Suspicious Partner

The setup, the stakes, and where to watch — all in one place.

CompletedLEGAL ROM-COM PICK

Suspicious Partner

수상한 파트너 (Susanghan Pateuneo) · 2017 · South Korea

WriterKwon Ki-young

DirectorPark Seon-ho

Episodes40 eps · ~30 min each

Where to Watch✅ Netflix, Viki, Prime Video, KOCOWA+

⏱️

Binge Time20h 0m

AiredMay 10 – Jul 13, 2017

GenreRomance · Legal · Thriller · Comedy

Content Rating15+

SBSNetflixVikiPrime VideoKOCOWA+

Legal DramaSerial KillerProsecutorRom-ComCover-Up

Everything you need to decide, in one place.

The lawyers, prosecutors and suspects caught in a murder that connects two families.

Ji Chang-wook

Noh Ji-wook

Lead

Nam Ji-hyun

Eun Bong-hee

Lead

Choi Tae-joon

Ji Eun-hyuk

Supporting

Kwon Na-ra

Cha Yoo-jung

Supporting

Dong Ha

Jung Hyun-soo

Supporting

Kim Ye-won

Na Ji-hae

Supporting

Lee Duck-hwa

Byeon Young-hee

Supporting

Jang Hyuk-jin

Bang Gye-jang

Supporting

Nam Kee-ae

Hong Bok-ja

Supporting

Yoon Bok-in

Park Young-soon

Supporting

Cho Seung-yeon

No Young-seok

Supporting

Heo Joon-seok

Woo Hee-gyu

Supporting

Episode-by-episode, spoiler-light — a refresher, not a rewatch.

EP 01

A Knight in Shining Armor

May 10, 2017

Eun Bong-hee sets out to punish her cheating boyfriend, and the man who rescues her from the mess turns out to be Noh Ji-wook, the prosecutor she once accused of being a pervert. Ji-wook has every reason to walk away and doesn’t. The premiere runs on pure collision comedy, two people who badly misjudged each other pulled into the same orbit. It also plants the quick-tempered heroine and the guarded hero the rest of the series will keep testing.

EP 02

The Intern and the Instructor

May 10, 2017

Bong-hee secures a legal internship without knowing her instructor will be Ji-wook, who remembers every one of her antics in perfect detail. He is a prosecutor famous for precision; she is a former taekwondo athlete with far more nerve than paperwork skill. The mentor-and-trainee setup gives their bickering a structure, and it becomes the engine for the courtroom half of the series.

EP 03

Prime Suspect

May 11, 2017

Bong-hee is suddenly accused of murder, and the rom-com tone vanishes in a single scene. Ji-wook is made the prosecutor on the case, which means his future depends on getting her to confess. Putting the two leads on opposite sides of an interrogation table this early is a bold move. It turns a light romance into a story about trust, with stakes set far higher than the first two episodes suggested.

EP 04

The Bloody Knife

May 11, 2017

Ji-wook finds a bloody knife at the crime scene, a piece of evidence that could swing the case in either direction, and Bong-hee’s murder trial begins. What matters is how he treats it, as a professional problem rather than a personal favor. The episode keeps his motives deliberately blurry, and the courtroom setting lets Ji Chang-wook play the prosecutor’s cold precision against the man’s growing unease.

EP 05

A Melody as the Only Clue

May 17, 2017

Bong-hee sets out to find Hee-joon’s real killer, but the only hint she has is a melody. Ji-wook, meanwhile, struggles with life after leaving the prosecutors’ side of the courtroom. The two investigations run in parallel, and each protagonist is quietly trying to work out who they are without the identity that used to define them. It is a modest episode with a lot of groundwork.

EP 06

Opposing Clients

May 17, 2017

Bong-hee and Ji-wook end up representing opposing clients, and things go wrong badly enough that they have to work together anyway. It is the first time the pair operate as an actual team, and the friction between them is more fun than the case itself. Their partnership begins as an accident of circumstance, which suits a show built on two people who never planned to need each other.

EP 07

Close to the Culprit

May 18, 2017

Bong-hee has a close encounter with the culprit, one of the series’ first genuinely unsettling moments. Ji-wook notices District Attorney Jang keeping an eye on her, and the show plants an early suspicion that the man in charge of the case may have his own interest in what she knows. The mood shifts here from comic mystery to something that can actually frighten the audience.

