Private Lives episodes 7-8: Jeong Hwan and Joo Eun discover each other’s real identities
By Bryan Tan
This recap contains spoilers and covers episodes 7-8 of Private Lives, which is currently available on Netflix.
If you were thoroughly confused by the previous two episodes of Private Lives, the latest episodes are equally befuddling but I’ll try in vain to clear the air.
Lee Jeong Hwan (Go Kyung Pyo) tails his old boss from the GK group has something to hide, and discovers that he has been meeting with his old friend and mentor, Kim Jae Wook (Kim Young Min). There is another flashback to Jae Wook a year later, in which he hands over a copied version of the late UI president Choi’s damning ledger to the same old boss.
As Jeong Hwan’s IT hacker guy aptly puts it, “Who’s on whose side?” We still don’t really know why Arsonist Kim is working with GK again after betraying them. Wait, did he betray them? I honestly can’t remember, because the whole plotline has descended into chaos. Or perhaps he’s just trying to protect his former mentee Jeong Hwan, as he realises that Jeong Hwan is still alive after scouting out the cliff where Jeong Hwan supposedly crashed off the rail guards and died. And why is GK trying to kill their former employee?
Let’s also talk about how incompetent the police are. With just a bottle of water, Jae Wook was able to discover that flammable liquid was used to ignite Jeong Hwan’s car. The police, who ‘investigated thoroughly’ did not realise that. In another scene, the detective in charge of Jeong Hwan’s investigation is accused by Cha Joo Eun (Seohyun) of not realising that a member in GK was masquerading as Jeong Hwan using his name. I also pointed out in my previous review that the police came up with Jeong Hwan’s DNA in a corpse that wasn’t even his. What is going on???
What started out as a promising heist drama is rapidly going downhill like a giant flaming turd. Apparently, Jae Wook has ulterior motives for working with GK (shown in another flashback, of course). It appears that he is trying to ‘film a documentary’ on a corrupted prosecutor for murdering his family. How this relates to anything else is unclear.
Meanwhile, our main protagonist Joo Eun has taken over Jeong Hwan’s detective agency and teamed up with her arch-nemesis Jeong Bok Gi (Kim Hyo Jin) to find her former partner Jae Wook and bring him to ‘justice’.
Joo Eun’s ‘uncle’ Han Son eventually spills the beans to her, telling her everything about Jeong Hwan and how he used to work for GK as a spy. Jeong Hwan also finds that his ex-fiancée is a con woman (not a very good one I must say), after hacking into UI’s database. What will the estranged couple do, now that their hands are shown? Stay tuned to the next episodes, released weekly every Wednesday and Thursday.
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
