Life on Mars Episode 14 Recap

Sadly, we are rushing towards the end of this drama. But we have so many unanswered questions roaming about. Will Tae Joo find out who the bad guy is in both his coma and real life? Will he ever hook up with Officer Yoon? Do we actually want Tae Joo to escape his coma world? Join me as I discuss all this and more.

We left off with Dong Cheol’s mentor, Officer Shin, committing suicide. A tragedy that the newly arrived Chief Ahn is partially blaming Dong Cheol for. Since Director Ahn is suddenly declaring that Officer Shin was on the take which led to his suicide, I think we can now safely suspect the opposite. Chief Ahn continues with his cryptic baloney as he explains that they just have to solve this case, and then Tae Joo can return to where he belongs.

Officer Yoon (Yes, you go grab on to your soulmate) inquires if Tae Joo really plans on going home. She had overheard Chief Ahn and Tae Joo talking and you can tell that she is not on board Team Reality. To be honest, I am not sure if Tae Joo really wants to return since he seems very conflicted about leaving.

When he finds out that Chief Ahn is accusing his mentor of accepting bribes, Dong Cheol gets super pissed off. Especially when he finds out that they are accusing him & his mentor of paying off Chief Kim and that it is this that led to Chief Kim’s murder.

Unlike our previous suppositions, Dong Cheol was not discovered right away. Tae Joo discovers him drunk and sitting in the morgue next to his dead friend. But it isn’t long before they hear Chief Ahn barreling their way, yelling at Dong Cheol to turn himself in. Luckily they have somebody’s drawers (what do you actually call those things?) to hide in and they are safe once again. Determined to prove his friend’s innocence, Dong Cheol drags Tae Joo to the police station to see the bank books himself. Hahaha. You have to always appreciate how Dong Cheol has no sense of self-preservation.

Even faced with the evidence of his friend’s guilt, Dong Cheol is not convinced. He declares that they need to investigate. Right at that moment, Chief Ahn comes back to the office. Thinking quickly, Tae Joo throws Officer Yoon’s tiger costume at his partner so he can hide. Hahahaha. They sure are getting a lot of good use out of that costume. So cute!

Through a series of deductions, our fugitive detectives discovered that Mentor Cop (if he was the murderer) had been looking for something at Chief Kim’s house after the murder. And somehow the thief that was also in the house had found the item. Hence they need to talk to the thief ASAP. Which might be a problem since as they are searching the crime scene, the thief is being released from jail. This cannot end well.

Wait! It is actually our good guys who got the thief released. They quickly snag him off the street so they can interrogate the felon. The thief leads them straight to his house where he says he hid “the thing” he stole. But upon arrival they discover a Seobu gang thug raiding the house. In the scuffle, the gangster gets away as does our thief. Hahaha just kidding again. The thief had been handcuffed to a heavy gas tank so he doesn’t get very far before he is recaptured.

We finally find out what the all-important item is that is causing all this death and commotion. The thief had stolen a hidden ledger, but it was stolen from him sometime during the past few days. Tae Joo is quick to note that Mentor Shin probably had stolen the ledger because it incriminated himself and Chief Kim.

Chief Ahn is not as clueless as everyone is assuming. He knows that Tae Joo has been colluding with his partner fugitive and takes Tae Joo to the river for some serious talk. He informs Tae Joo that his partner is also being investigated and has a bank book indicating he is on the take. But Tae Joo doesn’t believe him despite all the evidence. He jumps out of the car screaming that this is all a dream and not real. Chief Ahn calmly gives Tae Joo the report he has on the bribery within the police team. I feel for poor Tae Joo. To know that this is all a dream is one thing, but to accept that your messed up brain is constantly putting you through this emotional upheaval is a whole different kettle of fish.

It causes our intrepid Tae Joo to pass out. This brings up the question: Can you have a coma in a coma? Deep thoughts to keep us going through those stupid hospital voice scenes. Tae Joo calms down after Officer Yoon once again tells him to trust his heart rather than his mind. If he trusts his heart then he can’t go wrong (especially if his heart sends him Officer Yoon’s direction).

Continuing to search for the ledger book, Tae Joo and Officer Yoon discover a hidden recorder that taped the last minutes of Mentor Shin’s life. As suspected he did not commit suicide, but instead was murdered by Chief Ahn. Eeeek. How is our Team 3 going to get out of this one and bring the bad guy to justice?

Team 3 hears a rumor that Dong Cheol has been sighted in a neighborhood location along with a bunch of gang members that are hunting him down. Splitting up, while keeping in communication via walkie-talkie, Team 3 searches for their boss. At which point, Tae Joo is hit by a car manned by a gang thug. This being a dream, Tae Joo pulls himself up and takes down the bad guy just as he hears Officer Yoon screaming for help via walkie-talkie. Tae Joo staggers to the location where his team is being beaten by a bevy of thugs only to come in contact with gun-wielding Chief Ahn. Chief Ahn tells Tae Joo that all he has to do to end the coma is let his hallucinations die then he will be free. Tae Joo hesitates for a second but then says he is going to follow his heart and runs into the fray.

The world goes black as Tae Joo runs to his friends and the next thing we know an injured Tae Joo is waking up in the future.

Final Thoughts:

I was not expecting him to wake up this episode. Yes, I know that we are getting down to the wire here, but I don’t want to say goodbye to Team 3. How are they going to finish the story without my favorite characters present? I guess I will have to stay here, anxiously waiting till next week to see if my Officer Yoon/Tae Joo ship is really sunk.

Til our next murder,

Kmuse

Dramas With a Side of Kimchi

One thought on “Life on Mars Episode 14 Recap

  1. UK Version Spoiler Alert:

    Hopefully, LOM Korea will expand on the connection much more thoroughly than the UK version, which was disappointingly abbreviated and dealt more with Sam Tyler’s (UK version’s Tae Joo) psychological condition upon his return to 2000’s Scotland Yard than with any real resolution of tying the two versions together, with a very brief return to the ’70’s implied.

    (Interesting note: Sam Tyler’s character was named by the daughter of the actor who portrayed him, John Simms. Simms played the role of the Master in the Dr. Who return in the 2000’s, and his daughter’s favorite character in that show was companion Rose Tyler, portrayed by Billie Piper. That’s why I am kind of hoping to see a blue police box in the last two episodes.)

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