Events from the past are haunting the present investigations conducted by Do-han and his team in the 2nd week of Decoy!
Sangcheon’s Victims’ Club continues on its quest to make the police open the case they did not fully work on. This puts Chief Kang and Chief Prosecutor Park in a pickle as there’s something in their decisions 12 years ago that would truly backfire and endanger them in the process.
abbyinhallyuland watched Decoy Part 1 on Prime Video
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 & 04 | 5 to 8 | 9 & 10 | Finale + Series Review |
Decoy Episodes 3 and 4 Highlights
Previously, Chief Kang reveals to Do-han that the new murder is the third case with a baffling “No Sang Cheon” came to kill me note.
Wanting to keep the situation away from media people, it was too late for Chief Kang’s instruction to Do-han as the press is already on it.
“You always have evidence to fall back on even when statements are false.”
Do-han finds Chief Kang contemplating and reports that for now, their team is safe as the media reports favor them. Confronting his chief about what he’s trying to hide, Chief Kang responds nonchalantly.
His junior also relays his plan to check on evidence first before interviewing the witnesses. Noticing the irregularities in the timeline, Do-han meets Na-yeon and Byung-jun to get their statements.
While probing, the police got a forensic analysis on Byung-jun’s mobile phone which revealed text messages from an unknown number directing him to be at the recent crime scenes.
Subsequently, Do-han lets him go as he deemed Byung-jun and his organization are hiding something.
However, Byung-jun admits the murder even when all evidence doesn’t point at him. Do-han thinks Byung-jun is trying to disrupt the investigation and he didn’t get anything useful with Na-yeon as well.
Convinced that deeper probing is needed in the case, Do-han confronts the announcement that Byung-jun was already set to be prosecuted. He gives orders to his team to check if they missed something and heads to the location where Chief Kang does not want him to poke around.
He visits the first victim who turned to be unidentifiable. Surprisingly, Do-han found out that Chief Kang was captured to have visited the crime scene which also surprised the detectives working on the case.
At that same moment, Chief Kang and Chief Prosecutor Park also discuss the first victim whom they can’t connect the involvement to the case of No Sang Cheon 12 years ago.
“No Sang Cheon, is he really dead? Is what I know the absolute truth?”
Chief Kang visits Byung-jun who remains adamant in his claim that he is the murderer. Testing his claim, the former asked who the first victim was and gets a surprising response that he knows about the unknown woman.
Meanwhile, Na-yeon gets the release she deserves and tells Do-han that she intends to write an article with the correct angle that would loop the serial killings and No Sang-cheon.
In 2011, No Sang-cheon successfully devised a plan to retrieve the money stolen from him. Thereafter, his venture into scamming also began.
Na-yeon’s article was unfortunately blocked and she blames Do-han who vouched that the police do not have power like that.
Later, Do-han also meets a member of Sangcheon’s Victims Club who attests to Byung-jun innocence. He also got the picture of how a man called “pursuer” contacted the group about his intention to make No Sang-cheon come out of hiding. The “pursuer” asked them to be at the crime scenes to confuse the investigation which is exactly what Byung-jun did.
Moving to extract something useful from Na-yeon’s group, Do-han ordered his men to get a search warrant. But Na-yeon strikes a deal by revealing her knowledge about the first crime which sealed Do-han’s team to halt the search operation.
“You thought if No Sang-cheon’s name made the news thanks to the murder, the investigation on his fraud case would reopen? A simple case of fraud can’t be compared to murder.”
Fulfilling the end of her bargain, Na-yeon visited the police station. While Do-han asserts that their group can be branded as criminal accomplices, she makes a point that the murders would at least push the police to properly investigate.
When Do-han desensitizes the group’s fraud concern over the murders arising, it irritates Na-yeon who asserts fraud victims turn to suicide inevitably. Sadly, no matter how much awareness the group was trying to stir, it remains futile as No Sang-cheon, still, is not being put to light.
Just as Na-yeon reveals the identity of the woman who was killed first, Chief Kang also arrives to say the same. He also elaborates the three victims are all connected to Sang-cheon.
Do-han talks to Chief Kang privately to confirm if he has anything to do with the murders since he already realized his chief has been hiding a lot of things.
Pressed with the situation, Chief Kang called Chief Prosecutor Park to relay the recent killings are not to be disregarded any more. They talk of a man that recently ended his jail sentence. That same man is also close to Na-yeon as he became her protector when her father died.
Decoy Episodes 3 and 4 Musings
Sang-cheon’s Victims’ Club is definitely on an elaborate plan to push the police to either bring the truth about the scammer or bring him back to the living if indeed he faked his death.
Now that a new character was introduced as a possible culprit for the recent killings; the search for No Sang Cheon heightens just as the pressure for the people who didn’t help the victims escalates.
Probably, he is the “pursuer” who obviously holds grudges against No Sang-cheon, the police, and the rest who aided the evil fraudster. However, it is puzzling how his competence to pull off murders even involving people of power, struggles to find where the target of his revenge is.
His grand picture of luring Sang-cheon out through the victims’ group has also loopholes needed to be addressed.
Decoy might not appeal to people who like sequences of thrill bursts. In presenting its big puzzle picture, it appears to be setting aside parts to be tackled first and then connecting the parts to resolve the initial conflict.
The weekly episodes appear disconnected at first glance, but it makes sense when you connect them from the start. Thus, it’s best to watch it in one sitting.
If Jung So-ram survived, it’s likely that No Sang-cheon is alive. Will Do-han solve the mystery before more deaths from “the list” arise? Don’t miss Decoy Part 1’s final episodes on February 10!
Put on your detective cap and be silent members of the team uncovering the unfathomable circumstances in Coupang Play’s Decoy. International fans can watch it on Prime Video.
Photos/Videos: Coupang Play
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