A Shop for Killers – K-Drama Episode 5 Recap & Review

Babylon

A Shop for Killers Episode 5 begins with a flashback — Bae Jeong-min approaches Jin-man for the ad he put up looking for a part-timer. At present, Ji-an wakes up tied to a chair. Jeong-min is on the phone with someone, telling them that he will transfer access to the shopping mall soon. The person on the other end tells him to kill Ji-an, which takes him off guard.

He points the gun at Ji-an, who asks him about why he locked her in the basement all those years ago. He says he wanted to see if she was really mute or not. Jeong-min then begins to tell his story. He starts by telling her about something called Babylon.

A flashback shows Jeong-min talking to a friend about a website he found selling guns. He hacked it but the site was taken back in five minutes, which made him curious. When they reach their home, they find two men inside their apartment. One of them asks Jeong-min if he was the one who hacked Murthehelp. The other man knocks both the boys out.

Later, both the boys are made to prove their hacking talent, under duress. Jeong-min succeeds first and his friend ends up getting shot in the head. The older man then shows Jeong-min pictures of Jin-man and Ji-an.

The scene skips to Jeong-min working for Jin-man in his warehouse. He uses a pen with a camera in it to record everything he sees but he hasn’t found anything substantial yet. He gets a text saying he has one day left. So, he makes an excuse to use the toilet inside the house.

When he tries to enter another room, Jin-man’s voice comes through a speaker, asking him what he’s looking for. Jin-man enters the house then and tells him the speaker was added for convenience. He then asks Jeong-min if he can repair Jin-man’s computer. Jeong-min agrees.

Jeong-min says he will do it for free as he used to be Ji-an’s close friend from second grade. Jin-man seems suspicious since Ji-an never had any friends but agrees to buy him dinner and leaves him to his work. Jeong-min plugs his USB drive into Jin-man’s computer but Brother is watching his every move through the security cameras.

Back home, Jeong-min uses the spyware he put on Jin-man’s computer to hack into Murthehelp. He gets a text saying ‘good job’ and then somebody opens his apartment’s front door. One of the men from before walks in with a gun. But Jeong-min says he’s rigged the system so they can’t access it without him. They need him alive. The man puts him on the phone with the older man named Lee Yong-han. Jeong-min convinces him to not kill him by suggesting a plan to get Jeong Jin-man.

At present, he opens the video Brother was talking about and Ji-an sees that Jin-man had tied Jeong-min up in the living room. Jin-man then walks into the bathroom but the video cuts off. Jeong-min puts his own USB drive into the system instead. It shows Jeong-min making Jin-man listen to a recording of Ji-an begging for help.

If Jin-man lets Jeong-min go, then she’ll be safe. Jin-man makes a call to Pasin and tells him he doesn’t have to pay him back. He then cuts off the rope hanging Jeong-min from the ceiling and goes into the bathroom. Jeong-min unties himself and follows Jin-man. Inside, he finds that Jin-man has killed himself in the bathtub.

Ji-an watches the footage of her dead uncle, tears running down her face. Jeong-min claims to have used a deepfake to mimic Ji-an’s voice. He muses about how easy it was to fool Jin-man. Suddenly, Ji-an starts laughing and tells Jeong-min that Babylon, the name of the organisation he’s working for, will kill him as soon as he gets out of there. He is expendable to them.

She suggests he make a deal with her, the only Green code left, who other people with codes are bound to protect. He gets angry and puts a gun to her head but Ji-an moves fast, she wraps her legs around him and fights him off, ripping her restraints in the process. She runs in between the rows of shelves and hides. Once again, Ji-an recalls her uncle’s advice of using everything around her to save herself.

Seong-jo then gets a call with a change in orders. He isn’t supposed to kill Ji-an anymore, just capture her. A row of cars turns up with more mercenaries. Inside, Ji-an sets a trap that makes Jeong-min slip and fall, with his leg getting trapped in a loop of rope. Ji-an pulls the other end and has Jeong-min hanging upside down, just like her uncle did.

Upstairs, Min-hye asks Brother how he could have left Ji-an alone but Brother says that Ji-an is strong enough. He then smashes a part of the wall to reveal more hidden guns and ammunition. Jin-man was expecting an attack on the house.

Seong-jo chats with the other mercenary, who belongs to the organisation named Babylon. Another truck turns up and Seong-jo gets out a small dog-like robot which can shoot and fight. A man controls it and makes it run towards Ji-an’s house. Seong-jo tells his men to capture Ji-an alive.

Meanwhile, Brother switches on a setting that makes strong walls of steel come down on all the windows. The robot gets inside but a similar wall comes down inside one of the hallways as well, allowing Min-hye and Brother to hide behind it. The robot holds one of the walls open and allows the Babylon men to enter. Once inside, the walls close down for good.

Downstairs, Ji-an finds a note from Jin-man in the handover guide. On the one hand, he offers her an escape route where she can take on a new identity and live in peace. On the other, if she wants to join the people who are fighting to protect her, she must follow different instructions.

The robot drills a hole into the wall blocking the hallways and then pumps gas into it. Everyone wears masks. Min-hye instructs Brother to open the wall which drags the robot with it and damages it. This allows her to throw a bright light into the room to distract the men and then kill them one by one.

In the meantime, Ji-an comes upstairs and joins Brother, both of them pulling Min-hye back when she gets injured. The one surviving man tries to shoot them but Ji-an throws two hand grenades in return.

However, the man survives and makes it to the bathroom where Min-hye is being tended to by the other two. Ji-an tries to fight him but gets beaten up. The man, named Kuma, radios Seong-jo that he has Ji-an and is told not to kill her again. He’s about to cut her face when somebody attacks him from behind, killing him. It’s Pasin! Ji-an hugs him but Pasin tells her that Bale is coming — the man who killed her parents.

In the epilogue of A Shop for Killers Episode 5, the man named Bale watches these happenings on a screen and then orders the two menacing twins to go handle the situation.

The Episode Review

A Shop for Killers Episode 5 reveals more about Jeong-min’s story – how he came to work against Jin-man in the first place. However, as he gloats about his prowess, the whole thing does seem too easy. Would a simple deepfake be enough to fool Jin-man? Enough for him to take his life? The simplicity of it makes me wonder if Jin-man faked his death instead and is alive but in hiding.

Ji-an does really well for herself in this episode, it’s a delight to watch her fight off the restraints and get one over on Jeong-min. It is nice to see Pasin return as well, giving Ji-an one more friendly face on her side.

As with the previous episodes, the writing is deft and the editing keeps things crisp and engaging. The action sequences are sleek and make the show an incredibly thrilling watch. However, we still have a lot to learn about why Ji-an is being targeted. With only three episodes to go, the excitement is high!