Continuing the morally grey chase, Nam Joo-hyuk’s Kim Ji-yong swears by his role as the avenging force in town in Vigilante Episode 2, also releasing on November 8, 2023, along with the first episode of the series. The live-action adaptation of Kim Gyu-sam’s Naver webtoon also stars Yoo Ji-tae as Jo Heon, Lee Joon-hyuk as Cho Kang-ok and Kim So-jin as Choi Mi-ryeo in the lead roles, with the former two finally being introduced formally in the second entry. The South Korean action-thriller series (비질란테) has been directed by Choi Jeong-yeol, created by Moon Yoo-seok and written for screen by Lee Min-seop.
The new Disney+ K-drama is centred around Joo-hyuk’s character switching roles and assuming the titular responsibility as a vigilante out to mete out justice at night, much like Batman fighting crime in Gotham or Daredevil in New York. The second episode has a runtime of 41 minutes.
-Vigilante Kdrama Episode 2 Recap Contains Spoilers-
Vigilante Episode 2 Recap
The concept of Tao Te Ching’s “Heaven’s net” is explained as the fishing net in Heaven that catches sinners, alluding to the understanding that all sinners are eventually caught. Once the police officers find this blood text inscribed on the wall beside Deuk-heung in the first episode, they practically declare a war against the Vigilante. On the other hand, the Vigilante seems to have sworn by the aforementioned ideology and also takes matters into his hands to make sure that justice is actually served.
Once the police goes over the details from the previous episode’s crime scene, they demand for Vigilante to be tried as a murderer as they can’t stand by him breaking the law regardless of what his actions may be resulting in. Ji-yong and Seon-wook’s mentor at the police academy is also recruited to work on this investigation, and once he heads out into the field with the other officers, they’re interrupted by a high school-attending girl, who challenges them to stop treating the Vigilante as a criminal, especially when his actions were focussed at protecting the victims. And she’s only one among many who’d been disrupting the police’s work for their opposition against the Vigilante.
Meanwhile REP025h channel’s manager starts noticing the hate against their coverage too, as some people started pointing out that they were openly glorifying the Vigilante’s actions, and Ms Choi agrees, that their prime motive was to step in as the “Vigilante promoter” if they wanted even greater ratings and views. To follow through with the idea, they pick on a new villain concept and choose three incriminating targets. Ms Choi wanted to use this as another bait for the Vigilante as a means to narrow down his preferences and strategy.
Among the three, the first one to be revealed is Seo Doo-yeop, a murderer. He broke into the house of his ex-employer with runaway teens and brutally murdered the children and their mother. Doo-yeop claims to have partaken in the crime “accidentally” under the influence of alcohol, but Ji-yong doesn’t straightaway take the bait. He goes on to initiate an investigation of his own and digs into the man’s past and name.
On recovering his file, Ji-yong also goes through his social media account where he proactively posts pictures of himself at the club, karaoke bar, etc, right after the crime – showing no remorse for his actions. One of those pictures reveals his usual hangout spot at the Cuntacc Club, just in time when his friends also suggest they go to a club to let off some steam.
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Ji-yong who never gives into such distractions, agrees to do so this time because of the opportunity that presents itself to him. There, he spots Doo-yeop, but a girl starts flirting with Ji-yong, and notices how he’d been keenly observing Doo-yeop. She thinks that he’s after him for drugs. On taking the drug that she’d bought off Doo-yeop, she starts kissing him, indirectly exposing Ji-yong to the drug. The next day he finds himself in his bed, but there’s no way of telling how he got there.
Before this, however, Ji-yong overhears Doo-yeop talking to one of his friends, explaining how he was let off easy by law. He’d simply lied his way out and due to the lack of evidence incriminating his involvement in the deed, he was let go.
At the police academy, he again immerses himself into the case, and ends up discovering the Instagram profile of the kids who’d been killed by Doo-yeop. After that, he gets roped in emotionally and is pushed to the edge.
