We are all victims, but what matters is how we deal with the loss. With Hong Jong-chan in the director’s chair, Kdrama legal thriller “Juvenile Justice” treats its delicate subject matter with commendable neutrality. The series begins with the arrival of Sim Eun-seok as an associate judge at the Yeonhwa Juvenile Justice Department. Together with Cha Tae-ju, she seeks to decode horrific and macabre cases of crimes against children. With the captivating premise and the entire cast, the series presents itself as a refreshing crime thriller set in the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the court. If you’re looking to reminisce about the final moments of the story, let’s put the final minutes under a magnifying glass. FRONT SPOILERS.
Juvenile Justice Season 1 Finale Recap
The drama escalates with the arrival of Na Geung-hee as head judge following the departure of Kang Won-joong. Na Geung-hee’s nonchalance towards juvenile affairs is shocking to the ever persuasive Sim Eun-seok. Additionally, Sim Eun-seok remembers Na Geung-hee from the affair five years ago, which drastically changed her life. To give you some context, Kang Won-joong is resigning from his post to run for office as the Liberty Party candidate.
However, after the paper leak incident from Moonkwang High School, her life takes a turn for the worse. His son, Shin-u, is part of the Descartes group, responsible for the leak. When Shin-u thinks about confessing to the police, Kang Won-joong talks him out of it. Kang wants to sweep the incident under the rug, but thanks to Sim Eun-seok’s exposure, Kang loses everything. After the car accident case, Do-seuk, a former delinquent close to Cha Tae-ju, goes into a coma. Due to the lack of evidence, they cannot impose harsh sentences on the children.
Ultimately, we come to the Yeonhwa Gang Rape case, which is connected to Sim Eun-seok’s life-changing past case. On the way home, Sim Eun-seok meets her former husband, Namgung I-hwan. Looking at the file in the morning, Sim Eun-seok collapses in his office and Cha Tae-ju takes him to the hospital. He looks at his contact details and, finding them empty, he signs up to be Sim Eun-seok’s tutor. Cha Tae-ju brings Eun-seok home and leaves a pack of water bottles outside her apartment door.
The next morning, Na Geung-hee informs them of the cases – one is a juvenile criminal case and another is a protection case. Construction workers at a construction site found 17-year-old Kang Seon-A bruised and insane. In her statement, Kang Seon-A reveals that three boys got her drunk and raped her. Fortunately, Kang Seon-A was hospitalized soon after the discovery. Thus, the police found two different DNA traces, following which, So Dong-gyun and Ooo Gyeong-su were arrested. They also confessed to their crimes during the arrest.
The third guy, Hwang In-jun, was at the scene, but the police have no evidence to implicate him in the crime. Thus, his file becomes a youth protection file. His only apparent crimes are procuring alcohol by illegal means and forcing the victim to drink alcohol. Later, Kang Seon-A reveals that there might be a fourth person involved. Despite her poor health, Sim Eun-seok persuades the Chief Judge to let her deal with the two cases methodically, but Na Geung-hee doesn’t like rude judges. Meanwhile, Sim Eun-seok received a police recording.
Seon-A’s father went to Hwang In-jun for a confrontation, and he laughingly replied that he couldn’t rape Seon-A since he couldn’t stand up. However, since the confessions are coerced, there is not much they can do with them. In front of the jury, Hwang In-jun appears repentant, and his lawyer makes it look like the other boys coerced him into doing so. However, Ko Gang-sik, the local police officer, retrieved the dashcam footage from a car parked nearby. The footage reveals that In-jun was at the crime scene, and with the evidence against him, In-jun heads to a juvenile classification center for three weeks.
End of juvenile justice: why is Sim Eun-seok so strict? What happened five years ago?
Sim Eun-seok’s devoted personality is the result of a tragedy that happened five years ago. Looking at Hwang In-jun’s file, we see that he has been tried for six previous cases, and one of them, an accidental homicide. The homicide victim was Sim Eun-seok’s grandson. The death led to the divorce between Sim Eun-seok and Namgung I-hwan. The incident is also the reason why Sim Eun-seok looks down on juvenile criminals.
Hwang In-Jun and Baek Do-hyeon killed the toddler by throwing a brick from the roof. They were arrested, but Judge Na Geung-hee was handling the case. She didn’t even let Sim Eun-seok, the mother of the deceased, enter the court, since it was a child protection case. The trial ended in less than five minutes and the perpetrators escaped unscathed, as they were no less than 14 years old. The child’s unfortunate death marked a deep divisiveness in Sim Eun-seok’s life, and it also led her to accept the job at the Department of Juvenile Justice. Na Geung-hee learns of the past event and takes Sim Eun-seok out of business. However, Sim Eun-seok must defy orders to hunt down a clue.
Who is the fourth guy? What punishment do perpetrators receive?
The fourth guy involved in the gang rape case, we just found out, is Baek Do-hyeon, Hwang In-jun’s accomplice in the brick murder case. From Ha-rin, another victim of the gang, Cha Tae-ju learns of Baek Do-hyeon’s role in the gang. From footage of local hotels, the officer identifies the gang of four, who were racketeering in the area.
The police are investigating similar cases. Sim Eun-seok digs deeper and contacts former victims of the gang. Some girls deny this, but Eun-seok eventually gets a lead from one of the malicious victims. The head takes Eun-seok to the second floor of the Daeho Inn. She has an unexpected encounter with Baek Do-hyeon, and the latter intends to kill the former. However, the police arrive just in time. Officer Ko Gang-sik intends to take him to the hospital, but Sim Eun-seok insists on returning to the office. At the office, Eun-seok meets Na Geung-hee who gives him first aid.
Sim Eun-seok reminds Geung-hee of the case from five years ago, where Sim Eun-seok didn’t get justice. The conversation apparently sparks enough emotion in Geung-hee to make the right decision. Moving on to the next morning’s hearing, there is plenty of incriminating evidence against Baek Do-hyeon and Hwang In-jun. Cha Tae-ju convinces So Dong-gyun and Ooo Gyeong-su to testify against Do-hyeon and In-jun. The police also find Baek Do-hyeon’s secret phone and videos of the victims. With the evidence, Na Geung-hee returns her file to the prosecution, and it is no longer a protection file. Na Geung-hee lets them know that if the prosecution finds ground, a criminal case can be brought against them. After the verdict, Sim Eun-seok finds solace, but her quest against juvenile criminals doesn’t end there. She faces the disciplinary committee with conviction and reaffirms her unwavering pursuit of child criminals.
Read more: Where was juvenile justice filmed? Is this a true story?
