When The Phone Rings – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

The Twin

Episode 9 of When the Phone Rings takes us back to I-na’s and Hee-joo’s conversation when the former visited her stepsister. I-na is shocked that Hee-joo knew Sa-eon’s secret. However, she is also worried about Hee-joo since it is clear that someone is out to destroy her. On the other hand, Hee-joo speaks to I-na using her voice, shocking her. She puts up a brave front, explaining that she and Sa-eon chose each other. I-na is happy to hear Hee-joo’s voice again and admits that she liked being her big sister. They start trying to figure out who is threatening Sa-eon.

In the meantime, our man Sa-eon tries to rescue Sang-hoon, but they both pass out. Hee-joo keeps calling Sa-eon and even attempts to notify the police that she thinks her husband is missing. However, she realises releasing his details will only lead to more problems with the media and police. She turns to Sa-eon’s parents to help and reveals she can talk and knows Sa-eon is not their real son.

She implores them to find Sa-eon, and Kyu-jin agrees to help, not out of concern but in their best interest. On her way out, Hee-joo talks to Mr Min, who reveals that Sa-eon got eye surgery when he was a child to treat his heterochromia. After hearing this, Hee-joo puts the puzzle together.

Inside her car, she gets a call from Sang-woo, who notifies her that Sa-eon is in the hospital. She rushes there and finds out he is in surgery. As they wait, she apologises to Sang-woo for keeping him in the dark for too long. It turns out that Sang-woo had visited Sang-hoon earlier that day, but the latter refused to talk. On his way back, as he was on the phone with You-ri,  Sang-woo spotted Sa-eon heading towards Sang-hoon’s house and followed him. This is how he came to save both Sang-hoon and Sa-eon.

After the surgery, Sa-eon is taken to his room, and Hee-joo stays by his side until he wakes up. It finally dawns on Sang-woo that Hee-joo and Sa-eon are in a secret relationship. As she waits for Sa-eon to regain consciousness, Hee-joo promises to protect him. While unconscious, Sa-eon recalls the time he saw Sang-hoon take a big black bag from Paik Jang-ho. That night, Sang-hoon asked him to stay inside, but Sa-eon woke up from the noise of Jang-ho drowning the real Sa-eon. After that, Jang-ho approached Sa-eon and decided to make him his grandson.

Elsewhere, You-ri grows pissed when Sang-woo cuts off her call without an apology. She meets with Hyeok-jin and gives him a tip about the case. Hyeok-jin is intrigued to learn about the twins and tries to look into the case more. Simultaneously, the kidnapper gets a message from his accomplice, warning him not to go rogue again. The kidnapper is flustered and continues packing his surprise for Ui-hyong, who’s finally shooting his variety TV show-style interview.

Once Sa-eon wakes up, Hee-joo comforts him and assures him that it will be fine. Sang-woo drops by to check on Sa-eon too. He informs him that he kept the incident a secret and advises Sa-eon to recover without worries. Thankfully, Sang-woo brought them to his dad’s hospital and can control the flow of information.

Sang-woo asks why Sa-eon is hiding Hee-joo and accuses Sa-eon of being unfair to Hee-joo. However, Sa-eon explains that he is only protecting Hee-joo because once the truth about his identity is revealed, everyone will turn against him. Still, all their differences set aside, Sa-eon thanks Sang-woo for saving him. Sa-eon later checks his phone and finds all the messages and voicemails Hee-joo worriedly left, trying to find him.

Later, Sang-woo leaves and meets with You-ri and promises to tell her more about his injuries at the right time. You-ri is worried about Sang-woo after seeing his injuries. She is also concerned that someone powerful is trying to kill the story. She asks Sang-woo to consider dropping the case.

At Ui-hyong’s house, the shooting preparation carries on without a hitch. Ui-hyong and Kyu-jin are displeased that Sa-eon is a no-show but still try to put a loving family facade. In the middle of the shoot, I-na shows up to play the role of Sa-eon’s wife at Ui-hyong’s request. Instead of calming the journalists’ curiosity by playing her sweet role, I-na asks prodding questions about Sa-eon’s childhood.

