Vincenzo — Episode 5 Recap
Babel’s dark influence runs deep, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. Our heroes trade pyrotechnics for cooler tactics.
By the numbers
Weight that Han-seo trains with: 2.5 (kgs)
Bowls of jjampong: 20
Cartons of milk consumed by Jun-woo: 1
Cartons of milk consumed by Vincenzo: 4
Previous: Vincenzo — Episode 4 Recap
Next: Vincenzo — Episode 6 Recap
Recap
The cleaning crew disband after setting Babel Pharmaceuticals ablaze, and the victim’s family thanks the Jipuragi team. The mother hugs Cha-young, and she is moved. Is this what her father was fighting for?
Jun-woo brings Han-seo home and scolds him. He strangles Han-seo, reminding him he’s just a puppet and to not let the chairman title get to his head. The plan is to cover up the arson as an electrical fire, but Han-seo will still need to call an emergency board meeting to address the stock price drop. Jun-woo also instructs Han-seo to give Wusang an unspecified order. As Han-seo sits in his car afterward, he muses that a marionette can always cut its strings.
Cha-young and Vincenzo are having beers on the Geumga Plaza rooftop. Sadly, they can’t keep causing explosions, so they’ll have to come up with a courtroom strategy. Vincenzo may not be able to practice law in Korea, but he knows how to put the (literal and figurative) heat on people while she has both the license to practice and the insider knowledge on Babel. She knows Babel’s most vulnerable subsidiary, and the one that rigs its stock price the most, is Babel Chemicals. They are developing a revolutionary new chemical for use in digital displays that is also so highly toxic to humans, it is banned for use in other countries.
Monk Chaeshin’s friend Lee U-yeong comes to visit, and he happens to be an employee at Babel Chemicals. The two old friends share memories of their younger years when, suddenly, U-yeong’s nose starts bleeding. The monk notes that his friend has lost a lot of weight lately.
It’s morning and everyone is getting their workout on. Vincenzo finds Han-seo at the gym and spots him while he’s doing bench presses. He strikes up a conversation while pretending to be a Babel/Chairman Jang superfan and, in the process, deduces that Han-seo isn’t the real boss. Vincenzo rattles him with mention of the arson at Babel Pharmaceuticals — he’s a shareholder, but he’ll be selling off his stock now since it’s worthless.
Meanwhile, Jun-woo watches news of the fire on his treadmill while checking in on Cha-young, who is busy with aerial yoga. She says that Babel had it coming for all the evil things they’ve done, and Jun-woo realizes she is the one “punishing” him.
Gasp, is that Vincenzo putting sugar in his espresso?? He tells Cha-young that meeting the boss of an enemy before a battle usually puts him at ease, but Han-seo is just a puppet. Cha-young declares they’ll need to destroy the puppet to draw out the real boss.
At Wusang, Choi suspects it’s Vincenzo that threatened her at the laundromat, but Attorney Han has already run a background check which came out clean. She thinks that’s a clear sign he’s not. To double-check, Attorney Han has already put in a request with his contacts from intelligence. Like Vincenzo earlier, she needs to see what her enemy looks like, so she visits Jipuragi with a gift.
Attorney Choi arrives with a plant while Mr. Nam does his best Vincenzo impression, complete with cheap plastic lighter and pocket square from an optometrist’s office. She’s completely unintimidated and declares he’s not Vincenzo. Down the hall, she sees the real Vincenzo with Cha-young. He hadn’t disguised his voice when he threatened her, so she introduces Vincenzo and tells her his tonsils are too swollen to talk. He smiles innocently as she sizes him up. She invites herself into their office for tea and tells Cha-young the key to Jipuragi’s longevity is to lie low and not act recklessly. Choi tries to get Vincenzo to talk, but she only gets a few squeaky syllables out of him, leaving her very confused.
The next day, Chairman Jang stops by Wusang and Attorney Han calls Jun-woo into his office. He promotes Jun-woo to partner, though he can’t understand why, and Jun-woo does a happy dance outside his (formerly Cha-young’s) new office.
Cha-young gives Vincenzo and Mr. Nam an overview of the allegations against Babel Chemicals. There are 42 victims in total, nine of whom are dead from leukemia, and a toxic chemical called BLSD is responsible. The victims are being represented by So Hyeon-u, a lawyer in cahoots with Wusang to settle all cases out of court. Not-so-coincidentally, the hospital where all the victims are treated also belongs to Babel. The head of oncology there, Dr. Gil, tampers with their medical records to suit the case. Meanwhile, the head of the Daechang Daily newspaper covers up Babel’s scandals with positive spin in exchange for more advertising revenue.
