The Judge Returns Episode 1-2 Review
Director: Lee Jae-jin and Park Mi-yeon
Date Created: 2026-01-04 02:26
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The Judge Returns Episode 1-2 Review: The dark, morally complex, legal thriller drama directed by Lee Jae-jin and Park Mi-yeon features Ji Sung as Lee Han-young, Park Hee-soon as the formidable Chief Justice Kang Shin-jin, and Won Ji-a as determined prosecutor Kim Jin-a. Also known as Judge Lee Han-young (판사 이한영), this series had 14 episodes and aired every Friday and Saturday. Right from the start, the drama creates a dark universe where justice can be bought, rights are passed down, and the price for living is usually more than one’s moral standards.
The Judge Returns Episode 1 Recap
Episode 1 of The Judge Returns starts with a shocking, puzzling event: Lee Han-young is racing through rain-drenched streets when a cloaked assailant stabs him, proclaiming that everything is finished in a heartless manner. The narrative then shifts to 2035, when a difficult law is enacted in Seoul aimed at “cleaning” the city by the brutal eviction of homeless people from the streets. The policy, which is presented as a public safety measure, forces vulnerable people into dilapidated areas, which in turn leads to an alarming rise in suicides and a backlash of angry protests.
S-Group, the powerful business cartel, which has the whole city under its corrupt thumb, is the one that seems to be doing the most good and thus catches the eye of justice, but is actually manipulating the law from the back room. Han-young is already a famous judge with a perfect record of convictions and is the one who is going to decide on a case of great public interest regarding Gojin Chemical Company, whose factory workers became sick and died because of being exposed to toxic chemicals.
The judge’s decision came down against them, denying them even to the point where he meted out nothing in terms of compensation despite the presence of the indisputable evidence and the passionate advocacy from the families of the victims.
It was a heavy blow for the courtroom, and afterwards, it became the direct cause of the disaster of the suicide of one of the victims, Han Na-young. Han-young seems to be unaffected on the outside, but silently, remorse sets in. His private life offers scant consolation. He is already a captive of the elite due to being married to a daughter of a law firm and burdened with the medical care of his father, which drains his finances, which is why he is already a pawn of the elite.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor Kim Jin-a leads a long-planned raid on S-Group and moves at a pace so as not to allow any evidence to be destroyed. With deep investigations into financial crimes, she quickly identifies Han-young as part of the system protecting corporate power. When Han-young tries to immediately resign after receiving incriminating evidence, this action is outright rejected, further tightening the noose around him.
The ending of The Judge Returns Episode 1 is quite shocking; after finally giving a much more serious verdict against S-Group’s leadership, Han-young gets arrested for murder and charged with murder, claiming he has been framed.
The Judge Returns Episode 2 Recap
Episode 2 of The Judge Returns starts with chaos: Han-young wakes up unconscious in his office next to a dead body. He realises the scene has been staged with him as the suspect. Then, it is found that the victim was the key whistleblower in the S-Group case, and thus, it is clear that Han-young is being eliminated rather than punished.
The system moves fast despite Jin-a’s doubts: in no time, Han-young is sent to prison, where even behind bars, betrayal awaits him. Manipulated into thinking death is the only escape, he attempts suicide but lives on. Refusing to die quietly, Han-young manages to escape and sets off to rescue his kidnapped father, only to find himself brutally murdered instead.
In his dying breath, Han-young identifies his murderer as the personal bodyguard of Chief Justice Kang Shin-jin and confirms that corruption goes right to the top of the judiciary. As he dies, he is confronted by visions of those harmed by his past rulings, overcome with regret.
Then comes the turning point: Han-young finds himself alive in a courtroom, ten years in the past, in 2025, during The Judge Returns kdrama ep 2. Realising that he has been accorded a second chance, he immediately changes course. When a petty criminal stands before him, Han-young remembers that this man later became a serial killer. This time, he delivers the toughest sentence he can, to the astonishment of everyone there.
Determined to change the course of things, Han-young begins early to hunt down the serial killer, unearthing buried crimes and saving those previously wronged by accusations. The Judge Returns Episode 2 closes with a cliffhanger: Han-young violently confronts the killer, raising questions as to how far he will go—and if one man can correct justice.
The Judge Returns Episode 1-2 Review
The Judge Returns episodes 1 and 2 were like a gut punch followed by a prolonged choking grip. Instead of drawing the audience in with a slow-burning courtroom drama, the series presented a complete disruption of a man’s life, complete with rain-soaked streets, unfriendly courtrooms, and a justice system that destroys anyone who dares to hope for fairness. Lee Han-young is initially characterised as all the things to be hated: competent, unassailable, and void of any ethics. But the moment his carefully built façade begins to crumble, the narrative takes you to his downfall with an ease that is disturbing.
The first episode is all about the suffocating tension. Heavy is the consequence every single scene carries, starting from the explosive industrial lawsuit and ending with Han-young’s indifference to the casualties who depended on the court for salvation. The episode does not hurry to reveal his depravity, but rather lets it rot and spread. The impact feels very painfully earned when the tragedy hits on a personal level. The brilliance is in the way the series does not present Han-young as a misunderstood hero; instead, he is complicit, cowardly and painfully aware of it. That self-awareness turns his suffering into something far more engaging than a mere villain’s arc could ever be.
Then, the second episode completely upends the situation. What starts as a paranoid nightmare, blood, a corpse, and a perfectly executed frame-up, rapidly becomes more of an existential issue. Imprisonment takes away the last remnants of power Han-young was holding on to and turns him into just another useless pawn in a fixed game. His demise doesn’t come across as dramatic or noble; it is felt as excruciatingly ironic, brutal and pointless. When the storyline seems ready to “write him off,” the series goes one step further and “erases” him completely.
The time reset is where The Judge Returns Korean drama, really sinks its hook. Getting up ten years back isn’t a miracle; it’s an inconvenience. Han-young is not a relieved person; he is a shaken, haunted, and a man who knows too well the weight of the futures he is carrying. His instant decision to change fate, even in a way that disturbs the people around him, is a signal of a new version of justice that is dangerous, one that is decisive, ruthless, and unapologetically proactive. It makes you wonder if salvation is even the goal anymore, or if this second chance is just a different kind of penalisation.
By the end of The Judge Returns kdrama ep 2, it presents itself as a tale of the choice between imperfect justice and irreversible regret. With the enemies already circling, futures already activated, and a judge who is fully aware of how badly the situation can go, the drama marks out a path of tension and moral messiness. And after only two episodes, one cannot help but lean in, uneasy, intrigued, and waiting to witness how much of the future can actually be altered.
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