Stealer: The Treasure Keeper – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

Episode 9

Episode 9 of Stealer the Treasure Keeper kicks off with Skunk and Min-woo walking into what may be a trap. Mr. Kim knows that they are trying to get into his vault.

Inside the vault building, Skunk and Min-woo hear a light buzzing noise, and they realize Skunk’s suit is not working and their communication with Ms. Lee and team Karma has been disrupted. Ms. Lee realizes that Mr. Kim knows they are there as they see Viper, Shota, and more of Mr. Kim’s goons show up.

Skunk and Min-woo walk into a room. There is a doll sitting on a swing that is hanging from the ceiling. Its head turns around as they walk in, and Skunk jumps. They notice there is a puzzle on one of the walls, and they begin working on it. It’s also worth noting that there are some panels of ancient writing on another wall.

Ms. Lee sends her infrared-detecting drone over the building to detect where the communication jamming signal is. She sends Chang-hoon through a manhole cover to get into the building, but Captain goes in his place, claiming that Chang-hoon’s body is too stiff to do the job.

Meanwhile, Min-woo places a piece of the wall puzzle, the doll’s head turns again, and gas starts to sneak into the room. Forgetting their mission for a moment, Skunk looks at her and places a hand on her head. Min-woo blushes and refocuses on the puzzle. They need to finish this before the gas knocks them out.

They place the final piece of the puzzle, but the gas remains. Skunk takes off his protective mask, revealing his identity. He places his mask on Min-woo, much to her astonishment.Skunk looks at the wall containing writing and realizes that the panels are in the wrong order.

Meanwhile, Captain crawls through a tunnel into the building. There is a man nearby, and Captain shoots a dart into his leg, causing him to collapse.

In the puzzle room, Min-woo watches as Skunk struggles to move the right panels into place. He moves the last one and passes out. The gas disappears, and Min-woo starts to do CPR. She places her lips on Skunk, and he instantly wakes up. He sits up, and they awkwardly make their way to a door that just opened.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kim is in another room, upset over the fact that Skunk and Min-woo are still alive. Viper realizes someone is in the building when he and a couple of goons come across the man Captain shot a dart at.

Outside, Chang-hoon wears one of Skunk’s old suits and prepares to fight some thugs that are walking his way.

Min-woo and Skunk find themselves in an eerie replica of a tomb. Min-woo says that she saw something light up when they first entered the dark tomb, but the light she saw is gone now. Skunk starts covering up the lights with his jacket and other clothing. Once every light is covered, they see a glow-in-the-dark brick high up on the wall.

After several failed attempts to reach it, Skunk takes a break. Min-woo finally reaches it by standing on Skunk. But just as she grabs the brick, she falls into Skunk’s arms. He quickly puts her down and they both blush.

Suddenly, a panel drops off the center of the wall, revealing another doll. The doll’s head turns, and the two side walls start pushing their way toward them.

While this is going on, Chang-hoon starts fighting off the goons. With help from his super suit, he has the goons’ bodies flying left and right until Shota appears, knife in hand.

Inside the building, Captain locates the transmission jamming device and duct tapes a small bomb to it. But before he can leave, two thugs appear. Captain grabs a nearby shovel and fights them off; he places a hand on his head and then falls backward, closing his eyes.

In the tomb room, the walls stop moving and Skunk and Min-woo breath a sigh of relief. They notice the doll is staring at a brick on the wall with a symbol on it, and Min-woo removes it. A pair of earrings drop from the brick, and the walls move in slightly. Min-woo places the earrings on the doll but outside, Chang-hoon battles Shota until he finally knocks him out with a taser, but not before Shota lands a knife in Chang-hoon’s chest.

Ms. Lee is in her van outside when she gets some visitors of her own. She tries to fight them off with a cane, but they knock her out and tie her up. 

Back in the tomb room, Skunk and Min-woo find the remaining bricks containing more jewelry for the doll. They find the last one at the end of the room, which now looks like a hall. Skunk grabs it and heads toward Min-woo, who is standing at the other end next to the doll. The walls come crushing in as the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

So far, this has been perhaps the best episode of the series, even though there was very little comedy, unlike the other episodes.

They are not hesitating to layer on the action, suspense, and romance between Skunk and Min-woo, and it’s actually pretty great. 

Poor Chang-hoon always seems to be getting beat up. Hopefully, Captain, Ae-ri, or someone else will come to his aid.

The criminal Dr. Ko does not make an appearance in this episode, so it is still very unclear what his greater significance is, but with only three episodes to go, our questions are sure to be cleared up soon.