#dosoo: the beginning

[vindicated-truth]

Destabilizing hierarchy: Lee Dongsik's and Han Joowon's equality of partnership in an unequal society

When Joowon vowed to Dongsik that he would go to hell for him, and when Dongsik vowed in turn that he isn't going to let Joowon go to hell alone, these aren't just dramatic proclamations.

They did exactly what they promised, in ways that are far more literal, significant, and impactful than mere empty vows, precisely because in doing so, they are finally, finally on equal ground as true partners.

To analyze Beyond Evil is impossible without studying it within its cultural context, and it's important to note that while unequal power structures exist everywhere in the world, there is a distinct prominence of it in South Korea wherein the country's culture is steeped in traditional hierarchy. And whenever those in the higher hierarchy uses these established systems to enforce their power over those in the lower hierarchy, it becomes abuse.

This is what Beyond Evil excels in showing so starkly, so brutally: the multiple ways these hierarchies—from the macrocosm of societal structures all the way down to the microcosm of the familial unit—are taken advantage by those in power.

The most prominent of these abused hierarchies of power are: the power of the police force over ordinary citizens; the power of men over women; the power of the rich over the poor; and most of all, the power of parents over their children.

Hence, the reason why it's so fascinating to study the partnership of Lee Dongsik and Han Joowon is because even though the story is hinged on the concept of them as partners—which in itself should connote a semblance of "equality"—it is difficult to see them as such in the beginning of the story precisely because they are already starting in unequal hierarchies, on multiple levels, especially within the cultural context of South Korea.

Lee Dongsik is of a higher hierarchy over Han Joowon in terms of both age and seniority. Dongsik is 40 years old while Joowon is 27 years old, making Dongsik older than Joowon by 13 years. Dongsik is also Joowon's senior by 10 years, as Dongsik entered the police force in 2007 while Joowon started in 2017.

Han Joowon, however, is also of a higher hierarchy than Lee Dongsik when it comes to position, status, and wealth. Because Dongsik had been demoted after the death of Lee Sangyeob, he now only has the position of Sergeant / Assistant Inspector, while Joowon already has the title of Lieutenant / Inspector. Therefore, in the beginning of their partnership, Joowon is technically Dongsik's superior.

This is similar to how Jihwa constantly refers to herself as Dosoo's partner and boss: because Jihwa is of a higher rank than Dosoo. This is the same situation with Joowon and Dongsik.

More than that however, Joowon also has far more power over Dongsik when it comes to both wealth—clearly denoted by his family's lifestyle and material possessions—and status: he's the son of the Deputy Commissioner, the second highest officer in the police force.

This is now what's most fascinating about the show: the entire plot served in multiple ways to recalibrate that balance scale between both of them that at some point, it somehow creates an unexpected equilibrium of equality.

At some point after the arrest and untimely death of Kang Jinmook, because of Joowon's insistence on being punished for abusing his power over Lee Geumhwa, and Dongsik accepting his promotion over arresting a serial killer, the hierarchy between them due to position is now suddenly abolished.

Both Joowon and Dongsik now hold the position of Lieutenant / Inspector, erasing Joowon's higher hierarchy over Dongsik due to position.

And when Dongsik was ironically promoted by Han Kihwan himself to the Seoul Police Agency as part of The Inspection and Survey Team / General Investigation Unit, working directly for Han Kihwan, this raises Dongsik on an even higher hierarchy over Joowon in their field.

This recalibrates their balance scale, because Joowon is now a mere Inspector working for a substation while Dongsik is now back at the Seoul Police Agency—which now has a specific power over all police officers, as an agency that investigates illegal acts of the police force—making Dongsik higher than Joowon now not only in age and seniority, but also in rank and power.

This, however, is also recalibrated later on when Han Kihwan reinstates Joowon after his suspension to the same agency, ironically making Joowon and Dongsik partners again, this time not in Manyang substation, but in Seoul Police Agency—and this time in a much more equal footing as both Lieutenants / Inspectors.

What Dongsik now holds over Joowon in seniority and age is only balanced out by Joowon's status as Han Kihwan's son, both in terms of still having more wealth over Dongsik, and the fact that being Han Kihwan's family will always take precedence over any position in the agency.

And yet as it is clearly shown towards the end of the series, being Han Kihwan's son is also exactly what makes Joowon lose all of his previously prevailing privilege.

Because when Joowon vows to go to hell to Dongsik, this is what he means: that he will also allow himself to fall from the higher place of hierarchy he has over Dongsik.

In arresting, indicting, and ultimately convicting Han Kihwan, Han Joowon loses all privilege of his previous status and identity, as he is now the disgraced son of the disgraced former Commissioner General, who is now convicted as a murderer.

