Recap Korean Drama "Bad Prosecutor" Episode 11-12 (Final Episode)

After the heartbreaking ending last week, we get no time to breathe and dive straight into what happened between Chairman Seo and Jae-kyung. Once Jae-kyung calls out Chairman Seo, the latter surprisingly gets on his hands and knees, begging to be forgiven but mostly to be let off the hook. In exchange for the MP3 player, Jae-kyung insists on getting a written promise that Chairman Seo will leave Jung alone.

While it seems he’ll give in, Chairman Seo isn’t giving up that easily. Using a small sculpture of Lady Justice, he smashes Jae-kyung’s head in before promptly grabbing the MP3 player. Chairman Seo leaves the clean up to a shaken Do-hwan, who sees a photo of Jae-kyung and his family, further battering his conscience.

Fast forward to the arrival of Jung, who insists that Jae-kyung isn’t dead, so the paramedics should remove the cloth over his body. Bring him to the hospital! He’s going to wake up! Wake up, Jae-kyung! He just got this new father figure, so why?!

Because Jae-kyung doesn’t have any family left, Ah-ra gives Jung the striped armband. He’s the only one who can be the chief mourner for the funeral. Oh no, that breaks my heart even more.

In his office, Do-hwan is ridden with guilt. But he doesn’t have time to wallow in his conscience, because Chairman Seo quickly calls for him, praising him for doing a good job, while also subtly threatening him for being an accomplice to a crime. Oh no. What will win: Do-hwan’s conscience or fear?

 

At Jae-kyung’s funeral, Jung and Chairman Seo go through the motions of the funeral rites. But once that’s over, Jung is done being polite, promising the chairman: “I will never forgive you. So never regret what you did or ask for forgiveness. Don’t get caught without my permission. I’ll find you and kill you.”

After the funeral, Jung heads straight to the Civil Affairs Division office. Rummaging around for evidence he can use, he notices the sculpture missing and figures that he just found the murder weapon!

He calls someone, and immediately elsewhere, a mysterious hooded figure walks through a train station and places an inconspicuous paper bag inside a rented locker. Then we see Jung rushing down to the locker and opening it to find the paper bag — and the murder weapon. Seems like Do-hwan’s conscience won out then!

Or at least, I hope that’s him. Because also observing him from afar is Do-hwan, who reports back to Chairman Seo. Do-hwan suggests someone from the cleanup crew gave the murder weapon to Jung. Is Do-hwan double-crossing both sides? Hmm…

 

Now that they have the murder weapon, Jung and Ah-ra are able to confirm that fingerprints and the blood match that of Chairman Seo and Jae-kyung respectively, further solidifying the evidence. But of course, Jung wouldn’t be Jung if he doesn’t try to rush into a (literal) fight.

Jung storms into the Kangsan Law Firm office, tracks down Ji-han, and threatens him using violence, in search of Chairman Seo. Ji-han further provokes Jung, who beats him up enough to break his nose. For his rash actions, Jung gets suspended from the prosecution.

That doesn’t stop his investigation though. Jung turns to someone who used to be Chairman Seo’s closest ally — Tae-ho — believing he has information they can use to take down the chairman. But Tae-ho blames Jung and his stubbornness for Jae-kyung’s death. While he admits he ignored many orders, Jung gives a pretty speech about the duties of a prosecutor (which probably would’ve moved me more if he didn’t commit crimes left and right).

No matter, because it worked on Tae-ho. He shares the secret to Chairman Seo’s success and power over everyone. Apparently, the chairman has a vast archive of all the evidence he covered up for his powerful clients, which he uses as a leash to blackmail all of them into doing his bidding.

Unfortunately, Tae-ho doesn’t know where it is. It’s one of the chairman’s closely guarded secrets, which only his son probably knows.

After setting up a meeting about the new evidence, Chairman Seo tells Jung that he’s too good-hearted to a fault that it makes him vulnerable. Case in point: the chairman can use Ah-ra, Chul-gi, Eun-ji, and Joong-do against Jung, and he’ll falter. So Chairman Seo offers him an alternative: forget about their grudges so his friends can be safe. He even offers a way back into the prosecution’s criminal division or a position as his lackey. Of course, Jung refuses, promising to bring down the chairman and save his friends. He’s gotten this far after all.

But it’s not just Chairman Seo who has a grudge against Jung. His son Ji-han wants revenge for all the punches, essentially kidnapping Jung to beat him up and kill him. While Ji-han roughs Jung up, the chairman destroys the murder weapon evidence.

Chairman Seo also offers Jung another chance, but he staunchly refuses. Jung credits his father for his stubborn commitment to justice: “He always told me: ‘Immorality can’t beat justice.’”

The chairman rebuts that it’s justice, not evil, that people need to be scared of. “Do you know when people get cruelest? When they believe that they are just.” It’s interesting because that actually sums up Jung’s methods as a prosecutor. He doesn’t hesitate to use violence when he believes he’s doing it in the pursuit of justice. For him, when it comes to delivering justice, the end justifies the means. And that’s what makes him reckless and dangerous — and a “bad” prosecutor.

After being held up by the authorities for so long, Ah-ra and the others become worried when Jung remains unreachable. Good thing Eun-ji installed a couple’s location sharing app in his phone (she’s getting ahead of herself with her crush, lol). This allows them to track him down, arriving just before Ji-han is about to smash Jung’s skull with a hammer. A fight ensues, with the crew winning, of course.

