"While You Were Sleeping" drama: episode 30 recap

 Air Dates: September 27th to November 16th on SBS, airs Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10:00 pm, two episodes per night

 Rating(Nielsen) for the this episode- 9.6%

Main Cast:

Bae Suzy as Nam Hong-Joo

Lee Jong-Suk as Jung Jae-Chan

Lee Sang-Yeob as Lee Yoo-Bum

Ko Sung-Hee as Shin Hee-Min

Jung Hae-In as Han Woo-Tak

Shin Jae-Ha as Jung Seung-Won
Bae Hye-Sun as Son Woo-Joo

Hwang Young-Hee as Yoon Moon-Sun

Park Jin-Joo as Moon Hyang-Mi
Kim So-Hyun as Park So-Yoon
Lee Yoo-Joon as Oh Kyung-Han

 When two episodes air in a row the second one usually gets much higher ratings and wonder why? It's not just a small increase but on the average would say around 20% higher rating for the second show, would think by viewing just one of the two you'd be missing out on too many things. And missing out isn't advisable for this drama as many events happen, both big and small.

 Hadn't see much of Woo-Tak for a few episodes but he's back more important than ever as he's scheduled to be a key witness at this new trial. If you've skimmed through the recent recaps then you've probably guessed that it could be Yoo-Bum on trial and you'd be right if you presumed that. There was never an official charge read out loud in the court room but from what I've pieced together
Yoo-Bum is on trial for two serious charges.
 One charge the prosecutor's office is going after is that he killed Ju-Won who was a serial killer of her own in the previous episode. They claim his motive was that she knew too much about the tampering done with Myung's case. Ju-Won had been the actual serial killer who had never been caught or even suspected. Yoo-Bum had tried and convicted an older man named Myung for eleven murders and all of the details have been sprinkled throughout the last five or so recaps.
 That first charge is for murder while the second one is for tampering with the evidence in the Myung case as both really tie together. Myung was falsely convicted and had committed suicide while in prison, his son Dae-Gu has been following the proceedings intently and wants to avenge his father's death. There may also be an attempted murder charge and that would be with what happened to Hong-Joo, it was Ju-Won who had tried to kill her so this seems like a minor charge against
Yoo-Bum. Perhaps the more charges against him the better chance there is for a conviction.

 Above Jae-Chan is right as it could be a very long trial as it took up most of this episode plus there's two more shows to go. That's the head of the Hae Kwang Legal Firm where Yoo-Bum works, at the trial he's representing Yoo-Bum. Seeing as how the man's name has never been mentioned will call  him Hae as perhaps the law firm is named after this man.
 Yoo-Bum at the trials we've seen him at has always been the best lawyer, but watching Hae in action was something else. Jae-Chan and Lee who are representing the prosecutor's office have prepared an excellent case and against most attorneys it should be an easy victory. That won't be the case here and Hae has impressed everyone in the courtroom including the media who are there following the trial. Choi is up first as a witness, he was Yoo-Bum's assistant at the time when Myung was investigated and tried, Yoo-Bum had been a prosecutor at the time.
 Finally got some dates here for the crimes as we never knew when they actually took place. It's now July 2016, the killings ended in December 2014 so may have been going on for a few months. When the team was entering evidence from the crime scene an item was missed, Choi had to add in what was newly found by writing it on an inventory list. Think Yoo-Bum had been careful from the start, because of entering an item that way it made Choi look as if he was the person that tampered with the evidence, Yoo-Bum may have held that evidence back just for Choi to add in that new item.

