Recap Korean Drama "Insider (2022)" Episode 5

Jun 23, 2022

Episode 5 of Insider picks up right where we left off following that shocking cliffhanger. Yo-Han stabs Jin-Hyung in the neck and watches as he bleeds out… or does he? It turns out this was actually one big fake-out; a vision that Yo-Han had and played out in his mind. Oh, what a fake-out!

Yo-Han demands to know what this video of Jin-Hyung with Yo-Han’s grandmother is about. Well, it turns out Jin-Hyung was set up. He received coordinates on his phone to follow and in doing so, found her lying unconscious on the floor.

Jin-Hyung was set up this whole time while someone was recording the video. He was trying to call the police but didn’t get through. This explains the misdirection, as Yo-Han drops the scalpel and apologizes, admitting that he’s scared and didn’t know what else to do. When they hug, Yo-Han’s gaze narrows.

We then cut back 5 days prior to this meeting. Yo-Han continues to be beaten up by the guys supposedly teaching him how to fight. Yo-Han doesn’t appear to be fighting back though. He’s also attempting his sleight of hand with the “professor” too but none of that seems to be working.

In private, Sun-O tasks him with finding Nam Dae-Moon’s ledger, which should be hidden among the belongings somewhere. This happens to show slush funds and incriminating information about many of those top officials in the poker room. Unfortunately, Yo-Han’s search is fruitless.

Yo-Han realizes that the clues may lie in the staff room, and particularly with the newspapers. It could well be that the ledger has been stashed inside the pages of the newspaper… but there’s a lot of them and it’s impossible to find.

As he begins searching through them, he’s confronted by Seung-Hwan, who warns him if he’s caught the whole cell will be punished.

When Yo-Han shuffles out, the inmate shreds the ledger documents from another journal. This collides in with Su-Yeon showing the camera footage to Yo-Han in another private meeting, something she investigated earlier in the episode and managed to obtain with the help of Park Ro-Sa.

The thing is, Yo-Han is asking way too many questions and his secretive nature, coupled with his visits by the VIP, make him a target from the others in his cellblock. He’s poisoned by Seung-Hwan and rushed to the medical ward, where Yo-Han awakens.

Seung-Hwan promises he won’t kill him there. “Go back to where you came from,” He says bitterly. “This is not a place for you.” He’s made his case loud and clear, demanding Yo-Han just go back and do his sentence in silence.

Director Jin and Chairman Yang arrive at the prison to see the Warden. He’s caught in the middle with Chairman Do but Yang is not here on business. He wants to find Tae-Gwang and knows that he’s been poisoned and is being hidden away. Sun-O comes out of hiding, smiling. The pair have a nasty history together, something Yang exploits immediately to rile him up.

Speaking of exploiting, it turns out Byung-Wook is the one behind the videotape and is responsible for setting him up. He’s been trying to drive a wedge between the pair and thanks to some clever phone work, Jin-Hyung now knows too.

Su-Yeon also comes to this same conclusion, or at least that the video was created for him to see. This trail leads back to Inspector Kwon and a small kid called Woo Min-Ho. This 11 year old was secretly being hidden in a motel room by Kwon and seems to have a connection with Yo-Han’s grandmother. She believes that he could be the key to solving this.

The thing is, Yo-Han is confronted by Seung-Hwan and the entire cell who call him out for being secretive. Given he’s getting VIP visits and used to be part of the judicial constitute, they’re worried he could mess up what they’ve got going here.

Unfortunately, there’s too many guys for Sun-O to fight against and without the ledger (which Sun-O asks him quietly above), Yo-Han is forced to endure yet more punishment. This comes in the form of the pendulum.

Yo-Han is knocked out and when he regains consciousness, finds himself knocked out and tied upside down in the workshop.

The Episode Review

Insider is a really suspenseful thriller and without any card games this time around, the attention instead turns to the game Byung-Wook is playing to sever the ties between Yo-Han and Jin-Hyung. It’s far too early to figure out how all these puzzle pieces slot together but it does make for quite the intriguing watch.

Not only that, but Insider is really starting to double down on its tension and seeing Yo-Han under constant duress is hard to watch. There’s only so much punishment one guy can take and he’s been through an absolute warzone since entering the prison.

Sun-O is also in a difficult position here, forced to play both sides, operating in the shadows while simultaneously making sure he’s not outed as working in collusion with Yo-Han.

Either way, the ending hints that we’ve got a dramatic episode to come next week and quite whether our characters can make it out of this in one piece or not is anyone’s guess.