Pandora: Beneath the Paradise (2023) Episode 15

Pandora: Beneath the Paradise episode 15 takes us back to Tae-Ra warning Pilseung, Dr Yang, and Kyojin to get out of Jae-Hyun’s secret lab before it blows up. Unfortunately, Sung-Chan automatically closed the lab’s doors and blew up the lab while they were inside, so it isn’t clear if they escaped.

Tae-Ra arrives at the secret lab to find it engulfed in flames and breaks down crying.

Ms Min goes to visit Chairman Kummo in prison and starts mocking him about how things turned out for him. Chairman Kummo pleads with her to leave Do-Jin alone, and Ms Min tells him that she will do so only if he hands over his shares at Kumjo to Kyojin.

Jae-Hyun addresses the press about his win in the presidential election. The press asks where Tae-Ra is, and Tae-Ra makes a grand entrance with flowers. She congratulates Jae-Hyun and embraces him but deep inside, she’s still angry about Pilseung’s possible death, making her cry. Jae-Hyun sees her tears and thinks they are tears of joy because he won the election. Suddenly, the media reporters receive news that Mokeum Temple is on fire.

Tae-Ra goes to the bathroom and remembers when she told Kyojin, Dr Yang, and Pilseung on the phone to get out of the secret lab before it explodes. When Sung-Chan automatically closed the lab’s doors, Dr Yang led them to an emergency exit. As they were exiting, Tae-Ra told Pilseung he had to survive so they could reunite.

Pilseung told Tae-Ra to promise him that she will seek revenge against Jae-Hyun, stop living as Tae-Ra, and start living happily as Mum Hagyeong regardless of what happened to him. Back to the present, Tae-Ra vows to seek revenge against Jae-Hyun as Pilseung had wished.

At Jae-Hyun’s house, the presidential secret service and personnel are already there and assure Jae-Hyun that they will be at his service until his inauguration. Jae-Hyun and Tae-Ra visit Mokeum Temple for Jae-Hyun’s first presidential assignment. The investigation team, who are at the scene, discover there was a secret lab in Mokeum Temple.

Tae-Ra asks them about the victims, and they tell her it will be hard to identify them because they were burnt. Jae-Hyun offers his condolences and promises a thorough investigation of the research lab in the temple. He also promises to cover the funeral expenses for the victims.

Outside the temple, Tae-Ra asks some of the investigation staff if she can identify the bodies, but they tell her it’s impossible because of badly they’ve burnt. Jae-Hyun meets, and Tae-Ra pretends that she was asking the staff how she could be of help and offers to put up a memorial stand for the victims.

Elsewhere, Mr Won, the head of YBC, is negotiating with Hae-Soo not to resign from working for the station and after much persuasion, she agrees not to resign. Joon-Ho calls and tells her he still can’t find evidence to prove Do-Jin’s innocence. Hae-Soo also tells him that Kumjo Group executives aren’t answering her calls. Joon-Ho tells her they may have been compromised because Ms Min is Kumjo’s current Chairwoman.

At Kumjo headquarters, Ms Min addresses the other shareholders as acting Chairwoman. She then asks Eun, her assistant, if she has found Kyojin. Eun tells her she found Kyojin’s departure documents to the US, and Ms Min urges her to find him so she can make him Kumjo’s Chairman as soon as possible.

Ms Min meets Hae-Soo at her office, and Hae-Soo confronts her about framing Do-Jin for the crimes he was arrested for. Hae-Soo sympathizes with Do-Jin, imagining how Ms Min must have treated him all this while.

Ms Min finds it funny that Hae-Soo has forgiven Do-Jin and still cares about him, considering what Kummo did to her father. She then tells Hae-Soo that she doesn’t feel guilty for siding with Do-Jin when he wanted to marry her. Hae-Soo tells Ms Min that at least she isn’t as desperate as she is since she has a family to care for, unlike her.

In prison, Kummo bribes a prison guard for a phone call, and he calls the prosecutor to give him the evidence he has been looking for. Meanwhile, at Mokeum Temple, Tae-Ra has set up a memorial stand for the victims, and she still is grieving her brother, Pilseung’s possible death. Then, she hears Jae-Hyun and Sung-Chan discussing how they’ll make Ms Min take the fall if they discover who ran the secret lab at Mokeum Temple. Remember Sung-Chan is still wearing the watch with the wiretap that Tae-Ra gave him.

Jae-Hyun gives Sung-Chan the footage of him causing Kyojin’s accident as agreed. Jae-Hyun tells Sung-Chan not to let Ms Min know Kyojin is dead, and Sung-Chan assures him they won’t since he fabricated travel documents to make it look like he fled to the US.

