Clandestine
Episode 11 of Private Lives starts with Bok-Gi tentatively walking up to Jae-Wook’s retreat. Only, his dog starts barking which immediately draws his attention, realizing Bok-Gi is outside. Instead of heading in though, she scrawls the words “Beware Of Dog” in red lipstick over his gates and walks back to the car. While she drives off, phoning Min-Kyu to ask about the murder there years back, Jae-Wook heads outside and sees this, immediately becoming paranoid and checking in the basement to make sure his funds are still intact – which they are. Elsewhere, Joo-Eun lies to Detective Kim and tells him Jeong-Hwan is not alive. The detective takes her word for it but does promise to charge her with fraud if she’s lying. When they hang up, it’s clear she’s a little worried. Meanwhile, Jeong-Hwan tries to bag himself a meeting with Assemblyman Kwon. Kwon, as it turns out, is continuing to grow in popularity, becoming the number 1 candidate in the upcoming elections. This inevitably worries GK who realize that they could run into problems should their chosen candidate not be elected. Joo-Eun can’t afford a taxi and is forced to walk home. When she does, she shows up at the apartment where Jeong-Hwan sits waiting for her. Ignoring the bag of food he’s brought, Joo-Eun decides to head out and visit a crowded place; somewhere she can show him off. As Joo-Eun starts to despair over their current situation, Jeong-Hwan promises her they’ll turn things around soon. Jae-Woon makes his move, framing Tae-Joo and making it seem like he was in collusion with Joo-Eun. This is all part of the plan – including blackmailing this Chinese Spy too – in a bid to get Joo-Eun deported. As Tae-Joo is taken in for questioning, Detective Kim works with Joo-Eun and the others to turn this around and abduct the spy before he can incriminate her. With Joo-Eun adopting a new identity – that of a civil servant – she runs into Detective Kim on the stairs at the police station. She tells him that there’s trouble brewing because GK have already chosen their candidate for the elections – and Kwon is not that man. When the Chinese Spy, Jin Gounam, doesn’t show when scheduled, the press conference is delayed. Because of this, Kim and Jae-Wook are at a loss over exactly what went wrong. Meanwhile, the officers in disguise show Jin Gounam a picture of Jae-Wook and learn that he’s the one responsible for hiring him. On the back of this, Joo-Eun and Jin Gounam head down to the dock-yard where counterfeit passports seem to be created. As Jae-Wook scrambles to find this man before it’s too late, he phones Seok-Ho who mentions he could be stowing away on a boat. Although Jae-Wook dismisses his idea as ludicrous, as we soon see it actually holds some weight. Jae-Wook sends his goons down to the dockyard who spy Joo-Eun and the spy moments after the former managed to bag him a new passport. While the duo flee, Han Son lies waiting for the guards and single-handedly takes them all out. On the back of this, the spy is sent back on the ship and away from Korea. With the plan a success, it’s one step closer to Joo-Eun getting her freedom back. Jeong-Hwan learns her mission was successful too and heads in to meet Kwon during a private dinner. He admits that GK innovation is still very much up and running and breaks the bad news that they’ve already picked Byung-Jun as their candidate. It’ll be nigh on impossible for Kwon to carry on. Only, if they manage to overturn Joo-Eun’s sentence it could be enough to thwart GK’s plans and turn things back in his favour. Joo-Eun shows up and takes a seat with them. Eventually the group come to an arrangement; Mr Park will be found innocent and turn the charges onto Mi-Young instead. In order to go ahead with this, Jeong-Hwan is propositioned with working with Kwon as his clandestine. He agrees to do this and of course tells Joo-Eun too – it seems these two are now being honest with each other after their previous endeavors. On the back of this, Jeong-Hwan heads inside and – lo and behold – General Manager Kim is sitting right there waiting for him.
The Episode Review
This espionage drama continues to produce an unintentionally confusing storyline. While the ideas are quite good, the constant time jumps and flashbacks within flashbacks have not done this series any favours. That definitely hasn’t been helped by an abundance of characters either. While I appreciate the time taken to get us acquainted with the various different supporting players, it’s also been done alongside these time jumps – and the result hasn’t always been as smooth as it could be. To be fair though, this week’s episode has been a bit more linear but I can’t help but feel many people have turned away from this one thanks to its sporadic time jumps. Still, the politically charged storyline is starting to take shape now and the ending leaves the door wide open for tomorrow’s follow-up. For those who have stuck with this one, the cliffhanger certainly looks set to spice things up a bit.
