Summary
Agent Kim Reactivated continues to provide solid action and middle-aged appeal. Whether that can sustain a whole season or not is anyone’s guess, but I’m starting to think it probably can.
It turns out I’m in the market for middle-aged men whooping people. Who’d have thought? The ahjussi angle that seems to have been a clear selling point for Agent Kim Reactivated very much carries it in Episode 3, wherein Manager Kim formally reunites with Han-su and Jin-cheol on his quest to locate and rescue Min-ji.
That quest throws up more questions than it answers, but it’s still early days yet, and the plot isn’t really the point. Heavy subject matter notwithstanding, this is very much a vibes show, the vibe being older dads kicking ass and taking names in the hope of reconnecting with their children. It’s big, broad-strokes storytelling, and there’s nothing wrong with that if you ask me.
And connecting with a teenage daughter isn’t easy (trust me, I know). But Manager Kim’s heart was fundamentally in the right place, as seen in the flashback that opens the episode. He’s easy to root for because, despite his espionage past, he’s a pretty simple guy. His simplicity is part of the reason why the South Korean SMD is struggling to track him. But the attention he’s generating helps. Attention is kind of the operative word in this episode. Everyone is earning a ton of it, on all sides of the moral aisle.
This means plenty of action for the audience, which is a good thing. It also means more focus on Han-su and Jin-cheol, whose relationship with Manager Kim stretches back to their time infiltrating North Korea, and whose skills are roughly comparable. From fights in Kim’s house to Han-su’s taekwondo dojo, there’s all sorts going on, and bravo to the choreographer and the editor for minimal cuts and maximal clarity, which is what everyone wants from fight sequences.
There’s a cat-and-mouse vibe emerging, with Kim and the others tracking Min-ji by tracing her phone while the new 66 tracks him, looking for leads at Min-ji’s school and leaning on the local bullies until he’s pointed in the direction of Hye-ryeong, who can apparently track down Min-ji using an app. Furthermore, Mr Ju, or at least his secretary, is also asking questions.
You know what’s happening here. Kim and Han-su fight their way through a veritable legion of goons while the bad guys inch closer; that way, we can build suspense for the inevitable clashes between the two. The rank-and-file goons are small fry, all bark and no bite, which is neatly exemplified in the scene where the boss of a scam den tries giving Kim some deeply personal attitude and ends up beaten to a pulp for his trouble.
Mi-ji’s phone, which led Kim to the den in the first place, was apparently acquired from a homeless guy at the station. When Kim got a call at the top of the episode, it was from him, entirely accidental. He’s really no closer to finding his daughter than he was before. But what he’s coming to realise is that she was lonely and adrift and he didn’t notice; at the very least, he failed to be there for her if he did, and carrying the heart-shaped key chain he gifted her feels like a small consolation given the present circumstances.
Agent Kim Reactivated Episode 3 ends on a decent cliffhanger, with 66 catching up to Kim to confront him at gunpoint, but it also transitions into a 2006-set epilogue, which shows the initial meeting between Kim and Jin-cheol. These relationships go back years and have been through the wringer of clandestine operations and unknowable violence. When these two met, they didn’t have the lives they have now and the people to keep living for. In the present day, it’s going to be their longstanding relationships that (hopefully) allow them to live for their loved ones.
As I said, it’s simple stuff. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t totally on board.
