Recap Korean Drama "The Devil Judge" Episode 8

Episode 8 of The Devil Judge begins with Ga-On realizing how corrupt the system is. With the wrong man imprisoned and what he thought was justice all a smokescreen, Ga-On is left reeling.

Yo-Han mentions the Foundation and how selfish they all were, including their absolute audacity of showing up at the hospital while he was recovering. With no remorse for their actions, Yo-Han was sickened by their actions and this is what started his quest for revenge.

On their way back from the prison, Yo-Han implores Ga-On to make sure he focuses only on himself right now. He knows Ga-On is likely bubbling with rage and that manifests itself into grief back at the mansion.

In the morning, news of Seo’s death breaks and Yo-Han stops in his tracks to see this. In fact, Seo even comes out and gives a video confession of his deeds. The Foundation all watch on, feigning their grief.

This video, as it turns out, was actually fabricated and edited using existing footage of him by Sun-A. She deflects the attention across to five “rebels” from inside the company.

Yo-Han knows they’re playing the system – and the media. With sympathy over Seo’s death, they’ve used this crisis and turned it into the prefect opportunity for them to capitalize on this.

Even worse, this extends across to politics too, as Sun-A and President Heo join hands and promise to eradicate the extremism that’s seeping across Korea on the back of this suicide. This also moves the nation closer to totalitarianism, with much tougher moves from the President and stricter searches. There’s also a team in place to help with promoting and enhancing the live court show.

Ga-On takes what he’s found out and visits Soo-Hyun. As they sit together she comes up with a different theory. She believes Yo-Han could be manipulating him and have an ulterior motive to keep him in check. For now though, Soo-Hyun does her best to cheer him up, playing music and sitting alongside him while holding his hand.

Sun-A arrives to see Yo-Han at his office. It turns out she’s the one in charge of leading the live court operational support. Just to add insult to injury, she also shows up wearing a cross necklace.

Greedy and desperate for fame, Sun-A will do absolutely anything to get to the top and make it – even if it means trampling everyone else to get there. Yo-Han can see straight through her façade and holds her up by the neck. When Ga-On arrives to pry him off, the necklace comes loose to reveal a needle inside.

Tensions are high and not just on Yo-Han’s side. Kyung-Hee is worried that she’s being kept out the loop and decides to investigate the real string puller here – Sun-A.

This whole incident was deliberately planned by Yo-Han, who intentionally isolated her to make it easier to target in the future. As he relays this on to Ga-On, he knows the man is a wildcard and needs him on his side.

Speaking of picking sides, Elijah rings Sun-A and ends up going out for shopping and food. There, Elijah broaches the subject of Ga-On and learns that Sun-A likes him romantically. However, she was with him for the worst moments of his life and has seen him during his most depressed periods.

Back home, Jung-Ho shows up to see Ga-On. He’s decided to break up the live court. Still reeling over this, Ga-On heads back to court but is understandably distracted. Yo-Han senses this and takes Ga-On to see his inside contacts.

Yo-Han didn’t pay off Ki-Young after all, he actually bought out Lawyer Ko who was the prosecutor on the other side. Even worse, the eyewitness report for the Young-Min case was actually an aspiring actress and not really a victim. At least, not a victim from him anyway.

The guys have banded together and are still victims in their own way, determined to move past this injustice. They’ve banded together to try and make things right. All of this is to try and get Ga-On on his side.

Meanwhile, Sun-A sinks her claws into Jin-Joo and starts to groom her in her own vision. As she does, the politicians and Foundation members rile up the public. Gangs target foreigners and homeless people, beating them down in the street.

Sun-A passes a gang on her way back with Elijah and stops by to prevent this insanity getting worse. Unfortunately, she’s set up by the man filming, who drops his weapon and gets the camera rolling, asking if it’s okay to shoot an unarmed man.

Ga-On eventually makes his choice though and decides to team up with Yo-Han after all. If all of this is just one big game, he at least wants to be on the winning side.

The Episode Review

So Ga-On has made his decision and now Yo-Han and Ga-On are on the same page. The pair are going to fight back against this corruption and will undoubtedly go after the Social Foundation together, one member at a time. Sun-A is undoubtedly going to be the last to fall, but it seems like she’s grooming Jin-Joo to be her right-hand woman.

Meanwhile, fighting breaks out in the streets and that seems like it was always going to happen given the circumstances. We’ve seen this world very volatile from the beginning of the series and now that’s spilling out into violence.

The other interesting part of this show is the deeper ideas around manipulating evidence and audiences to fit a narrative. The reveals about the aspiring actress and the issues surrounding Young-Min’s case are certainly surprising and raise some very real and ethical questions about the validity of this open court trial.

In essence, it’s not really open and certainly not fair if the evidence is manipulated in this way. Then again, we all know that the mass media is notorious for spinning a narrative, especially when it comes to lashing out against foreigners and those who are struggling (hello, Daily Mail.)

Either way, The Devil Judge has been a really gripping watch and certainly one of the more surprising entries on the TV calendar this year.