A failed assassination brings Soran face to face with her missing husband, while her daughter’s name and Hideo’s pawn ticket begin to reveal the past.
Spoiler warning: This post covers the main plot and final scene of Episode 2 of 100 Days of Deception (formerly 100 Days of Lies).
On the night Yu Soran (Yu So-ran) had waited thirteen years for, she wasn’t the only one with a gun pointed at Sato Shinichi, the No. 2 official in Japan’s colonial government in Korea.
Another assassin, disguised as a cake delivery man. He is Geum Seokjung (Geum Seok-jung), the husband whose fate Soran hasn’t known for thirteen years. If Episode 1 was about an assassination derailed by Lee Gakyeong (Lee Ga-kyeong), a pickpocket who only sees money, Episode 2 shows who Soran really is, the woman who staked her life on that assassination. And a worn pawn ticket inside the wallet Gakyeong stole begins to stir up the hidden past of Hideo, Sato’s adopted son.
100 Days of Deception Episode 2 Recap: The Pasts That Surface After the Gunfight
A Gunfight, and the Name “Seohui”
In Philip and Soran’s house, the assassin and Hideo exchange fire. Suzuki, the interpreter, steps in without knowing what’s happening and is shot down by the assassin. Under Hideo’s return fire, the assassin drops his gun, and at the end of the hallway his eyes meet Soran’s. It isn’t the surprise of two people who happened to target the same man.
When Hideo runs out of bullets, the assassin smashes through a window and escapes. Soran fires a shot too, but it’s a shot never meant to hit. Once things settle, Hideo tells Sato, who has been hiding, that it’s safe to come out. What he gets back is a gun pointed at him. Sato doesn’t trust even the adopted son who just risked his life to protect him.
Police Bureau chief Fukuda storms in and slaps Gakyeong before saying a word. Hideo shields her, saying that if anything, this woman stopped the assassination. Soran’s pistol has somehow ended up in Philip’s hand, and he claims he carries it for self-defense in such unsettled times.
When Fukuda still tries to drag Gakyeong away, she starts to reveal Soran’s assassination plot. At that moment Soran clutches her pregnant belly and collapses. She calls Gakyeong “Seohui” and begs for help. Philip pressures Sato, threatening to report the attempt on the Administrative Superintendent’s life. With Japan anxious about how the world views its actions in Manchuria, a story from an American reporter would be devastating. Just then, the real cake delivery man, stripped of his uniform, is dragged in wearing only his underwear, and Sato shuts the matter down and leaves.
What Has Korea Ever Done for Me?
With everyone gone, Soran grabs Gakyeong and lays into her. Thirteen years of longing ruined for a few coins. Gakyeong, who started out insisting she was owed at least 100 won, senses how serious things are and says she wants nothing to do with the independence movement. Better luck next time, she adds.
Soran asks if she isn’t Korean too. Gakyeong answers that by the time she was born, this was already Japan’s land. What has Korea ever done for her? To Gakyeong, her homeland isn’t a country to win back. It’s just a name that left her to starve.
When Philip points a gun at her, Gakyeong does the math first. She has already told everyone she’s the household’s live-in maid, so if she informs on them, she’ll go down too. Soran tells Philip to let her go, and Philip tells her to hand over what she stole first. Gakyeong returns the American passport and admits she meant to put her own photo in it and go to America. Soran tells her flatly that America doesn’t take immigrants. If you don’t believe me, she says, go ask at the consulate.
After Gakyeong leaves, Philip asks who the other assassin was. He wasn’t one of the people from the Provisional Government, the Korean government-in-exile in Shanghai, either. Soran answers. He is Geum Seokjung, her husband, who had been hiding for thirteen years, and the man she wanted to kill if she ever found him.
A Fake Miscarriage, Real Blood
Outside, Gakyeong’s legs give way and she sinks to the ground. Hideo blocks her path. What kind of live-in maid rides first class and speaks English? And why is she leaving without cleaning up a house that’s just been torn apart? She can keep the wallet and the money, he says, but he wants back what was inside it. Gakyeong plays dumb to the end.
