Home > Vagabond > Here’s What Happened: Vagabond Episode by Episode Series Recap

Here’s What Happened: Vagabond Episode by Episode Series Recap

Episode by Episode recap summary for Kdrama Vagabond on Netflix
Episode by Episode recap summary for Kdrama Vagabond on Netflix

Don’t have time to read a full recap? Well, here is what happened in around 500 words or less in every episode of Vagabond. We update as the episodes air. Viewership ratings and links to full episode recaps are included at the end of each summary.

Vagabond is an action-thriller about a struggling stunt double who is trying to solve the mystery behind a tragic plane crash that reeks of conspiracy.


VAGABOND: EPISODE BY EPISODE RECAP SUMMARY

EPISODE 1

Cha Dal-gun, a struggling stunt double, decides to give his stunt and entertainment career up and works to support his nephew who is on the youth Taekwondo team for Korea. However, the B357 airplane carrying the Taekwondo team explodes in mid flight in a worldwide tragedy. Seeking solace, Dal-gun looks at the last video that his nephew sent him which shows the fun that the kids where having on the plane. However, once reaching Morocco for the funeral, Dal-gun recognizes someone from the flight in the airport. He chases the man down and realizes that he survived from the plane crash! But how? He uses all of this stunt man skills to chase the assassin through the streets of Tangier on a hunt for the truth. But the assassin gets away.

Meanwhile, we find out that John & Mark, is responsible for the plane crash and deliberately hired an assassin to make the plane appear to be malfunctioning which is what caused the disaster. The reason they are doing this is because they want a huge Korean military contract for a fighter plane that is most likely going to go to Dynamic Systems who are the company that manufactures the commercial B357. The crash changes all of that as the outcry of the Korean citizens is for the President to switch the contract from Dynamic Systems to John & Mark.

Full Recap: episode 1
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.2%, Seoul – 11.5%

EPISODE 2

The families of the deceased receive an in person apology from Edward Park of Dynamic Systems when Dal-gun comes in beaten and broken. He exclaims to everyone that the airplane crash was a terrorist attack! No one believes him so they go to the airport to look at the CCTV. Dal-gun tries to get Hae-ri, an NIS agent stationed in Morocco, to recognize the man that they both saw in the airport, but she does not. He ends up breaking into her place to convince her about the assassin and gives her a usb with his nephew’s video.

By now, the assassin is on to Dal-gun and seeks to kill him and destroy this video that has his face. So he wipes the original cloud file of Dal-guns and tries to get the copy that Hae-ri has. However, Hae-ri has already sent this video to a friend at the NIS.

Dal-gun finds out that the cloud file of his nephews video has been erased and also that someone broke into his apartment. He chases this person down in another big chase scene, but then gets apprehended by the Tangier police along with this man. In the police station, he tries to say that this man broke into his place and is with the terrorists!

Meanwhile, Hae-ri decides to act on the video that Dal-gun gave her and the information that her NIS friend gave her about a conversation the mystery man was having on the phone. She goes to the aviation organization that is piecing together the planes wreckage and finds out that the conversation that the co-pilot had directly matches the conversation that the mystery man had on the plane and surmises that this was a terrorist attack.

Full Recap: episode 2
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.3%, Seoul – 10.7%

EPISODE 3

Another NIS officer at the embassy pays Dal-gun’s bail to get him out of jail. But they get gunned down at a gas station and the NIS agent is shot. Dal-gun manages to get him to the hospital and calls Hae-ri to let her know that her colleague has been shot. Sh tells him that she will be there and that she has proof that the plane exploded from a terrorist attack.

On the way to the hospital, Hae-ri gets attacked in her apartment by the same guy that broke into Dal-guns place. She puts him at gunpoint and finds out that her colleague is a double agent and is working with the assassins. The colleague escapes from the hospital and Dal-gun runs after him.

Hae-rii is able to rendezvous with Dalgun as they trap her colleague on a street. But before getting any answers the colleague is shot by the assassin who is using a sniper rifle. The assassin is ready to kill Hae-ri and Dal-gun but gets stopped by his own team and killed for going rogue.

At the NIS, word has gotten around that this might be a terrorist attack on the airplane. We start to see that some agents want to investigate it and others want to cover it up. The reason they want to cover it up is because they are being bribed by the CEO of John & Mark, a woman named Jessica who will stop at nothing to get her company the Military contract. Jessica is instrumental in hiring another assassin to take out Dal-gun and to have it look natural.

They hire an assassin names Lilly who is prepared to kill Dal-gun at the airport in Seoul once they land.

