Recap Korean Drama "Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area (2022) " Episode 5

Episode 5 of Money Heist: Korea starts with our focus shifting once more, this time to Inspector Woojin. She’s fighting a battle on two fronts – the first involving the Mint and the other with her personal life.

Her partner, Kim Sangman, happens to be running for Presidency, which puts him in a very powerful position whilst trying to gain custody of his child. He also spins the story to reporters that Woojin lied in court.

If that wasn’t enough, her mother is sick and in need of help. She’s getting old now and Woojin has had to bear all of this, struggling to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Back outside the Mint, Captain Cha learns that Park Chulwoo (the mole inside the Mint) has sent a coded message confirming that he’s inside. The thing is, Cha’s superiors believe that Woojin is actually a traitor, wanting him to keep this a secret from her and pressing forward with Chulwoo finishing this operation quickly.

With the summit coming up, the authorities can’t just oust Woojin or confront her as that could compromise their whole operation. It’s a nice twist to the story, something that definitely continues the thread of North and South Korean hostility in the context of this remake.

Meanwhile, the hostages applaud and cheer as Misun is brought back into the group again, safe and sound. Nairobi decides to take a slightly different tact this time compared to Berlin. She admits to them all she doesn’t want to hurt anyone and intends to build a cooperative relationship with them all.

After resting for a few hours, they intend to start working again. With Tokyo now the leader, our dear old Mint Director watches this and tries to find an advantage.

Outside the Mint, tensions are still high between Woojin and Cha. The latter believes his colleague is in collusion with the attackers. It’s also not helped that she refuses to bring up Anne while communicating with the Professor. The Chief is annoyed but Woojin explains her actions, pointing out that they need to be careful. They’ve already had two plans fail already, there’s no point in making it a third.

Woojin figures out that the Professor is actually outside the Mint, not inside, given he told her he’s eating a sandwich for lunch. She also suspects that he’s nearby, watching them. Although they can’t abandon everything, Woojin uses a handful of officers to track down the Professor and his car.

Inside the Mint, our rogue officer finds Misun and asks about the Professor. She admits she’s heard of him but doesn’t know much else other than that.

Youngmin shows up though, kicking and screaming, claiming that Misun is cheating on him. Anyway, when he eventually kicks the door in, Chulwoo admits he’s a police officer and hides in one of the stalls, evading a suspicious Helsinki who shows up to check what’s happening.

Chulwoo’s plan here is to kill the Professor and then start another operation to get everyone out when things turns chaotic. In order to find out who this is, Youngmin decides they should bring “the dumb one” (Denver) in and beat him into submission. Misun is not so sure this is a good idea, given he saved her life.

Still, Denver falls for the ruse, courtesy of a note given to him to meet in a storage room. Whilst there, he’s knocked out by Chulwoo and Youngmin. Together, they demand to know where the Professor is, but he refuses to play ball. Instead, the Mint Director comes to the conclusion that it’s actually Tokyo who’s pulling the strings and in charge.

News of this reaches Cha, who decides to start the next phase of his operation. Chulwoo sets off the alarms as everyone outside gets into position. This is the signal, as they intend to launch an offensive inside the Mint and take the place by storm.

At the same time, Woojin and the others race to the scrapyard to find the Professor’s car, which could well have DNA all over it. However, the Professor gets there first. As police sirens wail in the distance, the Professor scrambles through the dealership, finding the car and immediately driving it out onto the roads.

Meanwhile, Rio heads off to check on Berlin, who chokes him out and leaves him unconscious, managing to break free from his binds in the process.

Misun finds Denver being tortured by Youngmin and immediately knocks out the Director. The pair scramble to find Tokyo, who’s organizing traffic with the rest of the hostages. As she tasks all the hostages to be moved to the main atrium, they’re also going to stop printing money for the time being.

Tokyo heads off on her own, but Chulwoo happens to be hunting her. Just before he fires on Tokyo, Denver bursts into the room, screaming that they’ve got the wrong guy.

A gunshot sounds, we cut to outside, as Cha receives a call from Chulwoo. He tells his superior the truth – that the Professor is outside the Mint – and goes silent. It would appear as if he’s been shot.

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The Episode Review

The penultimate episode to this first part really starts to tighten the screw and show some different elements to this Korean version of La Casa De Papel.

The various character ties are interesting and unique, whilst the infiltration from Chulwoo, coupled with the elements outside the Mint, add a slightly different flavour to proceedings. The core ingredients are still the same though, for the most part, and one would deduce that Berlin is going to take back control going forward – especially if the beats of the original are being followed.

Either way though, Money Heist: Korea has been a super enjoyable watch and the ending definitely hints that we’ve got plenty of drama to come in this final part.

Thankfully there’s another 6 episodes coming later on this year but whether this will match up to the excellent work done by its predecessor, remains to be seen.