From Wikipedia: “Signal” is a 2016 South Korean police procedural television series starring Lee Je-hoon, Kim Hye-soo, and Cho Jin-woong. It premiered on tvN on January 22, 2016. The series was inspired by real-life criminal incidents in Korea, including the Hwaseong serial murders.
The series received widespread acclaim from audience and critics alike for its story and performances. Also, it is the tenth highest-rated Korean drama in cable television history with a peak audience viewership of 12.54%.
It received praise for its solid acting, tightly-constructed plot and detailed and sophisticated direction; and enjoyed success internationally in China and Japan.
The drama went on to win several awards from different award-giving bodies: Best Drama, Best Screenplay for Kim Eun-hee, and Best Actress for Kim Hye-soo at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards; Best Actress award for Kim and the Daesang (Grand Prize for Television) for Cho Jin-woong at the tvN10 Awards; and Daesang for Cho Jin-woong at the 1st Asia Artist Awards.
How I wrote these episode summaries with no spoilers
1. I assumed that you will be reading these summaries and watching the videos chronologically.
2. I narrated some of the main actions in each episode without revealing the plot’s twists and turns.
3. At the beginning of each summary starting with Episode 2, I placed in a table a recap of the major twists and turns of the previous episode. But because you have already watched the video of the previous episode, they aren’t spoilers anymore.
4. I followed this structure all throughout, except for Ep. 16 (Finale) where I included spoilers. Reason - most people want to know if this drama has a happy ending or a sad ending before they invest their time in watching it.
Episode 1
July 29, 2000 ... a shy grade school student named Park Hae-young sees someone sheltering his schoolmate Yoon-jung from the rain and guiding her away from school. Later on, Yoon-jung is found murdered, but the suspect — a medical student named Seo — disappears.
Days later, based on a note, Detective Lee Jae-han goes late at night to an abandoned psychiatric hospital; in a waste disposal bin, he finds the body of the suspect. At 11:23 PM, he uses his walkie-talkie to report finding the body.But the person who answers his call is Park Hae-young, who’s now a young police officer, a lieutenant working as a criminal profiler! It’s July 27, 2015, three days before the statute of limitations expires and when Yoon-jung’s killer can no longer be prosecuted for the crime.
Hae-young has just left the police precinct where he had a run-in with Detective Cha Soo-hyun and her subordinate Detective Kim.
He finds a walkie-talkie in a parked truck, and as Jae-han reports that the suspect’s death was made to look like a suicide, Hae-young demands to know who he is talking to.Hae-young finds out the walkie-talkie doesn’t even have batteries. Despite thinking that he’s going crazy, he goes to the abandoned psychiatric hospital and finds some skeletal remains. The next day, the forensics team searches the site, and Detective Soo-hyun demands that he tell her how he found the skeletal remains.
Despite Detective Soo-hyun’s protest, Section Chief Ahn takes the case records and then reports everything to Director Kim. Later on, in the frenzied presence of news reporters, Director Kim talks to Yoon-jung’s mother and tells her that they have found the suspect’s body and that he committed suicide. But Hae-young stuns everyone by shouting that the suspect did not commit suicide but was killed by the real kidnapper. As Director Kim’s men try to drag him away from the reporters, Hae-young faces the TV cameras and shouts that he’s got the evidence against the real kidnapper.
Episode 2
| Ep. 1 recap: In her early years as a police officer, Soo-hyun worked under Detective Jae-han. Nurse Yoon misleads the police into thinking that her fellow nurse who worked in the psychiatric hospital is the real kidnapper. As Hae-young and Detective Soo-hyun find out the truth and as the statute of limitations is about to run out, they chase Nurse Yoon on the streets under the pouring rain. |
Because of the public outcry, the statute of limitations is extended for various crimes, and Director Kim is pressured into setting up a cold case squad in Seoul. Heading the squad is Soo-hyun, with Hae-young, Detective Kim, and forensic expert Heon-ki as her men.
August 3, 2000 ... Jae-han calls Hae-young again on the walkie-talkie. Bloodied and desperate, Jae-han tells him that it may be his last call. But he says that they will get in touch again and that Hae-young would have to persuade the young police officer Jae-han of 1989. After Jae-han says, “The past can be changed. Don’t ever give up,” a confused Hae-young hears a gunshot.
