Longing for You (2023) Episode 4

Longing for You episode 4 starts with a flashback to the night Jin-woo was attacked at the seashore. In an unexpected twist, his attacker turns out to be no other than Reporter Park. Why did he attack Jin-woo and is he the real serial killer?

Later on after the attack, Jin-sung calls Young-joo who is busy with her facial regimen and asks her to see if Young-woon can help them. Young-joo is surprised to hear Jin-woo was in an accident and agrees to call Young-woon, but he doesn’t pick up. She decides to drive to his place and ask Jung-sook for help. Young-woon joins her and helps to convince his mom to admit Jin-woo to the Jinjin Medical Center. All the other ERs are full and Jin-woo needs emergency treatment. 

Jin-sung meets Young-joo outside Young-woon’s house and thanks him for help. Once Jin-woo gets to the hospital, the medical staff take over and do their best to keep him alive. The family and Young-woon wait impatiently to hear from the doctors.  Jun-sook is also one of the head doctors and she orders a brain scan. Unfortunately, the brain scan shows that Jin-woo suffered a cerebral edema and it is causing intracranial pressure to rise rapidly. There is a chance that it will cause brain death. 

The doctors opt to do an extensive craniotomy to reduce brain compression and intracranial pressure. After the surgery, Jun-sook explains to the family that the surgery was successful but now they need to wait and see if Jin-woo will gain consciousness. She takes the family through the whole process and warns them that Jin-woo might not wake up. She explains that there is a possibility of brain death. This is quite a blow to the family but they try to be hopeful. 

As Jin-sung tries to be positive, Young-hee starts crying and praying. Jin-sung confronts her for crying and acting like Jin-woo is dead. In retrospect, I think Jin-sung is in denial and it is easy for him to wish for a positive outcome. Seeing his mom crying might feel like she is giving up.  During this whole process, Young-joo and her mom along with Young-choon offer their unconditional support to the family.  Young-woon also shows up to offer his support and express his remorse for daunting Jin-woo during the serial killer investigation.

Unable to stay still at the hospital and agonising, Jin-sung goes back to Woojin to examine the scene where Jin-woo had his “accident.” The officers inform him that the higher-ups ruled the case as an accident and closed the investigation. They claim they found nothing at the site to prove foul play. They also give him Jin-woo’s belongings from that fateful night.

Jin-sung is surprised that the case is closed but asks one of the detectives to look into the CCTV around the shore the night of the accident. The detective agrees to check and contact him if they find anything suspicious. As he checks the site again, Jin-sung finds what looks like a broken cufflink. 

Back at the hospital, Jun-sook asks Young-woon why he is so interested in Jin-woo’s case. Young-woon admits he feels guilty for suspecting Jin-woo and she tries to put him at ease. She also tells him that it will take a miracle to save Jin-woo.

Later, Young-woon is summoned to Ho-chul’s office and is ordered to leave for training in America. Young-woon tries to object questioning if the higher-ups are acting under his mom’s influence. Ho-chul takes offense to the question and explains the training is a gift for catching the serial killer. The Deputy Commissioner, Sang-geun, argues that Young-woon can quit if he doesn’t want the training. 

Backed in a corner, Young-woon begrudgingly accepts the training. Hee-jo is not pleased to hear that Young-woon is being sent for special training and confronts Ho-chul, asking for special treatment too. Ho-chul lashes out at her saying she is the reason the prosecution office is being treated like a joke by the media and kicks her out. 

Reporter Park finds her ranting outside her dad’s house and looks shocked to learn about Young-woon’s training. He finds Young-woon and pretends to congratulate him but in reality, he feels jealous of him. While talking to Young-woon, he learns that Jin-woo is at the hospital and feigns concern. The audacity of this man!

Jin-sung later returns from Woojin and Young-joo tries to look after him. He tells her that he found nothing at the scene because of the heavy rain. They both admit that it is strange how Jin-woo had an accident. Jin-sung starts blaming himself for not returning to Woojin that night but Young-joo asks him to snap out of it.  They agree they won’t give up on Jin-woo or blame themselves. Young-joo tells Jin-sung about the day Jin-woo saved her life and stopped her from committing suicide. 

It turns out that Young-joo was going through a hard time watching her mom, Jang-mi, suffer in an abusive marriage. Her dad used to beat both of them up and one time she thought of throwing herself into the ocean. Jin-woo spotted her and promised to protect her along with his brother. 

Jin-sung is touched by the story and remarks on Jin-woo’s courage and good heart. She gives Jin-sung new hope and asks him to hang in there until Jin-woo wakes up. That night, Jinsung opts to stay at the hospital while his mom stays at Young-joo’s place. 

