As we later find out, she was actually planting a bug. Santa wheels out the bins, but funnily enough K happens to be in the one he takes out. This is what coincides with the parking lot scene last episode, with Santa bowing just as she passes. What a fake-out! Anyway, he catches a whiff of her perfume and realizes just who she is. As K hurries away, Santa gives chase. He steps out the elevator and follows her down the street. K realizes what’s going on and eventually charges away. Santa though, disliking being dirty of course, ends up with spilled drinks over his shirt as he continues to chase her. Eventually they make their way up to the rooftop but K is too smart, too cunning and too tenacious, managing to get back down to ground level, despite hurting her leg badly in the process. Meanwhile, Kyung-Yi turns her attention to the video broadcast outside the Life Insurance firm. They learn the puppets are linked back to an old cartoon from 2003. Now, it would appear that whoever was behind this may well have been a preschooler back then. However, Santa suddenly shows up, looking the worse for wear, but holding the outfit that K was wearing. He checks the light fixture and finds the bug, quickly dispatching it. The gang head out for food to discuss their next moves. After establishing their plates are definitely not poisoned of course. As they chow down, Kyung-Yi goes over Santa’s description and deliberates on him talking about how the culprit hurt her right leg. Of course, this immediately sends Kyung-Yi over to see K, pressing her for answers. Instead, she leads her old friend over to the window to marvel at the sunset. When she leaves, K grabs her leg and mutters to herself how she needs to take care of her. Meanwhile, Santa learns that the strange devil puppet is connected to all of this, and seemingly the killer’s calling card. The next to receive one of these is Jae-Yeong, who’s told to arrive at Incheon Station. Kyung-Yi, upon finding this out, believes this is a good opportunity to see exactly how K operates. However, everything needs to be tightly restrained. Then, and only then, will they be successful. With this in mind, Kyung-Yi agrees to take on the case, but there’s very clear bad vibes between Je-Hui and Kyung-Yi, linked back to their past. However, they both agree to take out K without anyone dying. Meanwhile, a wheelchair-bound K smashes into Gun-Wook and his fellow officer out on the street. Given Gun-Wook has been ignoring her calls all this time, it’s a humorous play by her to show who’s really in charge. It certainly seems to do the trick , especially as he hurries away to get some food. However, Gun-Wook does get the last laugh later – which we’ll go over later on. With a wire set-up on Jae-Young and all the team in place, the operation gets underway. K is clever, and with audio being recorded, an old lady on the train mentions her husband losing a phone and the location of that, which is down by the docks. Now, this is obviously code but when Jae-Young reaches the intended location, she finds an additional phone with an incriminating message on. We don’t see what this is, yet. Jae-Young gets spooked and throws down her wire-tap, going rogue with a bottle of water. But is this really water in there? Kyung-Yi follows, believing it holds some sort of poison, and begins pouring water into a pool down by the docks. Kyung-Yi is convinced it’s poisoned but actually all of this is one big elaborate scheme. The message on the phone reads “no one is going to die”, Seon-Mi is fine and the water in the bottle is just that – water. The real targets happen to be Je-Hui and Gyeong-Su, used as a message by K to stay away from her in the future. The pair wake up after being gassed in their car, to find themselves caught in a shipping container on the beach. K’s not the only one that’s duped though. A guy shows up pretending to be a bird enthusiast and hands over his business card, which happens to be inside the pouch. Now, the pouch holds drugs inside. Thanks to an anonymous tip-off (which happens to be Gun-Wook, remember we said he’d be back?) she’s busted carrying drugs and taken down to the station. The only thing she cares about though is missing the action and to be honest, it’s quite the tense affair. The water level is rising inside the shipping container but Je-Hui believes they may be on a lake. K is angsty behind bars, wanting to see how this plays out, while Kyung-Yi scrambles for answers. Tick tock guys!
The Episode Review,
Inspector Koo returns with a really exciting episode, one that sees K and Kyung-Yi really starting to get to grips with their cat and mouse chase. The opening scene with Santa and K ultimately sets the scene for the rest of the chapter, which constantly changes the see-saw balance of power between the two parties. The ending with Jae-Young being used as a decoy is a nice play, especially off the back of episode 3’s poison, and these elaborate schemes are ultimately what make this such an enthralling watch. The puzzling questions around the history between K and Kyung-Yi continue to linger and they’re certainly tantalizing. It’ll be interesting to see what we’re missing from this, as it’s clear K knows more than she’s letting on. The style, characters and plot are all just starting to come together in a really satisfying way after some early-season rust with the humour. If this is a sign of things to come, it looks like we’re on course for quite the rollercoaster ride over the weeks!