Things escalate when Ui-hyong gets a package thinking it is the abalone he ordered, but it turns out to be another threat from the kidnapper.  Kyu-jin takes off to follow the man who delivered the package. She follows the kidnapper to the old family house. Meanwhile, the shoot is also called off. I-na refuses to sign the consent form to have her image shown or used in the programme. Ui-hyong is surprised since he thought I-na was his ally.

Back to Sa-eon, he panics when he comes back from talking to Sang-woo and finds Hee-joo gone. He calls her multiple times, but she refuses to pick up. It turns out she is at home, looking for the black phone so she can take it to the police. She assumes this is the only way she can protect her husband. She knows that the real Sa-eon is trying to hurt her husband and doesn’t want him to go scot-free.

Thankfully, Sa-eon finds her before she blunders and stops her. He confesses that he was able to forgive her because he could only endure all his suffering thanks to her. Without Hee-joo, he wouldn’t have made it. They return to the hospital, and Sa-eon admits that he tracks Hee-joo through her phone. She asks to do the same, but he begs her not to chase after him if he goes missing. Instead, he promises that he will always find his way back to her.

As they rest, Sang-woo calls Sa-eon and informs him that Sang-hoon is awake Sang-hoon explains why he changed his name, why he saved the real Sa-eon, and where he buried all the victims that were hurt by the real Sa-eon. All these years, Sa-eon was looking for Sang-hoon but didn’t know he changed his name. We also learn that Sang-hoon raised Sa-eon when he was a child until Jang-ho took him.

The next day, Young-woo has the terrible idea of visiting Sa-eon in the hospital with the staff after learning their boss got hurt. Sa-eon insisted on working and attending a certain event and wanted his speech delivered at the hospital. Young-woo recruits the other workers to follow him so they can surprise Sa-eon. Sa-eon is caught off-guard by their visit and scrambles to keep them outside his room so they won’t see Hee-joo. Young-woo is offended when Sa-eon only asks to see Do-jae privately.

On the other hand, Hee-joo talks to Sang-woo to apologise and thank him. He reveals that he knew she could speak because the sister at the orphanage once saw Hee-joo sing a lullaby to a child. He also tells her not to worry since Sa-eon is protecting her. This brings Hee-joo back to the Ambassador dinner they attended at the show’s beginning.  Sa-eon had said she was his weakness, and he kept her identity a secret to protect her.  After a few preparations, Hee-joo gets to stand by Sa-eon’s side on national TV as a sign language interpreter. This makes her dad and the people from her former company proud.

After the event, Sa-eon asks Do-jae to drop Hee-joo home while he drives to the location where Sang-hoon buried the victims.  He plans to use all the evidence he can collect to reveal the truth when the time comes. Sa-eon is moved when he sees the little graves of the victims and remembers seeing Sang-hoon carrying black bags back in the day.

He gets a call from Hyeok-jin, who has been looking into the twins. He finally got access to the missing person’s family DNA database. He sends Sa-eon a picture of the document, and it turns out that Do-jae is the other twin! Sa-eon immediately starts calling Do-jae, but he doesn’t pick up.

In the back seat of Do-jae’s car, we see Hee-joo passed out after drinking the spiked water.  Sa-eon tries calling Hee-joo, but she doesn’t pick up. He starts feeling like his whole world is spinning out of control.

The Episode Review

This episode had stunning cinematography. The director did a good job utilising different angle shots and camera work to add more depth to the story. In the closing scene, the way he portrays Sa-eon’s world spinning as he realises the reality of the situation is genius.

We have always suspected Do-jae, but it was still shocking to learn he is the other twin. Could it be that Do-jae has no clue about the switch-up and thinks the current Sa-eon is the one who murdered his twin? However, there might be two sets of twins.

Once again, we are so close to learning the truth, but the show drops  little truth bombs so casually and sparsely that our heads are spinning from all the possible theories. This show has managed to captivate our attention and drive us against the wall with all the secrets that the characters are keeping. The only time we are not fully stressed is when Sa-eon and Hee-joo are hugging and confessing their deep love for each other.