A trader and a prosecutor, who are also family, join hands with an army major to avenge a man who wronged them. Written by Kim Won Suk and directed by Lee Won Tae, “Payback” follows Eun Yong, a money trader who has gone from rags to riches, his beloved nephew, Jang Tae Chun, who is now a prosecutor with big aspirations, and his friend, Park Joon Gyeong, an army major whose mother died an unjust death.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Eun Yong Become A Money Trader?
Eun Yong has been living in Mongolia for some time, and his business is trading land for money. He lives in a rather isolated region and uses traditional methods to get land and then sell it to others. Eun Yong is an expert in trading money, and he started young. Eun Yong was an orphan who had just gotten out of the juvenile center when a gangster offered him to join his gang. However, Eun Yong declined his offer because he didn’t want to go behind bars again. He had robbed a bank because he needed money, but he learned his lesson. He lived off hospital food for a few days until he got a job. He visited his sister after making some money. His sister lived alone with her son, Jang Tae Chun, who was as smart as his uncle, Eun Yong. Tae Chun’s mother had a hard time raising her son alone, so Eun Yong decided to make money for his nephew, whom he cherished like his own son.
Eun Yong joined Kim Seong Tae’s gang, which had given him an offer when he got out of jail. Eun Yong was now a gang member who beat up the protesters who opposed redevelopment or hindered building construction in any way. He worked for Seong Tae for a long time and made enough money to ease the financial burden on his sister. However, his life took a turn later when Myeong In Ju offered him a job. Eun Yong had done a good job shaking down someone who owed Myeong money, and Myeong was impressed by Eun Yong’s ability to remember numbers, which he needed in his trading business. Myeong was a loan shark, and Eun Yong made much more money as his bookkeeper than he had as a thug. He was able to buy an apartment for his sister, and his sister could quit her low-paying job to open a bar of her own. His nephew, Tae Chun, got all of his wishes to come true, but he didn’t like that his mother came home drunk every day.
Jang Tae Chun dreamed big and became a prosecutor. He was a brilliant child, but he realized only after growing up that he needed more than just intelligence to become a successful prosecutor. He didn’t study at a prestigious college, nor did he have connections, so he often gets looked down upon at the office. However, he is persistent in his efforts and dreams of joining the special investigations department. His boss only gives him petty criminal cases whereas he wants to do something big. Rambo, aka Lee Chang Min, is a self-proclaimed financial expert who is popular for giving stock trading tips. He gets into an accident due to his mistake, which creates controversy. When Tae Chun least expects it, he receives an anonymous tip against Rambo out of the blue. It’s a document that has insider information about a company called Solar Bio, which Rambo promoted in his videos. A senior investigator, Nam Sangil, thinks that it is a case of stock price manipulation, as he always suspected Rambo of it.
Tae Chun has the document, but it is encoded using the same old methods that loan sharks use. It immediately reminds Tae Chun of his uncle Eun Yong, and he faxes the document to him to decode. Eun Yong helps Tae Chun find the biggest names involved in the stock-price manipulation, and the names make it easy for Tae Chun to convince his boss to let him take the case. The two big names are a company under Rambo’s girlfriend’s name and a company owned by Myeong In Ju, who happens to be the father-in-law of Chief Prosecutor Hwang Gi Seok. Gi Seok is Tae Chun’s boss’s rival, so he approves the case right away. Tae Chun creates a sensation by exposing the stock-price manipulation case but doesn’t reveal Myeong’s connection to the case immediately. He knows what he is doing, as he sees this as a chance to join the special investigations team. However, the CEO of the company owned by Myeong Ju- GMI Bank, Oh Chang Hyun, and chief prosecutor Gi Seok meet Eun Yong’s boss and indirectly threaten to demote him if he doesn’t close the case.
