Tick Tock
Episode 13 of Mine Season 1 begins with Ji-Yong’s funeral. We know he’s the one who’s died but who among them is responsible for his killing? Well, we cut back in time and see Mother Emma watching from the wings before praying, heading up to the police station and telling the officers about the murder. We then cut forward 7 days after that incident. Mother Emma mentions to police how she saw Hi-Soo atop the stairs, as the investigator remains dead-set on finding out what really happened. “They all lie” Mother Emma says, as tvN look in danger of plagiarism. Remember the opening to Sky Castle with the silhouetted faces? And that absolutely banging “We All Lie” theme? Anyway, this drama is just starting to get good so let’s move past this little finger-wagging critique!
Hi-Soo is interviewed but she claims she has amnesia. It’s here we also learn that three people (excluding Emma) were at the scene that night. Hi-Soo, Mother Emma, Ji-Yong and another unknown individual that was on the floor too. When Emma returned to the scene, the person next to Ji-Yong disappeared. Who was it? Well, we then cut back to 11 days before the murder. Hye-Jin steps in the elevator but immediately suspects she’s being tailed. She calls it in to Hi-Soo, panicking as she realizes this is Ji-Yong’s doing. Cut forward one day and Jin-ho receives the call regarding Su-Chang’s murder. Unfortunately, news about Jin-Ho’s alcoholism spreads at the same time. Ji-Yong has gone haywire, pulling out all the stops to make sure he stays on top. Jin-ho is determined to fight this but when he passes Hye-Jin, she tells him to be careful. This catches us up to the cliffhanger last episode as Hye-Jin is announced as the new tutor. Ji-Yong admits nonchalantly that he tried to kill her outside, reminding her that what he said wasn’t a joke. In fact, he tells her there can’t be two Mothers for Ha-Joon and one of them will need to die. Seo-Hyun calls a meeting with the Directors off the back of this and tells them that Hyowon needs to stand strong and do everything they can to fight against this. With Su-Chang dead and the only witnesses slowly being killed off, tensions are inevitably high. A day later Seo-Hyn tells Mr Choi to be careful, especially given he has his hands on some important files. Seo-Hyun meets with Jin-Ho and they decide to pool their resources together. She’s got an important interview coming up and she’s going to reveal the truth about her love for Suzy Choi. She breaks the news to him first before heading on-air. He’s actually okay with it too, as the pair finally talk and air out their issues. Seo-Hyun is doing this because she’s going to try and become the chairwoman. Only then will she be able to take on Ji-Yong head-on. Jin-Ho agrees to support her but chooses against divorce. Hi-Soo meanwhile, confronts Ji-Yong and tells him she has the upper-hand. After all, she has her trump card in Hyeon-Dong, who’s Su-Chang’s brother. He’s recovered from his ordeal and looks set to testify against this corrupt man. That evening all the pieces start to align. Hi-Soo speaks to her family (minus Ji-Yong) and tells them her plan regarding Ha-Joon and taking down Ji-Yong. In order to do so, all the players decide to put their shares together to support Seo-Hyun’s claim. Just to add to this, the truth about Ji-Yong’s parentage is leaked to Soon-Hye. Any guesses how she reacts? Yep, lots of screaming and crying. Aside from the death though, we soon find out there’s not actually anything illegal about the fighting itself, which puts Jin-ho on the back foot. Sure it’s completely unethical but given there’s no spectators then it’s not classed as gambling. Paying the fighters a fair wage means they can’t be exploited for worker’s rights either. This doesn’t look good. Later that day, Ji-Yong continues to exert his authority, using his goons to snatch up Ha-Joon while he’s with Hye-Jin. Ha-Joon manages to get away though as it’s revealed that all of this is just a big warning sign for her to heed. As Ha-Joon and Hye-Jin sit together, he thanks her ffor bringing him into this world. As they both start crying, the scene cuts a couple of minutes earlier than it should, not letting us savour this moment. Hye-Jin eventually confronts Ji-Yong about his antics that evening. Ji-Yong shrugs it off though, claiming he just wanted to separate the pair. Hye-Jin is wise to this and does her best to hold her ground against him. Ji-Yong has his wildcard which is Seong-Tae. As we cut forward to after the murder, it seems like Seong-Tae may actually have a larger part to play in all this than we first thought. The housekeeper passed Mother Emma the night of the murder and told her not to follow. Jin-Ho is interviewed and the result sees a search warrant issued for his house. When Jin-Hee is interviewed however, she throws shade on Hi-Soo and claims she’s the one most likely of murder. When the investigator questions Hi-Soo, she simply asks him to do a thorough job to find out the truth. Part of that comes from the search warrant for the mansion. However, the statements from that day seem to point that Ji-Yong was either pushed, shot or fell from the balcony. But what did happen to him? We’ll have to wait and see…
The Episode Review
I’ll admit I wasn’t sold on Mine early on. In fact some of these episodes I outright disliked. The supporting players felt weak, the mystery about Ha-Joon’s parentage was dragged out to try and drum up tension, and the subplots had very little time to breath. The cherry on this cake was the forbidden love angle for Yu-Yeon which got the lion’s share off the run-time. Here though, Mine feels like a completely different animal. The show has urgency, it has purpose and it has a real desire to showcase a compelling murder mystery. It does a better job than Law School did, and manages to keep things a lot more intriguing compared to Graceful Friends. Then again, the ending is all that matters here and quite what will happen at the finish of this K-drama next week will be the difference between a show to be remembered and a show to be forgotten. Having said that, what we’ve been given has showcased an enthralling second half and this episode may actually be the best of the bunch. Quite what happened to Ji-Yong that night remains an intriguing possibility and with 3 episodes left, this one leaves its conflict wide open.
