[Drama 2020] Forest of Secrets Season 2, 비밀의 숲 2

[pompyavi]

Breakdown of the intro. Wow so much thought has been put

[larus]

Forest of Secrets 2: Episode 8

by quirkycase

The search for our missing prosecutor ramps up, but clues are still scarce. The list of suspects seems to grow rather than shrink, and there’s no shortage of cases that could prove relevant to the kidnapping, making progress frustratingly slow. Although our lead is as stoic as ever, the investigation is taking a toll on him as his colleague’s chances of survival get slimmer by the day.

 

 
EPISODE 8

Yeo-jin drops Shi-mok back at his car and reassures him that Dong-jae will be okay – having two colleagues die like this isn’t a thing that happens. As she drives away, she watches Shi-mok stand there, staring at the bloodstain on the asphalt.

On the phone, Chief Choi can’t believe Yeo-jin took a prosecutor along with her to see the ex-chief. Yeo-jin says it was to keep an eye on the prosecution, but Chief Choi accuses her of just wanting some quality time with Shi-mok. Ha.

Yeo-jin whines at her for suspecting there’s something going on between them. She assures Chief Choi that the ex-chief’s alibi was solid; he worked until 11 P.M. that night. As an afterthought, she mentions that Dong-jae had been asking around about Chief Choi.

 

https://www.dramabeans.com/2020/09/forest-of-secrets-2-episode-8/

 

 

 

[nrllee]

@pompyavi thanks for that break down of suspects.  I remember in S1 I was suspicious of the human rights lawyer .  But I agree that I don’t think CB and WTH are directly involved.  Dir Park is definitely suspicious.  I can’t work out where his loyalties are.  If he’s playing double agent or not.

 

Are we leaving out Kim SaHyeon for a reason?  Maybe because he doesn’t have a clear cut reason yet.

 

I feel like there’s a link between the bully and the boy who drowned in Tongyeong?   The one with the expensive shoes.  Because both had scenes where the camera looked at their sneakers?  

[pompyavi]

5 minutes ago, nrllee said:

Are we leaving out Kim SaHyeon for a reason?  Maybe because he doesn’t have a clear cut reason yet.

Yes. He definitely looks shady to me. I mean what's his role here? He doesn't tell Woo everything. Encourages Shimok to take off if the case is too hard for him. But nothing concrete yet.

6 minutes ago, nrllee said:

I remember in S1 I was suspicious of the human rights lawyer 

I even suspected Shimok 

[nrllee]

36 minutes ago, pompyavi said:

I even suspected Shimok 

Can’t be too careful.  And he did say everyone was a suspect back then.    He does have a brain condition.  He could’ve done it and blocked it out?  He could use amnesia as his defense?  Like everything in KDramas.  

[Helena]

https://zapzee.net/2020/09/09/review-stranger-2-in-front-of-a-more-blurry-and-dusky-veil/
[Review] ‘Stranger 2’: In Front of a More Blurry and Dusky Veil

By krishkim | Edited by Seo Hae Lan | Translated by Kim Hoyeun | Images: tvN
September 8, 2020

Stranger (also known as Secret Forest) returned after three years to remove another veil and reveal the truth.

The first season of Stranger was about an emotionless prosecutor and a warm detective digging into the serial murder case related to the corruption at the prosecutor’s office and the truth hidden behind it. Even after three years, its solid story, attractive characters, perfect performances, and excellent production are still talked about.

The second season wraps the backstory of prosecutors and police battling over who holds the investigative authority with “definitions of judicial power.” In fact, the two sides have long fought over “who will have the authority to investigate the case and prosecute the criminals?” Rather than defining which side is right or wrong, the drama features characters who use the truth and even deaths as tools for their own organization and depicts the reality where they are celebrated as heroes. Woo Tae Ha and Choi Bit, the new bosses of Hwang Shik Mok and Han Yeo Jin, order their subordinates to keep the truth silent and to take advantage or even spy on each other.