Vincenzo thinks Jipuragi should take the case, so they pay Attorney So a visit. They call him a traitor for recommending settlement to all his clients. He keeps up the righteous lawyer charade and insists his clients trust him too much for him to quit now. He accuses them of trying to steal the case for their own profit, but Cha-young wants the case because they intend to win. Vincenzo threatens to send him to a deserted place if he doesn’t resign by morning and notices something strange about the artwork in the office.
In the Babel boardroom, Chairman Jang is treating the executives to a very spicy bowl of jjampong. Everyone is to eat without water unless they are willing to offer up a plan. Apparently this is not the first time he’s used this trick, and Jun-woo calls with a more useful plan: Bring a Daechang Daily reporter to Babel Chemicals and announce the release of BLSD. Han-seo is concerned it isn’t ready and isn’t pleased with the idea, but Jun-woo knows the public only cares about appearances anyway.
Cha-young isn’t sure Attorney So will drop the clients and thinks she has a better shot winning over the plaintiffs themselves. She’s so confident she bets Vincenzo a finger flick, but it is against Vincenzo’s principles to hit a woman even for a game.
At the Babel victims’ office, she puts on her signature crying face and tells the clients they are like family. She wants them to fight and asserts the Babel Pharmaceuticals victims also could have won their case with a few more punches. Vincenzo looks concerned when they respond that they heard the Babel Pharmaceuticals attorney paid witnesses to perjure themselves. She tells them that was her father being slandered by the media and begs them to let her fight for them, but the settlement papers are all ready to be signed the next day. Vincenzo breaks the tension by fiddling with a megaphone, then tells the clients not to throw away a chance to win with them.
At Babel Chemicals, Han-seo has set up a press conference to announce the release of BLSD. He poses with the researchers for a photo op, but the one at the end doesn’t look so good — it’s Monk Chaeshin’s friend, Lee U-yeong. As Han-seo reaches for a handshake, U-yeong coughs blood in his face before collapsing. Han-seo freaks out about the damage to his suit, while U-yeong’s colleagues refuse to call 911 until he signs some unspecified paperwork.
Larry and Miri are at Chef Baek’s having lunch, and they notice the Ant Company crew across the room. Suddenly CEO Park’s right hand man starts coughing, and he pulls a rusty nail out of his mouth. They threaten to post about it in social media, and Agent Ahn notes they’re playing dirty to drive them out of Geumga Plaza.
This provokes Park’s lackey and he flips a table just as Cha-young and Vincenzo walk in. CEO Park tries to leave but his men are raring for a good fight. Unfortunately, Vincenzo easily subdues them all, and Cha-young threatens to call the police and press charges if they don’t leave. Vincenzo makes CEO Park pay — literally — before they leave, and then hands Chef Baek a few hundred dollars to cover the broken plates.
Mr. Nam leaves the Jipuragi office early to go on a blind date, and Cha-young cheers him on. Vincenzo removes his jacket and watch and warms up for Cha-young’s finger flick. He hadn’t wanted to, but she did say it was okay, right? She braces herself and he torments her by taking his time. He takes a step closer but softens, giving her the lightest tap on the forehead. She insists he do it right, but he’s milling about the room like an awkward high school boy.
Jun-woo pops up from behind Cha-young with news of his promotion at Wusang, but he’s deflated by her lukewarm congratulations. She offers him a meal of spicy jjampong to make up for it. He doesn’t actually like it, but can’t pass up an opportunity to spend time with her. Vincenzo gets competitive when they tell him he can’t handle spicy food.
Jun-woo and Vincenzo try to one-up each other on their knowledge of Scoville units. At the restaurant, they distract themselves from the burning pain with work chatter, and Jun-woo airs his suspicions about Vincenzo. Cha-young pours more chili oil into their bowls and Vincenzo pours a bottle of ice water into his, lol.
Lee U-yeong is sent to the hospital after all — did he sign the paperwork? — and Monk Chaeshin rushes to his side. He tells the monk to go to the mountain and pray for him if he dies, so that he can go peacefully. Like with the other victims, Dr. Gil gives a leukemia diagnosis and points to overwork and failure to follow protocol as possible causes.