The cold case squad is assigned to work on the infamous Gyeonggi Nambu serial murders that happened in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Hae-young begins digging into the files of all police officers named Lee Jae-han.
11:23 PM ... as Hae-young’s walkie-talkie lights up, he excitedly asks why Jae-han hasn’t called him up earlier. But the Jae-han who answers is a newbie police officer from 1989, who, along with dozens of other officers, is searching for the 7th victim of the Gyeonggi Nambu serial murderer. Hae-young, not realizing the time difference, chides Jae-han by saying where the bodies of the 7th and 8th victims can be found.
November 1989 ... The newbie police officer Jae-han inquires at the police station about an officer named Park Hae-young and whether the 8th victim of the serial killer has been found.
Episode 3
| Ep. 2 recap: Soo-hyun arrests Nurse Yoon for the murder of her boyfriend Seo. In 1989, the serial killer attacks a woman named Lee Mi-sun on an isolated part of the railroad tracks. Jae-han finds her bound and gagged but still alive. In 2015, Hae-young becomes confused with the changes in the crime scene pictures and his whiteboard notes about the serial murders. |
Jae-han captures the suspect who attacked Lee Mi-sun before he could board a bus. At 11:23 PM, he calls Hae-young and informs him that he captured the serial killer. But Hae-young thinks that he’s being pranked by someone claiming to be from 1989; he also warns Jae-han that if he’s truly from the past, the suspect whom he captured will die that night.
Worried about Hae-young’s claim about the serial killer, Jae-han musters up his courage and talks to his crush, an office employee named Kim Won-kyung; he gives her a taser to protect herself from any attacker.
While following up on the serial killer’s attack on Lee Mi-sun, Jae-han questions the bus driver and another employee of the bus company. But the driver says that no one boarded his bus at the stop where Jae-han captured his suspect.
2015 ... Soo-hyun continues to investigate the attack on Lee Mi-sun, but she’s rebuffed by Lee Mi-sun’s husband. Later, after noticing a pattern in the movements of the victims, she tells her squad that the bus plying a certain route holds the key to the serial murders. Hae-young, meanwhile, notices that the serial killer’s pattern changed.
Soo-hyun and Dae-young decide to visit the female bus employee who was questioned by Jae-han back in 1989. They knock on the door, but no one answers. When Soo-hyun peers into a window, however, she sees a woman on the floor, with her feet bound with ropes.
Episode 4
| Ep. 3 recap: Section Chief Ahn orders Soo-hyun and her squad to turn over the murder investigation of the bus company employee to the local police station. In anger and guilt over the employee’s murder, Hae-young calls up Jae-han on the walkie-talkie and tells him to do something to help prevent the death of another woman. But Jae-han has been locked in jail for his continued railing about mysterious transmissions on a walkie-talkie from a non-existent police officer. He goes berserk when he hears Hae-young say that the next victim is someone named Kim Won-kyung. |
2015 ... Based on the black box videos and the fingerprints, Soo-hyun, Detective Kim, and their forensic expert believe that the bus driver Lee Chun-goo killed his former co-employee and that he could possibly be the serial killer. But Hae-young says that it’s not possible, and he goes to the bus terminal to interview the old-time drivers.
Lee Chun-goo surrenders to the police and confesses that he killed his former co-employee and that he is the Gyeonggi Nambu serial killer. Later on, during another transmission on the walkie-talkie, Hae-young tells Jae-han that Lee Chun-goo, the bus driver, confessed to being the serial killer. Enraged, Jae-han barges into Lee Chun-goo’s house; he finds Lee Chun-goo’s son and begins beating him up.
Because of Lee Chun-goo’s confession, Section Chief Ahn closes down the cold case investigation. Director Kim also arranges a press conference to announce that the Gyeonggi Nambu serial killings have finally been solved after 26 years.
But Soo-hyun and Hae-young refuse to give up; they investigate the former bus company employee’s credit card and phone records; they also contact one of her relatives.
Episode 5
| Ep. 4 recap: Jae-han finds Kim Won-kyung dead, bound and gagged on a dark street. Through the taser that Jae-han gave to Kim Won-kyung, Soo-hyun finds DNA evidence confirming that the serial killer is Lee Jin-hyung, the bus driver’s son. |
Meanwhile, as Hae-young investigates what happened to Jae-han, he finds out from the Office of Internal Affairs that he disappeared in 2000, with a bundle of money found in his desk drawer. He also finds out that Jae-han had a scar on his right shoulder because of a metal pin. But his investigation makes Section Chief Ahn and Director Kim suspicious about his connection to Jae-han; Section Chief Ahn also sees on the CCTV footage how Hae-young found the walkie-talkie.