This season, there is no clear villain role like Lee Chang Jun (previous season), and the real identity of the evil is still veiled. Instead, those with great ambition to prosper their organization engage in “media play” and “political games,” and those who are blind to money threaten ordinary people and colleagues. In a way, viewers face a reality that is, in a way, more trivial and shuddering with the main characters.

How the story unfolds is also quite different. In the first season, a series of events take place, and the truth is revealed at the end. Viewers doubt every character, but can follow the “body” of the story easily. However, the second season feels like a fog. Events that seem unrelated are scattered like pieces of a puzzle. A total of 7 cases or issues, such as the Tongyeong coast drowning incident and the death of a police officer from the Segok District Police Station, have come up directly and indirectly during the past 6 episodes, but I still don’t know their usages besides being used as a topic of the battle between the prosecutor’s office and the police. Also, if all the cases showed its own “weight” in season 1, in season 2, all cases are depicted like a side branch to paint the confrontation between the two sides.

The second season starts two years after Lee Chang Jun’s death. Are Shi Mok and Yeo Jin still the same? Shi Mok sticks to his “my way” method. He does take orders from his boss but he never walks on eggshells, and surprises everyone by always saying what’s right. But yet, Yeo Jin has changed. Her swift moves as a detective became “heavier” after being promoted. Above all, she is now exhausted. Even when she tries to put justice and truth first, she finds herself worn out after throwing herself against a high wall that gives no answers.

In the sixth episode, the scene where the two talk on Yeo Jin’s house’s roof brings together the feelings of hope, defeat, loneliness, and camaraderie we felt while watching this drama. Yeo Jin says, “No matter how much you try, you can’t stop the fog, and no matter how many criminals you catch, the number of bad guys won’t decrease.” Viewers who watched the first season would never have imagined her saying such a thing. To her, Shi Mok asks, “You don’t draw pictures anymore?” and brings back the old Yeo Jin. Instead of nagging or pushing her, he reminds her of what she should do, saying, “We have an obligation to watch the coastline.” Though they might be on opposing sides now, Shi Mok and Yeo Jin proves that they are the real partners who know each other the best and share a belief that values justice and truth above all else.

 

Spoiler

Then in the 7th episode, Seo Dong Jae (Lee Joon Hyuk) has gone missing, and the story faced a dramatic turn. He, who always dreamed of success, pursued the power, and tried to prove his use, suddenly disappeared. For the first time, all the characters focused on one incident, and Yeo Jin and Shik Mok returned to the scene together, heralding their collaboration. Dong Jae’s disappearances will become a signal that shows the link between all cases mentioned so far. With the prosecution and police at odds, what answers will Shi Mok and Yeo Jin find? Will we be able to feel the joy of getting rid of the shroud and facing the “secret forest”? This is why we look forward to Stranger 2, which faced the turning point in thick fog.

 

Verdict: The masterpiece that took out the “hero” but added the reality. What we need now is one big blow. (8/10)

[nona88]

10 hours ago, nrllee said:

@nona88 @Gummi unfortunately I don’t think this writer is big on romance.  The closest we got to one was in Life.  Between Koo Seung-hyo (Cho SeungWoo) and Lee No-eul (Won JinAh).  Even there it was just suggested.  We’ll see if she’s magnanimous and gives us something this season.    One can live in hope.

 Yeh I know it all about the unspoken  one  I am just talking about  beside not having romance  ( and I was okay without that)  we having hardship  to even see them spend  time together  or be close like season 1 that what I am not kay with no progress  and even back steps 

6 hours ago, pompyavi said:

I was trying to narrow down the suspect's list and here they are (since could not pinpoint anyone so narrowing down)

 You trying to so that ,   To end with this

6 hours ago, pompyavi said:

Atleast in S1, i was constantly doubting LCJ and LYB. But here I can't even pinpoint anyone. 

beside our YJ  and SM and the old  YJ police team  everyone  is suspects ( okay we have chief kang too but I cant even say he will be innocent  of everything  by the end) 

We back, the great mystery  is when you suspect  someone  from the start  and the writer  make you double yourself  all the way till the end and still suprised  you with what she choice of person or reasons- ' i really  miss a good mystery  I hope this season give the same  thrill  the old one gives 

 

1 hour ago, nrllee said:

Can’t be too careful.  And he did say everyone was a suspect back then.    He does have a brain condition.  He could’ve done it and blocked it out?  He could use amnesia as his defense?  Like everything in KDramas.  

