In episode 11 of “The First Responders,” detective Jin solved the most significant cold case of his career. Kim Hyun Seo was found alive seven years after her disappearance. Jin was seen as a suspect for all these years, but he finally caught the real culprit. However, he felt guilty for ignoring Hyun Seo when she was in desperate need of his help. He reflected on how he had been living, which made him wonder if he really deserved to be a police detective. After closing Hyun Seo’s case, Jin submitted his resignation and cut off contact with his colleagues. Jin is a competitive detective and has solved many difficult cases with his out-of-the-box thinking. However, he cannot control his emotions, be they happiness or rage. He gets violent when he is angry, and many people around him compare him to a murderer who gets away with his violent crimes because of his police uniform. Jin rebelled against his father to become a police detective, but he is rethinking his life decisions now.
Spoilers Ahead
‘The First Responders’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Series?
Detective Jin assaulted Ma Tae Hwa, a businessman, and a criminal, on live television, and he got demoted to work at the Taewon police station. Taewon police station is right next to the Taewon fire station, and the two teams work together quite a lot. Bong Do Jin is the ace of the fire crew and is known as Bulldozer. Seol is a former nurse and is now a paramedic. In every emergency situation, these two are at the forefront. Initially, Jin didn’t get along with the fire crew because of his irresponsible behavior, and Jin thought that they were too meticulous, but as time passed, they understood each other and the importance of their cooperation. Seol and Jin got close to each other after Seol saved Jin’s life with CPR and literally gave him a new life.
Jin holds a grudge against Ma Tae Hwa because he escapes his criminal punishments because of his father and also because of Jin’s father, who is a chief prosecutor. He thinks of it as his mission to prove Tae Hwa’s crimes because he wants to defeat his father and his ambitions. He succeeds in proving Tae Hwa’s crime, and his father can’t do anything to save Tae Hwa. Jin’s profession has him walking around in danger every day, and he has made many enemies. He even gets framed for murder, but he escapes from prison to prove his innocence. He is fearless and doesn’t give up on anything he sets his mind to. However, Kim Hyun Seo’s case is the biggest scar of his life. Kim Hyun Seo, the middle schooler, has been missing for seven years, and Jin is seen as a suspect because he shared a good relationship with her and because Hyun Seo’s toes were found in his backyard.
Taewon is Jin’s hometown, but his colleagues and the fire crew only learn about this after they find out about Hyun Seo’s case. Thanks to Bong Do Jin, Jin sees Hyun Seo again and finds her whereabouts in less than a day. Hyun Seo was tortured by a sociopath for seven years. Jin is relieved to find her alive, but his regrets and guilt won’t leave his back. He resigns from his position and accepts his defeat in front of his father. He admits to his father that he doesn’t deserve to be a detective.
Why Does Do Jin Search For Jin?
Jin’s archenemy, Ma Tae Hwa, gets out of jail on parole to attend his father’s funeral. His father had been murdered just before the presidential elections. Jin’s father gets disturbed by the news because he had planned to enter politics, but it seems difficult now. Also, he suspects Tae Hwa to be behind it. Tae Hwa didn’t have a good relationship with his father and had to go to jail because of him, not once but twice. However, he knew of his father’s plans to run for president. His behavior at his father’s funeral shows that he has no remorse or sorrow. He is more concerned about a guest coming from the USA.
The fire crew gets a morning call for a fire in the parking lot of a residential building. It is not unusual for a fire to break out near nearby cars, but what bothers Do Jin is a star-shaped fire that flashes before his eyes. They put out the fire and rescued the residents, but their day remained busy as another fire broke out at a food truck and later at a septic tank. Do Jin spots the star-shaped fire inside the septic tank as well? He thinks that the same arsonist is doing it on purpose, but his boss gets angry at him for putting himself in danger by jumping inside the burning tank. She doesn’t listen to his talk about the serial arsonist and sends him back to the office. Do Jin tries to prove his point by showing the exact three-hour time gap between the consecutive incidents. If his guess is true, they should have another report by now, but they don’t. They all waited in expectation, only to get an absurd report of a fight over a cat’s death.
