Recap Korean Drama "Big Bet Season 1" Episode 1

In 2015, Jung-pal escorts Cha Moo-sik to a restaurant and the latter heads inside with his bodyguards. The eerie ambiance escalates as the server calls someone surreptitiously as soon as he sees him sitting at a table. While he watches the man make a move, Moo-sik receives a text from ‘Joe NBI’, probably an insider on the police force, telling him that it’s a trap.

He gets the hint and gets up to rush out but is soon ambushed by the police squad, and even his bodyguards have to give up. The NBI team leader cuffs and arrests him for the murder of Min Seok-jun. A press conference is arranged at the Bureau of Immigration, where reporters ask Moo-sik his reasons for killing his close acquaintance. In the meanwhile, he keeps his silence, and questions related to him murdering others also arise.

A still from the episode.

Moo-sik then spins the clocks back to 1972 Yangsan and narrates the destitute conditions his family prevailed in during his childhood. In order to cut the cost of living, he was abandoned by his mother at a day-care centre with the promise that she’ll be back for him very soon. However, that doesn’t happen and Moo-sik has to face even worse conditions at the orphanage.

He bands together with a young friend found at the daycare and with the meagre resources available at hand, they embark on various escapades to make do with what they have and improve their situation.

Finally, the fortunate day arrives and Moo-sik’s mother comes back for him. Their circumstances are still way off, and both he and his mother have to struggle to earn the bare minimum. While he and his mother got along well, his father was a gangster well-known as the General in the Gyeongsang Province, and would keep going in and out of the prison.

A still from the episode.

One day, his teacher summons his mother, and his father steps up and visits the school instead. She tells him about Moo-sik falling behind everyone else in the fourth grade, owing to the probability of him having skipped his classes during the previous grades. Since he doesn’t even know how to read and write Korean, his teachers suggests that his parents teach him to do the same at home in order to catch up with his fellows at school.

His father puts in the effort to teach Moo-sik how to read, while also initiating gatherings for gambling discreetly. And, just like that Moo-sik not only grew closer to his father, but also started enjoying his study sessions with him. However, his father couldn’t distance himself from his old habits and beat up some of his guests and was again taken in as a prisoner.

Thereafter, Moo-sik and his mother went to Daejeon, a step closer to his father’s prison. He was surprised to notice that despite his father treating his mother badly, she never departed and kept taking care of him while he was in prison. Looking for yet another opportunity, his mother starts working at an old lady’s restaurant in exchange for a room to stay.

A still from the episode.

Eventually, Moo-sik spots his old friend Yonghyun, from the orphanage, selling newspapers, and he joins in too with the promise of selling every single one of the 100 copies he’s taken on as his responsibility. He devises a scheme to earn more with every copy he sells by charging a bit higher. Back at the shop, the manager beats up the other kids for not having earned their daily quota, but Moo-sik and his friend return with their pockets jingling with coins.

Big Bet Episode 1 Ending

It’s already 2000 and both Moo-sik and Yong-hyun are all grown up. The former has even opened up his own ‘Cha English Academy’. Chi-young, now working in the IT sector, approaches him with a new opportunity. Together, they all visit Mang-chi, who’s opened up the first South Korean casino bar in Busan, which is officially a bar selling alcohol but since the games inside ‘don’t involve’ the money in-take, they’re carrying on with the casino bar outlook.

A still from the episode.

Moo-sik tries his hand at the game being played – Baccarat, and is instantly hooked to it and can’t have enough of it. He wins vouchers for alcohol worth 1.9 million won, and Many-chi exchanges it with a dealer for money, with the house charging a mere 10% percent fee on the amount. Since the exchange for money isn’t direct, Mang-chi deems it completely legal, with the house always being on the winning end of things.

After seeing how it all goes down, Moo-sik is in awe of everything and is willing to join hands with Chi-young, and asks him to get the dealers ready. With Sang-chul’s help, he locates a bar not faring well in the economy. He approaches the owner with an offer she can’t turn down. Soon enough, the place is cleaned out and Moo-sik starts developing the place into a casino bar while Chi-young gets in touch with twelve dealers.

Big Bet Episode 1 Review

The first episode of the series merely lays down the puzzle pieces and introduces us to the characters. Not enough light is shed on the people brought into the mix, and the spotlight is completely on Moo-sik and his past as the clock turns back to give us enough details on what led him to the present day.

A still from the episode.

The visual quality of the episode is striking and applause-worthy, but as far as the setting of the background context is concerned, the episode speeds through the history, barely giving us any insight into the people.

This ends up becoming a problem eventually, as, by the end of the episode, you may not be able to connect ties between the characters and be even more puzzled than before in terms of identifying who plays which role. Nevertheless, it’s just the beginning, and I’m keeping my hopes up while awaiting Son Seok-koo’s eventual entry.