Summary
Privates Lives episode 3 diverts its attention to another character and presents a world of spies and corporate espionage.
This recap of Netflix K-drama series Privates Lives episode 3 contains significant spoilers.
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The opening
Episode 3 opens with Lee Jeong-hwan admitting he looks into other people’s private lives. He’s chased away by a group of men and he manages to fight them all off. By climbing at the back of a van, he manages to get away. With his wedding suit on, he wonders why it had to be today.
Privates Lives episode 3 is mostly about this character who Cha Joo-eun has spent a lot of time with — this is a chapter for context.
Betrayed and lonely after so much planning
And as for Cha Joo-eun, she’s feeling betrayed and lonely at the start of the episode as it turns out that her wedding was a scam. A flashback shows Cha Joo-eun and Lee Jeong-hwan looking at an apartment and they discuss potentially having children. Cha Joo-eun gives him a cheque to help him with the house deposit. The couple seems loved up and happy. It’s easy to see how Cha Joo-eun was hopeful.
Little answers
Like all traumatic experiences, how we deal with it is important but let’s be honest, it usually involves drinking and investigating the cause of that event.
At work, her manager does not know what to do to comfort her and explains that the world is a sh*tty place. Cha Joo-eun insists she’s consoling herself and asks her manager to buy her soju and the meal. Later in the evening, Kim Jun-beom seems to find the situation funny when he meets Cha Joo-eun — he’s also not sure if Lee Jeong-hwan was an actor as well.
An imposter
Cha Joo-eun heads to GK Technology the next day and asks for Lee Jeong-hwan at the reception. When he comes downstairs, it isn’t the same man — he has been impersonated. The man says this has happened before and thinks they should talk about it over drinks — Cha Joo-eun believes he is hitting on her and walks off.
The master of spying
And then episode 3 becomes a chapter mostly about Lee Jeong-hwan.
Lee Jeong-hwan is shown to be a master of infiltrating private lives, compromising divorce cases and spying on a cheating husband to retrieve more money. He works in a dingy office to carry out his operations and he’s supported by an enthusiastic assistant Ms Ko. He runs a Spy Detective Agency.
A new assignment
A woman named Sophia Chung heads to his office and tells Lee Jeong-hwan that she need to find someone. He offers her a contract and lays down the terms; she throws him money and he’s onboard immediately. The woman wants him to find the person as soon as possible.
A corporate spy
The person he’s trying to find is Edward Kim. When Lee Jeong-hwan looks him up, he appears alarmed. He then has a meeting with GK Technology directors and reveals how he has spurred on Mr Park’s divorce which will encourage him to make bolder moves; his lover, Yoo Mi-young will become a corporate spy — she’ll steal technologies from his computer and hand them over to China.
Episode 3 becomes an intense corporate espionage for at least 10 minutes here as the three men conduct dodgy business.
Edward Kim
Lee Jeong-hwan shows photos of Edward Kim (or known now as Kim Jae-wook) to one of the directors — he’s an arsonist. There’s a flashback to 2007 where Lee Jeong-hwan meets Kim Jae-wook who has his own campfire. He was targeting small businesses and factories with arson attacks. Afterwards, at a meal, Lee Jeong-hwan’s director asks him to find a woman and get married.
Murder not suicide
In a flashback, Kim Jae-wook brings Lee Jeong-hwan to a house of a director of a construction company, who apparently committed suicide. He suggests it wasn’t suicide and that there was a witness for this murder — but she vanished straight after — she was called Jeong Yoon-kyung. The next scene shows her body being dragged from the sea.
Is Sophia Chung actually Jeong Yoon-kyung?
Lee Jeong-hwan asks one of his assistants Choi Yoon-seok to look into Sophia Chung. He finds someone on the database — Jeong Yoon-kyung, died in 2007. Lee Jeong-hwan is confused, knowing full well she’s dead. A flashback shows how Lee Jeong-hwan wanted to know the truth of the murders and gets frustrated at Kim Jae-wook that he closed the case.
The ending
Ms Ko asks if there was a misunderstanding between them. Lee Jeong-hwan tells her that Choi Yoon-seok is a good gentleman before driving off — he has a hunch. He finds Kim Jae-wook and tries to sneak up behind him but he makes a noise so the man sends his men to see who created the disturbance.
Cha Joo-eun is called into the police station by detective Kim Myung-hyun. She tells him about the marriage scam. The detective says there was an accident 10 days ago and a car crashed — the man in the car died — they believe it is Lee Jeong-hwan. She’s in disbelief.
Privates Lives episode 3 diverts its attention to another character and presents a world of spies and corporate espionage. Many questions still remain but the K-Drama series is doing plenty to give as much background on the characters as possible.
Additional points
- Choi Yoon-seok has started a romance with Ms Ko.