Full Recap: episode 3
Ratings: Nationwide – 9.3%, Seoul – 9.1%

EPISODE 4

The assassination attempt does not work in the airport. The person that was supposed to taser Dal-gun gets a standing armbar by Dal-gun instead. But Hae-ri does not think anything of this and rather thinks that Dal-gun is being too paranoid.

Hae-ri and Dal-gun meet with her NIS friend to talk about what is going on inside the NIS about the terrorist attack. The only problem is, they can’t find out any information about anything. It is all blocked somehow. Dal-gun steps outside, frustrated, and gets approached by a reporter who tells him that he believes what he is saying, there was a terrorism report at the Seoul airport, but that woman is in intensive care now. Dal-gun follows this reporter to a secret meeting he is having with another man, but the reporter gets killed at this meeting.

Dal-gun chases after the man that killed the reporter in a high-speed car chase, but the man gets away. When they get back to the room reporter is not there and it has been scrubbed clean. However they do find a USB with all the information they need on the pilots among other things.

Several other events happen with the family members of the deceased, Dal-gun meeting with Edward Park of Dynamic Systems, and Hae-ri’s life at the NIS. But the most important is that we find out that the NIS is not pursuing this as a terrorism case. They are sweeping it under the rug.

In addition, Dal-gun has another attempt on his life as the brakes go out and the accelerator sticks on his friend car when they are driving to the family meeting. Dalgun has to flip the car for them to survive.

In the end of the episode, they take a tow truck to a press conference event Jessica is having at a children’s hospital to confront her about John & Mark and the terrorism attack on the B357.

Full Recap: episode 4
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.2%, Seoul – 11.1%

EPISODE 5

At the hospital, Dal-gun’s friend tells all the reporters about the attack on their life and the terrorism attack on the plane. They have video footage that proves it. The NIS gets a lot of calls from the press about this which puts them in panic mode.

Meanwhile, Hae-ri tries to trick one of her fellow NIS agents into getting drunk so she can steal his keys to find the information she needs from the NIS. However this agent is in on it and only pretended to be drunk. This culminates in a meeting with Hae-ri and another agent named Tae-woong. They discuss all the people that died and how it is a cover up. Hae-rii ends up giving this recording to Dal-gun after he has another attempt on his life by Lilly

Dal-gun manages to break into the Blue House (similar to the White House) to go to a family of the deceased meeting that he was not on the list for. He plays the recording for the President and all of the press there. This gets shown live Nationwide. Dal-gun also points at one of the co-pilots wives and says that she is in on it!

Afterward, Dal-gun mets with the president and is put in protective custody. He is sent to a secret NIS safe house in the woods. However, Jessica has gotten word and wants to send in another specialist to kill Dal-gun.

Full Recap: episode 5
Ratings: Nationwide – 11.5%, Seoul – 11.2%

EPISODE 6

Another assassination attempt is made on Dal-gun while in NIS protective custody. We find out that many NIS agents are double agents and that NIS director Min is taking money from John & Mark. At the same time, the co-pilots wife has been taken in for questioning, she does not give anything up, but, upon release, she is followed by Tae-woong and another NIS agent. They apprehend her at a Catholic church as she calls her husband in Tangier and tries to get rid of the phones sim card.

Min thinks that Dal-gun is dead, but Dal-gun was actually saved by Haeri. So he, Hae-ri, and a trustworthy Director Kang work on finding Min to pin him for working with terrorists. However, the assassin find out that Dal-gun is alive and orchestrate a car crash on Tae-woong and his agents in order to take the co-pilots wife with them. Everything works perfectly.

A city wide hunt is also put out on Min, however, Min is saved by John & Mark and taken to Jessica’s condo.

The Prime Minister and the President are less than thrilled at the turn of events. They would much rather prefer to take John & Mark as the military contractor. So they try to force the Head of the NIS’s hand with it. If it fails, then they will blame it all on him or on the Minister of the Military.

Meanwhile, while sitting in his car with his Judo friend, Dal-gun sees the dead reporter walking across the street.

Full Recap: episode 6
Ratings: Nationwide – 11.3%, Seoul – 12.3%

EPISODE 7

Dal-gun runs after the “dead” reporter that he thinks he sees in the street. But he does not find him, he does find Edward Park and has a meeting with him where he says they will look into it.

The main focus of this episode is to find the co-pilot and the co-pilots wife. Unknown to them, the co-pilots wife is with North Koreans who are also looking for the co-pilot and will happily torture her to find his location.

