The Worst of Evil (Season 1), Episodes 1-5 takes viewers on a thrilling journey into the underworld of Gangnam, where crime, power, and personal relationships intertwine in a complex web of deception and ambition. In the first five episodes, we witness the rise of Park Jun-mo, an undercover cop infiltrating the dangerous world of gangster Jang Kyung-chul. The series keeps viewers on the edge of their seats as we go back and forth between Jun-mo getting caught and merely escaping his disguise.
This article contains spoilers.
The Worst of Evil (Season 1) Recap:
Episode 1
The first episode begins with a flashback to 1994, and we see a lot of fistfights taking place. In the present, Park Jun-mo and his wife, Yoo Eui-jung visit Eui-jung’s house to have dinner and celebrate her getting a promotion, and her family belittles Jun-mo as he was a low-ranking officer. Eui-jung asks him to forget everything her family tells her. Jung Gi-cheul is a DJ at a pub/bar in Gangnam. He is a Gangnam native and is met with Jang Kyung-chul, who promises to help him own a pub instead of working in one if he brings his friends to work with him. Gi-cheul takes the offer to work for the gangster Kyung-chul, AKA Sergeant Jang, to make more money quickly. Gi-Chul works for the gangster for a year and manages a hotel and a pub, but the goon still disrespects him. Gi-Chul meets with Kyung-chul privately and tells him that he has found a way to make more money, which would be by selling drugs, and all he needs from him is funding. Kyung-chul insults him as he refuses to sell drugs. Gi-cheul feels insulted and devises a plan to eliminate Kyung-chul.
He hires a prominent knife wielder to work for him, and in exchange, he gives him two nightclubs to run, and the knife wielder agrees. Gi-chuel managed to lure Kyung-chul and his gang into a hotel and ensured they stayed a night. At midnight, Gi-chuel and his men and the knife wielder and his men join forces to eliminate Kyung-chul. Kyung-chul tries to escape, but Gi-chuel’s best friend and his right hand, Tae-ho, manages to handcuff Kyung-chul. He also decides to take Kyung-chul’s gold watch for himself. Gi-chuel stops the knife wielder from killing Kyung-chul, but in a fight, Kyung-chul manages to kill Tae-ho. Gi-chuel is overcome with anger as he loses his best friend. He takes the knife from the wielder and kills Kyung-chul. Gi-chuel goes to Busan to visit Kyung-chul’s boss Song Dong-hyuk. There, he tells Dong-hyuk that Kyung-chul had escaped and joined hands with his rival Sung Ki-soo. He also provides photo evidence to prove his words.
Dong-hyuk already knew Gi-chuel had killed him and was annoyed as he wanted to be warned before doing such things, as Kyung-chul was his man after all. Gi-Chul gets out of the pickle by asking Dong-hyuk to invest in his business, and if he does, he will give him 50 million won every month. Gi-chuel also meets Professor Kwon, who had sent her to China to smuggle gold into South Korea. Meanwhile, the Japanese and the Korean police and narcotics officials met as a woman had fallen off a balcony because of a drug overdose, and they realized that the meth and cocaine were smuggled to Japan from Korea. The man who confessed to this was killed by a Korean gang just three days after the confession. Prosecutor Chang-sik asks Detective Do-hyung to find a guy who can quickly get into Gi-chuel’s gang.
Do-hyung meets Jun-mo and informs him about this job, but he refuses to take it. Prosecutor Chang visits him and reminds him that he would not be promoted as his father was a drug addict and convinces him to do this job. Jun-mo asks the prosecutor to move him up two ranks, and then he would take the job. Jun-mo was given all the details about the gang, and Jun-mo asked the team that he would meet Gi-chuel on his way. Jun-mo was sent to the gang as Tae-ho’s fake cousin to play at Gi-chuel’s emotions. Jun-mo visits one of Gi-chuel’s restaurant ‘Sikgaek’ and demands to see Gi-chuel. Gi-chuel men and Jun-mo fight and eventually, Gi-chuel shows up. While conversing, Gi-chuel notices a watch around Jun-mo’s wrist, the exact watch that Tae-ho took from Kyung-chul. Gi-Chul asks him who he is, and they stare at each other.
