I Can Hear Your Voice or Neoui Moksoriga Deulleo or 너의 목소리가 들려 (2013) episodes 9 to 12

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This review discusses the plot so, if you have not already watched these episodes, you may wish to delay reading this.

In this set of episodes in I Can Hear Your Voice or Neoui Moksoriga Deulleo or 너의 목소리가 들려 (2013), we see Min Joon-Kook (Jung Woong-In) released and welcomed back into the world by the church and charity workers he’s converted to his cause. Naturally, Park Soo-Ha (Lee Jong-Suk) now sets up for the kill. Ko Sung-Bin (Kim Ga-Eun) realises something bad is about to happen and calls Jang Hye-Sung (Lee Bo-Young). Jang and Cha Kwan-Woo (Yoon Sang_Hyun) then use the tracking device in her smartphone to find Park and, in a tense series of confrontations, Min Joon-Kook is quite badly beaten, Park is stabbed in the shoulder, and Jang is stabbed in the stomach. More importantly, while Jang is recovering in hospital, Cha finally receives the transcripts of the original trial and realises he’s been played for a sucker. He quits the job as Public Defender and goes to help his father run his food stall. Park disappears. Jang comes back to work but a crisis arises almost immediately. A fisherman finds a left hand floating in the dock where he’s somewhat improbably trying to catch something to eat. Fingerprints identify it as Min Joon-Kook’s hand. The police naturally think Park has killed the man and issue a national capture and detain warrant. As time passes, Jang reverts to her original tactics and drives everyone nuts by reciting the same basic script every time she appears in court to represent a defendant, often not even caring enough to change the sex or the details of her plea in mitigation. One year passes and Park is found working on a remote farm. He seems to have lost his memory. Naturally, Cha asks to come back to work to help defend Park. He hopes he can repay both of them for the catastrophe caused by the acquittal and release of Min Joon-Kook.

Min Joon-Kook (Jung Woong-In) showing his malevolent side

Since episode 10 is played from Park’s point of view, we must accept he has genuinely lost his memory and no longer has the mind reading ability. As soon as Jang is notified of his arrest, she runs to his side and is now back in full defender mode to secure his acquittal. Park promised her he would not kill Min Joon-Kook. She has faith in him. Unfortunately, the prosecution led by Prosecutor Seo Do-Yeon (Lee Da-Hee) has a mass of circumstantial evidence to “prove” Park guilty. So this trial turns into a replay of Shin Sang-Duk (Yun Ju-Sang), the chief public defender’s early failure — appropriately called the Left Hand Case, it was tried before the young Judge Seo Dae-Seok (Jeong Dong-Hwan), i.e. everything in this plot clicks together like clockwork. The trial itself is completely entrancing as different tactics are used by both prosecution and defence to sway the jury. The one element which has been worrying the defence is how the police came to find Park. When they realise the woman who made the call had accepted money from a man to make the call and so collect the reward, they decide to run the ultimate explanation for this case. It all hinges on the identity of the man with whom Min Joon-Kook shared his cell during his ten-year detention. Yes, it was the original losing defendant of the Left Hand Case.

Park Soo-Ha (Lee Jong-Suk) and Jang Hye-Sung (Lee Bo-Young)

So the defence goes all out to sell the idea Min Joon-Kook is still alive and continuing to take revenge on Park. As you would expect, this proves a close-run argument which gets very personal when Seo Do-Yeon tells the jury that the two defence lawyers have personal interests in this case. Cha secured the acquittal of the man accused of murdering Jang’s mother. So Jang makes a controlled but emotional rebuttal in which she accepts the ideas of the presumption of innocence and a defence lawyer going all out to secure an acquittal. That’s what defence lawyers are supposed to do and that’s why they are going all out to get this defendant acquitted. Needless to say, Park is acquitted on a majority verdict and we then play the two sides of the triangle against the third. Cha asks Jang if she forgives him — she does — and whether they can date — she refuses. But Jang also tells Park they are not a couple and he should find a girl his own age — as if that’s ever going to work in a romantic drama like this.

Meanwhile, Cha has been to see Seo Do-Yeon and asked how how the person who claimed the reward for finding Park knew where he was. Frustrated by her loss, she goes to see this woman and is refused any sensible answers. But as she is leaving, we’re allowed the sight of a man wearing a black glove sitting behind the wheel of a truck. Yes, episode 12 shows the whole plot exposed as Park slowly gets his memory back, Cha continues to be a detective as well as a lawyer, and Seo Do-Yeon finally uses her brain and accepts Min Joon-Kook is still alive. However, instead of acting decisively and arresting everyone in sight at the fruit store, Seo Do-Yeon simply sends a summons to the lady who has claimed the reward. Not surprisingly, she’s dead within the day. However, the doughty prosecutor has seen this scenario before, i.e. surveillance camera dysfunctional an hour before the accident, so there’s now a national arrest warrant out for the rest of the missing dead body. Park’s acquittal stands because he didn’t kill no-one, and Cha’s hopes of ever persuading Jang to give up her toy boy have gone up in smoke. There’s also what may be an interesting subplot element building based on the original Left Hand Case, and the drunk Seo Do-Yeon finally tells everyone she was the second witness against Min Joon-Kook who failed to follow Jang into court to give evidence. That clears the air as far as everyone else is concerned but the two women are still in a state of denial. Overall, the series has begun to lose a little steam. We miss Jung Woong-In as Min Joon-Kook and Park’s trial scenes go on a touch too long. Nevertheless, I Can Hear Your Voice or Neoui Moksoriga Deulleo or 너의 목소리가 들려 continues to impress.

For the reviews of the other episodes, see:
I Can Hear Your Voice or Neoui Moksoriga Deulleo or 너의 목소리가 들려 (2013) episodes 1 to 4
I Can Hear Your Voice or Neoui Moksoriga Deulleo or 너의 목소리가 들려 (2013) episodes 5 to 8
I Can Hear Your Voice or Neoui Moksoriga Deulleo or 너의 목소리가 들려 (2013) episodes 13 to end.