The Escape of the Seven: War for Survival (2023) Episode 7

Episode 7 of The Escape of The Seven starts with Mo-ne waking up from her nightmare, killing Da-mi by hitting her with a rock. La-hui hears her scream and throws her outside the house in the rain. She tells La-hui about the note she found in her room.

Mo-ne thinks Da-mi might be alive, which makes La-hui furious. She yells that since it has been five years, both Da-mi and Joo Yong-joo are dead. Mo-ne reminds La-hui that Da-mi’s adoptive father is still alive. What will they do if he shows up? 

La-hui tells Mo-ne she will end their relationship if she does not pull herself together. She calls Mo-ne’s mother and throws the phone at Mo-ne, asking her to tell her mum that she will return to being poor. After talking to her, Mo-ne has more vigour to survive regardless of Da-mi’s curse. The people who stay alive are the winners. 

Mathew Lee asks Luca to bring up the seven. La-hui calls him while having coffee, but he ignores the call. Meanwhile, La-hui monitors as Mo-ne gets ready for the press conference. She asks her assistants to make her look sad. She tells Mo-ne to keep it together and not drag them both down.

Ji-a arrives with the drinks, and Mo-ne asks the others to leave. She talks to Ji-a about the new song she is writing. Mo-ne has been passing Ji-a’s songs as her compositions, and Ji-a wants out. Ji-a tells her that since she is recognised as a singer-songwriter, she must start writing her songs. 

Ji-a has already written three albums and made ten hot songs. Han Mo-ne looks down on Ji-a. She says the songs did not become hits because she wrote them but because she hired the best producer and Mo-ne sang them. Ji-a sets up a fake funeral to deal with the issue of the dead fans during her party. Mo-ne asks her to post something nice on her social media to appease the fans. 

La-hui treats Do-hyuk out to lunch to introduce her to Mathew Lee. She wants Do-hyuk to look into the first CEO of TIKITAKA Studio, Han Sung-woo. Later, while watching a broadcast, she notices that the Jeju Island Police Commissioner is the same person who worked on Da-mi’s case.

She calls Jin-mo and insists that he confirm that the person behind bars is Lee Hwi-so. She also tells her to stop associating with bad people, especially if he wants to join TIKITAKA studios with her. Jin-mo visits the prison and asks to talk to Lee Hwi-so. Chairman Bang puts up a crazy act, making it impossible for Jin-mo to get a DNA sample. 

Kang Ki-tak visits Cherry Entertainment offices now at Taebak Group Offices. Jin-mo thinks Ki-tak has no money to get revenge when Ki-tak threatens to kill Jin-mo. Ki-tak wants to know the whereabouts of No Paeng-hee and Do-hyuk. He tells Jin-o to watch over Taebak until he returns to take it back. Ki-tak’s reappearance scares Jin-mo. 

A discussion between Ki-tak and Mathew Lee confirms that the taxi driver who drove Hwi-so to Seoul Culture Forest, the director of the digital crime centre and Attorney Kim Soon-pyung are also connected to Da-mi’s death. The lawyer and the director fled overseas five years ago, and they do not have information about the taxi driver.

Also, the video of Hwi-so shooting Da-mi was faked using deep human image composition technology. Ki-tak thinks they can use that technology as a clue, but since it is very advanced, they can also use it as a cover. 

Mathew Lee is frustrated since he has yet to figure out the mastermind behind what happened to Da-mi. Meanwhile, Chairman Bang tells Secretary Hwang that it is about time they tell Mathew about K. Secretary Hwang thinks they need more power to face K head-on. He is worried they might fail before they even start the revenge. Chairman Bangs instructs the secretary to back up Mathew should anything happen to him. 

Mo-ne arrives at her shoot and asks Ji-a to pick up something for her. She does so to prevent Ji-a from joining an audition. Ji-a’s mysterious friend texts to wish her luck on the audition. When she says she will not join, he tells her to fight for her dream and not let people walk all over her. 

Do-hyuk goes to a salon frequented by OK Entertainment to dig up dirt on Mr. Han, the new CEO of TIKITAKA Studios. He is following the rumor that the salon director has a secret relationship with CEO Han, and they have a secret love child. He picks a fight with the deputy director to get a sample of his hair. She meets with La-hui to tell her to prepare the money.

Ji-a goes to the audition that Mo-ne is judging and sings the song Mo-ne took from her, Dear D. Previously, mo-ne had recorded it, and it was to be the first song in her album. Mo-ne is furious, and Ji-a silently vows not to let Mo-me take anything from her again. 

La-hui tracks Mathew to the sea, where he is surfing and joins him. She thinks Mathew is into her and fakes a drowning to test his feelings. When Mathew dives to help her, she kisses him, and he does not pull back. Later, they have a meal and drinks at the beach.

Mathew later invites her to his vacation home. While Mathew tries to kiss her again, Ju-ran sends her an emergency text saying she has seen Da-mi at Hongryugak. When she arrives, she finds the other members of the seven waiting. They say La-hui texted them to meet. While they try to figure out what happened, the door automatically locks. 

