Unlock the Boss: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

by mistyisles

Our team enacts a plan to bring their adversaries to justice once and for all — one that’ll take bravery, cunning, teamwork, luck, and a bit of technological “magic” to pull off. Ready? Action!

EPISODES 11-12 WEECAP

We start with the sad news: Ma-pi is dead (*sob*), still clutching the choco pie he bought for Min-ah. They hold a private funeral for him in the woods, and In-sung makes sure to get Ma-pi’s real name, Jang Ju-seong, inscribed on the headstone. They also continue to make a point of referring to him by that name, though of course he’ll always be Uncle Mafia to Min-ah.

Later, In-sung is approached by DETECTIVE CHOI (Han Ji-sang), who’s dying to pick his brain on all things Bumyoung Group. Considering this is the same guy who handled Sam-soo’s case, In-sung isn’t eager to cooperate. But Detective Choi sets him straight: the person in Young-geun’s pocket is his superior. Detective Choi, on the other hand, is doing everything he can to bring down both Young-geun and Mi-ran.

The next person of interest to investigate is Min-ah’s nanny, but it turns out her only suspicious activity was selling off old clothes and toys that Min-ah’s outgrown. Instead, Mi-ran’s mole in Sun-joo’s household is the butler, manipulated by Mi-ran dangling his son’s career over his head.

With said mole identified, it’s time to set a trap to find and rescue Sun-joo’s unconscious body. In-sung announces the “completion” of BARO 4.0 and negotiates an exchange with Mi-ran: the program for Sun-joo. Of course, neither side trusts the other to just give them what they want. In-sung and Se-yeon bring a police escort to the rendezvous, and Wi-je clears out all evidence and kidnaps In-sung and Se-yeon while the police search the now-empty building.

They’re taken to the building that houses the BARO 4.0 servers, where both parties move forward with the hostage-for-AI-program exchange. Se-yeon hands over the USB, and Wi-je points them to the truck where Sun-joo’s body still rests in its gurney. Se-yeon hops in the driver’s seat, but before In-sung can join her, he comes face-to-face with Wi-je’s gun again. Through their earpieces, In-sung begs Se-yeon to leave without him, and Sun-joo agrees it’s the best she can do. Wi-je makes it clear In-sung will die if she leaves, but if she stays, they both will.

Se-yeon chooses neither option. In a stroke of brilliance, she summons her inner Truck of Doom and floors it backwards, straight toward Wi-je and In-sung. On Sun-joo’s signal, In-sung drops to the ground. The truck passes harmlessly over him, clips Wi-je on the arm, and crashes into the BARO 4.0 servers. In-sung and Se-yeon make their escape with Sun-joo’s body, but as the servers catch fire, Sun-joo’s voice on the phone starts to glitch.

Realizing what this means, In-sung slowly and sadly switches off the phone’s BARO interface. The ensuing silence confirms his suspicion: Sun-joo’s soul was never inside the phone — all along, they’ve been communicating with an AI version of him created by BARO 4.0’s data.

They’ve only recently explained to Min-ah that her father is inside his cell phone, so they fall back on the old excuse that he’s too busy with work to talk to her while they figure out what to do now. Ultimately, they decide to continue with the plan to take down Mi-ran, since not even recovering Sun-joo is evidence enough that she tried to kill him, especially after she makes Wi-je turn himself in and blame everything on Young-geun.

Their plan has multiple stages. Stage 1 was announcing the completion of BARO 4.0 and handing over the files, which AI Sun-joo infected with a bug that’ll surface later. Stage 2 is finding Wi-je’s weakness (Mi-ran preyed on his loyalty, engineering for him to take the fall for a military superior so she could swoop in and “save” him) and convincing him to give up evidence of Mi-ran’s crimes. This stage also requires Hyun-ho to channel his inner Yoo Ah-in to convince the hospital director he’s one of Mi-ran’s cronies so he’ll hand over the evidence. Then Detective Choi nabs the actual minion sent to kill the director.

As for Stage 3, In-sung doesn’t interfere as Mi-ran prepares to launch her self-driving car with BARO 4.0 tech. But he does show up at the launch to ask in front of all the reporters if the car is safe. Taking the microphone from her hand (so smooth!), he invites her to join him inside the car for its test run.

That’s where AI Sun-joo’s bug comes in. Mid-test drive, the car takes off on its own, running a red light and heading away from its programmed destination. Since the test drive is being livestreamed via a built-in camera, Mi-ran tries her best to pretend everything is under control while In-sung calmly tells the world that she pushed the launch through despite Sun-joo’s warning that it wasn’t safe.

The police corral the car, but as soon as In-sung steps out, Mi-ran slams the door shut and sends it speeding away. But in a fabulous bit of technological trickery, the windows become screens that make her believe she’s escaped to a helipad when in fact she’s been delivered to the police station. For the final nail in her coffin, Sun-joo’s butler steps forward to turn himself in and incriminate her. In-sung makes sure everyone knows the names of each person she’s killed, including Ju-seong/Ma-pi.

Mission complete, AI Sun-joo decides it’s time for him to sign off. They break the news (and the truth) to Min-ah as gently as possible, but both she and In-sung are devastated as they watch AI Sun-joo trigger his own uninstallment from the phone.

One year later, Mi-ran rots in prison and Bumyoung Group goes down the drain while In-sung flourishes in his natural habitat — he’s gotten back into acting with Hyun-ho as his manager. In-sung and Se-yeon make their relationship official, and who should pipe up to interrupt their beach date but AI Sun-joo (aww he’s back)! The real Sun-joo is still unconscious, but when Min-ah pops by his room for a quick goodbye on her way to visit Ma-pi’s grave, his eyelids flutter.

If I could add one thing to this finale (aside from letting Ma-pi live), I’d love to see Sun-joo actually wake up and acknowledge everything In-sung and team have done for him. But we were given enough hints to suggest that might happen next, so in my head that is what happens.

While I’m not 100% sure I understand what Unlock the Boss was trying to say about technology, I think a lot of it boils down to that conversation In-sung and his mom had about his dad’s old car. Objects — hi-tech or otherwise — can’t and shouldn’t replace people. But when we pour some of our own souls into them, they can become something beautiful and meaningful. Like AI Sun-joo, initially driven solely by cold logic, learned from In-sung’s warmth and emotional intelligence. Whether he can be considered a person is a whole different question, but he was definitely a dynamic character within the show, so I’m glad he got his happy ending, too.

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Unlock the Boss: Episodes 11-12 (Final)