Okay we still have faith in the writer  , doing original  work and not going in that road (  amnesia it not even  kdramas  original  we here going into hindi stories  famous  elements) 

2 hours ago, pompyavi said:

even suspected Shimok 

Thank God he was the only innocent  in my eyes in season 1 but I have to admit till ep 3 -4 even YJ was in my list of suspects - the fact that they bring her from nowhere  and without  any backstory and she was always  into the events making SM  realize  things  - i had her on the list  as one of the hidden main player on this crime plot till I just loved her so much to let her stay there ( thanks God the writer didnt make her the enemy) 

 

[nrllee]

Just rewatching some scenes.  Did we ever figure out who this guy is?  Or did I miss someone posting about him?  Or miss some scene later on that revealed who he was?

He was the Prosecutor in charge of the bribery case back in 2017.  The guy asking the questions is the male legal assistant that worked with DJ in his office.

 

Park GwangSu was alive then.  He died in April 2018.  And he was DJ’s senior?  DJ mentioned that as his junior he attended his funeral and managed to get all that intel from his wife about her report about her husband never drinking which never showed up in the final Police report.  Is the Prosecutor in charge of the Bribery case Park GwangSu?

[pompyavi]

27 minutes ago, nrllee said:

 Is the Prosecutor in charge of the Bribery case Park GwangSu?

Yes he is Dong Jae's predecessor who was in charge of Segok Bribery case and chose not to pursue Song Ki Hyeon's death as homicide. Baek Ki Jun repeatedly mentioned that Dong jae and his hoobae are trying to revert his ruling. Also now that you mentioned, I remember the business owner said that he used to give 10 million wons as bribes but Lee Dae song mentioned less amount. It could be that the remaining amount went to this prosecutor's pocket.

 

As for Park Gwang Su, he was the chief prosecutor in Daejon office and died in April 2018 in Namyangju road. Also Dong jae mentioned that he left his office 2 years back and moved to a law firm 

[rita96]

9 hours ago, pompyavi said:

I was trying to narrow down the suspect's list and here they are (since could not pinpoint anyone so narrowing down):

 

That is quite an exhaustive list- good work! I was thinking of the people who would know of all the cases in the show right know as possible suspects and then @nrllee made the post about SDJ's senior who was investigating the Segok case and I thought of the person sitting beside him in the picture- the investigator who now works for SDJ. What do you guys think of him as a suspect? I mean he knows of the cases SDJ was working. Though I can't think of any intent.

[pompyavi]

Spoiler

It looks like the first person

 

 

if the above is true, RIP to the list I made 

Edited September 10, 2020 by pompyavi

[farawayland]

I should rewatch E1! A bit disappointed though...the editing team should be more careful. I was surprised They even show part of kidnapping scene on the BTS. 

[nona88]

12 minutes ago, farawayland said:

I should rewatch E1! A bit disappointed though...the editing team should be more careful. I was surprised They even show part of kidnapping scene on the BTS. 

I have so many problems  with the editing  and the filming style  in this season I hope it getting  better  i know they had many difficult  on the start and half of shooting but that not a reason to accept  everything  

The drama is well written  and not being shooting  well kill the fun 

[pompyavi]

31 minutes ago, farawayland said:

I was surprised They even show part of kidnapping scene on the BTS. 

That could be on purpose though. But if they really gave away hints in BTS, I don't know what to say then

[farawayland]

8 minutes ago, pompyavi said:

That could be on purpose though. But if they really gave away hints in BTS, I don't know what to say then

Could be intentional. They are not trying so hard to hide character’s questionable behaviour. The bigger question is why, not who. Similar to Season 1, We all know who are the suspects but we don’t know their motive, what happened and how it is connected. 

