If there’s anyone who knows how to make a good twisted thriller, it’s the Koreans. I mean, we’ve all heard of the Oldboys and I Saw The Devils. And while there are some deeply disturbing and really interesting K-dramas that fit in the same category, often, over the 16 long episodes, they get lost a little bit. I’m hoping Buried Hearts will not fall into this category. Park Hyung-Sik’s new drama was initially a little bit boring thanks to the overtly romantic bits that made it somewhat sappy for the genre it was going for, but as the series progresses it gets more compelling as a tale of revenge that throws you off its scent at every given chance. But that’s enough rambling; let’s get straight into the 9th episode of Buried Hearts. Also yes, I’m glad it is nothing like the disaster that was The Impossible Heir.
Spoiler Alert
How Does Ildo Save Dongju’s Life?
Episode 9 begins where 8 left off, with Dongju being attacked in his hospital room. Only this time we get a bit of Ildo’s viewpoint from a little before this incident. Turns out Ildo was meant to kill Dongju himself with the poison needle he’s carrying thanks to Yeom. But when he gets to the room, he hears his own son talking to Dongju, asking him to survive through this. But, more importantly, Taehyun wonders why his dad never called the ambulance that night. It was Taehyun who made the actual call and learned from the person on the line that they had no record of a previous call. After hearing this, Ildo rushes to the restroom, where he nearly kills himself with the poison because he’s just wondering at this point why he’s doing any of this. But he reminds himself that he needs to keep at it until he takes over Daesan Group and hands it down to his own son. More so because his son now knows that his dad might be a bad guy.
But Ildo returns to the room, and this time he sees Dongju fighting a man. When the man straddles Dongju, Ildo takes his syringe and sticks it in the man’s neck, saving Dongju. But why? I have a feeling it is for Taehyun’s sake, but I could be wrong. The man who was trying to kill Dongju is the administrator, the guy that Yeom hires for all of his jobs. The same guy who tried to kill Dongju previously with the chains. Then too it was Ildo who saved Dongju.
Who Brings the Chairman Home?
In the meantime, the chairman walks out of the house barefoot while talking to Dr. Kang on the phone about Dongju. Because of his dementia, he doesn’t realize what he’s done, and soon he’s in the middle of nowhere with no shoes on. Lucky for him, his own son, Ji Seonu (who doesn’t know the Chairman is his dad), finds him and offers to take him home. The Chairman excitedly gets on the bike after Seonu gives him a pair of shoes he was saving for later. On the bike, the Chairman is reminded of the time he spent with Seonu as a child. He’s excited to be on the bike and keeps taking the guy round and round until Seonu gets mad and asks him to show him the direction home. Finally, the chairman does lead him home, and that is where Seonu had been heading to see Dongju anyway.
The entire family is worried because, in this grave situation, they can’t even involve the police because that would mean media attention and jeopardizing Daesan’s market value. The two sisters, Secretary Gong, Do-Soo, the chef, and Ja-Ok look for the chairman everywhere, but to no avail. Finally, when Seonu brings him back, Taehyun is happy to see a familiar face, but his mother feels the opposite. Earlier, Deokhui even tortured her own sister because she “apparently” hid their father’s dementia from her, but it is Secretary Gong who stops her, pretty much in the way that a mom would their own kid.
Did Dongju know Yeom from before?
At the hospital, Dongju tortures the administrator for information. He learns that Yeom is going to kill Eunnam and makes a plan to save her. Later, Ildo beats the administrator up for saying that Yeom will lose trust in him because he didn’t kill Dongju. Back at Yeom’s place, he and Guho are having a discussion, and it takes Guho back to an old incident with Yeom’s wife. Guho had given Yeom some information about Dongju and how he was a thug before he joined the Daesan group. Yeom simply said he’ll get him fired for that reason, but then Guho showed him an unseen picture. In the picture were two people who worked at a place called the Iris. There, Madam Pi had asked a man named Seo Byeongdeuk to give his surname to the kids in the picture for money. The kids were Dongju and his sister, Seo Yeonju. But the important thing is that when Yeom’s wife saw the picture, she thought the kid looked just like a boy named Chu Seonghyeon. She has a picture with the boy and even brought it out to show her husband, who showed his authority by knocking everything off the table and forcing her to agree that they were not the same kid. Very odd behavior if you ask me.
On the other hand, Dongju saves Eunnam too, and then uses Ildo’s phone to call Yeom. Yeom is shocked to hear Dongju’s voice on the other side of the line. But for some reason, Yeom still wants the guy dead and hasn’t given up just yet. He then tells Dongju that he had nothing to do with his sister’s death, but I have a feeling he had his family killed, we’ll only have to wait and find out. Ironically, Yeom calls the administrator, and it is Dongju who picks up again. That’s two of his men down, but Dongju has an even bigger surprise waiting for Yeom.
Dongju then sends Eunnam home with Huicheol. Maybe it’s a way to bring Dongju into the house? He might be hiding in the car? Or maybe it’s just to show Yeom that she’s still alive and well. Finally, when Huicheol heads off to his room after seeing his uncle, Yeom hears Dongju’s voice. He’s shocked to see Dongju come out of a corner of the house, but what’s more absurd is that he’s got the Elder, i.e., the President, on the line. Basically, Dongju reached out to the one guy who could eat Yeom up to tell him to back off. That is what the President does, but more importantly, he tells Yeom to let Dongju take care of the Swiss funds, because he didn’t run away with them, but gave them to the President himself directly. After the call, the president tells one of his assemblymen that Dongju is a dangerous guy. Guess Dongju wants revenge, but he also wants to save the country?
At the end of Buried Hearts episode 9, Ildo returns home very late to a flustered Deokhui. She tells him about what happened with her dad and is disappointed that Ildo already knew about it but didn’t say a thing. She then tells him it was Seonu who brought her dad back home. But, most importantly, she tells her husband she wants him to kill Dongju. The next morning, the Chairman wakes up with his memories intact and is excited to see Dongju back. But, shockingly, Dongju tells him that he wants to expedite bringing Seonu into the family for the Chairman. Of course, Dongju knows about the Chairman’s dementia, probably through Dr. Kang. I’m really confused as to why he was in a picture with Eunnam’s dad and Ildo and Dr. Kang’s parents as a child, but we’ll have to wait to know. Who is this kid really, and was it Eunnam’s dad who was in the car when his sister died? The episode ends with Dongju showing up at Ildo’s office to tell him that he’s going to use his weakness against him—the fact that he tried to kill Dongju many times. We already know the Chairman will side with Dongju. In the next episode, we’re going to learn about something called the Dandelion team. I wonder if all these people Dongju wants to take revenge on were involved in this apparent team.
