Vincenzo – K-Drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

RDU-90

Episode 3 of Vincenzo returns to the party, moments after Vincenzo has broadcast his position to the entire world. The contractors reluctantly agree to have their temperatures taken by the security detail, before noticing Matteo Sponza attending the party too. This man happens to be the Italian ambassador to Korea, which obviously means there’s no chance they’ll be able to demolish the Plaza now.

Cha-Young confronts Vincenzo and questions his motives. He smiles, telling her that he’s fallen in love with Geumga Plaza. Encouraged to join the Ambassador, he tells Cha-Young to relax. When news of the night’s events reach Wusang Law Firm, Cha-Young puts her neck on the line and promises to do her best to resolve this. In fact, her resolution seems to be throwing as much money as possible at the problem.

Speaking of money, the Geumga Plaza residents all decide to trust Vincenzo from now on, especially on the back of his lavish party. Inside, they all discuss his role at the building, with Monk Chaeshin claiming that he may be the savior that Buddha has sent them.

While they lavish praise on Vincenzo, he tries to formulate a plot of his own, determined to try and stop Babel from demolishing the building. Realizing the party was only a temporary fix, he sets out to try and make a better plan. Before that though, it’s Italian food time with Chef Toto.

He tries the pizza and once again spits it out, thanking Chef Toto for showing what bad food is. As he leaves, Vincenzo runs into An Ki-Seok, who’s clearly working undercover and claims they met at the party the previous night. Vincenzo is not so sure but he’s interrupted by Mr Hong arriving for their scheduled meeting.

While he leaves, An speaks to Chef Toto and makes an impassioned plea, wanting to be his assistant and asking for some accommodation just while he learns how to cook. It does the trick too, and Toto asks for his name.

Mr Hong and Vincenzo have their meeting, where the latter mentions Babel Pharmaceuticals’ new drug, RDU-90. The main component of this happens to be coisanic. Unfortunately it’s also classed as a narcotic. It’s here Yu-Chan realizes he’s been tricked by Babel who intend to bring this drug into the mainstream market. If people take this then it could lead to mass addiction.

This burns the passions of desire within Yu-Chan, who remains determined to stop this occurring no matter what.

After, Vincenzo heads to the temple and sets to work moving the mats around, talking about the boiler and trying to move Monk Jeokha. An watches from afar as they work, wondering just what he’s doing putting electric pads on the ground. Well, he deduces that Vincenzo is just being generous and thinks nothing of it.

Vincenzo heads outside and runs into school kids smoking. He tells them to stop before beating them down with one hand. Eventually they scarper as Vincenzo grabs Young-Ho by the ear and tells him to drop the cigarette. He promises to check on him from now on as the young boy leaves. An continues to watch from the wings and wonders whether this is his way of repenting for his dark past.

In the morning, Cha-Young notices Myung-Hee working out and believes this is how she managed to rise to the top. Anyway, she eventually heads into her office where she’s handed a file on Vincenzo, which she realizes is squeaky clean with no criminal record to speak of.

Cha-Young next arrives at the pharmacy playing up the victim and crocodile tears to get her way. She wants to know about Min-Chul but the pharmacist simply asks her for money. Just as Cha-Young looks set to bribe him, he threatens to phone the police, prompting her and Joon-Woo to leave emptyhanded.

Instead, she begrudgingly heads out for the team drinks that night but she’s a complete party pooper and refuses to get involved in any of the impersonations. At least to begin with anyway. Peer pressure finally gets the better of her and she decides to impersonate Myung-Hee’s dancing moves.

Yu-Chan is given a court hearing for the Babel trial, including the whistle-blower researcher who witnessed them treating people like guinea pigs. Meeting in private, Yu-Chan promised to protect his family and keep them safe. The truth is, he already knew about the drugs before Vincenzo even mentioned it to him. Well, Vincenzo interrupts his thoughts on the rooftop, telling him they’ve come to a dead end and that Babel are monsters.

Vincenzo then meets with Deok-Jin again with specific instructions – don’t demolish the building for two months and secondly, when they do demolish it, Vincenzo will take care of it. He hands over an envelope with documents inside. These happen to hold incriminating information against him, including a list of all the real estate agents he’s secretly taken bribes from.

The evidence is overwhelming and there’s even photos of him with his mistress too. Vincenzo promises to follow through unless he follows orders. Without much of a choice, Deok-Jin hurriedly phones through to Park Seok-Do and tells his men to hold off destroying Geumga Plaza for the time being.

Meanwhile, Yu-Chan tries talking to Cha-Yong about the drugs Babel is pedalling. She claims it’s a conspiracy theory and refuses to buy into what’s happening. On her way out the house, she passes Vincenzo and tells him to stop spinning lies.

Vincenzo speaks Italian back and tells her there’s no honour among thieves. She finishes their conversation with no need for translation – calling her stupid.

