ysadulset

Justice sounds simple when people say it out loud. Follow the law. Punish the guilty. Protect the innocent.

But what happens when the people deciding justice are already dirty? When the very law allows people with power to bend it at will? When the justice system itself protects the guilty and punishes the innocent?

That question kept sitting in my head while watching this drama, well, every time I watch political-legal dramas, actually lol. But this time, because the drama was honest about how messy justice becomes once power, politics, and personal agendas get involved. It does not pretend the system is fixable with one heroic move. It shows how deep the rot goes.

So, how far can one man with future knowledge really clean up this rotten system?



⁂ Hanyeong before and after time rewind

This drama starts off surprisingly dark. Hanyeong is not written as a pure idealist protagonist. He starts off compromised, yet very aware that he is helping the wrong people win. The early noir-like mood sells how dirty the system already is, and that he is part of setting that very system up. He was a judge who follows orders instead of truth, and we see his conscience eating him alive. When it did, he tries to undo his mistakes, but his single act of conscience ends up costing him his life.

When he wakes up in the past, the energy changes, and he changes with it. His chaotic judge era was easily one of my favorite stretches, and I missed it when it faded later on. His confidence, the way he plays all sides, and how he walks into danger smiling while quoting the law made the scenes very entertaining, leaving the others very confused by his change. But his change also made him very unpredictable in the eyes of others onto him, and it becomes his shield.

Because he remembers the future, many of his victories come from timing and setup. His plans come from future knowledge and careful manipulation, and it feels like a game for us just as it was for him. He knows where to push and when to wait. It also made me feel a bit complicit as a viewer because I was enjoying how he was outplaying people.

He is also not clean in how he fights back. He runs scams, threats, staged situations, and intimidation with help from the team he builds along the way: Nayeon the journalist, Cheolwu and Jinah the prosecutors, Jeongho the thug-like angel and his best friend (also aka Hanyeong's personal Doraemon), and even makes use of Sehee, his past-life wife. Were their actions morally clean? Not really. Morally justifiable? I guess. Entertaining to watch? Very.

Then the bigger corruption layer shows up, and things stop being so easy. As Hanyeong discovers newer things he didn't know in the past, his mission also becomes dangerous.

From the get-go, we know Kang Shinjin as the central villain, or at least Hanyeong's main target. But even with his cheat-code, aka Hanyeong's future knowledge, he knows he cannot just go straight to him. It will just backfire on him just as it did in his past life. So, he plays on all sides, jumping between factions: Baek Yiseok, The Haenal Law Firm (basically Seoncheol), Shinjin, and the Suojae. He keeps inserting himself everywhere just enough to matter but not enough to get cut off early. It's beyond me how none of these sides even noticed right away, but entertaining to watch, anyway.



⁂ Kang Shinjin

Kang Shinjin is not just evil for the sake of it. He is convinced he is right. He believes in his version of justice and thinks he alone has the right to decide who deserves punishment. In his head, he is not corrupt. He is necessary. Thus, he distrusts everyone, even the very people who have been with him since. That kind of self-righteous villain makes it clear that there's no changing his mindset. It's either he goes down or everyone else against him goes. And that's why all the other corrupt politicians and people in power, even the power behind him, the former President Kwangto, was underwhelming when compared to him.

But how was Hanyeong able to "join" his side, knowing how guarded Shinjin is? That's because Hanyeong was able to condition Shinjin to see him as someone who grew up like Shinjin did: poor, failed by justice, and an outsider navigating a corrupt system. Shinjin is paranoid and investigative by nature. And this was something Shinjin himself investigated to be true.

He never blindly trusts nor distrusts Hanyeong. Shinjin sees Hanyeong’s intelligence, strategic thinking, and resilience as proof that he could be an ally in reshaping the justice system the way Shinjin imagines it, but also that he could be the worst enemy. His distrust is why he constantly tests Hanyeong, pushes him, and to do favors for him. When Shinjin leaned in to trust more than distrust, he then tries to recruit Hanyeong. He recognizes Hanyeong's potential to understand and execute his vision.



