Vincenzo — Episode 6 Recap
Shenanigans ensue both in and out of the courtroom, and the heads of both sides of the battle trade barbs.
By the numbers
Hornet stings: 2
Value of gold bars under Geumga Plaza: 150B KRW
Golden calves under Cha-young’s house, maybe: 100
Witnesses silenced: 6
Previous: Vincenzo — Episode 5 Recap
Next: Vincenzo — Episode 7 Recap
Recap
The Geumga Plaza tenants are still putting on their anti-Babel performance art piece outside. Inside the courthouse, Yeon-jin runs into a gentleman, spilling her drink all over his suit. The man meets with the Wusang attorneys before the trial — he’s the judge for the trial, and they reiterate their mutual cooperation.
Water is leaking from the ceiling and walls of the courtroom. Wusang comments on the shoddy craftsmanship of the building. Jun-woo notes that it was Babel’s predecessor, Haemun E&C, that had constructed it, and Babel would have done a better job. In protest of the trial, the Geumga Gang(tm) agree not to rise when the judge enters but chicken out when the moment arrives. The room is so flooded the judge slips on a puddle on the floor, but the trial proceeds.
We alternate between flashbacks of the Jipuragi strategy session, and scenes in the courtroom. The trial is likened to a rigged gambling hall:
- Step 1: Remove the dealer from the table. Cha-young appears to have a panic attack and collapses. The judge thinks the trial is too important to postpone, so he will check on her condition after recess. Jun-woo rushes across the aisle, but she pops right back up. Attorney Choi gives him grief for falling for it.
- Step 2: Black out the entire gambling house. The lights go out, courtesy of Mr. Cho. The attendees complain they can’t hear the judge without a microphone, and Cha-young says it’s too dark for the stenographer to take notes. The judge asks her to go get a laptop, insisting that only core matters need to be recorded.
- Step 3: Kick everyone else out and create chaos. The pawn shop couple let a couple of giant hornets out of their jackets. Chaos ensues and everyone tries to evacuate, but the judge orders them to stay put.
Remember that drink Yeon-jin spilled on the judge? It was honey water, and a hornet makes a (teehee) beeline for his face. He suffers an allergic reaction from the sting and is finally forced to adjourn. Cha-young and Attorney Han trade looks as they exit the courtroom.
Outside, Attorney Choi accuses Cha-young of insulting the court to buy a week. She counters they are all in the same boat because Wusang and Babel were colluding with the judge. Choi can’t argue with that and Cha-young prances off. Vincenzo has an errand and passes up a team breakfast.
Wusang crew is pretty miffed at this turn of events. Han takes his frustrations out on the back of Jun-woo’s seat. When Choi remarks they are supposed to be good at playing dirty, Han calls themselves strategic. She doesn’t appreciate the double standard. She rolls down the window and curses at a truck honking in the adjacent lane.
Yu-chan usually visits Gyeong-ja on the last Tuesday of every month, but Vincenzo goes in his stead. She looks relieved to see him, but he’s only there to let her know no one will be coming anymore. He probes her for information and learns she has no husband or children. He cruelly asks what kind of life she led and accuses her of being full of excuses. When she apologizes, he tells her to spend the rest of her life thinking about the people she should really be sorry to. He’s leaving Korea, and she’ll never see him again. She sheds a few tears as he walks away — does she know who he is?
He caves to his need for a cigarette and tearfully recalls being given up for adoption. As a child named Ju-hyeong, he had been left at a church to wait for his mother to return. When she didn’t, he was adopted by an Italian couple.
Meanwhile, an influencer couple that had been at the Sicilian-style wine party want Chef Baek to comp their meal in exchange for a good word on their social media profile. They don’t really think his food is that special, but he encourages them to give the food a real try. Agent Ahn, chopping onions in the back, gets a call from Agent Tae; there’s an emergency at work.
Vincenzo is returning from the women’s prison when he sees the monk dragging a cross down the street. He’d rescued it from an abandoned church and is donating it to Geumga church. He asks for Vincenzo’s help carrying it (symbolism much?) and he reluctantly agrees. Afterward, Vincenzo asks the monk if his anger will go away if he lives on an island in the middle of the ocean. The monk replies that the best way to get rid of his anger is to confront it head on.
At Wusang, Han wonders if they should have Cha-young and Vincenzo tailed but, sure enough, the plant Choi hand-delivered to Jipuragi is already embedded with a listening device. Too bad Vincenzo was onto this plan, and the plant has been relocated to Larry’s dance studio. Choi and Han are treated to a cacophony of zombie noises.