September 1995 ... Jae-han and other police officers are ordered to catch the burglar who has broken into the houses of several wealthy families. One of the suspects that Jae-han questions is an ex-convict named Oh Kyung-tae. But the ex-convict says that he has reformed his ways, and his daughter Eun-ji says that the burglar is probably an amateur.
2015 ... Reaching home after his visit to Kim Won-kyung’s mother, Hae-young gets another call from Jae-han, who wants to know everything about the burglaries. But Hae-young says that the case files are missing; when Jae-han insists that he help him, he suggests that the burglar might have cased the houses and thus left some traces of his identity.
1995 ... Jae-han arrests the ex-convict Oh Kyung-tae for the burglaries. On their way to the police station, however, they see Eun-ji’s bus plunge as the bridge collapses.
2015 ... a female college professor (the daughter of a CEO) is kidnapped, but the police find the kidnapper’s fingerprint on a bathroom mirror, and his face is recorded on the CCTV footage. Director Kim thus orders a massive manhunt for the kidnapper and the victim.
Episode 6
| Ep. 5 recap: Oh Kyung-tae’s daughter died in a fiery explosion after the bridge collapsed; he thus blames Jae-han for her death. 2015 ... Several days after his release from prison, Oh Kyung-tae kidnaps the college professor. Jae-han tells Hae-young that their transmissions should have never taken place because they have ruined people’s lives. |
After the bus plunges into the collapsed bridge, the paramedics, Jae-han, and Yeo-jin’s father try to rescue those trapped in the bus.
2015 ... Yeo-jin manages to contact her father through her cellphone, and Section Chief Ahn immediately sends his men to rescue her. But Soo-hyun refuses to believe that Oh Kyung-tae could be so sloppy, and Hae-young tells her (what Jae-han said) about Oh Kyung-tae having been framed.
Hae-young suddenly has an insight that Oh Kyung-tae could be at the site of the collapsed bridge. While he arrests Oh Kyung-tae, Soo-hyun and Yeo-jin’s father approach a truck parked near the memorial site for the victims of the collapsed bridge. But unknown to them, Oh Kyung-tae has rigged the truck for an explosion.
Episode 7
| Ep. 6 recap: Soo-hyun dies in the explosion. Detective Kim finds the missing files on the 1995 burglary cases; Hae-young learns that all the victims were schoolmates, and that it was the testimony of Han Se-kyu (the Chief Prosecutor’s son) that got Oh Kyung-tae convicted. In 1995, Jae-han also concluded that Han Se-kyu was the burglar. During their next transmission, Hae-young asks Jae-han to find the items that were taken during the burglaries, thinking that these items can help convict Han Se-kyu. |
1995 ... Jae-han finds out about the corrupt dealings between politicians and the “chaebols” over the Jinyang construction project; he also finds that among the missing items in the burglaries is a blue diamond necklace, which once belonged to Senator Jang Young-chul.
2015 ... During their next transmission, Jae-han asks Hae-young for information about the blue diamond necklace. But Hae-young says that their transmissions have almost led to the death of a police officer; he tears Jae-han’s profile and throws away the walkie-talkie.
Soo-hyun confronts Hae-young on why he’s digging up information about Jae-han. But they’re interrupted by a man who claims to have met Soo-hyun and Jae-han some 20 years ago. He asks Soo-hyun for help about his girlfriend Shin Da-hae, who committed suicide 20 years ago. To his shock, while he was in a cafe that he and Shin Da-hae used to visit, he sees someone who looks like Shin Da-hae.
1995 ... Jae-han picks up a lead on the blue diamond necklace, and he asks Soo-hyun to begin calling up the possible numbers of the woman who had the necklace appraised.
2015 ... As Soo-hyun’s team begins investigating Shin Da-hae’s case, Hae-young becomes convinced that she did not commit suicide but was murdered.
