Phantom Lawyer: Episodes 7-8
by lovepark
The spotlight falls on our other attorney this week as she walks away from her coveted position to pursue her own path. However, without the support of a big law firm behind her, our attorney learns that fighting against the powerful by herself is quite difficult. Luckily, she does not have to do it alone since a certain ghost-seeing attorney will happily offer his help.
EPISODES 7-8
One constant in Yi-rang’s life since his turn as a phantom lawyer has been Na-hyun. She played a part in every win, sometimes to her own detriment, and while Yi-rang has sacrificed a lot for his ghostly clients, the same could be said for her. After the scientist’s case, Do-kyeong adds another punishment to Na-hyun’s plate — as if holding office in a back room as a partner wasn’t enough humiliation — so she decides to quit. Na-hyun tells him that Taebaek is not the same without the chairman, and Do-kyeong realizes that he messed up.
Though he practically crawls back to Na-hyun, giving her three chances to rescind her resignation, she turns down each offer and leaves with a smile. Alas, Do-kyeong makes it his mission to blacklist her, and Na-hyun finds herself in the same position as Yi-rang when they first met. Without any streams of income, Na-hyun soon reaches the end of her savings since she had to compensate the research facility for losing their animal test subjects, and thus, she heads over to the courthouse to scout out potential clients.
Meanwhile, Yi-rang has not seen a ghost since the scientist, and in fact, he has not seen anyone besides the new security guard for weeks. His office is practically a ghost town (sans ghosts) which means his bills are piling up. Hoping to find some living clients, Yi-rang starts advertising himself outside the courthouse, but it only leads to trampled business cards and bruised egos. Thankfully, he runs into a senior attorney who gives him a case, so at least the entire day is not a bust.
Eventually, our two attorneys cross paths at the courthouse, each peddling their cards, and Na-hyun falls over in embarrassment as Yi-rang cluelessly asks if she got fired because of him. Feeling responsible for her predicament, Yi-rang starts recommending Na-hyun to clients rather than himself, but his good deeds backfire when the case his senior gave him turns out to be a contract with notorious scammers.
As Yi-rang rushes to the site, Na-hyun has already met with the scammers and tells the boss that she cannot help them… without more information! Putting on her smarmiest lawyer persona, Na-hyun croons that her expertise includes dodging the law, and in a matter of minutes, she has the boss handing her all the evidence she needs to throw them behind bars. When she hears sirens in the background and feet stomping up the stairs, she drops the act and tells the scammers that the jig is up.
Unfortunately, the person coming to her rescue is Yi-rang rather than the backup she actually called, and when she realizes that her frenemy lawyer came by himself without any recourse, she tells him to run. As the scammers chase them, the attorneys get cornered, and their only leverage is the stack of incriminating documents which Na-hyun refuses to give up… at least, intentionally. Because in the next second, our noodle-arm attorney drops them all, and without anything to stop them, the scammers attack.
As our nonathletic attorneys use their bodies to shield each other, Na-hyun’s backup finally arrives before either of them gets seriously injured. Afterwards, Na-hyun invites Yi-rang out for drinks, and with alcohol acting as a lubricant, they share a bit of their past and why they chose to become lawyers. While the circumstances may be different, both Na-hyun and Yi-rang lost someone dear to them and have been chasing their shadows ever since.
After dropping off Na-hyun to her home, Yi-rang muses over his lost powers. In her drunken stupor, she told him that it was a shame that he could not see ghosts anymore, and her words made him realize that some people want to see their loved ones again. Deciding to accept his fate, Yi-rang returns to his office that very night and takes out the incense burner to call the ghosts back.
When Yi-rang opens his eyes again, the sun is up, and a new client stands by the window. To his surprise, the ghost is none other than Na-hyun’s older sister HAN SO-HYUN (Hwang Boreumbyeol). Before he can formally introduce himself, So-hyun witnesses a bunch of high schoolers beating up one boy and possesses Yi-rang’s body to stop them. She easily takes them down because, unlike Yi-rang or Na-hyun, So-hyun is a black belt in taekwondo, but this also means a grown man just beat up three students. Uh oh.