EP 08

Under One Roof

May 18, 2017

Bong-hee looks for work while living at Ji-wook’s house, a setup that lets the romance breathe between the thriller beats. His ex, Yoo-jung, comes back to town with a mission of her own. The arrival of a rival with history complicates a household that was only just settling into routine, and it quietly tests how much the two leads already care about each other.

EP 09

The Fake Girlfriend

May 24, 2017

Bong-hee pretends to be Ji-wook’s girlfriend in front of Yoo-jung, a bluff that is funnier than it is convincing. Ji-wook also hands in his resignation letter. It is a comedy episode wrapped around a major career decision, and the contrast between the giggly bluff and the serious resignation shows how quickly the tone of this series can swerve from one scene to the next.

EP 10

Open for Business

May 24, 2017

Ji-wook sets up his own law firm and begins recruiting employees, and the episode is largely about assembling the misfit team that will carry the rest of the series. Lawyer Ji’s backstory with Ji-wook is revealed, which explains why one of the hires is so charged. The new office is more soap-opera ensemble than courtroom drama, and it gives the show a home base for everything that follows.

EP 11

A Team Falling Apart

May 24, 2017

Ji-wook quickly grows frustrated with his newly assembled team. Then the suspect in a murder-and-robbery case specifically asks for Bong-hee as his lawyer, which sends the firm toward its first real case. Nobody in the office agrees on how to run it, and the squabbling is played for comedy while quietly showing how green everyone is. It is a useful reminder that this firm is no well-oiled machine yet.

EP 12

Face to Face with Jang

May 25, 2017

Bong-hee has a dangerous confrontation with District Attorney Jang, and Jung Hyun-soo’s lack of an alibi makes the firm’s job harder. Here the show finally puts real menace behind Jang’s watchfulness, and Hyun-soo starts to register as more than just another client. It is the first episode where the thriller plot properly pulls ahead of the comedy.

EP 13

Denied

May 31, 2017

Bong-hee struggles to reset her feelings for Ji-wook after being turned down. Details of a past assault case surface around Jung Hyun-soo, adding a shadow to the client the firm has been defending. The episode is a quiet one, giving the romance its first real ache while the legal plot gathers weight underneath it.

EP 14

Unreliable Witnesses

May 31, 2017

Ji-wook faces off against unreliable witnesses in court, and the courtroom scenes are the sharpest the show has managed so far. Later he takes a phone call that could change everything. Cross-examination is where Ji Chang-wook’s controlled performance works best, and the cliffhanger call sends the audience into the next episode wanting to know who is on the other end.

EP 15

Keeping Secrets from the Team

Jun 1, 2017

Ji-wook digs deeper into Hyun-soo while keeping his own team in the dark. Lawyer Ji’s excitement about a special day is quickly dampened. Secrets inside the firm start piling up, and the mood shifts from workplace comedy toward something tenser, with the trust that holds the office together beginning to show its first cracks.

EP 16

Hyun-soo Catches On

Jun 1, 2017

Hyun-soo begins to notice Ji-wook’s suspicions, while Bong-hee finds she can’t move on from Ji-wook when he seems unable to leave her alone. The cat-and-mouse dynamic between lawyer and client gets its first properly chilling exchange, and Dong Ha’s politeness starts to feel like a threat. The romance and the mystery finally share the same scenes.

EP 17

Golden Age

Jun 7, 2017

Go Chan-ho takes desperate measures to get away from Hyun-soo. Ji-wook finally comes to terms with his feelings, but the episode asks whether he has waited too long. It is the point where the romance and the thriller start driving the same scenes, and the tension between what Ji-wook wants to say and what he actually says gives Ji Chang-wook plenty to play.

EP 18

The Heroic DUI Case

Jun 7, 2017

Bong-hee agrees to help Lawyer Byun with his self-styled heroic drunk-driving case, a comic subplot that gives the ensemble room to breathe. Elsewhere, District Attorney Jang asks Yoo-jung and Ji-hye to help him reinvestigate Hee-joon’s murder. Jang’s sudden interest in the old case is worth remembering, given that Hee-joon was his son.

EP 19

A Dilemma He Can’t Share

Jun 8, 2017

Lawyer Ji receives a strange request from a client and faces a dilemma he can’t discuss with his colleagues. The episode is mostly setup, but it shows how much the firm depends on trust and how easily one secret can strain it. It is a slower hour that trades the murder plot for character work, and the ensemble is better for it.

