Teach You a Lesson Episode 9 Recap

Cho Gyu-cheol walks back into school

Angry parents chant that they want no murderers in their schools as reporters crowd around Cho Gyu-cheol, the student convicted of killing a teacher. Citing his remorse, his youth and his first offense, a parole committee releases him. At the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB), a member of the team finds his quick readmission to school suspicious. Minister of Education Choi Gang-seok answers that Gyu-cheol has paid for his crime, and the bureau cannot bar a student from school. Stopping him, he says, "would be revenge." Inspector Na Hwa-jin, meanwhile, is away on personal business.

Hwa-jin visits Gyu-cheol, who is wearing his new school uniform. He says he is there on bureau business and that Gyu-cheol is a test case for life after prison. Gyu-cheol promises to do his best. Hwa-jin says there is no need: he should simply eat, sleep and study like any other student.

At Jinwon High School, a teacher introduces Gyu-cheol to his new class as a readmitted student, a little older than the rest. A group of boys, Jong-su and Jang Seong-gu among them, act out an attack on a teacher. They ask whether he really killed a woman teacher and warn him to keep his head down, or the bureau will come for him. Gyu-cheol thanks them politely.

At the Ministry of Education, Gyu-cheol walks into the bureau to report a case of bullying. Inspector Im Han-rim is furious that he dares to show his face, but Gang-seok says the bureau is open to every student. When Gyu-cheol says Ms. Choi taught him to protect struggling classmates, Han-rim explodes at her name and is sent out for some air. Gyu-cheol apologizes and points out the student he believes is being bullied.

The human Wi-Fi of Jinwon High

Han-rim does not trust Gyu-cheol, but Deputy Director Bong Geun-dae finds his report convincing. Gang-seok says Gyu-cheol must be treated as an ordinary student and puts Geun-dae in charge. Hwa-jin then insists on taking the case himself, and Gang-seok does not stand in his way.

At Jinwon High, Seong-gu's homeroom teacher tells Hwa-jin there is no sign of bullying, since Seong-gu has plenty of friends. Hwa-jin finds Seong-gu and checks him over: at least nobody is beating him. But Seong-gu keeps his hot spot on so the others can play online. He stays in the middle of the group for the signal and carries the only power bank. When the group's leader, Lee Chi-ho, arrives and assumes the bureau has come for Gyu-cheol, Hwa-jin says he is there for Chi-ho, the bully. Seong-gu insists nobody has been bullied.

At a café where the boys are gaming, an old acquaintance recognizes Geun-dae and loudly mentions that he works for the ERPB. Han-rim is quickly fitted with glasses, an earpiece and eye shadow, and told to play a dork who never makes eye contact. As the suspicious boys storm out, she crosses their path. One of them swears at her, but she keeps her temper.

Geun-dae clones Chi-ho's voice and calls Seong-gu to ask for the password. The clone sounds too polite, and only a ruder demand gets it. Inside, Geun-dae finds Seong-gu's accounts shared by the whole group: food orders to many addresses, more than 20 paid game subscriptions and e-scooter rentals, all running at once. On a site where fraud victims compare notes, Seong-gu's name is tied to undelivered goods and fake resale listings.

Seong-gu takes the blame

A stranger corners Seong-gu, accuses him of cheating him out of a pair of AirPods and threatens to kill him. Seong-gu insists someone stole his account. He begs Chi-ho for help with the money. Chi-ho refuses, then says he will deal with it later and tells Seong-gu to be grateful.

At Chi-ho's home, Seong-gu's mother tells Chi-ho's mother, Mrs. Lee, that Chi-ho has been running up huge bills on her son's account. Chi-ho counters with an obscene video sent to his little sister from Seong-gu's account. Seong-gu swears Chi-ho sent it, but Mrs. Lee threatens to call the police, and Seong-gu's mother begs her forgiveness. Chi-ho quietly warns Seong-gu that if he snitches again, the video goes to every girl in their class.

Later, Seong-gu's mother calls about his debts, which she has paid once before, and refuses to believe Chi-ho is to blame. Seong-gu then turns to the bureau with Gyu-cheol to tell everything. Gyu-cheol tells him the bureau can be trusted. If it had existed two years ago, he says, he would not have killed anyone. He adds that Inspector Na is like Choi Ga-yun.

Before the bureau can act, Chi-ho reports Seong-gu for bullying, and Jinwon High calls its school violence committee. Chi-ho's lawyer objects to the bureau, so Hwa-jin may only observe. The lawyer accuses Seong-gu of branding Chi-ho a bully with lies and submits psychiatric records. Seong-gu says the boys stole his accounts, but he has no proof. The lawyer says Chi-ho borrowed the account a couple of times and paid it back, and a bank record shows a 1,000,000-won deposit labeled a loan repayment. Mrs. Lee will settle for a sincere apology, and Seong-gu's mother apologizes to Chi-ho on her son's behalf.

