Recap "Again My Life" Episode 5 with Lee Joon Ki

Episode 5 of Again My Life starts with protests outside Mirae Motors. It’s a company that’s about to be sold to foreign investors thanks to its restructuring. Right now, there’s nothing Hui-Wu can do about this.

While he travels on the bus away from the area, Tae-Seob continues to make moves to climb the Blue House ladder to the top. Part of this comes from stopping the merger, joining hands with a fellow politician in a bid to aim for the Presidential elections. When Hee-Woo finds out, he realizes this is different to his own timeline and it’s something that’s going to make his job that much harder to do.

Hui-Wu’s first job as a prosecutor revolves around a man named Mr Park. He’s taken to a crime scene and told to re-enact a brutal stabbing he allegedly committed. Hands shaking, the man drops to his knees and pleads with the police, telling them he didn’t do it.

His son, Park Sang-Man is distraught as his father is taken away. The case itself goes on for a long time but Hui-Wu convinces Sang-Man to keep his head down and work hard. Hui-Wu is going to try and help prove his innocence but that’s going to take a long time. Not wanting Sang-Man to go through 10 years of hell, Hui-Wu speeds things up, obtaining the evidence himself.

Despite everything pointing to Mr Park being the culprit, the clothes he wore that day don’t have any bloodstains on them. This would point to a big hole in the police’s investigation, which Hui-Wu confirms when he brings the man’s clothes to Prosecutor Jang.

Hui-Wu also throws shade on Hong In-Pyo’s wife. She’s constantly been talking about killing her husband and now they have proof to confirm it. She killed him that night, in a bid to try and get rich as she was having an affair with another man. He’s the one who actually spilled the truth to the police, something helped by Hui-Wu encouraging Jang to bring him in for questioning.

In-Pyo’s wife saw a good opportunity to frame Mr Park, having earlier witnessed him confronting In-Pyo. He goaded Park to stab him but Mr Park walked away instead, dropping the knife on the floor. This allowed his wife to jump in and take full advantage of this. Thankfully, she’s arrested.

Prosecutor Jang is a little suspicious of Hui-Wu’s perfect methods, given he managed to predict all of this perfectly and help give his career a jolt. Still, he’s snapped out of this by Kim Seok-Hoon, who greets him in the hallway and confirms that there are great expectations on him now.

With the case wrapped up and Sang-Min able to spend more time with his family now, Hui-Wu heads off to wish Han-Mi good luck before her exams. After, she brings the results to Hui-Wu and it turns out she’s passed. It’s worth pointing out here that Sang-Man has also passed too.

Han-Mi applies for university and manages to get in. Unfortunately Seok-Hoon rings and tells her she can only go to a women’s college for English. Han-Mi though, wants to do journalism.

That night, Hui-Wu’s parents bring him the sobering news that he’s been drafted into the military. Of course, this is compulsory in Korea but for Hui-Wu, this is technically the second time he needs to do this. What a bummer. Hui-Wu heads back to see Woo Yong-Soo and tasks him with handling his money while he’s gone.

On the eve of him leaving, Hui-Wu reflects on how he’s been changing everyone’s lives; all the people closest to him have seen their lives made better. Even Tae-Seob’s is changing too, which makes for an enticing match up between the pair.

After saying goodbye to everyone (and all the girls in his life!) we cut forward 7 years later. Hui-Wu has completed his military training, finished studying and passed the bar exam to become the top rated prosecutor. They’ve never seen anyone complete this so fast. Hui-Wu is finally back.

Instead of Seoul though, Hui-Wu decides to work in Gangwon Providence at the Gangwon District Prosecutors’ Office. He tasks his colleague with bringing up all the criminal cases from the last six months. His target are the Yuchae Gang, who run a few of the entertainment venues in town. They’re also well-known as the neighbourhood gangsters too. The thing is, all the cases relating to this gang have come back as inconclusive, which points toward corruption in the police.

Park Sang-Man has been working with “Elder”, Woo Yong-Soo, who Hui-Wu tasked with looking after him while he’s gone. The pair have quite the bond, despite his rudeness to the old man. It’s only temporary though, as Hui-Wu brings Sang-Man with him as they head in to visit the gang. They’re running their own illegal gambling run, taking place in the seedy underbelly of these venues.

Hui-Wu shows up with a whole load of money ready to gamble but he loses every time. He decides to stake all of his money on seven but tries to call out the bluff of the teller, changing from six to eight…and then back to six again. So what numbers do the dice finish on? It was seven after all. It would seem that Hui-Wu lost on purpose and it’s all part of his master plan.

The teller, Do Ah-Jin,  meets Hui-Wu the following day, courtesy of a number and a note reading “I have something to say.” While together, Hui-Wu wants her to give information on the Yuchae gang and believes they should work together in order to wipe them out. Unfortunately the police aren’t going to help, leaving Hui-Wu alone to tackle the gang himself.

Sang-Man shuts off the lights, allowing Hui-Wu to gain the advantage… at least temporarily. When he shows up at the billiards hall, he ends up fighting with them all, managing to gain the advantage and take the goons out, one at a time. Sang-Man and Investigator Oh are shocked, but thanks to Ah-Jin’s intel, Hui-Wu even manages to gain the ledgers and documents needed to incriminate all of the gang.

However, Lee Yeon-Seok, a prominent member of the gang, shows up and begins fighting with Hui-Wu. Hui-Wu knows that if he’s left behind he’ll become the most prominent fist in the country. He refuses to leave him to that fate so he gives him a stiff kick to the face and decides to recruit him as Sang-Man’s security instead, playing on their side this time.

As the episode closes out, the head prosecutor comes storming into the room, marches up to Hui-Wu…and slaps him in the face.

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The Episode Review

Again My Life was always going to have a time-jump and this much is especially clear as we jump forward seven years. The first part of the episode essentially works to show that the more Hui-Wu progresses with his life and gaining in power and strength, so too is Tae-Seob, as these two are on parallel lines ready to absolutely decimate each other later on in the show.

This time around, the series adds some well choreographed fighting and a lot of intriguing developments to the fold. After the seven years have passed, we focus more exclusively on the drama involving Hui-Wu’s career and this case involving the gang.

Seeing Hui-Wu start to build his influence, with more people by his side like Sang-Man and “elder” is a nice touch and hopefully that continues throughout the episode. I’d imagine he’s going to need a whole team to fight against Tae-Seob and that sets up quite the showdown to come!