D.P. – Season 2 Episode 4 “Charred Remains” Recap & Review

Charred Remains

Episode 4 of D.P. Season 2 starts with Ho-yeol training Jun-ho on how to hold a rifle right. Jun-ho wonders about the military casually handing such a deadly weapon to young soldiers. The two soldiers wonder what would happen to Jun-ho when Ho-yeol returns home after his discharge.

Meanwhile, Eun meets Ji-seop before leaving the base camp and gives him a flash drive with some confidential data. She tells him that she has lost her job for not commanding the army to kill Ru-ri but tells Ji-seop that he needs to access the data on the encrypted flash drive.

Later that day, Beom-gu and Ji-seop meet Ja-woon at the broadcasting station after his interview. Ja-woon tells the two soldiers about a GP (Guard Post) Staff Sergeant Na Jung-seok, the man who had saved his fellow soldier from a landmine.

Ja-woon and Min-u ask Beom-gu and Ji-seop to reinvestigate the death of Sergeant Na but it looks like the case is personal to Ji-seop. His higher-ups call Beom-gu and ask him to comply with brigadier general Ja-woon’s orders. Beom-gu asks Ji-seop about Sergeant Na Jung-seok and the latter of the two claims that the late soldier was a very close friend of his.

He recalls that Jung-seok had called him the night before his death and appeared worried about his life being in danger. Jung-seok bites back on his words and instead of seeking the truth, Ji-seop had hung up on his friend. Ji-seop is sure that his friend’s death had a bigger story. He takes Jun-ho with him on the reinvestigation of Jung-seok’s death.

On their way there, Ji-seop tells Jun-ho that interrogating the guard post soldiers was going to be a tough task because they were so close to North Korea and had seen a lot. The duo somehow make it to the guard post and meet the GP commander Heo Tae-san there.

Tae-san takes the two soldiers on a tour around the guard post and shares stories about North Korean soldiers spying on them from their post across the fence. Ji-seop asks to see the site of Jung-seok’s death and learns that it’s close to the North Korean border.

A flashback from the night of the incident shows Jung-seok trying to help a soldier named A-hwi who had accidentally placed his foot on a land mine. Jung-seok manages to cut off the wire to the land mine but it still goes off. Present-day Ji-seop meets A-hwi and interrogates him but A-hwi refuses to give a statement recounting the events from the night.

That night, Jun-ho and Ji-seop discuss how the GP unit wanted to shut Jung-seok’s case as soon as possible, smelling something fishy in the entire case. Tae-san shows up at their room bringing the two soldiers a candle after the power goes off.

He claims that the loud noises and power cuts were a normal occurrence at the GP as he narrates stories of South Korean soldiers attacking North Korea and vice versa. Ji-seop warns Tae-san against trying to distract them with such stories and promises to get to the truth of Jung-seok’s death.

Ho-yeol goes back home to an empty apartment for his last holiday before his discharge. Beom-gu tells Jun-ho that Jung-seok and A-hwi had both been oddly transferred for not following orders. Jun-ho asks A-hwi why he never got along with Jung-seok when he was alive.

A-hwi claims that the incident was very traumatic for him to recount again and again and adds that he was extremely traumatised after seeing a person die in front of his eyes. Ji-seop accuses A-hwi of hazing Jung-seok and forcefully pushing him on the landmine to kill his superior but the thought of that makes A-hwi scoff.

Ji-seop wards A-whi and promises to make him pay for killing his friend. Meanwhile, Min-u tells Beom-gu that the real purpose of having Jun-ho and Ji-seop go to GP was to trap Ji-seop. He hands over a toy for Beom-gu to keep but Beom-gu is worried for Ji-seop. He calls Ho-yeol, asking him to go to GP to stop Ji-seop and Jun-ho from falling for the trap.

Jin-seop is sure that his friend was bullied by A-hwi and adds that the soldiers at the GP are trying to cover up for him. Ji-seop gets furious and starts beating A-hwi up. A-hwi is unhinged and takes Ji-seop’s attacks without fighting back. The room accidentally sets on fire and A-hwi passes out from seeing the fire all over again.

Ho-yeol, Jun-ho and Beom-go enter the room and realise that the cameras were on and were filming Ji-seop beat up A-hwi. Beom-gu tells Ji-seop the truth about Jung-seok and claims Jung-seok was the bully who hazed his juniors. During one such hazing incident with A-hwi around the border, Jung-seok accidentally stepped on the landmine which resulted in his death, leaving A-hwi with the trauma.

Following the incident, A-hwi was in a state of shock and the GP team had decided to cover up the accident in order to protect A-hwi. The news of Ji-seop attacking and assaulting A-hwi during the reinvestigation goes live and he is shocked. Ja-woon calls Ji-seop and wonders what he feels regarding learning the truth about his friend’s death.

He asks Ji-seop if he will do the right thing this time around knowing the repercussions of his actions. He believes that in revealing the truth about Jung-seok’s behaviour, his family will stop receiving monetary compensation for his supposed martyrdom.

Meanwhile, Min-u reveals that Beom-gu was also trapped and the toy box actually had money inside it. Min-u claims that he will be framed for accepting a bribe to conduct a shoddy reinvestigation and asks him to hand over the flash drive that Eun gave Ji-seop. Ho-yeol asks Jun-ho to bring the flash drive back from the repair shop and warns him against seeing the documents inside it.

Jun-ho waits at the repair shop and sees Shin Hye-yeon on the news. Hye-yeon is Woo-suk’s sister, the first deserter who set himself on fire using Jun-ho’s lighter. Hye-yeon works at the Human Rights Centre and fights for the rights of innocent soldiers. The episode ends with Beom-gu telling Ho-yeol that Jun-ho hasn’t returned to base camp as he was supposed to.

The Episode Review

It was pretty obvious that after a bigger picture drama-free last episode, the higher-ups were not going to hold back. The final moments of this episode show Beom-gu seeking Ho-yeol, claiming that Jun-ho has turned into a deserter. Knowing the ways of deserters as the man who catches them, he is going to give Ho-yeol a hard time.

I am concerned why Jun-ho decided to keep the information on the flash drive a secret from Beom-gu and I’m afraid that he had a hand in something bad and I am not ready for that to happen yet. As much as I like Han Suk-ku as an actor, the character of Ji-seop is really naive despite his position.

Ji-seop could’ve acted differently knowing that Ja-woon wouldn’t have called him to re-investigate a case so personal to him without any ulterior motives. I am looking forward to seeing Jun-ho go full mental on the soldiers in the episode to come given his wit and training.