The Road: The Tragedy Of One – K-Drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

Upside Down

Episode 3 of The Road: The Tragedy of One begins with Soo-Hyun reflecting on his turbulent life. From exposing the TGS gate at work, losing his son and even having an affair to hide the pain, Soo-Hyun is a man clouded by shades of grey. There’s no simple black and white line here.

We pick up this episode on day 3 of this investigation. Out in the woods, Soo-Hyun shows up to see Seo but he claims he doesn’t have the original copy and isn’t the killer either. Is that true though? Soo-Hyun is conflicted but when he drives back and notices he’s being followed, he calls out the man driving behind him.

It turns out this man was spying on him on behalf of the Special Investigation Team Leader, who ordered this. He, in turn, was coerced into spying thanks to Seo’s influence.

When Soo-Hyun shows up to see the abandoned white house, he learns that Dong-Pil spoke to four people the night he died – Soo-Hun (obviously), Seo, his ex-girlfriend and someone from a burner phone. That person? Still unknown. This could prove to be a crucial clue – and it’s only compounded further with a missing entry in the log file.

Seo-Young calls a press conference about her son’s death. When she’s away from the cameras though, her demeanour changes completely. She’s much less emotional and almost nonchalant in the way she walks and acts. It seems she’s “sharing the sadness” with as many people as possible, especially if her little chat with Yeo-Jin is anything to go by.

When she heads up to see Soo-Hyun, Seo-Young lays out her terms. She wants an interview at a time and place of her choice – and she also wants consoling too. Well, for now she’ll settle for a runner’s up prize of Eun-Soo, who’s coming over that evening.

Soo-Hyun is called to an incident involving his son. When he starts hyperventilating, in desperate need of an inhaler, it seems something happened regarding Joon-Young’s house. Soo-Hyun inevitably goes to investigate, noticing pills over the table…and a mysterious man jumping off the balcony.

After calling it in and waiting for this man to wake up, we learn some crucial information about that night. It turns out someone cut the power and Royal The Hill actually received new CCTV cameras the day after.

Meanwhile, Seo meets Yeo-Jin who decides she’s going to hunt for him. A strange smile crosses Seo’s face when she says the words.

Joon-Young’s autopsy reveals more details. He has multiple fractures, his brain is swollen and he has clear heart problems too. It’s certainly a long list of issues, but right now Dong-Pil’s autopsy is going to take a few more days so we’ll have to wait and see if there’s any clues there.

For now, the autopsy report is handed over to Nam-Kyu. He’s very clearly grief-stricken and he takes the details and heads straight for the crime scene. Dropping to the ground, he lays flat on his back and weeps.

While he doesn’t seem like the killer, Jung-Wook and Se-Ra most certainly do. They discuss the incident that occurred in secret and begin acting erratically. When a police car passes, Se-Ra looks extremely concerned. She frantically starts searching online when she heads home, with Seo-Young confronting her daughter and demanding to know what she’s hiding.

Well, the truth is revealed thanks to Soo-Hyun’s obtained camera footage from the white house. It turns out Se-Ra and Jung-Wook were both throwing a party, with drugs aplenty laid out across the table. Joon-Young saw them doing drugs and scarpered. The sound of a car can be heard in the background, just as Joon-Wook leaves to chase after his brother. Is this a clue?

For now this is just circumstantial so Seok-Hun decides to try and find the identity of the others at the party and interview them, intent on seeing if their statements reveal anything.

When Seo-Young learns of this, she implores Soo-Hyun not to reveal anything on the news and to keep it a secret. Well, she continues to rile up Soo-Hyun, teasing him about their affair. In fact, she makes him choose – either sleep with her or give up on the news completely. What is important to Soo-Hyun?

Well, Soo-Hyun changes his mind while at the hotel and heads home. When he does, he finds Eun-Soo about to undress for a man sitting on their bed. Oh no!

The Episode Review

The Road: The Tragedy of One returns this week with more drama, lots of intriguing plot points and some big reveals that turn everything we knew upside down.

So Eun-Soo is actually unfaithful and Soo-Hyun decides against sleeping with Seo-Young, despite the woman being so dead-set on this happening and setting up a camera to try and trick him.

Furthermore, the actual mystery starts to reveal more suspects as Jung-Wook seems really suspicious given his erratic behaviour. Seo-Young too is another big red flag, especially given the way she plays up to the cameras constantly. There’s something unnerving about her behaviour and it hints toward her having more of an agenda beyond simple fame.

There’s all sorts of scandals and issues in this, and people will undoubtedly be comparing this show to Mine and Sky Castle for its intricate web of characters and scandalous behaviour. We’ll have to wait and see if this one can stand out but there’s a stacked cast in this and the acting has been fantastic so far.