'Phantom Lawyer' Episodes 1-2 Recap: Why Does I-Rang See Ghosts? 

Yoo Yeon-Seok returns to our screens, this time as a lawyer who can see ghosts. The show seems quite nostalgic in the way it presents itself, not necessarily trying to adhere to what might be trending today. I was immediately reminded of shows like Let’s Fight Ghost, which combines comedy with emotional messaging to turn out a wholesome plot. Only two episodes of Phantom Lawyer are out, but I can already tell I’m going to enjoy the rest of the show too. Recently, K-dramas have been so intense that this one feels like a breath of fresh air, especially in the lawyer subgenre. Having said that, it also stars Esom, who, in my books, will never make the wrong choice in what roles to play. At the moment, it seems there won’t be romance in this show just yet, but at the same time, with these two actors who are so incredible in said genre, I have a feeling it’s going to come up at some point. With that said, let’s get into the first two episodes.

Spoiler Alert

Why Does I-Rang Work In A Haunted Office? 

Phantom Lawyer episode 1 begins with an introduction to I-Rang, the lawyer. He’s eager to get a job and does some great interviews, but every time they seem to go well, he soon receives rejection letters. No, this is not just about a job crisis; it’s actually a deeper problem. Turns out, I-Rang has a red mark on his CV. This means no firm will take him in. This is basically Korea’s version of being blacklisted. Now, the problem here is that I-Rang has never done anything to be blacklisted; it’s revealed slowly in the show that his father was allegedly wrongfully accused of something. We don’t know the full details yet, but it seems he was a prosecutor, and ever since his passing, I-Rang has faced mistreatment everywhere. From school to the current job search. This leads I-Rang to start his own firm. He learns his mother has some savings while being super drunk. This drunkenness makes him get excited, and he meets with a real estate agent. But the man just wants to scam him and sells him a shaman’s old place. At first, everything seems okay, and I-Rang thinks he can actually run a business all by himself, but can he? He’s already been scammed out of his money. What else could go wrong? Well, a lot, and we’re just about to find out. 

Who Is Gang-Pung The Ghost? 

Soon after he starts working in this office, I-Rang notices a man who is meant to be there to become a paralegal. But he gets a phone call where the person on the other line is calling to tell him that the paralegal’s already found another job. I-Rang simply ignores the call since the guy’s already there, only to suddenly realize that the person in front of him is floating, because he’s not a person at all, but a ghost. I-Rang rushes to the broker, trying to get out of the deal and get his mother’s money back, but the broker guilts him into staying there because he can simply tell his mother that he used her money to rent the place. Not wanting to stress his mom out any further, I-Rang stays on and soon forms a friendship with this ghost. 

The first order of business is to try to exorcise the place, and a priest shows up to tell him what to do. The priest says that if you burn the talisman on the wall, the ghost will disappear. But he also says that if you’re able to get the name and date of birth of the ghost, he’ll find his closure and leave on his own. The priest (who used to be a shaman himself) suggests I-Rang help the dead, because it’ll give him a better life, so I-Rang agrees to help the nameless ghost.

Lucky for him, the man’s wife shows up at his office, and he convinces her to talk to him about her problems, because the shaman’s gone. She tells him that her husband died on the operating table, and she reached out to the shaman specifically because her daughter hasn’t left her room for 5 months, since the death of her father. I-Rang listens to her, almost like an old friend, and just when she’s about to leave, asks her for her husband’s name and date of birth, with the ghost prompting him, of course. She tells him his name was Gang-Pung, and instantly, the ghost gets flashbacks of what happened to him. He even possesses I-Rang and hugs his wife, who proceeds to slap the lawyer for obvious reasons. 

What Happened With Gang-Pung? 

Now, I-Rang finds out that Gang-Pung died in the hospital, and they’re trying to settle, but he wants to help his new ghost friend get closure, so he decides to meet with Gang-Pung’s wife. Turns out, she was ready to sign the settlement papers, but I-Rang stops her in the last moment. This is when he meets lawyer Na-Hyun for the second time; she’s the one who didn’t ask him any questions and immediately rejected him because of the red mark on his CV. 

