Dead-End Job Episode 2 Recap

Payday at Spider Staffing Agency

At Spider Staffing Agency, Mr. S, the agency's head, hands Byeon Hyeok-jun his pay for the convenience-store night. Work feels like dying, he says, but you forget it once you are paid. Hyeok-jun says he almost died and asks what he saw. Mr. S answers that the agency only connects people, does not know what happens on site and keeps its methods a trade secret.

People live on the side of yang, he explains, and the other side is yin. The two cannot see each other, but a boundary runs between them. When it weakens, energy from the other world gets in and strange things happen. Labor is the strong yang energy placed there to hold it back, because nothing is stronger than the fight to earn a living.

Asked what he wants next, Hyeok-jun asks for daytime work in an open space, with no all-nighter. Mr. S has one: event manager for KD Pharmaceutical, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., at 100 times the rate, and finishing a job at least doubles the wage. All he has to do is drive an event specialist to the venue without trouble. Reminded that he needs the money, Hyeok-jun accepts.

In the building, a woman stops him and guesses he has been at a fortune-teller. She is investigating the staffing agency in the building, she says. She remarks on his tired face and asks whether he had a brutal night shift. She introduces herself as Eum Yeon-joo and asks for five minutes over tea about the agency. In voiceover, the agency's rule returns: disclosing job details brings a penalty fee. Hyeok-jun cuts her off with an apology.

A father on tape, a missing deposit

Hyeok-jun comes home to his mom with two-plus beef, the top Korean grade. She asks if he found a job; just part-time, he says, and apologizes for not finding a real one. She tells him not to rush and to find what he is good at. Their father, she says, dabbled in everything, maybe could not handle it, and suddenly disappeared.

In a clip titled A Father's Miracle, the father asks his young son what he thinks of watching his dad practice. The boy wants to be just like him. The father tells him to live the exact opposite way: earn lots of money and look after his family. Hyeok-jun's sister, Byeon Ji-yoon, is at home too. One sibling teases the other for rewatching it; the reply is that nobody cares about a dad who abandoned the family.

Ji-yoon wants money for clothes for tomorrow's job interview; Hyeok-jun says new clothes bring bad luck. She brings up the money their mom lent him for a jeonse lease, the large deposit Koreans pay instead of monthly rent. She threatens to tell their mom he put it into stocks and guesses he lost half, then 70 percent, then all of it. He says only that he is making it back. He tells her to stay the night, promises money later and leaves for what he calls a thing.

Mr. Jo and the event specialist

At KD Pharmaceutical, manager Jo Jun-seop, who calls himself Mr. Jo, scolds Hyeok-jun for keeping the client waiting and cuts off his introduction. KD is listed on the KOSPI, Korea's main stock index, Jo says. Today they are attending a university hospital department's offsite, doctors who were the top students in the country. In his ranking they are at the top, he is in the middle, and Hyeok-jun is at the bottom. He sends him for coffee.

The event specialist turns out to be a mime billed as Jolly Pierrot. Jo asks whether the mime can speak Korean, demands an apology and says their boss must be out of his mind. Short on time, he takes them anyway, threatening to rip them to shreds if anything goes wrong. Mr. S's instruction returns in voiceover: stay beside the event specialist until the shift is over.

Trouble on the road

On the road, Professor Yoon of Shinil University Hospital calls, and Jo grovels, promising a host for the crowd. Off the phone, he curses the doctors and accuses a passenger of laughing at him. When he goes to call their boss, his phone is gone. He shouts at the Pierrot to give it back and orders Hyeok-jun to stop, but the car starts moving on its own.

At a rest stop, the phone turns up, and nobody can explain how. Jo sends Hyeok-jun for water and refuses to let the Pierrot go too, but the mime ends up at the shop anyway. As a song about a smiling pierrot hiding tears plays, Hyeok-jun buys two rolls of gimbap, rice and fillings rolled in seaweed, for 5,000 won. The Pierrot starts on the wrapper.

Then the head of Pang Pang Events calls Jo. His crew has waited in KD's parking lot for an hour and never left. Jo turns on Hyeok-jun, who says they came from a staffing agency. Jo accuses them of baiting people for streaming content, threatens to sue and demands the car keys. He grabs for them, something begins to stretch, and soon he is shouting to be let out because he cannot breathe.

Hyeok-jun yells at something to stay away and asks what is wrong with his arm. Then he begs. "I'm at the bottom," he says, echoing Jo's ranking. He has to work and pay his mom back, and he asks to be spared this one time. "You want me to choose?" he asks, and he draws a joker card.

Ten o'clock at the offsite

As the navigation starts route guidance, Hyeok-jun answers a furious call for Jo Jun-seop, apparently from Professor Yoon. He apologizes and says they had an accident. The caller says Jo should have crawled there if he had to. Inferior trash like him, the caller adds, should be barred by law from having children.

At the offsite, the professor orders Hyeok-jun down to his eye level. Hyeok-jun says Mr. Jo felt unwell and went home, and the professor tells him Jo is finished in the industry. Pushed to start, Hyeok-jun stumbles through a welcome and introduces Jolly Pierrot. At ten o'clock, a message marks the job complete and pays 6,018,000 won.

Moments later, someone asks why the Pierrot spoils the happy mood with creepy makeup. Voices ask who he is and what he is doing. Hyeok-jun, it seems, insists it is all fake as the pierrot song returns. A voice begs for help. He says there is no way this is real, and he apologizes.

Up next: Dead-End Job Episode 3 Recap. See every episode in the Dead-End Job episode guide.