Back at Jipuragi, Vincenzo explains that, because the succulent only needs to be watered once a month at most, it’s perfect for spying. He tries to play it off when she calls him a surveillance expert and changes the topic: Mr. Nam is helping him shop for a new building for the Geumga Gang.
Vincenzo is eager to leave Korea, and Cha-young seems disappointed. She looks like she wants to ask him something when they are interrupted by an upbeat Mr. Nam, who is all glammed up for a second date. But she is persistent, and runs out to the hallway to ask him out for a drink. She just wants to build some good working rapport, that’s all.
Agent Tae scolds Agent Ahn for his bootleg undercover operation, but separate inquiries from Babel and Wusang on Vincenzo have finally raised some red flags. He is now allowed to file expenses for this mission — he’s got student loans and mom’s hospital bills, after all — and while he hasn’t seen anything out of the ordinary, he’ll reply to the queries himself.
At the cocktail bar, Cha-young is still on a high from the day’s events. She thanks Vincenzo for visiting Gyeong-ja on her father’s behalf, but he discourages her from continuing to take responsibility for her. He wants her to work on Geumga Plaza instead, and she says she can’t help him unless she knows why. He really tells her, but she thinks the gold bars are a bluff. Guess what? She also has 100 golden calves under her house. So much for trust…
While she pays, Vincenzo gets a call from Mr. Cho about some equipment he requested. He’s looking for a way to retrieve the gold without causing serious damage to the building. Maybe the security system rigged to collapse the building has been disabled, and all he’ll have to do is dig down under the temple?
While the Geumga Gang are having a meal at Chef Baek’s, Vincenzo sneaks down to the temple with a voltmeter. Agent Ahn, not the sneakiest agent around, injures himself trying to avoid detection. Vincenzo stops to investigate, but decides he’s short on time and hurries to the temple.
The room is very warm and a droplet of sweat lands on the voltmeter, electrocuting him in the face. Agent Ahn is back, peeking through the glass door as Vincenzo is crouched on the floor in pain, and he thinks he’s repenting. Vincenzo punches the floor in frustration; the device is still in perfect working order.
Back at Chef Baek’s restaurant, everyone is taking turns complimenting each other on their contributions to the courtroom sabotage. Cheol-wook also relays a message from Mr. Nam: Vincenzo is buying them a new mall. The tenants unanimously agree to move as Vincenzo requested. Just then, a familiar-looking homeless man enters. He has information that can change their lives.
Later that night, Agent Ahn begins typing up his report: Vincenzo Cassano, handsome consigliere. Then he recalls his repentant behavior in the Buddhist temple and decides to give it a few more days.
The next morning the tenants appear to be bidding their building farewell, construction cranes looming in the distance. Mr. Nam wonders what’s gotten into them. Jun-woo and Attorneys Han and Choi separately review the background report on Vincenzo, but he’s still squeaky clean. Perfetto. Chairman Jang calls them all in ASAP for a briefing.
The plaintiffs are all called into Jipuragi’s office to discuss testimony. On the way to Babel’s offices, Jun-woo is in such a spirited mood that Attorney Han’s insults can’t get him down. It seems the Jipuragi trio have convinced their plaintiffs to testify, leading Vincenzo to increase the odds of victory to 40%. They can’t find a doctor to support their case, so they’ll need to find someone else: the enemy of an enemy, is a friend.
The trio head to Babel’s offices where Jun-woo gives the “briefing”: a space movie-esque trailer on the history of the Jang family. His father had two sons, and the man known as Chairman Jang is the younger, illegitimate child of the elder Jang. So who is the older, real owner of Babel?
When it finally hits Han, he begins apologizing profusely, but Jun-woo tells him to act normal. Attorney Choi is visibly irked at Attorney Han’s pandering while maintaining her cool. As for her, Jun-woo teases her with the possibility of buying the Namdongbu prosecutors’ office before expressing his disappointment in her court performance. Her nickname is The Butcher, so why not just off Vincenzo the way she did Yu-chan and Min-chul? Back in her office, she formulates an emergency 5-hour plan.
Overnight, the treasurer of the group for Babel E&C’s victims is knocked out by masked men and cash is planted all over their office, cars, and homes. A doctor goes to Lee U-yeong’s hospital room and injects a substance into his IV. In the morning, Cha-young learns that all of the plaintiffs have been arrested. It’s all over the news: the treasurer has confessed to helping them embezzle funds donated to the Babel victims. Even worse, traces of drugs have been found in U-yeong’s system, so his testimony is also inadmissible. This is beyond mafia-level meddling.