 

As Ji-han tries to run away, Jung chases him down. Without his goons, Ji-han turns into a coward, begging for forgiveness. He wakes up in the hospital, handcuffed to the bed. The chaebol heir is surprised to hear he’s been unconscious for a week and his father has been arrested. It’s even on the news! Jung tells Ji-han his father sold him out, blaming everything on his son just to get away scot-free. Scared, Ji-han confesses to the very first murder, but denies everything else.

Jung tells him that even if Ji-han denies it, all evidence points to him. The only thing he can do now is try to escape. The prosecutor offers him a ticket out of the country — only if he gives Jung the exact location of his father’s archive. Feeling like he’s left with no other choice, Ji-han gives up.

But it turns out, it has only been a day since their altercation. All of that is part of an elaborate plan concocted by Jung to get the archive’s location. Smart guy! If a little over the top, lol.

Jung immediately heads to the archive. He finds the hidden door that leads inside, finding shelves of evidence that can put the nail in Chairman Seo’s proverbial coffin.

But the old man guarding the bookshop has already alerted the chairman of Jung’s arrival. Chairman Seo rushes to confront Jung, and upon arrival, he orders Do-hwan to kill Jung with the gun he provided. Confident that his lackey won’t betray him due to being accomplices, the chairman seems surprised when Do-hwan turns the gun on him instead of Jung. Do-hwan is Jung’s hidden card!

However, Chairman Seo is one step ahead of them, because the gun he gave Do-hwan is empty. The chairman holds the gun with bullets, and he has goons hiding around the room.

Outnumbered, Jung and Do-hwan are knocked out. Upon waking up, the two find themselves tied together inside an empty pool slowly being filled with water. But they’re able to break free, fighting off the goons together.

After escaping, Jung meets with Ah-ra, Chul-gi, Eun-ji, and Joong-do, informing them that he has secured evidence that can get them a search and seizure warrant for the archive: it’s the analysis report on the so-called “accident” of Jae-kyung’s family.

Believing the chairman will move his archive to a new location soon, Ah-ra works double time to secure the warrant. But they’re too late; it’s already empty. Jung and Ah-ra intercepts the transport truck — also empty. Again, it seems the chairman is one step ahead, preparing two trucks, identical down to the plate number.

But Jung has also expected this, sending Joong-do in to ~infiltrate~ the truck in advance while he follows using the couple’s location sharing app. Poor Joong-do is curled up inside a box, unable to move around, and he’s immediately caught once they arrive.

While Jung fights off all the goons, one of the minions douses all the evidence in gasoline and throws a lighter into it. But someone catches the lighter and saves everything from imminent burning — thanks Do-hwan!

The next day, Jung finds Chairman Seo to arrest him. The chairman says he can’t use evidence that was acquired without a warrant. But working around that law, Jung has made one of his minions to blow the whistle on Chairman Seo — under threat, of course.

With Chairman Seo’s blackmail material gone, most people are turning their backs on him. Jung is reinstated into the Criminal Division and is even put in charge of the case against the chairman. We finally see Jin Jung in court wearing those prosecutor robes! Finally! It just took us the whole drama lol.

 

Meanwhile, Chairman Seo doesn’t have a lawyer, representing himself and denying all charges. Tae-ho and Secretary Tae are brought in as witnesses, both confessing and pointing to Chairman Seo as the mastermind. But the chairman didn’t get to where he is without being sly. He knows the right way to phrase his statements to discredit all the testimonies against him..

Confident that he’s winning, Chairman Seo tells Jung that there are no other witnesses he can bring to stand to build a case against him. If Jung is planning to bring in Do-hwan, Chairman Seo can just as easily tear him down.

But no, to the chairman’s utter shock — and everyone else in the court — the real hidden card is Jae-kyung! He’s alive! Blessed day!

Apparently, during the murder scene cleanup, Do-hwan has seen signs of life from Jae-kyung, prompting him to call Jung. That’s when their partnership started. And they even have another hidden card: the sculpture Chairman Seo used against Jae-kyung. The one Chairman Seo destroyed is a dupe.

 

Flustered by this new turn of events, Chairman Seo isn’t able to defend himself. Delivering his final statement, Prosecutor Jin Jung demands that the defendant be indicted to the full extent of the law, i.e. the death sentence. Hooray! A win for the good guys and our bad prosecutor!

With his first (serious) case officially closed, Jung is excited to get back to work… but he’s reassigned to the Civil Affairs Division? Again? Apparently, because he can run wild under Jae-kyung’s supervision. “We’re more open to rule-bending than the Criminal Division,” he jokes. You don’t say.

The series closes in a setup mirroring the opening scene: our bad prosecutor going after the criminals in his usual, not-so-legal methods, while Ah-ra attempts to rein him in via call. This time, just in a better version of the prosecution office.

In a mid-credit scene, we see Chairman Seo talking to someone on the phone, demanding they should get him out of prison. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t have the same power as he did before, as a certain Chairman Park orders him to stay put and quiet, while Prosecutor Jin Jung is being dealt with. Oooh, interesting. Sounds like a second season is possible, then?

From Do-hwan’s double agent act to the accident of Jung’s dad, I’m glad we got firm closure on most loose ends. Unfortunately, the show isn’t something I’d go back to. It took a while to pick up its pace, so if I was simply watching it on my own, I might’ve dropped it in the first half. The parts that made the show more fun and engaging came in the latter half, e.g. Jung and Chairman Seo outmaneuvering each other, and Do-hwan’s redemption arc. Even so, it’s been a wild ride. So long to our bad prosecutor!