Song of the Bandits – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

Episode 8

Episode 8 of Song of the Bandits starts outside the Japanese railway consul – Yamada’s office. Outside the office, the clash between the cops and the Japanese military, as well as the bandits, causes chaos. Instead of stopping the chaos himself, Yamada asks Ki-ryeong to be called in to settle the situation.

The episode goes back to Yoon who decides to face Gwang-il and his troops alone. Instead of letting his soldiers kill Yoon, Gwang-il asks to face Yoon and promises to kill the bandit with his own hands. Gwang-il recalls how they first met 11 years ago and how they would have been friends if Yoon hadn’t defied him all those years ago.

Gwang-il starts attempting to shoot Yoon but the latter is much faster with his gun, leaving Gwang-il with a gunshot on his hand with two of his fingers cut away.

The soldiers with Yoon attempt to save him but hold back on his orders. Yoon tries to take aim again but is not able to shoot Gwang-il, owing to their friendship of so many years.

Yoon asks Gwang-il to give up on his job as a Japanese soldier and urges him to start living as a good Joseon man. On her drive to meet the insurgent, Hee-shin asks the car to be stopped because she wants to see Yoon again to ensure he is safe. The men with her refuse to stop the car, promising that Yoon is fine.

At the same time, Gwang-il prohibits his soldiers from killing Yoon and asks him to be captured alive. The junior soldier calls Gwang-il out on his random orders and threatens to kill Gwang-il, along with Yoon. Just then, a mob of insurgents show up and start shooting at the Japanese military attacking Yoon.

The man driving away with Hee-shin tells her that they have already called for backup to save Yoon.

The Japanese military tries to shoot the insurgents but is not able to do much as the insurgents are hiding in the mountains. Yoon tries to shoot them with his left hand but Yoon stops her, asking her to give up. Yoon asks Gwang-il to flee when he still has time and the latter manages to do so as he hides behind the mountains while the rest of his soldiers die.

Hee-shin safely hands over the 200,000 won to the correct insurgent and asks him to give Yoon a letter on her behalf. Hee-shin pours out her feelings of hope for the freedom of Joseon and prays for Yoon to also enjoy the freedom.

She says one last goodbye to Yoon in her letter as she boards the train back home. Yoon thanks the insurgents for their help and goes back to Myeongjeong to help his family.

At Myeongjeong, Ki-ryeong’s bandits show up to help the Japanese military. Chang-soo asks Eon-nyeoni to go back now since it is dangerous for her to be out with them now. Eon-nyeoni tries to fight back but Chang-soo claims that Eon-nyeoni was a heartless killer and forces her to go away.

Ki-ryeong’s bandits clash with Yoon’s bandits and as fate would have it, each member of Yoon’s crew had a much better replacement in Ki-ryeong’s army.

The axe-shooter from Ki-ryeong’s crew attacks Choraeng-yi while the beast from Ki-ryeong’s crew attacks Geumsu. The shooter from Ki-ryeong’s crew attacks Sang-gun while the swordsman from Ki-ryeong’s crew attacks Chung-soo and leaves him while Ki-ryeong himself finishes the job and stabs Chung-soo.

Eon-nyeoni decides to come back and help Yoon’s crew but Yoon shows up there and stops her. She tries to defy Yoon in order to save Chung-soo, but he asks her to stop. Ki-ryeong and his men arrest the injured bandits and crack a deal with Yamada and ask him to deliver the location of Yoon’s tribe.

Meanwhile, Yoon tells Eon-nyeoni that he was waiting for night to strike and would attack Ki-ryeong and his bandits when it was nighttime. Before leaving, Yoon thanks Eon-nyeoni for her help with Hee-shin and Chung-soo. At the same time, Ki-ryeong’s men start killing the bandits who refuse to reveal the location of their tribe – Taepyeong-dong.

There is chaos among the bandits and one of the bandits – Nam-chun agrees to take Ki-ryeong to the tribe. Nam-chun blames Chung-soo for risking his life and betrays his friend to show Ki-ryeong the way to Taepyeong-dong. In secret, Nam-chun tells Chung-soo that he is sacrificing himself in order to save the rest of the bandits.

A flashback shows Eon-nyeoni learning that her parents were killed because of someone called the Invincible General. Yoon wakes Eon-nyeoni up that night and tells her that they are going to backstab Ki-ryeong’s bandits and the Japanese police to help his crew escape.

Chung-soo tells the bandits who were in prison with him that they need to make sure they can escape in due time before Ki-ryeong finds out that Nam-chun is lying to him. Yoon and Eon-nyeoni start by killing off the Japanese cops in order to help Chung-soo and the bandits exact revenge.

Meanwhile, Seon-bok throws a fit inside the prison and forces the cops to free her. The bandits take advantage of the situation and try to sneak the key out but the cop finds out. The bandits all gang up on the cop and more cops show up to save their friend. Inside the prison, Yoon and Eon-nyeoni make it back just in time to free the bandits.

Ki-ryeong finds out that Nam-chun is bluffing them and leaving him to die because he is trying to stall them in order to allow his friends to escape. Yoon tells Chung-soo that he is going to go and try to save Nam-chun but just then, Yamada shows outside the police station and asks the bandits to surrender as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

Gwang-il is such a poorly written character and I feel bad for him. It is hard to pinpoint whether he is truly with the Japanese army or he is trying to help the people of Joseon. No matter what he does, he doesn’t give his 100% which makes him a terrible Major. I wish that Yoon wouldn’t have saved him so he’d have one less enemy to worry about with everyone against him!

The episode ends with Yamada showing up to attack Yoon’s crew but I wonder how far this will go considering the fact that we have seen how Yamada was a coward. With the season finale looming on us, I hope we get answers to so many lingering questions the last 8 episodes have left us with.