Shadow Detective Episode 7 Recap and Review: Taek-rok is Cornered

Shadow Detective (형사록) is a mystery-crime Korean drama series directed by Han Dong-hwa and stars Lee Sung-min, Jin Goo, Kyung Soo-jin and Lee Hak-joo, alongside other cast members.

Releasing at 1:30 PM IST, Shadow Detective Episode 7 premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on November 16, 2022, with a runtime of 54 minutes. The show picks up with the dysfunctional life led by veteran detective Taek-rok (Lee Sung-min), for whom the image of his nearing retirement is his sole inspiration. Pulling himself through his closing days at the police station, he’s soon dragged into receiving a series of prank calls that lead up to a dire mystery involving the murder of his younger colleague.

Will his team, including the new and much younger leader than him, Kuk Jin-han (Jin Goo), Lee Sung-a (Kyung Soo-jin), and Song Kyung-chan (Lee Hak-joo) find the actual culprit before Taek-rok is wrongfully implicated for the murder?

Disney+ Hotstar describes the series as :

WHEN TAEK-ROK, A DETECTIVE NEARING RETIREMENT, GETS A THREATENING CALL AND IS FALSELY CHARGED WITH MURDER, HE DESPERATELY ATTEMPTS TO RECALL THE PAST.

-Shadow Detective Episode 7 Contains Spoilers-

Jin-han wasn’t as oblivious to Detective Bae following him, and the same catches up to him. While at the hospital, one of the goons is out for Mr. Cheon’s blood, and Sung-a catches a hint of the same. Kyung-chan tries his all to get the opposing factions under control.

Taek-rok reaches Detective Bae’s residence, but he’s too late as Jin-han has already done the deed and strangled him. The chase between him and Jin-han is far from over. The latter’s old case related to Chairman Jang is brought up with better details this time. Jin-han’s contact was murdered by his higher-ups for digging too deep into the case.

He soon became a pawn in Jang’s game and had to bow down to his demands to get rid of any obstacle in his path due to his own familial circumstances as a father failing to save his son. The next case in line for him was to be a matter of life and death for which Chairman Jang promised him anything, even a promotion to a better post. This is how he got pulled into the scene with Section Chief Hyun-seok and Taek-rok.

Mr. Cheon runs for his life, but the inevitable takes shape. With him dead, Taek-rok can’t help but feel helpless. The scene at the police station isn’t any better either. All cases – both the murders of Detective Bae and Mr. Cheon are stacked on top of the pre-existing murder case of Section Chief Hyun-seok. Of course, Chief Gwang-su can’t sit this one out. Walking in, he disrupts the bifurcation of the cases within the team and assigns Mr. Cheon’s case to his associate, Detective Kwak Sangkyu, and commands the rest of the team to focus on Detective Bae’s case.

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Detective Han and Jin-han bring in Detective Kwak’s informer, and Jin-han calls Detective Kwak in for questioning. He compels him to blurt out Chief Gwang-su’s role behind all the corrupt doings and seeks to get it out of him with the same “You should think about your family” incentive. As soon as Detective Kwak confesses about the Chief’s involvement in Mr. Cheon’s murder, Chief Gwang-su goes missing.

Taek-rok gets a call from the ‘Friend,’ who tells him that he’s free now that Chief Gwang-su’s name is out. However, Taek-rok has no plans to cut ties now and wants the ‘Friend’ to turn himself in. Yet his threats have no effect on him, while the other asserts that was the last call between them. Finally, disclosing (to the audience) the person behind the phone is none other than Jin-han, Taek-rok urges him to answer why he left him off with a warning despite killing Hyun-seok and Bae. On the other hand, Jin-han plans to meet with Chairman Jang, who wants him to clear up the issues with Taek-rok as soon as possible and wrap things up for good.

The murder weapon in Detective Bae’s case is revealed to be the same climbing rope that the hooded figure had let on to Taek-rok in the second episode as he hung from the edge of the cliff. Sung-a informs her senior of the CCTV installed by Kyung-chan at Jin-han’s premises which could help them support their case against him. Taek-rok heads over to the place and retrieves the spy camera. The footage reveals that Jin-han has Detective Bae’s mobile phone, which has evidence against him for Hyun-seok’s case.

Shadow Detective Episode 7 Ending

Sung-a conjectures internal personnel is helping Jin-han. She and the team start deciphering the code and prove Taek-rok’s hunch about Jin-han being the culprit. Jin-han plans to strike a deal with Chief Gwang-su’s former posse regarding the redevelopment issue, and they think him out of line.

He seeks the redevelopment rights, or else he plans to divulge their settlements with Mr. Cheon as listed in his ledger. Taek-rok plays his card next and sends each of these men a picture of the ledger, making them question Jin-han’s credibility. Taek-rok gives the ‘Friend’ a call, but this time directly on Jin-han’s number.

A witness is brought into the station for her statement regarding Hyun-seok’s case. And yet again, Taek-rok is pulled back into the mess as she identifies him to be the person embroiled in the argument. The veteran himself decides to meet Jin-han, but before that can happen, Sung-a alerts her senior of the witness’s confession about him being Hyun-seok’s killer. He realizes that the police are already hiding at the rendezvous spot, and he plunges into the water.

Shadow Detective Episode 7 Review

You can’t help but feel cornered with Taek-rok, and though the identity of the hooded figure doesn’t come across as a surprise, we’re still left broken-hearted, especially for Taek-rok. Both detectives didn’t get off to a good start with each other, but they still grew closer to each other, and the blow on Taek-rok becomes even more poignant because he never relied on or confided in anyone about his issues. Hyun-seok was the only one whom we know about sharing a warm relationship with him in the early days, and he’s killed off at the beginning itself.

Once he starts developing a similar relationship with Jin-han, that too goes down the drain again soon enough. Though he’s been falling back on the idea of his retirement as his only relief since the beginning, he doesn’t have any other emotional support holding him up.

Lee Sung-min’s performance as Taek-rok has been consistent since day one, and it goes to exhibit his onscreen experience well. The series’s pacing has also been on a leveled plain with each episode’s comeback. The major chunk of the mystery is already out in the open, which leaves very little for us now since the series finale is nigh.

Hopefully, the last episode will tie the remaining threads and give Taek-rok’s character the ending he deserves and will put an end to his lonesome worries. It’s been quite a ride, and I’ve enjoyed every bit of his back-and-forth tussle with Jin Goo’s Jin-han.

Shadow Detective Episode 7 is now out on Disney+ Hotstar.

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