If I Were A Whale
Episode 6 of Extraordinary Attorney Woo starts with us in the past as Hyang-Sim takes her daughter Ha-Yun to the orphanage. She promises to be back for her little girl, urging the lady in charge that she’s not abandoning her. It turns out she’s a North Korean defector and is doing this to protect her daughter. She’s regretful but puts on a brave face as she walks away. Now, part of this case comes from the fact Hyang-Sim has been charged with injury as a result of a robbery. It’s a Public Interest Case and as such, is left to Woo Young-Woo to take charge of alongside Su-Yeon. The pair head off to the detention center together where they meet Hyang-Sim. Lee Sun-Yeong is the lady pressing charges. Now, a brief history lesson fills us in on the details for this case. Hyang-Sim asked “Mom” (the North Korean defector Broker, Choi Yeong-Hui) for ten million won. It was transferred to Sun-Yeong who in turn transferred it on to Hyang-Sim. She had intentions of splitting her money with Jeong-Hui, another defector from North Korea. Together, the pair broke into Sun-yeong’s house and demanded she hand over the ten million won. They manhandled Sun-Yeong, with Jeong-Hui smashing the place up. In the middle of all this commotion, the landlord downstairs ended up calling the police. Hyang-Sim ran away, intending to be there for her daughter, while Jeong-Hui ended up arrested and serving 4 years behind bars. After hearing her passionate plea, the pair decide to try and get her probation. The only way to do that though is to reduce down Hyang-Sim’s sentence to under 3 years. That seems difficult given how old the case is and the circumstances around this. The only solution is to try and prove that the victim wasn’t actually physically assaulted by Hyang-Sim. It turns out that the doctor who actually assessed Sun-Yeong may be biased against those from North Korea. He recently put out an article showing his clear bias against defectors. When they show up to see Sun-Yeong though, a man happens to be there beating her to the ground. This isn’t the first time this has happened though. According to the landlord downstairs, this has been going on for five years. However, when Sun-Yeong takes to the stand she claims she doesn’t remember calling the police in the past. Hyang-Sim loses control and stands up, claim it’s lies and that Sun-yeong is pretending to be forgetful. Thankfully, Young-Woo manages to get them a recess so Hyang-Sim can compose herself in the courtroom. When they finally reconvene, Young-Woo is given the task of trying to prove to the courtroom that the doctor is biased against North Korean defectors. With the newspaper piece in hand that he wrote, the doctor is reluctant to speak about it until Young-Woo pushes him in a corner. The doctor rattles off his true feelings about North Korean defectors and how they’re not taxpayers so shouldn’t be treated the same. Young-Woo and Su-Yeon bring up the North Korean rules around robberies as a means of trying to explain Hyang-Sim’s actions. Now, as Hyang-Sim is more aware of North rather than South Korean law, she technically wouldn’t be at fault for her actions in regards to robberies given what she knows about her own culture. Hyang-Sim is asked about the money from the judge himself, and eventually decides to speak up. He claims it was her money she was owed. She claims she doesn’t know a whole lot about North Korean law either, throwing their entire argument out the window for now. With this, the jury head off to make their decision. Young-Woo speaks to the judge and gives an impassioned plea about how she’s trying to be a good mother and do what’s right. The judge refuses for the resumption of this hearing, though it does certainly touch him to see Young-Woo’s passion like this. The jury give their verdict and Hyang-Sim gets probation. As a first time offender and heading to court to actually be tried for her crimes, the judge goes lenient on her. Not only that, but she actually confessed too. Funnily enough, the judge actually helped this come about by convincing Hyang-Sim to confess. After the court case, Su-Yeon and Young-Woo head to the department store together. However, that CEO from Taesan last episode is there and she happens to pass Young-Woo unknowingly.
The Episode Review
Extraordinary Attorney Woo delivers another really solid episode, this time turning the attention across to North Korean defectors and weaving a story around that. It’s an interesting angle to go for and Attorney Woo pulls it off rather well overall. The show has certainly had its moments and the balance between drama and comedy works surprisingly well again. I really like the way Su-yeon and Young-Woo are building up this friendship together as well and it’s nice to see that explored in more detail across this chapter. Oh, and a shout out to Young-Woo’s “whoa, whoa” too, which was nicely implemented for Hyang-Sim’s case. What’s good here is that every character at the law firm has a decent amount of depth and the fact we’re exploring each of them across the episodes says a lot about the writing. Here’s hoping in the future we see more of Jun-Ho and his past as it’ll be good to see exactly how that collides with Young-Woo…but will she accept him back?