Episode 2
The episode begins with Jun-mo and Gi-cheul talking, and Jun-mo abuses his goons and him for not finding the one who had killed Tae-ho. Gi-chuel asks Jun-mo to visit his office sometime and he leaves. Jun-mo tells Do-hyung that Gi-chuel has taken the bait. Gi-chuel and the gang visit Tae-ho’s father’s house to do a background check on Seung-ho (Jun-mo) to know if he is Tae-ho’s cousin. The father tells Gi-chuel that he indeed was, and they were inseparable as kids. Jun-mo had prepared the cops in advance to prep Tae-ho’s father. Jun-mo visits Gi-chuel’s office and Gi-chuel gives him money and asks him to get lost. Jun-mo is offended and tells them they can keep the money, and he wants to avenge his cousin. He was about to leave, but the goons started to fight him. Jun-mo took down the goons, and he left the office. Gi-chuel was impressed by his fighting skills. Meanwhile, two of Gi-chuel’s goons and friends are arguing about bringing Jun-mo into the gang. Jun-mo is giving out flyers to the public, asking them to call the police if they see Sergeant Jang and Gi-chuel’s goons see this.
Gi-cheul’s right-hand man, Hee-sung, gives monthly compensation money to Dong-hyuk. After this meeting, he locates Sergeant Jang and cracks a deal with him. He tells him that Gi-chuel has changed, and he wants to take him down. He would take care of things in Gangnam, and he has to take care of things in Busan, and they agree. Kyung-chul visits Dong-hyuk and gets his permission to take down Gi-cheul. Gi-cheul invites Jun-mo to an abandoned factory. At the same time, Hee-sung and Kyung-chul are ready to attack Gi-cheul. Hee-Sung lets the men inside. Do-hyung waits outside the factory and takes images of the goons while being worried about Jun-mo. Kyung-chul gets inside the abandoned factory and asks his goons to kill Gi-cheul. Gi-cheul tells Jun-mo that this is the man who killed Tae-mo. Gi-cheul and Jun-mo take on the goons. Gi-cheul’s knife wielder breaks Kyung-chul’s leg and asks the goons to take him out and finish him. Gi-Chul calls Dong-hyuk and expresses his disappointment in him as he has given Kyung-chul permission to take him down. He also tells him that he will no longer send monthly compensation money. Gi-cheul takes Jun-mo out and asks him to run a nightclub as it is Tae-ho’s dream.
After officially joining the gang, Jun-mo is in charge of patrolling the neighborhoods of Nonhyeon and Yeoksam. One day before the patrol, he meets his wife and informs her about the job. Just then, Gi-cheul and two goons enter the restaurant. Jun-mo tells them they are friends, but Gi-Chul knows Eui-Jeong as his high school friend. The goons take Jun-mo out, beat him, and ask him what he was doing with a cop. Jun-mo explains to them that his father was a drug addict and would always take refuge in her house, and at the moment, he was at the police station she was stationed in. They all drive together and it is revealed that Gi-cheul’s first love was Eui-jeong. Jun-mo notices a necklace Gi-cheul is wearing and realizes it’s the same thing that Eui-jeong owns.
Episode 3
The episode begins with a flashback to when Gi-Chul and Eui-Jeong were kids attending the same church. We see Gi-cheul falling in love with Eui-jeong. They both seem like they were close back then. After a while, Gi-cheul’s mother gets arrested and Gi-cheul and his younger sister have to move. In the present, we see Eui-jeong visiting her mother at the hospital where she is being treated for cancer. Her mother wants to meet Jun-mo and she promises to let him know. Gi-cheul is still running a background check on Jun-mo and now he does it with the name “Seung-ho.” He gets the results back and he asks to meet with Seung-ho. Gi-Chul asks him if he knows about Eui-jeong’s husband, and Jun-mo says he does not know. Gi-Chul shows him a document saying her husband’s name was Jun-mo and shows a picture, and it turns out the image was of someone else. Jun-mo is relieved to see that he wasn’t caught. Gi-cheul asks him who was good-looking if it is him or Jun-mo. Seung-ho says it was Gi-cheul.
