Law School – K-Drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Glasses

Episode 3 of Law School begins in August 2017 as Joon-Hwi listens intently to the news. Sol-A is there too, causing trouble as usual as she talks over the broadcast. Joon-Hwi is desperate to find out the outcome of this case. Eventually he reconvenes with Sol-A outside, where she hurriedly gets on the bus after badmouthing him to her sister. However, she leaves behind her book.

We then cut forward to the present. Prosecutor Yang is taken to the on-site reconstruction. This catches us up to the moments we saw last episode, as Yang recounts the moments leading up to the big reveal with the missing nose pad on the glasses. It also seems like someone moved the sugar packet as well. Could they be trying to frame Yang?

Given Joon-Hwi switched the glasses, Yang confronts the boy in the hallway and asks if he was responsible. Through an interwoven flashback to the day of the incident, we find out Joon-Hwi found out about the hit and run. He also knew Yang was the prosecutor back then. He showed up to confront his Uncle about this. A flashback later in the episode confirms as much, as we see Joon-Hwi on the computer.

Meanwhile, Byung-Ju’s wife confronts Joon-Hwi again and asks him to sign the documents regarding the inheritance. Instead, he walks away but it’s clear there’s bad blood in this family.

On the back of this, Yang decides to take charge and demands a second autopsy be conducted. Seeing a picture of Byung-Ju from the crime scene, he realizes the glasses had been switched. In fact, Byung-Ju’s wife shows up too and demands that they do a second autopsy in the hope that it’ll solve the case.

With Joon-Hwi looking the most likely suspect now, Sol-A and the rest of the kids try to work out what this could mean. In fact, Sol-A blurts out about a second autopsy in front of all the reporters. Grabbing lawyer Park, Sol-A pleads with him to do his best to defend Yang.

Lee Man-Ho shows up again and sits next to Joon-Hwi, antagonizing him. After striking the man in the face, Man-Ho hits back verbally and reminds Joon-Hwi about the spare glasses kept in Byung-Ju’s car. These went missing on the day of Byung-Ju’s death, which, as we now come to learn, Seo Ji-Ho noticed from afar too.

Back in the present, Ji-Ho and Sol-A head in to visit Yang at the prison. The former reiterates that Yang doesn’t actually have to try and prove he’s innocent. The evidence from the second autopsy should prove as much, letting Yang off the hook. However, Ji-Ho also shows up wearing (presumably anyway. If this is wrong, please correct me in the comments!) Byung-Ju’s glasses. When he hands them over, Ji-Ho confirms the sugar packet isn’t the only thing that went missing.

Interestingly footage from the mock trial seems to show Seo still alive after falling down the stairs. The nose pad from his glasses is missing from one of the recorded moments with him on screen. It seems like the fall didn’t kill him. Could it have caused internal bleeding though? This could also explain the headaches.

Anyway, with Man-Ho covering himself with a solid alibi, the attention now turns toward Joon-Hwi again as the one responsible. Before that though, the group head back into class and receive their midterm test results. Joon-Hwi is noticeably absent, while Seung-Jae rocks up fashionably late.

Prosecutors show up at the school, intent on speaking to Joon-Hwi. Only, he’s obviously not there and the rest of the students refuse to speak as well. Instead, all the students rally against Joon-Hwi, leaving his locker with numerous post-it notes antagonizing him and calling the kid a creep.

Back in the station, Yang changes his story to say his laptop has been stolen – rather than misplaced. Prosecutor Jin smiles incredulously and calls him out for changing his story. However, given the recent discovery with the sugar packet, they decide to leave it up to the autopsy to decide. Things immediately go awry though when Yang is attacked inside the prison. He’s rushed into hospital and needs blood.

Yang is in a critical state and the doctors are forced to use the defibrillator. While Yang’s life hangs in the balance, Man-Ho begins to torment Sol-A’s family, moving in across the road and overseeing little Byeol’s room. Man-Ho eventually shows up at the hospital and rings Joon-Hwi.

Before he answers, he returns to his dorm room where Ji-Ho stands waiting for him. He drops off the glasses case and quizzes the boy over what he’s going to do. When he leaves, Man-ho rings and begins antagonizing Joon-Hwi again. It seems like he may well have been responsible for what happened inside the prison to Yang. Chuckling, he asks outright who would have benefited the most from Yang’s death.

Given Man-Ho is the same blood type as Yang, he asks whether he should tell the doctors that and help. Joon-Hwi deliberates and eventually tells him not to.

The Episode Review

Law School returns this week with a tone that seems to be shifting more toward makjang than murder mystery. Given the influences to How To Get Away With Murder, that’s perhaps unsurprising. We’ve got several different timelines being threaded together here too, and annoyingly the show doesn’t always help itself with then way it shifts between these.

For example, Byeol doesn’t age from 2017 to the present day making it difficult to actually work out what timeline we’re in. It’s not a deal breaker but it is something worth bearing in mind.

The melodramatic way Yang is in hospital, fighting for his life this early in the season, is another big point of contention and something that immediately throws more melodrama into the fold.

The biggest issue with this show though comes from the camera work. There’s a lot of shaky cam and artistic angles being used and oftentimes it just feels distracting.

Law School bows out with a decent enough episode, one with an equal amount of good and bad points. Whether we’ll get more clues in tomorrow’s follow-up however, remains to be seen.