[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Road: The Tragedy of One" Episode 2

So the kidnapping incident is already over and done with, as "The Road: The Tragedy of One" moves on to the three days immediately proceeding the event. As it happens, the young victim is actually the bespectacled Joon-yeong (played by Nam Ki-won), who's just one of Yeon-woo's baseball friends. Given that the actual Yeon-woo is safe and sound at his grandfather's home, a whole lot of questions are begged as to what exactly was going on with this kidnapping incident.

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The obvious interpretation, apparently confirmed by the coroner's report, is that the kid was killed right away. The plan was always to just snatch the money from Soo-hyeon. But there's too many bizarre mistakes for this to make sense. Soo-hyeon himself, investigative reporter than he is, observes issues with the crime scene. So does cop Seok-hoon (played by Kim Sung-soo), who has an ambiguous past relationship with Soo-hyeon and might or might not be one of the few people he can trust.

It's unclear because "The Road: The Tragedy of One" is still tightly guarding most of its secrets even regarding basic character backstory. While this episode introduces Seo-yeong (played by Kim Hye-eun), the bereaved mother of Joon-yeong, I can't really explain why she has such high billing without spoiling the big plot twist that closes out the end of the episode. All I can tell you is that her bizarre, resentful behavior is actually quite a bit more logical than its initially presented.

I do appreciate that following straightforward exposition of the first episode of Soo-hyeon heroically trying to bring down public corruption, we see here how he has more similarities than differences compared to the people he's going after. Which makes sense. Otherwise how would he have ever met his wife in the first place? But this rather mutes Soo-hyeon's collaborative potential in seeking out the murderer of Joon-yeong, since he has a very personal stake in not letting on all that he knows.

Despite being tedious on-screen "The Road: The Tragedy of One" is surprisingly rewarding in retrospect, as we try to unsnarl all the contradictions. Among other things, Soo-hyeon specifically asks the kidnapper a question only Yeon-woo could possibly know the answer to in order to confirm that he's not dead. So how did the kidnapper answer correctly? Though that particular twisty turn isn't referenced in this episode, as the mystery is still in the set-up stage, I fully expect it hasn't been forgotten.

Review by William Schwartz

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"The Road: The Tragedy of One" is directed by Kim No-won, written by Yoon Hee-jung, and features Ji Jin-hee, Yoon Se-ah, Kim Hye-eun, Cheon Ho-jin, Ahn Nae-sang, Kim Sung-soo. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/08/04~Now airing, Wed, Thu 21:50 on tvN.