Ahn Bo-hyun and Jung Eun-Chae star in Flex x Cop 2, which continued its upward trend with a peak viewership rating of 8.2%.
SBS' Flex x Cop 2 Ahn Bo-hyun and Jung Eun-Chae plunged into a tempest of passion-driven murders that ranged from stalking to infidelity.
On the night of the 21st (Fri) at 9:50 p.m., the fifth episode of the SBS Friday-Saturday drama Flex x Cop 2 (produced by Studio S, Big Ocean ENM, B.A. Entertainment) depicted Jin I-soo (played by Ahn Bo-hyun) and Joo Hye-ra (played by Jung Eun-Chae) investigating a mysterious murder that occurred in an unoccupied hotel room. At the same time, the show's ratings for episode 5 reached a peak of 8.2%, averaged 7.0% in the Seoul metropolitan area, and hit a 2.4% peak among adults 20-49, marking a continued upward trajectory. Attention is focusing on how far the rising momentum of Flex x Cop 2, which has gained box office traction, will extend. (Nielsen Korea)
The case began when the body of concierge employee Oh Min-young (played by Ha Seo-yoon) was found in a room at the Rosebud Hotel, a popular date spot, on White Day, a day for couples. The victim Oh Min-young was found about 12 hours after death, with three stab wounds on her body, but there was remarkably little blood at the scene and no murder weapon was found. The couple who first discovered the body testified that their original reservation had been canceled and, about to leave, they happened upon the vacant room 709 and entered, where they found the body. Jin I-soo found it suspicious that a popular hotel would have a vacant room during the peak White Day season.
As the investigation progressed, suspicious love affairs at the Rosebud Hotel began to surface one by one. Park Jun-young (played by Kang Sang Jun) and Choi Kyung-jin (played by Kim Shin-bi) questioned the concierge staff, but everyone clammed up. Jin I-soo then won favor with the maids, who know the hotel inside and out, by visiting their break room and using his characteristic charm. As a result, he learned the key detail that Oh Min-young was very popular for her striking looks and that a second-generation chaebol staying long-term in room 701 had been following her.
The identity of the guest in room 701 was Kang Chun-sik (played by Lee Seok), who is acquainted with Jin I-soo. Kang Chun-sik, who has an extremely mature appearance, greeted Jin I-soo with formal brotherly banter despite being two years older, eliciting laughter from his first appearance. Kang Chun-sik said he fell for Oh Min-young at first sight and pursued her as a self-proclaimed "pure-hearted man," and the day before the incident he confessed but was rejected because she had a boyfriend. When he heard of Oh Min-young's death, he fainted and, after regaining consciousness, wailed and claimed an aching devotion. But the concierge colleagues mumbled when questioned about Oh Min-young's boyfriend, raising new questions.
Room 709, where the body was found, was equally mysterious. The room had been unoccupied for two months, and even the seventh-floor CCTV had coincidentally not been working. Suspicious of hotel manager Yoo Jong-yeol's (played by Yoo Ji-hyeok) equivocal attitude that "the CCTV was broken," Joo Hye-ra asked her acquaintance, detective agency head Jung Min-jae (played by Lim Jin-seop), to look into why the CCTV was off. The investigation revealed that the CCTV had not been malfunctioning but had been intentionally turned off from inside the hotel.
Park Jun-young and Choi Kyung-jin obtained testimony from Oh Min-young's family that suggested she appeared to be dating someone who worked at the hotel. Expensive designer bags and numerous credit card statements were also found in her room. Following the revelation of a second-generation chaebol who stalked her, the appearance of an unidentified "hotel staff boyfriend" pushed the case further into the realm of "love and war."
At that point, Jin I-soo's "maid informants" proved their worth. Jin I-soo arrived at the maids with a bundle of expensive hotel desserts, and, for a generous fee, the maids freely shared the classified information they had seen and heard at the hotel. As a result, another shocking love affair came to light: several days earlier, the hotel president Yeom Jae-seop (played by Choi Deok-moon)'s wife (played by Lee Chae-kyung) allegedly went to find Oh Min-young and beat her. It was even an open rumor among staff that Yeom Jae-seop had also liked Oh Min-young and followed her. One maid said she saw Yeom Jae-seop try to drag Oh Min-young into room 709, and another maid said that although room 709 had been unoccupied for two months, it requested cleaning once a week, always at dawn.
Jin I-soo and Joo Hye-ra suspected an affair between Yeom Jae-seop and Oh Min-young as a motive for murder and even put the president's wife, who visited the hotel that day, on the list of suspects. After pressing the manager who obstructed the investigation at every turn, they found that it was Yeom Jae-seop who had ordered room 709 to be left vacant and the seventh-floor CCTV turned off. Yeom Jae-seop's wife admitted she suspected her husband's infidelity but strongly denied involvement in Oh Min-young's killing. Yeom Jae-seop acknowledged using room 709 for personal reasons and the rumors surrounding Oh Min-young but denied any link to the murder. Still, suspicions remained, and investigators noted that on the day of the incident Yeom Jae-seop met front-desk employee Jeon Yoo-jin (played by Park Tae-rin) in his office.
The investigation took an unexpected turn when it emerged that Oh Min-young had likely been killed elsewhere and then moved to room 709. Jin I-soo asked the head of the maid team to "find out if anyone saw anything strange while cleaning," activating the "human CCTV" once more. A decisive clue came from room 701: after long-term guest Kang Chun-sik checked out, a maid cleaning the room found suspicious bloodstains on a wall hidden behind the curtains. The twist unfolded as Kang Chun-sik, who had fainted and lamented while claiming to be a "pure-hearted man," suddenly rose as a prime suspect.
Upon hearing the news, Jin I-soo and Joo Hye-ra rushed to the hotel and saw Kang Chun-sik leaving in a car. Jin I-soo drove his supercar and immediately gave chase. The two chaebol, who had been bantering as "older brother, younger brother" moments earlier, transformed into pursuer and pursued, culminating in a supercar chase through the heart of the city that closed the episode and ratcheted up the tension.
In this way, Flex x Cop 2 used its distinctive tone to unravel a passion mystery in which stalking, infidelity and jealousy chain into the White Day hotel murder. In particular, Jin I-soo's "chaebol cop" investigative methods—leveraging money, connections and charm—shone through in the extraordinary device of the "maid informants," and the added twist of Kang Chun-sik reemerging as a leading suspect heightened the pleasure of the mystery.
After the broadcast, various online communities and social media were filled with praise such as "Flex x Cop 2 keeps getting more fun. This episode was enjoyably puzzling," "It's more fun because they twist the Flex x Cop 2 case from start to finish," "I love I-soo's charm so much—chemistry with Delta-nim is explosive," "I really like team head Joo. His vibe, similar to I-soo's, makes the double-crazy event even funnier," "This episode really doesn't let you predict the culprit," "Flex x Cop 2 is super fun. Seems better than season 1. Jung Eun-Chae is so cool," "I laughed so hard watching Flex x Cop 2 today," and "Yoo Seungho's presence is unreal—I'm so excited for his full appearance."
Meanwhile, Flex x Cop 2, which premiered on the 7th, recorded a 6.1% nationwide rating (Nielsen Korea) in episode 1 and achieved a then-highest self-rating of 6.2% in episode 5. It has since surpassed peaks of 8.2%, an average of 7.0% in the Seoul metropolitan area and a 2.4% peak among adults 20-49, raising expectations for future ratings.
[Photo] SBS' Flex x Cop 2
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