KMUSE is on vacation so I’m stepping in for a recap of Squad 38 this week. It didn’t take much to convince me to dish with you guys about Seo In Guk. Well, and his little band of merry con-artists.

I have to say that even though I could watch In Guk smooth talk his way in and out of situations all day, it’s Ma Don Seok that is just killing it as the goofy straight man in this. I happened to watch an interview of him the other day and he is so down to earth and funny.  He usually plays tough guys but in this he’s just a big ol’ teddy bear.

 

A few things this episode established.

#1 Baek Sung Il makes a horrible conman

Thankfully he’s hilarious to watch bumble through it every step of the way. Sung Hee called the cops at the end of episode 3 but they don’t show up right away.

Pretty much the con is Jung Do goes inside and pretends to be with a special investigation unit for the bank. He’s pulls off a banker pretty well, having him sign paperwork first and then tells Real Estate Guy to withdraw all his money from his accounts so the hackers can’t get to it.

Then Sung Il shows up and introduces himself as a detective and he’s here to investigate the bank account fraud that Real Estate Guy reported. This is where he screws up. Real Estate Guy never reported it to the police, his assistant did. So they go through the hilarious back of forth where neither of them really knows what the other is saying . And Sung Il makes it worse when he states Jung Do’s fake title before they’ve even been introduced. I could watch Sung Il screw up all day just because Jung Do’s faces while he’s doing it are priceless.

Jung Do manages to salvage the con and get Real Estate Guy to follow Sung Il, but not before Sung Hee bursts in and tries to get Sung Il to leave before the police show up.

He stays because he feels responsible and the cops show up and arrest Sung Il and Jung Do. They all go to the police station, including real estate guy, who wants to do something about the loads of cash he now has at his house, but the police won’t give him the time to take care of it.

#2 Our conman is as smart as he is pretty.

They all go into the police station but Sung Hee and the real estate guy are told to wait in the lobby. The police officers escort our guys through the police station and out the other side where Loan Shark No waits with her driver. The cops weren’t really cops and they were working for Jung  Do. Haha. The fact that Sung Il looked like he might piss his pants the whole time is pretty funny. I’m sure Jung Do didn’t tell him just so he could get an authentic reaction out of him, but part of me wonders if he did it just because.

Meanwhile, Burner Phone Gangster changes into some leisure clothes and answers the door when the real police arrive. He tells them there’s a mistake and no fraud is taking place. (I’ve given up on most police officers actions making sense but shouldn’t you go inside and at least check to see if there’s anyone else inside before you believe there isn’t anything nefarious going on?) Anyway, now our team has ALL of real estate guys money and they lay it out there for him. Feed Bankrupt Baddy whatever info they tell him to and he can have his money back.

#3 Sung Hee needs to come to the dark side and soon.

After calling the police doesn’t work she decides she’s going to collect Bankrupt Baddy’s taxes to prove to Sung Il that doing it by the law will work. She gets the other tax team leader guy to regroup and then they do the same thing Sung Il did but with less success. They can’t even get into his place or any of his relative’s places.

She naively goes to their corrupt boss and he pretty much tells her to leave Bankrupt Baddy alone and know her place. I like Soo Young and I really hope this writer gives her more to work with. I feel like once she flips sides she has potential to be an awesome character so I’m looking forward to that.

#4 No one is as they seem.

The detective that met up with Jung Do when he first got out pays Loan Shark No a visit and scares her away from our team.

He then pays Jung Do a visit at his apartment. The only time you see Jung Do truly be submissive to anyone is around this guy. He slaps Jung Do around and says mean things about his corrupt cop father. Which clues us in on why Jung Do’s dad is in prison. And I’d bet my secret stash of girl scout cookies that Jung Do’s dad wasn’t really corrupt and this jerk is the reason he’s in prison. Jung Do is probably submissive to him because he holds power over his dad’s well being in prison.

#5 A guy who is an expert at not paying his taxes isn’t that easy to con.

When Load Shark No pulls out of the group they have to find a new way to lure Bankrupt Baddy into buying into their real estate scam. (Note here that No gave them to land before she walked away. So she still helped them out.)

They set up a pretty simple con. Plant Mi Joo (this girl does all the heavy lifting with this team. She totally rocks) at Bankrupt Baddy’s favorite golf practice place. Rig one of the lanes so she can control the computerized golf game. And have our newbie conman there so they cross paths and end up betting on a game between them. Sung Il is HORRIBLE at golf and watching him swing that club was the highlight of the episode. But he ends up winning against Bankrupt Baddy.

Sung Il tells him he’ll take him to dinner and give him his money back since he’s a civil servant and doesn’t feel right about taking it. Therefore creating an opportunity for Bankrupt Baddy to overhear a phone call where Sung Il turn down a super hot real estate deal. Bankrupt Baddy takes the bait and calls his real estate guy. Who of course is sitting across from Jung Do and confirms that the tip he just overheard is real and he should jump on the deal.

So he gets Sung Il to set up a meeting with the guy who has the real estate info.Here’s where our bad guy proves he’s smart too. He shows up at city hall the next day and changes the meeting time from a few days from then to right away. If this isn’t a scam then there shouldn’t be a problem with meeting now instead of later. Right? Except Jung Do is sleeping off an hangover and he barely understands what’s going when Sung Il calls him to warn him they have to move up the meeting.

# 6 Guys that drive big trucks in Korea have NO CLUE what their breaks are or how to follow basic traffic laws.

I honestly want to be a part of scriptwriting meetings. Writernim “Hey, so we need this person to die/become blind/have amnesia/delayed for a meeting. What are our options?” Writernim’s assistant “Um, the set people say the have a blue Truck Of Doom available tomorrow or the white one is free on Friday.”

Jung Do doesn’t make it to the meeting (or that’s what I’m assuming) because they decided to film the day the blue truck was available.

My Thoughts:

The show is taking it’s time completing the first con. And it’s not making it super easy for our team. I almost wanted the first one to be super slick and have it go off without a hitch, but I guess then our teddy bear tax man would probably leave the team and go back to his life. I’m ready for Sung Hee to join them and for them to really become a team. Even though Loan Shark Do left during this episode they gave us a scene where she was tisking over the rich not paying taxes so I think she’ll be back for more. I am enjoying the development with Sung Il the most, and I hope he ends up helping Jung Do fight his demons too.

Thank you KMUSE for letting me weigh in on this show.

Drama Geek