EP 20

Skipping Baths, Solving Cases

Jun 8, 2017

Bong-hee becomes determined to crack the Park Sung-eun case, even if it means forgoing baths. Ji-wook tells her about his family’s past. The comedy and the confession sit side by side, and the confession is what the episode is really about, giving Ji Chang-wook a rare chance to show how much the guarded prosecutor has been carrying.

EP 21

The Psychic Client

Jun 14, 2017

Ji-wook takes on a seemingly psychic client whose vision may affect more than his own case, and Bong-hee and Ji-wook also receive a new clue about Hee-joon’s murder. The supernatural angle is played for laughs, but the clue is the part that counts. It is a tonal juggling act, and the show mostly gets away with it.

EP 22

A Frightening Realization

Jun 14, 2017

A frightening realization crashes down on Bong-hee, and So Jung-ha’s predictions unsettle the entire firm. Ji Chang-wook and Nam Ji-hyun carry the tonal swing between fear and comedy better than the script does. The scares feel real, and so does the laughter that follows, which is the balance this series is best at.

EP 23

The Old Friend’s Call

Jun 15, 2017

Bong-hee’s old friend calls her for help after being attacked. Ji-wook’s firm wants to keep investigating Hyun-soo, but they need outside help to do it. The episode sets a darker tone, and the case stops feeling like a game as the firm realizes the people around them may be in real danger.

EP 24

Hunting for a Witness

Jun 15, 2017

Bong-hee and Ji-wook search for a witness or a weapon from Yeon-woo’s attack. Social-media-savvy Lawyer Ji then takes matters into his own hands. It is a procedural episode with a strong comic B-plot, pushing the investigation forward while giving the supporting cast room to be funny.

EP 25

Chief Bang in the Hospital

Jun 21, 2017

Chief Bang is rushed to the hospital and his fate is unknown, and tension builds inside the firm as Ji-wook starts thinking about revenge. The mood turns properly grim for the first time, and it is one of the few episodes where the stakes feel personal to the whole team rather than just the two leads.

EP 26

Fabricating Evidence

Jun 21, 2017

The firm debates whether fabricating evidence is its only option for having Hyun-soo arrested. The dilemma tests the lawyers’ ethics directly, and the show is smart enough to let the argument stay unresolved for a while. Ji-wook is visibly close to crossing a line he has always defended, which makes this the most interesting version of his character so far.

EP 27

Who Planted the Knife

Jun 22, 2017

Hyun-soo is admitted to the hospital while still unconscious, which puts his arrest on hold, and Ji-wook wonders who could have planted the bloody knife. The frustration of a suspect who cannot be touched is the real drama here. It keeps the mystery alive without adding new twists, trusting the two leads to hold the audience’s attention.

EP 28

The Arson Case

Jun 22, 2017

An arson case brings back painful memories for Ji-wook. Later he and Bong-hee go on an arcade date and run into unexpected company. The sweetness of the date makes the flashback scenes before it hit harder, and pairing the two tones in one hour shows how comfortable the series has become moving between romance and pain.

EP 29

The Photo on the Nightstand

Jun 28, 2017

Ji-wook is at a loss after seeing a photo on Bong-hee’s nightstand, and it pulls him back toward the night his parents died. He decides to dig deeper into the past. A single photograph starts to shift the whole mystery, and the tone becomes noticeably more anxious as the romance and the family history begin to collide.

EP 30

Something Is Off

Jun 28, 2017

Bong-hee notices Ji-wook acting strangely as they investigate the arson case, while Eun-hyuk goes to Yoo-jung for help. Bong-hee can tell something is wrong but not what, which gives the couple’s next crisis a slow, believable build. The secondary pairing also gets more room here than it has had before.

EP 31

The Break-Up

Jun 29, 2017

Bong-hee breaks up with Ji-wook and is left with nowhere to go, while Ji-wook goes to see District Attorney Jang. After so many episodes of slow-building trust, seeing the two leads split hurts more than a typical mid-drama break-up. The show keeps the thriller moving so the couple’s pain never becomes the whole episode.

EP 32

A Child Witness

Jun 29, 2017

A child from Bong-hee’s taekwondo classes witnesses a murder but claims not to remember the killer’s face. The scenes with the child are the gentlest in an otherwise tense stretch, and his silence carries the suspense. It is also a reminder of the life Bong-hee had before law, and why her patience with the boy feels earned.