[pompyavi]

On 9/8/2020 at 6:31 AM, chickfactor said:

NETFLIX:

I WILL DO THE DISHES

IT'S TOO LATE NOW

 

me:

WHAT I DID WAS WASH THE DISHES

I AM TOO LATE <-- TOO LATE

--

 

Whatever the interpretation may be, the first line is not "I WILL." It's past tense. So that is incorrect.

Netflix changed the subtitles:

"I washed the Dishes

Too Late"

 

Netflix always does this. Through my limited understanding of Korean most of the time I figure out. But this drama has complicated dialogues

[nona88]

1 hour ago, pompyavi said:

Netflix changed the subtitles:

"I washed the Dishes

Too Late"

 

Netflix always does this. Through my limited understanding of Korean most of the time I figure out. But this drama has complicated dialogues

Yes I having the same with Netflix  sub and my understanding  to Korean help me but as you said it not so helping  when the drama has heavy  story and dialogues  and each word has bigger meaning on the story so I hated it when sub run that even to me and how it for people  who has less Korean language  understanding 

[penelop3]

Whoaa! Love reading the theories here! 

On 9/8/2020 at 6:54 PM, pompyavi said:

I seriously need to list down all the events with date and time. 

This will be great, if we have any - now hard to keep track of the timeline. 

 

On 9/8/2020 at 7:09 PM, nrllee said:

EDIT - also, who do people think the culprit is addressing in this comment (that he/she opted not to post)?  DJ?  Or his wife?  The video of the wife was playing then.

 

I don't think it's directed to the wife. The wife was making a indirect plea for the culprit that SDJ is a family man so pls don't harm him. The video served both objectives: 1) get eyewitness, 2) connect with the culprit. 

 

I've been wondering about the message: People like you who don't have conscience - then deleted 

People like you = prosecutors? or specifically corrupt prosecutors? annoying prosecutors?

Who don't have conscience = the culprit feels wronged somehow, either SDJ has attacked him on personal bases, or he feels SDJ's action is against the moral conduct 

 

SDJ only works on several cases in the last few months: Segok case, enquire on Namyajung case, 'harassed the victims' at Tongyeong case, and Hanjoo (did I miss anything? )

Out of those cases that SDJ is working on, only 2 can motivate the culprit to write the message: Segok and Tongyeong. Segok if we're looking at the 6 police's pov - SDJ is digging up old case thus invading their sense of security, or Tongyeong - SDJ as prosecutor yet trying to shift the blame on police / Choi Bit - maybe he sympathise with Choi Bit's effort to highlight the case to the public. 

 

On 9/9/2020 at 11:41 AM, ilovenico said:

U know u r obsessed w the drama when u wake up in the middle of the night with this nagging thought: 

Hahaha! I did that in S1. Now I am more laid back and won't stress myself so much on this. Reading y'all theories are fun enough 

 

On 9/10/2020 at 10:37 AM, pompyavi said:

I was trying to narrow down the suspect's list and here they are (since could not pinpoint anyone so narrowing down):

 

Love this! Thank you for the summary. 

I'm liking your suspect: #3 KSH + uncle, #8 Tongyeong kid, and #5 Director Park - though I don't think LSJ is connected here. 
Director Park strikes me as someone who's loyal or maybe too loyal bordering obsessive to LYJ. So if he did something to SDJ - it's related to that last phone call which nobody knows what it's all about. Not even LYJ was aware of it. 

 

14 hours ago, pompyavi said:

  Reveal hidden contents

It looks like the first person

 

 

if the above is true, RIP to the list I made 

I hold my thought on this. Why would that he harm SDJ? No motive here and no connection with the message. Oh well.. 

 

11 hours ago, pompyavi said:

Netflix changed the subtitles:

"I washed the Dishes

Too Late"

Netflix always does this. Through my limited understanding of Korean most of the time I figure out. But this drama has complicated dialogues

I don't understand this message. 

If connecting this with the deleted post (people like you who don't have conscience) - does it mean, he's thinking of cleaning up the 'people with no conscience'? But it's past tense - so is SDJ alive or barely alive and he's expecting him to die? That's why he said 'too late'? 

