Recap Korean Drama "Beyond Evil" Episode 3

Episode 3 of Beyond Evil begins with Chief Nam speaking to Jin-Mook, trying to reassure him after Min-Jung’s fingers were found at the crime scene. Jin-Mook however, continues to mention how he “lined everything up”. This could be a crucial clue so we’ll stick with that.

Meanwhile, various different officers at the station – and Yoo Jae-Yi at the butcher shop – find themselves struggling with this news. Among those is Joo-Won, who receives a message from Ji-Hwa telling him to be at the station by 3pm for questioning.

Dong-Sik heads back to the archives and tells Jung-Je to leave. After ripping down all the files from the basement wall, he heads back to check the different boxes.

As he does, Jung-Je ignores Dong-Sik’s request and approaches him in the archives. He asks Dong-Sik about Min-Jung and whether he’s the one responsible for what happened to her. As they talk, Joo-Won happens to be listening from around the corner. He’s immediately distracted though by a message from Ji-Hwa telling him she’s waiting.

Dong-Sik shows up too, as the issues in the statement recording room are a tense affair. Joo-Won warns his colleague not to get so emotional but Dong-Sik brushes this off, asking outright just why that’s such a bad thing. Just then though, Detective Kang Do-Soo shows up and sits in, watching this interview take place.

Dong-Sik has an alibi until 11pm on the night in question; he left the Substation around that time with Ji-Hwa. Joo-Won isn’t comfortable with this, especially given the intimate closeness between the detectives. He likens it to a family and believes none of them would actually rat out their own. He’s particularly suspicious of Dong-Sik being the first one to find both victims – both now and 20 years ago.

Dong-Sik chuckles incredulously and turns it around to him when Joo-Won tries to leave the room. He challenges the man, staring him in the face while asking Ji-Hwa whether Joo-Won  has an alibi for the night in question.

He mentions how Joo-Won is an outsider there and has inside information to the case. Dong-Sik even brings up the archive files and questions whether Joo-Won may be a copycat killer to what happened in the past.

Joo-Won, as it turns out, doesn’t have an alibi between 7pm and the following day. He simply went home and to sleep, but because no one can verify that then it seems suspicious. While he sits in this interview, we cut across to a conversation between Joo-Won and his Father, where he asks the superintendent to get him the camera footage from inside the police station archives.

Back home, Dong-Sik begins wiping down his basement, including throwing bleach on the floor and cleaning the wooden workbench. This happens to have a spatter of blood on it but Dong-Sik continues to clean it sloppily without batting an eyelid. Is he really the killer?

Well, a knock at thee door brings Ji-Hwa over to Dong-Sik’s place where they discuss the cases and what happened to Yu-Yeon. With no word on the girl without fingertips, Dong-Sik deduces that she’s already dead and searching is futile. On op of that, they also believe Min-Jung too is dead and whoever the culprit is, they won’t let the body go.

Outside, Ji-Hwa and Jung-Je discuss this unnerving statement and wonder whether Dong-Sik is actually hiding something. Ji-Hwa admits that she was never suspicious of Dong-Sik in the past. 20 years ago she was always convinced Dong-Sik was innocent and asks Jung-Je whether he fells the same. Although h agrees with her, something about the way he says it seems to be suspicious. Is he hiding something?

Remember the lady with a gold ring? Well, it urns out Joo-Won was actually in collusion with this woman, whose name is Lee Geum-Hwa. Finding out she’s an illegal immigrant, Joo-Won installed a location tracker on her phone and essentially forced her to keep tabs on Dong-Sik to work out exactly what he’s doing.

On the day of Lee Geum-Hwa’s disappearance, Joo-Won received a message from her number, saying hello with a series of 1’s and a link to something.

Back in the present, Joo-Won checks his email and finds a video for the police station showing both the archive files and a few different officers coming and going. At the same time though, detectives start combing the forest, where they find a cellphone on the floor.

