Recap Korean Drama "The First Responders (2022)" Episode 10

We dive right back into Ha-eun’s mess of a family as they’re confronted by Ho-gae and Pil. Ha-eun is such an angry child, but who wouldn’t be after what she’s endured? Her mom didn’t even notice that she was pregnant, so she went through all that, including a stillbirth, alone. Even after learning what Ha-eun has suffered, all her family does is berate her as if she’s the family villain. Her father even slaps her, knocking her to the ground.

Her parents act like their obsession with grades as a marker of their children’s value is normal, having made her older brother get a vasectomy so he could focus on his grades. I… don’t even know how to address that, so we’ll leave it there.

Thankfully, the DNA of Ha-eun’s father and brother are not matches for the baby. Her brother Min-joon was acting so sketchy because, after he assaulted Ha-eun by strangling her (!), she hopped on the balcony ledge and threatened to say he pushed her. I just can’t with this mother, crying at these revelations like her children are inexplicably bad apples when she and her husband have been such stellar parents.

Ha-eun’s father is so angry at Ho-gae’s unauthorized DNA testing (only time I can say he’s not being unreasonable) that he wants to press charges. It says something that even he is shocked at the display of unconcerned parenting when Chief Prosecutor Ji not only doesn’t try to stop him from pressing charges against Ho-gae, but thanks him for helping him out.

Apart from learning that Ha-eun’s family is literally the worst, Ho-gae got nada from that family visit and is back to square one about the baby’s father. Seol is the one who leads him to the next break in the case. She recalls a boy who recently committed suicide went to the same cram school as Ha-eun.

Ho-gae gets ahold of the boy’s DNA at the hospital from a prior medical procedural, but he also has a backup plan. The team leaks info about the possible parentage around school and lies in wait. They catch the school principal trying to swap the boy’s DNA with his own.

It turns out that Ha-eun has been sleeping with men for money, not disclosing that she’s a student. The principal didn’t find out until he started working at her school. Ha-eun used the info to blackmail him into giving her exam answers.

The principal believes the baby was his, so he was going to swap his DNA with the boy’s to make it look like the dead teenager was the parent. But surprisingly, it turns out the teenage boy is the baby’s father, something Ha-eun didn’t know either. Ho-gae pulls her aside privately to break it to her.

He’s got a soft spot for this angry, neglected teenage girl who reminds him of himself. As a fellow child of a tragically awful parent, Ho-gae gently assures her that her mistakes aren’t entirely her own fault. He acknowledges her pain and apologizes on behalf of all the adults who failed her. Ha-eun finally breaks down, looking like the lost kid she is.

Meanwhile, since Ho-gae hasn’t been forthcoming about his past or the disappearance case he’s linked to, Do-jin starts asking around. He goes to his fangirl Hong, the forensic investigator, for info on Hyun-seo. She shares that after the girl went missing, they found her severed big toes on Ho-gae’s property, which certainly explains why everyone thought he killed her.

But this old disappearance case suddenly becomes very relevant. After our first responders rush to a bar where a man smashed a glass bottle over his girlfriend’s head, they head back to the hospital where a young woman is being treated. And, you guessed it, this young woman has no big toes. That is not a sentence I ever expected to write, but here we are.

Do-jin brings this to Ho-gae’s attention, but before Ho-gae can see her, someone has kidnapped the woman from the hospital. Thanks to her blood, they’re able to verify she is indeed Hyun-seo. Luckily, the doctor took a photo of Hyun-seo’s arm where she smartly (and painfully) tattooed the view from her basement cell’s window.

Using the view as reference, Anna and Do-jin narrow down locations, and then it’s all hands on deck. As the police mount their search, Chief Prosecutor Ji shows up to the Taewon precinct with what seems to be an order of dismissal for Ho-gae. Father of the year, this one.

Elsewhere, Ho-gae locates where Hyun-seo was being held. He and Pil break into the empty house and find a secret basement room. On one of the walls is a framed photo of the kidnapper posing with Hyun-seo like the creepiest family photo ever. Ho-gae recognizes the man from the hospital – he even talked to him. We end with Ho-gae screaming in frustration and despair while the kidnapper smiles and drives Hyun-seo to who knows where.

They were making such a big deal of that case that I knew we’d circle back to it sooner or later. I am surprised the girl is still alive, though, after seven years. Ho-gae has been so consumed with this case that there’s no way he’s going to sit it out, even if he is dismissed. I’m sensing a violent showdown between him and the kidnapper before this is all over.

Maybe we’ll get another emergency case thrown in, but since we’ve only got two episodes left, I’m assuming the Hyun-seo case and Ho-gae’s fight to remain a cop will take up most of the remaining time. On a positive note, Tae-hwa was nowhere to be found this episode. I guess we traded one Ho-gae obsessed creep for another.