Episode 8
| Ep. 7 recap: After being released from jail, Oh Kyung-tae kills Yeo-jin’s father. Shin Da-hae steals the blue diamond necklace from Han Se-kyu; in the necklace’s case, there is a floppy disk. Based on the fingerprints on the book left at the cafe, Soo-hyun finds out that Shin Da-hae is still alive. |
Hae-young tells Soo-hyun that Han Se-kyu is responsible for everything -- the burglaries, the blue diamond necklace, and Shin Da-hae’s "suicide."
Soo-hyun’s investigation leads her to Shin Da-hae’s close friend Kim Ji-hee, who apparently came home to Korea a few weeks ago after 20 years of absence.
2015 ... Hae-young confronts Han Se-kyu in a nightclub about his crimes. But Han Se-kyu, now a lawyer, simply laughs off the accusation, saying that Hae-young does not have any evidence against him.
Soo-hyun finds the evidence of what really happened on the night when Shin Da-hae supposedly committed suicide. But during a private meeting, Section Chief Ahn warns Director Kim and Han Se-kyu about the evidence.
Episode 9
| Ep. 8 recap: Han Se-kyu killed Kim Ji-hee, thinking that she was Shin Da-hae, and made it appear that Shin Da-hae committed suicide. Shin Da-hae took Kim Ji-hee’s identity and has lived in Germany for the last 20 years. Hae-young tricks Han Se-kyu by not revealing everything that was on Shin Da-hae’s recording of what happened that night. Soo-hyun also brings Shin Da-hae into the interrogation room to confront Han Se-kyu. 1995 ... Director Kim (then the chief of the Violent Crimes Unit) gets hold of the floppy disk. He uses it to file a case against those responsible for the bridge’s collapse, but Jae-han confronts him and says that the floppy disk contained a lot more information. Soo-hyun’s cold case squad celebrates having taken down Han Se-kyu. Later, Hae-young hears the static from the walkie-talkie; it’s Jae-han transmitting his final instructions to Hae-young back in August 3, 2000. Jae-han hides the walkie-talkie upon sensing someone come up to him. It’s Section Chief Kim, who shoots him pointblank. Hae-young follows the static and finds the walkie-talkie in Section Chief Ahn’s drawer. |
Soo-hyun finds out that Hae-young’s elder brother Sun-woo was involved in the 1999 Inju gang rape case and that he killed himself after being released. Meanwhile, Hae-young finds a folded note in Jae-han’s old case notebook.
1997 ... a woman is lured into a dark street by a man looking for an injured puppy, brought home by her assailant, and then strangled to death, with a black plastic bag over her head.
During their next transmission, Hae-young asks Jae-han about the Hongwon-dong case (listed in Jae-han’s folded note), but Jae-han says that he hasn’t heard of it.
Jae-han finds that there’s a similar case of a woman who died with a plastic bag over head, but it’s being handled by a different precinct. He warns Director Kim (then head of the Violent Crimes Unit) that they could be dealing with another serial killer. But Director Kim brushes him off.
2015 ... A body of a woman wrapped in plastic and with a black plastic bag over her head is brought to the National Forensics Service. The crime scene photos trigger something in Soo-hyun’s memory, and she tells her squad that they might have a serial killer on the loose. Later on, Hae-young gets Section Chief Ahn’s permission to search the nearby mountain for possible victims.
1997 ... Soo-hyun retraces the steps of the two victims, hoping to find a clue or a pattern. Jae-han tells her to stop and go back to the precinct. But she continues walking on the streets alone, and later on, she hears a puppy barking in the dark.
Episode 10
| Ep. 9 recap: Soo-hyun is captured by the serial killer (the man working at the convenience store). She’s bound and wrapped in plastic, with a black plastic bag over her head. When the man leaves for a while, she stumbles to her feet, breaks down the door, and runs blindly out on to the street, where Jae-han finds her. |
2015 ... To avert the public outcry over the nine bodies that were found on the mountain, Director Kim assigns Soo-hyun’s cold case squad to find the serial killer. Based on Hae-young’s profile of the serial killer, Section Chief Ahn assigns teams to various locations. Soo-hyun, meanwhile, agrees to go through hypnosis to try and remember anything about the serial killer or the place where she was held.
During their next transmission, Jae-han finds out the the serial killer from 1997 is still active in 2015; he also finds out that Soo-hyun is now a squad leader of detectives. He compliments Soo-hyun for her great determination, but Hae-young tells him that he himself should tell it to Soo-hyun.
