‘Vincenzo’ Episode 11: Review, Recap & Reactions

We left things last week with a nail-biting cliffhanger: Vincenzo claimed he knew who Babo aka the Real Babel Boss was. He looked intently at Jang Joon-woo, hinting that the charade was up for Cha-young’s intern!

Vincenzo episode 11 clarifies one major thing from that ending: he only knew half of the entire story. While the consigliere did get a name, Jang Han-seok, he was not able to connect it with a person. Little did he know that Babo was standing right in front of him.

The quest to find out who Babo is continues in this episode as Vincenzo gets tied up in a sticky legal affair. Find out all the glorious deets in this week’s review, recap, and real-time reactions. Feel free to leave your thoughts about this episode in the comments below!

And remember: if you missed our recap and review of previous Vincenzo episodes, you can always go back to them HERE.

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Vincenzo Episode 11 Review & Recap

The show almost baited us with that cliffhanger from the previous episode. With the way Vincenzo and Cha-young were eyeing Joon-woo, many viewers thought that the two of them finally figured out that he was Babo all along.

But apparently, they didn’t piece everything together because Vincenzo was only able to retrieve Babo’s real name: Jang Han-seok. The problem was he didn’t know that Han-seok was actually Jang Joon-woo in real life… until the end of this episode. And what a thrilling journey we went through to get to that point!

Vincenzo used a phone from one of Joon-woo’s hitmen to call Babo. In the most nail-biting and headache-inducing scene of the entire k-drama so far, Joon-woo’s phone actually rang inside his coat… while Vincenzo stood beside him. The psychotic chairman managed to trick the people in the tunnel as he put up his other phone in display, showing them that no one was calling him.

The crazy thing is the others didn’t think much of it… even when they found out later that Babo was in that area!

That was probably one of the most stupid miscalculations from Team Vincenzo that I found hard to believe. So you’re telling me that after all the crazy elaborate schemes that they had planned and executed, they couldn’t even figure out that it was Joon-woo all the time? I knew that it was just a way to prolong the big reveal further, but wow, did that make our protagonists look like idiots.

The opposition isn’t too bright either. It was actually Team Babel-Wusang’s misstep that led to the whole charade being over.

In classic mafia style, Vincenzo kidnapped and interrogated the hitmen hired by Joon-woo to kill him in the underpass. Now I’m not sure what their fate was, but it seemed like Vincenzo’s own hitmen — the people responsible for the death of the Babel whistleblower in episode 3 — left them to drown in a lake after trapping them inside a car with poisonous gas.

I thought that the decision to have Vincenzo hire those particular people was sooo out of the blue. Personally, I would’ve loved a little more background on how they were coerced to work for him.

It seems like the writers are planning to do something with them in the future, and just needed to get them on Vincenzo’s side as soon as possible to achieve their plan. That decision just led to many questions for me, with the biggest one being why Cha-young was cool with the entire set-up. I would’ve expected a bigger pushback from her with how the hitmen were so closely related to her father’s murder.

Frustrated with their losses, Ms. Choi suggested that they just come after Vincenzo the easiest way: by having him arrested as an ex-member of the Italian mafia. And in very meta fashion, he actually does get arrested and outed while playing a game of Mafia with the other building tenants. Everyone’s reactions were hilarious because they weren’t quite getting that Vincenzo was a real member of the mafia… until the police placed him in cuffs.

But lo and behold, the storyline involving An Gi-seok and his undercover mission finally paid off big time.

In signature overdramatic style, he bailed out Vincenzo by transferring him away from the corrupt hands of the Namdongbu Prosecutors’ Office, and into the custody of the International Organized Crime Bureau where he’s in charge.

After all the not-so-subtle spying he’s been doing, Gi-seok was finally able to gain Vincenzo’s trust by bailing him out. The Jipuragi Law Firm agreed to let him help them in their effort to take down Babel, making him the unofficial #4 player of their team. Part of their deal was that Vincenzo give Gi-seok a big ol’ lover’s hug which he had always wanted to do. Why does he worship him so much? Because he still thinks that Vincenzo loves Buddha and is on his road to redemption.

