Our charming time-traveling judge is here to stay, and a lot has happened in episodes 5 through 8. The series follows Han-Young, a disgraced judge who gets a chance at redemption after traveling back in time. The fast-paced series is undeniably very technical, a flaw I find in many K-dramas. At the end of episode 4 of The Judge Returns, Han-Young obtained the ledger belonging to the director of Hanguk Hospital, Lee, which contained records of the various sons of the rich and powerful whom he had helped avoid military service by falsifying medical records. Thanks to his foresight, he already has plans for what to do with it and how to position himself to get what he wants.
The assassin who killed Han-Young in the future timeline ends up chasing him after he finds the ledger at his parents' recycling plant, and they end up fighting, during which Han-Young is stabbed in the hand. However, he manages to escape with the book, taking it to journalist Na-Yeon so she can photograph it and publish it even if someone steals it. It's then that Han-Young is called in to speak with Judge Kim Jin-Han, who tries to persuade him not to publish the document. However, he does so anyway, handing the book over to Judge Baek Yi-Seok after his friend, Jeong-Ho, convinces the thief, Open Sesame, to turn himself in at the police station.
Stars: Ji Sung, Park Hee-soon, Won Jin-ah
The revelation has quite immediate results, especially since Prosecutor General Eom Jun-Ho refuses to give in to corrupt men like Judge Kim Jun-Man and his son, Kim Jeong-Gyun, leading Shin-Jin to comment that Eom is another kind of upright person like Yi-Seok. When Jin-Han confronts Han-Young about his decision to publish the ledger, Han-Young tells him a story about how he saw the name of one of his bullies in the book, and that's why he had to publish the files to get revenge. Nobody will believe that, but he sticks to his story, and even Shin-Jin thinks it's ridiculous when Jin-Han tells him.
At this point, Shin-Jin returns from a meeting of a shady organization called Suojae, chaired by the former president, which appears to be a political manipulation body that essentially decides from the shadows how Korea will be governed. This body nominated an assemblyman named Woo Gyo-Hun for the position of Minister of Justice, which silently enrages Shin-Jin. Later, we see an interaction between them where Gyo-Hun corners him and asks if it's true that Shin-Jin grew up in a brothel. This might be what finally prompts him to go see Han-Young and ask him to get compromising information on Gyo-Hun before his confirmation hearing in two weeks, promising him a transfer to Seoul and a professional promotion in return.
After the military service evasion scandal, a massive restructuring takes place, and a relatively minor judge from Jeju ends up being appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and he purges the Seoul courts, eventually bringing Yi-Seok to Seoul as a senior judge, even though Shin-Jin had predicted his career was over. Yi-Seok brings Im Jeong-Sik and Han-Young with him, determined to clean things up. His first move is to cancel his own inauguration ceremony and instead call a meeting to make it clear that no judicial favoritism will be tolerated under his leadership, all while an amused Shin-Jin watches. Now that Yi-Seok has brought Han-Young to Seoul anyway, he thinks he has no leverage over him, so he'll have to think of another way to deal with Gyo-Hun.
That's when Han-Young approaches him with a proposal that benefits them both. He has information suggesting that Gyo-Hun's daughter frequently uses drugs here in Korea and is also involved with the son of Prosecutor General Eom, who is currently studying abroad. He wants to offer Gyo-Hun to her on a silver platter, provided that Shin-Jin helps him get Eom to join the Haenal law firm as a legal advisor, as a kind of wedding gift during his courtship with Se-Hee. Shin-Jin is amused and gives his approval. Han-Young ends up relying on Jeong-Ho once again, and he gathers the evidence, which eventually reaches Eom, from whom the case then goes to prosecutor Kim Jin-A. Yoo Seon-Cheol, CEO of Haenal and Se-Hee's father, is impressed by how quickly Han-Young hired Eom as an advisor, but he also feels somewhat intimidated.
The Nammyeon sinkhole case was foreshadowed from the beginning, with the Yoo brothers arguing over who would handle the case and the journalist investigating it. Of course, as always, Han-Young uses his prodigious memory to recall exactly how the events unfolded, revealing that Mayor Chu was a member of the Obok gang, which had ties to the Taemyeon construction company, the same company that built the faulty water and sewer pipes, causing the sinkhole to appear. In the timeline that ends with Han-Young's death, the mayor and his henchmen get away scot-free, even after all the details come to light, but this time, he's determined to make sure the case has a different outcome.
Special emphasis is placed on an elderly man named Heo Dong-Gi, whose son was the only fatality in the incident, although several people were injured and a dog also died. We see Na-Yeon trying to reach out to him and struggling to do so before finally succeeding and hearing his story. It turns out that Chu hasn't yet decided to leave the old man alone, and sends his henchman, Hak-Su, to offer the family "compensation," although he brings a couple of thugs with him to intimidate the couple. He eventually provokes them into stabbing him, and then begins threatening them with legal action. That's when Han-Young and Jeong-Ho burst in and beat up the men, kidnapping Hak-Su in the process.
