Vagabond – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Cat and Mouse

Following yesterday’s dramatic episode, we return to Vagabond today for more plot reveals and a subdued slice of drama, one that eases up on the exhausting pacing and action we’ve seen so far.

We begin with the 59th anniversary of the Rok-US alliance. As the various ministers discuss the possibility of the families suing Dynamic Systems, Jessica antagonizes Park before being called away to talk to General Bae. It’s here we return to Cha who learns that the man he grabbed in the airport last episode isn’t who he thought he was, and subsequently lets him go.

Go berates his behaviour before Hwa-Suk arrives and enthusiastically greets them both. Having missed out on their first plan, Lily smirks from afar and relishes the challenge as they move to Plan B while Cha joins the girls for food. After receiving a call from his ex outside, asking Cha if he’s going to join the families in getting compensation, he hangs up angrily and is met by Jo, a reporter for Pyeonghwa outside. He tells him about the lady from airport control being knocked out and proceeds to tell him he can’t trust anyone. He has an informant that’s willing to give more information too, prompting them to race away from the restaurant.

Following from afar, Go and Hwa-Suk watch as Jo leads Cha into the hotel-wing where our stuntman tells him to go on ahead while he waits outside the room. After an uncomfortable amount of time passes, he heads into the room to find a bloodied and beaten Jo lying on the floor. He calls the police but finds a masked man in the room attempting to cut him instead. Thwarting the threat, Cha chases him outside and jumps in the car with the girls, following the bike down the road.

After losing him, Cha heads back to the hotel to find the room completely clean and empty. While the paramedics leave, Hwa-Suk uncovers some files hidden in the pen given to Cha and the girls get to work uncovering what’s stored on there while Cha arrives at the family meeting.

On the file, the girls uncover information on Kim, along with his beneficiary being named as his wife. Armed with this new information, Cha heads in to the meeting and approaches the representative, Kim’s wife, demanding to know where Kim is. In the chaos, Gwang-Deok drops him through a table, knocking him out. As he takes him out the building, Park takes control of the situation and tasks Micky, his assistant, to drive him to their office. Here, he learns that Jessica is corrupt and she’s the one whose betrayed Park and they need to be careful. Given what they already know, Park tells them to use his safe house but, unbeknownst to him, in the apartment building opposite Lily watches them, snapping photos.

Go and Hwa-Suk head back to the office where they report their findings to their superior officer, only to be met with hostility. So much so it appears, that Go is transferred out to another country on an alternate assignment. As we learn though it’s not his fault as the demands come from Director An, whose reduced them down to errand boys for the Blue House.

Cha heads out in the morning but as they drive, it turns out the brake fluid has been cut. With Lily in hot pursuit, he tells Gwang-Deok to get in the back seat before taking control of the car. Speeding down the streets, Cha dodges and weaves past cars and market stalls before eventually the car flips and lands upside down. As he scrambles out from the wreckage, Lily berates his good luck and leaves the scene as he drives the tow-truck carrying his battered car to Jessica’s location. As he stares her down, we leave the episode wide open.

With another cliffhanger ending and plenty of questions hanging over this one, Vagabond flits between different tones throughout the episode as it eases up a little on the action and delivers a more straight forward slice of drama. While there’s nothing wrong with this of course, compared to the exciting episodes that have come before, Vagabond’s comedy and teasing romance does feel a little oddly placed. Still, there’s plenty to like here though and the end chase sequence through the streets is really well shot, managing to prevent many of the shaky camera scenes from before to infiltrate this action sequence.

It’s not perfect, and plenty of questions remain over this one when the dust settles, but Vagabond bows out this week’s episode with another big cliffhanger that’s sure to leave many people hanging on the edge of their seats.