I think I loved the An Gi-seok reveal a lot because of the look on Cha-young and Vincenzo’s faces when he showed up to save the latter; they genuinely did not see it coming. It seemed like the two lawyers didn’t have any idea how to escape their predicament, so it was a huge sigh of relief for them to know that Gi-seok was actually an undercover cop coming to save the day.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen our leads have to depend on other people for help, so it was nice seeing them getting saved for once.

The entirety of Vincenzo episode 11 was definitely An Gi-seok’s breakthrough moment because he freakin’ stole all of the scenes he was in. It seems like he’s moving on to a more prominent role in the future with his secret out in the open. And you know what? I don’t mind it. Give me more of your diva-esque struts, king!

While in the custody of the Namdongbu Prosecutor’s Office, Vincenzo is shown photos of all the heinous things that he has done in the past. And then it clicked in his head: Jang Han-seok (aka Joon-woo) had someone gather intel on him in Italy. With some help from token Italian friend Luca, and making use of An Gi-seok’s resources, our team of lawyers were able to find the guy who got those incriminating photos.

We got a second torture scene in Vincenzo episode 11, but this one had a delicious twist. Joon-woo’s guy knew he’d end up dead anyway if he revealed who he was working for. Vincenzo didn’t seem fazed by this and brought out his secret weapon: a game of Russian roulette.

READ: ‘Vincenzo’ Episode 10: Review, Recap & Reactions

In perhaps the craziest and unnecessarily arrogant stunt he has ever pulled, Vincenzo loaded a revolver with one bullet. He pulled the trigger on himself and the guy three times before the latter finally caved and told the truth: Jang Han-seok is actually masquerading himself as a lawyer in Wusang and goes by the name Jang Joon-woo. Cue the suspense music and look of anguish in Vincenzo’s face because Cha-young just met up with him. The consigliere hurriedly called up his partner-in-crime who at that point, still thought that Joon-woo was her innocent ex-intern.

Then we end Vincenzo episode 11 with one hell of a scene: Joon-woo entered his apartment where Vincenzo had been waiting for him with a gun. The real chairman of Babel acted dumb at first, but we all know that he knew that Vincenzo knew. He went down on his knees with much hubris and practically begged Vincenzo to kill him.

That was a suspenseful and strong last third to end an already packed episode. It might actually be my favorite one of the entire k-drama so far because everything seemed so… purposeful. The problem with having an 80-minute running time is that there’s always a tendency to have too much filler and fluff. Everything was fast-paced, taking us from point A to point B to point C with purpose. While this episode seemed like it was solely designed to stretch the Babo reveal for a longer time, I feel like this was a more satisfying way for Vincenzo to learn about Jang Joon-woo’s real identity.

And I was such a huge fan of the second torture scene involving the guy who got the intel on Vincenzo. An earlier scene saw Joon-woo slice his jaw with a knife to prove a point to his brother. But then we saw Vincenzo play a careless game of Russian roulette later on, and suddenly, we realized how we’re watching two guys try to out-insane each other.

Speaking of Joon-woo’s brother, things are continuing to get interesting in the Team Babel-Wusang side of things. Jang Han-seo and Han Seung-hyeok have finally reached the same page after they were walking on eggshells in the previous episode. Both of them decided to plan a coup to overthrow Joon-woo as the chairman of Babel is on!

I don’t know how this is gonna pan out yet, but it seems clear that they’re gonna help Team Vincenzo defeat Babel before the series ends. You gotta love their underdog spirit because no viewer literally sees them as a legitimate threat to Joon-woo. But the important thing is, they’re trying!

The gold hunt in Geumga Plaza is also heading onto an interesting direction. After the tenants had learned that Vincenzo is actually part of the mafia, they convinced him to help them find the gold and split the earnings equally. Vincenzo was obviously upset by the whole situation, but had to fake that he was happy about the “news”. Only one caveat though: Seo Mi-ri overheard him plotting with Mr. Cho.

