A Model Family – Season 1 Episode 9 Recap & Review

True Colours

Episode 9 of A Model Family begins with a battered and bruised Eun-Joo and Dong-Ha heading back on the bus. After being duped with the money, they’re on their own. For now at least, anyway.

The pair make it to hospital, where Hyun-Woo is sleeping. Dong-Ha is determined to make things right and asks Eun-Joo to trust him – just this once.

Yoon-Soo hears about the accident with Kang-Jun on the news and is livid. He tasks his subordinates with finding the guy while he packs up his gear and prepares to leave. He knows that the leader of Sangseon is going to come after him now to cover up this mess.

With Kang-Jun’s life hanging in the balance, a massive bullseye on his back, Joo-Hyun rings and decides to work with him after all. She doesn’t have much of a choice, especially if she wants answers. He gives her instructions to get him out and away from danger.

Remember the mole? Well, it turns out the Messenger actually works in the Violent Crimes Department of the police station. However, he flies under the radar with all our big players, given the big talking point here is Joo-Hyun’s instigation and how disastrous this whole operation has been. Joo-Hyun is told to discard and cover up everything. If this undercover operation comes to light, then they’re all dead – including her superiors.

Dong-Ha returns home, where he receives a call from Kwang-Chul. He tells the professor that things got out of hand but they’re cleaning up and he needs to wait before mobilizing again. The thing is, Fong-Ha now knows there’s no way out for him. Funnily enough, it’s Joo-Hyun who offers him a life life. She approaches him in the back garden and asks him to cooperate. When Dong-Ha refuses, she sneers and points out that he’s an accomplice and not working with them is going to go badly.

At the police station, the team are briefed on the hierarchy of the Sangseon Ring, including Yong-Soo and Kwang-Chul’s stake in all this. The Messenger happens to be in attendance. He receives a call from his inside guy, telling him exactly where Yong-Soo is.

And Yong-Soo finds himself tumbling head-first into the jaws of a lion, metaphorically speaking. When he awakens in the back of his car, he’s alone and has enough time to see a white truck plough into the side of him. He’s in an abandoned construction site but he miraculously survives!

When we cut back to Yong-Soo, we find him battered, bruised and bloody. He’s also in a grave with Kang-Jun. The Messenger drops a gun in and tells them he only needs one. Kang-Jun gets the gun first and pumps a number of bullets into Yong-Soo, killing him outright.

After this, Kang-Jun approaches Dong-Ha one more time at the university campus. He promises to set Dong-Ha free from this nightmare but in exchange, he needs to give up Kwang-Chul’s location when they meet up again. The thing is, Kang-Jun also has instructions to be rid of everyone connected to this – including Dong-Ha – with the Messenger claiming they can be partners in the future.

Kang-Jun’s trump card though is Joo-Hyun, who offers him a solution out of this mess but only if he gives up the name of the person in the police force.

Joo-Hyun visits Eun-Joo in hospital and urges her to keep the family together. She also points out that she doesn’t know Dong-Ha very well if she was unaware her husband was involved so deeply in all this.

As day turns to night, Joo-Hyun messages Kang-Jun and agrees to his terms. She tells him the cops only think of him as a minor player and she can get his charges dropped to six months for assault. So Kang-Jun sends over an incriminating voice message showing exactly who the rat is. It’s Jung-Kook, Joo-Hyun’s police lieutenant! The audio is pretty irrefutable, confirming that she made the call to kill Han-Cheol.

Kang-Jun finds himself in no man’s land that night. He’s stabbed several times by Kwang-Chul’s subordinates, who tie him up. Kang-Jun immediately shows his true colours., pointing the finger at Dong-Ha as the one responsible for everything bad that’s happened. Kang-Jun also tries to strike a deal with his goons but it comes to nothing as he’s choked out, right in front of Dong-Ha who’s forced to watch helplessly.

The Episode Review

Things are going from bad to worse for Dong-Ha, who finds any hopes of escaping this nightmare going up in smoke with Kang-Jun’s death. However, it’s very clear from his body language and demeanour that there was no way Dong-Ha would have just been able to walk away and deep down, I think he knows that too.

All of this goes back to Dong-Ha’s decision to take the money and, bizarrely, bury the bodies in his own back garden. I do understand the covering up of the crime but why do it so close to home? I’m not sure. Anyway, Eun-Joo is now a big part of this story too and as Joo-Hyun tells her in the hospital, she’s got to keep the family together now. Could she be the catalyst to change things?

With Kwang-Chul managing to navigate this tricky minefield of death, he’s the last one standing…but will those in charge of the Sangseon Ring work to kill him too to clean everything up? We’ll have to wait and see. One thing’s for sure, the finale looks like it’s going to be one heck of a thrill ride!