Just then Philip comes running, calling for Seohui. Blood is running down Soran’s legs. The three take a taxi to the hospital. In the car, Philip asks in English why Hideo stopped her, and Gakyeong lies her way out again.
At Keijo Imperial University Hospital (Keijo was the Japanese name for Gyeongseong), where Philip takes Soran, there are doctors and nurses who belong to the Gugukdan, an underground independence group. Soran asks them to record that she has miscarried. The blood running down her legs came from a cut she made on her own thigh. The doctor tells Philip, waiting outside with Gakyeong, that Soran has lost the baby. Gakyeong believes it’s her fault. As Soran changes into a hospital gown, her body is covered with scars.
Meanwhile, Sato is reprimanded by the Governor-General. With a League of Nations commission investigating Manchukuo, Korea cannot be seen as unstable. Hideo, being treated for a gunshot wound, thinks of his father pointing a gun at him. It wasn’t the first time. On the day he told Sato his mother had disappeared, Sato pointed a gun at him then too.
An Excuse to Crush the Gugukdan
Fukuda is furious at having lost Geum Seokjung, and he receives a report that Han Cheolyong (Han Cheol-yong), an armed independence fighter, has surfaced. Told that Han belongs to the Gugukdan, Sato remembers the past: the day he learned his wife was connected to the Gugukdan and pointed a gun at her. Without even confirming who the real culprit was, Sato orders that the attack be pinned on the Gugukdan. What he needs isn’t the truth. It’s a pretext for a crackdown.
Soran and Gakyeong: The Beginning of Trust
When Soran and Philip wake up in the hospital, Gakyeong is gone. Philip assumes she isn’t coming back, but she bursts in, out of breath, holding seaweed and beef. She wants to make seaweed soup for Soran, who she believes has just lost a baby.
On the way out of the hospital, Soran offers her 100 won, but Gakyeong takes only what she paid for the seaweed and beef and hands back the rest. Then she says she’s keeping the stolen bag. Cheeky, yes, but she isn’t someone who pockets money in the face of another person’s pain.
Philip says Soran’s life comes first and they should get rid of Gakyeong. Soran refuses, saying the girl seems to have a sense of loyalty. Then she asks something of Philip. We’ll hold the guns, she says. You must never pick one up. Use your pen and your words to tell the world what Japan is doing. Philip, hurt, asks whether even after playing her husband he still isn’t part of “us.” Soran lets go of his hand. She is someone who will kill Sato and disappear, she says.
A 13-Year-Old Pawn Ticket and an Unasked Question
Back in her shack, Gakyeong digs out the pawn ticket that came from Hideo’s wallet. The name “Shin Taejin” (Shin Tae-jin), and the date “Taisho 8.” In the Japanese imperial calendar, that’s 1919, thirteen years ago. Hideo’s words, keep the wallet and the money but give that back, were pointing to this single slip of paper.
Sato assigns Suzuki’s duties to Hideo until a new interpreter is chosen. Handle the foreign press well, he says, and keep a close eye on Philip Yu. Then he adds that he doesn’t trust Chosenjin, a Japanese slur for Koreans.
Hideo asks him in Korean: then you don’t trust me either? Why did you try to shoot me? Why did you point a gun at me on the day Mother left home, too? I fought so hard to be a useful son. What do I have to do to be your son? Hideo breaks down sobbing.
But the scene only plays out in Hideo’s head. The questions never leave his mouth.
Geum Seohui, the Name She Couldn’t Say for Thirteen Years
Back home, Soran cleans in silence. When Philip offers to do it, she refuses, saying she has to keep her body moving to stop thinking. Then she tells him. The name she used to call Gakyeong, Geum Seohui (Geum Seo-hui), was the name of her dead daughter.
After the independence protests of 1919, rumors spread that Japanese troops were burning villages in retaliation. She never thought it would be hers, but the soldiers came. Her husband Geum Seokjung, who had led the protest, was forced to his knees in the middle of the village and ordered to name his comrades. When he refused, the soldiers shot little Seohui dead.