Meanwhile, The NIS set up a secret task force to accomplish this. They traced the call back to Tangier so thier goal is to go to Morocco again and try and find the co-pilot. However, Tae-woong is still seriously banged up from the car crash, so director Kang gives him a seemingly unlimited supply of Morphine to help with the pain via syringe. They will set off for Tangier soon.

Dal-gun convinces Hae-ri to tell him what is going on with the investigation and buys a ticket to Tangier as well. He wants to search for the co-pilot at the same time. When they get to Tangier, their main focus is to find someone who is buying a lot of water bottles because only locals can drink the water from the tap without getting sick.

Dal-gun decides to use Hae-rii once again for intel and then sets about hopping rooftops in order to find the co-pilot. When he sees a lot of water bottles on a rooftop, he knows that there is a big chance that the co-pilot is inside. When he sneaks inside, he is held up at gun point by the co-pilot.

Full Recap: episode 7
Ratings: Nationwide – 11.4%, Seoul – 12.2%

EPISODE 8

Through intel found in the last episode, Jessica was taken in to be interrogated by the NIS, but they have to let her out 48 hours later due to lack of evidence. However, Dal-gun catches the co-pilot in time for Kang to put Jessica back into the interrogation room for another 48 hour time block.

In Tangier, Dal-gun fought with the co-pilot and was able to catch him. However, the Tangier police also wanted to catch him (because they are paid off by John & Mark) along with the NIS wanting to catch him. So there is a three way scene where everyone wants this co-pilot and talk to each other about it in an alley. The NIS manages to get him and starts interrogating him right away. The co-pilot is actually a druggie and lets it lip that he got $5 million for the plane crash.

The NIS agents are all set to take the co-pilot back to Korea, but Lilly the assassin is back on another job – kill them all. So, on the way out of Tangier, the is caravan is ambushed in a scene straight out of Clear and Present Danger. Their cars are shot up with bazookas and machine guns as they sit helplessly by. But they manage to escape via Hae-ri and Dal-gun who drive a taxi to the rescue.

However, the co-pilot is badly injured in the leg and spewing blood. They drive him quickly to the Korean embassy where they have to perform emergency surgery on his leg, themselves, to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. Everything is miraculously successful.

However, the co-pilot starts to seizure as if he is in shock. The doctor on the phone tells him that he needs a blood transfusion, now! Hae-ri tells them all that he is type O. Dal-gun says that he is also type O! Give him my blood!

At the same time, through many machinations with the Prime Minister, President, Civil Affairs Minister, and the NIS chief, everything gets turned on its head in Korea. Kang’s entire special task force to the NIS has been removed and replace by a new team. Min is back in charge in the NIS and runs this new team. And Kang is put in handcuffs and taken away. Due to all of this, Jessica is released and happily smiles at Kang as she walks out.

Full Recap: episode 8
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.1%, Seoul – 10.2%

EPISODE 9

Dal-gun and team are hauled up at the Embassy in Tangier as Dal-gun direct lines his blood through a filter to the co-pilot. They continue to wait for help because they cannot leave the embassy or face the private assassins waiting outside in the form of The North Korean NIS team and Lilly and her team.

In Korea, Min gathers his own team of elite force black-op NIS agents and sends them off to Tangier to enter the embassy under the cover of helping and then kill the co-pilot and Dal-gun. If they need to kill the other NIS agents, then so be it.

Director Kang is in jail and fights off two guards in a bathroom and calls a reporter to let the President know that Min is trying to get rid of the co-pilot. The reporter get the message to the secretary, but it does not make it to the President as it is intercepted by The Prime Minister and the Civil Affairs Minister.

Kang and Hwa-sook devise another plan to get word to Tae-woong in Tangier. The plan is to call a chicken place and give them the name Vagabond which is a secret code that only Director Kang and Tae-woong know. When the food is delivered, Hwa-sook writes on the receipt that the agents are sent to kill the co-pilot. This message is relayed via cell phone by the chicken lady to Tae-woong.

Tae-woong feels that he cannot do anything about this so when the agents show up, he locks himself and his right hand agent up in a room where they are prepared to watch the events unfold on a TV. Downstairs, the agents sent to kill the co-pilot and Dal-gun start to attack them. It is Dal-gun and Hae-ri vs several elite black-op agents as they try to protect the co-pilot.

A side story is that Jessica has talked to the co-pilots wife and convinced her to have a press conference where she tells all of Korea and the world that her husband was payed to crash the plane by Dynamic Systems. She will be paid handsomely for this. After the press conference, Edward Park hurries back to his company only to be greeted by Jessica who says that the game is on.

