A Bona Fide Killer: Episodes 5-6
by mistyisles
It’s a week of confrontations and almost-confrontations as our happy couple deal with family drama, old enemies, and paths that cross a little too close for comfort. But despite overbearing in-laws, messy assassination assignments, and one very big secret between them, one thing seems certain: these two always have each other’s backs.
EPISODES 5-6
This week kicks off by bringing the conflict between Bo-na and her mother-in-law, OK SUN-JA (Cha Mi-kyung), to the forefront of — well, everything. As she does every year, Sun-ja calls Bo-na to help prepare the family memorial table. And by “help,” I mean Bo-na does all the work while Sun-ja looks for things to criticize. Tae-sung has three sisters, but they always manage to be busy with other things.
Bo-na is fighting back tears and sporting little cuts on her fingers by the time Tae-sung gets home. He immediately bandages her up and makes her sit while he does the dishes, gently rebuffing her protests that Sun-ja will be furious. And furious she is — how dare Bo-na make her precious son do the dishes? He shouldn’t even know how to do the dishes, because housework is womens’ work!
Usually, everyone tries to placate Sun-ja, but tonight Tae-sung has had enough. He rebukes his mother, calling her and his sisters out for making Bo-na do their work, and declares that Bo-na is every bit as precious to him as he is to them. It’s a beautiful speech, but, like many abusers, Sun-ja doesn’t relinquish control easily. She starts throwing food at the couple (Bo-na catches an apple reflexively, then does her best to play it off like a fluke), and the only reason the food fight stops is because Yul goes missing.
Earlier, Yul had been upset by Sun-ja’s favorite insult about Bo-na not knowing anything because she’s an orphan. So when things got heated, Tae-sung’s youngest sister, KWON SE-AH (Lee Eun-saem), took Yul out to the playground. But the dog slipped its leash, and when Se-ah turned back around, Yul was gone. Sun-ja still has the audacity to order Bo-na to clean up inside while they search, but this time Bo-na silences her with a single Kingfisher glare.
Tae-sung goes looking for a security guard to get the playground CCTV footage, while Bo-na calls someone even better suited to help: Young-do. Not only can he hack a security camera in no time at all, but he’s also a very calming presence in a crisis. He quickly deduces that Yul wandered off to the rooftop. The door at the top is locked, but Bo-na bursts right through. And there Yul is, safe and sound, begging with all her little heart for an airplane ride to heaven so she can bring back Mommy’s parents. At least Sun-ja has the decency to look ashamed now. In light of the Yul scare and Tae-sung’s chastening, the whole family votes to abolish the annual memorial rite altogether.
Then it’s time for Sales Team 3 to move in on their newest target. TAK JONG-GU (Kim Min-joon) is a sex offender/murderer and a chaebol heir. He’s currently holed up in an out-of-town casino, and there’s no good sniping angle into his suite. Undercover infiltration it is! Except, another casino patron keeps getting in the way, and it soon becomes apparent that Bo-na isn’t the only assassin in the building. Also, Tae-sung is here.
Let me back up. Investigating a suspicious workplace “accident” that resulted in a construction worker’s death leads Tae-sung to suspect the company’s chairman of foul play. Tae-sung follows the chairman to an out-of-town casino, but isn’t allowed inside. And that’s how Tae-sung and Bo-na end up sneaking in via the same staff elevator. It’s a close call, but both are so focused on their respective missions that neither gets a good look at the other’s face, even as their paths keep crossing inside. (Bo-na finds out it was him later, after he’s safely left the building.) But for now, Bo-na has bigger problems to deal with, because there are two other assassins in Jong-gu’s room, and one of them is very handy with a pair of knives.
It takes a while (and a few more near-misses with Tae-sung) for all the assassins to realize they’re technically on the same side. That is, they all work for the same vigilante organization, with each team assigned to a different region of the country (or world? Who knows how big this group actually is?). However, this isn’t a case of a double-booked assassination. The other team’s target isn’t Jong-gu, but the chairman (yes, THE chairman) in the suite next door. Now that everyone’s on the same page, they agree — some more reluctantly than others — to join forces. One of the other team’s operatives sparks animosity between the two targets and then lures Jong-gu to the chairman’s suite. Meanwhile, Bo-na stakes out in a cable car across the way. When the time is right, she kills both men with one bullet.
Tae-sung is already at home tucking Yul into bed when he gets the news about the chairman. It’s a double-whammy for him, because Tak Jong-gu is a name he’s all too familiar with, having been present in the courtroom the day Jong-gu was unjustly acquitted of murder. It made Tae-sung feel so angry and helpless that he didn’t know what to do except cry in Bo-na’s arms. Aw, no wonder she insisted on taking Jong-gu out herself.
I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of that other vigilante team, especially their volatile part-timer MOON DA-RAE (Moon Seung-yoo). That she left the casino trying to mask her fear (of Bo-na? Of the higher-ups? Something else?) was interesting, and raises more questions about how this whole organization operates.
And speaking of questions, the more glimpses we get of Bo-na and Tae-sung’s past, the more curious I am about the circumstances that brought them together in the first place. We’ve seen now that their first “meeting” was her finding him facedown and bleeding in a stairwell — but it’s unclear if that’s the first meeting he remembers. We also know he once talked her down from jumping off a roof, and his recurring nightmares seem to suggest he was kidnapped at some point. Of course, all those little mysteries are tied up in the big question of whether or not he knows she’s Kingfisher. I’m more inclined now to think he doesn’t, at least not fully, but she sure left some clues for him to chew on in the race to find Yul.
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