Neuroscience is complicated, and only a genius can understand it thoroughly. One such hyper-intelligent neuroscientist joins the newly established neuroscientific investigation team of Seobu Police Station, and this marks the beginning of the thrilling journey of “Brain Works.” Dr. Shin Ha Ru didn’t think he would like his new job but ended up enjoying it the most. While solving unusual criminal cases, Ha Ru also made friends who accepted his eccentric personality, and they became firm support for each other in life.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Brain Works’ Season 1: A Brief Recap
Dr. Shin Ha Ru is a renowned neuroscientist who is currently working on a psychopathic brain remodeling project. Ha Ru is obsessed with the brain and would do anything to get someone to donate their brain. He forges the consent form to get a deceased psychopath’s brain and gets caught by Geum Myung Se, a righteous police detective. Myung Se didn’t plan on exposing Ha Ru, as Ha Ru convinced him that what he was doing is necessary for the future of neuroscience. Myung Se accidentally reveals this to his reporter friend while he was being intoxicated. This causes controversy, and Ha Ru loses his job. To get revenge on Myung Se and improve his public image, Ha Ru joins the neuroscientific investigation team. Initially, he tries to get the media’s attention with every case he solves, but later, he starts finding the cases more interesting than research. He even forgets about getting revenge on Myung and becomes his ally.
Myung Se is an altruistic detective with a troubled family life. However, he is a kindhearted person who handles all of Ha Ru’s eccentricities and tantrums. As they keep working together, the friendship between them grows. Ha Ru has had a troubled childhood, but only now has he found out that his memories have been altered. Dr. Hwang Dong Woo, who is a neuroscientist and a serial killer, tries to manipulate Ha Ru by trying to remind him of his suppressed memories. Ha Ru also has a psychopathic brain, which he has kept under control, and Hwang’s intention is to turn Ha Ru into a murderer by manipulating him with his traumatic memories. Ha Ru has to think rationally to save himself from falling into Hwang’s trap.
Who Killed Ha Ru’s Parents?
Hwang has offered Ha Ru a deal: he will reveal to him the real murderer of his parents if he writes him a petition to get into the hospital because he wants to breathe some fresh air. Ha Ru obviously doesn’t help him and sets out to find the truth himself. Myung Se had submitted his resignation, but he went back to the office to help Ha Ru. He asks his boss if he knows the detective related to Ha Ru’s parents’ case, and thankfully, he remembers. Ha Ru meets the detective and, firstly, finds out that his aunt has already met the detective. The detective tells him that the suspect in the case is Dr. Park and not Hwang. Meanwhile, at Ha Ru’s home, his aunt finds an envelope addressed to him. It has a paper written by Ha Ru’s father, but his aunt finds it suspicious. She tells Ha Ru that this exact same paper had been published by Dr. Park. This only raises Ha Ru’s doubts about Park more. However, he first confronts his aunt about why she lied to him, and it turns out she had a valid reason to do so. Ha Ru had lost his memories and stopped talking after his parents’ death, and the only way to bring him back to normal was to alter his memories.
Ha Ru visits Hwang again to confirm with him if Park is really the murderer, but Hwang is adamant about his deal. Ha Ru has no other option and writes a petition for him. He waits for Hwang to arrive at the hospital, and Hwang gives him a note with an address to find the evidence. Ha Ru finds a warehouse at the given address and follows the voice coming from inside. He finds a box with an audio recording of a conversation between Park and Hwang in which Hwang accuses Park of the murder. Moreover, he also finds the knife used as a weapon for murder. As soon as Ha Ru is ready to leave, Park arrives and starts convincing Ha Ru that he is not the murderer and that Hwang is framing him. He admits that he stole Ha Ru’s father’s paper, but he didn’t murder him. In the end, he confesses to Ha Ru that he was the witness to their murder but keeps his mouth shut because he is afraid of Hwang. Ha Ru is angrier than he’s ever been and tries to stab Park with the same knife, but Myung Se stops him. Ha Ru’s aunt was worried for Ha Ru, so she asked Myung Se to follow him, and Myung Se reached him just at the right time. Ha Ru would have murdered Park, as Hwang wanted, if Myung Se hadn’t been there.
Ha Ru doesn’t know what to believe, and in this case, he can only trust his brain. He undergoes hypnosis to visualise the face of the murderer, but it brings back all of his traumatic memories. He relives that scary experience of seeing his parents get murdered again, but his brain still refuses to get out of hypnosis. It is because he gets to see his parents for the first time in 28 years. He wakes up eventually because he has seen the murderer’s face and needs to bring justice to his parents. Ha Ru’s father was going to report the first-ever murder committed by Hwang, and that’s why he got killed by Hwang. His mother, who saw them, was the second victim. Ha Ru would have been the third victim if he didn’t listen to his mom. He stayed hidden in the car until help arrived, and that’s how he survived. Ha Ru confirms Hwang is the murderer and goes to the hospital with Myung Se. However, Hwang has already run away from the hospital. Ha Ru knew Hwang was capable of doing that, so he put a tracker in his jacket. They follow the signals and catch Hwang’s car near a gas station. The police also arrive to arrest him, but another man gets out of the car. It turns out that Hwang has been hiding in the closet and runs away when all the police guards leave the hospital. Hwang doesn’t care enough to hide his face and gets caught on camera. Ha Ru has a rough idea of where he could be, and it turns out to be true. Hwang is at Ha Ru’s childhood home. However, as soon as Ha Ru and Myung Se enter the house, they collapse after inhaling poisonous gas. They wake up to find themselves tied to chairs. Hwang announces to them that he will finally make Ha Ru a murderer.
