Tomorrow – K-Drama Episode 10 Recap & Review

Breath

Episode 10 of Tomorrow starts with more drip-fed details regarding the past. Ryeon is there, during the Joseon period flashbacks (side note: please correct me if I’m wrong here and it’s actually the Goryeo period!) and Joong-Gil seems to stand by her side.

These flashes are causing Ryeon to become rattled and she confronts the King of Heaven, asking just what this all means. The King of Heaven is cryptic and claims that her being in charge of the RM Team is all part of her destiny.

The team eventually reconvene as Ryeon updates them on their newest case. They’ve got two people this time, coming in the form of Cha Yun-Jae and Cha Yun-Hui. They’re twins.

With Ryung-Gu off getting drinks, Ryeon warns Jun-Woong that they need to approach this one with care. It’s a sexual assault case and it seems that this is something Ryung-Gu is familiar with too.

According to the case files, a man sexually assaulted Yun-Hui but was only jailed for two years, which is obviously a complete injustice. For Ryung-Gu, the reason this is traumatic for him is because his mother was gang raped and then took her own life. It’s absolutely shocking to hear this and explains why it’s such a hard case for Ryung-Gu.

The gang split up, with Ryung-Gu heading off to find Yun-Jae with Jun-Woong. Yun-Jae is wracked with guilt and blames himself for what happened. His sister used to be outgoing but since the attack, Yun-Hui has started wearing oversized clothing and barely goes out.

The night of her attack, Yun-Hui came to her brother, pleading with him to take her home. Instead, he brushed her concerns aside and told her to leave. Even her friends were more sympathetic, pointing out that his sister is genuinely scared. That, unfortunately, sealed her fate as a man ended up chasing her down an alleyway.

After her attack, the twins’ father head over to Yun-Jae’s and slapped his son in the face. Unfortunately, the twins end up fighting in the hospital too, with Yun-Hui blaming her brother for not being there or her that night.

Yun-Hui’s ordeal is a hellacious one, as we jump back further and see what happened in brutal clarity, including her being kept in an abandoned restroom and forced to count to 1000.

Even after all of this, the lawyers grill Yun-Hui, claiming that she should have resisted more. Even worse, her attacker ends up smirking in the courtroom and because of his connections, manages to bag himself a decent studio apartment and a reduced sentence. He also goes out drinking like it’s nothing.

The thing is, Yun-Jae has been stalking him and following the guy’s every move, determined to make him repent and pay for what he’s done to his sister. He’s just waiting for the right moment.

Yun-hui has now resorted to cutting herself, typified by a pretty gnarly cut across her wrist. This is a way for her to blanket over all the pain she’s currently going through.

Ryeon tries to talk her down, telling Yun-Hui that she’s a victim and the world is still on her side, despite what she may think. Ryeon even rests a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. The thing is, that’s not how the media is framing it and as she looks online, looking at all the nasty comments from people online, she ends up growing even more suicidal.

Yun-Hui’s scanner flashes up in the red, and because of that, she’s in danger of spiraling out of control. Learning that Yun-Jae is protesting on her behalf, Yun-Hui confronts her twin. She’s not happy about the unwanted attention. Yun-Jae urges her to go to the hospital and get some help, as blood trickles down and onto the floor.

With a Stanley knife in hand, Yun-Hui looks set to slit her wrists until the RM Team suddenly burst in to stop her from doing this. The thing is, part of her suicidal tendencies stem from how her family reacted to the assault. Her mum, dad and brother all blamed her for what happened.

Ryeon decides to handle this herself, urging Jun-Woong and Ryung-Gu to head off and find Yun-Jae, who had earlier rushed off before Yun-Hui took out the Stanley knife. Alone, Ryeon rolls up her sleeve and shows off her wrist, which has visible scars over it. She too has cut herself.

Ryeon knows all about what it’s like to feel suicidal, describing in graphic detail what she went through and how she cut herself in the past, blaming herself for everything. She tells Yun-Hui to live and gets her to repeat that mantra. Eventually she agrees that she doesn’t want to die.

Meanwhile, Ryung-Gu intercepts Yun-Jae while he’s about to hurt the attacker and decides to beat him down himself. For Ryung-Gu it’s personal, and he repeatedly punches the guy in the face, leaving him a bloody pulp. When Jun-Woong sees this, he’s taken outside by Yun-Jae who’s just as blood lusting.

Yun-Jae convinces him not to turn toward a path of revenge and to be there for his sister.

Ryeon arrives and slaps Ryung-Gu in the face, reminding him that this isn’t the way and he needs to get his time in court. And that time comes from Ryeon serving as the lawyer working on behalf of Yun-Hui’s side. She requests he be put away for over 10,000 years and the crowd in the courtroom erupts into rapturous applause at this.

With the attacker finally arrested and brought to justice, the twins get some form of justice and a chance to work through this together, as a stronger unit than they were before.

Back with the despicable attacker, JoongGil shows up while he’s in the bus en-route to the prison. He confirms that he’s about to collected as a soul off the back of a heart attack. His life is over.

Joong-Gil promises that he’ll burn in hell for eternity, and as flames lick hungrily across the breadth of this bus, Joong-Gils eyes dance joyously at the sight of these flames eating this despicable man.

During the epilogue, we jump back in time and see more of Ryung-Gu’s past. Namely that of his bond with his mother and the heartbreaking way Ryung-Gu witnessed her hanging from the living room one afternoon.

The Episode Review

After the poignant episode yesterday, Tomorrow roars back with another shockingly good episode. I say shocking because the way this series has handled trauma and certain cases hasn’t always been particularly subtle. At times the show has really struggled to wrap up its cases and given the heavy subject material here, Tomorrow was in danger of falling flat on its face. Thankfully, it doesn’t slip up.

The entire episode is perfectly framed, from the victim shaming from online trolls through to Yun-Hui’s own family blaming her for wearing “provocative clothing” while on a night out, it’s hard not to feel for the poor girl.

The conversation between Yun-Hui and Ryeon about cutting their wrists is again, another excellent addition and pretty accurate too. As a side note here, I was bullied badly in school and used to cut my wrists so I understand the notion of numbing the pain through cutting.

Now, I could be super nit-picky too and point out that badass Ryeon in the courtroom and Ryung-Gu punching the predator are interfering with human affairs but to be honest, the rest of the episode was so well crafted that it’s easy to look past that.

Another great episode; Tomorrow is just starting to turn a corner and deliver some excellent chapters. Let’s hope that continues through to next week as well!