 Yoo-Bum had been viewing the questioning with a smirk on his face but that was soon to disappear thanks to Jae-Chan. Because of Choi's testimony it looks like he could have tampered with the evidence and not Yoo-Bum, Jae-Chan sought another way to address the issue. There were three on the investigating team, Yoo-Bum, Choi and one other office worker. After the trial Yoo-Bum had received an award from the Lawyers Association because of his outstanding work in convicting Myung, also shortly after the trial was when he was hired by the Hae Kwang Law Firm.
 Jae-Chan pointed out to the judges that Yoo-Bum alone stood to benefit from tampering with the evidence, his pair of assistants received no awards nor were hired away by a prestigious law firm. So the 'who benefited from the crime?' question has been asked and answered by Jae-Chan, it's not a clear cut victory but for now looks like the prosecutor's office may have a slight edge in the trial.
 There are three key witnesses at the trial, Choi's testimony helped a bit but the prosecutors need more than a slight edge to win a trial like this. Up next is Hong-Joo and for a while looks like her testimony will put the nail in Yoo-Bum's coffin. Hong-Joo had said even though she was unconscious she knew that Yoo-Bum had carried her to the rooftop and that he had been planning with Ju-Won to kill her. Hong-Joo had put some evidence together to figure that out but also asked an important question which was how did two umbrellas end up on the rooftop?

 If Ju-Won had carried Hong-Joo up to the roof there's no way she could have brought an umbrella. Yoo-Bum claimed he had staggered to the roof after being drugged by Ju-Won, if so why would he bring an umbrella with him? Hong-Joo seemed to know most of what Yoo-Bum's plan was which may have been from her dreams. She said he never took the drug that made her unconscious until after shoving Ju-Won off the roof, also why didn't Yoo-Bum pass out when he took the drug?
 Hong-Joo added in a few minor details of the event which we knew about and ones that made this trial look like an open and shut one. Think it's time for Yoo-Bum to check when he'll be allowed to have visitors at his prison as that final nail may have been added. But his secret weapon is Hae who is allowed to question Hong-Joo and he puts may holes in her testimony. She became so flustered at his questions and wanted to slap Hae so hard but being in court she had to keep her composure. Hae had a bottle of the drug that had made Hong-Joo pass out and had supposedly put Yoo-Bum in a bad state though never unconscious.
 On the bottle it stated that there were side effects to the drug, the main one was that it made you hallucinate. Hae was a master with a fact like that and was able to make Hong-Joo's testimony worthless, in a way he was right but not about her hallucinating. Much of what Hong-Joo had said in court was what she saw in her dreams. Naturally she couldn't tell the court that but at the time of the rooftop scene she was never awake so her evidence could be classified as being all circumstantial.

 We're quickly coming to the end with Hong-Joo being the last witness for this episode. Hae has made most of her testimony worthless and it's up to the prosecution to salvage her credibility as a witness.
Jae-Chan jumps to Hong-Joo's rescue but there isn't much he can do except limit the damage. In a smart move Jae-Chan brings up what Yoo-Bum had told the detectives about the events on the rooftop. Yoo-Bum claimed that he was under the influence of the drug that had been slipped into his coffee, if Hong-Joo isn't to be believed because of her hallucinating then shouldn't it be the same for Yoo-Bum's account of the events?
 There was murmuring in the courtroom after that speech from Jae-Chan, he was 100% correct with this reasoning and now there's a few beads of perspiration forming on Yoo-Bum's brow. Hong-Joo has been dismissed as a witness, her testimony would usually have been favorable except it was thwarted by the talents of Hae in the courtroom but luckily Jae-Chan minimized the damage.
 One more major witness to hear from and that's Woo-Tak though we won't hear any of his testimony until the following episode. Have mentioned a few times that Woo-Tak is color blind and we can now see  how that will affect things. Woo-Tak was first on the scene to rescue Hong-Joo and he did notice the two umbrellas. But he'll be asked about their colors and will be unable to identify them because of his vision problem. Hong-Joo had met Woo-Tak outside the courtroom and told him what color the umbrellas were, in all honesty that was a shady maneuver and he knew it.
 We do see Woo-Tak entering the courtroom and taking the witness oath The oath says he has to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, if he goes by what Hong-Joo has coached him to say he will be lying and be no better than Yoo-Bum, errrr, perhaps not that bad. But have a feeling there will be something up Jae-Chan's sleeve and he'll be able to make Woo-Tak's testimony a helpful one.

 The episode ended there with Woo-Tak taking the witness oath. Things aren't as intense as you would have thought in the courtroom but bet that'll be changing with the last two episodes. Will have those recaps probably in two days, three at the most as I need to do some regular posts for my dedicated viewers. So far it's been one superb series, hope it ends on a high quality note and not like the 'recovery' that Hong-Joo had.