In court, I-Rang looks like he has the case in the bag, knowing that it was one of the nurses who was at fault, and there was an eyewitness too; however, he’s thrown off when Na-Hyun brings up the unexpected fact that Gang-Pung was actually a gangster, and she has proof. This makes the ghost frustrated, and instead of talking to I-rang, he decides to possess him and make a scene. Now, having suffered this embarrassment, I-Rang decides to burn the talisman so that he can do his job peacefully. This doesn’t mean he’s abandoning Gang-Pung, but the latter has gone off to see his daughter, who is suffering from stomach cramps after learning about her dad’s gangster life. 

Before the priest can finish the procedure of burning the talisman, Gang-Pung possesses I-Rang again and stops the man by picking him up off the floor. It takes so long for him to do it, but finally, he tells I-Rang about his daughter’s pain, and I-Rang rushes to the house. He opens the door with the help of the ghost, who tells him the house code, and brings the girl out. Na-Hyun happens to be there at the same time, possibly to talk about a settlement again, but I-Rang notices she’s in a car and asks her to drive them to the hospital. When they get there, she can’t go in, because it seems she has some trauma attached to being in the hospital in her teenage years. 

Turns out she has acute stomach cramps caused by stress and anxiety. I-Rang then goes to the nurse who got paid by the doctor to stay out of the case (the eyewitness) and tries to convince her through an emotional appeal. He tells her that kids will suffer from the mistakes their parents made, like his own case, and he implies that her son will eventually find out the truth about her. She says she can’t do anything, because the doctor will ruin her life, but she offers a solution, finding the EMR machine that was used in the case. Somehow, this leads I-Rang to go to a gangster’s storage unit where drugs are stored, because the hospital sold the EMR machine on the advice of Na-Hyun’s boss, Do-Gyeong, who seems like a bad guy. Anyway, Na-Hyun shows up at this storage unit, too, to get her hands on the same thing, knowing someone has anonymously tried to get their hands on it. 

In typical fashion, we see all the gangsters show up and go after I-Rang and his friend, and when Na-Hyun shows up, she tries to be dignified and asks for what she wants using her lawyerly ways. It works at first, but then I-Rang is also there, so it all gets messed up, prompting the bossman of the gangsters to beat them up. This is when Gang-Pung decides to possess I-Rang, because he had had enough of this guy when he was alive. Gang-Pung beats up the gangsters, and I-Rang is a hero. 

Does I-Rang win his first case? 

In the ending of episode 2, Na-Hyun notices the hard disk of the EMR in his pocket, and she first decides to take it from him so that she can win the case, but remembering how he stepped in when the gangster tried to hit her with a baseball bat, despite them being on opposite sides, she changes her mind. I-Rang eventually wins the case and tells Gang-Pung’s daughter not to blame herself for her father’s death. Turns out, she told him that he snored a lot, so he said he’d go to the doctor to get the problem fixed. If she hadn’t said that, he’d have never gone. But Gang-Pung goes to his daughter later that night, when she’s sleeping, and tells her that it wasn’t her fault, but the doctor’s and the hospital’s. She suddenly gets off the bed, telling her mum she heard her dad’s voice. Meaning, she now knows she’s not at fault, and everyone in this story has their closure. Eventually, despite his protests, I-rang has to let go of Gang-pung, and Gang-pung driftd happily away, knowing he doesn’t belong in our world anymore. 

The episode ends with the introduction of the next case, in which a K-pop trainee is going to be the ghost. It’s a case of bullying and suicide vs. murder. It looks like it’ll be interesting for sure. On the other hand, I-Rang’s mother found out the truth about his shaman office and even saw him possessed, so now she owns half of his business, because it’s her money he invested. Fun stuff, I love their relationship already. So, I think he’s going to get justice for his dad’s past too, likely with the help of these ghost cases. I’m excited to see what comes next on Phantom Lawyer. 

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