Phew, most of my theories for Buried Hearts have been right-ish, but the one I’m most glad came true is that Dongju and Eunnam are not half-siblings. Now that we’ve reached episode 12 of the show, if I’m going to be completely honest, I am getting a little bit bored of the round and round nature of the show and how it doesn’t necessarily go forward at all, and just keeps going back to the same moments or the same events to give us answers we’ve probably already figured out. I think this show would’ve benefited from being just 12 episodes long because it would mean enough time for shocking plot twists but also not so much time to marinate in them that you become wilted. But I digress, this is a recap, so let’s get straight into episode 12.
How Does Dongju Scare Ildo?
Episode 12 begins with Dongju’s memory of the events of the night of the accident. He remembers watching Ildo clamber onto the road and lie in front of him. But Dongju walked away in the other direction, maybe knowing deep down that this man had tried to kill him. He claims that his mom called his name from heaven, which is why he turned around and walked away. Ildo recalls the same events to Dr. Kang’s dad. He tells him that he initially thought the kid lived, but later realized he must’ve imagined it. Dr. Kang’s dad ends up seeing a little bit of her video of Dongju, which means he could tell Ildo about it, but I guess he doesn’t have to worry because Dongju’s going to tell him himself. He can’t believe his friend Ildo would do such a thing, though. Especially not to the woman he loved.
Meanwhile, Ildo has a dream of becoming the director of the company, but he sees Seonghyeon running away from the front of the house and follows him. When he gets to where the boy is, it’s Dongju standing in front of him because he’s realized they’re the same person. But, that, of course, makes no sense because he killed the kid. When he wakes up, Dongju is sitting right by him and gives him the article from the day of the accident. Dongju learns that the woman in the picture was named Chu Gyeongwon and was his biological mother. She was friends with Ildo, Sunho, and Deokhui. Dongju doesn’t lie about knowing what Ildo did, though. He even puts the bag of tissues in his mouth, just like Ildo did back in the day, to show him that he remembers every detail. Dongju confirms to Ildo that he is Seonghyeon. Dongju tells him that he wants to get revenge on the man who killed his parents, but he wants Ildo and his family to leave Daesan, which is why he’s holding back. Ildo is determined to keep Daesan for himself, which is funny, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Interestingly, Taehyun overhears this entire conversation. This boy is going to have so much trauma, yikes.
In a flashback, we see Ildo give Gyeongwon the same hair tie that Seonghyeon was wearing on the night of the accident. Now you get where this is going, eh? In the present day, Eunnam finishes her divorce procedure and returns home to Dongju. He shows her the article and pretends that he believes in Ildo’s story, because that’s what will protect her apparently. She says she’s hated her mum for too long, and now she can stop doing that. She doesn’t really apologize to Ildo for believing he killed her dad, but she tells him that Dongju told her the truth, and she’d been afraid this whole time, but now she doesn’t have to be. Later, Eunnam shows her mom the photo from Dongju, and her mom immediately tells her to delete it because she hates that photo. Eunnam then goes to Dr. Kang’s dad, who sent Deokhui the photo in the first place. He insists that there was no relationship between Sunho and Gyeongwon, unlike what Deokhui believed.
Who is Dongju’s dad?
Ildo asks Yeom for a gun to finally kill Dongju and make it look like a suicide. The reason would be that he couldn’t handle the fact that Eunnam and he were half-siblings. Ildo tells Yeom that Dongju remembers every detail of the accident. Meanwhile, Dongju goes to find the administrator’s Dandelion files, but the location turns out to be a bust. However, Guho finds the location that Dongju has stashed the administrator in this time and makes it look like he’s slit his wrists. When Dongju returns, he finds a notebook under the administrator’s pillow in which he finds a drawing of the room he was tortured in. This is where the documents are kept, and finally Dongju gets his hands on them.
Dongju gets his friend to decrypt the files, and she says she’ll start with Yeom specifically. He tells her to then move onto the 4 people from the photo. While Dongju is celebrating with his friends, when finally everything looks to be okay, Seonu shows the family that he’s starting to fit in. He almost looks like he’s bossing them around, calling his sisters “noona” almost sarcastically and telling his nephew, who might be a bit older than him, to call him uncle, and Eunnam too. When it’s time for the wedding, the Chairman has forgotten everything again, and Yeom and Seonu convince him to get married to Seonu’s mum. So, he basically marries a woman he’s just met for the first time.
Back at home, Gong tells Deokhui that Sunho’s illegitimate child is still alive, all while Ildo prepares to kill Dongju. Ilnam tells Dongju that it wasn’t the Chairman who killed the story of the accident, but Yeom (I’ve been saying he was behind it from the start). Ilnam also sends Dongju some documents in the meanwhile. These documents happen to be the result of another DNA test, but this time, the dad isn’t Sunho; it’s Ildo. So, yeah, Ildo is Dongju’s biological dad, and there’s an entire transcript of Yeom discussing this with someone. It looks like Gyeongwon, who was an activist, must’ve learned something important about Yeom’s funds or plans, which is why he wanted her dead. But it didn’t make sense to kill the young child too. The end of the transcribed dialogue shows that Yeom knew Ildo was the dad and sent him to kill his own son.
At the end of Buried Hearts episode 12, Dongju meets Ildo in the middle of a desolate storage space so that Ildo can shoot him in peace and nobody will know. Yeom’s on a call with Ildo, and he’s even watching everything go down live through surveillance cameras. Ildo says that he’s willing to take on any punishment if he isn’t able to kill Dongju this time around. When Dongju starts walking up to Ildo, the latter pulls the gun on him and shoots from afar. Dongju gets shot in the shoulder and falls to the floor while Yeom squeals in his car, watching it all go down. Just as Ildo gets closer, Yeom calls him and tells him not to shoot because Dongju is his son. When Ildo gets close to Dongju, Dongju gets up and says to him something like, “Why aren’t you shooting, Dad? I’m still alive.” If Ildo continues to work with Yeom, it will be more than a little bit weird, but I wonder what’s going to happen with Seonu siding with Yeom now. One thing is for sure: Ildo will not accept Dongju as his son. At least not so soon.
