Buried Hearts: Episodes 3-4 » Dramabeans Korean drama recaps

Buried Hearts: Episodes 3-4

by mistyisles

Our hero may have a target on his back, but he’s not totally out of options yet. Trouble is, he also doesn’t seem to have a complete understanding of just how powerful his enemies are — or just how much they want him out of their way. He’ll give them a run for their money, but only time will tell who, if anyone, actually gets to spend that money in the end.

 
EPISODES 3-4

I’m beginning to think Dong-joo isn’t very good at long-term planning (more on that later), but you know what he is good at? Thinking on his feet. After discovering that he’s the target of a hit, he goes straight to Jang-sun to ask for mercy. But he brings a bargaining chip (er, two bargaining chips, if you count Jang-sun’s underling who Dong-joo hits with his car and drags back with him). He’s secretly siphoned 39 billion won (almost $27 million) from Jang-sun’s slush fund. If Jang-sun spares him, he’ll return it and disappear.

But he’s bluffing. After Jang-sun accepts a 2 billion won deposit, Dong-joo asks a hacker friend for 1) a loan, 2) two burner phones, and 3) help stealing the loan back once Jang-sun is appeased. It works surprisingly well. Dong-joo had the wherewithal to plant a bug on Jang-sun’s computer while negotiating his own ransom, so he and his friend can find out the slush fund account password. Then, after transferring the remaining amount (and wryly thanking Jang-sun for not killing him) all Dong-joo has to do is change the password — and the 2 trillion won slush fund is all his. He and his friend pat themselves on the back and go on (separate) vacations.

For Dong-joo, that means renting a yacht and inviting Eun-nam to come away with him. And while that seems like a wild assumption (and, as I mentioned earlier, isn’t the most well-thought-out scheme), I promise it has a bit more precedent than it sounds like. Dong-joo and Eun-name have already met secretly a couple of times: once at Jang-sun’s house, where Dong-joo kissed her, overcome with relief at having escaped alive, and once on her balcony, where he gave her the second burner phone.

Plus, Eun-nam openly regrets her marriage. Some family members even support her wanting out when she shows up to dinner with a black eye after fighting with her husband, YEOM HEE-CHUL (Kwon Soo-hyun). But when Hee-chul hobbles in on crutches, they all decide one fight isn’t worth breaking up a marriage over. (I guess as long as the domestic violence is reciprocal, it’s fine?)

In any case, Eun-nam refuses to go back home. Last week we learned she suspects Il-do — her stepfather — of orchestrating the accident that killed her birth father. Now she explains that she only agreed to marry Hee-chul because Chairman Cha promised her company shares that she wants to leverage against Il-do. While she thought she could get over Dong-joo in time, her feelings for him haven’t changed (and Hee-chul isn’t helping that along).

All that to say, when Dong-joo calls, Eun-nam answers. Though she tells him she’s not coming, she plans to surprise him by showing up anyway. The problem? Jang-sun’s men ambush her and cart her back home while she screams and cries for Dong-joo. None the wiser, Dong-joo returns to the yacht and dons a tux to record a video for her. That’s when a man approaches on another boat and opens fire. Dong-joo takes a bullet to the abdomen before attempting to swim away. The man pursues, still shooting, and only leaves after Dong-joo sinks into the abyss. Only then do we see the man’s face. It’s Il-do.

Back home, Jang-sun congratulates Il-do for a job well done. Interestingly, Il-do seems conflicted. He keeps imagining Dong-joo sitting there, drenched in seawater and demanding to know why Il-do killed him. But a guilty conscience is the least of Il-do’s worries once Jang-sun realizes he’s locked out of his own slush fund — and that they’ve just sent the only person who could access it to the bottom of the ocean. Oops.

Jang-sun blames everyone but himself. He orders Il-do to take responsibility for the full amount, or he’ll leak evidence tying Il-do to the murder. Desperate, Il-do swipes the password to Chairman Cha’s private office safe… but it’s the old password. The new one? Also locked away in Dong-joo’s head. Even Chairman Cha doesn’t have it anymore, because his daughter (Eun-nam’s aunt) stole it. All Il-do can do is hope and pray that somehow, Dong-joo comes back to life.

Fortunately for him (and us), Dong-joo did survive, and recuperates in the home of that fisherman we saw take his watch at the beginning of Episode 1. The “fisherman” has a mysterious past of his own and two names, but says his real name is BAE WON-BAE (Lee Yoo-joon). That mysterious past means he can’t risk taking Dong-joo to the hospital (because gunshot wounds = automatic call to the cops), but he does nurse him back to health and return Dong-joo’s few belongings.

Won-bae also helps Dong-joo try to piece together what happened, because our unfortunate hero now has a classic case of amnesia. Since he’s been dreaming about a car wreck, they decide his car must have been chased over a cliff by whatever enemies also shot at him. And wouldn’t you know it, the only phone he had on him was the burner phone, which means the only number he can call is Eun-nam’s. Except, Hee-chul answers, and recognizes Dong-joo’s voice immediately. To Dong-joo’s confusion, Hee-chul simply curses him out and hangs up.

The phone makes its way into Il-do’s hands, who is elated to hear Dong-joo’s voice for himself. Like Hee-chul, Il-do hangs up without engaging in conversation — so Dong-joo remains clueless about his own identity, while his enemies confirm he’s alive and well. Jang-sun sends men to find Dong-joo and prepares a torture chamber to extract those passwords. This time, there will be no negotiations.

Il-do returns to the yacht, which remains undisturbed. And who should ride by on their own boat, but Dong-joo and Won-bae! Il-do is so shocked that he falls into the water, and Dong-joo immediately rescues him. Il-do now has to reflect on the fact that he’s been saved by the very man he tried to kill, and Dong-joo falls feverish again back at Won-bae’s house.

Thanks to the phone call, Jang-sun’s men soon trace Dong-joo’s location. But Won-bae gets wind of their approach just in time, so when they raid his house, he and Dong-joo are gone. Except they’re not actually gone — they’re hiding in a compartment under the bed. Once the coast is clear, they emerge and flee for real.

Meanwhile, Chairman Cha has cornered Eun-nam into going back to Hee-chul lest she forfeit her shares after all. The two meet up at a high-end clothing store, only to find Dong-joo standing at the register, trying to find out who bought the suit he was wearing at the time of his “accident.”

On paper, this story isn’t really anything new, yet it keeps surprising me. Like, maybe I should have expected the amnesia, but I didn’t (I thought Dong-joo was faking it for a while there), and I’m having a lot of unexpected fun with it. I really hope Won-bae sticks around, because the dynamic between him and Dong-joo is hilarious and I want to know why he’s on the run too.

But what surprised me most was the complexity in Il-do. I don’t know where his character is headed, but I’d love it if he turns sides and helps Dong-joo take down Jang-sun in the long run. I still can’t believe Dong-joo thought he’d get away with both Eun-nam and the money that easily, but hopefully he’ll have learned that lesson once he gets his memory back — and maybe Won-bae can help with the planning side of the revenge that’s still to come.

 
RELATED POSTS