The Scarecrow Episode 5 starts in 2019 with Si-young working with his junior prosecutors. The news of the Kangseng Serial Killer’s arrest finally leaves him visibly shaken.
The story then goes back to 1988. Sun-young survives the killer’s attack and wakes up in the hospital. While looking for Gi-beom, she suddenly starts to bleed and everyone around her panics. Doctors soon tell her she is pregnant and both her and the baby are fine. Sun-young is anxious to avoid further complications and asks Ji-won not to tell Tae-joo about the pregnancy.
Meanwhile, Dae-ho encounters Tae-joo, waiting outside the operating room for Si-young. He has bad news – the serial killer is at large. Si-young survives and starts to recover. Tae-joo goes straight to Sun-young and asks whether she has been helping Gi-beom.
Sun-young finally tells everything to Tae-joo and Ji-won She explains how she had stopped Gi-beom from surrendering in Kyung-ho’s assault case, how he locked her up before he ran away, and how she ran after him and was attacked by the real killer.
Tae-joo, concerned about Ji-won’s relationship with Gi-beom, makes arrangements for Ji-won to stay with Sun-young when she leaves hospital. It is there that Ji-won finally tells her that Gi-beom is the main suspect in the serial killer investigation.
Elsewhere, Sang-beom visits Si-young in the hospital and confronts Tae-joo, thinking he was the one who shot him. Tae-joo tells him to call Si-young’s family, but finds out she is estranged from them and lives alone.
Tae-joo searches Si-young’s contacts and calls Cha Jun-young, hoping for an older brother’s concern. But Jun-young’s reaction is cold and it shocks Tae-joo to see the lack of emotion.
The next morning Ki-hwan calls Gi-beom’s friends to find him. Afterwards, Tae-joo visits Ki-hwan’s house and assists his family with the groceries. Stunned by the visit, Ki-hwan begs Tae-joo not to tell Gi-beom’s family about the arrest.
The station’s detectives are still arguing about Gi-beom’s involvement. Hyung-gu and Myung-do want to rush to pin him as the serial killer but Tae-joo and Dae-ho want to wait until Si-young wakes up.
A new murder is reported, and their investigation takes another turn. The detectives arrive at the scene of the crime and find a young girl murdered in her bed. Tae-joo looks over the body and decides the murder isn’t consistent with the serial killer’s M.O.
Flashback: The night before, Hyung-gu had busted Gi-beom at the victim’s house. However, Hyung-gu got out of the police car while bringing him back to the station, and Gi-beom ran away.
As public anger grows, media and residents gather outside the victim’s house, blaming police for its inaction. Man-chun steps forward and takes responsibility in front of everyone and asks for more time to solve the case.
Meanwhile, there was a big change in the Kangseng Police Station. Chief Park Eun-kyu is touched and Man-chun is also reassigned. Jun-young takes over from the department head who puts Tae-joo, Dae-ho, Myung-do and Hyung-gu under him.
Before he leaves, Man-chun privately says goodbye to Tae-joo, telling him to trust his colleagues, rather than take every burden on himself.
Not long after, Myung-do and Hyung-gu finally confess they lost Gi-beom near the victim’s house. Tae-joo is livid that they kept such important information from him.
Meanwhile, Jun-young visits Si-young in the hospital, at their father’s orders. Their discussion reveals a painful family history of years of abuse and resentment. A flashback shows Si-young’s father beating him up for being second in school, and Jun-young mockingly taunts him for being an illegitimate son.
Present day. Tae-joo asks Jun-young to appoint him as the task force leader. Jun-young throws insults at Tae-joo’s background, but Tae-joo shoots back right away and gets the silent nod from Si-young.
Later Tae-joo asks Si-young about the attack. Si-young concedes the evidence is pointing to Gi-beom, and Tae-joo has to concede that the case against him is getting stronger.
Elsewhere Sun-young wakes up from a terrifying nightmare of the killer dragging her body. To Ji-won, she says that Gi-beom would never hurt her.
That night, a shocking truth is revealed—Myung-do and Hyung-gu did not lose Gi-beom at all. Instead they kidnapped him and tortured him behind the scenes, hoping to get a confession before bringing him in.
The following day Ki-hwan is out on the town desperately looking for his missing brother not knowing what really happened. Meanwhile, Sun-young and Ji-won head to Gi-beom’s house but detectives show up with a search warrant. Tae-joo made a lot of promises, and Ki-hwan’s family feels betrayed.
Tae-joo learns of Sun-young’s pregnancy when she is taken suddenly ill. Finally, she tells him that Gi-beom was not the man who attacked her, that the real attacker limped badly.
The case takes a twist when detectives find Ae-sook’s bag in the library, seemingly tying Gi-beom to the murder. But an old wedding picture provides Tae-joo with a respite. He checks the dates and finds that Gi-beom was with him during one of the murders, which proves he was innocent in at least that one.
But other evidence still points to Gi-beom, leaving Tae-joo torn.
Later Tae-joo talks to Ki-hwan and he remembers that Ki-hwan had access to both the library and the victim’s home making him another possible suspect.
The episode ends up back in 2019. Sun-kyung visits Yong-woo in prison on Tae-joo’s behalf but he refuses to talk to her and insists on seeing Tae-joo face-to-face.
Before she leaves, Sun-kyung hands Tae-joo a note from Yong-woo, a chilling confession of the number of murders, assaults and rapes he has committed.
Episode Review
The mystery is nicely expanded upon in Episode 5 and the suspicion bounces from one character to another. Gi-beom still looks guilty on the surface, but each new clue seems to disprove that.
The decision of Myung-do and Hyung-gu to secretly take Gi-beom captive and torture him further contaminates the investigation and casts a dark shadow over their real intentions.
Tae-joo’s desperation is becoming more obvious, particularly as he starts to suspect everyone around him, including Ki-hwan.
Here Si-young also becomes a much more sympathetic character. Though his childhood bullying of Tae-joo is hard to forget, his abusive family history explains much of his behavior. On the other hand, Jun-young quickly establishes himself as one of the most dangerous people in the story.
As the case becomes more tangled and the timeline stretches from 1988 to 2019, Episode 5 provides another edge-of-your-seat installment with shocking revelations and emotional tension.