Summary
An explosive chapter sees Jiwoo make a potentially devastating choice as things come to quite a head.
This recap of My Name season 1, episode 5 contains spoilers.
You have to respect My Name for not beating around the bush. The previous episode ended on a pretty big cliff-hanger, and this one has the decency to pick right up from there. As I’ve mentioned before, this show doesn’t really have cliffhangers so much as brief pauses. So, Jiwoo and Pil-Do being captured becomes, immediately, Jiwoo being tortured – stabbed in the leg – by Gangjae. But Gangjae has an ulterior motive, which is to draw out Mujin.
My Name season 1, episode 5 recap
After receiving a picture of Jiwoo, Mujin eventually arrives in the nick of time to save both her and Pil-Do from being crushed inside a car they’re both handcuffed within, and in the resultant confusion, he’s able to slip away. When Captain Cha arrives and doesn’t find him there, suspicions are obviously raised. Who would interfere to help save the lives of two cops and then flee the scene afterward?
This is also a question that Taeju asks of Mujin later, though for different reasons. You’ll recall it was Taeju who reminded Mujin a few episodes back that Jiwoo would have to be killed if her undercover operation threatened the Organization. He’s clearly not seeing the personal connection Mujin has with her and is wondering why he keeps risking his own life to save her. But part of My Name’s appeal is that Jiwoo is inherently trustworthy – she’s incredibly easy to root for. Pil-Do sees that too, and because Jiwoo is so well written and performed, his trust doesn’t seem contrived.
Finding Gangjae seems to be everyone’s top priority, so the Narcotics team is authorized to carry firearms and Taeju doubles his efforts by interrogating Cheol-Ho. It’s a race at this point, and a compelling one. Jiwoo, meanwhile, remains caught in the middle. Her loyalties are to Mujin, but she’s becoming increasingly fond of Pil-Do, who is an increasingly sympathetic figure as more of his backstory regarding his sister is doled out. But Jiwoo can’t even feign closeness with Pil-Do and her other colleagues without raising the idea, at least to Taeju, of her having been compromised enough to turn on Mujin. At the same time, Cha still suspects her enough to have her phone bugged. All this taken together makes for a lot of tension. There’s no wonder Mujin advises Jiwoo to leave the country.
It’s also not surprising that Jiwoo refuses to do so, even as things become even more complicated at the precinct with the suggestion by Sergeant Cho that Cha deliberately buried Donghoon’s murder case. Not that Cho is long for this world after dispensing such an important titbit – he’s subsequently killed by Mujin.
With nobody on either side trusting anyone else, it’s easy for Gangjae to manipulate matters to his own advantage. Bargaining for immunity, he offers to serve Mujin on a silver platter for Cha, which amounts to a big sting operation to close out the episode. Naturally, Jiwoo blunders right into it. She interrupts Gangjae and Mujin during their climactic confrontation – which Gangjae is getting the better of – and holds Gangjae at gunpoint, giving Mujin time to flee. As Pil-Do arrives, though, Gangjae threatens to confess who Jiwoo really is, so she executes him in full view of her partner. That’s certainly going to raise some questions.
You can stream My Name season 1, episode 5 exclusively on Netflix.