This is especially significant in the society of South Korea, where your family's image is inseparable from your own image as an individual—where you are also expected to pay for the sins of your own family, regardless of whether or not it is also your own. When Dongsik warns Joowon multiple times that this will ruin his life, this is exactly what it means.

This is what Gwangyoung—now promoted as Captain / Senior Inspector by the end of the series—is alluding to when he says he feels bad that Joowon still hasn't been promoted even after all this time. Joowon's career is now also forever tarnished due to his father's crimes.

More than that, as a convicted murderer who now faces 20 years to life in prison, Han Kihwan's assets are more than likely frozen by the government. Unless Joowon has already been legally assigned as the administrator and executor of those assets prior to Han Kihwan's arrest (or unless the law deems otherwise), it is highly likely that Joowon loses all his previous access to his family's wealth, as well.

In vowing to go to hell for Dongsik, Joowon essentially loses all of his power over him: his status, his image, and more importantly—his wealth.

And yet—Dongsik has also vowed to not let Joowon go to hell alone. Because in the end, Dongsik has willingly surrendered to Joowon as a criminal, himself, in tampering with the scene of the crime of Kang Minjeong's murder and consequently obstructing justice.

It recalibrates the whole balance of their unequal hierarchy again, because Dongsik—despite fighting all his life to clear his name from his wrongful accusation 21 years ago—allows himself to finally be branded as a criminal for a different crime 21 years later, in surrendering himself to Joowon.

And while Dongsik is convicted of only 1 year in prison and 2 years probation, he will forever carry with him now that identity of an ex-convict—which essentially means that Dongsik cannot anymore return to the police force, because ex-convicts aren't allowed to legally carry weapons.

In essence, in surrendering to Joowon, Dongsik now loses all of his higher rank in seniority because he cannot work for the police anymore. He gives all of that up for Joowon.

This is now the only hierarchy remaining between them: Joowon's power over Dongsik as a police officer over an ordinary citizen, and Dongsik's hierarchy over Joowon when it comes to age, which will always remain intact.

Morally, neither of them holds significant superiority over the other: Joowon abused his power which lead to the death of Lee Geumhwa, and Dongsik abused his which lead to the failure to save Kang Minjeong on time.

It should be noted, however, that objectively, Dongsik’s case is more severe than Joowon’s, because Joowon’s accountability is only circumstantial: he had no deliberate hand on Lee Geumhwa’a death and had no knowledge of what his sting operation would eventually lead to. More than that, he readily owned up to his accountability and even sought his own punishment, not just once, but twice.

Dongsik’s accountability on the other hand, is more deliberate, because he had clear knowledge of the crime, consciously planned to tamper it, and deliberately chose to not report it.

Yet Joowon’s slight moral edge over Dongsik is once again compounded by virtue of his being Han Kihwan’s son. Objectively, even without Joowon’s own knowledge nor participation, the way Han Kihwan escaped justiced for 21 years also benefitted Joowon as well, if only indirectly in keeping his family’s wealth, status, and privilege intact for that long—to the detriment of Dongsik’s family.

And this is where the final equilibrium between them is recalibrated, especially in their society's cultural context:

Dongsik and his family will always remain to be the victim of Joowon's family, and for that reason, Joowon will always be indebted to Dongsik.

Yet—Joowon is also the one person who finally brought justice to Dongsik and his family, and for that reason, Dongsik will always be indebted to Joowon.

This is where Beyond Evil has truly succeeded in showcasing and highlighting the partnership between Lee Dongsik and Han Joowon:

Stripped of everything in both their society and their circumstances that made them unequal, at the end of the show, theirs becomes the most beautiful rendering of a true, equal partnership.

[aristoteliancomplacency]

Appendix: A Note on Gnostic Cheese.

The question of the depths of François Lenormant’s knowledge of the papyri he described in his catalogue has already been raised, and a further instructive instance of a possible error in his interpretation of the Theban Library texts can be found in his description of the beginning of PGM IV, specifically an Old Coptic invocation to Osiris contained in ll. 11-25:

En tête sont trois pages de copte, qui débutent par l’histoire d’un fromage mystique, pour la composition duquel s’associent Osiris, Sabaoth, Iao, Jésus et tous les autres éons. Ce fromage n’est autre que la gnose.

trans: ‘At the beginning are three pages of Coptic, which begin with the story of a mystical cheese, for whose creation Osiris, Sabaoth, Iao, Jesus, and all the other aeons come together. This cheese is no other than gnosis.’