After her talk with Jin-sung, Young-joo runs into Young-woon at the hospital. He informs her that he is leaving soon for his training in America. Young-joo congratulates him and says goodbye. He tries to hold her hand but she walks quickly past him and he misses his chance. He also stops by to say goodbye to Jin-sung and wishes Jin-woo a quick recovery. He promises to take Jin-woo out for a meal once he wakes up from his coma and he returns from America. 

Later, Young-woon confronts his mom about his special training but she denies having anything to do with it. However, she insists that he needs to leave and slow down when he gets to America. 

In the meantime, Young-hee regrets treating Jin-woo badly and always favours Jin-sung over him. She starts blaming herself but Jang-mi asks her to stop and get a grip of herself. She also asks Young-joo to treat Young-choon to a meal and thank him for always driving them to Seoul.

Elsewhere, at the hospital, Jung-sook puts guards outside Jin-woo’s room. The guards stop Jin-sung from visiting his brother. Jin-sung tries to ask for Jung-sook’s help but she advises him to follow the doctor’s orders.  Young-joo also tries to calm him down saying Jin-woo is in a controlled room and no good will come from causing trouble with the hospital. However, we see Jung-sook enter Jin-woo’s room and suddenly his condition escalates. The doctors rush in and assess his situation. They suspect he is brain-dead.

Outside, Jin-sung and Young-joo are unaware of the escalating situation. They start talking about how Jin-woo had a few friends saved on his phone. Jin-sung worries if Jin-woo was happy and Young-joo reckons he was. They look at the picture on his phone screen and reminisce about one of the birthday parties they had for Jin-woo. The three of them had a blast that day. 

Soon, Jung-sook calls Young-joo and summons the family. She tells them that Jin-woo has officially been declared brain-dead. Jin-woo was listed as an organ donor and she asks how they will like to progress. Young-hee is one of the people who was saved from a kidney donation so she has no qualms about it. Jin-sung also vividly remembers how Jin-woo wanted to register as an organ donor. He wants to honour his little brother’s wishes. After a short moment of deliberation, they agree to donate Jin-woo’s organs. 

After this, they start the funeral process and mourn his death. As expected Jin-woo’s death is a big blow to everyone who loved him. After the burial, they scatter his ashes in his favourite place, where he went fishing. Jin-woo’s spirit watches and says a wordless goodbye. 

We fast-forward to a year after Jin-woo’s death. Jin-sung is still working with the Seoul team. Rumour has it that he is not taking his brother’s death well. He has become more unhinged and mercilessly goes after criminals. Once in a while, this gets him in trouble but he is hanging in there from the looks of things.

He and Young-joo are set to return to Woojin to celebrate Jin-woo’s first death anniversary. However, before leaving Youn-joo gets a text from young-woon asking to meet her. They meet and he has changed. He is much healthier and even drinks alcohol now. Young-joo asks him why he wanted to see her immediately after landing when he never called her. He apologizes and invites her to dinner. Young-joo is shocked by how upfront he is but turns him down. She explains she has to leave for Jin-woo’s memorial. He asks about Jin-sung and she says he is okay. They promise to meet once she is back. 

In the meantime, Jin-sung patiently waits outside the restaurant. He is not pleased with Young-woon’s timing but keeps it to himself. They drive to Woojin and have a beautiful memorial service for Jin-woo. Young-hee wonders if she should start giving out Jin-woo’s things but Jin-sung tells her not to. They are all not ready to let Jin-woo go.

After the memorial, Jin-sung and Young-joo return to Seoul. Before leaving, Jin-sung gives his mom upkeep money and she is touched by the gesture. They get to Seoul and we learn that Jin-sung lives in the same building as Young-joo. 

The episode ends with Jin-sung getting a video message from an anonymous number. He plays the video and realizes it was taken on the night Jin-woo had his ‘accident.’ It shows a man in a raincoat getting into a car. Jin-sung starts to question what truly happened to his brother. 

The Episode Review

The show keeps on getting better with each episode and everything from the writing to the acting remains top-notch. 

We have a lot of questions mainly surrounding Reporter Park and Young-won’s miraculous recovery.  Did Jung-sook pay Reporter Park to attack Jin-woo and get her son a new heart? It seems so far-fetched but her past behaviours lead us to question her motives to help Jin-woo. What was she doing in his room minutes before his condition escalated? 

Let us hope the new episodes will shed more light on what happened to Jin-woo. He deserves justice and Jin-sung deserves the truth. It is understandable how he is acting, losing a loved one is not easy to deal with. It is a good thing he has Young-joo but with Young-woon back in the picture, does he stand a chance to win her heart forever?