3 Kidnappings In Episodes 7-8 Of "Longing For You" That Had Us On The Edge Of Our Seats

We’ve hit the halfway mark with “Longing for You,” and the show shows no shortage of material to mine from, which is always a good thing. Oh Jin Sung (Na In Woo), Go Young Joo (Kim Ji Eun), and Cha Young Woon (Kwon Yool) are hot on Park Ki Young’s (Lee Kyu Han’s) trail after making a frightening discovery in his apartment. Ki Young seems to have been planning this game for years, with every move designed to hurt Young Woon at maximum. But why? And how does any of this relate to Young Woon’s mother Yoo Jung Sook (Bae Jong Ok)? This week offers a few thrills and a couple answers.

Warning: spoilers for episodes 7-8 below.

1. When Ki Young kidnapped Hee Joo

The second Ki Young realizes that Jin Sung and his cop partner have gotten into his home, he looks torn between fear and elation. It’s weird because it almost seems like he wants Jin Sung, Young Woon, and the others to discover his little museum of murder. Not only has he replicated Young Woon’s study to near perfection, but he also has knives, axes, and pictures of the murder victims on the hallway to it in blatant grotesque view. He has a treasure trove of videos on his computer including the one of Jin Woo’s murder and one showing what was guessed to be true: Bae Min Kyu (Jung Sang Hoon) killing his wife. It looks like Ki Young was blackmailing Min Kyu with the video while covering up for his crimes and providing him with victims. It’s awful because the prosecution has tried to capture Min Kyu four times now and failed because his assemblyman father always springs him out, even when his son has committed murder.

But Ki Young does something unexpected here. He kidnaps Yang Hee Joo (Jung Ga Hee), who had been distracting him while Jin Sung and Co. searched his apartment. And an interesting set of dominoes falls into place. Jin Sung and Young Woon put out an alert while focusing on the most likely person Ki Young would contact: Min Kyu. For the first time, Min Kyu isn’t untouchable. Hee Joo is the Chief prosecutor’s daughter, so the Chief will not bow to Min Kyu’s father. But the wealthy have their ways to keep themselves out of jail, and it isn’t long before Min Kyu escapes his house arrest and is on the run: to kill.

2. When Min Kyu kidnapped Young Joo

It stands to reason that the first people Min Kyu would target when on the run were the three people who had him under house arrest: Young Woon, Jin Sung, or Young Joo. He’s afraid of Jin Sung and is powerless against Young Woon’s mother, and Young Joo is a woman so that makes her fair game. He drugs and kidnaps her. She wakes up briefly enough to fight him off and crash their car, but when she flees on foot, she runs into none other than Ki Young.

It turns out that Ki Young ordered Min Kyu to kidnap Young Joo because a) he knows that Young Woon is in love with her and wants to cause him maximum pain and b) because he knows Min Kyu likes to kill women. Jin Sung and Young Woon are beside themselves trying to figure out where the two could have gone, and they keep hitting dead end after dead end because everyone is only too willing to cover up the crimes of rich people. It’s just sad.

Ki Young seems to share that sentiment because he muses to Min Kyu that the perfect crime isn’t one where the killer gets away, it’s where everyone knows who the killer is but nothing can be done to arrest them. Min Kyu exemplifies this. Being rich automatically makes crime legal because there is no penalty that can’t be paid off and or human who can’t be bribed, threatened, or butchered. Min Kyu doesn’t care because he has two victims to torture and kill, and he seems to believe that him and Ki Young are in some unholy alliance or murder club. They plan to flee the country and hide out in Belarus, which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with South Korea (so they can’t be deported). That is, until Ki Young betrays Min Kyu, locks him in with Hee Joo, throws a bound and gagged Young Joo in a swimming pool, and leaves.

3. When Jung Sook kidnapped Ki Young

Jin Sung and Young Woon are barely able to get there in time before Young Joo drowns, and they only make it because Jin Sung realizes that Ki Young would have fled to the last place anyone would look: the vacation home of Young Woon’s family. They rescue both Hee Joo and Young Joo and finally have an excellent basis to arrest Min Kyu, especially with Young Joo’s testimony that he drugged and kidnapped her. But Ki Young’s about to leave the country.

Jin Sung races to the airport to stop him, but someone gets there first. Jung Sook’s creepy Secretary Jung Woo No (Kim Chul Ki) and his team discretely drug Ki Young, plop him into a wheelchair, and wheel him out. It’s a circle of kidnapping at this point! Jung Sook just proved Ki Young’s point because airport security was in on the whole thing and did nothing to inform the police that someone else was making off with their wanted criminal. We leave with the sinister knowledge that Ki Young is in Jung Sook’s hands and that a mysterious woman has landed in Korea and goes by the name Oh Jin Woo, the same name as Jin Sung’s murdered brother (Ren). She takes a hotel room opposite Jinjin Hospital and vows to tear it down. We flashback to Ki Young showing her the video of Jin Woo’s murder and her looking horrified. And the show closes off there for now!

“Longing for You” is shaping up to be one of the most solid mysteries of the year. The twists and turns aren’t out of left field and feel organic, including how often cops bungle an investigation (like the ones who completely missed Min Kyu escaping his house arrest). The momentum’s holding steady so far, and there are a ton of little hints here and there all leading to the conclusion that Jung Sook has been up to something seriously awful. Ki Young’s entire mission here doesn’t seem to be envy for Young Woon’s life, and we see that Young Woon was nothing but kind to the kid his mother was sponsoring. Rather, Ki Young seems to be out to make Young Woon dig into an ugly truth involving his family that Young Woon isn’t aware of. Ki Young keeps mentioning that he is Young Woon and Young Woon is him, and that there is always a reason behind excessive kindness. Was there a reason Jung Sook sponsored Ki Young? Perhaps it involved harvesting his organs? And did Ki Young find out?

There’s also the seriously creepy fact that Dr. Chu Young Choon (Kim Hyung Muk) of Jin Sung’s hometown, and the reason Jin Woo went out to the sea the night he died, seems to have been romantically obsessed with Jin Woo and wrote diary entries about how much he was stalking him. He brushes it off after a nurse at his practice finds them and gives them to Jin Woo’s mother, but next week’s preview indicates that Jin Sung isn’t about to be so easily rebuffed. Bring it on, show!

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Shalini_A is a long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she fangirls over Ji Sung, and spins thrillers set in increasingly fantastic worlds. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and feel free to ask her anything! 

Currently Watching:  “Longing for You,” “My Dearest,” “My Lovely Liar,” and “The Killing Vote.”
Looking Forward to: “Gyeongseong Creature,” “Ask The Stars,” “The Girl Downstairs,” “The Worst Evil,” “Queen of Tears,” “Vigilante,” “Daily Dose of Sunshine,” and Ji Sung’s next drama.