The team learns that some lawyers coach students to file first, so they count as the victim, and to hit back, so bullying looks like a fight. With one day per case, a committee rarely finds the truth and blames both sides or neither.

Hwa-jin tracks Seong-gu down by his phone's hot spot. He tells the boy that if he keeps silent, no one will ever know he was wronged. Seong-gu breaks down: he told the police, his parents and his teachers, and no one believed him. He knew the boys used him, but they were the only friends he had, and Chi-ho had promised to come clean. Hwa-jin tells him he believes him and that he can trust the bureau.

Han-rim becomes the new hot spot

At Jinwon High, the boys complain that they have lost their access point and need a new human Wi-Fi. Han-rim arrives as a transfer student, armed with key chains. One boy recognizes her as the dork from the café who soaked his shirt. When one of them trips her, she nearly loses her temper until a voice in her earpiece reminds her she is on a mission. She wins them over with her Netflix and gaming accounts, a router, a fast charger and cables for every phone. Then she offers to charge their phones if they unlock them.

In class, the boys' phones turn on them. One boy's game account is logged in from Colombia, and someone tries to charge purchases to it. In Chi-ho's game account, a stream of insults from Han-rim gets him banned for 300 years. His scooter rental then runs up surcharges, and strangers arrive to collect his motorbike, listed for free from his account.

Chi-ho realizes she is the one who asked him to unlock his phone, and she admits it. When he turns on her, she screams for help as if he were attacking her. Then she asks whether he is ready for a committee meeting.

The second hearing

The committee meets again, with Chi-ho's side calling him the victim of a new student who hacked his phone. Hwa-jin arrives late with Han-rim and stands in for her lawyer. His power of attorney is signed by Minister Choi, who is also a lawyer. A document from the Minister now puts every school violence committee under the bureau's remit. Hwa-jin presents her as a traumatized outcast while Han-rim sits drooling. Chi-ho jumps up, calls it an act and grabs her, and the room shouts at him to let go. Han-rim turns the tables, asks whether he understands the pain he has caused, and threatens to break his wrist until she is told that is enough.

Hwa-jin reveals that Han-rim is an undercover inspector investigating the bullying of Seong-gu. Chi-ho protests that he never laid a hand on Seong-gu, and Hwa-jin agrees there are no bruises. But nobody believed the terrified boy, he says, not even his parents, until he wished for marks to show and had to beg his own bully for mercy. Seong-gu's mother apologizes to her son for doubting him. The bureau rules that Chi-ho lied and preyed on Seong-gu, orders protective measures and requires the committee to send Seong-gu's mother a written apology. "A victim is a victim. A bully is a bully," Hwa-jin tells the room.

Afterward, Seong-gu thanks the team, who promise him a new ID and his accounts back. Gyu-cheol, introduced as his friend, apologizes to Hwa-jin for getting involved against his advice. He says he is glad it ended well.

That evening, Hwa-jin and Gang-seok drink together, with one glass set aside for Ga-yun. A memory follows of a dinner where her father refuses to drink with Hwa-jin. Ga-yun declares that without Hwa-jin she will never marry, and her father will have no grandchildren. Gang-seok gives in, and Ga-yun counts to three and films the two men in an arm-in-arm toast.

Chi-ho confronts Gyu-cheol

Chi-ho confronts Gyu-cheol, who told him he would win if he hired a lawyer. A flashback shows Gyu-cheol warning that the bureau would try to have him expelled, urging him to file first and play the victim, and handing him a lawyer's card. When Chi-ho asks what they do now, Gyu-cheol answers, "Everything has gone exactly as planned." Chi-ho says the bureau has ruined his life and his family, and that dying is the only way out. Gyu-cheol reveals that he reported Chi-ho to the bureau himself, and asks if Chi-ho wants to know what happens next.

At the Mirae Daehan Party office, an aide tells Hwang Gi-tae the bureau is in serious trouble. Gyu-cheol arrives before school and plays Gi-tae a short recording of Chi-ho blaming the bureau. A headline reports that a student has fallen from the Jinwon High rooftop and that suicide is suspected. Gi-tae asks whether this is why he got Gyu-cheol out of prison. Gyu-cheol says he planned it all, from sending Officer Kang to see Gi-tae to the strings Gi-tae pulled with the parole board. If Gi-tae wants to be president, he adds, he should mind his manners; they both want the bureau gone.

At the hospital, reporters ask Gang-seok about Lee Chi-ho's condition. Gi-tae arrives, and when Gang-seok tells him the boy's health comes first, the recording plays and Gi-tae asks whether the bureau bears no responsibility. A news report says the five-second clip is spreading online, and politicians demand an emergency review of possible coercion in the bureau's investigation.

Up next: Teach You a Lesson Episode 10 Recap (Finale). See every episode in the Teach You a Lesson episode guide.