The Whirlwind – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Second Heart to Stop Beating!

The Whirlwind Episode 2 starts with a flashback to three months before the attempted assassination of  President Jang II Jun. At the time, President Jang II Jun and the First Lady were returning from an international trip. Dong-ho and everyone else were there to welcome them back. Dong-ho tried to plead with the President to do the right thing and stop the case against Gi-ta as he was being wrongfully accused. However, Su-jin advised the President to let the prosecution do its job. 

As the President and Su-jin walked away, Jeong-yeon rushed to inform  Dong-ho that Gi-tae had killed himself. Dong-jo then quickly went to pay tribute to his friend. That same night, he called the President and warned him that he would pay for his mistakes. The President was having a meeting with Sang-woon and only apologised, refusing to take blame for his role in Gi-tae’s death. After Dong-jo threatened him, the President promised Sang-woon that he would personally deal with Dong-ho.

Presently, Su-jin leaves the dinner meeting and gets a call from her secretary, Man-gil, about the vape. He finds out that  Yoen-suk had asked the doctors to look into it. Man-gil hacks into the hospital system to confirm and brings the files to Su-jin. Once again, Su-jin, determined to stay in the game, finds a way to have an upper hand over Dong-ho. She immediately visits Byeong-oh, Brigadier General at the Armed Forces Capital Hospital, and threatens him with being compliant with the attempted assassination of a sitting President. 

On the other hand,  Dong-ho moves to reform the prosecution and hire Jang-seok as the Prosecutor General. However, Yeon-suk worries he will face more opposition by stirring things up further. Nonetheless, Dong-ho insists they have no time, and they need to move first, regardless of the consequences. He meets with Jang-seok the next day at Gi-tae’s grave and promises his old friend to go all the way. Dong-ho asks Jang-seok to stop at nothing, even when the former becomes compromised.

They agree that no matter what happens, they will be impartial and let justice prevail. To prove his point, Dong-ho refuses to attend his first event as the Acting President. As he hangs out with Jang-seok,  Dong-ho gets a call from Yoen-suk that the hospital has been hacked and teh vape has been stolen. Dong-ho is immediately sure that Su-jin must have been the force behind the hack. 

Speaking of Su-jin, she calls her Man-gil and asks him to summon the press. However, Sang-woon uses her husband, Min-ho, to subdue her. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Sang-woon has invested in Min-ho’s company illegally.

Sang-woon opts to use the information against Dong-ho to ‘tame’ and make him his puppet. Su-jin tries to dissuade him from doing this, saying Dong-ho is a wild dog that can’t be tamed, but the Chaebol ignores her. If anything, Sang-woon threatens Su-jin with her husband’s illegal dealings and promises to expose her if she exposes Dong-ho. He is also offended that Su-jin only promises to try to get his dad a special pardon instead of just doing it. He figures he has a better chance with Dong-ho to get his dad out. 

Meanwhile, Dong-ho and his team come up with a plan to counterattack Su-jin, anticipating her next move. Dong-ho doesn’t even bat an eye when Sang-woon calls him and demands to meet. Initially, Dong-ho tries to deny meeting with the President that fateful day, but Sang-woon plays a recording of his meeting with President Jang II Jun a few minutes before Dong-ho arrived.

In the recording, President Jang II Jun clearly mentions he will be meeting with Don-ho. Dong-ho finds Sang-woon pathetic until he brings up his family. He listens to Sang-woon’s demands and promises to give him an answer soon. However, he confides in Jeong-yeon that he won’t give in to the Daejin Group. 

A few days later, Su-jin rushes to inform Sang-woon that Dong-ho is talking with Chairman Park at the Blue House. She is scared that Dong-ho is planning a retaliation, but Sang-woon is confident that Dong-ho will soon agree to be his puppet. He kills one of his hunting dogs right before Su-jin to prove his point. 

