Another Suspect
Episode 7 of Law School begins in April 2016 with Professor Seo in a sauna with Assemblyman Ko. Prosecutor Yang is there for Ko though, and wants to get to the bottom of what happened with Kang Dam. Now we cut back to the present, as Sol-A answers the phone to Kang Dam, prompting her to hang up. When she does, Sol-A has questions for Yang but he remains tight-lipped and refuses to disclose anything. Back home, Yang reads the letter from Kang Dam before ringing Professor Stone. Within that, are revealing segments involving being on her knees and succumbing to dirty money. It’s pretty difficult to hear what Yang is saying to Professor Stone though, with no subtitles for the English (thanks Netflix) and the theme song playing over the top. This is a perfect example of that poor sound mixing I mentioned last episode. Anyway, let’s continue. Meanwhile, Joon-Hwi does some research with Ji-Ho and learns more about what happened with Byung-Ju in the past. Not only did he kill a child with a car, he also disclosed Ji-Ho’s father’s statement – which led to him being killed too. With all of this on a USB stick, Ji-Ho hands it over to Joon-Hwi and comments how funny it is that Byung-Ju died on the exact same day as his Father. This could be a crucial clue or a big coincidence – we’ll have to wait and see! Well, as Joon-Hwi listens to the audio recordings, he learns that Byung-Ju is not his nephew but actually his son. Back at the dorms, Ye-Seul reveals she’s been allowing her boyfriend, Yeong-Chang, to enter after-hours. It’s a big deal, especially as she could get kicked out the school for this. Yeong-Chang is clearly controlling but she writes it off and claims it’s love. Back downstairs, Joon-Hwi confronts Yeong-Chang and forces him to write a confession. This can be used in court for a repeat offense; he has leverage over him because of Assemblyman Ko being his Father. Yang arrives to see Prosecutor Lee, who gloats that all of his evidence was thrown out. Yang immediately confronts Man-Ho and tries to gain information from him. Yang learns that Prosecutor Lee actually put Man-Ho behind bars and according to him, it wasn’t actually rape after all. He was part of an organ trafficking ring but he has regrets. He tells Yang there’s no way he would strike a deal with Prosecutor Lee, and goes on to admit he really wants to meet Sol-A. Meanwhile, Professor Kang hands in his letter of resignation to the Vice Dean. She takes his letter and rips it up, imploring him to help Assemblyman Ko. The next day, Yeong-Chang arrives to greet Ye-Seul. Sol-A isn’t exactly happy to see him though and simply scowls at him. Meanwhile, Sol-B confronts Seung-Jae about the laptop. He claims he got mixed up that day but there’s definitely something suspicious here. Anyway, everyone attends a meeting with Assemblyman Ko who speaks to those in the law school about the Man-Ho act that he created. Only… he didn’t. Yang makes sure all the students know that Ko actually stole the idea from someone at the law school. He doesn’t disclose who but it seems likely to be Kang Dan. Yang eventually turns and walks away, having heard enough. Yeong-Chang tries to follow but Ye-Seul stops him. Sol-A gets involved, kicking Yeong-Chang and taking off with his girlfriend. and learns Yeong-Chan has been recording her all this time. Meanwhile, Joon-Hwi meets with Reporter Choi to question him about the toy store incident. After the earlier incident, Sol-B learns that Yang doesn’t want her as a witness. Going over what’s happened in the past, he points out Sol-B has been lying about what really happened with Seo. Once she’s ready to admit the truth about what happened, then he may reconsider. Sol-A has a particularly tense run-in with Professor Yang in his office, who tells her she should retake the year after suggesting a questionable solution to the child benefit case. This comes right off the back of Sol-A stepping up to the witness stand for day 2 of the trial. Sol-A’s past is immediately brought up, including her time in the juvenile centre. This calls her statement into question given she has obvious ties to Yang. It could be construed as backing him under good faith. Next up, Joon-Hwi takes the stand but holds his own, throwing the questions back at the prosecution. While Sol-A has a bad time, Joon-Hwi manages to hold his own. When Ji-Ho gives his statement next, Yang steps up with the USB stick. Here we learn that the boy came to Yang originally because he wanted to incriminate Professor Seo and gain revenge off the back of his Father’s death. Yang then outright asks if he killed Professor Seo. “I didn’t need to,” He replies matter-of-factly. That day Seo died he was high on drugs and that statement we heard before about the nephew and son was actually directed toward Ji-Ho. Seo was hallucinating and seeing Joon-Hwi in his stead. Meanwhile, Joon-Hwi overhears Reporter Choi talking to his colleague in the toilets. They discuss Ji-Ho’s Father and comment how they hope Seo didn’t die because of this incident. According to them, he’s completely innocent regarding the toy store leak. As the episode closes out, we cut back to the day of Seo’s death; Seung-Jae was hiding in Prosecutor Yang’s office.
The Episode Review
Law School returns this week with more drama, wrapped around some pretty haphazard editing and sound mixing. Without getting too technical, this show has a real issue with its timeline and the way everything jumps back and forth just doesn’t feel natural and organic. It also doesn’t help that we’ve got several different plot threads going on here and it’s wrapped up within a story that feels tonally confused and a little disjointed. There are pockets of humour that don’t really land, we’ve got this ongoing murder mystery along with Man-Ho’s ongoing woes and possible set-up too. It seems like Prosecutor Lee is dirty and framed Man-Ho but that can’t really be confirmed just yet either. On top of hat, we’ve got the teasing glimpses of romance with Joon-Hwi and Sol-A which, to be honest, is the one big highlight of the show. Law School isn’t necessarily a bad show per se, it’s certainly intriguing and has enough of a hook to keep you watching to find out what happens next. With Seung-Jae now potentially involved too, who could the killer be? Or is this a suicide?