Joo-Won heads into the archives and finds all the missing files from before. Yu-Yeon’s case is back and he believes Dong-Sik put them there. As Joo-Won chuckles, he turns to Jung-Je and asks whether he’s Dong-Sik’s accomplice. As we soon see from flashes to the past, this isn’t the first time Jung-Je has been accused of this.

When he leaves, Jung-Je rings Dong-Sik to let him know. This soon changes Dong-Sik’s mind about leaving the force for a while, instead heading out on patrol with Joo-Won again. Only this time, Joo-Won tells him he’s going to drive.

Together, they head into town where Joo-Won asks him about the case files. However, they’re both interrupted by a call from Ji-Hwa asking him to had back to the station.

There, he’s brought into the interrogation room again where Ji-Hwa mentions the phone, and specifically the text messages sent to him. When the Chief Superintendent finds out, he’s irate and demands a DNA examination to be sure this is correct.

His choice words about ringing if something shows up seems to hint that there are secrets being held…but who’s telling the truth and who’s lying here?

At the police station, Councilwoman Do shows up and speaks to the different officers. She makes Jung-Je uncomfortable, especially given this woman happens to be his Mother. As he escorts her outside, he mentions Chang-Jin and warns her never to join hands with him. As we soon see, Chang-Jin is actually a chairman and used to be married – to none other than Ji-Hwa. It seems everyone is connected in this drama!

That evening, Kwon Hyeok meets Joo-Won and feeds back the details surrounding the phone. He hands over the file and confirms that Geum-Hwa’s DNA was found on it.

This will, unfortunately, link straight back to Joo-Won. The rookie detective remains cool-headed though, claiming it’s all circumstantial. His Father, when he finds out, is not happy and berates his son for the foolishness surrounding this case.

Joo-Won returns to the police station in the morning and decides to take a leave of absence. On top of that, he also apologizes to Dong-Sik and walks away. Dong-Sik follows and thanks him. When he does, he bows and suddenly begins laughing under his breath.

Dong-Sik suddenly snaps though, turning back to his straight-faced demeanour. Joo-Won grabs him by the scruff of the neck, calling him out for mocking him, but Dong-Sik seems puzzled over what’s just happened. Dong-Sik shows him the camera and encourages him to stop.

This eventually sees Joo-Won head to Mount Simju where the phone was initially found. He finds tyre tracks and, more tellingly, dashcam footage that could be crucial to this investigation. Using his laptop, Joo-Won finds Dong-Sik grinning maniacally and walking away from the house.

Thus leads Joo-Won up to the house we saw Dong-Sik at earlier in the episode, including the bloodstained workbench and the posters up on the wall. Despite a camera being installed, Dong-Sik is arrested for the abduction and killing of Min-Jung. When he leaves, a smile crosses his lips in the police car. It also seems like a smile crosses Joo-Won’s lips too.

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The Episode Review

Alas, the plot thickens. This third episode sees more of Dong-Sik acting suspiciously and eventually arrested for his part to play in all this. Arrested without a warrant, this will almost certainly come back to bite Joo-Won and the others going forward.

It’s incredibly difficult to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s not, with lots of secrets being held by various different people. The wry smile crossing Joo-Won’s lips at the end of the episode is pretty telling — has his whole motivation been arresting Dong-Sik?

By comparison, we’ve got all the other officers at the police station who seem incredibly suspicious and may be hiding something too.

Speaking of which, Dong-Sik being the killer is way too obvious and the whole finger charade may well be him moving the fingers and trying to reenact the killer’s movements, getting inside their head to try and solve the case. However, it doesn’t account for the work bench and bleaching the floor which both seem to hint that he’s guilty.

And what’s with the maniacal stints of laughter too? This could be a sort of nervous tick but Dong-Sik may not be aware of what he’s doing.

Still, the jury is out over who could be responsible and this drama has left many, many questions over who the real killer is. Roll on the next episode!