Stranger Season 2 (Secret Forest 2) Episode 4 Recap & Review

Issuing Warrants

Stranger 2 picks up right where it left off before with a strong episode of drama, politics and surprising faces returning to the fold. Episode 4 tightens the script and with it, leaves the door wide open for the future episodes to come.

The Prosecution arrive first and Tae-Ha tells Si-Mok to go on ahead as he has a meeting with the Chairman. As he takes his seat, Yeo-Bin, Chief Choi and Jang all show up. After some quick introductions, everyone else shuffles into the room.

A photo is taken of the group before the meeting commences. The current administration reforms are the main topic. Of course, things immediately turn hostile as the police and the prosecution come to blows surrounding warrants. While Si-mok listens, Sa-Hyun tries to justify an unjust law being passed while Yeo-Jin stands up for the police.

As things settle down a little, Jang brings up the rental scam. As we jump back in time, we see the stake out scene from the previous episode play out. Jang is anxious, desperate to move, while the rest of the group stay behind and watch.

That watching soon turns exciting as our first action scene of the season begins! Jang and the group chase after the scammer down the street. The assailant scrambles down the subway but despite catching up, no warrant has been issued yet. The problem is, if no warrant is granted by midnight, their suspect will be allowed to go.

The problem is, warrants are currently obtained through the prosecution. The police want the jurisdiction to issue these warrants themselves, essentially cutting out the middle man to streamline affairs. However, the prosecution worry that doing so would give the police far too much power by over-exerting their authority (If I’ve misinterpreted this, please correct me in the comments guys!)

Unfortunately the whole meeting winds up with both sides arguing and failing to come to an agreement. Sa-Hyun brushes off Jang’s concerns and tells him to take his issues up with the Constitutional Court instead. After the meeting, the two sides go their separate ways and head out for food.

Meanwhile, Yeon-Jae attends a board meeting surrounding the fate of Hanjo. It certainly doesn’t look good and between the 300 billion won in fines and the inability to buy back shares, Yeon-Jae also has to contend with Sung-Jae’s constant presence. The real meat of the issue though comes from the bylaw that may be introduced, preventing the company’s chief executive officer from also serving as the chairperson. In laymen’s terms, it means Yeon-Jae will be ousted and someone else will be appointed as Chairperson to push the owner out the company.

The person most likely to take over? Her Father, Yoon-Beom. As you may remember, the last we saw of this man he was arrested and taken away. If he comes back into the company, this will undoubtedly cause a whole world of problems.

Those problems continue to mount for Yeon-Jae when she visits her Father but is greeted by the maid outside. She apologises and tells her that Yoon-Beom no longer classifies her as a daughter.

While Si-Mok is called away from dinner, Chief Choi receives a message from Seong-Uk regarding the jailed former police officer. As she asks which prosecutor was asking questions, we cut back to the police station itself.

Jang feeds back the bad news to the Captain regarding the meeting. They’re still no closer to getting the warrants needed but he refuses to put more work on Yeo-Jin’s plate. She has enough issues in her new role.

Si-Mok is picked up by Yeon-Jae on the road and asks him to correct the article given it makes him look like a murderer. Considering their past, Yeon-Jae asks whether Chang-Joon was just an acquaintance to him. “What about you?” He bites back, before being let go from the car. Unbeknownst to them though, Sa-Hyun happens to be in the car behind.

Yeon-Jae heads back to Hanjo and meets Dong-Jae. With him in the middle of his case, he asks about Gwang-Su, the former prosecutor who died from alcohol in his car. It turns out he may have had ties with Hanjo and worked with them off-the-books. According to them, apparently Song did drink quite a lot according to one of the representatives from Hanjo.

When the man leaves, Dong-Jae and Yeon-Jeo discuss the latter’s Father. He’s different since his time in prison and hasn’t shown his face since being arrested.

Continuing to pursue the case, Dong-Jae heads up to Yoon-Beom’s house and requests to see him. Only, he’s apparently not home. Dong-Jae is not so sure though but he receives a rude greeting and is unable to give a letter from Yeon-Jae. However, he does manage to go through the trash for clues. There, he finds ripped up receipts and empty bottles with no labels on. Could these be medicine pills?

After giving her his vote of confidence, Dong-Jae takes his leave. However, he tellingly leaves the ripped up receipt from the trash behind for her. As he walks out the room, he smiles cunningly – what has he got up his sleeve?

Meanwhile, Chief Choi gives Yeo-Jin a secret mission. After being released a year back, she tasks her to meet Officer Kim and investigate him. Only, Si-Mok mentioned something similar at dinner. Instead of heading in to tell the Chief, Yeo-Jin instead starts diving deeper into this case.

She invites Chang-Yong to join her at the police station and asks why Sergeant Baek is on vacation. Given Chang-Yong’s name was involved with the police deaths, she turns the attention to Sergeant Song and asks whether he got on with the team. Finally he breaks down and reveals that the other officers bullied and ganged up on him.

The Captain knew exactly what was going on and forced Song to clean up boiling water that was poured on his back. Now it’s starting to make more sense and definitely doesn’t look like a suicide. Yeo-jin figures this out too, as the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

Although the pacing is still quite slow, this is a much better episode that balances politics with the different cases nicely. The whole prosecution VS police angle is good and it’s nice to see Yoon-Beom back in the fold.

Speaking of which, what could possibly be wrong with Yoon-Beom? Is he dying? It may explain his bitterness although the unresolved issues from last season will almost certainly spill over in a messy way.

The sense of comradeship last season seems to be all but over as both Si-Mok and Yeo-Jin engage in their own separate investigations. I’d imagine at some point these two will team up together again. For now though there’s plenty of intriguing points to bring forward.

The meeting at the start was suitably intense too and there’s some great character work being done here. There’s a lot of shades of grey running through this drama as well and right now it’s very difficult to work out who’s telling the truth and who’s lying.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens next of course but it seems likely now that the police officers were involved in the death of one of their own.