Full Recap: episode 9
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.6%, Seoul – 10.8%

EPISODE 10

The bad NIS agents try to kill Dong-chan and the co-pilot over night. Hae-ri is the only one to protect them as Tae-woong has hauled himself up with the other agent in a viewing room. The firefight rages on downstairs. But then Tae-woong decides to help along with the other agent. They enter the fire fight and are able to shoot their way to a room.

The bad NIS agents are able to keep up the fire fight until Dong-chan and team run out of ammunition. However, they have an ace up their sleeve because Edward Parks secretary sent Hae-ri a message to find cover and then gave her a count down until something would happen. They do not know what that something is.

The countdown ends right around the time that the team runs out of bullets, so Dong-chan bluffs to the bad NIS agents that there is a bomb in the building that will go off, he shows them the timer and says that if he lets it get to zero then they are all dead. The bad agents call his bluff. But, in a surprise to everyone, a bomb does actually go off sending the bad NIS agents falling to the cellar.

Taewoong shoots all the agents that survived the fall and tells Dong-chan and team to run away. he gives Hae-ri the chicken restaurant secret phone number and Vagabond password. Then he calls the NIS and lets them know that Dong-chan and Haeri escaped with the co-pilot.

Edward park helps Dong-chan and team onto a cargo ship headed to Seoul. Meanwhile, Tae-woong and the other officer are arrested upon returning to Seoul. They will go to jail unless they give a press conference saying that Dong-chan is the enemy and involved in all of this. So Taewoong does that.

In a side story, Min tries to poison Director Kang in his jail cell. It works and Director Kang is murdered after eating his meal. But he is not dead for long as we find out that he somehow survived and is now living at the chicken restaurant. Together, he and Dong-chan and team plan their return to Korea.

Full Recap: episode 10
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.2%, Seoul – 10.6%

EPISODE 11

The budget for the war plane is confirmed by house vote in Korea’s congress. The President, Prime Minister, Ministry of the Military, Civil Affairs Minister and other key people all sit together and smile as they say that even though it is fixed, it still feels good that it all passed.

We also learn a bit more about the chicken restaurant. The ajumma that runs the place is he wife of a former NIS agent and her brother is a savant with computers and codes. So he is able to thwart a lot of the NIS’s computer people’s efforts at locating Dal-gun and team.

In the main storyline, Dal-gun and team are still on the freight ship heading to Korea. They continuously video chat to the NIS about their demands as the NIS tries to locate them. But, during one of the broadcasts Min sees that Hae-ri’s watch has a certain time on it and somehow is able to figure out that they must be on a freight ship heading to Incheon’s Harbor.

The episode ends with Min and the evil NIS team heading to the harbor and finding Dal-gun and team inside one of the cargo containers. But the cargo container has been moved onto an 18-wheeler so there is a huge chase shootout involving the North Korean assassin team and the bad NIS agents the 18-wheeler. But the team has to continue onward because they need to get the co-pilot to court. Min and team will do all they can to keep the co-pilot from court.

Full Recap: episode 11
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.2%, Seoul – 10.0%

EPISODE 12

Getting Kim Woo-gi (the co-pilot) to the courthouse takes up this entire episode and it is a thrilling ride.

The heat is on as soon as the crate housing Dal-gun, Hae-ri, and the co-pilot starts to take fire from The North Korean assassin and the bad NIS agents. Dal-gun runs to grab their car so they can all hop in and take off on a huge chase through the city that gets caught off and on on Social media. But he bad agents are able to keep it out of the news.

By using his stunt driving skills, Dal-gun is able to elude Min and team. So Min has to tell Han-ki that they lost Dal-gun. Han-ki calls in the big dogs and has to tell the President what is going on. The president is irate at this and basically tells Han-ki that he has to fix it.

So, Han-ki calls the SWAT team and puts out a shoot to kill order on Dal-gun and company. The SWAT team is able to trap Dal-gun and team on a street, a huge shoot out happens. But the family members have seen what is happening on social media and have come to the rescue with a dump truck to stop all the bullets and let Dal-gun and team escape to the courthouse.

At the courthouse the family members attack Min and team and help Dal-gun, Hae-ri, and the copilot get to the courthouse, but the co-pilot gets shot by sniper Lilly. So the family members come to the rescue again and put up a human shied around the co-pilot to get him safely inside the building.

The episode ends with Dal-gun. Hae-ri, and the co-pilot bursting through the doors to announce that the Kim Woo-gi is here.

