[Drama Review] 'Missing 9' - Episode 13

AKP STAFF

Chanyeol, Yang Dong Geun, Jung Kyung Ho, Baek Jin Hee, Choi Tae Joon, Lee Sun Bin

What a relief it is to finally, finally have this plot moving forward again! Admittedly, the beginning of episode 13 still had that slow sort of lag, but by the time we arrived at the episode 14 previews, even some of the lag in the beginning of this episode seemed to be preparing us for some more content coming ahead, which is a HUGE RELIEF!

For starters, we were finally able to learn the whole truth behind composer Shin Jae Hyun's death. It turns out, Choi Tae Ho's (played by Choi Tae Joon) accidental push hadn't been what killed the guy. Instead, when Tae Ho called the new CEO Jang Do Pal for help after the incident, Jang Do Pal had talked Tae Ho into faking Shin Jae Hyun's suicide, all the while dealing the final death blow to Shin Jae Hyun, who woke up while Jang Do Pal was trying to throw him off the balcony. Brutal, huh?

Uhh, excuse me sir, but this kind of cool scene is only reserved for good guys. I.e. these guys:

Being the first to hear the evidence audio file hidden within Yoon So Hee's old phone, a stroke of guilt that no one, and by that I mean no one, had been expecting comes out of Choi Tae Ho. He mutters to himself, "What have I done up until now?" He regrets doing such a horrible thing to Shin Jae Hyun? He's actually feeling guilty about every ghastly crime he's committed? Now? Like, 3 years later?

Since he's been dumped at the emergency room to treat his stab wound, we'll have to wait until the next episode to find out just what the heck is going on in that twisted, murderer mind of his.

Surprisingly enough, seeing Tae Ho wounded, defeated, and sobbing in a pile of trash didn't feel any satisfying...

Let's also come back to the topic of Yoon So Hee's phone. I've mentioned this briefly before, but now that it's really come out to the surface that So Hee had evidence that Tae Ho and Jang Do Pal were the real criminals responsible for Shin Jae Hyun's death, who happened to be her lover, and that she threatened the two criminals with her evidence to get what she wanted in her career... That is sickly twisted. It's not like So Hee was ever really on the good guys' side even back on the island, but still, it's jarring to discover that she was behind such a secret and so much manipulation, which ultimately lead to all of this madness in the first place. The drama production crew will now have to be very careful with how they portray So Hee's character, even though she's dead, in the remaining episodes to come. Will her role be that of a tragic loss, or the selfish instigator of all of the deaths and misfortunes?

Well that was fast...

While Tae Ho and So Hee's characters surprised us this episode, our main protagonists continue to remain true to the characters we've perceived them to be. Mainly, this reliability falls on Seo Jun Oh (played by Jung Kyung Ho), whose heroism and unwavering heart for justice finally managed to turn things around for our protagonists by the end of this episode. There's still a long battle ahead against Choi Tae Ho and Jang Do Pal, but now, with solid evidence on Jun Oh's side, it's possible for the truth to triumph, which we can assume is what will take up the remaining 3 episodes of this series. Ra Bong Hee (played by Baek Jin Hee) has now stepped out of the picture slightly, now that her role as the dirt-poor, powerless voice of justice has ended with Seo Jun Oh's return. But that's fine in my opinion. This drama has at least managed to lay out it's characters in specific, defined places by the plot's conclusion, so as to not leave viewers with any missing holes in watching for the rest of the resolution. It seems like we can't ever expect Lee Yeol (played by EXO's Chanyeol) to return any more, even though I'd held on to those damn hopes up until the last episode. With luck, we might get a glimpse of his corpse at least retrieved in the end...