The Final Case
Episode 12 of Divorce Attorney Shin starts with Sung-han preparing for the final fight. It all comes down to securing parental rights for Gi-yeong, but Yeong-ju is not going down without a fight. Sung-han speaks to Chairman Seo first and he reveals that he wants to try and preserve their marriage, admitting he knows he’s done wrong by Geum-hui.
He takes this news to Geum-hui and between them, agrees to give Ms Ma her share…while also remaining married too. That way it’s the best of both worlds and it would also help Gi-yeong too. Although Seo agrees to the shares, he doesn’t with the termination of parental rights.
Seo still thinks it’s about the money and that Sung-han will exploit himself before long, and the meeting inevitably ends in a stalemate. Geum-hui points out to her husband that night that Sung-han is a righteous guy and not in it for the cash.
How does Yeong-ju keep Yu-seok quiet?
Yeong-ju gives Yu-seok his severance pay but stokes the fires and brings up what Sung-han is up to. He shows off the petition to terminate parental rights for Gi-yeong, and tells him not to do something stupid, returning the favour and claiming that they could go down together if he doesn’t play his part and testify as well.
Sung-han discusses strategy with Hyeong-geun and Jeong-sik that night, deciding they should look into Yu-seok and Yeong-ju’s involvement in breaking laws during Ju-hwa’s divorce. A café is an unusual severance pay and it certainly makes them suspicious that he could be the weak link in this.
What does Choi do with the child separation case?
Outside, Choi is still in the office, looking into this child separation case with Jun-hui. It’s hard and time consuming, thanks in part to the way the law works. Sung-han suggests that Choi look at things a different way, scrutinizing the recipe rather than the child custody. Given it’s not patented, there’s no way to prove the grandma created it, but they can leave it up to the customers to decide. Specifically, he suggests Choi look into a weakness he can exploit.
Choi shows up to see Jun-hui’s mother and her boyfriend, riling them up by pointing out that he’s going to file a suit for the recipe. He’s going to make the law work for him, specifically in using a picture from the past of all the family together. That way, he can drum up public sympathy on their side. That’s not something Jun-hui wants and she’s clearly nervous as Choi intensifies his grip over doing the right thing.
What happens in court with Gi-yeong?
After this rather big prologue, Sung-han shows up at court ready for the give case to win over parental rights for Gi-yeong. He immediately brings up Gi-yeong’s mental state, including his psychological issues with binge-eating. Mr Jung, the driver, brings up how he was fired after informing Yeong-ju of what’s happening. The new driver is also questioned, with Jeong-sik’s stalking and Yeong-ju’s “mercy” at not pressing charges see-sawing Yeong-ju’s character.
Yeong-ju has actually paid off her new driver to keep quiet about Gi-yeong going missing and she lies in court about it. However, Sung-han actually has the footage from the academy to show Gi-yeong running outside and leaving. She claims it was her first day, but Sung-han brings up that she chose to testify in court, which speaks volumes for her character.
Sung-han also has footage of Gi-yeong’s binge-eating from the convenience store, and it’s a pretty tough watch, especially for Sung-han. Next though, he changes tact and questions Yu-seok’s severance pay “prize”, coming in the form of this café branch. It’s way over the average rate made by Keumhwa lawyers.
The reason Sung-han is bringing this up links directly to Gi-yeong, and specifically how Ju-hwa’s divorce lasyer was so close and chummy with Yeong-ju. Sung-han cuts right to the chase and brings up Ju-hwa’s psychiatric records from the US and how he was aware of this. His silence is met with a “I wasn’t” but it’s not particularly convincing, especially as everyone knows that he was the one who leaked the records.
Sung-han’s parenting is called into question next, with the judge deciding that his living environment needs to be thoroughly examined and questioned before the next trial date. The trial itself has certainly taken its toll on Sung-han, who ends up at the hospital on a drip after the day’s intense work.
Does Jun-hui get her child support pay?
Choi is successful in his case, which happens off-screen after the big meeting in the café. Jun-hui’s mum is now going to be paying 1.8 million won a month and she’s also going to cough up the funds for overdue payments too. He feeds this back to Sung-han, who doesn’t exactly compliment him, as he reflects it back on himself and how he came to the right solution after all.
Jeong-sik speaks to Yu-seok that night after the trial and urges him to testify on behalf of Gi-yeong and flip sides. Jeong-sik has looked into the Attorney-at-Law Act and believes that he’ll get suspended and fined for breaching it, but this way he’ll keep his dignity and he can’t be blackmailed anymore. He even hands over an amount to cover the fine. Yu-seok sneers and claims that he’s not the one who leaked the information and he has nothing to worry about,
Jeong-sik feeds back to Hyeong-geun and Sung-han what he’s been up to, and how he was going to use the money from selling his car to pay him off. The trio are silent for a while until Hyeong-geun puts on some music and decides they should all cry together and let it all out. Hyeong-geun is once again the odd one out but they all hug their brother, as Sung-han lets the tears flow.
What does Sung-han say to Jeong-guk?
In the morning, Sung-han meets with Gi-yeong’s father, Seo Jeong-guk, and brings up the nasty phone call that Yeong-ju made to Ju-hwa and how it could have ben responsible for her death. Sung-han accuses him of living with his eyes closed and promises to fight with everything he has to win over custody and let Gi-yeong live with parents that will do right by him.
