Recap Korean Drama "Café Minamdang" Episode 15

Cafe Minamdang episode 15 starts off with Seung-won and the team getting very embarrassed at how their grand ceremony is going. Before he can get Han-jun and Su-cheol arrested, though, Jae-hui and her team get there to arrest everyone. Pandemonium ensues as everyone starts to fight with everyone, and Auntie Im slips out in the chaos.

 

She doesn’t get very far, and Jae-hui gets her before she can slip away. The same happens to the ministers and Seung-won, who all get apprehended as they try to slip away. I mean, there’s only so much you can run away from when you rape minors. Anyway, Han-jun and Jae-hui, unfortunately, have to go on another hunt when they find out that Im has slipped away in spite of handcuffing her to a ladder.

Still From Cafe Minamdang Episode 15

 

All the accused start getting interrogated, and although everyone else has good proof against them, Seung-won is turning out to be one slippery fish! Plus, the land development project has now been cancelled; Seung-won isn’t going to take this lightly. He eventually does get out because of insufficient evidence, much to everyone’s dismay, and he looks absolutely annoyed.

Outside the police precinct, Do-won threatens an extremely angry Seung-won that he will get him for all of his crimes, including the one from 20 years ago. Even though everyone forgot about it, he still hasn’t. Plus, he promises not to let Seung-won become the chairman of Choekang. Funnily enough, later on, Seung-won discovers that the money that he has been secretly storing away through Im is nowhere to be found!

And, as if the news can’t get any worse – the shareholders decide to push the voting back until Seung-won’s name is cleared. Thus, they won’t choose the chairman at the next shareholder’s meeting. An angry Seung-won stabs his secretary in anger and asks him about Han-jun and Do-won and how much they might know – he isn’t going to just let this slide.

Still From Cafe Minamdang Episode 15

That night, two masked men get into Minamdang without anyone’s notice and the next morning, Han-jun finds his sister missing from home. Well, at first, he finds an effigy of Hye-jun hanging from her room which they (and we) think to be the real Hye-jun. It’s a horrifying few seconds before Han-jun discovers that it’s not real. Anyway, when Hye-jun and Su-cheol come back home,

 

Han-jun, instead of being angry about finding his sister dating his best friend, is overcome with relief after seeing her safe. Later on, he gives them his blessing to date, but they can only kiss and hold hands, so there’s that.

Anyway, after the excitement of the morning, the family sits down to discuss Seung-won’s family, which is apparently full of secrets and rumours – animals dying, nightly exorcisms, and the son suddenly going off to America as if to run away from something. The answer lies with Do-won, who, again, is back with a brown envelope with conveniently useful information at the most opportune moment.

Anyway, the story is that Seung-won murdered his friend one day, which Do-won witnessed. And although the death was termed a suicide, Seung-won was sent abroad to get away from the mess. The team decides to prove the murder in order to get Seung-won and Do-won proposes that he and Han-jun use their skills together in such a difficult scenario.

 

At Do-won’s place later, he tries to think back on what happened the night Seung-won’s friend was murdered – after a panic attack thanks to the trauma, he is able to remember that the tie that Hyeon-u was being strangled with broke as he dropped his glass of water. Unfortunately, he isn’t able to remember much more. They decide to rather talk to someone who knows about the incident.

Still From Cafe Minamdang Episode 15

 

Meanwhile, Du-jin finds the evidence to arrest Im, Tae-su and Myeong-jun, while Han-jun puts on a show for their surprise witness – Myeong-su. The latter is scared witless thanks to Han-jun’s threats that Hyeon-u is still alive. As Myeong-su sobs and apologises to the ghost of his slain friend, he reveals that Seung-won had threatened him to keep quiet and that he didn’t murder him.

He also mentions that Hyeon-u was alive when they left him at the garage since they went to the club afterwards and that his counsellor saw them outside – he remembers this because Seung-won beat up his counsellor on the side of the road. With a new link to figure out, Han-jun tells Hye-jun to find out the names of Seung-won’s tutors when he was in grade 12.

Meanwhile, Hye-jun, Na-dan and Su-cheol are able to tap Seung-won’s car and get to know that Myeong-su has told him about the little interrogation and that Seung-won is asking his men to keep an eye on Han-jun. Surprisingly, Seung-won goes to a mental health clinic to see his psychiatrist but therapy is clearly not going too well for him. Meanwhile, Do-won finds Jung Hye-yoon and a flood of memories come rushing back.

 

Cafe Minamdang Episode 15 Ending

Still From Cafe Minamdang Episode 15

The next day, after getting to know about Hye-yoon, Han-jun and Jae-hui go off to meet her and ask her about Hyeon-u’s murder 20 years ago. Hye-yoon gets shifty with her answers the moment she gets to know the reason for their visit, and as she goes to get her diary, she gets attacked by Gopuri, who is none other than Cha Do-won!

 

As it turns out, Do-won is not all there, and that night, 20 years ago, he was the one who killed Hyeon-u. And 20 years later, he tries to strangle an incapacitated Hye-yoon.

In the epilogue, Do-won and Tae-su find their target to exact judgement – Lim Geun-sik and, eventually, Jae-jeong. The latter found out that Jae-jeong got to know about him, and that’s why he killed him. In a twist of fate, Han-jun had seen Do-won that day when his friend died and had passed him in the hall but still couldn’t recognize him.

Cafe Minamdang Episode 15 Review

Still From Cafe Minamdang Episode 15

 

Guys, what did we just watch? Cafe Minamdang has been going consistently for the last few episodes, with no major twists and us simply waiting for justice to be served. We were sure Seung-won and Im were behind it all; we were prepared for the bad guy to go to prison.

However, were we ready for Do-won to be Gopuri? As the yellow tarot cards say, and they never lie, Cha Do-won is Gopuri, he really is – but baby-faced Do-won seems like an impossible suspect, and that’s why the shock is simply so much.

My question is, why did he have such a visceral reaction at his home? He and Tae-su have been murdering people since day one in a twisted idea of judgement, but why did he have a panic attack? How has a brilliant profiler such as Han-jun not figured this out yet? I have so many questions, and for once, I am glad that we still have 3 more episodes to see this through.

That ending has me reeling; plus that false Hye-jun hanging – that was so shocking I almost lost my mind. I genuinely thought that the masked men murdered the protagonist’s sister, and I was ready to throw hands but thank god that is not the case. That would’ve been such a shock otherwise!

The twist at the end has pushed this rather average episode up a notch – but now the ball is in Cafe Minamdang’s court. It’s caught the audience’s attention; the real test is to make the story believable and engaging.