Jun-woo is at the police station for a briefing and “checks up” on Cha-young and Vincenzo. He invites Cha-young back to Wusang; she’ll get the same treatment as Attorney Choi from now on, and her skills are wasted at Jipuragi. When she turns him down, he grabs her arm insistently. He doesn’t appreciate her working with Vincenzo. She walks off, and he and Vincenzo spar. The bosses are officially meeting for the first time, whether they know it or not:
Jun-woo: I don’t want her to be six feet under. And I don’t appreciate you digging it for her… those who are smart know when to give up.
Vincenzo: Two things. First, we are digging a grave. But it’s not for us. Second, it’s not about knowing when to give up. A smart person knows when their opponent is weak.
Vincenzo smirks as he gives Jun-woo a condescending pat on the shoulder. Outside, Vincenzo tells Cha-young, “One is easily humiliated when cornered.” When she asks for some encouraging words, he repeats his quote about giving up a hopeless war and getting a new opportunity. Cha-young walks off dejected.
Five days pass and the second hearing is held. A still-forlorn Cha-young sits at the plaintiff’s table. Vincenzo and the Geumga Gang are missing though, notably, Chairman Jang is sitting on the plaintiff’s side of the courtroom.
Cha-young calls her surprise witness to the stand… it’s Vincenzo, being released from handcuffs.
Comments
I. Loved. That reveal. I was worried the writers wouldn’t be able to reconcile Jun-woo’s clueless intern facade with the more hot-tempered and calculated Babel owner, but this may be my favorite portrayal of a villain yet. The way he rushed to Cha-young’s side when she collapsed was so warm and pure, you forget that he is also a volatile, power-hungry control freak.
In the episode 5 recap I mentioned that I was a little worried for her, but now I am a lot worried for her. After all, Jun-woo more or less asked Attorney Choi to put a hit on Vincenzo at that “briefing.” Meanwhile, Cha-young has been pretty adamant about not backing down from the case, and getting chummier with Vincenzo on top of that. She is almost certain to get caught in the crossfire now.
At least Attorney Choi seems aware of that fact, taking the “high road” this time by tampering with the witnesses instead of sending Trucks of Doom(tm) after our heroes — one with whom she might have familial ties. We haven’t officially been told yet.
It was satisfying to see Jun-woo reduce her from a ferocious tiger to a timid kitty with her little obedient nods in the boardroom. She’s been set up as a ruthless and uninhibited character from the beginning, so we’ll see how she changes surrounded by all these other characters who can rival her in evilness and cunning. Jun-woo will almost certainly be displeased that she didn’t just off Vincenzo like he had asked.
And finally, our Agent Ahn is getting in on some action! He’s been around Geumga Plaza long enough to know why both Wusang and Babel would be looking into Vincenzo, but where will he fit into this war? The contrast between our rookie agent’s unhoned instincts and all of our other, more seasoned players is guaranteed to be entertaining. In fact, his surveillance project is probably already over before it’s started. Vincenzo is far too clever and observant to have missed him hiding around the corner from the temple… right?
Vincenzo is an enigma, and I am very eager to figure him out. I love me some crazy twisty theories, so let’s try this one on for size: Vincenzo is/was not a consigliere. He was working undercover.
I have evidence, your honor.
- “Isn’t this just common sense?” Vincenzo seems to know an awful lot about what guns Korean intelligence uses (episode 4) and surveillance techniques, and even seems to have a textbook knowledge of how the mafia operates.
- “Ignorance isn’t a sin, but refusing to learn is.” What if he didn’t know he had been adopted by a mafia family, truly became a defense lawyer for victims of mob crimes, then found out he was in the family?
- “Giving up on a hopeless war gives you a new opportunity.” According to Agent Ahn in the first episode, he only became the consigliere for the Cassanos in the last five years. What if he gave up on court and infiltrated his own family, working his way up to consigliere?
- And finally, this look Vincenzo gives Yu-chan back in episode one, when he accuses Vincenzo of working for rich people:
I don’t think the report is fake, friends. He might really be a civil rights attorney and philanthropist-turned-undercover-consigliere.
Why else would a #3 in the mob be so hellbent on defending victims he barely knows against a conglomerate he keeps likening to the mafia? Also, a romance couldn’t feasibly happen between Cha-young and Vincenzo if he were as dirty as we’re all led to believe. Either the intel report is all true, or someone falsified it on his behalf. Vincenzo doesn’t seem like the type who would coerce someone into that.
How’s that for a crack theory?
