Brain Works – K-Drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

I Don’t Know My Wife’s Face

Episode 3 of Brain Works starts with a build-up to the scene of the murder of a girl. A guy went looking for a girl named Hoai and found the dead body in the closet. A man named Lee Jong Koo is burning photos of him and some lady.

A baby is heard crying in the house. He is arrested for the murder of someone named Thoung. During the arrest, he yells that he could not kill someone whose face he does not know, and he even does not know his wife’s face.

The journalist’s article is out; he writes about detective Geum’s good deeds. Dr Shin is frustrated. He calls the reporter and reports that he checked the facts and found out that the detective had lent money to some people. The diner owner talks about how he could not get loans from banks since he is an ex-criminal and the interest rates everywhere else were very high. When he was almost giving up, Detective Geum helped him out. Dr. shin does not believe he was mistaken.

At the police station, colleagues congratulate detective Geum. His ex-wife, on the other hand, is furious. She is concerned about what would happen if the ex-convicts failed to pay. In a comedic scene, a man says hi to his ex-wife; she is tempted to flirt with him but restrains herself. She ends up doing a pole dance using a street sign pole. Some boy crashes into a vehicle fixated on her, and the other man drops his cigarette.

Yoona has similar sentiments as her mother. She does not think it is a good idea that his father took a loan to lend to someone else. She is at a supermarket and is less 20 cents; a boy pays for her and makes a move saying he wants to see her every day.

Detective Geum finds out that Dr Shin tried to sell him out as a dirty cop to the reporter. The detective provokes the doctor so he can invite him to lunch with his colleagues. Dr Shin gets angry and pushes the detective.

They are assigned the case of Lee Joong Ko, the suspect who does not know what his wife looks like despite being married for three years and having a child. The scenario intrigues the doctor, who initially refuses to continue consulting with the police.

At the morgue, the doctor and the detective examine the corpse. Her face and hands were burnt. Her ID name is Thoung. Though she is unrecognizable, her sister confirms she is the one using a tattoo.

The captain and the detective question the husband, Lee Jong Kloo. He agrees that they had fought since the wife kept asking for money to send to her family. The husband tells how she stayed with her friend Hoai whenever they fought. However, he could not even recognize Hoai since he could not see faces.

Dr Shin says he has prosopagnosia. A condition where one cannot recognize faces is also known as face blindness. At the Korea National University Hospital, he confirms his prognosis. They let Lee Jong Koo go, but he is supposed to cooperate with the investigation.

Another suspect comes up after looking through Thoung’s call history. Hoai, the victim’s best friend. She is an illegal immigrant, and the guy who called her at the beginning of the episode was his boyfriend, who found the body in the closet. Hoai was missing, and the boyfriend was not responding to follow-up requests. Detective Geum is tasked with bringing in the boyfriend for questioning, and Dr Shin offers to accompany him.

On the way, Dr Shin teaches the detective some icebreakers with foreigners. He should speak their language since the brain is wired to respond quickly to one’s first language. It turns out that the doctor taught the detective Vietanesse curse words. At the factory where he was supposed to get information on the boyfriend, he gets beat up for insulting the Vietnamese workers. In the detective’s car, Dr Shin is looking for incriminating information on the detective.

After clearing the misunderstanding, a factory worker tells them where to get the boyfriend, and they bring him in. On the night he found the body, he got a text from Hoai saying she was going far away and he should not look for her. The boyfriend thinks Hoai murdered Thoung because of money. Thoung wanted to divorce her husband and asked Hoai to repay her debt. They had fought.

Some school girls report that they saw Hoai on the day she disappeared. The subsection chief asks them to follow her movements through the traffic cameras. He then scolds captain Seul. The Detective and Dr Shin stand up to the chief. Dr Shin advises Dr Shin that the only way for her to stand up to bullies is if she remodelled her brain. Since that was impossible, she should continue having a shy brain. Captain Seul breaks down.