⁂ The other powers Hanyeong had aside from his future knowledge: Plot armor & Convenient writing

I will admit that I felt that the writing gets very convenient at times.

Exhibit 1 is Jeongho basically being a one-man logistics department. Need money fast? He has it. Need a car, a hideout, a random building, a group of people willing to act in a staged scenario, or someone to scare a target? He can arrange it right away. Everything is possible, and available on demand. It almost turns into a running gag where I stopped asking "how did they pull that off" and just accepted that if Hanyeong needs it, Jeongho will spawn it. It is ridiculous if you think about it logically even if he got the money, but their tandem is so fun and loyal that I did not mind it much while watching.

Exhibit 2 is the lack of real leverage against Hanyeong. The villains in this drama are shown to be ruthless. They blackmail witnesses, threaten families, kidnap people, dig up dirt, and weaponize personal connections. We see this happen to multiple side characters, even those that were present just for 1-2 episodes. Even Jinah gets blackmailed and even her already in coma father gets dragged into danger.

But when it comes to Hanyeong, that pattern is gone. Yes, they investigate him. Yes, they look into his background and family. But nothing serious ever comes out of it. No direct threats, no kidnapping attempts, no real pressure placed on his loved ones, especially considering that he is the one actively dismantling their power. I did not need extreme suffering for shock value, but the imbalance was noticeable. It makes Hanyeong feel unusually protected compared to everyone else on the board.



⁂ Mini ramble on the other main side characters

One of the things I enjoyed most episode to episode was Han Young’s chemistry with the people around him.

His dynamic with Prosecutor Cheolwu was consistently funny. He keeps saying he does not want to get dragged into Han Young’s dangerous and questionable tactics, then still shows up and helps anyway. Nayeon and Jeongho also felt essential to the team’s energy. Nayeon brings momentum through information and media pressure, while Jeongho is the operational backbone. These are characters who were barely present or not present at all in Han Young’s first timeline, so seeing them become central in the new one made the rewind was a nice addition. It is like his second life gave him better allies, not just better timing.

Jinah is where my mixed feelings sit. She was introduced strongly in the past life, and the drama framed her like a major pillar next to Hanyeong and Shinjin. Because of that, I expected her to drive more of the plot after the rewind. Instead, she often felt like she was reacting and just somehow got dragged, instead of being actively involved. There are good moments, but overall, her presence feels lighter than what was originally advertised. Other supporting characters felt more influential in moving events forward.

Sehee, though, was more interesting this time around. Her personality shift in the new timeline made her feel fresher. She is still flawed and sometimes frustrating, but more emotionally readable. Her guilt, hesitation, and attempt to finally do the right thing gave her scenes more weight. I found her easier to understand here than in the past timeline.



⁂ Justice is ...served?

Yes, the target corrupt figures fall. Yes, Han Young protects the people he cares about and wins the battles he set out to win. But the bigger structure behind the corruption never truly disappears.

Suojae is still standing by the end. It gets exposed and shaken up, but not erased. It just changes hands. New leadership steps in, and the show does not give a clear answer on whether this new version is cleaner or just a reshuffle of the past. Seeing Baek Yiseok end up inside that circle raised a big question mark for me. I couldn’t tell if that was meant to be reassuring or worrying. Did he turn into another power player chasing influence? Was this his goal all along? Or is he trying to reform it from the inside? Unfortunately, the drama leaves that deliberately unclear.

Another detail that stuck with me is the prison connection. Even after everything, Shinjin is still able to maintain lines of contact with the outside world. That suggests the network is still alive enough to reach in and out of the system.

So yes, the main villains are taken down. The headline crimes are punished. But the ecosystem that allowed them to grow is still breathing.

Hanyeong and his team won the cases they were chasing, sure. And that was Hanyeong's happy ending. But did they really win the war, or was that just to reset the board again, giving the others a chance to power?