Or does wash the dishes have a different meaning in Korean language?

Geez.. this is frustrating. Language barrier. 

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by MinLyn
Please do not quote pics in your posts. Thanks.

[pompyavi]

50 minutes ago, penelop3 said:

But it's past tense - so is SDJ alive or barely alive and he's expecting him to die? That's why he said 'too late'? 

I really want him to be alive. If they would have killed him in S1, it wouldn't have bothered me at all. But since the comment is in past tense, everyone would believe that he has died. Also there's a scene in the long trailer where they look for a body and the reporters are hounding them

[bedifferent]

On 9/8/2020 at 3:53 AM, rita96 said:

 

When he looked at the doodle he was reminded of how SDJ's trainee was relieved to know about the kidnapping case being in Yongsan police station's jurisdiction and not Dongducheon's since he was investigating the latter. So I think what went through SM's head when looking at the doodle was what if the car was deliberately parked by the culprit in that area to ensure the case goes to Yongsan? Cause if the case went to Dongducheon wrong/corrupted people could be "watching and driving" the investigations like you mentioned.

 

Woah, this is a great argument for using DJ to set up the investigation in a way that it will not be buried.^^ Question is why Yongsan police was singled out to carry out this task.  Also, if I set it up so that Yongsan is involved, I would continue to feed more information to the police there.  Should we be expecting more clues come their way?

 

On 9/8/2020 at 12:46 PM, taeunfighting said:

 (@AC95 @bedifferent @nrllee Feels almost like TLW's LJH again with the 365 head-spins. )

 

Not saying that they are likely suspects (at least not yet), but I agree that both Jung Min Ha and Kim Sa Hyun's behaviors are strange.

 

Hahaha... yes, it's us again in a different thread talking about the same actor!

 

I don't see both of them malicious enough to want to hurt SDJ.  There has to be a personal connection to the cases or to SDJ from both of them.  We haven't figured this out yet.  What will both get out of exposing the prosecutor or police corruption? They don't both seem to be pillars of justice fighting to correct the system.

 

On 9/8/2020 at 3:50 PM, nrllee said:

DJ hears about the Tongyeong case (Too many pics so in a doc)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MUXo80fpd3vy1lExmXanJoGffm-9-VyeZML-b6dmDno/ 

 

This is the weakest link for me.  Why and how does DJ connect the Tongyeong case to all the others.  Even ShiMok and YeoJin not making the connection yet.   If you ask me, this is not the same Dong Jae in season 1.  The one we knew is neither courageous or altruistic, to pursue justice for the dead boys or Capt Song.  This is why his disappearance is puzzling for me, it's out of his character to risk his neck for another person.

 

Why didn't the culprit go after Oh Joo Sung or CP Kang Won Cheol who were directly involved in closing the case?  Why go after only Choi Bit or DJ?

 

22 hours ago, nrllee said:

 

 

I feel like there’s a link between the bully and the boy who drowned in Tongyeong?   The one with the expensive shoes.  Because both had scenes where the camera looked at their sneakers?  

 

Still unexplainable. How does the survivor own that new car?  The boy earned money from some side job to buy those expensive shoes.  What is the story behind it?

 

 

2 hours ago, penelop3 said:

I don't understand this message. 

If connecting this with the deleted post (people like you who don't have conscience) - does it mean, he's thinking of cleaning up the 'people with no conscience'? But it's past tense - so is SDJ alive or barely alive and he's expecting him to die? That's why he said 'too late'? 

Or does wash the dishes have a different meaning in Korean language?

 

My understanding of the note:  "I washed the dishes.  Too late" is that the culprit came too late. Like when you come so dinner late that it's over and you are left with washing the dirty dishes.  I'm guessing the person feels he was too late to help or make the change so he will just clean up.... the aftermath of the corruptions.  When is accompanying the bloody tie, I am assuming he means Dong Jae was responsible for some wrong doings thus he is left with punishing him for his crime instead of on time to prevent it.  This is how I understand it... why he was unleashing his anger by beating DJ.