Captain Seul and Detective Geum go out for a meal. They discuss how they both hate their personalities. Detective Geum dislikes that he is a pushover. They say they envy someone like Dr Shin, who can do whatever they like, whenever.

Dr Shin’s aunt finds brain tissue on his fridge. She panics and asks where he got it from. Dr Shin does not respond and asks her to leave. The aunt thinks it is from the lab. He says that if she asks about the brain tissue again, he will change his passcode and phone number. He also says that his house will be his lab henceforth, and she should not appear unannounced.

A sweet moment happens between the detective and the captain in a turn of events. However, it ends awkwardly. His ex-wife calls and notices he is nervous. She thinks he is with a woman, and the captain bolts out of the restaurant.

Dr Shin tries to pin together the mystery behind Thoung’s murder at his house. Captain Seul goes back to the office to work on the case. The subsection chief’s words still linger. She investigates the scene the next day alone. She finds a photo. The detective is looking through CCTV footage when he receives a call from the captain. She asks for Jong Koo’s landline since she cannot reach him through the cell phone.

As she walked out of the compound, a wood pile snapped, falling on her. She hits her head on a nail. She is rushed to the hospital. The nail stuck in her head is successfully removed, and the doctor informs her that she will recover. However, she goes into a coma.

Dr Shin, detective Geum, and the subsection chief wonder what captain Seul has found. Dr Shin comes up with an idea to ask the captain still, even if she is in a coma. Through an MRI, they get the information that Hoai is dead. They decipher that the dead girl was Hoai and not Thoung. A lady is seen hiding in a warehouse, looking at the photo the detective had found. She is crying.

Back in the precinct, the detective, the doctor, and the chief look into the facts. The DNA matched Thoung since it was staged. Someone is seen changing the toothbrushes and combs in Hoai’s container room. To verify, they will have to pick the DNA of Thoung from her husband’s home and do another DNA test.

The detective and Dr Shin visit Lee Jong Koo’s home. They find a suspicious freezer and go in to investigate. Someone locks them in. Detective Geum’s phone is at 2 percent, and Dr Shin left him in the car. As they contemplate whether to call the office or emergency, subsection chief Kim calls. The phone dies before he can tell him anything. Detective Geum continues to shout for help which triggers Dr Shin’s headache and a scene of a boy locked somewhere and banging. The doctor yells for the detective to stop and pushes him off the door. They fight.

Later, still locked in the freezer, the detective asks about the headache. Dr Shin says he does not know why he has headaches, but they started in kindergarten after an accident. He thinks it is related to trauma.

The mysterious doctor in prison is seen talking to someone about a book. The man tells the prisoner’s doctor that the company decided not to publish the book. The prisoner thinks they refused to publish because it was a prisoner’s work. The man tells him that the reason was that it was boring. A story about a doctor who killed people with medication was not thrilling enough. He advises him to include things to do with cannibalism.

The prisoner tells the publisher about Kim Yoo Jung. It is the publisher’s daughter, and he is terrified. The prisoner seems to have more information about his affair with a colleague. He threatens to cannibalize his daughter. The prisoner says he dislikes disrespect more than murder. He asks about a letter.

Dr Shin’s aunt finds the said letter in a mailbox. She calls Dr Park and discovers that the mysterious prisoner is Hwang Dong Woo. He was sent to prison for serial murder. Dr Park is alarmed by the mention of the prisoner. Dr Shin’s aunt calls him. The phone does not go through. They are still locked in the freezer. They embrace each other to keep warm.

The Episode Review

Some mysteries were solved in this episode. Now we know who the mysterious prisoner is and why he is in prison. We still do not know his connection to Dr Shin. Also, a new puzzle was added about the trauma causing Dr Shin’s headache.

I am curious to know if the ex-convict who loaned the money will pay up or if the detective’s wife was right to say he is a pushover. Will the subtle sweet moment between the detective and the captain turn into some office romance?

I am hoping for a makeover of Captain Seul since Dr Shin mentioned that she could only stand up for herself if she remodeled her brain. Will the accident trigger a brain remodel? Also, what happens next in the case of the dead girl?