The Judge From Hell – K-drama Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

Episode 4 of The Judge From Hell starts with Bitna confronting Jayeong outside. She claims Jiho is safe at home but it would seem like that’s a lie given what she’s seen in the mirror.

We then cut back 4 days earlier. Daon and Bitna talk, with the former deciding that he’s not going to bother her anymore. He wanted to try and find evidence that he did come back to life. However, he’s given up trying because he’s become less curious about her.

In fact, Daon isn’t afraid of her either, accepting that she’s way too odd to be a human but too nice to be a demon. Some of this could stem from her feelings toward kids, which made Daon cry last episode.

It turns out though, demons can actually due if they fall in love, which Gremory and Man-do discuss over drinks that night. This could well be some foreshadowing over what could come to pass later in the series.

For now, Bitna keeps an eye on Jayeong through her secret mirror. She notices Jayeong’s little smirk and knows she’s bad news. Unfortunately, she pays off an old woman in town to drug Jiho’s grandmother. After drinking the spiked juice, Jayeong shows up to take Jiho away.

Jiho manages to get a phone and call Daon, pleading with him given how scared he is. Daon manages to find Jiho outside, cowering and afraid.

Thankfully, he’s not drowned and Daon manages to save him. He took his chance and got away from Jayeong and waited outside, crossing the road and using a phone-box to ring Daon.

Meanwhile, Man-do puts on his fake voice again and blackmails Jayeong into submission. She shows up at the meet spot, where Bitna drives out of the water and drives right up to her. She exits the car, with music playing that honestly feels like the main theme from Taxi Driver!

This catches us up to the end of the last episode. Just like she did in episode 2, Bitna gives Jayeong a taste of her own medicine. She has her in a car, glued to the backseat as it slowly sinks.

The vision is enough for Bitna to get through to the psychopath, who agrees to tell her everything about the murder of her ex-husband and that of Hyeonsu.

Jayeong hated her first husband and only stayed with him for the money and the apartment. She slowly and methodically worked her way out of this, destroying his eyesight, drugging him and eventually pushing the guy off a cliff. His death benefit was “only” 500 million won and that wasn’t enough for her.

Jayeong only spared Jiho because that way it would give her an alibi and not suspect her of murder. As for the bath? Well, Jayeong was going to stage it as an accident so she could profit off his death and get the benefits he’s entitled to.

Jayeong admits to both of her murders and conjuring her knife, sends her off to Murderer Hell. At least after making her experience the hell her first husband endured, of course!

The Clean-up crew arrive and hurriedly clean the scene before leaving Jayeong stuffed in a suitcase down an alleyway, just adjacent to the police station.

All of this is a ploy from Bitna to make Daon ring. She believes he’s perfect to “fool around with” before she heads back to Hell. And it’s abundantly clear this early that she definitely likes him! The body also has the same “Gehenna” stamp on the forehead too.

Bitna gets herself all dressed up, and waits impatiently in her office for Daon to call. However, she’s immediately called into the Chief’s office. Jung Jae-gul is there waiting and he invites her over to dinner.

Bitna shows up that night and Tae-kyu is there too. She hilariously skips grace and gets right on with
eating the collection of food there. We also learn that Bitna’s parents actually emigrated to Argentina, hence why they’re not in the picture, but her calling off the engagement prior to dying leaves an awkward atmosphere over everything.

This is only made worse when the conversation turns to the redevelopment. Bitna doesn’t even bat an eyelid though and packs up a lot of the food and heads off to see Gremory.

While her adopted human died by suicide, having had enough and popping a bunch of pills, Man-do’s story is just as tragic. This human died from overworking and passed out An his computer. Oh, and he’s also never dated either.

Later that afternoon, Bitna is called to the station to cooperate regarding a serial killer case. This is, of course, Bitna and she’s investigated by Daon around her death. Bitna challenges the legal implications of punishment, and that it only matters that a bad person is gone.

Daon doesn’t rise to the occasion when Bitna tries to have fun with him. She sulks in the car on the way home, but an old lady from the Villa approaches when they get home.

The grandma tells them that they need to stay away from one another, otherwise one will die before long. While the implication is on Daon, it may actually be Bitna falling in love and dying that way.

The next day, Gremory and Man-do may have actually found something for Bitna. There’s a mystery surrounding a killer called “J”, who took the lives of 12 innocent citizens. If she actually figures it out, she’d only need to kill 5 more people.

The big clue here could come from a 10 year old who survived after seeing the killer back in 1999. He’d be about 30 by now.

While Bitna sinks her teeth into this, Daon finds himself morally conflicted. There’s no evidence surrounding Jayeong’s death, thanks to the clean-up crew… or is there? Daon catches a break when he finds a coke can at the scene, the same one that Bitna handed Daon.

But then most of the people in this case, including the grandmother, don’t think it’s such a big deal to chase this, encouraging him to let it go.

Meanwhile, Bitna manages to sort out a note from Jiho’s father to give to his son. The mailman (who happens to be a messenger from the afterlife) shows up and hands the letter over. Jiho promises to look after his grandmother, and just like that the case is resolved.

The next day, Daon shows up to see Bitna at her place. She’s happy to see him.. and that’s bad news. She suddenly passes out after clutching her chest, which seems to hint that she’s falling in love. Uh oh!

The Episode Review

The Judge From Hell returns with another good episode, this time wrapping up the Jiho case and seemingly setting the scene for the next case involving this J character.

This could be a good one, as it’ll put the investigative work of our characters to the test, while simultaneously helping Bitna in her mission to get back to Hell.

It’s clear this early though that Bitna is starting to take a fancy to Daon, which could well cause her big problems going forward. This probably explains why she’s clutching her heart at the end, and why this could be a big turning point for her character going forward. I’d imagine in episode 5 she’ll suddenly wake up and be okay for a while before it strikes again.

This has been a solid K-drama so far and you can definitely feel the influences from Taxi Driver bleeding through. The rock song playing when Bitna exited the car for example, is one of the bigger examples of this.

There’s plenty left in this one to whet the appetite and we’ll have to wait for next week to see how this one plays out!