Eui-jeong is worried about Jun-mo’s safety and asks Do-hyung to ensure his safety. Do-hyung tells her that only Jun-mo can do this job and apologizes to Eui-jeong. Meanwhile, we learn it was Do-hyung who had changed Jun-mo’s photo on the document Gi-cheul received. Jun-mo plans something that would lead him to get into Gi-cheul’s inner circle. A few nights later, cops disguised as thugs enter Gi-cheul’s office to take him down. Jun-mo comes to his rescue and gets injured. The gang decides to keep someone close to Gu-cheul always, and Gi-cheul wants Seung-ho to be his bodyguard. This gives Seung-ho access to the office and all the goons’ living space. The next day, Gi-cheul enquires about Seung-ho’s family, and he tells him that his mother left him when he was seven years old. Gi-cheul starts to relate to him and feels closer to him.
Gi-cheul asks Seung-ho to join him somewhere and takes him to the hospital where Eui-jeong’s mother is. Jun-mo refuses to go inside and makes an excuse that she wouldn’t remember him, and even if she did, she would feel bad as he would be seeing her in that state. He merely escapes, getting caught once again. Meanwhile, Dong-hyuk visits Japan to meet the gangster involved and informs him that he intends to finish the schedule and that he will follow through once he has made up his mind. Gi-cheul spends time with Eui-jeong’s mother and tells her that everything about him being a gangster was just rumors. Kanemoto calls Gi-cheul and informs him that he has killed Dong-hyuk. Kanemoto had heard about Dong-yuk’s plans and had attacked him and his goons. Gi-Chul tells his goon friends that Dong-yuk is dead, and they prepare to leave for fishing. Jun-mo learns that Gi-cheul and his friends usually go fishing a couple of times a month and don’t return for a night or two.
Gi-Chul and friends leave for fishing; the other goons go for a drink, leaving Jun-mo alone in the hideout. Jun-mo looks around, captures images, and shows them to his cop friends. Jun-mo finds it hard to understand how there wasn’t any fishing equipment in the office, especially when they go fishing often. Jun-mo’s next task is to get invited to the fishing trips. Gi-cheul’s friend Jung-bae tells Gi-cheul that he found a flashlight in their trunk that belonged to the cops. It does not take long for them to connect the dots and wonder why cops had disguised themselves as thugs to attack Gi-cheul. Meanwhile, Manager Cho and his goons pick up a drug dealer and discover he is getting his drugs from Gi-cheul. Manager Cho takes Jung-bae as his hostage, but Gi-cheul and the gang set up a trap for him.
Manager Cho was caught and was hit. Jun-mo is awakened from sleep and calls that they are beating Manager Cho. Gi-cheul asks Jun-mo to pull the trigger on Manager Cho and win his trust. Jun-mo is nervous, and his hands are visibly shaking. The episode ends with Gi-cheul forcing Jun-mo to pull the trigger.
Episode 4
The episode continues with Gi-cheul forcing Jun-mo to shoot. He shoots but misses because he was put on the spot and under pressure. The goons suspect that he was deliberately missing the target. Jun-mo is visibly shaking, and the knife wielder, Seo Jong-ryul, takes the gun from Jun-mo and shoots Manager Cho. Gi-cheul hears back from his informant and realizes there isn’t any information about Seung-ho except that he has violated the Narcotics Act. Jung-bae and Hee-sung tell Gi-cheul that it is suspicious that there have been many coincidences after Jun-mo joined the gang. Jung-bae suspects Eui-jeong, but Gi-cheul does not buy that idea as he has feelings for her. Jung-bae meets Jun-mo and asks him if he will call the cops but Jun-mo is confused. Jung-bae then threatens him and tells him that he isn’t one of them. Manager Cho’s body was found, but the police let it slide as the investigation had to be carried out.