EP 33

Hyun-soo Wakes Up

Jul 5, 2017

Hyun-soo wakes up, but he seemingly can’t remember anything, which leaves Ji-wook suspicious. The best scenes are the quiet ones, where the possibility of an act hangs over every exchange. Dong Ha keeps the audience unsure whether the blank look is real, and that uncertainty does more work than any new plot twist could.

EP 34

Jogging a Memory

Jul 5, 2017

The firm looks deeper into Hyun-soo’s past while he is presented with his own belongings to help jog his memory. It is essentially an investigation-by-object episode, with each item hinting at something about who he used to be. The pace is deliberate, and the episode trusts the actors to make a slow interrogation feel tense.

EP 35

Gone Missing

Jul 6, 2017

Hyun-soo’s whereabouts are unknown, and no one knows just how much of his memory has returned. The uncertainty makes every ordinary scene feel unsafe, since the firm has no idea when or where he might reappear. It is a short, tense build-up to the final act and one of the series’ leaner installments.

EP 36

The Truth About the Parents

Jul 6, 2017

Ji-wook must tell Bong-hee the truth about their parents’ deaths, and the show finally delivers the story it has been circling since the arson case. District Attorney Jang re-examines his son’s murder case. This is the emotional core of the series, and Ji Chang-wook and Nam Ji-hyun play it with restraint, which is exactly why it lands.

EP 37

Missing Together

Jul 12, 2017

District Attorney Jang and Hyun-soo disappear together, and Ji-wook and Bong-hee search for them, afraid of what might happen. The rescue-mission energy is a change of pace from the courtroom, and putting a prosecutor who has reopened his son’s case alongside the prime suspect is unsettling in a way the series has been building toward.

EP 38

The Trial Begins

Jul 12, 2017

Hyun-soo’s trial begins, but Ji-wook doesn’t plan to charge him with murder. Instead he comes up with a new plan. The reversal is a smart way to set up the finale, since it puts Ji-wook back in the courtroom role he was best at and makes the audience curious how he intends to win without the obvious charge.

EP 39

The Final Trial

Jul 13, 2017

Bong-hee worries about all that could go wrong if she gets back together with Ji-wook, while Hyun-soo’s final trial arrives. The courtroom is where the villain thread gets wrapped up, and the romance is where the emotional debt is paid. The two threads pull on each other, and neither is allowed to overshadow the other.

EP 40

Learning to Love

Jul 13, 2017

A new case creates conflict between Bong-hee and Ji-wook as they learn more about how to love each other. After forty episodes of murder and mystery, the finale ends on a small, domestic problem, which is exactly the right tone for a romance. It is a modest, warm closing note that leaves the couple in a believable place.

Full spoilers ahead — everything that happens in the finale and what it all means.

What actually happened Jung Hyun-soo is the killer, and he is finally forced to admit it. In the final trial, Noh Ji-wook drops the pretense of a patient defense attorney and cross-examines him with the full force of his prosecutor years, grinding away until Hyun-soo confesses to his crimes in open court. The case that began with Eun Bong-hee accused of murder ends with the real culprit undone by his own words.

The truth about the fire The parents’ storyline resolves quietly. Bong-hee’s father did not start the fire that killed Ji-wook’s parents; he pulled young Ji-wook out of it and died going back in for the others. District Attorney Jang bent the story afterward and let a child believe the wrong man was to blame, and once Ji-wook knows this the two families’ shared history stops being a wedge between the leads.

Why Hyun-soo did it Hyun-soo’s murders trace back to a crime from his school years, and his sense of guilt over it curdles into something that looks like justice to him. The ending lets that be the last word on his motive, and Dong Ha plays the confession as disbelief and despair rather than triumph. Suspicious Partner never asks the audience to sympathise with him, only to understand how the self-deception worked.

How the couple ends With the case closed, Bong-hee hesitates. She has just learned how tangled their families were and is afraid of what a second attempt at the relationship could break. Ji-wook answers with a ring and a promise of loving her forever, she kisses him and says it back, and the last episode ends with a small argument over a new case instead of a grand gesture.

The KDW verdict The finale is a happy one and it earns it. Eun-hyuk and Yoo-jung settle into their own gentler pairing, and the leads get the reconciliation the whole series was building toward. For a series that spent forty episodes on murder, the last note is unusually domestic, which is how a romance ought to finish.