One Dollar Lawyer

One box. Everything you need to decide.

The people behind the 1,000-won defense.

Namkoong Min

Cheon Ji Hoon

Lead

Kim Ji-eun

Baek Ma Ri

Lead

Park Jin-woo

Sa Mu Jang

Supporting

Lee Chung-ah

Lee Joo Young

Supporting

Choi Dae-hoon

Seo Min Hyuk

Antagonist

Gong Min-jeung

Na Ye Jin

Supporting

Lee Duck-hwa

Baek Hyun Moo

Supporting

Jo Yeon-hee

Oh Min-ah

Supporting

Lee Yoon-jae

Kim Yoon Sub’s Son

Supporting

Ha Sung-kwang

Seo Young Joon

Supporting

Park Sung-jun

Kim Min Jae

Supporting

Shim Ji-yu

Lee So-mi

Supporting

12 episodes · ~65 min each · Spoiler-light recaps.

EP 01

The One-Dollar Defense

September 23, 2022 · SBS

A pickpocket with four prior records insists he’s innocent. No one believes him — except Cheon Ji Hoon, the lawyer who charges exactly 1,000 won. Ji Hoon files for a jury trial, submits evidence everyone else dismissed, and wins. It’s the show’s thesis in miniature: the legal system can work, if you’re willing to fight it on its own terms. Prosecutor Baek Ma Ri is not impressed. She will be.

EP 02

Unlikely Partners

September 23, 2022 · SBS

Ma Ri lands in Ji Hoon’s office against her will, and their first case together immediately reveals how different their definitions of justice are. She sees the law as a structure to uphold. He sees it as a weapon to aim at the powerful. Neither of them is entirely wrong, which is what makes this partnership worth watching.

EP 03

Small Case, Big Fight

September 30, 2022 · SBS

Ji Hoon turns what looks like a trivial matter into a full courtroom battle — and Ma Ri finds herself defending him rather than opposing him. A prison visit Ji Hoon takes alone signals that his one-dollar work isn’t just about justice. There’s a personal score underneath it all, and it’s starting to surface.

EP 04

Prove the Dead Man Lives

September 30, 2022 · SBS

A man accused of killing his own father claims the father is still alive. Ji Hoon takes the case knowing it’s nearly impossible — you can’t prove a living person exists without producing them. His solution is lateral, audacious, and completely characteristic. The episode showcases exactly why Ji Hoon is terrifying in a courtroom.

EP 05

The Missing Painter

October 7, 2022 · SBS

A missing painter case draws Ji Hoon into a secret meeting he wasn’t supposed to find. Hidden evidence connects to bigger forces operating above any single case. Ma Ri, watching Ji Hoon work, begins to see that what drives him isn’t just principle — it’s grief. Something happened before the 1,000-won practice that he’s never explained to anyone.

EP 06

Who Was Lee Joo Young?

October 14, 2022 · SBS

Ma Ri grows curious about Lee Joo Young — a name Ji Hoon never mentions voluntarily. What she learns reshapes her understanding of him entirely: Ji Hoon was once one of the most formidable prosecutors in Korea. The case that changed everything is coming into focus, and the tone of the drama shifts with it. This is the turning-point episode.

EP 07

Before the 1,000 Won

October 21, 2022 · SBS

The flashback episode. Prosecutor Ji Hoon investigates a slush fund and crosses paths with Joo Young — discovering an ugly truth that no one powerful wants found. The origin story of Ji Hoon’s transformation is emotionally heavy and dramatically necessary. By the end, you understand exactly what the one-dollar fee means and who it’s really for.

EP 08

Grief and Comfort

October 21, 2022 · SBS

Ji Hoon witnesses a death that tears open wounds he’s been carrying for years. Joo Young comforts him through his lowest moment, and their connection deepens in a way that makes what comes next unbearable to watch. The episode is quiet, tender, and devastating — the emotional peak of the backstory arc.

EP 09

Back to the Fight

October 28, 2022 · SBS

Back in the present, Ji Hoon refocuses with the weight of his past now visible to the audience. New adversaries emerge as the corporate forces opposing him begin to move more aggressively. Ma Ri has to decide how far she’s willing to go — and how much of Ji Hoon’s mission she’s actually willing to own.

EP 10

Closing In

November 4, 2022 · SBS

The truth about Joo Young’s murder starts to come into focus. Evidence connects. Suspect lines cross. The powerful interests protecting the real killer begin to crack under pressure. Ma Ri is no longer a reluctant partner — she’s a full participant in Ji Hoon’s fight, and her involvement raises the stakes for both of them considerably.

EP 11

Before the Verdict

November 4, 2022 · SBS

The penultimate episode pulls loose threads together without yet resolving them — a transitional hour that ties off subplots while setting Ji Hoon on a collision course with the finale confrontation. Slower than the episodes around it, but necessary. It ends on tension, not answers.

EP 12

One Dollar Justice

November 11, 2022 · SBS

Ji Hoon brings the truth about Joo Young’s murder into the open, exposes the real killer, and delivers one final courtroom battle that feels earned. Ma Ri resolves her conflict between her grandfather’s firm and Ji Hoon’s mission. Sa Mu Jang’s loyalty is cemented. The finale is compressed — two episodes’ worth of story in one — but it lands where it needs to. Ji Hoon gets his verdict. And he gets to keep being exactly who he is.

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

The Truth Behind Joo Young’s Murder. The finale’s central revelation is that Jo Woo Seok — who originally confessed to killing Lee Joo Young — was never the real culprit. He took the blame under pressure. The man who actually murdered her is Cha Min Cheol, operating under the protection of powerful figures who used Joo Young’s death as leverage to keep a prosecutor buried. Ji Hoon has known this for a long time. What the finale delivers is evidence that can’t be bought or buried — the kind that survives in a courtroom, even one stacked against him.

The Final Courtroom Battle. Ji Hoon’s signature approach — jury-targeted arguments, theatrical timing, evidence submitted at the exact moment it hurts most — reaches its full expression in the finale. What makes the courtroom scene work isn’t the legal maneuver; it’s that Ji Hoon has been building toward this for years. Every 1,000-won case was practice. Every client he defended against an indifferent system was a rehearsal for this one moment where the system cannot look away. The corrupt forces protecting Cha Min Cheol are dismantled not through violence but through procedure — which is both the show’s most satisfying choice and its most subversive one.

Ma Ri Makes Her Choice. Baek Ma Ri’s arc resolves cleanly: she chooses Ji Hoon’s side, and more importantly, she chooses her own values over her grandfather’s prestigious firm and everything it represents. The show doesn’t punish her for this. She doesn’t sacrifice her career — she redefines what she wants it to mean. Sa Mu Jang, Ji Hoon’s loyal anchor throughout the series, gets quiet acknowledgment as the person who kept Ji Hoon functional during his worst years. Their friendship isn’t sentimental, just solid — the show’s most underrated relationship.

The Epilogue — and What the 1,000 Won Was Always About. The finale closes on a lighter note: Ji Hoon, back to his eccentric self, takes another impossible case for another person who can’t afford anything else. The fee is still 1,000 won. The point the show has been making since episode one lands here without needing to be stated: justice isn’t a luxury service. It never should have been. The drama was always about more than a clever lawyer — it was about the gap between what the law promises and who actually gets it. One dollar, every time, until the system runs out of reasons to say no.