Meanwhile, Chairman Park and Dong-ho have lunch to discuss bringing in  President Jang II Jun’s son, Jang Hyeon-su. Hyeon-su is the benefactor of the stolen PE funds that Dong-ho is accused of stealing. Dong-ho offers Chairman Park the documents to bring Hyeon-su down, but the former refuses the offer. He is scared that the move to attack Hyeon-su when his dad is still in a coma will create more enemies.

The people love President Jang II Jun and believe he is above reproach. The politicians are scared to speak the truth and won’t help Dong-ho if he comes for  President Jang II Jun. As such, Chairman Park refuses to go all in with Dong-ho.

After his failed meeting with  Chairman Park,  Dong-ho gets a call from Jang-seok informing him that the PE fraud case was transferred to the CIO, and all prosecutors were ordered to abandon the case. Dong-ho demands to speak to the  CIO director immediately, but the man refuses to give in to Dong-ho’s demands since he is on Su-jin’s payroll. Dong-ho decides to go with his plan B

Simultaneously, Su-jin meets with Yeon-suk and tries to convince her to switch sides again. However, Yeon-suk refuses and reminds Su-jin of her university days. Su-jin is offended that Yeon-suk still sees her as one of her former students, especially after all of her accomplishments.

After Yeon-suk refuses to switch her allegiance, Su-jin threatens her and demands she resign as Chief of Staff for keeping quiet about  President Jang II Jun’s assassination attempt. Later, Yien-suk tells Dong-ho about her meeting with Su-jin, and they make their next move. 

At the prison, Sang-woon meets with his dad and assures him that he will be freed soon. He is overconfident, and his dad warns him to be careful. Sang-woon hopes to prove himself and get his inheritance. He doesn’t want to lose the company to his younger brother.

Taking a huge risk,  Dong-ho and Yeon-suk tighten the security at the Blue House and invite Sang-woon to discuss their deal. San-woon is under the impression that Dong-ho is taking his offer and walks in with his shoulders high and a list of demands.

The first demand is to release his dad, Dong-ho acts agreeable as he prepares their drink. He puts poison in the drinks while Sang-woon is busy admiring the room. However, Sang-woon sees Dong-ho in the reflection of the painting and refuses to take the drink. He is shocked when Dong-ho takes the drink and immediately passes out.

The Presidential security team quickly arrive to arrest Sang-woon, claiming he poisoned  Dong-ho. It turns out that was Dong-ho’s plan all along, to make Sang-woon take the blame for attempting to poison two presidents. Yeon-suk holds a press conference and announces that they found evidence of both poisonings in Sang-woon’s house and that Sang-woon hacked the hospital to access  President Jang II Jun’s files.

After the press conference, Yeon-suk destroys Sang-woon’s phone, getting rid of the evidence that Dong-ho met with  President Jang II Jun that fateful night.

In the meantime, Jeong-yeon rushes Dong-ho to the military hospital, but Su-jin calls Byeong-oh and asks him to let Dong-ho die. Byeong-oh refuses to allow new doctors with expertise in saving Dong-ho to attend to him. As Dong-ho battles for his life,  President Jang II Jun regains consciousness.

The Episode Review

The twists keep getting better. Dong-ho is prepared to take it a step further to get justice, even if it means dying. Su-jin and Sang-woon underestimated him. Sang-woon, though he is dealing with a weak man like  President Jang II Jun only to realise too late that he walked into a boxing ring with Mike Tyson! Now, he will end up in jail for crimes he didn’t commit. How will he escape the death penalty, given that he is accused of trying to kill two presidents? He should have listened to Su-jin when he had a chance. 

As for Su-jin, she is one person who can turn any disaster and spin it into a positive. She is effortlessly manipulative, and I am in awe of how her mind works. We have to admit that she is quite an intellectual villain, too bad she is not using her talent for good. How will she use President Jang II Jun’s recovery and Dong-ho’s accident to her advantage?