#also I skimmed over the implications in the gap between s1 and s2 about dongjae returning to his old ways

[muninnhuginn]

Thinking about Seo Dongjae’s arc and how Lee Changjoon factors into it.

Spoilers for both seasons of Stranger under the cut.

Both came from similar backgrounds in that they were ‘disadvantaged’ compared to their peers. Lee Changjoon didn’t come from a family as wealthy as the chaebols and Lee Yeonjae is explicitly said to have married ‘down’ when she married him instead of Kim Byunghyun. Seo Dongjae meanwhile wasn’t an alumni of a prestigious university and so doesn’t have the same connections as many of his colleagues. This pushes them both in different ways. Dongjae towards latching onto the nearest person he thinks he can use to give him a leg up. Changjoon towards the murky business of Hanjo and his father-in-law.

As season 1 progresses, Dongjae and Changjoon become more distant. We’re told that they used to be closer and have been growing apart over the course of the early episodes as Dongjae’s suspicion of his boss grows. Dongjae is still an opportunist though and so he returns back under Changjoon when given the chance. Ultimately, survival is what matters most for him and if it’s playing all sides that keeps him from being arrested that’s just what he’ll do.

Changjoon took Dongjae on to be his employee on the condition he stay away from Hanjo and his father-in-law. In retrospect, I’m inclined to believe this was his way of protecting Dongjae from their influence rather than because of worries Dongjae could ‘expose’ him. After all, Changjoon intended to expose Hanjo himself and so keeping Dongjae away from them doesn’t particularly help with this. If anything, he’s limiting potential information Dongjae can obtain to only the pieces more relevant to himself.

And, of course, Changjoon told Dongjae to not follow his path with his dying breaths. He could see the direction Dongjae was heading (and was already far enough down to have an arrest warrant out in his name) and knew where it had ended for him. Changjoon knew how how hard it is to extricate yourself once you’ve started down the corrupt route. But he also knew it wasn’t too late for Dongjae. Eunsoo proved that Dongjae couldn’t stomach being a killer.

Season two Dongjae, for all he’s still trying to make inroads and build connections in dubious ways, does show signs of growth. The fact he looked further into the Choi Bit and Park Gwangsu when Woo Taeha tried to draw him away from them is evidence of that. Looking further in this case would not endear him to the very person he wants to gain a promotion from. Also, it does seem like he was genuinely invested in his role in juvenile crimes, in even ‘simple’ bullying cases. And that in of itself helped him unlock the beach case. There was also how didn’t particularly socialise with others at his current office and mainly kept to himself which is a far cry from his early season 1 behaviour. Of course, the last point is somewhat weakened by the way he was most definitely networking outside of his station, but it adds to the sense of isolation and desperation present in everyone this season. His motivation skews increasingly towards his family and dissatisfaction with the whole system (though as a prosecutor he aims most of his ire at the police force).

There’s a part in the second season where Dongjae says something about how looking too deeply into places regardless of what everyone else wants can get you in trouble. And at the time the most obvious person it applies to is Simok (and also Eunsoo, but that stays silent) but in a number of ways it applies to Dongjae himself in this season. He’s probably lucky he was taken out by the culprit he was when you look at the other potential suspects. He has a lot of new powerful enemies. And those enemies are still future threats to him (as Lee Yeonjae demonstrates aptly). For a character so focused on survival historically, his choice should be clear when it comes to whether he speaks up or whether he chooses to stay silent. And yet, he’s shown enough growth that it isn’t clear anymore.

In the dream sequence in season 2, the subtext is pretty clear as to why each person appears. They’re all people who quite literally ‘lost their way or lost their life’. Changjoon (life/way - self-explanatory), Kang (strayed his way but chose to leave), Eunsoo (life, and also her way - though not in the corrupt sense, more how her revenge consumed her and she made self-destructive choices), Yoon (way, though importantly *not* his life). And Dongjae being there is partly to raise the potential he won’t make it, but most of all, it’s there to say that Dongjae hasn’t yet chosen his own path.

As of the season two finale, we don’t know which direction he’ll choose to go.