Recap Korean Drama "Shadow Detective (2022)" Episode 2

Shadow Detective (형사록) is a mystery-crime Korean drama series directed by Han Dong-hwa and stars Lee Sung-min, Jin Goo, Kyung Soo-jin and Lee Hak-joo, alongside other cast members.

Releasing at 12 PM IST, Shadow Detective Episode 2 premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on October 26, 2022, with a runtime of 57 minutes. The show picks up with the dysfunctional life led by veteran detective Taek-rok (Lee Sung-min) for whom the image of his nearing retirement is his sole inspiration. Pulling himself through his closing days at the police station, he’s soon dragged into receiving a series of prank calls that lead up to a dire mystery involving the murder of his younger colleague.

Will his team including the new and much younger leader than him, Kuk Jin-han (Jin Goo), Lee Sung-a (Kyung Soo-jin), and Song Kyung-chan (Lee Hak-joo) find the actual culprit before Taek-rok is wrongfully implicated for the murder?

Beginning with a probable flashback of the day before, episode 2 shows Hyun-seok compelling Taek-rok into a scuffle to let out his pent-up anguish. He asks the older detective if he had any regrets in his life, to which the latter points at him saying that he feels remorse for having let him become what he has and that he didn’t do anything to stop him.

The investigation for Hyun-seok’s murder kicks off by drawing Taek-rok as the prime suspect once his registration card is found at the site. With the new developments dragging down Taek-rok’s name, the suspicious calls continue to wreck his days. The caller lays down another threat saying that these murders will keep following him if he doesn’t act as per what is demanded of him. The mystery man embroils him in a ‘one-sided dirty game’, stating that if he wins, Taek-rok will be arrested for a murder he isn’t responsible for and if Taek-rok wins, he can arrest him.

The one basic clue let on by the man is that Taek-rok will be able to find him if he looks into his past. Through the discussion, Taek-rok is also revisited by the similar faint visions of a woman, possibly his daughter, which hints at another possible traumatic incident that hasn’t been announced till now. He’s overcome by dizziness and crashes his car as the police cars catch up to him.

Once brought in by the police, the interrogation is led by Jin-Han, who starts taunting Taek-rok in an attempt to secure a confession from him. However, the threat of being framed withholds him from speaking the truth. In the meanwhile, he tries to gather as many details of the crime as possible to commence his branch of investigation alone. Beckoning Chief Gwang-su inside, the two speak alone in private. For the time being, Taek-rok is allowed to leave (and relieved from his duties) despite Jin-han’s claims that he should be kept in custody.

Detectives Sang-a and Kyung-chan keep a check on his whereabouts and follow him to Ji-woo’s (his daughter) wedding. Being the veteran he is, he picks up on them and invites them inside. Later, he’s greeted by a bouquet sent by the anonymous caller at the wedding.

As soon as he gets back in his car, he turns his phone on and Jin-han starts tracking him within a fraction of a second. Visuals of the taxi dropping him at his place the night of the incident are traced by the police. Keeping him on his toes, the “No Caller ID” sign haunts him but this time Taek-rok cuts the conversation by asking him to meet him. As a response, he reminds the detective of a ten-year-old case related to a fratricide.

The next command demands he find the actual weapon and the person behind it, proving the framed individual’s innocence. As per the caller, this is where it all started, even though it seems that he didn’t share any relations with the case himself.

Sang-a lays bare how Taek-rok’s family was endlessly threatened, forcing them to stay on the move. The situation got to such extreme ends that one of the criminals caught by the detective even went on to kidnap his daughter.

Back at the station, Detective Han divulges the dark reality connecting the Chief and Hyun-seok to corrupt ties. His deduction is that Chief Gwang-su had kicked Taek-rok to take the fall for his misdemeanors so that he can profit off the plunder alone with Hyun-seok now dead. He also mentions that Hyun-seok used two phones, one of them probably a burner.

Meanwhile, Taek-rok starts scratching the surface of the 2012 Geumosan Mountain fratricide case with help from Sang-a and Kyung-chan, who find that the convict’s sentence was suspended on being diagnosed with terminal cancer. On the other hand, Detective Han could only trace only one phone under Hyun-seok’s name and is told to find the other missing one.

Taek-rok asks the Chief to assign him a team to find one of the victims of the same convict from the fratricide case, reminding him how he’d fabricated the evidence to bring the man in. Relating the commonalities shared between the ten-year-old case and Hyun-seok’s murder, Taek-rok arrives with the team at the same site.

Jin-han, accompanied by Detective Han, reaches there too and asks Taek-rok about Hyun-seok’s supposed burner phone. The latter doesn’t speak up about it and passes it up as a usual possession many detectives have had in the past.

Moving on to carry out his own investigation and come up with a hypothesis as to why the ‘friend’ could’ve called Hyun-seok at this place. He senses someone following him and starts racing after the hooded figure. Back with the team, Chief Bae calls off the search for the victim. Taek-rok can’t keep up with the agile individual and is caught off guard and knocked over the cliff. Somehow, clinging on to the edge, he keeps himself from falling, and just like that the ending keeps us hanging for another week as well.

Detective Taek-rok is fleshed out as the Korean analog of Sherlock Holmes as he can envision the crime scene’s happenings in his mind too. This particular episode also digs into his character by presenting him as one of those detectives who follows his instincts to catch the bad guys. No matter what the means, he deems it his duty to put them behind bars. Nevertheless, all of that is now after him to bite him in the back.

The intentions of the ‘friend’ haven’t been made clear as of now and a lot seems to be happening simultaneously but we’re not given enough fodder to conjecture at our respective ends as the viewer. Despite the lack of details, the nail-biting shady premise of the episode is building up the pace of the series as we go. Promising a bright future in terms of the mystery content, the show hasn’t been overpacked with tokenistic side reliefs or loose subplots that don’t add to the story. From the get-go, the series has been set apart as a distinct counterpart of its own that doesn’t give into subsidiary side romances and stays firm about its subject matter, sticking to resolving puzzles.

My only hope for the show is that it qualitatively delves further into realistic corrupt associations, providing verisimilitude to the story, thus accentuating its impact. Another theme that I’m counting on at the moment to raise the stakes and enhance the drama side is the layered, complex relationship between Taek-rok and Jin-han. It would be a delight to watch these two men belonging to separate generations come together and fight for the same cause sometime down the line. Assuring a well-paced journey, the second episode leads with a prime focus on chasing the whodunnit path.