2014 ... a woman named Yoon Seung-yeon tries to befriend the convenience store clerk whom she doesn’t know is the serial killer.
1997 ... Soo-hyun becomes traumatized by her experience and thinks of quitting the police force.
2015 ... Hae-young finds Yoon Seung-yeon’s journal and deduces from it that the serial killer is working in a convenience store. Soo-hyun, meanwhile, retraces the steps that she took back in 1997 and suddenly realizes that, in her panic and confusion, she told Jae-han and the other detectives the wrong direction from where she escaped.
Episode 11
| Ep. 10 recap: The serial killer was abused horribly by his mother and becomes confused by Yoon Seung-yeon’s acts of affection for him. Soo-hyun remembers the house where she was taken in 1997; without any backup, she enters the darkened house. |
1997 ... Jae-han arrests Kim Jin-woo, thus solving the Hongwongdo serial killing case. Later on, he does some small things in the precinct that makes Soo-hyun’s heart flutter.
1999 ... A scandal breaks out in Inju High School when someone posts on the school forum about a female student who was gang raped. After meeting Senator Jang Young-chul, Director Kim organizes a special task force to go after the suspects.
2015 ... After his confrontation with Director Kim, Section Chief Ahn resigns. He calls up Hae-young and warns him not to investigate the 1999 Inju gang rape case.
1999 .... Jae-han and Section Chief Ahn visit the victim Kang Hye-seung in the hospital. But they’re turned away by Kang Hye-seung’s father after he gives them the names of the 18 students involved; he also turns away Sun-woo (Hae-young’s brother) who’s hanging around in the corridor.
Jae-han finds out that seven of the suspects have parents connected to the Inju Cement Company.
Episode 12
| Ep. 11 recap: Kim Jin-woo killed Yoon Seung-yeon and his own mother. On the mountain, he tries to hang himself, but Sun-woo stops him. After being arrested by Jae-han, Kim Jin-woo is sentenced to be confined in a psychiatric hospital. Hae-young goes the hospital where he finds that Section Chief Ahn has been shot. |
Based on Section Chief Ahn’s cellphone records, the police officers question a gangster named Kim Sung-bum. The gangster reveals that Hae-young contacted him about the cases handled by Section Chief Ahn.
After his interrogation, Hae-young reveals to Soo-hyun that Jae-han was framed for extortion and that Section Chief Ahn killed Jae-han.
1999 ... Jae-han and Section Chief Ahn bring in for questioning a student named Lee Dong Jin, but Jae-han’s interrogation is interrupted by the student’s father. Director Kim then orders the Inju detective to look for a scapegoat on whom they can pin the rape case. Sun-woo is later on arrested.
2015 ... Hae-young recounts to Soo-hyun how he found out that his brother Sun-woo was framed.
1999 ... When Sun-woo maintains his innocence, Jae-han goes back to the crime scene to investigate. After talking with a witness, he confronts the Inju detective on why he framed Sun-woo. But to his surprise, Hye-seung declares that it was Sun-woo who led the students who raped her.
Episode 13
| Ep. 12 recap: Director Kim admits to Jae-han that he framed Sun-woo. Soo-hyun and Dae-young finally find Jae-han’s skeletal remains. |
2015 ... A funeral is held for Jae-han, with only his father, Soo-hyun, and Hae-young in attendance. Afterwards, Hae-young goes back to the pig skin restaurant that he frequented when he was young; he also remembers how he decided to enter the police academy.
Soo-hyun decides to investigate the 1999 Inju gang rape case, hoping that it will lead to whoever framed Jae-han and killed Section Chief Ahn. She and Hae-young begin looking for Hye-seung.
Episode 14
| Ep 13 recap: Hye-seung tells Soo-hyun and Hae-young that she betrayed Sun-woo, who was the only friend she had in school. She also reveals how Director Kim pressured her to implicate Sun-woo in the rape case. |
2000 ... Jae-han threatens Director Kim that he will bring him and Jang Tae-jin down. But Director Kim threatens him back.
2015 ... At 11:23 PM, the walkie-talkie lights up, but to Hae-young’s surprise, it’s Soo-hyun who answers. Later, as he rushes out of his house to confront a witness, Soo-hyun finds the walkie-talkie and recognises it as Jae-han’s walkie-talkie.