By the time Yi-rang regains consciousness, he is behind bars and realizes a beat too late that So-hyun is an amnesiac ghost despite the lack of floating. When he finally tells So-hyun her name, she remembers dying to protect her younger sister and cries in relief that Na-hyun is safe. She wonders how her family is doing, and right then, Na-hyun arrives as Yi-rang’s attorney.
So-hyun is confused to learn that her sister became a lawyer, but the real shock comes from her sister’s out-of-character, cold attitude. She wants to know what could have changed her this much, so with Yi-rang’s encouragement, So-hyun follows after her to see how the world has moved on since her passing. As it turns out, not that much and too much at the same time.
Her neighborhood remains the same as does her room, but the warmth that once permeated their home has been replaced with awkwardness and distance. So-hyun does not understand why her death would cause her family to drift apart, so Yi-rang explains to her that some sadnesses are too big for people to handle. By trying to not let their grief drown them, her family chose to hide it instead, but that led to more secrets and divisions.
Since So-hyun cannot help her family, she turns her attention to Yi-rang’s problem since she feels guilty for getting him into trouble. Despite intervening on behalf of a bullied student, Yi-rang has no proof to support So-hyun’s claim since the bullies are accusing Yi-rang of hitting them with no cause. Though everyone involved knows it is a lie, without any evidence, the police will not act to stop the alleged bullying, and Yi-rang will have to either settle for an exorbitant amount or lose his law license.
With the help of So-hyun’s ghost powers, they find the victim and learn that the bullies are blackmailing him with a video they took. While they manage to convince him to drop the knife, the bullied student still runs away. Luckily, So-hyun was able to overhear where they were meeting, so the gang gathers to infiltrate and steal the video first.
Their plan is to have Bong-su pretend to be a famous actor so that Na-hyun can offer to take a picture for them. The problem is that only the ringleader has the video, and he escapes before even stepping foot into the room. While Yi-rang goes after him, Na-hyun heads over to Taebaek where Do-kyeong represents the bullies’ parents and needles Kyeong-hwa to sign the settlement. As the deadline approaches, Kyeong-hwa takes out her stamp, but Na-hyun arrives just in time to stop the deal.
Before Yi-rang could catch up, the victim found the leader first and fought back. Listening to So-hyun’s advice to be courageous, the bullied student demanded his video be deleted and managed to save himself without stooping down to their level. Thanks to the victim’s bravery, the bullies are exposed, and Yi-rang’s career is saved. With that, Na-hyun successfully defends another client, but as she turns to leave, Do-kyeong stops her.
He warns her that Yi-rang is dangerous and lists all the evidence he has gathered that suggests the attorney can see ghosts. Hearing her old boss say the same silly thing as Yi-rang with such conviction, Na-hyun reconsiders her stance and realizes that the odd familiarity she felt around Yi-rang recently reminded her of So-hyun. To test her theory, she takes Yi-rang to the amusement park, and as she hears him say the exact same words So-hyun once told her, Na-hyun cries and hugs her sister.
The cases took a back seat this week as the show focused on Na-hyun and Yi-rang’s relationship, including all the mess that comes with grief and family. Our two leads have more in common than either would like to admit, and it seems their subconscious draw to each other stems from this shared understanding of loss and guilt. Yi-rang wrestles with the opposing ideas of his father — the loving image he looked up to versus the “truth” at the end of his life — while Na-hyun is riddled with guilt over the death of her sister — burdened by the fact that she was meant to die yet So-hyun took her place. Their relationship with their loved one and their death may be different, yet they both ended up becoming attorneys because of their loss. In a way, neither Na-hyun nor Yi-rang were able to process their grief because they did not want to worry their families, and it is this commonality (in essence, their humanity) that makes them such complimentary characters. What I love most about their portrayals is that the show treats them as equals. Yi-rang and Na-hyun constantly save each other, sometimes in the same scene, and this back and forth makes both characters the hero as well as the one in need. It’s a more subtle message weaved throughout the show, but an important one nonetheless: everyone needs help from time to time, and learning to accept it is just as important as giving it out.
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