Then, Han-Young commits an incredibly illegal act, ramming Mayor Chu's car with his own late at night, kidnapping him as well. The next thing the mayor knows, he wakes up in a dark pit, his hands and feet bound. Outside, he hears the voice of a man in an excavator asking Dong-Gi what fate the murderer of his son deserves. After the old man says he wants him to die, Han-Young, the man in the excavator, announces the death sentence and begins burying Mayor Chu alive. All this happens while Hak-Su watches, also tied up hand and foot, but suddenly, Dong-Gi changes his mind, and Han-Young ends up pulling Chu out of the well, although he and Hak-Su receive a stern warning never to threaten Dong-Gi again. In the process, they somehow become convinced that Han-Young and Jeong-Ho are loan sharks to whom Dong-Gi owes money.
Finally, Chu begins offering Dong-Gi increasingly large sums of compensation, and Han-Young tells the distraught father to accept it; he has an ace up his sleeve. Elsewhere, Na-Yeon tries to invite Han-Young to dinner one night, but then sees him holding hands with Se-Hee, whose sister, Yoo Ha-Na, represents Mayor Chu in the sinkhole case, and begins to think he's collaborating with the defendant, meaning he's corrupt, and is immediately disappointed in him. But Han-Young chases after her and tells her to investigate one of the victims: the man who lost his dog.
The next time the case goes to court, because the victims have accepted the compensation, Han-Young begins to say that Chu has fulfilled his obligation to them, but then the plaintiffs' lawyer requests to present new video evidence. A video begins to play, showing Hak-Su and his henchmen intimidating the man with the dog into accepting the compensation, and then a recording of an interview plays where a woman mentions how she was also intimidated into accepting the money and abandoning her fight. All this is Na-Yeon's doing, after Han-Young pointed her in the right direction.
The new evidence causes Han-Young to change the case from civil to criminal, and he enlists his prosecutor friend, Cheol-Woo, to manipulate Mayor Chu and put him at ease. But when Chu leaves the interrogation room smiling and relaxed, he receives a call from the assemblyman who has been supporting him all along, Kang Jeong-Tae, the representative of the Nammyeon district, who now suspects he is being betrayed.
He offers Chu and Hak-Su Filipino passports and says he will get them out of the country on a ferry, but Jeong-Ho and Han-Young find out, and when they arrive at the meeting point, they realize that Jeong-Tae's plan was to kill them, not rescue them. It's the same killer as before, and Han-Young manages to hold him off long enough for Jeong-Ho to arrive. Now that Chu knows his former allies want to kill him, he agrees to cooperate with the prosecution and testify against Jeong-Tae, revealing that he paid him 10 billion won in bribes over the years. In the midst of all this, Cheol-Woo receives a call from Jeong-Tae asking him to come see him, but Han-Young suspects it's a trap and warns him not to go alone. Upon arriving at the location, Cheol-Woo finds Jeong-Tae dead, and suddenly someone strangles him, but he wakes up just as Han-Young arrives. Finally, Chu realizes the gravity of his actions.
Shin-Jin has taken Han-Young under his wing, even though his henchman, Jin-Han, insists on telling him that "he's not one of us." At one point, Shin-Jin confides in him, revealing that he grew up an orphan on the streets until he found a fancy bar where he started cleaning just to get a meal. He takes Han-Young to a restaurant now run by the same hostess who showed him kindness as a child. This is all in gratitude for the help with Gyo-Hun, but he knows Han-Young is definitely hiding something. He's obtained files on Han-Young's past, so he already knows his father was the man sentenced to 18 months in prison for protesting against the S Group back then, and he suspects he's seeking revenge; after all, he was one of the judges involved in that day's ruling.
But Han-Young senses this and surprises him; he wants revenge on Hwang Nam-Yong, the presiding judge in his father's case. He says he remembers Shin-Jin from that day, even though he was only a lower-ranking judge then, but he's the only one who can help him. Smiling, Shin-Jin says he'll deliver Nam-Yong on a silver platter when the new Supreme Court Chief Justice candidate is announced. Meanwhile, Gyo-Hun's confirmation hearing drags on for practically the entire day, and he makes up all sorts of excuses for the questions he's asked. Why did he falsify his residency? My daughter was depressed and wanted to go to school with her best friend. Did he participate in fraudulent stock transactions with his brother? I'm afraid I can't comment on an ongoing investigation. Has his wife been involved in shady business dealings? I'd prefer to keep my family out of this.
In the final moments of episode 8 of The Judge Returns, Jin-A takes the evidence she's been given and makes an emergency arrest of Gyo-Hun's daughter, which makes the news, causing the man to panic and contact anyone who can help him. However, no one answers the phone, and the journalists corner Gyo-Hun with questions he can no longer answer.
After this, Shin-Jin appoints Nam-Yong at the next Suojae meeting; this will somehow end up harming him. Furthermore, Im Jeong-Sik and Yi-Seok confront Han-Young about his relationship with Shin-Jin, and since he doesn't reveal his intentions, Yi-Seok definitively breaks off their relationship. Immediately afterward, we see Han-Young at Haenal, essentially handing Yi-Seok over to them on a silver platter, and that's where the episode ends.
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