Eui-jeong was involved in the undercover investigation as she had access to Gi-cheul. Gi-cheul takes Jun-mo to a café, and he is shocked to see Eui-jeong with Gi-cheul. He is informed about the situation by Do-hyung, and Jun-mo is annoyed. Meanwhile, Gi-cheul and Eui-jeong are remissive about the past, and Gi-cheul wonders if things would be different if his mother had not got arrested. On the ride back, Gi-cheul asks Eui-jeong about her husband, and she tells him that she is divorced and not many people know about it. Jun-mo is hurt and angry about the situation. After dropping Eui-jeong, Gi-cheul asks Jun-mo if he knows about the divorce, and he says he doesn’t know. Gi-cheul asks Jun-mo to keep this information about meeting Eui-jeong, a secret from the rest of the gang. He also mentions that he meets Eui-jeong often and asks him to get off patrolling duty.
Eui-jeong is woken up with the bad news that her mother is dead. Gi-cheul takes Jun-mo to the funeral. He makes an excuse and waits outside for Gi-cheul. Eui-jeong’s nephew recognizes Jun-mo and calls out to him but Do-hyung comes to the rescue. Gi-cheul recognizes Do-hyung as Eui-jeong’s husband. Gi-cheul and Eui-jeong walk out and talk. Gi-cheul gets into an argument with Do-hyung but Eui-jeong stops them. Jun-mo feels helpless as he cannot get inside and pay his last respects to his mother-in-law. He cannot be there for his wife but is angry as he sees Gi-cheul trying to get close to Eui-jeong. We see Jun-mo and his mother-in-law having a good time in the past, and she always approved and loved him more than her two sons.
Back in the office, Jun-mo tells Gi-cheul he wants to succeed. Gi-Cheul shares that his father was abusive, and eventually, his mother killed him. Gi-cheul promises to help Jun-mo succeed, but in return, he has to help him get Eui-jeong. He promises him with a heavy heart. Jun-mo takes the opportunity and asks to participate in the fishing trip, and Gi-Cheul tells him that he will take him eventually. That night, Jun-mo gets drunk, calls Eui-jeong, and expresses his feelings. The next day, Jung-bae asks Jun-mo where he and Gi-cheul are, and he lies and says they are at Tae-ho’s Columbarium. Jun-mo and Jong-ryul go for a smoke and talk about finding out how Gi-cheul and the higher-ups make money. Jong-ryul also asks him to be wise about who he follows. They bond as they both were from Gangnam.
Kang Geon asks Sung Ki-soo to team up to overthrow Gi-cheul. Jaegeon’s men brainwash Gi-cheul’s members to rat out the gang. Hee-sung’s wife goes into labor, and he cannot make it to the fishing trip. Gi-cheul asks Jung-bae to bring Jun-mo along, but Jung-bae is unhappy with the decision. Gi-cheul tells him they could test Jun-mo to see if he would call the cops on them. They leave for the fishing trip, and in between, Jung-bae calls Gi-cheul and tells him that he will join them later as he met with an accident, and Gi-cheul agrees. We see huge vans and cars pass by Jung-bae, and it seems like Jung-bae has ratted out Gi-cheul. They follow Gi-cheul’s car, and they start to attack. They were the goons from the Jaegon group and Kang Geon. One of the goons puts a knife to Gi-cheul’s throat and he is unable to reach the glove compartment and reach the gun. Jun-mo takes the gun and puts the gun on the goon’s forehead. In the last scene, we see Jun-mo pulling the trigger.