2000 ... After he’s released from prison Sun-woo goes to see Dong-min and asks him about Hye-seung’s red scarf. Later, he contacts Jae-han to turn over the scarf, but Jae-han, Soo-hyun, and the other detectives have been sent out to capture a burglar.
2015 ... Detective Kim tells Soo-hyun about a crucial piece of evidence — a red scarf — that the investigators back then missed checking. Meanwhile, Hae-young is in Inju Hospital, trying to trace Section Chief Ahn’s movements on the night he was shot; he also inquires into Sun-woo’s medical records. While he’s at the hospital, Sun-woo arrives and confronts him about Jae-han’s walkie-talkie.
Episode 15
| Ep. 14 recap: Hae-young finds that Sun-woo did not take his own life but was drugged and killed. Senator Jang threatens Director Kim. Soo-hyun is stunned to hear Jae-han’s voice on the walkie-talkie but can’t believe Hae-young’s claim that Jae-han is alive. |
2000 ... Despite his injury, Jae-han rushes out of the hospital. But Director Kim has already reached Sun-woo at his house.
Jae-han later confronts Director Kim, but he’s dragged out of the office. Later, that night, he calls Hae-young on the walkie-talkie, but to his shock, it’s Soo-hyun who answers. Before the connection gets disrupted, Soo-hyun warns him not to go to the psychiatric hospital on August 3, 2000.
Soo-hyun and Hae-young realize that to clear his name and find out who killed Section Chief Ahn and Jae-han, they have to look for the gangster Kim Sung-bum.
When Kim Sung-bum learns that Director Kim wants him dead, he calls up Hae-young from Bucheon and sets up an urgent meeting.
On the way to the courthouse, Hae-young escapes from his police escorts and rushes to Bucheon.
2000 ... Jae-han receives the forensics report from the USA; he then contacts a prosecutor and asks him to file a murder case against Director Kim. But a short while later, Jae-han and the officers in his precinct are thrown into the investigation of Kim Yoon-jung’s kidnapping. Director Kim finds the forensics report in Jae-han’s desk.
Episode 16, Finale (with spoilers)
| Ep. 15 recap: Director Kim kills Sun-woo. With Soo-hyun’s help, Hae-young escapes from his police escorts. Kim Sung-bum confesses that Jae-han was killed because he wouldn’t stop investigating Sun-woo’s case. As Kim Sung-bum escapes from Soo-hyun and Hae-young, Director Kim’s men catch up with him. When one of the men aims a gun and fires at Soo-hyun, Hae-young protects her and gets shot. |
2015 ... Jae-han tells Hae-young that he found the kidnapper’s body at the psychiatric hospital and that it could be his last transmission.
As Jae-han sits stunned from the blow to his head, he tells Section Chief Ahn about what the red scarf can prove. Director Kim and Kim Sung-bum soon arrive, and Director Kim mocks Jae-han by waving the forensics report.
When Section Chief Ahn hesitates in killing him, Jae-han escapes into the woods.2015 ... As he’s rushed to the hospital and looks at Soo-hyun before losing consciousness, Hae-young realizes that something in the past has changed.
2000 ... Police officers arrive and shoot Section Chief Ahn, but Director Kim escapes.
2015 ... Hae-young wakes up to a different reality, remembering how Jae-han told him and his parents that Sun-woo did not take his own life. But to his surprise as he visits Jae-han’s father, he learns that Jae-han has been missing for the last 15 years.
He goes to the office of the cold case squad, but Detective Kim and the forensic expert don’t recognize him.
2000 ... Jae-han finally catches up with Director Kim, but they’re attacked by Senator Jang’s men. Jae-han escapes with Director Kim’s duffel bag, but Director Kim dies. Later, the men catch up with him; as they pound on his car, he hastily writes a note that he hopes would be read in the future by Hae-young.2016 ... Hae-young finds Jae-han’s note and the floppy disk that exposes Senator Jang and the Jinyang corruption case. Later, after reporters besiege him with questions, Senator Jang fights back.
Hae-young traces the postmark of the envelope that contained the floppy disk to a coastal town; there, he meets Soo-hyun who
recognizes him, unlike the cold case squad officers. She tells Hae-young that she has been looking for Jae-han for the last 15 years.Soo-hyun and Hae-young think that Jae-han may have been hiding all these years because he’s the suspect in Director Kim’s death. They realize that he could be hiding in a small nursing facility.
