A mission of Love

Episode 1:

Right off the bat we start with a sequence intercutting our two leads: KANG-WOO and HAN MYUNG-WOL , both engaged in battle.

Kang-woo's is a rooftop standoff with a police officer , which is quickly revealed to be a glorious, tragic ending scene in one of his action movies. High-ranking military officials watch the movie from their Pyongyang, North Korea, headquarters, and the superior officer marvels at his star power, wondering why they don't have an actor of that magnitude on their side.

Myung-wol's scenario, on the other hand, is a higher-stakes challenge. She dodges bullets and takes down her pursuers with an explosive, then sweats nervously while she faces a ticking bomb, which she must disarm.

Something flies into her field of vision, though, and Myung-wol is briefly distracted - it's a butterfly - which is long enough for the bomb to tick down to zero. Thankfully, it's not a real bomb - this was a test - but alas, she has failed.

It's Myung-wol's dream to work for the special forces unit, but today's lapse means she has failed in the final round. She tells the special forces agent, CHOI RYU, that she will re-apply in three months, ignoring his suggestion that she stick to what she's good at.

Ryu refers to the work she currently does, as she's currently a member of the Hallyu crackdown squad, and it tickles me that there's even such a thing. Her unit deals with illegal distribution and smuggling of media such as South Korean dramas, and she gets back to work on one such case.

Acting on intel, her team locates one such source and arranges a hand-off. Myung-wol tracks him down and arrests him as he's screening Kang-woo's newest drama. (The girls salivate over his charisma and good looks, and even the men admit he's got appeal.)

General Kim - who happens to be father to a Kang-woo superfan - discusses a mission with Ryu, which he declares must proceed with utmost secrecy. For it, he selects agent Han Myung-wol, who has stellar records and, conveniently, no family or close friends.

Ryu warns, however, that despite her outstanding profile on paper, she has a fatal flaw: She acts before she thinks.

Nevertheless, Ryu accompanies Myung-wol to Singapore, where they act as guard to General Kim's daughter Eun-joo. That means keeping a close eye on the teenager and taking her to Kang-woo's concert.

There's a part of this mission that isn't revealed to Myung-wol, who's told merely to stick to her direct orders. Ryu keeps a tight lid on the details, which suggests there's a bigger goal out there.

As for Kang-woo himself, it appears he's quite the perfectionist - no idle idol is he. He puts on a flashy show, then nitpicks every little flaw in the planning despite the successful performance. He's got an ego, sure, but it's far from Dokko Jin proportions (the latter of whom practically needed a separate planet to deal with the weight of his self-importance). Interesting trait, given that his image in front of the cameras is that of an easy-going, smiling top star.

Eun-joo tries to sneak out of their room - the same hotel where Kang-woo is staying - to find her star, only to be stopped by Myung-wol, who reminds her that she isn't to show her face in public. Eun-joo pouts that all she wants is a single autograph, since she'd worked so hard to come in the first place (she'd gone on a hunger strike, which weakened Daddy General's opposition, heh).

Eun-joo tells Myung-wol to get the autograph instead, taunting her that surely an elite agent such as she would be able to manage it. So Myung-wol tries to slip by security to accost Kang-woo by the pool, only to be turned away. She turns to leave, but Eun-joo's words goad her onward, and she comes back for round two.