Buried Hearts: Episodes 13-14 » Dramabeans

KDramaHQ AdminApril 7, 2025

Buried Hearts: Episodes 13-14

by mistyisles

It’s the penultimate week, which means our tenacious hero and his enemies are amping up their schemes and taking desperate measures to stay in control. Alliances are forged and broken, truths are told, and one person in particular is forced to undergo a whole lot of introspection.

EPISODES 13-14

Before we return to Il-do aiming his gun at Dong-joo, we first jump back in time for a bit of extra context. That DNA report Dong-joo received showing that he’s Il-do’s biological son? Jang-sun sent it as a “parting gift.” Decades ago, he tortured Il-do into betraying his activist friends and has had Il-do firmly under his thumb ever since, keeping that birth secret in his back pocket for just the right moment. Which, as we know, is the moment just after Il-do shoots Dong-joo (in the leg) and Dong-joo calls him “father.” Tae-yoon, having followed Il-do here, runs to the rescue, but it’s hardly needed — Il-do is stunned speechless by the revelation that 1) he has another son and 2) it’s Dong-joo.

Dong-joo snatches the gun, but throws his arms around Il-do and aims behind him instead, where Jang-sun’s men are gathering to finish what Il-do started. With Dong-joo using Il-do as a shield, Jang-sun calls his men off. Il-do remains frozen in shock as Tae-yoon helps Dong-joo to the car and drives him to a clinic where Won-bae enlists a doctor to help discretely. (Ahh, there’s his backstory, finally! Won-bae was a nurse, but accusations of some unnamed crime sent him into hiding.)

Tae-yoon clearly has complicated feelings about Dong-joo, but affection appears to have won out. He apologizes for asking Dong-joo to leave Daesan, vowing never to forget what Il-do has done. Dong-joo gently takes Tae-yoon’s hand, and since we never actually see the moment Tae-yoon learns they’re half-brothers, in my head, this is when Dong-joo tells him.

Il-do, meanwhile, spirals. He turns in desperation to the one person who can and will tell him the truth: KANG SEONG (Kim Hak-sun), the only surviving member of the friend group besides Il-do and Deok-hee. Seong has only recently put all the pieces together himself, but he reveals that Sun-ho knew all along that Il-do was little Sung-hyun’s father. In fact, Sun-ho had tried to convince the boy’s mother to tell Il-do the truth. Il-do, on the other hand, had accused Sun-ho of infidelity, completely unaware that he was the one who had fathered that very child out of wedlock.

Riddled with guilt, Il-do holes himself up for a week, refusing to eat or speak to anyone. Eventually, Dong-joo forces his way in and sits down opposite Il-do for a chat. The long and short of it is that Il-do doesn’t know where to begin to apologize, but he’s also certain that he wouldn’t have done anything differently even if he’d known Sung-hyun was his son. Dong-joo has no plans to forgive him, but orders him to keep living — for Tae-yoon’s sake, if nothing else.

Ultimately, Il-do cuts ties with Jang-sun. This, in turn, prompts Jang-sun to change tactics. As soon as Chairman Cha returns from his honeymoon, Jang-sun starts poisoning his thoughts against both Il-do and Dong-joo. All he has to do, really, is hint that they’re plotting against Sun-woo, and Chairman Cha agrees to let him get rid of them both.

Under the guise of a celebration, Chairman Cha sends Il-do to Dong-joo’s house. Believing the chairman will join them later, Dong-joo and Il-do break out the soju for a heart-to-heart. They haven’t really reconciled, but this is the closest thing to it that they’re likely to reach after everything Il-do has done. By the time they’ve finished off the soju, they’re even dancing around the idea of someday making normal father-son small talk.

But, remember, this is a trap, so it’s all about to go horribly wrong. Dong-joo is upstairs grabbing more drinks when the doorbell rings, so he’s too far away to help when Yang-chun — recently escaped from Won-bae’s custody — barges in and stabs Il-do. Worse, Dong-joo’s gunshot wound hasn’t fully healed, so it doesn’t take long for Yang-chun to overpower him as well.

But Il-do’s not finished yet. After pulling Yang-chun off Dong-joo and failing to wrest the knife away, Il-do uses the last of his strength to pitch himself and Yang-chun over the second-floor railing. Yang-chun dies on impact with his own knife in his chest. Il-do survives just long enough for Dong-joo to limp downstairs. In his final moments, Il-do promises to beg for forgiveness every day in the afterlife, even as Dong-joo begs him not to die.

It’s a cold, quietly angry Dong-joo who arrives at Il-do’s funeral a few days later. He bans both Jang-sun and Chairman Cha from attending, using their respective weaknesses (public humiliation and Sun-woo) as leverage. In the days that follow, he makes it clear that he’s calling the shots around Daesan now. He can persuade Sun-woo to do and say pretty much anything; only he can access Chairman Cha’s safes, which means the chairman and Jang-sun must both go through him if they need funds; and he takes Il-do’s ashes to his own home (though, to be fair, Il-do had said over his soju that he hoped someday Dong-joo would scatter them over the site of the yacht incident).

The rest of the family agonizes over how to stop Dong-joo from completely taking over the company. Or most of them, anyway. Eun-nam remains on Dong-joo’s side, now that he’s told her the truth about him and Il-do, and so does Tae-yoon. As for Sun-woo, he simply observes everything and files Tae-yoon and Dong-joo are half-brothers away for future reference.

Meanwhile, Dong-joo and his investigation team enlist the help of a reporter to comb through the Dandelion files in search of that key bit of intel that can ruin Jang-sun for good. Unfortunately, Jang-sun’s men track the reporter to the secret hideout and kidnap Won-bae for Jang-sun to torture. Dong-joo had the foresight to keep the original files somewhere else, but it’s only a matter of time before Jang-sun either breaks Won-bae like he did Il-do or kills him. So, in the end, Dong-joo hands over the files in exchange for Won-bae’s release.

Jang-sun burns the files right there on the rooftop while Dong-joo goads him into admitting there’s something in them Jang-sun doesn’t want getting out to the public. Jang-sun orders his men to throw Dong-joo off the roof, but they’re interrupted by the appearance of a drone. Jang-sun has just confessed to multiple crimes — including murdering Agnes — on live television.

For all its shortcomings, this week exemplified a lot of what I like about Buried Hearts, especially with regard to Il-do. I don’t feel a lot of sympathy for him, necessarily, but I’d be lying if I said his sendoff didn’t move me. I’ve thought all along that he was the most interesting character in the whole show, and the thought of three episodes without him made me much sadder than I expected. As did Dong-joo’s multilayered grief over losing the father he never got to have.

Speaking of surprises, though, I’m sure Jang-sun will find a way to wreak more havoc before he’s finally, truly defeated. The question is how much damage he’ll cause and who will suffer most for it. And whether Dong-joo will follow Il-do’s example and destroy himself to bring his enemies down, or if he’ll finally be able to — as Eun-nam put it — break free of the net they were born into.