The USB Drive
Stranger returns for another episode that dives deeper into the political controversy surrounding both the police and the prosecution. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this episode, it’s that neither side are coming out of this looking very clean. Episode 6 of Stranger Season 2 begins with Yeo-Jin heading to the police station and clutching that infamous envelope tightly. She decides against opening it and as we cut forward, we return to that same red herring stand-off we ended the previous episode with. However, the police quickly walk away. Si-Mok follows his instructions and tails Yeo-Jin, determined to find out what’s in the envelope. However, Assemblyman Nam is the recipient of what’s inside. This happens to be a USB card. Si-Mok is hot on the heels of this though and shows up at the station looking for answers. Getting nowhere, he heads online and starts looking through news reports relating to the Gyeonsang group and their connection to all of this. Dong-Jae rings Officer Kim and goes over the logistics of the case. However, he’s interrupted by a promising call from Chief Woo and gets his hopes up. Unfortunately they’re raised a little too high as it turns out he’s just being asked to pick up the drunk officers. Dong-Jae the glorified chauffeur just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Meanwhile, Yeon-Jae clears out a restaurant to meet her contact from Sungjoon in private. He reveals that he supports Sung-Jae but she stubbornly refuses to listen. Listing all the accomplishments she’s made since her Father’s involvement last season, Yeon-Jae speaks her heart out about all the changes she’s made. Eventually she changes tact and asks about her Father’s condition. Killing him with kindness, Yeon-Jae simply steps forward and hugs the man. Realizing that her strategy may lie in using her Father for her own personal gain, she tasks her assistant with spying on her Father and taking pictures of him. Meanwhile, Si-Mok heads in to see Assistant Chief Kim and phones Woo. He approves Si-Mok viewing the cases and just like that, he’s allowed to head into the archive storage. After digging out what he needed to check, he phones Yeo-Jin and asks to talk. With an address given, he drives over to see her. As we flash back in time, it turns out Yeo-Jin did check the envelope and actually made a copy of the files on the USB drive. As Yeo-Jin and Si-Mok stand on the rooftop together, Si-Mok goes over the investigating he’s been conducting. This includes issues surrounding the Assemblyman’s son potentially being involved with several cases. Given he’s only gone back a year in the archived files, there could be much more tucked away. As Yeo-Jin mentions Chief Choi, he turns the attention to something a bit different. “Do you still draw?” He asks. This, of course, is a throwback to those cute drawings she used to do for him. The next day Yeo-Jin heads in and discusses the drug issue with Choi. Specifically, she probes whether Choi was aware of the situation back then. It’s here Choi realizes Yeo-Jin made a copy of the files which happens to be part of her plan all along. She knows Yeo-Jin’s personality and suspected she would take a look. As they talk plainly, they discuss the drug dealing case together. They go over the basics and contemplate whether the drug dealer gave up the Assemblyman’s son’s name voluntarily. As Yeo-Jin contemplates whether to blow the whistle on this whole practice or not, she and Yeo-Jin go their separate ways for now. With the second council meeting coming up in a week’s time, Woo tells Si-Mok to get ready and excuses him from his office. Outside though, he’s immediately confronted by Sa-Hyun about his recent trip with Yeon-Jae. Si-Mok listens to his words closely and jumps on the inclusion of “we”, realizing that Sa-Hyun was picked to go on the council before anyone else was supposed to know. For now though, Sa-Hyun and Woo talk in the latter’s office. Specifically, they discuss the posibility of prolonging the case so the prosecution can continue looking into affairs. This inevitably brings them to Won-Chool who they admit is a little “stiff”. As we flash back, we see him sticking up for Si-Mok and warning Sa-Hyun not to mistreat and misuse the excellent prosecutor. Yeon-Jae’s plan to spy on her Father yields good results. On the back of finding out about the doctor and hacking hospital records, she makes her move. Specifically that move comes in the form of planting protestors in front of her Father to make him explode before the big meeting. However, things don’t go to plan when representatives arrive instead. Unfortunately this volatile situation spills over into serious bad blood with the crowd. As they take a 10 minute recess to cool off, Yeon-Jae leaves her fate up to Sungjoon’s representative and exactly where his vote will fall. Si-Mok receives a call in the middle of the night and immediately bolts upright. At the same time, the police attend a crime scene where they find Prosecutor Dong-Jae’s tag in a car. At the back of the vehicle is a spatter of blood. Is Dong-Jae dead?
The Episode Review
With more political issues coming to the foreground, we learn that the extent of the corruption goes back years. There’s a lot to take in and of course if I’ve missed anything here please do comment below and I’ll update the recap accordingly. The main take-away here though is that the police and the prosecution are both as bad as each other. It seems like corruption is rife in both organisations and surprisingly Sa-Hyun is actually standing by Si-Mok’s side. Despite what we thought about him, it seems like he’s actually on the straight and narrow and can’t be bent. Especially after the “stiff” comment midway through the episode. Is Dong-Jae dead? I’m suspecting he’s not as we haven’t found a body but it seems likely that he’s getting close to the truth and someone is not happy. If he is dead though, this will fall squarely on Chief Woo given he was the one who requested Dong-Jae’s presence with the drunken prosecutors. Could one of them snapped and hurt Dong-Jae? We’ll have to wait and find out. This angle is certainly welcome though and it should help spice things up going forward.
