The Bequeathed (2024) K Drama Episode 1

Episode 1 of The Bequeathed starts with a drunk old man suddenly dropping dead. After his death, the scene goes to a university and introduces Yoon Seo-ha. She is an underappreciated instructor at the university under Professor Kim Chang-seok and his ghostwriter.

She finishes delivering the new books the Professor has written, but he has no idea about them and asks him to put in a word for her to be promoted to Professor. On the way out of Professor Kim’s office, she receives photos proving that his husband is cheating on her.

After texting back the private instructor not to look into the matter anymore, she gets a call from the police informing her about the death of an uncle she has no idea about.

The police ask for her presence to identify the body of Yoon Myung-gil, the old man who dropped dead at the start of the episode. She is Myung-gil’s only known relative, and she has to travel to Jinseong-ri Village to handle the funeral arrangements. 

Myung-gil’s death is treated as a homicide since traces of a poison called thallium were found in the beer bottle. The detective in charge of the case is Park Sang-min, the captain of the police force. However, another detective, Choi Sung-jun, investigated the case individually without following Sang-min’s orders.

When the police arrive at Myung-gil’s house, Sung-jun and Sang-min have a confrontation about Sang-min being promoted ahead of Sung-jun. Sang-min is unhappy about Sung-jun taking the initiative to investigate the case without his authorisation and asks him to quit if he does not like taking orders from his subordinate.

Sung-jun apologises but continues to look into the matter individually. Before the police arrive, Sung-jun finds a contract related to the construction of a golf course. 

Seo-ha and her husband arrive at the hospital, but she does not have so much to tell the police since she does not know about her dead uncle. We learn that she stopped contact with her father when she was young and consequently lost contact with his side of the family.

Regardless, as the only known relative, the police inform her about her inheritance to Myung-gil’s family land, a significant burial ground. Therefore, Seo-ha and her husband must sign some land ownership papers.

On the way out, Seo-ha’s husband is overly interested in the land and keeps asking her how much they would make from the burial ground. Outside, they meet a creepy man who introduces himself as the village chief.

He offers to help Seo-ha with the burial since she is not accustomed to the village and the process of holding a burial. He seems angry that the police insisted that a family relative had to sign the body transfer, and he asks her to sign her name at the morgue and leave everything else to him. 

Myung-gil’s funeral looks like a celebration for the village as they chat happily and drink. Events turn more confusing when a man claiming to be Seo-ha’s half-brother shows up and makes a scene saying that he is entitled to the burial ground just as much as Seo-ha. The man gets violent and assaults Seo-ha before the other villagers drag him out of the venue. Through a police investigation meeting, we learn that the man is Seo-ha’s half-brother, Kim Young-ho.

In addition, the police found out that someone had put much effort into poisoning Myung-gil with thallium, as they found it in his prescription drugs and other items. Sang-min instructs the detectives to look into Myung-gil’s family and not follow any orders Sung-jun gave. Therefore, Sang-min and Jung-sun run separate investigations on the case. 

In a flashback of Seo-ha as a teenager, her mother tries to convince her to move to the city with the new rich man she just found because they have no money and no rent. The man will take them to live in the town, but Seo-ha runs away from the house and goes to look for her father. She arrives at the scene of his father playing happily with a young boy.

Back to the present, the village chief brings a man from Jijo Construction to talk to Seo-ha about buying her bequeathed piece of land.

Meanwhile, Sung-jun arrives at an abandoned building related to the golf course’s construction. Inside, he finds bags of thallium hidden among other materials, all related to the construction of the golf course. The owner of the building is the village chief. 

Seo-ha and her husband attended Professor Kim’s birthday later that night only to find out it was a promotion celebration for her colleague Professor Han. The Professor makes it worse by telling Seo-ha that he did not mention her promotion because he wants her to continue helping him with his work. He claims he will ensure she gets promoted the next time a position opens up. 

Elsewhere, Sung-jun leaves a report about his investigation at Sang-min’s desk, and when he finds it, he figures out the case surrounding Myung-gil’s death and calls in the team. He instructs them to bring in the village chief for questioning, and when he is backed to a corner, he throws his college friend, Kim Kwang-soo, under the bus.

The village chief says that Kwang-soo had promised him immense profits after the construction of the golf course, so he convinced the villagers to sell their lands. However, Myung-gil refused to sell, and his piece of land was in the middle of the construction ground, making investors give up on the construction.

Kwang-soo was angry, and he orchestrated the whole plan to poison Myung-gil. The police find Kwang-soo celebrating the possibility of the development, picking up with his investors in a bar, and he is arrested. 

After the frustrating dinner with the Professor, tensions are high as Seo-ha and her husband head home. She becomes furious when her husband mentions that their marriage is based on a lie since she told him she was a professor when they met.

Seo-ha asks for a divorce, but the husband says he will not grant her one until the issue with the land is resolved. He claims to be entitled to half of the inheritance. Seo-ha shows her the cheating photos, throws him out of the car in the middle of nowhere, and drives away. The husband walks alone in the dark, trying to call Seo-ha back, when someone pulls a gun and kills him as Seo-ha arrives home. 

The following morning, an old man is driving past a bridge when he notices something strange. He stops his tractor to go check it out, and we see Seo-ha’s dead husband, half buried in the icy ravine under a bridge. 

The Episode Review

The atmosphere in the first episode, especially in the village covered in mist, fog, and mountains, gives the impression of unimaginable secrets and horrors in this series. Every character is either sneaky and weird or depressed and facing misfortunes.

Although the backstory seems fully developed in the first episode, with the murder related to the construction of the golf course and the culprits apprehended, there is more to the story.

For instance, who killed Seo-ha’s husband and why? Is it related to the land she inherited from her uncle? Who is the man claiming to be her half-brother, and how does he connect to the story?

The mystery in the first episode piques the viewers’ interest, encouraging them to look forward to more mysteries unfolding in the second episode.