Summary
Episode 7 continues to entice the audience with plenty of entwining mysteries.
This recap of K-drama Netflix series Stranger season 2, episode 7 (Secret Forest) contains spoilers.
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The opening
Stranger season 2, episode 7 brings the story close to home as Dong-jae is declared missing, with bloodstains near his car at the crime scene. Si-mok is asked by Won-chul why he is digging up the Assemblyman Nam Jae-ik hire scandal. He clearly feels he doesn’t need a reason but he is warned that this is too big for him. Si-mok questions if his stubbornness is bothering him. This was a great response by Si-mok who is clearly not playing games in this chapter.
Missing
Chief Woo gets a call and learns that Dong-jae is missing. This is shocking news and Yeo-jin feels compelled by the situation immediately. Woo is frustrated and Si-mok asks him what he was planning to see Dong-jae for the day before. Woo gets annoyed at all the questions as Si-mok keeps pressing for details. Si-mok is asked to investigate but when he raises that they don’t have the authority on this case, Woo demands that he gets on with it.
Where the disappearance started
So the investigation begins which involves plenty of loose ends but suspicious possibilities into Dong-jae’s disappearance. Detective Jang checks out Si-mok’s phone records and ends up ringing Chief Woo. The bloodstain near the crime scene where Dong-jae went missing is confirmed to be his — at this point, it’s now known where his disappearance started. The police think about the “window of time” Dong-jae went missing. Yeo-jin is trying to figure out the alleyways and location but there is a lack of CCTV which is convenient for the culprit — this is clearly not a simple disappearance.
What he did before leaving the office?
Si-mok heads to the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors’ Office. He wants to know what Dong-jae said and did before he left the office the day before. A flashback shows he was berating an academy student for beating someone up. The kid is too young to be prosecuted but Dong-jae tries to teach him a lesson. Back in the present day, Si-mok wonders who Dong-jae was going to meet about Kim Su-hang’s address but none of the staff knows — they only know he left the office before 7 pm.
What cases was he looking at?
Si-mok then redirects his questioning to the Segok case and wonders if new reports on it were created after Dong-jae took over it. They look at his computer to see what cases he was looking at before he left the office. Si-mok gets a call from Choi Yun-soo from Yongsan Station — the call records indicate that Si-mok was also on the phone records. The phone records at this point of episode 7 do not feel useful.
Is this a trap by the prosecution?
Detective Jang finds out that the weapon could have been a brick from the crime scene and Dong-jae was possibly struck with it. Meanwhile, Yeo-jin gives Chief Choi an update on the disappearance of Dong-jae. Chief Choi wonders if the prosecution has orchestrated all this to trap the police but then admits it is farfetched. Choi then asks Yeo-jin to find evidence that the police had no involvement in Sergeant Song’s death. Yeo-jin tells Chief Choi that they cannot hold off finding out about Dong-jae’s disappearance until after the Police-Prosection Council meeting. The politics return in episode 7 and there’s clearly a fine line here due to the fact that the person missing in a prosecutor.
Multiple calls and no GPS
Yun-soo learns that Dong-jae was digging up dirt on Chief Choi before he went missing and tells Si-mok. He then asks Si-mok if he has been in contact with Hanjo Group as Dong-jae made multiple calls to them in the last week but they kept rejecting them. Yun-soo also evidences that all of Dong-jae’s GPS information isn’t available — they can’t tell if it has been deleted or if the device was not used at the time of the disappearance.
Possible scenarios
Yeo-jin and Si-mok attend the crime scene. They wonder why Dong-jae parked so badly and feel that he was in a rush. Both characters go over possible scenarios including the possibility of an accomplice. Si-mok asks Yeo-jin if she knows where the former chief of Dongducheon Station is as he feels Dong-jae could have met him before he went missing as he was looking into the whereabouts of Officer Kim. Everything with the case seems to link back to Sergeant Song, making for a compelling chapter.
More questions
Si-mok and Yeo-jin then meet Jeon Seung-pyo to ask him questions about his nephew Officer Kim. The man gets angry, stating he has had no involvement and wonders why they are bringing up Song Gi-hyeon when it was years ago — he claims he never sent him to Segok Station. Yeo-jin then asks him what he spoke to Dong-jae about on the phone and it frustrates Seung-pyo even more, stating he doesn’t remember anything. He then raises Chief Choi which angers Yeo-jin and asks him to use his manners.
The ending
Seung-pyo is upset that he is been accused of being involved in the disappearance of Dong-jae. Yeo-jin and Si-mok talk scenarios again, stating the possibility that Seung-pyo got worried when Dong-jae spoke to him about the Servant Song case that involved his nephew. Seung-pyo walks off angry, stating he will have an alibi. As the episode draws nearer to an end, a tied-up Dong-jae is trying to make an escape, slowly crawling out of the room he’s in. But then his kidnapper returns. Dong-jae is beaten unconscious and he’s possibly close to dying.
Stranger season 2, episode 7 continues to entice the audience with plenty of entwining mysteries. The K-drama series is doing well to remain at bay with the viewers without dulling the storyline. There are clearly many moving parts but with each chapter, the jigsaw puzzle is slowly forming together to reach its conclusions.
