Chairman Song’s Personal Room
Episode 4 of The Goddess Of Revenge begins with Hae-Ra making her decision and deciding to join Min-Joon for the fight ahead. As news breaks of the scandal, Min-Joon’s big reveal about Hae-Ra’s baby catches him completely off-guard. Of course, he’s not the only one. Hoon-Seok slams on the brakes and holds Hae-Ra up against the car. As he looks deep in her eyes, we cut back in time and see a frightened Hae-Ra abused and about to be hit in the face with a bottle by her husband. However, he receives a call confirming he’s called away to Switzerland for business. The stress becomes too much for Hae-Ra, who struggles to walk and crawls across the floor to her phone. She rings an ambulance and eventually is rushed in the emergency room, which is where she loses her baby. In further flashbacks, we see Hae-Ra telling Ga On to hide from an enraged (and potentially drunk) Hoon-Seok. He wants to know exactly who the father is but she looks him square in the face and tells him he’s the Dad. Threatening to hurt Ga On, Hae-Ra grabs a golf club and whacks Hoon-Seok across the skull. It’s enough for her to head inside the room and cradle Ga On, telling him she’ll do her best to protect him while holding the door shut. Back in the present, Hae-Ra manages to evade Hoon-Seok after a car ploughs into her and knocks him over. Despite being late to the meeting, she shows up before Chairman Song and apologizes for her lateness. Sporting a nasty cut across the leg, he tells her to get changed into a uniform. Back home, Eun-Hye watches news reports as they confirm Hae-Ra was brought in that day with a cracked rib; bruised and beaten. As the news anchors remain divided over whether Hoon-Seok is a loving or abusive husband, Hoon-Seok himself goes to extreme lengths to get the results of the DNA test. It’ll take a month but he doesn’t have that long. Instead, he’s told it’ll be sped up if he manages to get a fingernail or hair. At the apartment, he does his best to look around for signs of Ga On being there but he comes up short. Eventually this leads him to tell his associates to check all the schools for possible clues. Min-Joon heads in for his meeting with Chairman Song, spying Hae-Ra working and bringing them a drink each. Song comments on her tenacity and rings through to get Hae-Ra taken to the hospital. When he hangs up, he tells Joon he’s going to keep an eye on her from now on. Soon, the conversation turns to what he’s really doing there. It turns out he wants to release the date of the trial to the press. In doing so – and with the right guidance from him – they could prove that the allegations made against him were false. As he continues on, he finds out from another contact that the news reports were released by either Tae-On or President Kim. Someone from Tae-On’s side also visited the emergency centre – alas, the plot continues to thicken! After paying his contact off, Min-Joon also learns that there’s a 30% tax deduction for R&D FB Insurance. The same company of course that just released the files. Tae-On is pampered by her workers, with a meticulous manicure and classical music for good measure. As another shows up, it’s revealed that the “matter has been dealt with”. Hoon-Seok rings not long after and Tae-On’s associate reveals that they’ll do everything they can to speed up the test results for the DNA. Back at his place, Hoon-Seok finds a note telling him not to turn on the TV and to get some rest, promising to be there soon. With a case full of syringes, he eventually decides to get lost in nirvana. At least, that’s what seems to happen. A later scene cuts to show Hoon-Seok passed out on the sofa with needle marks across his forearm. Meanwhile, Eun-Hye picks up Hae-Ra from work and mentions how all the comments from the media appear to be on her side. Hae-Ra deflects the compliments though, instead asking about Seung-Joo and what’s going on with her. With jail a very real possibility, Hae-Ra decides to pay Seung-Joo a visit in hospital. Taking a moment alone, she sits with Seung-Joo and records their conversation. She asks the girl to walk her through what happened that evening. Afterward, Hae-Ra greets her Mother and cups her hands in hers, telling her that the trial could be a difficult ordeal and to be ready for what’s to come. Min-Joon and Hae-Ra meet later that evening to discuss their plan. So it turns out the Chairman is being made out to be the victim on purpose so when the truth is revealed and evidence spills out, the public will be completely outraged by what’s transpired. That evidence starts with a list of secretaries that quit but received a pretty large severance pay. With only 3 of the women currently living in Seoul right now, Hae-Ra decides to visit each in turn to get a clearer picture over what’s been going on and to substantiate evidence against Chairman Song. Given Hae-Ra has now infiltrated Song’s office, she tries to find the documents she needs to incriminate him. Turning the camera in the pen around, she messages Min-Joon at an opportune time when a representative from the office shows up. It turns out Song has a personal room hidden away and this seems to be where the abuse takes place. Needing a way into that room to prove this, Hae-Ra vows to do her best to get inside. They need a password in order to crack it though, and that brings Eun-Hye into the mix. The court case does not go well for Seung-Joo as she’s sentenced to 2 years in jail. As the news reports come in, the deal between FB Insurance and J&Cell goes forward too. Hae-Ra finds an opportune time to head in and check the office as the Chairman leaves for the evening. Only, things go awry when he receives a notification that his passcode has been entered incorrectly in the office. It turns out he too has cameras installed and notices her trying to open the doors. He races back to the office as Hae-Ra breaks into his laptop instead and copies incriminating files over. With Song lusting for blood, Min-Joon struggles to watch and after pleading with Hae-Ra to leave, eventually scrambles in his car and drives up. It’s too late. Song bursts into the room and notices Hae-Ra, eventually striking her across the face for good measure. He eventually pries open her hand and takes the USB drive. With a syringe on hand, he asks outright just who Hae-Ra is but when he receives no reply, unfortunately the Chairman reveals his personal room to her. He promises to treat her really well as Hae-Ra bursts into life and reveals that actually she’s been recording this whole time. Now things do not look good for the Chairman who watches the live broadcast streamed back on her phone with shock.
The Episode Review
With a solid episode of drama, the situation with Chairman Song reaches fever pitch as our various characters work to try and thwart the threat he poses. The satisfying conclusion is definitely one of the highlights from this series so far while the various scenes showing the team at work to outsmart him feed back into those aforementioned espionage vibes. Min-Joon’s past is still unknown at this point though but with more flashbacks for Hae-Ra, the abuse she suffered at the hands of Hoon-Seok is clear to see. These were definitely hard to watch and just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. In fact, that seems to be a consistent motif for a lot of this series too. Quite what’s next for our characters remains to be seen but this revenge thriller is just starting to get interesting!
