Episodes 1 & 2 of “Blood Free” (original title: Jibaejong) introduce us to the show’s leading player, Ja Yoon, the CEO of Blood Free company. Ja Yoon is ambitious about stopping animal killing and environmental destruction and wants to make more cultured meat and lab-grown goods for humans. Chae Woon is a former soldier who witnessed a terrorist attack and knows the person behind bars is innocent. Former President Mingyu supports Chae Woon’s cause by finding the real terrorist. Chae Woon joins Blood Free as Ja Yoo’s bodyguard in this attempt.
This article contains spoilers.
Blood Free Episode 1 Recap:
The episode begins with Ja Yoo launching a new product from her company, Blood Free. The people present for the event are taken through a 3D sort of experience to show how animals are murdered to satisfy their needs, like food and clothes. Ja Yoo expresses that people have loved their cultured meat and that Blood Free intends to expand and make more than cultured beef. She plans on building a company where no animals or environment are harmed for human needs. Woo Chae Woon attends the event as well and observes everyone present. She presents her new product, which is cultured sea animals. Moreover, Woo Chae Woon promises that their cultured meat has nothing like microplastics that can cause harm to humans. She introduces the man behind the cultured meat at Blood Free, Kim Shin Gu.
Why are people protesting against Ja Yoo and Blood Free?
Ja Yoo finishes the event and heads out to find many protestors. People claim that the liquid used to make cultured meat has germs. A group of people are also protesting because they have gone bankrupt because of Blood Free. In fact, many newspapers are carrying articles that were sent anonymously to all newspaper agencies about Blood Free using a liquid with germs or bacteria in it. The people have believe the news reports and are protesting.
Ja Yoo is stuck in traffic, and her driver informs her that this is the only way to the highway. A man falls on her car, aiming to harm Ja Yoo. He is a protester and a stockbreeder who has been waiting for more than an hour to get his revenge. Chae Woon is stuck in the traffic as well, and as soon as he hears the man fall, he comes to help Ja Yoo and the man. The Prime Minister sends her flowers.
What happened to Blood Free’s computer system?
Ja Yoo is trying to see her accident footage and wonders who the man is. She also wonders who Chae Woo is and is alerted when Jung Hae Deun mentions that she has seen him somewhere. Meanwhile, Shin Gu gets to work and is met with a problem with his system. Someone has hacked their system and is demanding 80 billion won in Bitcoin within the next 48 hours. The system is hacked from router 4 of their system. The team tells Ja Yoo that it is ransomware and that these people have attacked many big companies, including the government. However, nobody knows if the ransom was paid.
Suspicions are rising as the labs in Headquarters or Seoul have not been hacked. It is just their lab. Shin Gu does not understand a computer virus and wants them to track these people down as people pointing fingers at the liquid for the cultured meat disrespect his life’s work. Jung Hae Deun realizes that the same person who hacked their system sent the article to all newspaper agencies.
Ja Yoo is informed that the company’s market share is dropping because of the article. She asks her assistant to do tests from other labs to put an end to the rumors. The team is unsure if the hackers have access to the confidential files, which may reveal the formula to make the cultured meat. According to previous cases, they haven’t been able to access any files, but they can’t be too sure.
Who is Chae Woon?
Chae Woon is a former soldier who received an invitation from an unknown person to attend Blood Free’s product launch. In many of his flashbacks, we see a war-like situation during his soldier days. He is seen saving someone who looks like Ja Yoo. Ja Yoo learns he has quit working for Chairman Park Daeseong from Sanghwa and is a former Marine. She contemplates if she should hire him because a similar case had occurred in the military during his time as a soldier.
Former President Lee Mungyu invites Chae Woon to meet. He reveals he sent him the invitation and asks Chae Woon if he has caught the terrorist. When Lee Mungyu was President and Chae Woon was a soldier, they invited influential people to visit the troops. Among them were Ja Yoo and Park Daeseong. Chae Woon leaving work at Sanghwa can only mean he wasn’t the one who attacked the troops and the others. Lee Mungyu thinks Ja Yoo attacked them and asks Chae Woon to work for her. He also tells Chae Woon that when he was President, Ja Yoo had coaxed him into changing laws about cultured meat. Chae Woon agrees to help Mingyu and work for Ja Yoo.
What is Mingyu’s true intention?
The current Prime Minister, Seon-u, visits Mingyu and asks if Chae Woon believes him. Mingyu says he is a soldier and is born to obey the orders of his superiors. Seon-u tells Mingyu that Ja Yoo does not talk to her family and is building a state-of-the-art place to live in for her security. Until then, she will be moving from one hotel to another. He also mentions her team member On San as his relationship with his girlfriend ended because of Ja Yoo. Seon-u hopes Chae Woon will be a soldier until the end. Mingyu also makes his case to Chae Woon by saying Ja Yoo only cares about money, and when he tries to stop her, she gets rid of him.