Outside the restaurant, Cha-young receives a call from Monk Chaeshin, and Jun-woo and Vincenzo soothe their scorched taste buds with milk. Jun-woo clearly won this round, but joke’s on him as Cha-young escorts a very unwell Vincenzo back up the street to Geumga Plaza.
At the temple, they tell Monk Chaeshin he was lied to at the hospital and update the tenants on the Babel Chemicals situation. The tenants feel frustrated hearing that other victims accepted settlements without putting up a fight. U-yeong is a beloved fixture in the plaza, as everyone fondly recalls how he helped and cared for each of them. The second monk, who has been fasting for a few days, finally rises. He is eager to help.
Attorney So heads to the Babel victims’ office in the morning but is met by a sign on the door that says he’s no longer welcome. Inside, the monks are praying for victory with the clients, who have decided to hire Jipuragi, after all. The monks call Attorney So evil and drive him out of the room, where Vincenzo and Cha-young are waiting to rub it in.
Turns out Cha-young had drinks with a junior lawyer from Wusang who used to bribe plaintiffs’ lawyers into settling their cases. She’d recorded the conversation and played it for his now ex-clients. Attorney So doesn’t think they can prove he accepted a cash bribe, but Vincenzo hints that they found his stockpile of cash very easily. It was in a safe hidden behind the painting in So’s office, and the combination was easy enough to decipher because So never wiped down his keypad. But… what did Cha-young and Vincenzo do with money? He rushes to his office safe and finds receipts for donations totaling $600k. Womp womp, haha.
Next, Cha-young and Vincenzo make an unwelcome surprise visit to Wusang to announce that they’ve taken the plaintiffs’ case. Attorney Han can’t believe she’d drop a bomb like this, but Vincenzo — fiddling with the scales of justice on the desk — retorts they need to make a big bang to be noticed. Attorney Choi recognizes his voice from the laundromat call. Han warns Vincenzo not to be reckless because he’s in Korea now, but Vincenzo advises them not to be reckless just because they don’t know him.
Just for kicks, Choi wants to know what kind of settlement they want. Vincenzo and Cha-young want Babel to issue a formal apology, properly compensate the victims, and stop the production of BLSD. Wusang thinks the demands are ridiculous. Like the time at the laundromat, Vincenzo reminds Attorney Choi that freedom has a price, and he and Cha-young leave.
Han is impressed that the man he just met caused so much trouble for Babel, and declares he wants him, lol. Attorney Choi says she will take all the cases related to Babel going forward. At the elevator, Jun-woo pleads with Vincenzo to stop Cha-young from pursuing the lawsuit, but Vincenzo has no such intentions. They leave, and Jun-woo wonders whether he should stop taking it easy on Cha-young.
On the Geumga Plaza rooftop, Vincenzo asks Cha-young if she can win. She thinks every case has a 50% chance of being won, but Vincenzo sets their odds at 10% depending on the lawyer’s skill, greed, and cunning. Sure, Cha-young is skilled and greedy, but Attorney Choi is ruthless enough to harm others. Vincenzo reasons that if they can’t win the first trial, they’ll just have to make it so that no one can win or lose. Cha-young is reluctant to take his advice, but he reassures her that he only means to complement her experience as an attorney with his experience as a villain. She agrees as long as he also takes her advice when her turn comes.
Speaking of villainy, she wonders how Attorney So is doing. He’s been left in a sleeping bag on a patch of beach within view of his apartment with a survival kit: seeds, a camping stove, a makeshift fishing pole with a gummy worm for bait, and a paper boat adorned with Korean and Italian flags. His attempts to call out to his wife are futile while, at home, she reports him missing.
At Jipuragi, our trio brainstorms a strategy for the first trial. They liken the courtroom to a gambling hall, and their goal is to nullify the game and make the winning player leave by metaphorically flipping the table. Cha-young thinks it’s too late to invalidate the trial, but Vincenzo plans to do it during.
There’s a saying that only impatient people enjoy eating raw food so, of course, Attorney Choi is chowing down on sushi again as the Wusang team preps for the trial.
In the morning, Vincenzo confirms something with Mr. Cho and Cha-young asks what his plans are after the case is over. He wants to take care of the issue with the plaza, then leave — he has no attachment to Korea, anyway. Cha-young wonders whether he wouldn’t want to see all of Babel crumble first, but he thinks winning this case will suffice. Mr. Tak walks in and offers to press the team’s clothes for the trial.
