Recap Korean Drama "Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area (2022) " Episode 3

Jun 24, 2022

Episode 3 of Money Heist: Korea switches things up and allows us to take a look at Moscow’s history. He’s picked up outside a correctional facility by the Professor. Moscow is all-in on the operation but on one condition – Denver joins them.

Now, Moscow and Denver have been tight since their days on the run together in South Korea. He promises to make his father lots of money no matter what.

Fast forward to the present and Tokyo bursts into the bathroom, where she finds Misun dead on the floor, lying in a pool of her own blood. Tokyo is not particularly happy with the outcome here, while Berlin is completely nonchalant to the whole affair. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.” he says. Just before Berlin leaves, he tasks Denver with “taking care” of the body.

Berlin’s actions cause ripples among the team as they remain conflicted over whether this is the right cause of action or not.

When Tokyo leaves, heading down to the basement, she notices Misun alive but wounded. It turns out Denver shot her in the leg and she played dead to avoid any suspicions. Tokyo warns Denver that if Berlin finds out, it could cause serious problems.

Tokyo agrees to keep this a secret, but in return, decide to organize a coup. They’re going to remove Berlin as the head of this group and dispatch Helsinki and Oslo in the process.

Now, part of the Professor’s plan actually involves the hostages digging a fake tunnel out of the building. It turns out the real one is being drilled by Denver in a separate area, intending to throw the police off their scent.

Speaking of hostages, a group of them air their dissent and turn on the Mint Director. They point out how selfish he is, promising to make him pay for his actions if another hostage is put in danger.

When Oslo heads down to the basement, Denver stops him and the pair end up fighting in the stairwell. Eventually Denver knocks out the big guy, while Misun attempts (and fails) to hide from Helsinki. However, Tokyo arrives with a gun of her own, and manages to stop him.

Outside the Mint. the police intensify their search, doing some research and looking into CCTV footage from the area. This, coupled with a few pictures captured from the now-destroyed smart watch, allow them to get a lead. It’s Rio. They do some research and learn he’s a hacker, which is why he’s been so difficult to track.

While Tokyo enacts her coup inside the Mint, the Professor attempts to communicate with Woojin, claiming that Mina, her daughter, is in trouble. In reality, she’s been picked up by her ex-husband, whom she’s currently fighting against for custody of their child.

When the Professor bursts into the taskforce tent to let her know, it’s immediately clear that this was orchestrated by the Professor himself. Not only does he figure out who the North Korean captain is in charge, he also notices the files against Rio too.

When the Professor returns home, he manages to communicate with Berlin inside and learns about Misun being shot dead (well, shot but still alive anyway!) However, news of Rio’s face being leaked is revealed too. With the whole group spiraling out of control, things are intensified when Moscow learns that Denver shot Misun. If you’ll remember, he was off drilling the real hole they’d be escaping from.

Moscow is shocked at his son’s actions and in his dumbfounded state, heads out to the main entrance. When the doors open, he intends to surrender himself peacefully and reduce their sentence. Denver follows his father, tackling him to the floor and questioning just what he’s doing. Denver admits he didn’t kill Misun.

Unfortunately in this commotion, Woojin deduces that they’re both suspects. Berlin realizes the police could figure this out and enacts a plan of his own to throw the police off their scent.

Berlin grabs a handful of hostages to use, heading outside with guns drawn. However, the Mint Director is among those in attendance. Youngmin turns on them all though, preparing to fire. Of course, given they’re all in masks and identical outfits, Tokyo decides they should throw their hands up and make it look like the Mint Director the aggressor.

It seems to work too, and Woojin gives the greenlight for them to fire on Youngmin.

The Episode Review

The third episode of Money Heist sees things progress nicely, changing the story ever-so-slightly to keep the narrative unpredictable. The general plot beats are almost identical to the Spanish version though but this time we get a lot more emphasis on the drama involving Berlin and the other attackers.

Tokyo is much less of a focal point this time around too, with most of the characters taking it in turns to revel in the spotlight – although Berlin is still very much as charismatic and crazed as he was in the Spanish version.

Whether Youngmin is actually dead or not remains to be seen but so far this has been a good remake, with enough to whet the appetite as we move into the final 3 episodes of this series.