Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area Season 1 Episode 3 Recap – Episode 3

This episode started by showing Moscow coming out of prison. The Professor was already waiting for him when he was walking out of the prison gates. The Professor told him that he was needed for the job he wanted to pull off. Moscow didn’t want to hear any more explanation from the Professor and said he would participate in the heist. However, he asked the Professor to let his son join in as well.

That day, Moscow meets up with his son, Denver. When Moscow found Denver, he had been chased by some men sent by the gamblers who bet on him. Denver had been outnumbered but managed to escape them. Moscow asked his son to join him. And with all the money they would get from the heist, they would live a better life in a different place. 

At present, everyone is tense. After what happened to Misun, the other hostages get angry at the director. They know that the director was the one who asked Misun to get the smartwatch. But the director, of course, denies this. He says that Misun volunteered to take the smartwatch herself.

When Berlin goes to the toilet to check on Misun, he finds her lying on the floor, face down. Blood flows from beneath her body, and Berlin avoids it. He steps on her hand to make sure she’s dead. Denver remains quiet, so Berlin tells him he did a good job. He then asks him to get rid of the body where no one would find it.

Tokyo confronts Berlin. She reminds him that they are not supposed to kill or hurt anybody. She thinks that he’s not capable of leading the heist and just wants to be in control of everyone around him. However, Tokyo doesn’t win the argument because Helsinki and Oslo take Berlin’s side and even point their guns at Tokyo. Rio gets scared, and instead of taking a side, he pulls Tokyo out of the room. Berlin answers the Professor’s call and tells him everything’s going well inside the Mint.

Tokyo goes to a room, getting further inside the Mint. She finds Denver looking after Misun, bleeding from the gunshot she received.

What happened was that Denver shot the gun over her head. But then he couldn’t get himself to kill her. He told Misun that if Berlin found out she was alive, Berlin would kill her himself. So, Misun asked him to shoot her in the thigh, and she would just pretend to be dead afterward. Denver refused at first, but he eventually did it. He asked Misun to bite his arm because he knew getting shot in the thigh would be painful.

Now, hiding from Berlin, Tokyo applies first aid to Misun. She asks Denver to continue giving Misun antibiotics from time to time. She says they would have to change who’s in charge. But first, they should deal with Helsinki and Oslo. Before they did the heist, the Professor asked them who wanted to be the leader once they were inside the Mint. Nairobi volunteered, but they decided she was not the best choice. Berlin then volunteered to lead all of them.

Denver leaves his post to check on Misun and feed her. All she thinks about is how the director is doing.

Meanwhile, the North Koreans finally confront the director. They think he should be punished for what he did. The vice director says people get in trouble because the director only wants to save himself. Moscow comes just in time and stops all of them from fighting. In the lobby, tension is rising between the North and South Koreans.

Tokyo walks away after eating, and Oslo follows him after getting a signal from Berlin. Tokyo has planned this, and she knows Oslo will follow her. She locks herself inside a room, then Denver comes out from another door and attacks Oslo. The fight isn’t easy. Denver thought Oslo would easily be defeated without a gun, but he was wrong. After beating up each other, Denver wins.

On the other hand, Helsinki hears something from the room where Misun is. He has seen her already, but Tokyo gets there in time to stop him. With a gun pointing to his head, Helsinki follows Tokyo. The Professor is suspicious of what the police are doing. He asks Rio to check the broken smartwatch. Rio finds that data was transferred. Judging by the file size, it could be an image or a video. So, the Professor says he will handle it.

Rio is right. The police manage to get a short video from inside the Mint, and they figure out that Rio is one of the robbers. They know that he got into trouble because he’s been a hacker since his teenage years. They check the faces of the people who visited the surrounding area days before the heist and managed to find a clip of Nairobi walking with Rio. They now know that Nairobi is a con artist. 

Woojin’s mother sees her grandchild getting inside a car on her way home. She tries to call Woojin but can’t reach her. So, she contacts the Professor instead. The Professor makes his way past the reporters and security in JEA to get into the tent where the police and Woojin are. Catching his breath, he tells Woojin her mother contacted him because she couldn’t reach her.

While Woojin talks on the phone, the Professor takes his time to scan the area. He finds out that two of the robbers are now identified by the Police. Woojin’s ex-husband has a restraining order, so Woojin wants him to take their daughter home immediately. The Professor tries to comfort her, but Woojin asks him to leave because they are in a secure facility.

Inside the Mint, Tokyo confronts Berlin once again. But this time, with Denver by her side. They have disarmed Helsinki, Oslo, and Berlin. Tokyo says Berlin will ruin the Professor’s plan and that he should give up his position. Berlin calmly suggests they all take a vote on who will lead them. Nairobi, Denver, and Rio vote for Tokyo. They think that killing Misun is too much and unnecessary. However, when the Professor returns to the cafe and calls them, the others change their minds. Rio and Nairobi find out they’ve been identified, so they decide to side with Berlin.

Moscow walks into the room and hears about Denver killing someone. He falls to the floor after hearing this. Then, he complains to the Professor about why someone had to die at the hands of his son. Denver can’t tell the truth to his father, so he just follows him when he walks away. Moscow blames himself for how Denver turned out to be. The plan was to get money from the heist and live an ordinary life. He didn’t want his son to be just like him.

With tears in his eyes, he opens the main door of the Mint. The Professor tells Berlin that keeping everyone alive is the key principle for the perfect heist. They need all the hostages to be safe just in case the police ask about them. When Rio tells everyone the main door is open, the Professor lets Berlin execute his plan. 

Moscow comes out of the Mint without a mask. When the authorities see the door opening, they quickly approach the place and alert the snipers. Denver wears a mask and jumps on his father to cover his face. Moscow continues to cry and thinks surrendering is the only way to receive a lesser punishment. They both lie on the ground, hugging each other. Denver tells his father he didn’t kill Misun.

Woojin figures out that the two are not hostages, but they are both robbers. She alerts everyone to prepare for what will happen next. Berlin gathers some of the hostages, gives them fake guns, and asks them to go out. The robbers, along with the hostages, come out of the Mint and cover Moscow and Denver. Tokyo hands Denver a mask. The police can’t tell them apart because they all wear masks and red jumpsuits. When Rio hears that Misun is still alive, he argues with Denver.

When he accidentally drops his gun, the director quickly picks it up and points it toward everyone. The director tells them to put down their guns. Because the police think the one threatening the others is a robber, Woojin gives the signal to shoot him. The bullet hits the director in the chest, and he immediately falls to the ground.

Our Thoughts:

The other hostages believed the robbers when the latter told them they would be treated humanely if they followed orders. Everyone believed it except the director. That’s why he chose to act to save himself instead of cooperating. Now, the other hostages hate him even more. They blame him for what happened to Misun. And Denver is spending a lot of time and effort keeping Misun alive. Does he like her, or does he feel guilty about shooting her? We didn’t expect Moscow to open the main door. We thought the police would finally take that chance and get inside the Mint. But instead, they just approach the Mint and wait for Moscow’s next move. Berlin is the scary guy here. He doesn’t even show any emotion. Tokyo wanted to execute the plan just as they intended to do so, but a lot of unexpected things happened. 

The Professor made a bold move of going inside the tent where the negotiation was happening. Woojin should be suspicious of him by now. Maybe the Professor did something; that’s why Woojin’s ex-husband came to see their daughter. Woojin should just focus on her work. Even though she doesn’t know the Professor’s identity, she should realize by now that he is just distracting her.