Episode 5
The episode begins with Jun-mo shooting but luckily he didn’t shoot at anyone’s head. He randomly shot at the goons. The fight continues, and Seo Jong-ryul saves the day as soon as Jun-mo is sliced and seriously injured. Jun-mo is admitted to the hospital, and Gi-Chul feels upset because of the attack and because of Jun-mo’s state. Jun-mo wakes up, and Gi-Chul tells him he trusts him now as he has saved his life twice. Jun-mo asks Gi-cheul if they were smuggling by disguising it as fishing. Gi-cheul tells him he will say everything to him in time. Eui-jeong is furious with the officers as Jun-mo’s state is terrible. She offers to help them in any way possible as long as it gets Jun-mo out of there. Because of the attack, the smuggling could not occur, and Gi-Chul had to take full responsibility.
Gi-Chul asks Seo to find the person who betrayed them, as he is the only person he can trust now. Seo gets back, saying he wasn’t entirely sure who had ratted them out, but he had a clue. Gi-cheul asks him to assemble every goon at the office at night and sends Jun-mo in an ambulance back to Seoul. On the way, they stop as the driver needs to use the restroom, and Do-Hyung finds Jun-mo. Jun-mo confirms that they were smuggling things and had to save the one who betrayed Gi-cheul. The one who ratted out the gang was not in the office, and it was Oh-hyujin. Seo was informed that it was Oh-hyujin. Before the police got to him, Seo had brought him to the office. Gi-cheul asks Seo to take care of him, but Jun-mo interferes and beats him up badly and asks Gi-cheul to let him go. Gi-cheul also asks the boys to address Jun-mo as boss going forward.
Gi-cheul, Seo, Jun-mo, Jungbae, and Heesung discuss important matters privately. Gi-cheul tells them that the Chinese are visiting Seoul and asks them to prepare something special for them. At first, it is decided that Jungbae would go and talk to the Chinese, but things changed. Gi-cheul was supposed to meet them, but he gets a call from Eui-jeong to meet her. Seo and Jun-mo privately tell Gi-cheul that they suspect Jungbae had something to do with the ambush. Gi-cheul asks Seo to verify thoroughly and lets Jun-mo meet the Chinese. Professor Yoon was not in China, and the cops suspected her of being involved with Gi-cheul to do the smuggling.
Seo pretends to be a police officer and visits the head gang member who had attacked them, who is now in the hospital. There, he confirms that Jungbae had nothing to do with the attack. He informs the same to Gi-cheul. Seo ends up killing the gang head. Gi-cheul and Jungbae have a drink privately, and Jungbae asks him if his essential meeting was something to do with Eui-jeong. He does not answer anything directly but tells him that some things are dangerous, but they had to take a shot anyway. Jungbae shows his concern as she is a police official. Jun-mo visits home, and Eui-jeong and Jun-mo catch up over dinner.
The Worst of Evil (Season 1), Episode 5 Ending, Explained:
Who Betrayed the Gang in Gangnam?
The next day, Jun-mo goes to the airport to pick up the Chinese, and Gi-cheul hangs out with Eui-jeong at the church they were a part of as kids. The police give a picture of Professor Yoon to Jun-mo, but he sees a young woman at the airport. He drops her off at the hotel with the man who had come with her. On the ride there, he apologizes for the mishap, but she does not care about the apology. He drops her off, and she learns his name is Seung-ho. He sees Do-hyung, meets him, and informs him about everything he has learned. Jun-mo is annoyed to discover that Eui-jeong and Gi-cheul were together at that moment.
In anger, he storms off towards the hotel and accidentally bumps into a man. He apologizes to him, but he notices a suitcase and the man with him is the same man he had picked up from the airport. He leaves and walks towards the hotel. Despite Seo’s findings, Jungbae seems suspicious as he surely had seen the vans go towards the route Gi-cheul was moving in. He also despises that Jun-mo is getting close to Gi-Chul and getting to know the details of the business. The ending hints at how the smuggling on land was probably conducted, as the drugs might have been in the suitcase Jun-mo had seen. We don’t know clearly who is providing Intel to Gi-cheul about everyone.
![The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [2007] Review: A Tale of Fame & Infamy](https://www.highonfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/jesse-james-2-768x432.jpg)
