Who Is The Murderer?
Who killed Kang-San? It’s one of the big questions hanging over this series and episode 5 of Graceful Friends serves to give a few more clues around this. Having said that, there’s undoubtedly still a lot we don’t know about and this serves as the crux of drama going forward. With Goong-Cheol in the police station with his friends, we begin with Detective Cho learning that the apartment’s security cameras are broken. Thanks to this, they can’t be sure what really happened that night. Even worse, the crime scene has no discernible finger or footprint to speak of. This prompts Cho to wait for the death certificate and requests an autopsy too. Meanwhile, Chan-Bok and Hyung-Woo worry about the extended period of time they’ve spent away from their partners. As the calls start coming in from their wives, they exchange worried glances. Thankfully, they – along with Jae-Woon – have solid alibis and are allowed to go home. Goong-Cheol however, cannot for now. Goong-Cheol is questioned further and asked about the security cameras. As they mention the footage hasn’t recorded, Goong-Cheol suddenly admits to killing Kang-San. He gives them a motive and pleads with them to arrest him. As the officers leave to mull over this new information, Goong-Cheol is let go – much to his displeasure. With no evidence to go on, Detective Cho instead decides to have Goong-Cheol followed. On his way out the station, his friends wait for him and they walk together. Interestingly, this brings back a scene from the past where the friends did the exact same act on the way back from the station. Back home, the media get hold of the Kang-San murder case and begin broadcasting it on TV. Jung-Hae watches in shock as Goong-Cheol arrives home to talk to her. As they sit together, he admits to not being the one who killed the man. However, he knows Jung-Hae was there that night. He drops the necklace on the table and asks her outright if she had anything to do with the death. As the two come to blows, Jung-Hae tries to steady her nerves while Goong-Cheol goes for a run. It turns out Goong-Cheol’s act of taking the necklace from the crime scene ironically makes both of them suspects now. Meanwhile, the autopsy report comes back and Kang-San didn’t die from being pushed against the wall. He did hit the sink on the way down but the real cause of death was a skull fracture, possibly from a blunt object like a hammer. At the same time, Eun-Sil and Kyeong-Ja discuss their husbands and in particular the weird behaviour they’ve been exhibiting. Detective Cho sets to work trying to figure out who’s responsible, checking Kang-San’s phone records to see if Mi-Ran phoned him. Getting nowhere with this lead, the Detective has Jung-Hae followed to Myeong-Sook’s final meal and Goong-Cheol at his work event. Outside, Jung-Hae speaks to Myeong-Sook in private about Man-Sik. Given what happened at the nursing home with the other woman however, Myeong-Sook vows never to forgive her husband again. In the morning, all the boys arrive at the airport to see Myeong-Sook off and encourage her to have one final drink with them. As they sit together, Myeong-Sook heads off to use the bathroom while Soo-Ah gives a heartfelt speech about her Father. At the station, Detective Cho receives a call regarding a dash-cam that’s picked up footage of a possible suspect. As everyone starts scrambling for answers, Jung-Hae arrives at the police station to hand herself in as a suspect. When Goong-Cheol catches wind of this, he charges to the station to find her. In a brief flashback, we see Jung-Hae enter Kang-San’s house that night, which matches the story being told surrounding there being no forced entry. Ironically, this also mirrors a scene from the past with Professor Han’s murder. Jung-Hae was also taken away back then – but is she really guilty? We’ll have to wait to find out! Graceful Friends deepens the plot threads this week as the murder mystery starts to really heat up. Is Jung-Hae guilty? Is she covering for Goong-Cheol? Or is there another suspect who’s responsible? There’s lot of questions left to be answered and so far this Korean drama is doing well to keep things exciting and unpredictable. Hyung-Woo and Chan-Bok seem to have reverted back to comedy relief but thanks to that previous episode, this is actually easy to look past. The game is afoot now though and with Detective Cho closing in on what really happened, are there further twists in the tale to come? We’ll have to wait and see but Graceful Friends is turning into an unmissable K-drama this year!