Hae-Soo goes to the police station and informs Do-Jin he will be investigated without detention, meaning he’s free. It turns out that when Kummo called the prosecution earlier, the evidence he gave was the remaining documents of the shell companies under his name, proving Do-Jin didn’t embezzle funds.

Do-Jin visits Kummo, and he expresses his anger towards Do-Jin for selling him out. Do-Jin asks him why he can’t own to his mistakes, and Kummo tells him what really happened. It turns out Ms Min was the one who actually gave Kummo the sapphire necklace that Director Seoun-dok received as payment and ordered him to kill Hae-Soo’s father since he was investigating Kumjo Group and Kumjo Group was built out of Ms Min’s father’s company.

Do-Jin refuses to believe his father and tells him all this was down to his decision anyway, and he leaves. Inside his car, Do-Jin can’t believe Ms Min is behind Hae-Soo’s pain and concludes he no longer has a mother.

Meanwhile, Ms Min is informed of Do-Jin’s release from police custody and isn’t happy about it. Eun tells her flight to New York is already booked, and she insists on staying behind to look for Kyojin.

At Jae-Hyun’s house, Tae-Ra, Jiu, and Jae-Hyun are watching Hae-Soo reading the news. Hae-Soo reports on the secret lab at Mokeum Temple and shows footage of Pilseung being experimented on. Hae-Soo also reports that Ms Min, who owns the temple, donated the space where the lab was built, suggesting Kumjo Group may be involved in the illegal human experiments done in the lab.

Just then, Ms Min shows up at Jae-Hyun’s house and confronts him about allowing Kumjo to be suspected of being involved in illegal human experiments. Jae-Hyun assures her he’ll take care of it, and she tells him Do-Jin was released, thanks to Kummo, so Kumjo Group’s ownership is at stake again. Ms Min tells Jae-Hyun that if Kumjo Group doesn’t end up as Kyojin’s, their deal is over.

Ms Min returns to her car, and Tae-Ra quickly gets in, shows Ms Min Kyojin’s burnt wallet, and tells her Kyojin was inside the lab when it exploded. She also tells her that Jae-Hyun fabricated Kyojin’s travel documents. Ms Min finds it hard to believe, but, Tae-Ra tells her she’ll soon find out whether or not she’s telling the truth.

Meanwhile, Sung-Chan and Jae-Hyun just realized records were stolen from the secret lab, judging from the video footage Hae-Soo showed during her news report of Pilseung being experimented on. Sung-Chan suggests that maybe Dr Yang is alive and leaked those records, but, Jae-Hyun is certain she didn’t because of her state when she wasn’t taking meds to deal with the microchip’s side effects.

Sung-Chan suggests it’s Kyojin who leaked them, and Jae-Hyun tells him no one new to the lab could have managed to get out of the lab the day it exploded. Jae-Hyun begins suspecting Sung-Chan and finally decides to order Yoo-Tae to kidnap Hae-Soo to stop her from exposing records of the lab in the news.

Fortunately, Do-Jin and his men arrive just in time before Yoo-Tae kidnaps Hae-Soo. Meanwhile, Jae-Hyun tries to call Yoo-Tae but doesn’t reach him. Tae-Ra asks Jae-Hyun to have a glass of wine with her. Little does he know Tae-Ra put something in his wine, and shortly after, he sleeps. Tae-Ra takes the opportunity to look for the video footage of Sung-Chan causing Kyojin’s accident. Knowing the type of person Jae-Hyun is, she knows he didn’t give Sung-Chan the original footage earlier.

In the meantime, Ms Min visits the memorial stand of the victims at Mokeum Temple. She remembers meeting Tae-Ra and confirming she hasn’t found Kyojin. Tae-Ra told her that Kyojin died, and she refused to believe it. Tae-Ra also showed Ms Min the video of Sung-Chan cutting the rope that caused Kyojin to fall to the bottom of the cliff on the day of his accident. She also told her that Jae-Hyun knew Sung-Chan had done it all this while. She also played her the recording of Jae-Hyun and Sung-Chan’s conversation when Jae-Hyun asked him to blow up the lab with everyone, including Kyojin, inside.

Ms Min then starts blaming Tae-Ra, telling her if Kyojin wasn’t involved, he wouldn’t have died. But, Tae-Ra told her she killed Kyojin because she allowed Jae-Hyun to build the lab at Mokeum Temple. Tae-Ra urged her to get rid of Jae-Hyun’s slush funds that he entrusted to her to avenge her son’s death.

Back to the present, Ms Min is with Jae-Hyun’s trust accounts ledger when Do-Jin comes in and takes it away from her. Do-Jin tells her he knows how she betrayed Kummo after ordering him to kill Hae-Soo’s father and tells her he will show her what becomes of those who work with Jae-Hyun.

