Decoy – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Victims

Episode 2 of Decoy starts by giving the background to No Sang-cheon. Flashback to 2006 and Sang-cheon is a loan shark. He is at a gambling den asking around for the slots manager who owns him money. The manager calls him asking him to meet somewhere. It is an investment briefing session for magnetic mattresses. A speaker is telling the audience about a chance to make 100 million a month by investing with them as a gold member.

Sang-cheon deciphers right away that it is a fraud scheme. Manager Park also figured it out and instead of investing in the Ponzi scheme; he invested in the company in charge of distributing the mattresses. Sang-cheon is introduced to the importer, Jang Kang-chun. Kang-chun manages to convince Sang-cheon to invest 200 million won promising a profit of 300 percent. Soon after, Kang-chun disappears.

Fast forward to the year 2023, and the masked murderer is torturing Young-jin. He says Sang-cheon was not a smart person. Young-jin still has no answers to the questions the murderer asks and he is killed with a knife to the heart.

At the violent crimes investigation, unit Do-han and his team are brainstorming the case. They wonder what the deputy’s head is hiding since he went to the extent of getting his suspension lifted so he could handle the case. In retrospect, Jang-hun said he had nothing to hide and was not looking for a cover-up. The captain decides to release the main suspect Byeong-jun and get him followed.

Do-han tries to work another angle by questioning people close to Young-jin. His son did not talk much to his father but he had recently disclosed that he was about to get money from No Sang-cheon. Young-jin’s jail acquaintances all gave the same story. Young-jin was pissed at Sang-cheon and was planning to get his revenge after he got released. He wanted to go to China and get his money from Sang-cheon.

The detectives contemplate the possibility that Sang-cheon might be alive since only the Chinese only saw his boy and faking s death certificate was easy in China. One detective argues that it was in the best interest of the police force for Sang-cheon to be dead since they announced it and got the case dropped. Do-han figures that the people who want him alive the most are the victims. Do-han visits the victims’ location and while there they all get a message on their phones at the same time.

Byeong-jun evades the detective following him at a supermarket. The masked murderer arrives at Park Gwang-sin’s councilman’s office. He forces him to make the same call to the emergency call centre before killing him. Do-han is notified of the call. Tracking the call reveals that it came from around the same area Byeong-jun disappears from. The police and the detectives are on the hunt.

Na-Yeon arrives outside the councilman’s office. Byeong-jun rushes from the office with blood all over him. Na-yeon wants them to run but he wants to stay. Before they could leave, captain Do-han arrives.

Na-yeon’s connection to the case is revealed in a flashback to 2011. Her parents were among the victims of Sang-cheon’s scheme. She was a school student when the teacher tells her to visit the hospital. The doctor announces that her father was dead. She is the victim who burned himself at Bigs Network offices in episode 1. Her mother had convinced some people to join and hence the money they lost was not only the family’s money. She had told the Jong-hun then that if the culprits are arrested, she would make them suffer to revenge her father.

The call that Jong-hun had received when he almost had Sang-cheon came from the prosecutor’s office. The main card with the name Jang Sun-won from the prosecutor’s office and the one who called was the district prosecutor Park Sang-do.

Fast forward to 2023 and the deputy’s head is having a private dinner. His partner is worried that Do-han might be a problem. He is from outside the police force. The deputy’s head assures him that he is a reasonable man who knows how to look the other way when need be since he was a lawyer. They are worried about the case and want it closed as soon as possible.

Just then, Do-han calls to inform the deputy head of the councilman’s murder. The deputy’s head decides to visit the scene. They both agree that they have a serial murderer on their hands. He reveals that centrally to popular knowledge, there had been three murders that mentioned the name No Sang-cheon. The series ending flashes back one month to an apartment in Gyeong-cheon where the first murder happened.

The Episode Review

It seems like the victims have something to hide. Although I do not think they are responsible for the murders, they know something. What did they receive on their phones and what did it say? In addition, what did they plan to do individually?

The deputy’s head still acts suspicious like there is something to cover up or he knows more than he is disclosing. When Do-han mentioned the name of the dead councilman, he seemed distressed. Is the serial murderer killing Sang-cheon’s accomplices? Who was the person murdered first? There is more thrill and mystery in this episode leaving things looking super exciting for the chapters ahead.