Suddenly, the roof opens, and Yong-joo’s corpse drops into the room. Da-mi’s video says someone in the room killed her, sparking an argument among them. They each start to confess their connection to Da-mi’s death. Mathew Lee, Kang Ki-tak, and Secretary Hwang watch from Mathew’s house.

Later, they decide to work together and cremate the body. Do-hyuk overhears Ju-ran and La-hui discussing how they killed Chairman Bang. Ju-ran thinks the Chairman is not dead, and he had planned, hence why his mother was missing. She also thinks Lee Hwi-so is helping him with the revenge plan. 

Kang Ki-tak and Mathew Lee secretly follow La-hui and Mo-ne as they toss Yong-joo’s remains into a heap of trash. Mathew vows that the seven will go through the same fate. Later, Mo-ne and La-hui argue when Mo-ne confronts her to learn of her connection to Da-mi. It is also revealed that La-hui might be the one who killed Da-mi when Yong-joo is seen carrying her from a chair lifeless. 

Meanwhile, Do-hyuk brings Jon-mo a report. All the people who died on the island were first-year subscribers of the Scarlet Letter. He reports that even overseas subscribers have been dying and thinks it is connected to Da-mi. Do-hyuk says he will also take the chance to avenge his mother and brother. Jin-mo offers to help him. 

Elsewhere, Mo-ne sneaks out to meet with someone, and La-hui follows. Ki-tak, lurking outside their house, also sends a drone to follow them. Mo-ne meets with Um Ji-man. Ki-tak reports to Mathew that Ji-man just became the prosecutor general. Mathew Lee asks Ki-tak to get someone to follow Ji-man. 

La-hui arrives at the office to news about Mathew Lee being her boyfriend. While everyone is swooning over the news, Mathew calls La-hui for a meeting at TIKITAKA Studios. Mathew Lee has some news for La-hui. She tells him never to get her hopes up because there is no way she will ever be the CEO of TIKITAKA Studio even after the position became vacant.

He also warns her not to sway his people into telling her his whereabouts or ever show up accompanied by reporters to take pictures of them. He tells him that was an amateur move. Mathew had to make her come to his office to warm her since he was trying to be polite. La-hui is infuriated by Mathew’s insult. He tells her that will be the last time since he never wants to see her again. 

La-hui tries to show concern for Mathew’s business by saying that if someone unworthy is chosen for the position, his hard work will be in vain. He tells her it is none of her business. Outside, La-hui vows she will make Mathew want her in the end. 

La-hui’s producer sends her the video of Ji-a taken during the audition. She rushes to the office to look into the controversy. Mo-ne admits that she paid for the songs Ji-a wrote; hence, they were hers. La-hui is angry that Mo-ne did not tell her about busying the songs from Ji-a. She would have been able to control Ji-a. Now, Mo-ne is worth nothing to her. Hence, LH Media will no longer be renewing Mo-ne’s contract. 

Mo-ne confronts Ji-a, who is packing up to leave LH Media. Ji-a tells her that she wrote the song Dear D in memory of Da-mi. She knows that Mo-ne, who gave birth back at school, but she kept quiet about it. She feels guilty and, therefore, can never let Mo-ne take that song from her.

Mo-ne vows that she will never let her debut, especially not in the show she auditioned for, where Mo-ne is a judge. Ji-a fights back; she will expose all of Mo-ne secrets if she tries to meddle. Ji-a says she will never lose to Mo-ne. 

Jin-mo visits No Paeng-hee. He seems anxious, and Paeng-hee figures it is because he met with Ki-tak. At his mention, Jin-mo loses it and trashes the room. Paeng-hee knows that Jin-mo likes her, but she will never think of him that way. Jin-mo is more enraged since it is hard to get Pang-hee to like him. 

Elsewhere, Detective Kang starts to prove problematic for Police Commissioner Nam to handle. Regarding the case at Jeju Island, the Detective reports that blood samples were switched. He thinks Nam Chul-woo is directly involved and reports that he will ask the higher-ups to forfeit his authority in leading the case. Detective kang will restart the investigation from the beginning. 

Chul-woo sends an SOS to Ji-man, making him travel to Jeju, and Luka records the flight ticket. While Detective Kang is busy at work, his wife calls him, saying she is in pain. The call gets cut and does not go through when he calls back.

The Detective rushes home, and on the way a high-speed truck collides into his car. The truck driver stops to confirm that the Detective is dead. Watching on the roadside in a Lamborghini is a masked man. He is wearing a necklace with the letter K on it. The episode ends with the Detective’s car bursting into flames and the masked man laughing hysterically as the scene zooms on his masked face. 

The Episode Review

The major question that all viewers want to know is who K is and how he relates to the whole controversy. How powerful is he since even Chairman Bang seems afraid to face him head-on before getting more powerful? Did he do all that just because he did not want to be tied to Mo-ne’s pregnancy?

It seems like so much trouble to hide a pregnancy, which makes him even more curious. Since he is back in the picture, will Mathew Lee succeed in his revenge? The games seem to have just begun, and who will be crowned the winner between K and Mathew Lee?