Setting aside the shoddy script for Spy Myung Wol, this drama is actually really dramatic in ways that K-dramas have done less of in recent years. Everything happens so quickly and in such heightened degree in SMW world, from the stakes to the emotional bonds. If the writing were tighter (less redundancy), then the drama would be able to sell me on the Kang Woo falls madly in love with Myung Wol in mere weeks conceit. But settling that aside, I do like where this drama is finally headed. Time to put your money where your heart is, Kang Woo, and decide if you love that girl so much you are willing to adopt communism for her.

Episode 14 baby recap:

Kang Woo confronts Myung Wol (with tears in his eyes) about who she really is? Clearly not the insane fangirl/martial arts expert he fell in love with. Can’t a guy just have his crazy girlfriend instead of a perhaps sane girlfriend with ulterior motives? Myung Wol demurs and doesn’t reveal the truth to Kang Woo. Because the truth hurts, but too bad the lying hurts even more.

Myung Wol tells Choi Ryu that Kang Woo totally has lost all truth in her and their relationship is pretty much on the skids. She wants to abort the mission, because it’s doomed to fail now that Kang Woo is suspicious of her. Kang Woo goes clubbing and drinking, coming home and falling into bed in exhaustion, a drama’s preferred expression of cinematic-man-pain.

Too bad Choi Ryu gets a mission update from his superior that if the hijack-a-Hallyu-star mission fails, Myung Wol and the spy parents are to be eliminated. Not good for newly softy Choi Ryu, who hands the real Four Book (the one Myung Wol lifted from Kang Woo) to the spy parents. He tells them their life is on the line if Myung Wol fails in the mission, so they need to protect this real Four Book and use it as a last resort to bargain for their life if the situation calls for it.

Choi Ryu lies to the Chairman that he can’t get the book because Kang Woo knows, buying himself more time, though it’s not like he has any solution to the mess they are all in at this point. Kang Woo and Myung Wol inject their real life couple issues into the drama filming. Too bad Myung Wol, feeling all guilty about lying to Kang Woo (about everything BUT how she really feels for him), steals the Four Book back from her comrades and returns it to Kang Woo. Choi Ryu is furious Myung Wol betrayed him and warns him that if she does it again, he won’t let it slide. Whatever, he’ll let anything she does slide at this point. The betrayed one tells her that returning the book won’t make him trust her again. Touche, Kang Woo. But he still bandages up her injured shoulder.

Agent Kyung asks Kang Woo and Myung Wol to continue pretending to be a couple to preserve their public image. They go out on a date, complete with Kang Woo feeding her and kissing her for the cameras and adoring fans.

Choi Ryu discovers the Goblin used a special goblin seal on his documents, so he sneaks into Chairman Yoo’s super secret safe room, first grabbing In Ah when he runs into her outside. Choi Ryu discovers that the Chairman is in fact the Goblin by confirming the seal on his documents. Choi Ryu calls Kang Woo for an exchange – the truth about the Goblin’s identity for the Four Book. Sigh, back and forth we go on the book. Kang Woo wisely decides punching out his maybe-love-rival is not as important as finding out the truth about his daddy’s death that he has been seeking for the last two decades.

Myung Wol finds out from the spy parents that (1) Choi Ryu was super pissed about book because he wanted spy parents to have it as a lifesaving final protection from the North, and (2) Choi Ryu knows the identity of the Goblin and took off to meet with Kang Woo to make the exchange. Myung Wol can’t find either of her guys, leading her to correctly surmise that the Chairman got to them first. She begs In Ah to help find out where Choi Ryu and Kang Woo are since In Ah doesn’t want anything to happen to them either. In Ah agrees because she puts hot men above her grandaddy. And perhaps she puts doing the right thing above her grandaddy as well.

Myung Wol’s hunch is correct, as the Chairman has captured Kang Woo and Choi Ryu (seriously, Ryu is a super hot yet super incompetent spy IMO). The Chairman admits to Kang Woo that he is the Goblin and he did in fact run Kang Woo’s dead daddy down years ago to get a hold of the Four Book. If looks could kill, Kang Woo would have slayed the Chairman with his look of all-consuming rage at finding out this truth. Kang Woo asks Choi Ryu for the truth about Myung Wol, but Choi Ryu refuses to divulge anything except to say that Myung Wol’s feelings for Kang Woo were real. The Chairman gets the book back and orders the two dude killed.

Just as the minions are about to off the guys, spy Myung Wol shows up and unleashes some kickass all around, saving Choi Ryu and Kang Woo. Just as Kang Woo has come back around to wanting to be with Myung Wol again, truth bedamned, she pulls a gun on him and says “Comrade Kang Woo. Let’s go together.” Yes, Myung Wol has clearly decided that she cannot fail in her mission because the lives of spy parents are in her hands.