The Uncanny Counter – K-Drama Episode 12 Recap & Review

The Yellow Suitcase

Episode 12 of The Uncanny Counter begins with Mo-Tak rushing Detective Jeong-Yeong into hospital. She’s scrambled into surgery and things look really bleak for her future. While the surgeons try to resuscitate her, we cut back in time and see Mo-Tak saying goodbye to Kim on the evening he was stabbed and thrown off the roof. Back in the present, things take a turn for the worst when he spots Jeong-Yeong’s spirit floating away.

We then cut forward to see Mo-Tak overcome with grief and intending to pay his respects to Jeong-Yeong at the funeral. This is hard for Kang Han-Ul too, especially given his last conversation with Jeong-Yeong. Mun and Mo-Tak keep a safe distance though, with the former preventing his fellow Counter from doing anything rash when he overhears Jeong-Yeong’s cause of death being suicide.

If there’s anyone who knows how Mo-Tak feels, it’s Mun. The boy pours his friend a single shot of soju in honour of Jeong-Yeong. He refuses to drink more and instead tells Mun that the police covered this up.

It turns out Mo-Tak knows this because he saw Jeong-Yeong’s last memory, one of a gold watch that’s only given to officers on the force who have served for over 20 years. If there’s one person who can help find out, it’s Han-Ul. Mo-Tak knows this and asks him outright which officers have been there for over 20 years. He promises to find out and takes Mo-Tak’s advice, determined not to trust anyone.

Thanks to the papers Mo-Tak manages to obtain from him, he picks up the pieces of Jeong-Yeong’s investigation with the other Counters. There, they realize Jeong-Yeong has been killed thanks to illegal funds (5 billion won to be precise) channeled through Myeong-Hwi Shin’s account. Given Shin and the others think the Counters are dead, Ha-Na decides to use this to their advantage.

They concoct a plan to steal the money and give it back to the people. In order to do this though, they need to break up Mayor Shin, Cho Tae-Sin and Choi Su-Ryong. If they can do this, they hope to turn the trio against one another and instil doubt. Thankfully, the spirits decide not to interject in this upcoming mission.

The mission goes ahead and Mae-Ok makes the first move, placing trackers under Shin’s goons’ cars while Mo-Tak knocks out the security with his powers. Jang-Mul makes his move too, meeting Shin for dinner. Shin takes the bait and agrees to show him the 5 billion won. This happens to be just the ticket needed to get this show on the road, as all the money is bundled into a car and taken off to Shin’s location. Ha-Na watches this take place too, eventually staking out and following Chang-Gyu and the others as they make it to the drop point.

Chang-Gyu and the others methodically clear out the banks. With all the stacks of cash piled into suitcases, Chang-Gyu peels off from the others and heads down to the reservoir to pick up his “insurance”. This happens to be a yellow suitcase which he digs up and intends to destroy.

While this is going on, down in the parking lot Mo-Tak and the others concoct a plan to seize the suitcases for themselves. After knocking out the driver, they take the cases into their car while Mo-Tak feigns being a clumsy repairman to draw their attention away. With the money cleared out and stolen, the empty suitcases are taken to Hang-Gyu.

The Counters are hot on the heels of the yellow suitcase next, tracking down Chang-Gyu and choking him out. When he awakens, he can’t remember what happened but suspects that they’ve burnt the evidence.

In reality, Mo-Tak and the others open the suitcase in private and see, to their horror, that it holds Yeong-Nim’s dead body inside, decomposed to such a degree that it’s just a skeleton now. Mo-Tak takes it down to the station.

Meanwhile, Shin heads back to his meeting with Jang-Mul just as scheduled. When Shin opens the suitcase though, he finds it filled to the brim with bottles of water. Jang-Mul plays his part well, feigning an incredulous tone while the trio begin searching for the money. With them distracted, Jang-Mul collects up some cups to use as DNA evidence against Shin.

While he takes his leave, our trio of antagonists immediately turn on each other. That is, until Hang-Gyu senses that the Counters are still alive. However, the Counters have luck on their side thanks to the DNA sample of Shin. With that, they have enough to incriminate Shin.

The police arrive to arrest Shin and with Yeong-Nim’s remains in their wake, things don’t look good. As he looks outside the window, he realizes to his horror that the Counters are still very much alive. It’s too late though, as the police arrive and arrest him and Hang-Gyu. Again. Mun immediately approaches Shin outside though and promises to make him pay for what he’s done.

The Episode Review

After yesterday’s excellent episode, The Uncanny Counter slows down slightly while shifting the balance of power over the side of our Counters. Whether Shin and the others remain in custody though is another matter. Speaking of which, I think it’s fair to say that the Chief is probably the one responsible for Jeong-Yeong’s death, although there could be another twist in the tale before we find out for sure.

In the meantime though, The Uncanny Counter shifts the tone across slightly to a more elegantly crafted scheme rather than the big fights we’ve seen in the past. This does work quite well and seeing Mun finally gaining the maturity to go into these situations with a cool(ish) head, is a nice bit of character development.

For now, Uncanny Counter bows out with another decent episode this week.