Tae Chun is disappointed when his boss asks him to drop the case and indirectly tells him that he will get demoted as well if he continues on this case. Back in Mongolia, Eun Yong is also invested in this case. When he researched it, he guessed that Myeong would be involved in it somehow. Eun Yong runs his own company now but rarely shows his face to his clients. His manager provides him with the information he needs on the case. His research leads him to the late CEO Yoon of Bluenet, who died recently, and he immediately understands the reason Tae Chun received the anonymous tip. Tae Chun’s luck isn’t all that bad, as he gets to reopen the case after an incident at Oh Chang Hyun’s book launch ceremony. A man accuses Oh Chang Hyun of stock manipulation and sets himself on fire. The news spreads, and Tae Chun has no choice but to investigate the case.
On the other hand, Major Park Joon Gyeong gets summoned by the prosecution as she is caught stealing Lee Chang Min’s, aka Rambo’s, bag in a club. She becomes the prime suspect for giving the tip to Tae Chun. Eun Yong has figured it out before the prosecution, and he sees it as a message from her to return to Korea. Joon Gyeong’s mother, CEO Yoon, had a close relationship with Eun Yong and so he decided to return for her.
How Did Eun Yong Meet CEO Yoon?
After getting out of jail, Eun Yong was traveling in search of a job when he first met Park Joon Gyeong on a train. She stood up against some gangsters who were bothering a woman. Eun Yong didn’t want to get into trouble again, so he kept quiet until he thought Joon Gyeong was in danger. Both of them fought against the gangsters and ended up getting arrested. Joon Gyeong’s mother went to the police for her, but when she understood that Eun Yong had no guardian, she signed his release form even after knowing that he was an ex-convict. She gave him a place to sleep at her home and offered him a decent job at a factory. She saw Eun Yong as a person who stood up against injustice and overlooked that he had committed a crime once.
For Eun Yong, she was the first and only person who treated him like a human. However, Eun Yong needed more money, so he joined the gang, but he still had a good relationship with Joon Gyeong and her mother. While he was in Mongolia, Eun Yong wasn’t aware of what had happened with Yoon. She was framed for money embezzlement and was later said to have committed suicide. Eun Yong cannot believe that Yoon could have committed suicide, but the video evidence shows clearly that she drove off a cliff.
Oh Chang Hyun is worried that his company will go under if the stock price manipulation gets proven. However, Chief Prosecutor Gi Seok has a solution. He makes Kim Seong Tae confess that he manipulated the stock prices behind Chang Hyun’s back, and to distract the media from this case, he gives them another big case by arresting a politician. Park Joon Gyeong is being interrogated, and Gi Seok has a special interest in her as he now knows that she is Yoon’s daughter.
Gi Seok had a hand in framing Yoon for embezzlement, but his main target was someone else. However, he still needs to be careful. Joon Gyeong isn’t cooperating with the prosecutors during the interrogation, and soon enough, the military officials arrive to take her. As a soldier, Joon Gyeong can only be judged by the military court. She is a staff judge in the military and knows it very well, but she complied with the prosecutor for fun.
‘Payback’ Episode 2: Ending
Eun Yong has returned to Korea and has been digging into Solar Bio’s case. Myeong was his mentor in stock trading, but their relationship is not the same anymore. After Eun Yong started his own business, Myeong forcefully took all the bonds that Eun Yong had under his name and tried to kill him. However, Eun Yong managed to escape, but he needed revenge. He gathered all the people who had been conned by Myeong and manipulated the stocks that Myeong invested in. It profited Yoon’s company, Bluenet, and all the losses that both Yoon and Eun Yong incurred got covered. Eun Yong didn’t stop there and even bought off the prosecutor whom Myeong always received help from. His relationship with Myeong only worsened afterward, and they are now enemies.
“Payback” episode 2 ends with Eun Yong and Park Joon Gyeong meeting after a long time, but instead of happy faces, they show anxiety about what’s to come next. Yoon, an important figure in both of their lives, is no longer with them, and they need to find out the truth behind her death. On the other hand, the ambitious prosecutor, Jang Tae Chun, is only focused on entering the special investigations department, unaware of what kind of relationship his uncle has with the people he wants to go after.
