Insider: Episodes 9-10
by solstices
Fresh out of prison, our hero immediately takes advantage of his newfound freedom by connecting with potential allies and working his way up to the big leagues. The bad guys aren’t happy with their plans going awry, though, and they’re determined to get rid of him — will he be able to remain one step ahead of them?
EPISODES 9-10 WEECAP
Desperate to avoid a prison transfer so he can avenge Min-ho’s death, Yo-han falls to his knees in front of Chairman Do and pleads for him to take him in. Chairman Do scoffs at his guilty conscience, revealing the name of the person he wants Yo-han to kill — Woo Sang-ki, a.k.a. Min-ho’s father.
It’s the only thing standing between Yo-han and the rest of his revenge, so he accepts. He’s released after the end of his jail term, and Soo-yeon picks him up from the prison.
In an unexpected reveal, we find out that Yo-han was actually behind the circumstances that allowed Tae-hoon to snitch on him to Jae-sun. With the corrupt warden out of the picture, Chairman Do’s power is severely limited, thus forcing his hand — he’ll have few remaining options save for Yo-han. Nicely played.
Soo-yeon finally shares her backstory with Yo-han: her mother was framed for investment fraud and killed in a faux suicide, but she’d left evidence of her innocence to Soo-yeon (whose real name was Yeon-soo). Unfortunately, Byung-wook had gotten to the attorney first. Soo-yeon was abducted and forced into unsavory things, thus establishing her vendetta against Byung-wook.
Yo-han’s first mission from Chairman Do, delivered by Bon-chul, involves hunting Sang-ki down at a sauna. Sang-ki flees, and Yo-han gives chase, yelling that he has something to tell him — but Bon-chul reaches Sang-ki first and tases him.
The pair relocate to a secluded location where Bon-chul has Yo-han dig a grave in preparation. Handing him a knife, Bon-chul instructs him to kill the man within fifteen minutes.
Yo-han seemingly does the deed, and afterwards, he and Bon-chul set fire to the makeshift grave. With the body charred beyond recognition, however, it’s impossible to tell if it’s truly Sang-ki.
Either way, the news of Sang-ki’s death shakes up the Deep Pockets. With one third of the slush fund belonging to the Macau triads, their head ANNIE STEVENS (Han Bo-reum) flies to Korea in order to snipe some sense into the ineffectual men.
Due to Sang-ki’s disappearance, the Goldman Casino’s money laundering has been put on hold, causing a severe deficit. Annie sneers that the men ought to take responsibility and fix the problem, but the prosecutors and gangsters are too busy trading barbs.
Meanwhile, Yo-han meets up with Soo-yeon — and Sang-ki! That night, the pair switched out Sang-ki for an unidentifiable corpse. In yet another surprise reveal, Bon-chul was in on it too; Yo-han had figured out that he was being wiretapped by Bon-chul, and he’d used it to deliberately leak information to him.
Yo-han points out that the day of Sang-ki’s disappearance and the day Yo-han picked Bon-chul up from Hae-do align too neatly to be coincidental. Since the address he’d delivered to Hae-do had been fake, Yo-han surmised that Chairman Do intended to have both of them killed by Hae-do.
With that, Yo-han proposed that he and Bon-chul join forces to take down Chairman Do. Without missing a beat, Bon-chul reminded Yo-han not to remove the wiretapped watch — since there has to be a source for him to edit the audio before sending it to Chairman Do. Nice, he’s on his side now!
Finally safe and sound, Sang-ki tells Yo-han and Soo-yeon what he knows — him and Min-ho were moved once after being abducted, since a policeman had come knocking. The policeman had yelled out his contact number, which Sang-ki relays in the present.
Soo-yeon has Ro-sa search up the number, and it belongs to Inspector Kwon, the same man who was killed for investigating the death of Yo-han’s grandmother. Everything really is connected after all.
Chairman Do enacts the next part of his plan to usurp The Skin Nation, by sending Yo-han to play games at the Goldman Casino. All he has to do is win or lose according to Chairman Do’s orders, in order to force his defeated opponents into signing stock transfer forms.
After the day’s work, Yo-han heads home, but he soon realizes he’s being tailed. He narrowly escapes with the help of Bon-chul, who informs him that the men were hired by Jin-hyung to kill him.
We get the rundown of how the casino works through a flashback to Sun-oh’s explanation. The invitation-only VIP suites are where the real slush fund games take place; by teaming up with Yo-han and winning big, they can take over the casino.
That’s exactly what Chairman Do plans to do, using both of them as his minions. The explicit confirmation that Sun-oh works for Chairman Do lends credence to Yo-han’s guess that Sun-oh killed his grandmother, and he has to steel himself for their first meeting since being released.
Yo-han meets Sun-oh at a pier — yay, he’s back, with freshly-dyed dark hair! Plus, he’s figured out how the money laundering works; by handing out cash to foreign tourists and winning it back through the games, the casino can claim it as revenue and have the Macau head office withdraw the funds.
Sun-oh’s elated to be reunited with Yo-han, excitedly calling him hyung like old times. The same can’t be said for Yo-han, though, who grins back out of habit but loses the smile once he turns away.
The VIP games begin and Yo-han attends, having obtained an invitation through Chairman Yang’s machinations. Soo-yeon’s there too as Chairman Yang’s plus one, and they join the table.
No one is any match for Yo-han, though, and he successfully fools even Chairman Yang with his acting. Chairman Yang begins to fidget anxiously; his plan was to kill Yo-han and have the VIPs turn a blind eye, but it’s starting to seem like the VIPs are on Yo-han’s side instead.
Indeed, they are — Yo-han already made his rounds beforehand, leveraging on their grudges against Chairman Yang and convincing them all over to his side. In fact, he’d even manipulated Chairman Yang into baiting him with the invitation, thanks to a little bit of acting by Seung-hwan. See, it pays to understand your allies and earn their loyalty, rather than violently force your way to it!
With that, the stage is set for Yo-han’s big move. He raises the stakes to 60 billion won, plus the VIP room they’re currently sitting in. Arrogantly, Chairman Yang calls, and both start to open their cards — except Yo-han reaches into his sleeve to pull out a card hidden within.
Omg, Yo-han’s going to pull a sleight of hand? Right in front of Chairman Yang? I have lots of faith in Yo-han’s skills (cultivated by Sun-oh’s tutelage), but this is such a daring move even by his standards. I wonder if he means to deliberately let himself get caught to incite something bigger, but then again he’s already pulled such a trick with Sun-oh before, so it has to be something else.
But what? And how? That’s exactly what I love about this show — nothing is ever predictable, and the way it reveals its plot twists is always so gripping and suspenseful. It uses flashbacks effectively to reveal a new dimension to scenes we’ve seen before, keeping us viewers on our toes.
Now, I’m definitely biased, but I’m utterly thrilled that Sun-oh is back so soon! He has such good chemistry with Yo-han that it’d be a shame to keep them separated any longer. For all Sun-oh’s duplicity, you’d think he’d keep his emotions more closely guarded — but he’s almost vulnerable in the way he openly displays affection and admiration towards Yo-han, and I’m inclined to think there’s at least a bit of sincerity there.
How painful was it to watch Yo-han grit his teeth through their entire interaction, though! It’s obvious his heart is warring with his mind over what to believe about Sun-oh, especially given the numerous betrayals he’s had to suffer through. Is it too much to ask for them to clear the air soon and overtake the gambling scene together?
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Insider: Episodes 9-10
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily
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