The police have concluded all three fire cases were accidents, but Do Jin is not happy with it. He takes the evidence from the police and gives it to forensic officer Yoon for analysis. She takes the blood samples from the rescued residents to analyze them as well. Do Jin sees Hyun Seo’s grandmother in the hospital and finds out that Hyun Seo has received a donation for her treatment. It’s not difficult to guess that Jin is the one paying for her treatment. If Jin had been present, he would have considered Do Jin’s doubt about the serial arsonist and helped him, so he goes to Jin’s home, only to find it closed and up for sale. After asking around, he finds him in the forest near Hyun Seo’s memorial that he built years ago. Do Jin comes straight to the topic and gives the USB with the evidence to Jin.
Do Jin’s boss always worries about him because he walks into fires with no fear. She agrees that he is the ace of their team and works like he was born to be a firefighter, but she wishes he acted more carefully. Do Jin apologizes for making her worry and tells her why he feels responsible whenever he sees fire. When he was younger, he accidentally set his friend’s house on fire on his birthday, and he couldn’t do anything to help him. His friend tried to put off the fire alone while Do Jin ran away. He regrets that he couldn’t help his friend, and he doesn’t want that guilt of not being able to help someone again. The police department is quiet as they don’t have Jin, who would never let anyone rest. They don’t have any cases to investigate and only get small reports. They go to check out the report of a pervert who has been trying to dig out a buried cat, and the person turns out to be detective Jin. He believed in Do Jin and got interested in the case of the serial arsonist.
Jin believes that the cat must have had something to do with the arson, as it was killed three hours after the previous arson. He takes the cat to Officer Yoon for an autopsy, and she helps connect the dots between all the cases. The common factor among all the accidents is Toluene. The bread that the cat ate and died, and the smoke that the residents inhaled, all had Toluene. Do Jin, Myeong Pil, and Jin check the basement of the building where the cat was found dead and find a box of bread. There was a half-burnt paper roll on the floor, which is evidence of attempted arson. Do Jin checks the walls to see if the arsonist left behind the star sign, and he finds one. This confirms that it is indeed a case of serial arson.
Anna goes through a huge database and finds out about two people who were seen at the arson locations multiple times before the incident. One of them is a firefighter, and the other is Cho Il Jun, owner of a construction company. Jin targets the construction company owner first and goes to his office. As he reaches the building, he sees Do Jin and officer Yoon sitting on a sidewalk. They sat there for hours under the sun to check if sunlight could raise the temperature of his helmet. He thinks that the food truck must have caught fire because someone could have focused sunlight on the boiling oil. Cho Il Jun’s office is in a building near the food truck, and they find three curved glasses in his office. This makes Cho Il Jun the prime suspect in the arson cases.
Anna locates Cho Il Jun’s car, and Jin and Myeong Pil go searching for him. The fire department gets a report that a multi-level car park has caught on fire, and Il Jun’s car is at the same location. Do Jin and Seol are busy having a conversation, and Do Jin is about to do something big when they get called for duty. Do Jin bought a ring for Seol, and he was about to give it to her. It is not a secret that he has feelings for her, though he has never mentioned them to her.
‘The First Responders’ Season 1: Ending Explained – Will There Be A Season 2?
The car parking station is a multistory building, and the fire makes it difficult to enter it from the bottom. The fire crew sets a ladder on the parking station terrace from the building nearby, and Do Jin goes first to fasten the ladder for others to come faster. However, detective Jin follows him before the fire crew because he is eager to arrest the arsonist. After Jin steps down from the ladder, an explosion occurs, and the floor collapses, taking in both Jin and Do Jin.
“The First Responders” ends on a cliffhanger, which will continue in the next season. The arsonist seems to have an ill relationship with Do Jin, as he is leaving behind a sign that only the first responder can see during a fire. The person could be his childhood friend whose house caught fire because of Do Jin, or it could be the other firefighter whose activities were also suspicious. The arsonist seems to have a lot of technical knowledge about the fire, which is unusual for someone not working in a field related to the fire. Apart from Do Jin and his relationship with the arsonist, detective Jin, and archenemy, Ma Tae Hwa have a high chance of standing against each other as Tae Hwa seems to be planning a scheme and has mentioned that there is someone above him who no one can handle.
Detective Jin is back in the police force now, but he needs to survive another calamity first. We can expect to see the character development of both Jin and Do Jin in “The First Responders” season 2 as Jin has already faced his worst fear, and Do Jin is about to meet his enemy as well. Moreover, a love triangle is likely to develop between Seol, Jin, and Do Jin.