How Do Myung Se And Ha Ru Escape Hwang?
Hwang wants to play a game of sympathy with Myung Se and Ha Ru. He is using neural coupling to match Ha Ru and Myung Se’s brain waves while reacting to certain pictures. If the match is over 80%, he will let them go, and if not, Ha Ru’s aunt, Myung Se’s ex-wife, and daughter will die by drowning in the water inside a tank. Hwang is invested in proving that Ha Ru’s brain is not normal like others and that he can become a murderer any day. Hwang only shows them pictures, which makes one feel compassion for the people, fully knowing that Ha Ru is unable to feel that emotion. As the match stays below 30% every time, the water inside the tank keeps filling up. Hwang keeps blaming Ha Ru, but Myung Se assures him that he is not at fault here. Meanwhile, at the police station, Captain Seul and her boss tried to contact both Ha Ru and Myung Se but couldn’t reach them. They tracked their phone’s location in the same neighborhood. The detective in Ha Ru’s parents’ case gave them a hint about their house, and the detectives are looking for it. They find an old house with an arched window and ring the house bell. Hwang is flustered by the sudden disturbance and goes to check the door. In the meantime, Ha Ru tries to understand Myung Se’s emotions so he can enact them to match him. However, this approach doesn’t work either.
Hwang hadn’t opened the door the first time, but Captain Seul had noticed the curtains moving. She goes back to the house again, and this time, the door opens for her. She enters the house cautiously and hears muffled voices. She follows the sound into the basement of the house and sees Myung Se and Ha Ru tied to the chairs with their mouths taped. They try to signal Seul to go back, but she enters anyway and gets caught by Hwang. He ties her up as well. Ha Ru starts thinking that he is the reason everyone is getting hurt. This is what Hwang wants—to make Ha Ru believe that he is not as superior as he thinks he is. However, Myung Se defends Ha Ru from Hwang’s verbal attack and tells him to ignore what he says. Myung Se confidently says to Hwang that Ha Ru is not like him and has a human side. He asks Hwang to try killing him to see how Ha Ru reacts. Myung Se says it without thinking, but Hwang actually starts choking Myung Se, and he loses consciousness. Hwang thought that their brainwaves wouldn’t ever match because Ha Ru didn’t feel fear or compassion. However, Ha Ru got scared that Myung Se died, and their brainwaves crossed at 80% similarity, which unlocked their handcuffs. This is a new feeling for Ha Ru, and he realizes that he has actually formed a connection with someone.
Captain Seul recognizes the bathhouse’s name, where Hwang has kept people hostage, and they rescue them. Even after escaping Hwang once, Ha Ru still goes back to meet Hwang because they have business to finish. Hwang is waiting for Ha Ru at the same place, and he has one last game to play. He challenges Ha Ru’s belief that forming a connection with another person can change a person, whereas Hwang believes that the brain controls a person and that no man can ever be greater than the brain. They run a neurological test to check if what they believe is what their brains believe as well. Whoever loses has to inject the other one with morphine to kill them. Contrary to what Hwang believed, his brain doesn’t believe the same, and he loses the wager. Hwang cannot accept that he has been living in a delusion, but he still allows Ha Ru to inject him with morphine. It was his real intention from the beginning—to become a murderer. Ha Ru has nothing but feelings of hatred against Hwang, but he doesn’t kill him and disproves his yet another theory again. Ha Ru leaves after telling Hwang to kill himself because he has nothing else to do in this lifetime anymore.
‘Brain Works’ Season 1: Ending Explained
Hwang injects himself with morphine and takes his own life. Ha Ru can finally be at peace knowing that his parents finally got justice. His aunt reports Park to the committee for plagiarizing the paper he built his career on. Hwang had offered Park the paper in exchange for keeping his mouth shut. Moreover, Ha Ru is happy that he has a friend now. Although he acts annoyed when Myung Se gets clingy with him, he feels good about sensing the connection between them. Meanwhile, Myung Se proposes to Captain Seul once again, and she says yes. Myung Se’s ex-wife is not obsessed with him anymore and has accepted that they are better as friends only. The neuroscientific team gets felicitated for their achievement, and Ha Ru stands with them this time. However, he is still adamant about quitting the team, but another interesting case comes up, making it difficult for him to leave the team.
“Brain Works” takes a complicated subject and presents it in a simple manner. All neurological illnesses with difficult names and equally difficult-to-understand symptoms were put forth in a way to not scare away the viewers. It was thrilling and amusing to watch. Above all, the bromance between Ha Ru and Myung Se steals the show. Two people with polar opposite personalities end up becoming close friends who know everything about each other’s lives. Ha Ru wanted to ruin Myung Se’s life but found a friend in him who showed him that he could have compassion like other people. The series has the potential to grow as this duo, along with their team, can solve more intriguing cases. It will be unfair to end the story here. We can only hope that the creators will make a new season soon, given the popularity of the show.
