Behind Your Touch (2023) Episode 5

Episode 5 of Behind Your Touch picks up with a hooded stranger knocking Si-a out. The person drags her away, holding a knife, and apparently slams the knife next to her head. Meanwhile, Ye-bun sits at home, contemplating whether her grandpa hijacked the political party’s donation records. She goes into Dr. Jung’s room, rifles through his things, and finds the records.

Dr. Jung walks inside the house, and Ye-bun quickly goes into another room. He comes into his room and picks up his phone before walking back out. Ye-bun asks him where he is going, but he ignores her.

Jang-yeol walks in and asks Ye-bun if she really didn’t see anything suspicious at the political rally earlier, and she denies seeing anything. Jang-yeol insists that because this case is so important to him, he won’t give up until he finds the culprit, no matter what.

Ye-bun takes the donor document and places it back in the tourism center, but Dr.Jung sees her. He tells her to give it back to him and ignores her questions, protests, and warnings, but he tells her that she will find out why he stole the records later.

Mr. Park prays to the real deceased General MacArthur and gives him a McDonald’s meal offering at his graveside while singing the McDonald’s theme song (ba-da-ba-ba-baa). He asks him for divine energy and then hears something behind him. He looks around and sees a mound of fresh dirt.

Mr. Park goes to Ye-bun’s office, having brought a puppy that he found buried alive with his mouth bound up. Sun-woo happens to be there and declares that whoever did this needs to be brought to justice. Ye-bun touches the puppy and sees the man who abused it.

Jong-mook gets a call that the document was found deep inside the safe, and Jang-yeol insists that he is still going to catch whoever originally stole it, but Jong-mook tells him to stay put.

Ok-hui and Deok-hee’s dad, Mr. Bae, reports that his “fish finder” was stolen from his boat, and Jang-yeol and Jong-mook start to investigate. Mrs. Bae volunteers that she thinks it was his employee, Ali, and says that there was a theft at the last place he worked. The couple starts to get into an argument, and Deok-hee has to translate for Jang-yeol again.

Jong-mook tells Jang-yeol that there has been a series of fish finder thefts in closeby cities, and it looks like organized crime. Their conversation is highlighted by some background music, courtesy of Ok-hui, who likes to play the accordion when she is in love. She looks longingly at Jang-yeol as she plays.

Hyun-ok tells Ok-hui that she knows she has a crush on someone, and Ok-hui doesn’t deny it. Hyun-ok says that there is something she needs to get back and remembers buying ice cream with Jong-mook. He swings her out of the way of a speeding bike, and she gets ice cream on her face in the process. Jong-mook sweetly wipes it off.

In the present, Hyun-ok smushes an ice cream cone on her face while looking at Jong-mook. He slowly walks toward her and slaps some handcuffs on her wrists. Ye-bun sits outside, waiting to see if the animal abuser will walk by. Jang-yeol walks up and demands her help with his new case. She tells him that she needs his help first.

The two head to Mr. Park’s to question him. Ye-bun starts to ask dumb, irrelevant questions, and Jang-yeol gets on to her, annoyed. Sun-woo walks in and offers to help with the investigation. Ye-bun says they’re like the Avengers and that Mr. Park has the sixth sense, Jang-yeol investigates, and Sun-woo has the brains. Jang-yeol jumps in and says Ye-bun would be the pervert.

Ye-bun tries to make an excuse for what Jang-yeol said, and Jang-yeol starts to say that when they first met, she was touching some man’s buttocks, but she cuts him off before he finishes.

Sun-woo and Ye-bun look at the hole that the dog was buried in, and Sun-woo takes photos for social media, thinking that he will tell the puppy’s story and see if someone recognizes the dog’s photo, too. At the police station Ye-bun tells Jang-yeol that since her hands were burned, she can see the memories in color now, whereas earlier she could only see them in black and white.

Ye-bun makes Jang-yeol pay for a manicure for her. They go back to the clinic, and she touches the dog, saying that she can see more details now, but it would be better with some more hand pampering. She drags Jang-yeol to a jewellery store and picks out a ring that he reluctantly buys for her.

Now Ye-bun can see a super-clear selection of the dog’s memories in chronological order. But she claims that she still needs something else and has Jang-yeol buy her some vitamins.

Finally, she sees everything perfectly and sees the dog’s (who she now names Tofu) home. They take Tofu to his apartment building, and he goes right up to his door. The abuser opens the door, and they walk in. The man confesses that he only bought Tofu for video content. Ye-bun gives him a lecture, and Jang-yeol arrests him.

Jang-yeol asks for her help now, and she tries to put it off for another day, but Jang-yeol, pissed off, gives her some crazy eyes, and she quickly consents. They go to visit the fish finder suspect, Ali, and Jang-yeol greets him and puts some gum on his butt, which Ye-bun offers to pick off. She says that he had been meeting with a man recently, and they were speaking in Arabic.

At home, Jang-yeol tries to force the ring off Ye-bun because she didn’t get enough information for him, and Ok-hui sees, annoyed. Later, Ok-hui pretends to see a mosquito flying near Ye-bun and threatens her with some karate-like kicks near her head. Ye-bun gets the message and says that it isn’t what she thinks.

Later, Jang-yeol gives Ye-bun an Arabic-to-Korean dictionary, and Ye-bun reluctantly starts studying. When it becomes night, Jang-yeol asks why her light is off and insists that she study till the morning.

The next morning, Ye-bun goes to the convenience store and looks at Sun-woo talking to Ali. Ye-bun discovers that Sun-woo can speak Arabic and asks him to tutor her. Later, Sun-woo tutors her while also trying to teach Mr. Park English. Ye-bun tries to transcribe Ali’s memory and writes what she thinks she heard. She asks Sun-woo to translate it, and Ye-bun puts together that Ali’s mom is ill and he needs money.

Jang-yeol visits Ali, accuses him of stealing the fish finder, and asks where the other thieves are. He doesn’t tell him, and Jang-yeol doesn’t arrest him. Ye-bun manages to touch his butt and see where the other guys are, so she and Jang-yeol go to pay them a visit. They walk into an old building, and about ten guys come out, clearly not afraid. Ye-bun tries to run outside, but ten more guys walk her back inside.

The guys tie Jang-yeol and Ye-bun up, and she hears the men saying the words dump and water. They try to undo their binds but have no luck. The men come and put them on a boat. On the boat, the men make them walk the plank, so to speak, and push them off the boat. Their arms are bound, and Ye-bun mouths, “What do we do?” underwater. Jang-yeol mouths, “Just trust me,” and Ali suddenly dives in and saves them.

Back at the thieves’ hideout, Jang-yeol grabs a metal pipe and starts beating up the men until he is the last one standing. The next day, Ali apologizes to the Bae family. Ye-bun explains that Ali’s mother was ill. Jang-yeol starts to arrest Ali, and the Baes start to deny that the fish finder was ever lost. Jang-yeol insists that he is still a criminal and takes him away.

Some fisherman are fishing together, and one of them reels in a woman’s earring but throws it back into the water. Si-a’s body lies nearby, unseen. The other earring is on her ear.

The Episode Review

I’d say that this series of events is a little unexpected, considering what happened at the end of the last episode. The whole of episode 5 is a distraction from the larger issue that is happening. They really keep us guessing this whole time and hardly give us any advancement in Si-a’s case. There aren’t any clues as to who her killer could be, either.

It is also really interesting how every time there is something serious, there is something really comical immediately before or after. The effort to keep things light-hearted is appreciated. Hopefully, there will be more meat (so to speak) in the story’s plot in the next episode.