Meanwhile, So-yeon decides to shut down Grandma’s Noodle Shop and head out for a few months. She wants to go to Europe and take a break. Hyeong-geun decides to take a leap of faith and go too, and the pair are ecstatic that they get to spend some quality time together.
Seo-jin decides not to take the 4pm timeslot on the radio after all, partly off the back of Hyeon-u’s words of encouragement. She continues to thrive with her vlogs, and even shrugs off the haters on her videos. She calls them out and decides to give them a coffee voucher so they can do better with their life. Go on Seo-jin!
How does the court case end?
In court the next day, the attention turns to Jeong-guk, who’s questioned over his parenting style and what sort of dad he is. His lawyer talks a big game, while Sung-han uses the same words that he used the previous day about music being synonymous with emotion and using the warmth from music as an example of what Gi-yeong should have.
Sung-han is fighting for his life in this case and as he pleads his case, Geum-hui sneaks into the courtroom. She hears Sung-han plead with him to do right, and he does just that when Sung-han questions him. He eventually caves and brings up that Yu-seok was the one who spilled the details about Ju-hwa’s medical history.
This throws the defence’s entire case out of the water, but with everything hanging in the balance, he exchanges a glance to Geum-hui, who smiles warmly. The reason for this comes off the back of an earlier chat where Geum-hui encouraged him to do the right thing.
As the case comes to a close, the judge makes his decision and grants Sung-han custody of Gi-yeong. As his guardian, he will need to submit a report every year and there’s even visitations too but the rest is a blur. Sung-han has won the case and gets Gi-yeong out the “castle” from now on.
How does Divorce Attorney Shin end?
Off the back of all this, Seo Jeong-guk is livid and decides that he and Yeong-ju should just “live quietly” from now on. Yeong-ju ignores calls from Yu-seok, who finds himself caught in a precarious situation, having lost everything after he failed to take Jeong-sik’s bribe. From the top of the world to having nothing; Yu-seok gets what he deserves. And by contrast, Seo-jin experiences all the success in the world too, having been able to grow in confidence and deal with any haters that crop up.
As for Sung-han, he heads to the local convenience store and looks over at the counters, reminiscing on the past. He gets a bottle of wine and decides to sit outside, with the sun beaming; a victory drink to celebrate his win. Hyeong-geun and Jeong-sik join and we get our happy ending.
The Episode Review
Divorce Attorney Shin ends with a decent conclusion, one that rounds out all the big plot points while also allowing our characters to grow in the process. Seo-jin starting as a DJ falling from grace and suffering from horrific mental issues to then growing in confidence and eventually becoming a self-assured and successful woman standing on her own two feet is one of the stand-out parts of this show.
Sung-han finally gets his reward for all his hard work too, with Gi-yeong’s custody. Part of this comes from Jeong-guk doing the right thing, but all these different pieces come together in a satisfying way with the final court case, as Geum-hui’s influence pays dividends.
Yeong-ju and Yu-seok finally get their comeuppance too, although seeing Yu-seok being left with nothing after being so close to winning big is a particularly satisfying moment!
Overall, Divorce Attorney Shin has been a decent watch and the characters have really been what’s made this such an enjoyable watch. I certainly wouldn’t bemoan a second season!
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On balance, still pretty convinced that blocking streamers who post abusive comments is a superior method than making not-so-clever comebacks (thought roasting hecklers is a fine tradition by comedians). But realistically, if the chat was flooded with such comments, she would have had a hard time keeping up. I found the comments propositioning her pretty repulsive, but didn’t like to see them put together in the same category as the ones of the 14 year old. They basically shamed her for the illegal video, and that had really nothing to do with her appalling behavior towards her son -never being at home and leaving him with a man she knew to be abusive, and forgetting about the school meeting and not being available when he needed her at the hospital because she was with her lover-. I feel that such comments are quite different from the criticism that was levied at her -without defaming statements, given they were all true facts, nor threats- by the fourteen years old. I guess that the latter would have been harder to counteract, given that they all pointed out true things that she herself acknowledged. Again, all of this should have been handled via moderation policy and blocking, and making sure her son didn’t read the comments nor listen to her program, rather than by tracking down a teenager or trash talking -not sure either tracking them all down individually or insulting them for ten minutes each would scale well, depending on the amount of people that don’t like her, and if they are a small enough number then not sure than ignoring them wouldn’t be preferable than giving them publicity, if they were a small enough number not to be a problem, which is basically a small enough number to track and/or respond to individually.
Not sure that putting more light on her actions by highlighting the commenter was a good idea, vs simply deleting the comment. Quite frankly, had she encountered someone with a brain, her “comeback” could have been quickly twarted (by pointing out that she was more than willing to date a a*le that filmed her without her consent, so apparently it’s not impossible for a-les to date, or even marry, as evidenced by her own husband, or by pointing out that while they might only sleep on the bed, they don’t film women without their consent in it, taking illegal videos that are then leaked and end up being seen by said women’s children-. Depending on what he saw in the video, even the suggestion to shove his fingers up his bottom might be turned around. Though, to be frank, roasting hecklers is a fine tradition. Put it another way, I am doubtful of the approach, and it was not nearly as clever a comeback as she seemed to think.
Best part of series for me was the delightful interactions, conversations and dialog between grown men who are friends. We don’t see that very often. As an adult women I truly appreciate how this show peeled back the curtain on adult straight male friendships! Well done writers and actors!!
awesome grown up drama with tremendous love a heart.🖤Great acting