Delightfully Deceitful (2023) Episode 9-10

After Mu-young takes her home, Ro-woom tentatively confirms that he saw the contents of the USB she left him. While he admits he initially wrestled with knowing she and her team helped ruin his family, he’s concluded that the real fault lies with those who forced them to commit such crimes.

The next morning Ro-woom has Yo-han get her the earliest train ticket to anywhere. Technically, she’s supposed to return within 30 days or be in breach of probation, but everyone knows there’s a chance she won’t be coming back, including Yo-han, who offers a small apology on his mother’s behalf for Ro-woom’s treatment at the hands of Jeokmok.

And so, the team scatters. Ringo recuperates in the hospital. Da-jung tearfully packs up and leaves. Nasa goes into hiding, but stays in contact with Jay and begs for another chance to work for Kyung-ja. Left on his own, Mu-young calls in Prosecutor Ryu and their reporter friend, WOO KI-YOUNG (Yoon Byung-hee), to investigate Jeokmok and its ties to Kyung-ja’s company, Navis Well-Being — which, it turns out, is nothing more than a well-disguised pyramid scheme.

Both Jeokmok and Navis are linked to a third pyramid-scheme-funded company, Darusa International, and only one man is (officially) known to have his hands in all three pies: convicted felon MA KANG-SOO (Kim Jong-tae), also known as “Mr. Ma.” He’s just been released (early) from prison, but not everyone is pleased about his return to society. Especially Kyung-ja, whose victory over Ro-woom wasn’t as complete as it seemed.

Kyung-ja may have destroyed Director Ahn’s notebook and knocked Ro-woom down several pegs, but now everyone — the chairman included — knows Ro-woom tried to steal a Very Important Item from Kyung-ja, and it won’t be good for her if they find out what it was.

Between that and Mr. Ma waltzing in and asserting control over Navis affairs (he’s one of a privileged few with direct access to the chairman), Kyung-ja’s paranoia and desperation grow stronger by the day. She even harbors suspicions about Jay, having always felt insecure about his closeness with Ro-woom. To be fair, Jay has been looking for Ro-woom behind Kyung-ja’s back, a fact he still doesn’t confess. But he reassures Kyung-ja that he’s always been in her corner — after all, back when she accidentally killed Director Ahn, Jay was the one who covered it up and gave her an alibi.

Meanwhile, Mu-young finally contacts Ro-woom. Touched by his assurance that he’ll be waiting whenever she decides to return and try again, she does exactly that. But first, she finds Da-jung and, for once, really listens as Da-jung pours out her heart. Da-jung and the other Jeokmok Kids were just that — kids held hostage. They were never in it for revenge like Ro-woom was, or even for money; they just wanted Ro-woom to acknowledge them as people and teammates, not pawns. And she’s sorry for the part she was forced to play in the murder of Ro-woom’s parents.

After a similar visit with Ringo, Ro-woom returns to Mu-young. He welcomes her ecstatically, but lays out one condition if they’re to continue working together: from now on, he gets to call the shots. Ro-woom agrees, and the team reassembles. But while they shift in the direction of reconciliation, it’s not an easy or total fix.

Nasa eventually comes around, but as soon as he and Ro-woom are in the same room, they pick right back up where they left off, screaming at each other until Nasa storms out. Da-jung runs after him and begs him to come back and talk, to no avail. He leaves her in tears, feeling as though nothing has changed — or ever will change — after all.

But Da-jung isn’t the only one feeling stuck this week. The team reaches out to a potential ally, YEON TAE-HOON (Ahn Nae-sang), whose daughter, Ho-jeong, took her own life after falling victim to Darusa International and ending up hopelessly in debt. Tae-hoon’s spiral into alcoholism after years of trying to make people listen to Ho-jeong’s story reminds Mu-young so strongly of his own father’s substance abuse that he deems Tae-hoon a man not even he can empathize with. It doesn’t help that Mu-young’s father has recently resurfaced and wants to reconnect, reopening the old wounds.

Now it’s Ro-woom’s turn to listen to Mu-young’s story and offer, well, not quite empathy, per se, but consolation and food for thought. Remembering her reunion with her parents after being trapped in Jeokmok, she muses that people both punish and forgive others for such seemingly insignificant reasons. She never wanted the ramyun they promised to have waiting for her at home, but she’ll always imagine — fondly, even — that they really did cook it.

Not only does this conversation give deeper significance to the fact that Ro-woom never turns down an offer to eat ramyun with Mu-young, but it also convinces Mu-young himself to give Tae-hoon a chance. (It’ll be a while yet before Mu-young is ready to extend the same to his father, but it’s still a step forward.) Soon, the team sets Tae-hoon up with a new identity and sends him in to spy on Mr. Ma.

Navis Well-Being is on the way out, and as they gear up to extort the last bit of money they can and vanish, more tangential characters get pulled into the mix. Yo-han word-vomits the whole story about Jeokmok to Jae-in, who realizes the anonymous case study Yo-han’s mother had their class analyze was actually a way to gather ideas for experimenting on the Jeokmok kids. Jae-in, in response, apologizes to Ro-woom and offers her psychiatry services.

Nasa disappoints me again (though I’m trying to hold out hope for him!) by going straight to Mr. Ma after fighting with Ro-woom. Mu-young’s lawyer mentor — the one who took him in after his family fell apart — is also secretly investigating Jeokmok and everyone related to it, though it’s unclear why or what he plans to do about it. But the real surprise is the person Ro-woom introduces as their newest team member: Jay.

There may not have been a lot of action this week, but it was a great week for conversation and bridge-building between characters. My favorite was the reconciliation between Ro-woom and Da-jung, both the initial conversation and the period of readjustment that followed. But I especially appreciated that reconciliation as a whole was presented as messy, awkward, and not just something one person can decide to do. Both sides have to be ready to listen to the other with the intent of understanding.

While Yo-han was far less frustrating in these episodes (aside from pushing Jae-in’s professional boundaries), I still don’t feel that he or Jae-in are adding much to the story. In fact, it almost felt like Jae-in’s story was being wrapped up, with her reaching out to Ro-woom and declaring Mu-young no longer in need of therapy. Jay, on the other hand, is proving far more interesting and important than he first appeared, and I’m excited to see what he’s up to.