The Trunk – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

Episode 2

Episode 2 of The Trunk begins 5 years ago. It is 10 days before In-ji’s wedding. Her fiance, Seo Do-ha is in a public scandal as her mother exposes him for being bisexual and having an affair with a man. Embarrassed, he disappears without a word.

In-ji is heartbroken and keeps waiting for him before finally cancelling the wedding 7 days later. She tries to throw her wedding ring but Lee Seon, the CEO of NM and future boss returns it to her. She offers In-ji a job where marriage will be her profession.

At present, Jeong-won rushes In-ji to the hospital. He berates her for protecting him, a stranger. She claims she did it for her performance review and asks for a burger. He notices that she doesn’t like tomatoes like him and they have a quid pro quo. He is her 5th fake husband. But when she asks why he hates the chandelier, he deflects. That night, he dreams of his father beating and raping his mother. The chandelier shakes from the force.

When he leaves for work the next day, In-ji goes through his things and notices a ton of pills in his cabinet. Meanwhile, he tells Hyeon-cheol about the arrangement – if he stays with In-ji for a year, Seo-yeon will take him back. Hyeon-cheol finds it ridiculous and wonders if he can trust In-ji.

Elsewhere, while In-ji shops, Eom Tae-song stalks her. A keeper checks in with her about abuse or violence and she claims everything is under control. However, she again spies Tae-song in front of the house. 

At the same time, Seo-yeon goes for a medical check-up and it seems she may have to take precautions if she wants kids. She refuses and creates a fuss when the doctor asks her to reconsider. Yun-a tells her about In-ji protecting Jeong-won and thinks they are in love. But Seo-yeon is only worried about Jeong-won and doesn’t feel jealous.

That night, she smiles when she gets his text that he can’t stand In-ji and he misses Seo-yeon. But when he texts that he is upset that In-ji got hurt because of him, it troubles Seo-yeon. She has sex with her husband, Yun Ji-o under a similar-looking chandelier.

Jeong-won heads home and joins In-ji while she watches soccer. She confides that she joined NM for revenge but now, she is good at it. In return, he tells her about his abusive father and how Mr. Han installed spycams in the chandelier to spy on Mrs. Han. Jeong-won is comfortable telling In-ji as she is a temporary fixture who has to keep his secrets. 

It cuts back to Seo-yeon and Ji-o messing around when she gets a call. She instantly calls Jeong-won but he is asleep and In-ji is taking care of a wound on his forehead from the fight at the office. Seo-yeon is annoyed when she is told that Jeong-won has fallen asleep without any pills. She simply tells In-ji that Mr. Han had an incident but he has recovered.

The next day, Hyeon-cheol and Yun-a are driving with their kids. They constantly bicker and are loud. They also happen to be poor and don’t have enough money. Hyeon-cheol wants to leave the label but can’t because of Jeong-won.

Jeong-won wakes up to see that In-ji has left her childhood doll by his side. He visits his comatose dad and wishes he had died. In-ji sees him pick up a pillow and locks the door, joking about killing Mr. Han. It cuts to Seo-yeon getting irritated that Jeong-won hasn’t called her.

He and In-ji have lunch and she continues to comfort him. He wonders if she does this for every client but he is grateful as it is the first time in 6 months he slept without pills. In-ji ruins the mood by wondering if Seo-yeon is the one who put him on pills.

We see that Seo-yeon is remodelling the label’s HQ when she runs into Jeong-won. She runs off when he tries to happily share that he didn’t need pills last night.

In-ji’s best friend, Si-jeong and Ms. Do-dam, the neighbour crash at In-ji’s. Si-jeong has been struggling but she needs to find Tae-song which has Do-dam wondering why she cares so much. However, when Si-jeong leaves, Do-dam alerts someone about Tae-song’s discharge.

In the flashforward, the cops find a dead body with a chest wound near the same river where the trunk was found. A mysterious man watches and it seems he might be Ji-o. The cops then interrogate Si-jeong who confirms the trunk is In-ji’s. But she doesn’t know what work she does.

At present, Seo-yeon visits an elderly lady who knows of Jeong-won’s arrangement. She thinks Seo-yeon is twisted for testing Jeong-won’s loyalty. Tae-song shows up as the lead organiser for the elderly lady’s event. Seo-yeon leaves and visits Ji-o during his fencing practice. While he showers, she watches him but refuses to let him touch her.

She is upset that Jeong-won could sleep without pills and decides to go to his place. She finds In-ji waiting and accidentally spills the tea. Seo-yeon goes to the bathroom and recalls the time she tried to overdose while she was with Jeong-won.

At the same time, Jeong-won gets a text from a burner asking if he can trust In-ji. At the end of The Trunk Episode 2, Seo-yeon and In-ji have tea. In-ji reveals that she knows that Jeong-won’s ex-wife is Lee Seo-yeon, an architect.

The Episode Review

Strap in, because this twisted Netflix K-drama is a whole rollercoaster that has finally taken off at full speed. The Trunk Episode 2 explains some of the premise without giving away too much of the mystery. We knew something was up with Seo-yeon with the way she kept covering for Jeong-won in the previous episode.

And now, it was clear that the writers were leading up to something every time she kept getting jealous of In-ji. She clearly still likes her husband, or well, ex-husband but wants to punish him for whatever happened in that incident. That could also explain her fake husband, Ji-o and the random rules she has with him. 

But did we just see Ji-o near the site of the dead body that was found with In-ji’s trunk? Either that is a huge red herring or it seems he is about to get tangled up in the whole fake marriage scenario. Our money is on him falling for Seo-yeon for real and trying to get rid of Jeong-won. But we are just waiting for Seo-yeon’s plan to backfire with Jeong-won falling for In-ji. Till then, onto the next episode!