It’s the day of Jae-Hyun’s inauguration, and he finally wakes up after Tae-Ra drugged him the previous night. He prepares to leave for the inauguration ceremony, and Jiu gives him a “best dad” badge he made for her. Tae-Ra tells him she will be late as she’s packing their things to move to the Blue House, the official presidential residence.

On his way, Yoo-Tae calls Jae-Hyun and lies to him that he’s keeping an eye on Hae-Soo and will inform if he notices anything fishy about her. However, Yoo-Tae and his men have been captured by Do-Jin and his men. Jae-Hyun finally arrives at the ceremony.

Elsewhere, Ms Min goes to Hatch to see Sung-Chan and finds him preparing to go to Jae-Hyun’s inauguration ceremony. She confronts him about causing Kyojin’s accident seven years ago. She asks if he lured Kyojin to Mokeum Temple to kill him and fabricated his travel documents to keep his death a secret. Sung-Chan starts mocking her about how he should have ensured he killed Kyojin the day of his accident seven years ago. He also asks if she has evidence that they killed Kyojin at the temple. Then, Ms Min stabs Sung-Chan with a piece of glass that was part of Sung-Chan’s desk label.

Ms Min goes to Jae-Hyun’s inauguration ceremony and goes to the “green room” and finds Jae-Hyun practising his inauguration speech. She plays him the recording of him telling Sung-Chan that she’ll take the fall for the research lab’s illegal human experiments. She starts confronting Jae-Hyun about killing Kyojin and tries to stab him, but, Jae-Hyun overpowers her, making her hit her head and become unconscious. Jae-Hyun ties her up and proceeds to the inauguration ceremony.

Hae-Soo, who’s among the reporters at the ceremony, starts asking Jae-Hyun if he owned the secret lab at Mokeum Temple and if he used his lab’s subjects’ names to open accounts to put his Hatch shares and put Ms Min in charge of the slush funds.

Jae-Hyun loses it and starts yelling that what Hae-Soo is accusing him of is a lie. Do-Jin walks in and sends everyone at the ceremony a video of Jae-Hyun using Pilseung as a subject for his illegal human experiment and torturing him. Do-Jin also announces that Jae-Hyun killed Red to prevent the side effects of Hatch’s smart patch from being exposed.

Jae-Hyun continues yelling and making a scene when Tae-Ra comes in and says she “believes” him and tells everyone there must be a misunderstanding. The police arrest Jae-Hyun for blowing up Mokeum Temple. Suddenly, the lights at the ceremony go off, and when they come back on Jae-Hyun and Tae-Ra have already taken off. Jae-Hyun kidnap Joon-Ho, who also happens to be at the ceremony, and he and Tae-Ra get in the car and drive off. Joon-Ho calls Hae-Soo and lets her know.

Meanwhile, Hae-Soo goes to the “green room” but doesn’t find Ms Min. Eun helped her escape, and she tells her Kyojin’s DNA was never found in Mokeum Temple after the explosion. Eun urges her to flee because the police are looking for her. Otherwise, she will never find or see Kyojin again.

Jae-Hyun and Tae-Ra are escaping, and Jae-Hyun tells her how they and Jiu will hide until everything settles. Jae-Hyun tells Tae-Ra that he only needs her trust right now. That is when Tae-Ra reveals to him that she never lost her memory and knows everything he has done. She then tells Jae-Hyun that he has successfully destroyed the Hong Tae-Ra he created. Police start following them, and Tae-Ra makes Jae-Hyun drives off the bridge, and they plunge into the river.

Jae-Hyun manages to swim to the shore with Tae-Ra and realizes she isn’t breathing. He sees a man approaching, and he loses consciousness. Jae-Hyun wakes up in the hospital, cuffed to the bed with police surrounding him. He asks about Tae-Ra, but the police don’t know anyone by that name. Jae-Hyun then sees Hae-Soo reporting on his arrest at the inauguration ceremony and says Jae-Hyun was the youngest, unmarried president-elect.

Jae-Hyun wonders why Hae-Soo said that and pleads with the police to take him back to his house. He goes around and sees no sign that he ever had a family. The episode ends with Jae-Hyun yelling for Tae-Ra to come back.

The Episode Review

This episode gave us the satisfaction we were looking for. Sung-Chan and Jae-Hyun have paid for their crimes while Eun told Ms Min there is a possibility Kyojin is alive. Does this mean Pilseung and Dr Yang may still be alive? Now we know who Ms Min really is, as we see that she’s the one who forced Kummo to order Hae-Soo’s father to be killed. However, she kind of got what she deserved.

Jae-Hyun goes home and finds no sign that he has a family. What is really happening? Is this the end for him? We’ll find out in the final episode.