Payback: Episodes 11-12 (Final)

by SugarSnow

Making it to the finish line, we see our conflict come to a close. After an expected betrayal, our heroes set their final masterplan in motion to put all of the evil behind bars for good.

EPISODES 11-12

Running full speed into our last week, we’re brought back to the confrontation between Tae-choon and Yong as Ki-seok speaks at the press conference. Tae-choon, frustrated that Yong would even think to work with Ki-seok, lets Yong know that even though he is his uncle, he is still willing to arrest him if he has to. At the press conference, Ki-seok is put in a tight spot as one of the reporters ties him in with Myung considering he is his son-in-law, claiming he is at the storm’s epicenter. Ki-seok thinks quickly and says that he holds the evidence needed to put the bad people behind bars as it was given to him from Su-dong – lying through his teeth as he was given no such evidence from Su-dong.

Ki-seok lights the internet on fire after his appearance and statements made at the assemblyman’s press conference, gluing all eyes on him. The prosecution, spearheaded by Chief Prosecutor LEE YOUNG-JIN (Park Jung-pyo) attempts to indirectly attack him by going after his wife. The Chief Prosecutor was once Ki-seok’s right-hand man, but now he’s heartlessly willing to dispose of Ki-seok. Myung also attempts to close the door on Yong’s plan by sending men to follow him to hopefully find Su-dong. Yong has taken a significant upper hand in this fight and now everyone is looking to take them down from all sides.

At a meeting for all of the investors who lost money because of Myung, Yong introduces himself and successfully makes a good impression on the skeptical people there – one of them being the developer that Jun-kyung met with last week. He agrees to work with them as Hye-rin’s business model and Yong’s sincerity were able to turn him in favor of supporting the company.

Yong gathers Ki-seok and other prosecutors to get them to join his side, turning them into a special task force with Ki-seok as their leader. Now that he has a team and ground to stand on, Ki-seok’s first move is to arrest all of the top brass that are in cahoots with Myung. Su-dong shows up with Jun-kyung to turn himself in while also bringing documentation of bribes taken by a chief in the prosecution. After arresting the chief, Ki-seok takes over and is reinstated.

Ki-seok instantly goes to work on taking out Myung’s connections. Myung is arrested, and as the names that tie back to him grow in number, so do the charges against him. With the help of Yong, Assemblyman Sohn is able to pull away with a win in his district. After these big developments, the tide fully turns in Yong’s favor when he and Ki-seok find all of Myung’s borrowed name accounts, leaving him with nothing left. His money, which was once his power supply, has finally been stripped from him.

With everything going according to plan, and Ki-seok amassing power and influence rapidly, Yong knows to watch Ki-seok closely in preparation for his inevitable backstabbing. Yong gets a call from Jun-kyung telling him that Ki-seok is advancing as Han-na was falsely arrested. Right after Yong hangs up, Ki-seok struts into Yong’s penthouse with search and seizure papers. Thinking he’s got Yong beat with a checkmate, Ki-seok makes a cold remark about Hye-rin. Yong puts his hands on him and is pulled off by the other prosecutors. This moment marks when Yong begins to dismantle the world he just put back together for Ki-seok. Ki-seok just made the biggest mistake of his life.

After the slight altercation between the two, Yong and Ki-seok have a drink together – quite an unusual time and place for this, especially after the words that just came out of Ki-seok’s mouth. Ki-seok offers to open up Yong’s travel bans so he can just leave the country, and Yong brazenly tells him he doesn’t want to just settle and leave – he’s going to tear Ki-seok’s world down.

As the final chess match begins, we see Ki-seok confiscating evidence that can be used against Yong. This is evidence that ties back to Chief Prosecutor Lee and his participation in sneaking both Myung out of prison and Yong when he met with Myung. Tae-choon and Jun-kyung work together to get the evidence before Ki-seok can use his “chef” skills and tamper with the evidence for his benefit.

With Chief Prosecutor Lee set to testify soon and leaning in favor of Ki-seok, Yong begins to plant the seeds of doubt within him by using Su-dong in prison and meeting with him directly. He is ruled by fear of Ki-seok, so Yong knows he can use that to his advantage.

Now that Myung is hellbent on taking down Ki-seok after losing all of his money, he willingly meets up with Yong to testify against Ki-seok as Yong promised him money in return. Yong surprises Ki-seok when he shows up at his office, and then even more when Myung’s video is sent in. Yong, cunningly, used Myung to confess the details of the framing of Hye-rin. With this huge stone, Yong is able to kill two birds at once: Ki-seok and Chief Prosecutor Lee.

Fearful of Ki-seok, Lee then confesses to the crimes with the help of Yong’s persuasion tactics. At Yong’s penthouse, Myung is questioned about his involvement in CEO Oh’s death. Prosecutor Ham offers to give him a plea deal if he confesses to the crimes he committed, as well as Ki-seok’s involvement. He ends up doing so, which leads to his re-arrest and Ki-seok’s arrest by Tae-choon – legally, with no backdoor methods this time.

What a genius move by Yong to take what was once his biggest threat, and turn him into his biggest trump card against Ki-seok. We see that this was Yong’s big brain plan all along. Ever since he sat in his prison cell and schemed all night, his plan has been progressing accordingly.

After the smoke settles, we see all of our characters getting back to their normal lives. Hye-rin’s company is revived, Jun-kyung goes back to being a prosecutor, and Yong heads back to Mongolia. After a long-fought battle, our story is finished. Money is at the root of everything in Payback, but in the end, it wasn’t Yong’s money that won the battle, it was Tae-choon’s determination and mindset to tie the knot with the law and true justice.

Many twists and turns occurred throughout, but good beat evil in the end. I really liked Yong and the casual confidence that radiated around him everywhere he went. I also liked Tae-choon’s resilient nature and his willingness to stick to his morals. His relationship with Sang-il was also nice to see. Both Myung and Ki-seok were fantastic villains in my opinion, and they were both very different from each other, which I liked. Sadly, though, some of the characters fall flat for me… *cough, cough* Jun-kyung.

This drama wasn’t meant to be super character-centric, as the fast-moving plot was its focus, but I can’t help but feel let down with Jun-kyung. There were no real developments with her character at all. She had a few good moments, but they were outshined heavily by other character moments in the drama. With that said, after swimming through all the stock market lingo and complicated financial moves, Payback was a solid revenge story that was engaging more often than not.

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Payback: Episodes 11-12 (Final)