Private Lives – K-Drama Episode 10 Recap & Review

The Rogue Officer

Episode 10 of Private Lives begins with Joo-Eun arriving at Tomorrow Investment where Mi-Sook sits in her chair with thugs all around. She smashes a bottle against the wall to warn her daughter, who manages to slip away.

Despite Mi-Sook receiving a slap to the face for her troubles, Joo-Eun manages to evade the guards long enough for that absolute beast Han Son to show up. He knocks out everyone…but then receives a knife to the stomach. Only, he’s wearing protection and manages to avoid being killed.

He races off with Joo-Eun to safety, where Mi-Sook rings to check up on her. She tells her she really shouldn’t see Jeong-Hwan for the time being given how dangerous things are. Joo-Eun admits that everything has been revealed between the pair and it’s clear she still has feelings for him.

Joo-Eun realizes she’s been used as bait but because of her actions, everyone else at the detective agency are now in danger. From their car, Joo-Eun rings the spy agency and realizes Mi-Young’s car is still outside. She wants to check the dashcam footage but, unbeknownst to them all, Jae-Wook happens to be listening to their entire conversation.

At PC Graveyard, Jeong-Hwan is still hung up over Joo-Eun but he too (with the help of Yoon-Seok) finds out Mi-Young’s car is outside. This all happens to be a ploy to bring them both out into the open. Only, Jeong-Hwan isn’t aware of what’s happening, watching as Tae-Joo is bundled into a car after being knocked out.

Jae-Wook happens to be behind this attack and he shows his face 10 years after their previous reunion. He talks about the past and how they could be working together, but for the fact Jeong-Hwan ruined everything by going rogue.

With guards all around, Jae-Wook admits that his little show has turned the heat and attention over to Jeong-Hwan. This is why he had to be killed, with the main catalyst coming from his meeting with Joo-Eun. His changed demeanour to do anything for her made his ambitions and motivation change – something that doesn’t sit well with him or GK.

Jeong-Hwan smirks, telling him it’s the wrong answer and admits that he wanted the ledger because he could do better things with it. Eventually their niceties comes with an ultimatum from Jae-Wook – either return the ledger and stay in the shadows or move into the cinerarium forever.

Jeong-Hwan is wise to this deception though and calls Jae-Wook’s bluff, eventually fighting off the guards one by one.

Han Son shows up with Joo-Eun but notices that Jeong-Hwan is fighting around the corner. She watches as he’s kicked hard in the stomach and knocked down to the ground. Han Son tells her they should leave but at the last second, show up to stop Jeong-Hwan losing a leg.

Han Son easily thwarts the threat of Jae-Wook and grabs Joo Eun’s husband, bundling him in the car and taking off.

At their safe house, Bok-Gi finally learns that Jeong-Hwan is still alive while Joo-Eun helps patch up her husband who’s in a pretty bad state. Eventually the conversation turns to more trivial matters as they talk about money.

Han Son meanwhile hands over the microchip to Bok-Gi who loads up the laptop to check what’s on it. It turns out this is from the dashcam footage confirming Jae-Wook was after them. Eventually the whole group gather together as they go over the issues that’s befalling them all. Jeong-Hwan has just one word to get them thinking – Kingmaker.

With the ledger in hand, Bok-Gi starts to do some research through the various different names contained within, settling on Byung-Jun and deliberating over what this means.

The next day, Jeong-Hwan does his best to clear Joo-Eun’s name while General Manager Kim concocts a dastardly plan of his own, including using a spy to make Joo-Eun stand trial in China for being a double agent. China is specifically mentioned here given the punishment would mean death.

This brings Jae-Wook into an internet cafe where he beats down a guy at the computer and asks him to speak up.

Back at the rooftop, Joo-Eun speaks to Detective Kim and tells him GK is behind this case and everything that’s been going on. She wants them to team up together but she doesn’t make it easily, belittling the police while she propositions him. Instead, he simply tells her that he’ll arrest Joo-Eun if they meet again.

Joo-Eun instead heads over and sees that her Father has been released from prison. He’s hard at work doing manual labour. When he sees her, he ends up burning his hands with shock, prompting Joo-Eun to patch him up.

It turns out he’s staying with In-Sook a the restaurant and hasn’t even spoken to Mi-Sook about this. He even asks his daughter to keep quiet about his release.

General Manager Kim orders Seok-Ho to phone the police while Detective Myung-Hyun Kim continues poking around, phoning the medical office and learning that the burnt body they had doesn’t match up to the height dimensions shared by Jeong-Hwan, meaning that the body is definitely not his.

This inevitably leads Kim back to the various pictures from the records and realizes that Jeong-Hwan is still alive. The Chief has been covering this up of course and now Kim is starting to realize the same thing.

In order to learn the truth, he invites his shady colleague out for dinner but just before snatching up his phone at the table, In-Sook manages to save Kim from being found out.

Midway through dinner, the Deputy Chief rings this man and calls him away. As we see from a flashback, Kim sifted through the various files at the police station and came across a wire-tap.

He had a wiretap on this man the entire time and manages to overhear his conversation on the phone. The phone call to the deputy chief confirms that the Chinese spy is going to hand himself in.

Now understanding that corruption is in his own office, Kim makes his decision and decides to join with Joo-Eun and her detective agency. Only, he has a question first – is the motorcyclist Jeong-Hwan?

In a flashback, Bok-Gi and Jae-Wook eat together where he discusses his favourite childhood dish. Bok-gi uses this knowledge to dupe a contact into revealing all. The address is Gil, Buchon – which happens to be the residence of an “old friend” of hers. That old friend of course, happens to be Jae-Wook. Game on.

The Episode Review

With Bok-Gi ready to confront Jae-Wook after more of their past is revealed, most of the episode doubles down on the action between our various characters. Han Son is an absolute beast and seemingly no one can stop him. I’d imagine sooner or later someone will but for now he remains one of the highlights of the show.

There’s a more linear narrative this time too, as the big conflict between GK and the rogue operatives begins to take shape. With Kim joining the agency too and working with them to take down the big players, it’ll be interesting to see what direction this show goes next.

For now though, Private Lives continues to be an engaging and enjoyable drama. It’s not without its flaws but there’s just enough here to make it worth sticking with for the long haul.