Chef Baek insists they have breakfast at the restaurant, where his own mom has prepared a traditional Korean meal. He and Agent Ahn watch anxiously as Vincenzo takes a bite of rolled egg. Vincenzo looks pleased as he stuffs the whole piece in his mouth and gives them a thumbs up, to their delight. Mr. Tak also earns thumbs ups for his perfect job on their suits.
In the parking lot, Cha-young realizes she has forgotten her car keys at home, but Vincenzo says they should take a sleek ride to the battlefield. Outside the court, reporters descend on Attorney Choi. When asked for a statement, she accuses the plaintiffs of using their position of being weak to portray Babel as evil. A small white Chevy pulls up, but the driver is unrelated to the case: a red herring. Just then, a blue Lamborghini pulls around the corner. The wing doors fly up and Cha-young and Vincenzo emerge.
So much for the plaintiffs playing up their weakness.
Cha-young is so adorably hot striking model poses for the photographers that Jun-woo can’t help but smile. The reporters want a statement and Vincenzo introduces himself as an advisor to Jipuragi before quoting the same Italian proverb Yu-chan cited before he died: The devil drives the devil out. Across the lawn from the courthouse, the Geumga Plaza tenants are staging a performance art piece surrounded by anti-Babel slogans. The Jipuragi duo smile and give them a thumbs up, as well.
The two teams face-off in front of the courthouse and, at least in the serving looks portion of our trial, Cha-young and Vincenzo are the clear winners.
Comments
I was worried that this episode would fall flat after that last action-packed one, so this far exceeded my expectations. Fireworks are fun to watch, but so is deception. Jun-woo’s got everyone fleeced with his dweeby goofball act, and it was delightful watching Attorney Choi’s efforts stalled as she struggled to figure Vincenzo out. I think she knows she’s met her match.
I’m especially glad to see the Geumga Plaza tenants getting some more character development, because I was starting to wonder what purpose Larry, Miri, and pawn shop couple — see, I can’t even remember their names — would serve. The performance art piece was an unexpected bit of fun from them. And the writers did a great job making me care about U-yeong fairly quickly as a friend of theirs, so I do feel invested in the outcome of the trial, and not just because I want Jipuragi to win.
On the down side, this also means that this writing team was perfectly capable of crafting meatier characters for the tenants but, for whatever reason, just didn’t. I can overlook that because of how good our main players are, and because it’s still relatively early in the drama, but hopefully they’ll be put to good use going forward.
Seeing that Babel has so many strategically placed partners-in-literal-crime makes me wonder whether Wusang isn’t another possible acquisition for this cartel — I mean, conglomerate. They were always complicit in Babel’s actions, but now that Jun-woo is a partner, he may as well own them. How much longer is he going to keep up the doofy intern charade (Side note: I’m so bummed out my evil/good twin theory didn’t pan out)? And with former prosecutor-turned-rookie-lawyer Choi in his hands, would he buy her the Namdongbu Prosecutor’s Office, too? Babel seems poised to be invincible, so I wonder what tricks Jipuragi have up their sleeve to take them down.
It was endearing to watch Jun-woo and Vincenzo show off over jjampong, but does anyone else feel a little worried for Cha-young? We caught a glimpse of Jun-woo’s violent temper early in the episode, and he definitely seems like a man who gets what he wants. And while her rapport with Vincenzo is improving by the day, and she’s starting to care more about what he does or wants, she still has no idea who he really is. Neither do we, really, other than that he’s a pretty crafty badass who set his enemy’s vineyard on fire. This Babel battle (say that three times fast) is keeping everyone busy so far, but when the dust settles, Cha-young is going to need someone reliable to lean on as she processes all the changes that are happening in her life… and I’m not sure either of these dudes are it.
I’ve been waiting for Vincenzo’s past to catch up with him since the social media party he threw at the end of episode two but so far, no signs of impending conflict on that front. Both Agent Ahn and Mr. Cho were notably absent this episode — what are their characters up to behind the scenes? Agent Ahn can’t possibly be fooling around with pizza dough all day; he still has a job, right? And where on earth did Mr. Cho score a Lamborghini? Conveniently, he seems to have all the hookups Vincenzo needs, and we still know so little about him other than his vaguely sticky situation in Italy. This drama is doing a great job managing all of its moving parts so far, so I hope this loose thread gets dealt with sooner rather than later.
