Undercover High School starts with Hae-seong and Dong-min finding a dead body underneath the ballet studio floorboards. But Hae-seong realises the body isn’t real, it’s plastic! Inside ballet shoes, Hae-seong finds a key. Just then, Principal Park catches them and Hae-seong explains that they are just students investigating the ghost story.
Hae-seong later debriefs his team about his findings. He points out the seal on the key, which matches Seo Byeong-mun’s seal. They realise he must have set up the ghost story as a riddle which leads them to the gold bars. Hae-seong says there are four ghost stories in the school and he must investigate them all. Elsewhere, Principal Park tells Chairwoman Seo Myeong-ju what happened and she comes to the same conclusion as Hae-seong.
At school, Hae-seong asks Dong-min to tell him the other ghost stories. Meanwhile, Soo-a gets a call from Dong-min’s grandmother who says her ID was taken by the school. But the name she mentions is Jeong Hae-seong.
Dong-min tells Hae-seong the second ghost story. It is about a grandfather clock donated by Seo Byeong-mun. The story says that if you’re alone in the school, the clock will chime and “crimson eyes will come for you”. Just then, Oh Soo-a confronts Hae-seong about the stolen ID and orders him to see her at the counselling office after school. She then returns to her office. When she sees pink headphones in her drawer, she recalls her first day as a teacher.
Meanwhile, at the police station, Director Kim receives a report that says the statue Hae-seong retrieved was a forgery. He realises that this could upend Hae-seong’s mission and shreds the report.
Hae-seong then sends Oh Soo-a a text saying he left the stove on at home and can’t make it to the counselling session. Instead, he confronts the school’s security guard and accuses him of being the person at the ballet studio. The man soon caves in. He says he found a secret opening into the building while feeding a cat and then checked it out because of the ghost story.
He found the skeleton and dropped his phone inside. He was bringing it out when Dong-min saw him and thought he was a ghost. He went back with the hammer the previous night to fix the floorboards.
Hae-seong meets with his colleagues and realises they are running a small sandwich shop near the school so they can be closer to him as a secret headquarters for their team. Back on campus, Soo-a notices Tae-soo taking Dong-min aside. Dong-min bravely asks Tae-soo to give his grandmother’s ID back. Tae-soo gives it back but then steps on Dong-min’s hand when he tries to pick it up.
Soo-a catches him in the act and tells Tae-soo to see her at the counselling office. He tells her to look the other way and calls her out for being a temp and not a permanent teacher. After he leaves, even Dong-min tells her they were just messing around and to not bother about it.
Hae-seong is walking down the road when he sees an old lady scrambling to pick up her things in the middle of the road. Ye-na’s car is honking at her to move and Hae-seong steps in to help. Ye-na sees this. Hae-seong helps the old woman home and she turns out to be none other than Dong-min’s grandmother.
She’s happy to learn that Hae-seong is Dong-min’s friend and gives him a little cash for them to spend together. Dong-min then tells Hae-seong about the ID-card fiasco and apologises for not being able to tell Soo-a the truth. Before leaving, Hae-seong gives Dong-min his phone number.
Elsewhere, Soo-a confides about Tae-soo to her colleague, Ri-an. Since Tae-soo’s father is a powerful assemblyman, even Ri-an advises Soo-a to turn a blind eye to the bullying incident if she wants to keep her job.
Hae-seong is getting stuff from a convenience store when Soo-a enters and they butt heads when they reach for the same drink. Soo-a reveals she knows about Tae-soo and apologises for getting the wrong idea about him. He gives her one of the bank notes Dong-min’s grandmother gave him and tells her to be a good friend to Dong-min. Soo-a notices Hae-seong removing the peas from his food and recalls a boy from her childhood who used to do the same.
Trouble stirs when the police arrive at Dong-min’s house and take his grandmother away for being linked to a gambling website. Dong-min calls Hae-seong for help and he and Soo-a rush over. Hae-soo realises this is due to Tae-soo’s actions and tells Soo-a she needs to step in and help.
The next day, a post goes up on the school discussion board that accuses Tae-soo of bullying Dong-min and involving his grandmother in gambling. It causes a huge flurry and the vice principal tells Soo-a to contact Tae-soo and Dong-min’s parents for a meeting with Chairwoman Seo Myeong-ju. Although, we soon learn that the post was uploaded by Soo-a herself.
Later that night, Hae-seong tries to use the key to open up the grandfather clock at the school. Chairwoman Seo Myeong-ju catches him and introduces herself. She makes some cryptic comments about his curiosity and tells him to contact her if he needs help.
Dong-min tells his grandmother that he will get her out of jail soon. He then goes home to find Tae-soo sitting by his house. The next day, the students meet with Myeong-ju but Dong-min says the online post is a lie. He blames Hae-seong for everything instead. A flashback shows Tae-soo threatening Dong-min with a knife and even threatening his grandmother, forcing him to lie.
Yoo-jung and the other students hear the news and Yoo-jung worries about Hae-seong, which Ye-na picks up on. Hae-seong confronts Dong-min about the situation later, asking if he was threatened. Dong-min admits that he was and rants about the whole situation. Still, Hae-seong tells Dong-min it wasn’t his fault.
When he leaves, Hae-seong calls Young-hoon and tells him to find out everything about Park Tae-soo. Young-hun tells him about the owner of the gambling website whom Tae-soo gave the ID card. The next day, the school holds an anti-bullying committee session.
Hae-seong gets late and the vice principal is about to expel him when he suddenly makes a grand entrance on his bike, with the owner of the gambling website in tow. Back at the sandwich shop, Seok-ho and Mi-jung realise that Young-hoon is helping Hae-seong.
A flashback at the end of Undercover High School Episode 3 shows a young Hae-seong in school, who was bullied for being an orphan. He was known as Si-hyun back then and refused to back down when other parents asked him to apologise. Seok-ho was his guardian and after seeing what Hae-seong was going through at school, Seok-ho told him he could study at home instead.
The Episode Review
Undercover High School Episode 3 is largely about the school bullying issue and it slows things down a bit. There is more focus on the intense nature of the bullying, the warm friendship growing between Dong-min and Hae-seong, and the helplessness that a victim could feel. As a result, the show leans towards a contemplative tone while the mystery of the gold bars takes a backseat. Even the comedy is pulled back for this one.
It’s still a compelling episode! It’s strongly written and depicts the nuances of Dong-min’s situation and all the complexities that come with it. Like Hae-seong, the story empathises with him even as he lies. The final scene offers a heartwarming look at the relationship between Seok-ho and Hae-seong as well. But the episode doesn’t resolve things by the end and I’m hoping that the focus on the key mystery returns in the following episodes.
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!