The Art of Negotiation: Episodes 11-12 (Final) » Dramabeans
The Art of Negotiation: Episodes 11-12 (Final)
by lovepark
The M&A team is met with another crisis, but this time, the target is their own leader. As the show dives into our hero’s past, we learn the truth behind the rumors and why our competent trio never lost trust in each other despite it all. Pulling off one last plan, our team unearths the facts of the events that led to the tragedy, and those trying to conceal it finally face the consequences of their actions.
EPISODES 11-12
After weeks of teasing Ju-no’s backstory, the show finally reveals what happened all those years ago, but not everyone seems to remember the same details. CFO Ha spins a tale about temptations and tests which he turned down with a stern scolding, but from Ju-no’s perspective, the CFO fell for the devil’s trap and became entangled in a web of lies that only he could not see.
In the present, Sanin holds a disciplinary hearing for Ju-no in light of the evidence they anonymously received, and both the CFO and CCO sit on the committee. The proceedings are perfunctory at best with the goal being the accused’s termination and subsequent legal action, but Ju-no sits there calmly as they blame him for leaking information and insider trading. He answers all their questions truthfully, which paints an unfavorable picture, but when the CFO offers him an olive branch to accept the first charge and quit, Ju-no refuses.
During the Jumbo Pharmaceutical debacle, CFO Ha met with Professor Ko (the CEO of the company) and introduced him to Ju-no. Following the CFO’s script, the professor asked for a large investment, and on paper, everything looked sound, which was why Ju-no and his team initially approved the company. However, our M&A team is nothing but thorough, and while going over their due diligence, they discovered a shoddy scam in a dilapidated warehouse where these “researchers” rebottled existing medication to sell as their own.
Proving that he was more incompetent than conniving even back then, the CFO knew nothing of Jumbo’s nefarious operations, so when Professor Ko approached him with a lucrative deal – a bit of market manipulation to boost their payout tenfold – he accepted. Unfortunately, while these insiders bought and sold to their own tune, a small ant known as Ju-no’s older brother got caught in their game.
While visiting Ju-no’s place, his brother saw the forged documents about Jumbo, and when Professor Ko visited him at work with a bribe as thanks for the investment, big bro thought he landed on a gold mine and took out a 100 million won loan to buy stocks. However, the stocks fell as part of the schemers’ larger plan, and Ju-no’s brother came running for help, begging him to invest.
Not one to bend the rules even for family, Ju-no told his brother to sell immediately because Jumbo was a fraud, and though he did initially, big bro believed he could outsmart the scammers and stole money from the bank he worked at to buy even more stocks. This is where things went awry for Ju-no because he incorrectly assessed his superior’s stupidity and his brother’s desperateness. The “second spike” big bro needed never came because CFO Ha realized that he was being scammed and threw his shares, which Ju-no’s brother bought.
Unable to sell and realizing his mistake, Ju-no’s brother took his own life, leaving behind his now orphaned daughter. Thus, the little girl living in Hawaii with Ju-no’s wife is actually his niece, and her refusal to talk to him most likely stems from Ju-no trying to push a father-daughter relationship too soon after a traumatic loss. In the end, Ju-no not only adopted his niece, he also inherited his brother’s debt, so the damning evidence Sanin has against him (a letter stating that he owns 50,000 shares of Jumbo) is actually the conclusion to this somber tale about the death of one brother and the other’s continued atonement.
Once Ju-no completes his side of the story, it becomes obvious to everyone in the room that CFO Ha was the one who committed market manipulation, but our brazen executive raises his voice, demanding evidence for these ludicrous accusations. Knowing that his word was not enough, Ju-no enlisted the help of his senior, Technician Jang (a member of the Jumbo scam who was screwed over by the others). Reconnecting with his old buddies, Technician Jang found out the professor’s location, and easily infiltrated the premises as a delivery person and stole the scammer’s laptop.
Alas, no one on the team is tech savvy enough to hack into it, so they call up Chacha Games CEO for assistance. In a hilarious sidebar, CEO Cha informs the others that this isn’t like the movies, but since they are pressed for time, he does have a solution: they can literally steal the hard drive like what his old business partner did to him. One screwdriver later, they have the entire record of CFO Ha’s involvement with Jumbo, and Ju-no presents the documents to the committee.
A momentary silence falls over the room as Ju-no corners the CFO and then all hell breaks loose. The CFO lunges at Ju-no, Soon-young and Jin-soo block him, and the recorder’s fingers fly across her keyboard as she types down the current fiasco. It’s absolutely brilliant, and the scene only gets better as the chairman fires the CFO without even a meeting and our abandoned antagonist comes into the office in the middle of the night to gather his things. The next morning the company is abuzz with rumors of the CFO’s dismissal, and people are now convinced that Ju-no must be the secret son who came back from the US.
Returning to work, Ju-no and his team prepare for a board meeting requested by Samoel to discuss the future of Sanin, and they need this to go well in order to extend their loan period. Even the chairman attends since three trillion won is on the line, but as the people from Samoel walk in, a new face appears. CFO Ha is now Director Ha of Samoel Funds, and he seems to have fully accepted his villain-era, sporting new tinted glasses and an open shirt.
Two epilogues are then shown – the first being the news of a pregnancy by the female doctor with Samoel’s Teo by her side, and the second of Ju-no with Technician Jang, telling him that they aren’t done yet. It’s clear that the show is aiming for a second season, and there are plenty of questions left for the story to explore if they do get another. While a lot of plotlines were ultimately unaddressed in this finale (even the main conflict about the M&A team solving the debt crisis wasn’t technically resolved), the overall ending felt satisfactory because the important story beats were wrapped up. The charm of the show was never the overarching plot, but rather, the human interactions and character explorations were the main draw of the show. In that regard, I’m glad the creators focused on each member of the team and gave Ju-no’s backstory the time it deserved instead of trying to do too much at the end.
As expected, CFO Ha was the real culprit involved in the market manipulation scheme with Jumbo, but more than a sly villain out to ruin Ju-no, he was a pathetic and greedy man who fell for a scam. Jang Hyun-sung was wonderful in the role, conveying a gangling undertone to the character from the very beginning that only increased in pretentiousness and ineptitude. Despite all the harm he caused, I never hated him because he always seemed more like a mess than a true threat, and the almost humorous portrayal of CFO Ha helped set the tone for the more serious aspects of the drama. The show could have been a melodramatic revenge story about a brother looking to catch those who wronged his family, but it was never about a personal vendetta as the others feared. Ju-no also blamed himself for his brother’s end which is why he wasn’t looking for vengeance but the truth. He wanted to know what happened to cause this tragedy, and because the CFO was a blundering fool, it made sense that the Jumbo incident really was a string of unfortunate coincidences coupled with strategic manipulations of people’s avarice.
The last episode ended with double-digit ratings, more than tripling from where it started, and even the real-life success of the show mirrored the journey of our heroes. A stiff premise about mergers and acquisitions in a stuffy business setting may not have initially drawn heads, but over time, The Art of Negotiation with its strong cast, solid writing, and steady direction created a memorable show about people, highlighting the connections we make and the mundanity of our day to day amidst the grandeur of life. It’s a rare treat to find a show that defies expectations and delivers something oddly engaging, and from supporting to lead, all the actors were phenomenal in their roles, working together to build a world that felt complicated and alive. Though the main characters were the heart of the show, the story flourished thanks to the supporting cast maintaining a standard of quality that never dropped no matter who occupied a scene, and I hope if the series does get a second season, everyone comes back because it just wouldn’t be the same without them.
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