Blood Free Episode 2 Recap:
The episode begins with Chae Woon getting a call from Blood Free for the test before getting selected as the bodyguard for Ja Yoo. He is taken in and put inside the virtual reality room. As he walks, he observes his surroundings. As he turns the VR on, he is met with an opponent he needs to fight and defeat. He successfully defeats the opponent, and immediately, the scene changes to him with a gun. Now, he needs to shoot specific moving targets. He then needs to win a car race with many opponents.
Will Chae Woon be selected as Ja Yoo’s bodyguard?
Chae Woon is then interviewed by On San. He does not hide that he has done a background check on everyone at Blood Free. He gets back home and is faced with his next challenge. There are intruders at his house, but Chae Woon realizes something is off and prepares himself with a pocket knife. He finds one intruder and fights him until the man bleeds. Another one is holding Chan Woon’s cat and tells Chae Woon to bring Ja Yoo to him. He tells him that he will know when Ja Yoo will be alone and that he will help them meet her.
Chae Woon refuses and asks them to find her themselves, and the man blackmails him indirectly, saying that they will harm his family. They also try to bribe him with money, but Chae Woon attacks the man. Jeong comes to the man’s rescue as she escorts him to meet with Ja Yoo. Chae Woon is selected and starts his work as her bodyguard immediately.
What is Ja Yoo afraid of?
Ja Yoo gets terrible news. She is to meet with Prime Minister Seon-u, and there is a South American drug gang that has put a bounty on her head. They have publicly put her picture up and promise to reward the person who brings Ja Yoo’s head. Ja Yoo jokes with Jeong that she can’t escape to South America, and Jeong is relieved that she is okay. However, Ja Yoo expresses that she is terrified despite being prepared for this. She mentions that she has hit a specific market, and whether it affects them or not, there is retaliation. She is finding it difficult to face her nightmares becoming a reality.
What happens with the ransomware and the meeting with Seon-u?
Ja Yoo asks Chae Woon about the ransomware, and he suggests the only way to catch the culprit is to make a Bitcoin transaction and track people who are withdrawing money. He also tells her that even though she has a huge business and money, it will be impossible for her to track down the culprits. He asks her to get help from outside. Ja Yoo makes the transaction, and the files are back. Ja Yoo decides to bring it up during the meeting with Seon-u. Seon-u is unhappy about Blood Free’s controversy and says it taints the country’s reputation.
Ja Yoo asks him for help to track down the culprits. She even lures him by saying he will be the first politician to track ransomware criminals in the history of the scams. Seon-u puts forth two conditions for her. He asks her to prove that her lab is not using any germs in its meat, and Ja Yoo agrees as the tests are in process. He then asks her to donate 80 billion won to the affected people as she has spent that much on scammers. Reluctantly, she agrees to the terms, but in return, she asks him to keep track of money withdrawals, and he agrees.
Blood Free Episode 2 Ending Explained:
Can Ja Yoon trust anyone in Blood Free?
On her way home, Ja Yoo gets a call from On San saying one of their lab workers met with an accident and is unconscious. They finish work for the day, and Chae Woon takes a button off his shirt and copies data to his laptop. He reviews the footage, and he realizes something. He notices that Ja Yoo is not changing hotels daily like the brief he was given. Secondly, he realizes something about the ransomware message.
He rushes to Ja Yoo’s hotel, and Jeong calls to wake her. Ja Yoo asks Yeong-shil to let Chae Woo in. Subsequently, he shows her the message that CitizenX (a ransomware group) had sent in 2021 to an oil pipeline company. He tells her about the symbols they used and why it was believed that it had come from Russia. They checked Blood Free’s message and realized the symbols were only what Koreans used. He calls to meet Mr. Seo at the office. As she travels there, she suspects Jeong, On San, Mr. Seo, and Shin Gu, as they all have access to the lab.
Ja Yoo has to be careful as there is a chance that she is being threatened from within the company rather than outside. We know that Mingyu and Seon-u are rooting for Ja Yoo to fall. But someone inside the company is probably spreading fake news and helping hack systems. Mr. Seo seems suspicious from the get-go, but the truth will be revealed in the next few episodes. As for Chae Woon, he joined the company on Mingyu’s orders. Chae Woon may decide for himself after observing Ja Yoo and her company for himself and, in reality, may protect her until the end.
