Private Lives episodes 13-14: A new character threatens to trip up the plot
By Bryan Tan
This recap, which contains spoilers, covers episodes 13-14 of Private Lives, which is currently available on Netflix.
Things get a little complicated and confusing with the introduction of new key character in Private Lives – Jeong Hyeon Cheol, former driver of President Choi Kyung Hwan (Suk Yoon Ho), the author of a secret ledger that implicates many powerful individuals in South Korea in corruption.
Former lovers and scam partners meet again
Before we get to that, Kim Jae Wook (Kim Young Min) finally comes face to face with an aggravated Jeong Bok Gi (Kim Hyo Jin), who is working on a ‘documentary’ scam with Assemblyman Yoo Byung Jun (Min Ji Oh), the same man who ‘murdered’ Jae Wook’s family for witnessing his clandestine meetings with President Choi. Sparks fly as the two pretend not to know each other in front of the assemblyman, but they angrily confront each other after excusing themselves. We still don’t know Jae Wook’s motives in helping Assemblyman Yoo to further his ambitions, despite what he has done to Jae Wook’s family.
Cha Joo Eun (Seohyun) witnesses the confrontation between the two through infiltrating the luxury hotel where they meet. Lee Jeong Hwan (Go Kyung Pyo) rushes in to rescue her after her guise is seen through, only to be caught and interrogated by a very miffed Oh Hyun Kyung (Cha Soo Yeon), daughter of Director Oh Yeong Ju (Jang Yong Bok), the mastermind behind GK group’s Innovative Vision Room.
Hyun Kyung assures Joo Eun and Jeong Hwan that she’s on their side and even offers them the voice recording of Bok Gi and Jae Wook’s meeting with the assemblyman. Why the daughter of Director Oh would scheme against her father’s company is baffling. Perhaps she is moving of her own accord, trying to get back at her cheating husband Woo Seok Ho (Kim Ba Da), who also works in the Room.
The confusing new character, Jeong Hyeon Cheol
We now get to President Choi’s former driver Jeong Hyeon Cheol, who was also director of the Haneul foundation that funded the megachurch All Together, the congregants of which Joo Eun’s father (Park Sung Geun) scammed money from to supposedly ‘build a larger church’.
Why GK is interested in Hyeon Cheol is rather fuzzy. Assemblymen Yoo Byung Jun and Kwon Hyuk Jang (Jang Eui Don) both presided at the trial of President Choi, where Hyeon Cheol, as then driver of the defendant, recanted a statement which could have pronounced the President with a guilty verdict. Perhaps GK is interested in what Hyeon Cheol saw that could have implicated the President?
Officially, Hyeon Cheol is considered dead; he is thought to have committed suicide by setting himself on fire after his foundation’s laundered money was plundered by Bok Gi. But Jeong Hwan tells detective Kim Myung Hyun (Lee Hak Joo) to reopen the case as Hyeon Cheol is still alive. Joo Eun is attacked in her detective agency by a mystery intruder, who turns out to be detective Myung Hyun’s partner, Kang Soo Jin (Lee Yun Seol), who has apparently been working all along with GK’s Vision Room.
Our leads solidify their relationship
Joo Eun and Jeong Hwan’s newly rediscovered relationship is threatened, when she realises that Jeong Hwan knew all about the ‘documentary’ on the megachurch’s foundation. But of course, they make up over the course of the episodes, as Joo Eun’s friend tells Jeong Hwan that her feelings for him were real, and Jeong Hwan greets Joo Eun’s parents for the first time with a keunjol, the most formal bow.
Jeong Hwan also tells her the truth about Hyeon Cheol – that although he knew the “deceased” man, he did not act on GK’s orders to kill him, but burned a John Doe corpse instead. The big question is, where does Jeong Hwan get these John Doe corpses and how does he pass them off with real DNA and all??
GK’s Jae Wook finally makes a move to discredit Assemblyman Kwon Hyuk Jang by implicating him with evidence from President Choi’s ledger. But to seal the deal and prove that the ledger is real, he needs Hyeon Cheol, who is now revealed to have been kept alive and well by Jeong Hwan. Will Hyeon Cheol throw a wrench in GK group’s plans by coming clean, or will he be silenced for good by the shadowy conglomerate?
Read our other Private lives recaps:
Private Lives, eps. 1-2 : A family of con artists seeks to make their mark in the world of scams
Private Lives eps. 7-8: Jeong Hwan and Joo Eun discover each other’s real identities
Private Lives eps. 9-10: Joo Eun and Jeong Hwan reunite and join forces against the shadowy GK group
Private Lives eps. 11-12: The war against GK group gets political