After tailing him, Ji-yong discovers his hideout and pushes him to turn himself in with a number mentioned on the note. Doo-yeop reaches out to his friend, Sungyeol, who then finds it to be a Busan DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent’s number. The authorities also seemed to have been tipped off, probably Ji-young’s doing, and the police starts crowding at the club, but Doo-yeop finds a way to escape. However, once he reaches back to the hideout, he finds the whole place has been ransacked and his bag of money has gone missing, only to turn around and find it in the possession of Ji-yong, who eventually sets it all on fire.
He orders him to repent for his sins and apologise to the family he murdered. When he clearly seems uninterested in doing so, Ji-yong takes things far and starts strangling him. Doo-yeop begs him to stop, but Ji-yong uses Doo-yeop’s phone to show him the video of the young kids he murdered and reminds him that he never let them go either.
When the deed is done, the police follows up next day and closes down the crime scene to prevent any reporters from walking in. Thereafter, the chief takes a stand and speaks up at a press conference, confirming that Doo-yeop was murdered by the Vigilante, and that he and his squad will not stand for such actions. They were going to open up an investigation and charge him as a murderer since they weren’t going to bow down to his ill means of disrupting the objective methods of trying criminals by law.
Vigilante Episode 2 Ending
A special investigation unit is formed, and this regional unit is led by the “monster” leader, Jo Heon, played by Yoo Ji-tae, whose might has the strength to bend a coin. Ultimately, Jo Heon approaches Sung-yeol to find out all there’s to know about Doo-yeop’s murder. Once hanging off the roof on being threatened by Jo Heon, he finally starts spilling the truth that Doo-yeop had shared the number of a DEA in Busan and asked him to call and find out whose contact that was. He also suggests that if Doo-yeop had met his killer at the club, then he couldn’t have been on the older side.
On the flip side, reporters note the crime rates going down ever since the Vigilante showed up on the scene – a narrative that sets off the police. But with Jo Heon now taking the lead, the police seems to have an upper hand too as he’s equally hell bent on making people forget the Vigilante ever existed.
Vigilante Episode 2 Review
It’s obvious how Ji-young’s personal issues come up while doing this dirty work, but that’s yet to be tapped into. Much like the first episode, the second one too goes far deep into the action-based narrative. Till now the series is looking a lot like an intense fusion of the crime-cleansing adventures of Batman/ Daredevil and the morally high stance adopted by Kira in the anime Death Note to punish criminals by his will and plan.
Yet at least the second episode starts showing Nam Joo-hyuk’s character being buried by the emotional toll this heavy duty action fest is taking on him. He no longer pulls up with a straight face to deal with the criminal, rather his teary-eyed responses fuelled by rage go on to prove his emotional involvement, which signifies that this may soon start clouding his judgement down the line. Nam Joo-hyuk was the perfect choice to lead this series, and the way he channels this dual intensity, moving back and forth between his regular life as a college student and the dark and twisted intervention of the Vigilante striking down hard, clearly works for the show.
Jo Heon’s massive introduction as the coin-bending police detective on the scene, and Ms Choi’s radiantly scene-stealing red hair remind us that Vigilante‘s story is breathed out of a webtoon and isn’t particularly shaped out of real life despite its lifelike darkness. What remains to be seen is that if this show will be able to one up Moving and The Worst of Evil, its very own Korean predecessors on Disney+. Joo-hyuk may be able to pull this off with his strong-willed performance, but so far the K-drama is presenting itself to be a lot like live-action superhero content that’s been overflowing on every other OTT platform.
Though a decent start has been kicked off, only future events will be able to determine if this show has the capability of inserting a unique perspective into the overly done and repetitive action sagas that have become the norm nowadays. The moral dilemma dividing the public and police, if played to its strengths, has the power to bring up a strong debate worth listening to, but again only new episodes will help us figure out the show’s true profundity.
Vigilante Episode 2 is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Also read: Vigilante Episode 1 Recap and Review: Nam Joo-hyuk’s Batman Origin Story from the Shadows