Lenormant’s “mystic cheese” (“fromage mystique”), more often cited as “gnostic cheese” (“fromage gnostique”), has become proverbial as an example of the dismissive attitude of scholars of the mid-nineteenth century towards magical material, cited by Preisendanz and Brashear, among others. Examples of such an attitude towards the magical papyri are not difficult to find, even among the later authors who made a career out of their study: Dieterich called PGMIV an “abschreckenden Schutthaufen” (trans: ‘terrifying rubbish heap’), while Eitrem referred to them as “relics of degenerate religions and of the human mind gone astray.” However, “fromage” in French refers only to the food made from cultured milk curd, and lacks the derogatory sense of “nonsense” which is present in the German “Käse,” and, to a lesser extent, in the English “cheese.” In fact, it seems that Lenormant believed he really had discovered a story in which Osiris, Jesus, and the other aeons create a Gnostic cheese.

(Dosoo, K. 2016. ‘A History of the Theban Magical Library’ in The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists Vol. 53. Pp. 251-274).

Gnostic cheese.

[vindicated-truth]

Somewhere towards the end of the series, Joowon and Jeongje developed an interesting relationship.

Not just in relation to Dongsik, because that's already a given: their mutual care (and love) for Dongsik, the way Dongsik has always been, in different ways, the driving force in all of their decisions in the show.

It's not just the mutual understanding that Dongsik cares for (and loves) both of them, and how their mutual respect for one another stems from the fact that the other man is important to Dongsik too.

Towards the end of the series, it feels a little like Joowon is remarkably the only one left on Jeongje's side.

During Jeongje's interrogation where he was being interrogated by Jihwa and Dosoo, with Dongsik and Joowon watching, it was Joowon who was the most visibly concerned when Jeongje started breaking down—even turned to Dongsik, aghast, asking him, asking Jeongje's supposed best friend: "Aren't you going to go in?"

You're his friend. Aren't you going to be there for him? Aren't you going to stop him from hurting himself?

Instead, Dongsik's response had been cold, even as he was also visibly hurting: "Jeongje has to handle it on his own now."

And it was that statement that made me realize: Joowon's and Jeongje's parallel relationship have now turned perpendicular.

At some point of their paths crossing, Jeongje's life begins to turn into the life Joowon once had:

Alone.

Because Dongsik, and even Jihwa, and Jaeyi, and everyone else, was beginning to distance themselves from Jeongje, even as it hurt them too, because they cared for Jeongje too.

Because they knew they had to pick a side.

Jihwa articulated it so well in the foreshadowing conversation she had with Dosoo: when she confessed how she was afraid the time would come that she had to choose between Dongsik and Jeongje.

All things considered, objectively—it was Dongsik who was the victim of Jeongje's actions. And that's what made it all the more painful for the people who loved both of them: they knew, at the end of the day, that the right thing to do is to always, always side with the victim.

That's what makes Joowon's position as the former outsider so fascinating: because he isn't in the position that he had to choose, because he didn't have that shared history with any of the Manyang people yet—Dongsik and Jeongje included.

In a way, it's easier for Joowon to be more detached and objective about the whole thing, and it was easier for him to pin Jeongje as one of the perpetrators.

However, it's also precisely because he's more detached and objective that it was also easier for him to see Jeongje as the victim too, without being clouded by the heaviness of betrayal Dongsik and everyone else felt in finding out Jeongje's secret after 21 years.

More than anything—Joowon, who has mainly led a solitary life, with no one by his side (not until Hyeok became his tutor when he finally returned to South Korea after many years being exiled abroad by his own father)—

More than anything, Joowon knows precisely what it's like to be alone.

Dongsik, against all odds, despite all his losses, was very much loved. He was surrounded by it, even as all this love could never hope to make up for everything he lost.

But it kept him afloat. This love from his little makeshift family in Manyang—it kept him alive. It kept him moving forward, despite everything.

Dongsik had known the kind of love Joowon never had. And in many ways, Dongsik had never known the kind of loneliness Joowon had to endure.

And I think—Joowon recognizes that loneliness in Jeongje now, with everyone in Manyang pulling away from him.

Not because they stopped loving him. But simply because they loved Dongsik, too.

And it must have struck Joowon then, the kind of lonely path Jeongje will now be trekking from now on, because Joowon—

He knows what that's like. He knows exactly what that's like.

And I think, against all odds, it's why he's the one most visibly shaken about Jeongje now.

From a solitary life, Joowon is beginning to learn a life of love and family that Jeongje used to have, and because of everything that had happened, Jeongje is going to have to endure the solitary life Joowon used to have.

It's—heartbreaking, the way their lives have gone perpendicular this way.

And against all odds I think—at this point, this is something only Joowon can understand about Jeongje.

This is why at the end of it, remarkably: of everyone in Manyang, it is the former outsider, Joowon, who treated Jeongje with the most tenderness at the end of it all.

He knows, more than anyone, how Jeongje needs it.