Unmasked – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

Episode 2

Episode 2 of Unmasked begins with an old trash collector who accidentally drops something from his bag — the decapitated head of a cat. A young female student seems to be recording him from nearby when the garbage collector suddenly sees her.  

The scene shifts to Koo Hyeong-tae, the president of KNS, telling the press that they won’t let anonymous spreaders of fake news take them down. Han Do arrives at work and is introduced to other members of the Trigger team, Seo Jeong-suk and Yoon Byeong-gun. Han Do doesn’t get along with anyone and gets more irked when the chief, Park Dae-young points out the black colour on the nail of his pinkie finger.

Elsewhere, So-ryong meets the father of a popular singer named Cha Seung-wook, who disappeared 20 years ago. So-ryong says she’s found the singer’s ex-girlfriend and is going to meet her in the US. She returns to the office and goes for a meeting with Park Dae-young, Koo Heyong-tae and Son Hui-won.

Koo Hyeong-tae is upset because the Haven of Trust episode has caused their reputation to tank and says Trigger might be cancelled. When So-ryong puts up a fight, Hyeong-tae suggests a challenge. If he can root out the real Dr. Trigger first, the show will be cancelled. If So-ryong does so, the show will stay on. So-ryong agrees although she later tells Dae-young she will be focusing on the Cha Seung-wook case instead.

As they go down in the lift, Hui-won tells So-ryong to employ Han Do as a producer. She suggests promoting Gi-ho instead since he’s worked hard over the last three years. When they reach the Trigger office, So-ryong confronts Han Do of being a nepo hire and he insults the Trigger show in return. So-ryong then tells Gi-ho to send his portfolio and pitch a story.

So-ryong then gives Han Do some work. She has him review and reclassify all the cases in their archives, where all the files and footage are stored, and look for cases worth a follow-up. So-ryong is leaving the office when a man sneaks up behind her.

She drags him to the stairwell and we learn that he’s her boyfriend and also the one who gave her the ring. He’s still waiting for an answer though and that’s when she asks him to put it on her finger. He does so, ecstatic, and then gives her a quick goodbye kiss before leaving.

Elsewhere, Han Do sees a cat outside a convenience store and notices it has twine around his neck. He follows and tries to cut it off with a blade but the store owner mistakes him as the person killing cats in the neighbourhood. He takes Han Do to the police station and Han Do is forced to call So-ryong to confirm his identity. So-ryong is at the airport but turns up to get Han Do out of trouble anyway.

She then tells him that she noticed him smelling the sunflower she got him as a gift and knows he’s prickly on the outside but soft on the inside. He tells her he doesn’t trust people and leaves.  

Han Do goes home and recalls a tough memory from his childhood — his father, a policeman, had caught a very young Han Do stealing and deliberately injured his pinkie finger as punishment. This is despite Han Do saying it was his older brother who asked him to do it. In the morning, Han Do comes across a crowd and sees that the cat from the night before has been killed and mutilated.

He goes to work and furiously drafts a pitch for a story about the cat killer. Coincidentally, Gi-ho has written the same pitch and accuses Han Do of copying it. As they are arguing in front of So-ryong, Hui-won arrives and tells her to let Han Do take the lead in the story. He also insults Gi-ho because he graduated from a lesser-known college.

So-ryong says that she’s never allowed the higher-ups to tell her what to do and Hui-won leaves in a huff. Later, So-ryong consoles Gi-ho. She also tells him that she didn’t go to the US because her contact said Cho He-won, Seung-wook’s ex-girlfriend will meet So-ryong in South Korea itself.  

Han Do goes back to the convenience store and tells the cashier to let him know if he sees anything suspicious. While he is still in the neighbourhood, a young male student approaches him. He says his female friend caught the old garbage collector burning dead cats on video and shows him.

The student tells Han Do where the man lives and Han Do goes to investigate, dropping and breaking his phone in the process. The door is open and he finds a bunch of cats and kittens in the house. Then the old man arrives.

Meanwhile, Park Dae-young tells So-ryong that Koo Hyeong-tae has created a task force to find out who Dr. Trigger is. By scanning the hallway CCTVs, they noticed one outsider in the building and suspect him of being Dr. Trigger. Suddenly, Gi-ho realises that he can’t get through to Han Do’s phone.

He’s also realised that the student who spoke to Han Do gave him a fake phone number. Gi-ho is now worried the cat killer caught him. The team rushes out to look for him.

But Han Do is fine! The old man is harmless and tells Han Do that he saw the cats being murdered and started bringing them home. He heard that the law would simply throw the dead cats in garbage bags and he wanted to cremate them instead, which is why he was burning them.

He then tells Han Do that the real culprit is the male student who spoke to Han Do. The old man says the student dresses up in a woman’s wig. He had confronted the old man and threatened to attack him with a blade as well.

At that moment, So-ryong and the others come running towards the old man’s house. They scoured the CCTVs in order to find him. So-ryong tells Han Do off and orders him to operate with the others as a team. Elsewhere, the male student puts his wig on and approaches a small boy, asking him for help.

Back at work, Han Do overhears a man in the men’s toilet talking about a recording. The man turns out to be So-ryong’s boyfriend. When Han Do returns to the Trigger office, one of the Haven of Trust cult followers throws something inside, breaking a window. The person then follows up with a smoke bomb. Han Do tries to punch it away but hits So-ryong instead.

The Unmasked Episode 2 epilogue shows an empty KNS office where someone logs into the Dr. Trigger account.


The Episode Review

Unmasked Episode 2 amps up the show’s energy. The episode is fast and has plenty of things happening to keep the momentum going — So-ryong gets a challenge from Koo, the missing idol case kicks off, and a mean-spirited cat killer takes center stage. So-ryong gets a better understanding of Han Do as well, which seems to be a good start to their camaraderie.

Unfortunately, the mystery and thriller elements of the K-drama are a lot better than the comedy. The few comic moments in this episode don’t land as they should, coming off a bit forced.

On the other hand, the case of the cat killer is engaging and uses a nice subversion of expectation. The old garbage collector plays on our assumptions about the old and the poor and it’s easy to think he’s the killer. The twist with the innocent-looking student is clever, although I’m not sure him dressing up as a woman was entirely necessary. But who knows, we might get a better explanation for it in the following episode.  

Previous Episode

Next Episode

Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!

  • Episode Rating
    (3)
3

Leave a comment