Flex X Cop – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

I-Soo Finds Out How His Mother Died

Episode 8 of Flex X Cop starts with Gang-hyun looking up the case that her mother had mentioned about the death of I-soo’s mother and finding out that it is different from what I-soo told her. Kyung-jin identifies the suspect that I-soo arrested at Sung-gu’s house while Gang-hyun and Jun-young head into the interrogation room to question him. He refuses to divulge important information but starts panicking when a VIP calls him. Jun-young and Gang-hyun wait for him to pick it up, but when he refuses, I-soo barges into the room, receives the call, and impersonates the suspect, which angers Jun-young.

Gang-hyun asks I-soo and Kyung-jin to bring the VIP to the police station. Due to the incident of I-soo receiving the phone, Jun-young asks Gang-hyun when she will stop I-soo, and she says she will handle the aftermath with the chief later. She also says she will consider not bringing I-soo along during the investigations. The VIP is the mayor candidate running against I-soo’s father. 

I-soo mentions the USB and insinuates that they have found it, and the VIP leaps into action, asking if anyone has seen what is in the USB. Moreover, he says that he did not kill Sung-gu since doing so would risk his election, so he just paid up the money and sent the suspect into his room to search for the USB. The chief showed up before they could get more information from the VIP. Therefore, the team is still stuck, and the only way to move forward is to find the USB. 

When Gang-hyun arrives home later that night, she asks her father about the case of I-soo’s mother. He tells her that his mother was found dead in the bathtub after taking sleeping pills, and I-soo was lying next to her. Moreover, I-soo could not speak when he found him, and the doctors said it was because of shock and aphasia, which explains the memory loss. He then warns her not to get close to I-soo since people who have suffered massive traumas like him have cracks in their minds, and they will break someday. 

The following day is the anniversary of the death of I-soo’s mother, so he wears his police uniform and visits her. Meanwhile, Gang-hyun, Kyung-jin, and Jun-young continue to search for the USB. At the memorial grounds, I-soo overhears an argument between a staff and a man who insists on opening a shelf and putting a picture in. Still, the staff insists that only family members can open the shelves. He remembers the text between Sung-gu and Seonu saying that the USB is in a place only he can open. I-so calls Gang-hyun and finds out that Sung-gu’s father died recently, and true to this intuition, they find the USB inside his memorial shelf. 

The USB contains video clips of patients in the hospital who underwent the psychiatrist’s treatment, including I-soo’s girlfriend and the mayoral candidate. The list has a lot of significant figures in business and politics, making it hard for the team to decipher who else was blackmailed and whether they paid or decoded to kill Sung-gu and Seonu. I-soo calls his ex-girlfriend and finds out that the doctor knew about the blackmail since she confronted her. However, when I-soo and Gang-hyun questioned her earlier, she said she did not know about the blackmail, which gave I-soo the idea that she might be the killer.

 In I-soo’s theory, she can kill Sung-gu like a professional due to her background and knowledge of human anatomy. In addition, she could have hypnotised Seonu into not drinking water and died of dehydration. Jun-young thinks that I-soo’s assumption is complete bullshit, which Gang-hyun agrees with, and he suggests they look into the patients in the USB since they have the power and money to hire a professional killer. I-soo comes up with another crazy idea, suggesting that Jun-hyun undergoes hypnosis to test if the doctor can compel someone to death like Seonu. 

The hypnosis works as in a comedic scene after visiting the doctor; Jun-young adores I-soo. Gang-hyun thinks that they can prove Seonu’s death using Jun-young’s case, but for Sung-gu’s murder, they still have to find evidence. Meanwhile, I-soo visits the doctor’s Professor at the university and learns that he suggested that she not major in psychiatry since the delusion that she can read people’s minds could harm both the doctor and the patient. The Professor also thinks that it is possible to kill a patient using hypnosis since it entails the control of someone’s subconscious. 

During the conversation, I-soo asks to look at an award in the Professor’s office, which is the same as the one he had seen in the psychiatrist’s office and realises that the one in her office is missing a scalpel, which could be the murder weapon. I-soo asks the Professor’s help to hypnotise Seo Yu-kyung, which is a success as she walks into the police station and reveals all the details about the blackmail and the murder of Seonu and Sung-gu. She also tells them where to find the murder weapon.

I-soo and Gang-hyun head to the hidden room to pick up the scalpel, and on the way out, I-soo notices that the art on the ceiling is similar to what he sees in his dreams. Moreover, Yu-kyung warns Gang-hyun not to trust I-so since he is a time bomb. When I-soo arrives home, he finds the reporter waiting to blackmail him into getting access to juicier gossip about the USB footage in exchange for not releasing an article about his mother. Consequently, his brother comes seeking information about the mayor’s candidate, but I-soo refuses to divulge police information.

Elsewhere, Gang-hyun is writing a police report asking the police chief to reconsider I-soo’s appointment as a police detective, citing instances of property damage, endangering himself and the public, and almost ruining their investigations. Suddenly, I-soo entered the office and asked to meet at the rooftop. He intends to destroy the USB footage since he thinks it is more dangerous because two people have already approached him asking about its contents. In addition, he thanks Gang-hyun for not kicking him out when she should have done so many times and that he is happy because he finally found a place where he feels like he belongs. The sincere talk makes Gang-hyun change her mind, and she does not send I-soo’s file to her superiors. 

Dr. Seo calls I-soo’s father to ask for his help, but he does not pick up, and she makes a decision to blow up I-soo’s mind using one final hypnosis before going to jail. She asks her attorney to call I-soo, who agrees to see her. At first, I-so does not believe her when she says she put his dream in his subconscious to cover up how his mother died since it was too much for a seven-year-old. She offers to hypnotise him, and the episode ends after I-soo wakes up from the hypnosis now with memories of finding his mother drowning in the bathtub. 

The Episode Review

Compared to other episodes, which have been just about solving murders using I-soo’s impeccable instincts, this episode delves deeper into the suspense surrounding the death of I-soo’s mother, making it more thrilling.

Gang-hyun’s father was involved in the case, and if there were any foul play in her death, then it would mean that it would significantly affect the relationship between Gang-hyun and I-soo, which has been developing steadily over the last few episodes. Therefore, the one thing we are still looking forward to in the next episode is figuring out if her death was an accident or murder. If it was murder, who do you think is the most likely suspect?