Told his wife would be next, Geum finally gave up the names of three comrades. But the soldiers herded the villagers into a building, set it on fire, and shot anyone who ran out. The place where the villagers burned was the school Geum had built. Soran watched, numb, then clutched her daughter and wailed.
The life of a country woman whose whole world was her husband and daughter ended that day. Hearing that the Gugukdan was in Shanghai, Soran went there and learned to shoot. She showed a rare talent with a gun, but the chance to shoot Sato took thirteen years to come.
And on that night, after thirteen years, Geum Seokjung appeared. In the moment she had to call Gakyeong by any name to hold onto her, the name she hadn’t spoken aloud once in thirteen years came out. Soran, who made seaweed soup in Shanghai every year on her daughter’s birthday, says she doesn’t think she can eat the seaweed soup Gakyeong brought.
“Caught You, Pickpocket”
Hideo visits Philip’s house with a gift and Sato’s condolences. Philip says he kept his word and didn’t publish the story. Hideo asks where Seohui, the maid who worked here, has gone, and Philip claims she quit after last night.
Gakyeong goes to the pawnshop. The owner, who also runs an inn, jokes that he’ll let her stay for free if she marries him and takes everything he has. Gakyeong hands over the bullets and takes the money. Then she asks whether anything pawned thirteen years ago and never claimed is still there. Just then Hideo walks in and asks if he can check on an item pawned long ago. Then he sees Gakyeong beside him. She tries to run, but this time she can’t get away.
“Caught you, pickpocket.”
Were There Women Snipers in Korea’s Independence Movement?
Soran brings to mind Ahn Ok-yun, the sniper Jun Ji-hyun played in the film Assassination (2015). So were there women with guns in the real independence movement?
The best-known figure is Nam Ja-hyeon. After losing her husband in battle with Japanese forces, she crossed into Manchuria, threw herself into the independence movement, and plotted to assassinate Saito Makoto, the Governor-General of Korea, and Muto Nobuyoshi, Japan’s ambassador to Manchukuo. She is often linked to Ahn Ok-yun in Assassination. There’s no record, though, that Nam was a trained sniper like the film’s heroine. Women such as Ji Bok-yeong and O Gwang-sim also received military training in the Korean Liberation Army, founded in 1940.
Nam Ja-hyeon joined the fight after losing her husband; Soran picked up a gun after losing her daughter. Soran isn’t a real person but a character created for the drama, yet she stands on a history in which the independence movement was never a fight for men alone.
Why Do Koreans Eat Seaweed Soup After Giving Birth and on Birthdays?
In English, miyeok and gim are both just “seaweed,” but to Koreans they’re completely different foods. Gim, which many know as nori, is dried into thin sheets for wrapping rice. Miyeok, often sold as wakame, is soaked in water and made into soup. Miyeokguk, seaweed soup, is simmered with beef or seafood, and the longer it cooks, the deeper its flavor. It’s a truly healthy dish.
Korea has a long tradition of serving seaweed soup to women who have just given birth. Koreans also eat it on their birthdays, because the day you were born is the day your mother gave birth to you and ate seaweed soup. A bowl of birthday seaweed soup carries a reminder to think of the mother who brought you into the world. That’s why, for Koreans, miyeokguk is soul food that makes you think of your mother.
That meaning deepens for those far from home. For Soran, who made seaweed soup alone in Shanghai every year on her daughter’s birthday, that bowl was both the daughter she lost and the homeland she left behind. Seaweed soup made in a foreign land calls up a mother, a home, and a country all at once.
In Episode 2, the meanings of this dish collide. Gakyeong buys seaweed thinking of Soran’s body after a miscarriage. But for Soran, seaweed soup is what she made every year on her daughter’s birthday. The first thing this money-minded girl ever buys for someone else touches a memory Soran has kept buried for thirteen years.
If there’s a Korean restaurant near you that serves miyeokguk, try it at least once. You’ll feel the warmth of a healthy meal, and maybe remember the story behind the bowl.