Despite their doubts, Soo-hyun and Hae-young travel to the nursing facility. But Senator Jang’s men have already reached the facility.
Inside one of the rooms in the facility is ... Jae-han.
Historical backgrounders and other information
1. The cases depicted in “Signal” are based on actual crimes that happened in South Korea. The video below, with English subs, discusses these actual crimes.
2. Episode 1 and part of Episode 2 involve the kidnapping and murder of lead character Hae-young’s classmate in grade school. These episodes are based on the 1997 “Park Chorong Bitnari Kidnapping-Murder Case” where an eight year old girl was kidnapped and later on murdered by her kidnapper — a pregnant woman.
The woman demanded from Bitnari’s parents a ransom of 20 million won (approximately 18,000 US dollars). But she was reported to the police by her own father; the police found Bitnari’s body in a bag outside an office. Convicted of kidnapping and murder, the woman was sentenced to life imprisonment.
3. In Episode 1, Lee Jae-han found the body of the kidnapping suspect hanging inside a waste disposal bin. This incident is based on the 2010 “Ochang Manhole Case” in Cheongju, the capital and largest city of North Chungcheong Province.
The victim, a building contractor, was found hanging inside a manhole, with his wrists bound together by cable wire. The police reportedly ruled the case a suicide that was made to look like a murder so that the victim’s family could collect the insurance.
4. Episodes 2 to 5 deal with the Gyeonggi Nambu serial murders. These episodes are based on the infamous “Hwaseong serial murders,” where 10 women were raped and murdered between 1986 and 1991.
(These murders became the subject of the 2003 film “Memories of Murder” directed by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, who became the first Korean to win the Palme d’Or and Oscar Award for his 2019 film "Parasite.")
“Man Confesses to Brutal Killings That Terrorized South Korea, Police Say” (New York Times):
For decades, the Hwaseong serial murders have spawned such fear among South Koreans that they became the best-known cold cases in the country. The victims, ranging in age from 14 to 71, were strangled to death after their mouths were stuffed with their stockings, bras or socks. Some of the bodies were mutilated with umbrellas, forks or razor blades.
5. In Eps. 5-7, a burglar victimizes several wealthy families. This case is based on a 1982 case involving a burglar named Jo Se-hyung, who was known as the Korean Robin Hood and Hong Gil-dong. Please read “Legendary thief caught stealing again” (Korea Herald) and “Karma Overtakes Wife of Big Thief” (Korea Times).
6. Episode 5 shows the collapse of the bridge, where one of the victims is the daughter of the alleged burglar. This episode is based on the 1994 Seongsu Bridge collapse that resulted in the 32 deaths and injuries to 17 people. The video below, which discusses the bridge collapse, is in Korean. But if you click the "cc" button and adjust the settings, you can get passable, auto-generated English subs.
7. Episodes 9 to 11 deal with the Hongwon-dong serial murders. Despite warnings, Soo-hyun tries to catch the serial murderer by herself, but she almost dies after being captured by the serial murderer.
This case is based on the 2005 “Sinjeong-dong Bizarre Rabbit murder case” (aka “Plastic Bag Murders”) where the victims were found with black plastic bags over their heads and with their hands tied with unique knots. A survivor told police that the place where she was taken had a sticker of the cartoon character Mashimaro (in Korean, “bizarre rabbit”).
8. Episodes 11 to 16 deal with the Inju gang rape case. These episodes are based on the 2004 “Miryang middle school girls rape incident.
From Wikipedia: The Miryang gang rape, known in South Korea as the Miryang middle school girls rape incident, was a criminal incident that occurred in Miryang, South Korea in 2004. At least 41 male high school students gang raped several middle school and high school girls over the course of 11 months. The case provoked controversy due to police mistreatment of the victims and lenient handling of the offenders.
Award-winning indie film based on Miryang gang rape case: “Han Gong-ju” is a 2013, award-winning South Korean film written and directed by Lee Su-jin, starring Chun Woo-hee in the title role. As it traveled the international film festival circuit, “Han Gong-ju” won several top prizes, including the Golden Star at the 2013 Marrakech International Film Festival, the Tiger Award at the 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the Jury Prize, the Critics' Prize, and the Audience Award at the 2014 Deauville Asian Film Festival. (Wikipedia)
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