Detective Jin’s sting operation revealed something bigger and unexpected to him and helped him stop a big massacre from happening in “The First Responders.” Jin is a risk-taker, and his sting operation hasn’t ended yet. He already has a lot of enemies, and digging further into his secret mission can prove harmful to him.
Spoilers Ahead
What Does Jin Get Arrested For?
A restaurant near a mountain has caught fire, and the firefighters haven’t been able to stop it from spreading. Detective Jin informs them that there is a chemical factory nearby and they need to stop the fire soon. Bong Do Jin climbs the roof of the restaurant and breaks it open to put out the fire inside with water. The roof has become weak, but still, Do Jin risks his life to stop the restaurant from exploding. Do Jin is good at his job, and his strategy to stop the fire from spreading works.
After they put out the fire, the firefighters investigated the restaurant to find the cause of the fire. They believe no one was inside the restaurant, but Do Jin finds a burned body in the kitchen. The detectives take over the case immediately and send the body for an autopsy. The forensic officers find a foreign substance on the victim’s neck and conclude that he didn’t die because of fire but was strangled to death, turning his death into a murder and arson case.
The dead person is named Bang Pil Gu, and he was an ex-convict. Director Ma had asked him for a favor, and his death seemed to be connected to it. Ma calls a prosecutor to his office and gives him evidence related to Pil Gu’s case. The detectives and firefighters have been investigating the case together, and while Do Jin finds the material used for ignition, Jin finds bloodstains that could possibly belong to the murderer. Things go almost too smoothly for them, and they also find footprints and a bottle of lighter oil.
Anna is running the footprint and the fingerprints on the bottle through the database, and the forensic officer has also found a DNA match to the blood. Do Jin is also playing his role as an officer and getting the list of those who reported the fire, and according to him, the first caller is generally a prime suspect in arson cases. Surprisingly, all the evidence found points to only one person—Detective Jin. The prosecutor arrives with an arrest warrant and video evidence that Jin was near the restaurant before the accident.
It is true that Jin was near the restaurant before the incident, and hence, he cannot give an alibi. Director Ma had called him there at night, and Jin had no idea where it was going to lead him. Jin is taken for interrogation, and the detectives show him the documents that say that Jin is in debt because of gambling, which is reason enough for him to kill someone for money. Director Ma has prepared everything to make sure that Jin never gets out of prison.
Jin is sent to the detention center, where all the convicts that he caught are waiting for him. One of the convicts stabbed Jin in the stomach multiple times, and on his very first day in prison, Jin had to go to the hospital. In the ambulance, Jin uses the doctor as his shield to escape from the police. Back at the station, Do Jin has been looking for evidence to prove Jin’s innocence, but he has only reached dead ends so far.
Jin escapes, and the first thing he does is visit the kid he saved near the restaurant. The kid frequents the building near the restaurant, and Jin asks him if he saw anyone near the restaurant on the day of the fire. The kid tells him about the homeless man he had seen and where to find him.
Jin finds the place that the kid mentioned and collapses in front of the homeless men because of his stomach injury. Back at the hospital, the kid calls Seol to ask her to visit him and informs her of Jin’s location. Seol finds Jin and treats his wound. Later, she even helps Jin find the shoes that he has been looking for. Jin finds the perfect match to the footprint found near the restaurant and takes the owner of the shoes with him to the police station.
How Does Jin Prove His Innocence?
Jin has brought in a man, confidently claiming that he is the culprit. Seol tells Anna about something that can help them prove that the man is the culprit. An arsonist always has a burned scalp and hair, and Anna brings in a machine to analyze the man’s scalp in detail. However, the man doesn’t have a burned scalp, but Jin does. The prosecutor comes in and checks Jin’s scalp with Anna’s machine, which only gives him more evidence against Jin.
Jin’s colleagues trust him and won’t sit still to see him get framed for a crime he didn’t commit. The forensic officer runs more tests on the blood sample found at the crime scene and finds out that the blood contains EDTA, which is found in the blood containers in a lab, which clearly means that someone deliberately spread Jin’s blood at the crime scene. Moreover, Seol comes forward and tells the prosecutor that Jin had burned his hair while fighting with a criminal, and she is a witness to it. With all the evidence nullified, Jin gets released.
The forensic officer has tested the string on the victim’s neck, and the string found at the crime scene, and both of them are different. One wouldn’t need two different strings to strangle someone, which confuses the officers. Do Jin has racked his brain and has finally found something suspicious. The initial fire, as seen in the CCTV footage, looks different than what it normally looks like. He has been running simulations, and Jin joins them.
When Do-Jin explains to Jin that the initial fire is bigger than usual, Jin performs a test on himself to confirm his doubts. He strangles himself, and Seol has to rescue him from himself. However, it helps Jin solve the case. Jin concludes that Bang Pil Gu hanged himself and set himself on fire, which made the fire look bigger. He used two strings to purposely leave the evidence behind, as the string on his neck was heat-resistant. It was a carefully planned murder that was made to look like a suicide.
Director Ma plans everything in such a way that he would never get caught, but Jin has to get him behind bars in any way because if he doesn’t, Ma will keep on trying to kill him. In the previous case, Ma got rid of his charges by providing an alibi, and Jin needed to prove that it was fake. Jin started his sting operation to get close to Choi Seok Doo, who lied to prove Ma’s alibi. Seok Doo has been missing for some days, but Jin has crucial information about him.
Seok Doo has epilepsy, and Jin checks his recent medical history with his insurance company to find out where he last bought his medicine. After going through many pharmacies and motels, Jin and Myeong Pil finally find Seok Doo, but he has been administered drugs and has stopped breathing. His murderer clicks on the picture of Seok Doo being escorted and sends it to Ma. Ma believes that Seok Doo is dead, but Seok Doo wakes up suddenly in the ambulance. He confesses to the police that he was bribed by Ma’s secretary to lie in exchange for getting rid of murder charges. His confession is enough to arrest Ma without a warrant.
Ma starts getting rid of the confidential data and prepares to run away as soon as the prosecutor informs him that the police are coming for him. He sets fire to his own office and runs to the rooftop to escape by helicopter. The firefighters also arrive at Ma’s office, and Jin rushes to the rooftop when he sees a helicopter coming. He uses the water hose to prevent the helicopter from landing and handcuffs Ma. However, Ma hits Jin on his stab wound, causing him to bleed.
‘The First Responders’ Episode 7: Ending
By the time Myeong Pil reaches the rooftop, Jin has lost consciousness with the water pipe tightened around his neck, and Ma is nowhere to be seen. Myeong Pil notices that Jin is not breathing and calls for the paramedic. Jin has gone into cardiac arrest and has to be taken to the hospital. Meanwhile, Ma has been hanging in mid-air as he is still handcuffed together with Jin.
Ma has still not given up, and his lawyer still claims that his alibi was true. Myeong Pil and Anna have taken over Jin’s case in “The First Responders,” as Jin has still not woken up. Jin is a lone fighter whose only close family is his father, whom he doesn’t get along with but who comes to check on his son and even meets his enemy, Ma, for the sake of his son.