What Is the Pawn Ticket? Shin Taejin and Taisho 8
A pawn ticket is the receipt you get when you leave an item at a pawnshop in exchange for a loan. Pay back the money with interest, and you can reclaim the item. Taisho 8, the date on the ticket, is 1919 in the Japanese imperial calendar. A Japanese era name on a document from colonial Korea fits the period.
Three things about this slip of paper stand out. The name on it is Shin Taejin, not Sato Hideo. The date is thirteen years ago. And Hideo is willing to give up the money but not this ticket. Is Shin Taejin family from Hideo’s days as a Korean boy? Or someone connected to the mother who disappeared? 1919 is also the year Soran lost her daughter.
Nothing can be confirmed yet. What’s clear is that a slip of paper Gakyeong grabbed for money is a door leading into the past Hideo has been hiding.
Why Couldn’t Koreans Go to America in the 1930s? The Immigration Act of 1924
Soran is right. In 1924, Congress passed what was called the Oriental Exclusion Act, shutting out immigrants from Asia, with students as about the only exception. For Gakyeong, who believes she can survive if she just gets out of Korea, the door to the country she wants most had already closed eight years earlier.
Korean immigration to the United States began in 1903 with workers bound for Hawaii’s sugar plantations. Philip, a Korean American from Hawaii, comes from the very community those immigrants built. Gakyeong, whose road to America is blocked, and Philip, who grew up at the end of that road, end up under the same roof. The ban wasn’t lifted until 1952.
Kim Hyun-joo’s Powerhouse Performance as Soran
Koreans have an expression, “charyeok show.” It originally means a strongman act, like breaking bricks with bare hands, but people also use it when an actor pours every ounce of strength into carrying a scene. That’s exactly what Kim Hyun-joo does in Episodes 1 and 2.
Soran is a cold-blooded assassin and a mother who lost her daughter. Kim lets her emotions explode in the massacre scenes, then, back in the present, presses down hard on a single line about not being able to eat the seaweed soup. Even in one remark, that she has to keep moving to stop thinking, you can see the thirteen years Soran has lived through.
In her younger days, Kim Hyun-joo was known as a fresh-faced, beautiful actress. Now she carries long years in the face of a middle-aged woman. Some say they started watching for Kim You-jung and ended up falling for Kim Hyun-joo instead. For me, too, the star of Episodes 1 and 2 was Kim Hyun-joo.
Did the League of Nations Ever Recognize Manchukuo?
In short, no. Japan occupied northeastern China after the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and set up Manchukuo in 1932, but in reality it was a puppet state run by the Japanese army.
The League of Nations concluded that Manchukuo had not been created by a genuine independence movement of the local people, and in 1933 it decided not to recognize it as an independent state. In protest, Japan walked out of the League. The international recognition Sato cared so much about never came.
With that background, the scene where Philip threatens to publish a story looks different. In 1932, as the League was looking closely at Manchuria, a report that a senior Japanese official had nearly been assassinated in colonial Korea would strike directly at the “stability and order” Japan claimed to have brought. That’s why Soran tells Philip to take up a pen instead of a gun. Philip’s pen is as dangerous a weapon as Soran’s gun.
Basic Info
- Official English title: 100 Days of Deception
- Formerly known as: 100 Days of Lies
- Korean title: 100일의 거짓말 (Baegirui Geojinmal)
- Genre: Period drama, espionage, romance
- Setting: Gyeongseong (colonial-era Seoul), 1932
- Premiere: October 10, 2026
- Directors: Yoo In-shik, Kim Youn-jin
- Writer: Ryu Bo-ri
- Main cast: Kim You-jung (Lee Ga-kyeong), Park Jin-young (Sato Hideo), Kim Hyun-joo (Yu So-ran), Lee Moo-saeng (Philip Yu), Jin Seon-kyu (Sato Shinichi)
- Episode covered: Episode 2
- Where to watch: tvN and TVING in South Korea; Netflix in available regions. Availability varies by country.
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