'Stranger 2' aka 'Forest of Secrets 2' Episode 7: Shi-mok, Yeo-jin track Seo Dong-jae's moves, secrets spill
Woo Tae-ha receives a call from a Detective and finds out that Prosecutor Seo Dong-jae is missing. Tae-ha is worried because they could very well be a result of the off-the-book investigation that he had asked Prosecutor Seo to do in relation to the police director Choi Bit's involvement in a corrupt investigation. So his anxiety increases and as a result, he ends up lashing out at Prosecutor Hwang-Shi-mok, who keeps asking questions -- trying to ascertain the timeline of when Prosecutor Seo had gone missing and what his schedule was supposed to look like. However, because of what he is hiding, Tae-ha ends up feeling defensive and in the heat of this moment, he asks Shi-mok to take over the investigation.
The fact that none of them have the authority to interfere in an active investigation as part of the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office is something that Shi-mok tries to remind Tae-ha about. However, his boss has no qualms about pulling strings to put Shi-mok as the lead investigating Prosecutor Seo's missing person case. In the meantime, Senior Inspector Yeo-jin, who is forced to ride the desk for the duration of the council meetings, hears about Prosecutor Seo missing from her colleagues at the Yongsan Police Station and she jumps right in to help them out with the investigation. There were many things that Prosecutor Seo was looking into and any one of them could have led to his disappearance and Shi-mok's objective is to figure what exactly happened.
Shi-mok arrives at Prosecutor Seo's office to look into all the cases that he was working on and he finds a clip of police director Choi Bit's interview outside the house of the drowning victim in the first few episodes. He is surprised but doesn't express interest right out about why Prosecutor Seo would be interested in Choi Bit. Instead, he decides to visit the Yongsan Police Station which will be supporting the investigation into Prosecutor Seo ending up missing on the night he was expected to meet Tae-ha. Interestingly, one of Prosecutor Seo's colleagues also tells Shi-mok that she is glad that her branch is not taking over the investigation since the police station that is assigned to take up their cases is not filled with the most righteous minds at work. In fact, she says that having them investigate Seo's case would be like letting a fox guard a henhouse.
It also becomes clear that come what may, Choi Bit will push forward with the council meeting and do everything she can to wrestle power from the prosecution. This doesn't sit well with Yeo-jin who also voices out her opinion. When she is asked to prove that detective Song's suicide or Prosecutor Seo's kidnapping had nothing to do with the cops, Yeo-jin tries to point out that the possibility cannot be ruled out.
To this, she is told that she is not expected to investigate the case, but to put her efforts into helping the police department. In the meantime, Tae-ha seems to be using Prosecutor Seo missing as a crutch to postpone the next council meeting. Choi Bit tries to stick to the original plan but she ends up hearing something that shocks her speechless. What could it be?
At the same time, Shi-mok also learns that Prosecutor Seo was looking into the drowning case that the show opened with as his call records indicate that he had spoken to a witness. However, this case was not under his purview and he was working on it off-the-book. It looks like he had also checked out Choi Bit getting in touch with them about Choi Bit possibly speaking to them about the prosecutors not doing their jo right. The more the cops and Shi-mok dig, the clearer it becomes that she is in some way or form involved in Prosecutor Seo getting kidnapped.
The police investigating the case also find out that Prosecutor Seo had been in touch with Hanjo people. They seek Shi-mok's help in getting in touch with someone from the group. Could Hanjo really be behind this? At the moment it seems as if Choi Bit had no idea about the kidnapping. Her focus was only on ensuring that the investigation did not affect the police department directly ahead of the council meetings.
Dongducheon Station manager also seems to have some kind of connection to Choi Bit and Prosecutor Seo. This is the line of investigation that both Shi-mok and Yeo-jin are taking and they also see the man burst out in anger at being accused of kidnapping a prosecutor. Is it really him though and will Shi-moko and Yeo-jin rescue Prosecutor Seo in time? Also, something else that has us intrigued is the documents that Choi Bit seems to be hiding from Yeo-jin. She took copies of documents from Yeo-jin's desk with her, however, there is no indication of how and when Choi Bit will be using the same.
'Forest of Secrets 2' aka 'Stranger 2' is set to premiere on August 15 and originally airs on tvN on Saturdays and Sundays at 9 pm KST in South Korea and can be streamed on Netflix.
