The Road: The Tragedy Of One – K-Drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

Love is Blind

Episode 9 of The Road: Tragedy of One begins with Soo-Hyun ready to pull the trigger. As he fires, pointing the gun at Eun-Soo’s lover Jang-Ho, he shots the guy in the leg. Now, Soo-Hyun is convinced that Jang-Ho is responsible for Joon-Young’s death. Soo-Hyun hesitates, allowing Jang-Ho to spew his venomous words.

He mentions how he and Eun-Soo were together on the day he disappeared. Just before pulling the trigger again, Jang-Ho mentions how Joon-Young’s shoe was missing the last time he saw him. That happens to be on the night of the disappearance, and it’s something he missed off his official statement too.

Seok-Hyun shows up just before Soo-Hyun can fire, knocking him to the ground and pleading with Soo-Hyun to see reason. While Jang-Ho is taken away, Soo-Hyun reveals that Yeon-Woo is actually Jang-Ho’s biological son; a stinging blow and a big twist to this whole story. Jang-Ho seems the most likely suspect right now, and Soo-Hyun is convinced that Tae-Seob has been framed for all this, courtesy of none other than Chairman Seo.

The police, unfortunately, don’t buy this and eventually show up to arrest Tae-Seob. This very public stunt goes viral, sending ripples right the way across the JK Foundation. When Director Bae walks out midway through a press conference, this sends a clear message over to Seo, who decides they should arrange a meal together.

While Tae-Seon is questioned by police, Soo-Hyun heads off to see if Jang-Ho’s words about Eun-Soo actually ring true. Seok-Hyun however, can’t help but start doubting what he thought was right as well. The thing is, Tae-Seob actually has an alibi too, given he was with Nam-Kyu at the time – allegedly. One thing is clear though, Hwang was being blackmailed and the transactions Sung-Ja has on her phone are evidence enough of this.

Soo-Hyun continues his investigation, learning that Jang-Ho frequented a place called “Dark Dining” which allows people to dine in the dark. Given Jang-Ho’s ties with Mi-Do, Soo-Hyun believes that she could well hold the key to what’s happening here. Could she be hiding something? Well, she has news of her own when she shows up at the hospital to see Jang-Ho. It turns out she’s pregnant and the baby is his. Jang-Ho is far from impressed.

When she leaves, Eun-Soo passes silently into his room. She decides to break things off, deciding that this pain is just too much for her to bear. As Eun-Hoo heads outside, she rings Soo-Hyun but remains flustered, unsure the best way of moving forward with this.

Another part of this puzzle that doesn’t quite make sense is Jung-Wook. He’s clearly agitated and seems to be hiding something as he sits in the police station. Given he chased after Joon-Young outside the night of his death, there are parts of his story that remain unaccounted for. However, just before disclosing something important to Seok-Hyun, his lawyer heads back in the room and demands the kid stop talking. S-Ra is a little more coolheaded, but even she decides to remain tight-lipped for now. What could these two be hiding?

We’re up to Day 8 of the investigation and things are certainly getting interesting now. After the frosty meeting with Chairman Seo the night before, Bae signs the confidentiality agreement and discusses the night of Joon Young’s death, including an alleged ransom agreement for his life.

There’s far bigger problems at work here. Nam-Kyu is blackmailed by the Chairman to keep quiet about his alibi with Teo-Seob. In fact, the Chairman encourages him to throw the man under the bus too. Se-Ra seems to get the same message and decides to speak up. Now, it appears as though Director Bae hit Tae-Seob outside (the official story) but it’s spun so that Tae-Seob is the culprit, hitting Joon-Young. This would explain why he was such a mess that night. And inevitably, this sees Seok-Hyun bring Director Bae into the police station.

Bae mentions how she was jealous, annoyed that her name was missing from the inheritance. All of this leads to the very convenient outcome that Tae-Seob is responsible for what happened to Joon-Young, with eyewitness accounts and DNA evidence all pointing to him. It’s all very convenient and Seok-Hyun has his doubts.

Back with Soo-Hyun, he meets with Mi-Do. According to her, that night Jang-Ho was out driving with Mi-Do when they ended up in an accident with a reckless driver. Apparently she can vouch for Jang-Ho’s whereabouts, and she also knew about Yeon-Woo too. As Soo-Hyun mulls over her statement, he realizes a damning truth – Mi-Do is not actually blind. She can see everything. And right now she’s hiding a lot.

The Episode Review

Well, well, well, this is one twisty-turny thriller. There’s a lot of big twists in this show and the latest involving Mi-Do is certainly a juicy one. With Soo-Hyun and Seok-Hyun both going about their investigations, this 90 minute episode does feel a little bloated at times, despite how engrossing and absorbing the mystery is.

This is probably the one big criticism I have with this show. The episodes are so long that at times it can feel a bit off-putting, especially with such a complicated story and so many possible suspects. I mean, just take a glance at Asianwiki, there are so many characters and to tell the truth, I have to have that open on a separate monitor just to keep track of everyone!

I digress though. The Road: Tragedy of One has been a fascinating show and there’s a lot of intriguing parts to this series. The ending is certainly a big shocker but perhaps so too is the revelation that Jang-Ho may actually be responsible for what happened to Joon-Young after all. Could it be that he hit Joon-Young and covered it up with Mi-Do? We’ll have to wait and see but as this show moves toward the business end of its 12 episode run, this one is just starting to get interesting!