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| Shin Irang Law Office / Photo=Studio S, Mongjakso |
[Sports Today reporter Jeong Ye-won] Yoo Yeon-seok’s Shin Irang, having absorbed a deceased man’s injustice and rage, is ultimately arrested on suspicion of murder.
Episode 5 of SBS’s Friday–Saturday drama Shin Irang Law Office, which aired on March 27, followed Shin Irang (Yoo Yeon-seok) as he chased a turbulent truth on behalf of client Jeon Sang-ho (Yoon Namu), a brilliant life scientist revealed to have been killed by his wife. The episode earned a 9.0% rating in the Seoul metropolitan area, 8.7% nationwide, and peaked at a 10.3% minute-by-minute rating. It topped its timeslot and ranked No. 1 in household ratings among all Friday broadcasts. The key 20–49 demo hit 2.3%, climbing to a high of 3.02%.
After awakening as a “ghost-specialist lawyer,” Shin Irang encounters an extraordinary spirit. The ghost first denies its own death on scientific grounds—arguing that ghosts violate the law of conservation of energy—then possesses Shin Irang and furiously fills a chalkboard with equations. Alarmed, Shin Irang’s brother-in-law Yun Bong-su (Jeon Seok-ho) looks it up and discovers the spirit is Jeon Sang-ho, a genius life scientist who won Scientist of the Year three years running. Jeon’s recovered memories point to his wife, Kim Soo-jung (Jung Ga-hee), as the killer. But Jeon doesn’t want her punished; he blames himself for being absorbed in his research and neglecting a wife struggling with postpartum depression and childcare, and he refuses to take a mother away from his son.
Meanwhile, Han Na-hyun (Lee Som) takes Kim Soo-jung’s defense. Kim was initially acquitted at trial because no body or murder weapon had been found and the court cited insufficient evidence and motive. She admits to having argued with her husband but insists she did not kill him. The mood shifts after prosecutors win an appeal and new evidence emerges in the reopened second trial: a shower curtain and carpet discovered at an incineration site on the outskirts of the couple’s housing complex tested positive for Jeon Sang-ho’s blood. Blood-spatter analysis estimated the perpetrator’s height at over 170 cm, suggesting the possible involvement of an accomplice. Under that pressure, Kim begins to crack—biting her nails and visibly shaken—then blurts a forced confession: “I killed my husband. I stood on our child’s stool to do it,” while denying any accomplice.
Han suspects Kim lied to protect someone and starts probing potential backers. She hears new details from Gu Hyo-jung (Eom Jun-gi), a lab employee and long-time friend of Kim Soo-jung. Gu says lab director Kim Tae-joon (Kim Hong-pa) engineered the marriage between his daughter and lead researcher Jeon Sang-ho because his daughter suffers from a rare illness. But Jeon abruptly halted his drug development work and clashed with his father-in-law; Gu claims Kim Soo-jung took the fall for her father’s wrongdoing.
Han uncovers more. Before the appeals trial, Shin Irang told her that Jeon Sang-ho had indeed been killed by his wife and that the murder took place in the bathroom—information Han did not possess. Shin also made the outlandish claim that Jeon’s ghost had told him everything. Stunned, Han asks to compare handwriting. Shin shows the equations he wrote while possessed, and when Han sees Jeon Sang-ho’s handwriting at the lab, she is shaken. The revelation leaves viewers wondering whether she will accept Shin Irang’s uncanny secret.
Using the idea that perpetrators often dispose of bodies in familiar places and following Jeon’s memories, Shin Irang traces the likely dumping site after learning Jeon’s parents consulted a shaman to search for their son’s body. He pins a hillside behind the research facility—accessible by vehicle, lacking CCTV and foot traffic—and finds signs someone moved a body there. When Jeon realizes his wife could not have carried and buried an adult man on her own, his mind flashes to his father-in-law. As Jeon’s agitation escalates, Shin Irang, synchronized with those emotions, loses control and storms to Kim Tae-joon’s house consumed by rage.
“Why did you kill me?” Shin screams, threatening Kim Tae-joon with violence and ratcheting the tension to the breaking point. Just as the situation nears a tragic turning point, Father Mateo (Jung Seung-gil) suggests that seeing his own corpse could have driven Jeon to seek revenge. Jeon’s mother, Park Kyung-hwa (Kim Mi-kyung), arrives in a panic and physically restrains Shin Irang, narrowly averting disaster. For a moment, possession breaks in the rain and relief sets in—until police storm the scene. Authorities announce they found a glove with Shin Irang’s fingerprints near the suspected dumping site and immediately detain him. The episode ends on a shock: Shin proclaims his innocence as he is taken away as a suspect.
Episode 6 of Shin Irang Law Office will air on March 28 at 9:50 PM.
[Sports Today reporter Jeong Ye-won ent@stoo.com]
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