All the side stories today are related to either helping or hindering Dal-gun and team from getting to the courthouse. The chicken team uses their hacking, Edward Park uses his connections, and the family members and citizens use what they can do to help. The President, Prime Minister, Civil Affairs Minister, Jessica, Min and their underlings all try to stop them.

Full Recap: episode 12
Ratings: Nationwide – 10.2%, Seoul – 10.0%

EPISODE 13

Everything breaks wide open in court. There is a secret video that Kim Woobi has that basically makes the case for the defense. It has everyone pertinent on tape. But even so, the judge says that john & Mark owes the family members $11 million. The family says that Dynamic Systems should pay, not John & Mark. But Edward Park says that John & Mark want to pay and he bows to all the family members several times. The news media all start to spout this breaking news.

After the case was won, the family members all apologize to Dalgun and Haeri collapses due to a gun wound that she didn’t really notice was bad until this moment. So Dalgun rushes her to the hospital. Hae-ri has to have emergency surgery and also rehab after surgery to learn how to walk again because her bone was bruised enough to need rehab.

Meanwhile, Han-ki meets the President of Korea and basically is about to become the fall guy for this entire thing. But Han-ki has recordings of everything as well. However, when he gets back to his car the recordings are gone, he sees a gift in there which is basically telling him to commit suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning, so he does.

Jessica is also in big trouble because the secret military party she threw has been released to the public. Jessica ends up going to jail and is cell mates with the co-pilot’s wife. The wife tells all the other cellmates to beat her up. A few days later, Jessica gets the upper hand and has the cell mates beat the wife up. But the wife does not care because she knows that she will be out of prison sooner that Jessica which happens by the end of the episode.

Jessica has a reveal where we find out that she did not know that Michael didn’t kill himself and was actually murdered. So she calls Lilly to help her find out more. She thinks that her lawyer might not actually be on her side and perhaps released that secret video.

Full Recap: episode 13
Ratings: Nationwide – 12.8%, Seoul – 12.6%

EPISODE 14

Hae-ri goes back to work to a big welcome by everyone. Meanwhile, Dal-gun is out eating with the family members when he gets a call from Lilly who tells him that Jessica wants to see him. He meets her in jail with Hae-ri. Jessica tells them that she did not make the airplane crash and she did not have Michael killed. All she knows is that Michaels girlfriend was a Japanese photographer in college.

Meanwhile, Lilly & the North Korean NIS officer, and Kang & his team are looking around for the co-pilots wife. The wife is on the run and waiting for her millions of dollars to show up in her account, otherwise she will reveal a big secret.

Elsewhere, Hae-ri and Dal-gun go to a mental hospital prison to talk to the co-pilot. they are amazed that this mental hospital looks so bad. But we, the viewers, find out that the original airplane assassin, Jerome, is still alive and running this mental hospital and basically torturing the co-pilot whenever he has the chance. The co-pilot tells Hae-ri and Dal-gun to save him, but the guard says that he always does this, so Dalgun and Hae-ri leave thinking that nothing is amiss.

We also find out that the Prime Minister has turned on the president and basically had a press conference that blames him for everything, that Han-ki, the Civil Affairs Minister, is still alive in the hospital, the NIS team tries to find out who Jerome is by hacking every CIA type organization in the world, and the dead reporter isn’t actually dead and isn’t really a reporter.

Somewhere in here we also find out that Jessica’s lawyer is Edward Parks nephew.

In the end of the episode, the co-pilots wife is on the run from Jerome who traps her in a department store. Dal-gun also finds her there and has a face-off with Jerome.

Full Recap: episode 14
Ratings: Nationwide – 11.2%, Seoul – 11.3%

EPISODE 15

Coming up!

Full Recap: episode 15
Ratings: Nationwide – 11.8%, Seoul – 12.1%

EPISODE 16

Coming up!

Full Recap: episode 16
Ratings: Nationwide – %, Seoul – %

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6 Comments

  1. Rei
    October 13, 2019 / 1:59 am

    Great idea with the short recaps… Thank you!!!

    • V
      Author
      October 14, 2019 / 10:49 am

      You’re welcome!

  2. Johanna
    May 1, 2020 / 1:19 pm

    Thanks soo much!!

  3. Anonymous
    September 16, 2020 / 11:08 am

    great one! but wheres the summary for ep15 and ep16?

  4. Anonymous
    May 29, 2021 / 2:23 am

    You got some of the names mixed up.

  5. Rachel
    June 5, 2021 / 4:20 pm

    Great

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