Bad Thief, Good Thief 도둑놈, 도둑님 - Episode 2 (KimJiCap)
JoAnne: It's no better or worse than other dramas set against similar backgrounds, to me. This is not your kind of drama at all.
SakiVI: I don't like it. It gets a bit more tolerable when Kim Ji Hoon shows up in later episodes, but only for his scenes.
Episode 2
- Min-Jae is furious at his dad and tells him it would have been better if he never got out of prison. He doesn't mean that, of course. Or does he?
- He does at that moment, but no, he doesn't really mean it.
- I don't care.
- Police officer Kang Sung-Il realizes something is fishy about the woman and her son in the burning house (the official story is she tried to kill herself, but her hands are too clean (yes, he goes and sniffs them!)). He also suspects the person calling in the kidnapping and the person helping her might be one and the same.
- No shit, Sherlock. I don't really like this guy. Loving his daughter doesn't mean he's a good man.
- Still don't care.
- The bad guys (who continue their search for the descendants and the map) realize the little boy may have seen too much and try to harm him at the hospital. Correction, Mr. HOT tries to do it, but he fails: Our police officer arrives at the exact right time! With his daughter. Also arriving, and seeing Mr. Hot: Pan-Soo.
- I have hope for Mr. Hot. I also wonder what Ahn Kil Kang looked like as a young man.
- Looking at Mr. Hot helped me get through this drama.
- Mr. Hot isn't easily deterred though. He watches the cop, who is trying to get some information out of little Soo Yeon.
- Hellooooooooo there Mr. Hot. Today's look is Gangster Who Can Read, I see. I like!
- He will always be the reaper in Arang and the Magistrate to me. This is just his latest reincarnation.
- Our friendly police officer is arrested not much later - drug charges. They found the missing drugs (which Kang Sung-Il last saw at the prosecutor's office) in Kang Sung-Il's house.
- Of course they did.
- Oh well. He tries to outsmart our evil Prosecutor, but he doesn't get far.
- Of course he didn't.
- Yeah, then Pan-Soo manages to thwart another kidnapping attempt and takes the kid with him. The kid's mother Min Hae-Won regains consciousness and hears that people think she tried to kill herself with carbon monoxide. Also, her son has lost his memory because of the fumes and can no longer speak.
- I was distracted for a bit, confirm for me that Mr. Hot didn't try too hard to catch the kid, and that he definitely was looking at Min Hae Won when he told Bad Wig that he couldn't find her anywhere?
- Because the kid is missing, Min Hae-Won panics and goes to the police again. But they tell her to get lost, since she just tried to kill her son, why is she even looking for him?
- It's not very sensitive, but it is a logical question from their perspective. Still, if a kid is lost and you're a cop, you look for the lost kid.
- Driven half-crazy by guilt, she drowns herself in the river not much later.
- Bye, Min Hae Won.
- Bye!
- The gangsters go to Pan-soo's house next, guessing he has the missing child. They don't find him, but they hit Min-jae and Pan-soo gets out of control. He takes an axe and chases the bad guys away.
- He's a big dude, too.
- Finally he does something.
- Later, Pan-soo's wife becomes convinced her husband cheated on her before he went to prison. Min-jae heard it too, the little one called Pan-soo "Dad"!
- Called that one, didn't I.
- Pan-Soo takes Soo Yeon away (lots of bonding between the two) and leaves his wife and real son. I feel sorry for Min-jae. But his mother tells him clearly that his father isn't a bad person.
- So why doesn't she go look for him?
- We realize the kid knows everything about "the treasure" (he dreams about it) because his dad told him about it. He was there with "General Baek San" and buried it in the mountains. The little boy is also traumatized because he saw how his dad was murdered.
- He's a cute kid. I can't believe Saki said he wasn't cute.
- Nope, not cute.
- Quite surprisingly, Prosecutor Yoon lets Kang Sung-Il walk free the next day. He taught him a lesson: don't mess with us. And "lead an honest life" for his daughter. Prosecutor Yoon also has a daughter, she is four years old too. (that'll be Yoon Hwa-Young, which we haven't met yet, Kim Ji-hoon's love interest)
- I think Yoon's general bent is to not be a murderer, given the chance. He's not exactly a good man, but he's not as bad as his FIL Bad Wig, and probably no more corrupt than any government official of the time?