Inside, Vincenzo and Yu-Chan discuss their hospital visit. In fact, Gyeong-Ja happens to be Vincenzo’s Mother. Yu-Chan figured this out a long time ago, way back when she was prosecuted to be precise. When Vincenzo returned to Korea, he realized this was the same enraged young man from the court house.

In the middle of the night someone sabotages the gas at a villa in Yangyang Gangwon Province. The time runs out and a cloud of angry fire and smoke curl up into the sky from the ensuing blast. News of this spreads across Korea as it turns out 14 researchers from Babel were killed. Could this be Babel covering their tracks and killing off any potential leads?

Myung-Hee and Seung-Hyeok discuss what’s happened and realize this is a very clear message for them to get their work done. In fact, it’s even more clear that this is Chairman Jang’s doing.

And just like that, he phones and asks Seung-Hyeok to meet him at lunch. There, he bemoans his villa being destroyed and the mess they’re in over one rogue researcher. Myung-Hee believes this is a front, and that there’s another person pulling the strings behind the scenes. However, she receives a message that they’ve found the runaway researcher…who also happens to not be involved in the blast.

While he prepares for this meeting, Yu-Chan and Vincenzo show up at the crime scene and find out that the case has already been wrapped up without thorough investigation. Vincenzo realizes that this struggle is futile and tries to stop Yu-Chan. He’s too far into this game to stop now though, refusing to give up even if it means using his own life as forfeit. Foreshadowing? You betcha!

Thankfully, Yu-Chan receives some good news in the form of the researcher ringing. He confirms that he’s definitely going to testify and he’ll be in touch in the morning.

Vincenzo steps up his game and decides to relocate the residents to a different mall that he’s going to buy up for them. They can move rent free and he promises that it’s safe. However, some of them exhibit concerns. Vincenzo remains quiet though as Manager An pipes up with his concerns too. When everyone asks who he is, Chef Toto proudly introduces him as his apprentice. They all eventually agree to following Vincenzo’s lead.

Cha-Young eventually bursts into Yu-Chan’s office and berates him for what’s happening at work. Given Myung-Hee’s influence, she immediately goes on the offence, blaming Yu-Chan for the death of her Mother.

Vincenzo follows her out as the rain begins to pour. He reminds Cha-Young not to do something she’ll regret As Vincenzo and Yu-Chan sit together, he implores Yu-Chan to take the cowardly way out, admitting that he’s worried he’s putting himself in the firing line and making for a vulnerable target for Babel.

Meanwhile, the researcher receives a knock at his hotel room door. Apparently they want to search his apartment. He’s wise to what this entails though and packs his things, hurrying down to the dock away from the corrupt cops.

Unfortunately they follow and manage to track him down. As he breathes heavily, hiding in a boat, he rings Yu-Chan and asks for help. Only Yu-Chan is outside when he calls. The number flashes up as RDU, which Vincenzo notices from across the table. He decides against picking the phone up. This is unfortunately the downfall for our whistle-blower as the cops find him and kill the researcher.

Back at the bar, Vincenzo asks Mr Hong if he’s hiding anything. He brings up RDU and the researcher…just as a truck suddenly bursts in through the front of the cafe and ploughs into them both. Vincenzo is still alive but clearly in a bad way. Yu-Chan? He’s lying in a pool of his own blood and looks like he could well be dead.

The Episode Review

Whoa, what an explosive end to this episode. I think it’s fair to say that white trucks are definitely the real antagonist of this show! And what a tonally jarring way to do it as well. This battle between comedy and drama is ultimately what holds this show back from being a better prospect and three episodes in, the balance hasn’t quite settled into a consistent rhythm. There’s no better example of that than the scene inside Yu-Chan’s office.

Here, we have Cha-Young talking about her dead Mother and how she won’t forgive Yu-Chan for this which should be a really touching moment… while Vincenzo hits his knee and hops around in the background. Are we supposed to laugh or see this as a serious moment?

These clashes of comedy and drama don’t really work – like adding vodka to soju. Separately they both do the job but together in the same glass? No thank you.

The actual story though is quite intriguing, mixing in law drama and thriller elements with a more simplistic tale. The ending with Yu-Chan definitely feels like a turning point and hopefully we see a far more ruthless and conniving Vincenzo from now on. Since he’s returned from Italy there’s definitely been a character shift with him – and not in a good way either.

Clutching at straws this could be attributed to his home country and ties with his Mother. While his character has promise, Cha-Young’s feels really poor so far.

In fact, most of the scenes involving Cha-Young or Myung-Hee are poor. The slapstick for these two really jar with the tone, especially when you realize these two are working for the bad guys and want to tear down Geumga Plaza.

On the whole though, Vincenzo has been – and continues to be – a bit of a mixed bag. There’s some real dud moments here contrasted by some flashes of brilliance. The fact that this 20 episode drama is already starting to feel draggy though (and usually I love 80+ minute dramas) is not a great sign. Hopefully this show can prove me wrong and deliver some excellent drama to come. We shall see.

How are you finding Vincenzo? Are you enjoying the comedy and drama? What about the white truck of death? Did you see that ending coming? Let us know in the comments below!