Summary
Designated Survivor: 60 Days Season 1, Episode 9, “Scandal” serves a personal test for Park Mu-Jin, as the media are ready to reveal a secret.
This recap of Designated Survivor: 60 Days Season 1, Episode 9, “Scandal” contains significant spoilers. The Korean Netflix Series will be running weekly every Monday and Tuesday until season 1 ends. You can read the recap of the previous episode by clicking these words.
It was especially frustrating watching our Acting President Park Mu-jin (Jin-hee Ji) in episode 9, “Scandal”. While his staff run around like headless chickens to control the rumours brewing, Park remains reticent. He can’t think of any potential scandal involving him, sending Secretary Cha haywire.
Fortunately, his team is contacted by a journalist, warning them of a story she is going to run that reveals Park Mu-jin’s certificate of marriage. The news story will make implications that his son Sin-wan is not biologically his, or that he was born out of wedlock, in an affair. Park Mu-jin reveals that it is true, but something does not feel right from the start of “Scandal”. Due to the culture, this is a significant blow to Park, and one the public will not endear to.
Episode 9 details Acting President Park as a man of good stories and this scandal could end him. We suspect from the start that the story is not entirely accurate, and his wife Choi fills in the missing jigsaw.
Through a series of flashbacks told by his wife, it turns out that Park Mu-jin was a noble and principled man, working for the science industry when he met Choi. Park innocently helped her with a case she was working on, claiming the industry he was working in was causing cancer rates to rise. He genuinely believed she was a single woman with no history. When he asks her if she’d like a meal, he learns she has a son, but also that she is divorced. She was divorced before they dated. This was a twist in the story that helps Park in “Scandal”, but he chooses not to use it.
As we continue to learn, Park Mu-jin is too nice for his own good. Because his son was abused when younger by his biological father, he promised never to hurt Choi and Sin-Wan and revealing the truth about the biological aspect to remove the lie would be using his son as a weapon. There’s a heated argument in episode 9, where Park refuses to approve a press release to Press Secretary Cha.
Cha initially gives up, but with Jeong finding ways to motivate him, the news story turned into a different, less important story. Strangely, Park’s entire regime hangs in the balance based on Cha’s motivation. “Scandal” shows us a series of scenes from the series so far showing Cha’s moments with Park; making it look destined that he’s meant to run for Presidency.
The end of Designated Survivor: 60 Days Season 1, Episode 9, “Scandal” reveals that the whistleblower of this story was using it as bait, by revealing the IP address. Park Mu-jin goes to meet him at the location, and we are met with another series-defining twist — it’s Kim Jun-o from the NIS team, the man presumed dead at the explosion. He explains he was there on the day of the attack and has kept low. He urges Park not to trust anyone, and that there is an accomplice in the Blue House.
Presidential Secretary Notes
- Na-gyeong is still on the run, but she has also learned that Kim Jun-o is alive. Considering this was her lover, will she team up with him to help Park?
- Ji Yun-bae tells Han-mo that he’s the only one who can save him, and asks him to assist in finding Na-gyeong.
- Opposing Party Politician Yun is ready to announce her presidential candidacy.
- With everyone wanting Secretary Cha, he rejects Mayor Kang’s offer to help his campaign.
You can read the recap of the tenth episode by clicking these words.
