This is Pengsoo
Episode 3 of Extraordinary Attorney Woo begins with an autistic guy called Jeong-Hun beating his brother, Sang-Hun, to a bloody pulp. “Die! Stop!” Jeong-Hun screams repeatedly as his parents try to bring Sang-Hun back. Meanwhile, Woo-Young-Woo admires her new nameplate on her office. Myeong-Seok rings and brings her to his office. She’s going to be tackling that horrific beating case we saw at the start of the episode. It turns out the father is the Chairman for Sangjeong Pharmaceuticals and Sang-Hun’s injuries were fatal. In fact, he passed away as a result of this. Jeong-Hun appears to be the number 1 suspect here, and his autistic is the reason Young-Woo has been assigned this case. He’s on the severe end of the spectrum, with a mental age of around 6-10 years old. The case itself is particularly upsetting given the brothers actually had a good relationship together prior to this incident. Every time his parents have asked Jeong-Hun about this, he simply repeats “Die, die, stop.” Myeong-Seok deduces that Jeong-Hun may actually open up to Young-Woo given they’re both on the spectrum. At lunch, Jun-Ho sits with Young-Woo and lets her talk about whales. He has a big ol’ smile on his face the whole time, while Su-Yeon is very clearly jealous. After eating, Young-Woo and Myeong-Seok head up and meet Jeong-Hun in the former’s office. Jeong-Hun has a love for penguins and Young-Woo wastes absolutely no time getting right to the crux of the issue. She asks about Sang-Hun and whether Jeong-Jun beat him but the poor guy simply repeats “Why?” constantly. Back home, Young-Woo asks her father about how to communicate with others that are autistic. In the midst of this, he admits that living with someone who’s autistic is very lonely, typified by some flashbacks we see of Young-Woo’s dad trying (and failing) to connect with Young-Woo. Now though, things are a little better given they can have conversations together, but as a child it was difficult for him. The only lifeline he had was that Young-Woo has a fascination with the law. And as a result, he encourages her to try and connect with Jeong-Hun in the same way. So another day rolls round and it’s Take 2 when it comes to connecting with Jeong-Hun. This time, Young-Wooand the others feed off the guy’s love of penguins to try and form a connection. Su-Yeon and Myeong-Seok are there too and they sing the Pengsoo song, complete with hilarious subtitles too. Jeong-Hun is a tough cookie to crack and although Young-Woo’s idea is a good one, it doesn’t quite pay off the way they intended. Jeong-Hun’s mother explains that he’s hard to communicate with, especially in his fragile mental state, and as such they can’t work with him anymore. Instead, Young-Woo and Jun-Ho work together to try and see if there are any clues in Sang-Hun’s room. Once there, they find scraps of rope behind the boy’s bookshelf. They also find his diary from a year back too, which confirms that he tried to commit suicide several times before and Jeong-Hun witnessed that. Young-Woo deduces that this could be why Jeong-Hun snapped; he witnessed his brother trying to commit suicide and lost his temper as a result. Outside the law firm, Jeong-Hun happens to be there and he pleads with Young-Woo and the others to sing the Pengsoo song for him again. They bring him in and call his mother, who’s grateful that he’s okay. She believes that they should keep Sang-Hun’s integrity in check and debates over whether Jeong-Hun should plead insanity instead. In court, Young-Woo leads the charge but the prosecution immediately questions Young-Woo over her being autistic and the obvious behavioural ticks she adopts. He uses the subject of autism to throw shade at Young-Woo’s abilities as a lawyer, which angers Meong-Seok. The thing is, despite how out of order this statement is, and how complex autism spectrum disorder is, the lawyer is using this as a way of showing that people can’t be treated differently. While court is in recess, Young-Woo works out the real events that transpired that day with Sang-Hun. According to her estimations, Jeong-Hun tried to save his brother, and after bringing him down from the rafters, Sang-Hun was dropped on his back. Sang-Hun wasn’t beaten after all – Jeong-Hun tried to save his life. However, there’s a stipulation to all of this. The Chairman does not want Young-Woo to be part of the trial anymore, pointing out how the prosecution immediately attacked her. He believes she could jeopardize their chances of getting a favourable outcome. Young-Woo agrees, pointing out that her autism is not helpful to the case, despite how painful this is for her to admit. Myeong-Seok doesn’t agree but concedes all the same. Young-Woo is side-lined while the defendants given their verdict surrounding the rope. The Judge asks Jeong-Hun numerous questions about the case but he answers “yes” to everything, causing the judge to deem him mentally unfit to answer anything. Based on this, and the prosecution coming unstuck, it would appear that Jeong-Hun is going to be found not-guilty. Despite a presumably favourable outcome, Young-Woo decides to hand in her letter of resignation, even taking her nametag off the door that night.
The Episode Review
Although there is some humour in this week’s episode, Extraordinary Attorney Woo instead focuses much more of its attention on the discrimination and prejudice that Young-Woo has been facing through her life, to great effect. Introducing another autistic person for Young-Woo to work with in Jeong-Hun is a nice touch and it helps to show the diversity within the spectrum and how wildly different these individuals can be with their personalities and mental states. The case itself seems to have been wrapped up but it comes at a heavy price. Young-Woo continues to be prejudiced against, to the point where she’s had to give up the case thanks to the prosecution targeting her in court. It’s certainly a low blow and tough to watch as Young-Woo spirals and eventually hands her resignation in. It’s clear that this isn’t the end for our lawyer though and hopefully she’ll come back fighting and be introduced into the law firm again as an asset to the team. Despite what the description for this show would have you believe, Myeong-Seok is actually one of Young-Woo’s biggest supporters. Either way though, the ending leaves things wide open for where the rest of the series my go from here.