- For some reason, he does whatever his FIL says, even though he could just hand him over to the police and have hims prosecuted and become the big hero.
- Only ... Mr. Kang won't give up. He thinks if he can make the boy talk about what he saw that night, he will be able to get Prosecutor Yoon arrested.
- Not that he cares about what's right; no, he wants revenge and he wants to find a benefit for himself.
- Through the TV, Pan-Soo learns about the death of Soo Yeon's mother and cries a river. The little boy tries to console him. Okay, this was quite hea rtbreaking.
- He didn't even know the woman, it seems really personal to him. Maybe because he did so much to try and save her?
- Best friend's wife, stuck with her son, yeah, I'd cry too. Except, Pan-Soo cries a lot. So, perhaps he was just due for his regularly scheduled sob.
- In the meantime, Min-jae helps his mother when a farmer doesn't want to pay her the full salary (because she took some rotten vegetables without asking). The farmer pushes Min-jae, the mother goes berserk and runs after the farmer with a rake.
- Min Jae's parents are two peas in a pod. They really should be back together.
- Pan-Soo, who sees the misery his son and wife are in, swears "to do bad things" in front of that huge nice tree, while talking to his grandpa.
- That tree really deserves praise for being such a good tree.
- Soo Yeon puts his hand between the roots of the tree and we see: there is the map. He is just about to take it out when Pan-Soo grabs the boy and leaves with him.
- I don't know about you but I'm not about to stick my hand in some dirty hole in a tree without knowing that no snakes/raccoons/rats/devils/demons/trolls live in it! Don't you think a tree that perfect should be the home to something, if it has a hole in it?
- Why hasn't the map rotted?
- Pan-Soo buys the boy new clothes and food (even though he has hardly any money) - and then gives him another name. He is no longer Soo Yeon - his new name is Dol-mok.
- That is not exactly an improvement. Then again, what would a Pan Soo know?
- Pan-Soo tries to leave the boy at an orphanage (because he has no means to take care of a second child), but the boy follows him and cries "Dad, don't go." Dad doesn't.
- Look at that bitty face. How could he possibly go? But serious question: does this kid just assume all grown men are called Appa? That was too easy of a switch right from the start.
Time Jump! We're in 1998
- Dol-Mok is very smart, or even a math genius? Or an all-rounder genius? Oh, he has a
eidetic memory, that kind of genius. Pan-Soo works an honest job as a mechanic (but we realize he doesn't get paid, it's the economic crisis.) - Still don't understand why Min Jae's parents didn't get back together. He didn't GO anywhere, and she admitted that he was a good man and she lost her head for a minute.
- Mr. Kang (who still is very dodgy) goes to see now chief-prosecutor Yoon (we meet his daughter, who seems friendly enough with So-Joo) and tries to get him to investigate something to do with gold-collection at the time (to raise money during the IMF crisis). As we know, he is still trying to topple Mr. Yoon, so this is some kind of scheme? I'm not sure Kang is smart enough to topple Yoon.
- I'm quite certain he isn't smart enough to topple Yoon.
- The episode ends with Min-jae staring at his father and Dol-Mok through the window of a restaurant. He heard his father hasn't been paid for two months. But his dad happily shares food with his wrong son, Dol-Mok.
- So of course the judgemental brat assumes immediately that his dad is stealing again. (I like this child actor. He's handsome and generally acts well.)
- I like him too. Bet he shows up in a daily drama somewhere along the line.
Comments
I'm really not feeling this. I find it completely without charm. Neither the writing nor the directing nor the acting has anything going for it. Oh well, let's hope Kim Ji-hoon can make it better. If not, I will drop it and not look back.I, on the other hand, kind of like it. I really like So Joo and that gives me hope. I have my fingers crossed that you like it when Kim Ji Hoon shows up. I really like this bullet point format, too. I realize it doesn't change how you watch it, but did it make recapping better for you?
I don't like this show. I felt I was suffering just to get to Kim Ji Hoon and SNSD SeoHyun.
