Episode 6 of Song of the Bandits opened in Tapeyong-dong five years ago when Eon-nyeni, pretending to be a helpless woman who had lost her family to the Japanese army, came to meet Choong-soo. Eon-nyeni’s sole purpose in coming to the village was to kill Lee Yoon. In the recent timeline as well, she had returned to the village with the same purpose. But this time, Choong-soo was well aware of her intentions. Choong-soo and Eon-nyeni sat together with the other members in Choong-soo’s group. While Choraeng-yi became impulsive and decided to kill Eon-nyeni, Choong-soo asked him to look under the table. As Choraeng-yi took a look, he found Eon-nyeni had already held Choong-soo at gunpoint. One move, and she would finish him off. Therefore, she would like to offer them a second chance to live if they informed her about where Lee Yoon was.
Spoilers Ahead
Is Hee-shin alive?
Choong-soo never allowed her on the team, but she kept following him and his men until they managed to spot Lee Yoon with Hee-shin in a village named Daur. They initially believed Lee Yoon had betrayed them for a woman. They thought Lee Yoon had probably collaborated with Hee-shin in the money heist, but that was not the case. Hee-shin was gravely injured, as shown in the previous episode of Song of the Bandits; therefore, to heal her wound, Lee Yoon escorted her to a village for her speedy recovery. In this village, Yoon stayed by her side for three days and tended to her. When Hee-shin woke up, she decided to leave for her destination, where she needed to reach the money, but Lee Yoon intervened, believing her complete recovery was more important than anything. Lee Yoon requested that she stay and promised that he would take good care of her health. Meanwhile, we saw Lee Gawang was not yet aware of Hee-shin’s role in the money heist. But he was aware that someone had stolen the money, and through the train, he had a meeting with some of the insurgents in Changchun.
In Song of the Bandits Episode 5, we saw some of the Japanese men, assuming the identity of the insurgents, intended to retrieve the money from Hee-shin, but it was unfortunate for them as Hee-shin managed to kill all of them. Lee Gawang was informed of the incident and received a tip that Lee Yoon was also with the person who had stolen the money. As Lee Gawang’s men started investigating, they discovered a village where Lee Yoon was staying. Without a delay, Lee Gawang rushed to the village to confront Lee Yoon and retrieve the railway money by killing him.
Did Gawang kill Yoon?
Choong-soo’s men managed to find the village and spotted Lee and Hee-shin there. Choong-soo’s trust was broken due to the fact that Lee Yoon had sided with Hee-shin by abandoning his duty in the group. Choong-soo and his men held Lee at gunpoint, but Lee explained to them that Hee-shin was an agent from the Independent Army and that the money was required to buy the freedom of Joseon. While Choong-soo wanted to kill Lee Yoon for his betrayal, he also wanted to hear him out and trust him. He knew that Lee wasn’t the kind of person who could be a traitor, so they lowered their guns to spare Yoon’s life. However, when Choong-soo’s men held Lee at gunpoint, Eon-nyeni, who hid herself behind the fence, tried to shoot Lee in the head from far away. But before she could pull the trigger and finish off Lee, the Japanese forces raided the village.
The Japanese army, led by Lee Gawang, confronted Lee Yoon and pointed their guns at his group. Gawang wanted to discuss the matter in private with Yoon. Even to give the impression of his trustworthiness, he handed his guns to his fellow officers and asked Yoon to confront him alone. Yoon also left his weapons with his group, who asked him to be cautious as no one should trust a traitor like Lee Gawang. Lee Yoon didn’t back down and courageously confronted Gawang alone. Hee-shin, terrified of getting caught, hid herself inside a box. Gawang kept on warning Lee Yoon to divulge the whereabouts of the location where he’d hidden the money. But Yoon didn’t say a word about the money. Rather, he intimidated Gawang, revealing how much change he had brought to his personality as he had been responsible for brutally killing a lot of Japanese militants who were torturing his countrymen. Gawang expected Yoon to be as submissive as he had always been, but seeing Yoon in a whole new light, Gawang was terrified. Yoon even threatened him with death, asserting that his connection with the local bandits had gone so far that if the Japanese army attacked them, the local bandits wouldn’t spare their lives.
Threatened by the warning and fueled by his anger, Gawang pulled his gun out and fired at the box, but the bullets didn’t touch Hee-shin. Gawang, disappointed by his inability to kill Yoon and retrieve the money, stormed out of the hut, asking his squad to leave the village. However, Yoon didn’t want to leave them alone or simply get away with the money. Instead, he had his contract killer, Eon-nyeni, orchestrate an attack. He knew where Eon-nyeni was hiding behind the fences; therefore, by maintaining discretion, Gawang reminded Eon-nyeni about her task, which was to kill Lee Yoon and his entire group, making sure that no one could escape alive.
Eon-nyeni didn’t want to carry out the task at all, so she had a conversation with Choong-soo, who warned her not to bring harm to Yoon’s life. A flashback of Eon-nyeni’s life showed us that she had really lost her parents at the hands of the Japanese army. Reminiscing about those traumatic pasts, she finally shed a tear. It was indeed a true and tragic incident in her life, which almost made her ruthless and apathetic. But the ending moments of the sixth episode of Song of the Bandits showcased that Eon-nyeni wasn’t only a contract killer, but she was a human too.
