Parole Examiner Lee – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

A Stab In The Back

Episode 2 of Parole Officer Lee starts with Attorney Lee taking the oath of office at the Department of Justice. Attorney Lee thinks back to what happened with Chief Cheon when asked about how he feels.

Currently, Chief Cheon is held at Jeoksong Prison, where he was sent after denying the parole release of Myeong-seob. In a flashback, we see that Chief Cheo was threatened but still chose to reject the release, leading to his arrest.

Attorney Lee, a correction officer, knew that Chief Cheon’s decision might put him in trouble, but he chose not to go against his conscience as a correction officer. After Chief Cheon’s arrest, Myeong-seob’s parole case was approved unanimously. 

Back at Jungbu Prison, Chairman Ji enjoys a seat massage as he awaits his parole hearing. Thanks to Attorney Lee, he is confident about the upcoming release and can’t wait to get a proper massage outside prison.

Director Son receives a call informing him of the arrest of Choi Jung-hak. Chairman Ji gets angry to the extent of slapping Director Son because Choi Jung-hak was not supposed to be in the country. Chairman Ji sends Director Son and Attorney Seo to fix the situation with Jung-hak. 

Meanwhile, Chief Park and his colleagues evaluate the list of inmates to be approved for parole classification review. Chief Park is disturbed and wondering about Officer Lee’s plan. Officer Lee had earlier told him that he would stop the release of Chairman Ji.

Next, Officer Lee is in his office admiring the letter of appointment for a while before delving into research about Chairman Ji’s parole qualifications. He learns about Lieutenant An Seo-yun and visits her at the police station. Officer Lee runs into Attorney Seo, who has just helped Jung-hak get released from interrogation with Seo-yun. 

Officer Lee asks Seo-yun to let him access Chairman Ji’s files, but she refuses. He casually mentions that he knows Attorney Seo works for Ojung Group, leaving Seo-yun to wonder about the connection between Chairman Ji and Jung-hak. Jung-hak is a club manager who also supplies drugs to VIP clients.

After leaving the police station, Attorney Seo lies about taking Jung-hak to the airport, but he quickly identifies their antics, so he attacks Attorney Seo and escapes. Director Son is angry about the escape, but they do not inform Chaiman Jin about it. 

Meanwhile, Chairman Jin starts to put measures in place in preparation for his entrance into society after release on parole. To ensure that news of his release is embraced positively, he sends Attorney Seo to bribe the directors of all newspapers with promises of increasing the advertising revenue from Ojung Group.

In addition, Chairman Ji seeks support from the civil society through donations and even aims to meet with the parole officers. Director Son meets up with all parole officers and offers them benefits in exchange for approving the release during the next hearing. 

Elsewhere, Officer Lee is still trying to figure out a way to stop the release of Chairman Ji. He approaches Won-min again, and this time, he convinces him to sue him for defamation.

Won-min fears Chairman Ji might kill her, so she initially refuses but agrees after Officer Lee promises him a gift. Officer Lee wants Seo-yun to investigate the case and bring justice to the people behind the defamation. In a confusing turn of events, Officer Lee confesses that he wrote the hate comments and refuses to settle, insisting that Seo-yun and Joo-mok investigate the case thoroughly and bring the culprit to justice. 

Next, Chairman Ji heads to the Department of Justice for the parole hearing. Crowds gather outside the DoJ offices, with one group protesting the release and the other led by the paid activist advocating for the release. Reporters are also gathered outside, eagerly waiting to hear the outcome of the review committee. 

Officer Lee starts by making the parole review officers overturn the disqualification of another previously disqualified inmate. He presents documents showing that the plaintiff and the defendant had reached a settlement, which was the only factor hindering his release. The officers then start the evaluation of Chairman Ji’s parole case. Three examiners give him a qualified opinion, while 2 give him a disqualified opinion. Director Son approached one of the examiners but turned down the presented offers. 

The second examiner against his release is Officer Lee. He cites his reason for the disqualification as the Chairman was currently under investigation for a defamation case and worried that his influence would hinder the investigation process.

Regardless, the examiners still want to rule in favour of Chairman Ji since the majority voted for his release, so Officer Lee has to table all evidence, including pictures showing that Chairman Ji did not spend time in prison reflecting on his crimes.

Officer Lee shows that Chairman Ji’s influence reaches the outside even when locked up in jail. He says that it is evident that his release will hinder the process and put the plaintiff’s life at risk. Officer Lee even brings out Seo-yun to testify. 

Seo-yun has a personal vendetta against Chairman Jin since it was her sister that Chairman Ji’s son killed, and he was released on parole. After her testimony, the examiners changed their opinion and suspended the release of Chairman Ji on parole, which infuriated Chairman Ji.

It turns out that Officer Lee has been planning every step of the way, from posting hate comments to taking photos of Chairman Ji in prison when he visited Leo. He even convinced Seo-yun to agree to play along and support his antics. 

At the end of the episode, Officer Lee approaches Choi Hwa-ran, a gang leader, and offers to make a deal. Hwa-ran ignores her, saying she already has a lot of debt collection lawyers, but Officer Lee says he is different. He wants to help her return the money she lost in a scam. 

The Episode Review

The second episode builds up on where we left off in the previous episode. Attorney Lee is now a parole examiner, and he is determined to stop the release of Chairman Ji. Chairman Ji has no idea that the person working against him is Officer Lee, so he relaxes in his approach to Officer Lee.

He uses his connections, money, power, and influence to make other parole examiners vote in his favour. Seo-yun becomes Officer Lee’s secret strategy.

In this episode, Officer Lee’s assistant, Ji-soon, worries that Chairman Ji might retaliate and go after Officer Lee. The ending leaves us eagerly awaiting the next confrontation between Chairman Ji and Officer Lee. Will Seo-yun get justice for her sister? Will Officer Lee manage to get Chief Cheon released from prison? 

Once again, this show portrays the rampant corruption many citizens from different countries across the world experience. It seems like we are all struggling with how the rich can easily buy their way out of trouble. It is frustrating to watch how they use money to get away with even crimes such as murder.