It seems like Vincenzo’s real intention in buying the building is going to come out soon, and I’m excited how the tenants — who worship him a lot — are going to react. But what I also found cute was that the tenants are genuinely worming their way into his heart. Mr. Cho had spread slander against the monks’ temple to help with retrieving the gold. But this plan was quickly shut down by Vincenzo because according to him, the monks were off-limits. Aaawww!

We also got to see the ruthless mafia lawyer’s heart soften more in Vincenzo episode 11 as he shared his first intimate moment with his mother. It felt like he was really trying to reach out to her this time; there was no yelling or backhanded comments.

And can we talk about that scene with Cha-young now? If you recalled last week, she ran to give him a hug in the underpass because she got super worried that he would end up dead. She decided to test whether or not she had feelings for Vincenzo by giving him another long hug. And you know what got me all up in my feels? Vincenzo was on board with the entire thing!

He didn’t feign disgust or anything like that when suggested it, he was just like: okay, hug me now.

Buuuut, after testing it out, Cha-young concluded that she just felt a rush of emotions for Vincenzo in the underpass because she was just frightened for him. Well all I can say is… you’re a liar, Cha-young!

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 Vincenzo Episode 11 Rating: 8.5/10 

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Favorite Moments in Vincenzo Episode 11

Man, there were so many moments I enjoyed here. My honorable mentions would be Vincenzo playing a game of Russian roulette, and Joon-woo slicing his face with Han-seo’s knife.

1. Joon-woo pulls the gun closer to his forehead

2. An Gi-seok makes a dramatic entrance

3. Cha-young hugs Vincenzo to test her feelings

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Vincenzo Episode 11 Reactions

1. I knew it! I knew they weren’t gonna find out it was Joon-woo when he was standing right there.

2. Damn it Vincenzo, don’t be stupid! Joon-woo’s coat is vibrating hile you’re calling Babo… WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

3. I can’t believe Vincenzo fell for that.

Jin-woo’s hitmen get interrogated

4. I believe in the proverb, “what goes around comes around”. So I am loving this torture of Joon-woo’s men inside a car after they killed the Babel victim’s families in their car.

5. They aren’t actually gonna murder them, right? Right?!

6. Yeah, the people who killed the whistleblower now working for Vincenzo threw me for a loop.

7. So they drowned the car with the people in them? Did Vincenzo just order their murder?

8. Let’s see Mr. Tak and Vincenzo duke it out in a fight, UFC style!

Cha-young tests her feelings for Vincenzo

9. This song with this scene of Vincenzo and Cha-young drinking is setting the mood for me.

10. Cha-young half-confessing her feelings to Vincenzo is exactly how I would’ve wanted things to happen. She just radiates Alpha Female energy.

11. I’m surprised Vincenzo is just rolling with Cha-young’s suggestion to test out her feelings for him. I thought he’d be panicking about the idea of something romantic developing between them.

12. They’re so cute!!! This is definitely a Top 3 Vincenzo and Cha-young moment.

13. The way Vincenzo was disappointed in her conclusion that she didn’t have feelings for him… aaawww it’s okay, baby boy!

Vincenzo shares a sweet moment with his mother

14. Here is our mandatory bi-episodic scene between Vincenzo and his mom.

15. She finally acknowledged she has a son. It’s about time!

16. Vincenzo being nice and comforting to his mom… who is this guy?

17. LMAO, I bet Vincenzo is really threatened by Mr. Tak deep inside.

Joon-woo gets arrested

18. Oh God, it’s killing me that they’re not figuring out it’s Joon-woo.

19. An Gi-seok is lowkey the funniest character in Vincenzo. I feel like he’s going to be very important sometime.

20. Who is coming after the monks and their temple? Oh, it’s just Mr. Cho.

21. Vincenzo refusing to play the Mafia game is totally not making him suspicious or anything.

22. I didn’t know the Babel losers now owned a balloon store inside the building. How adorable!

An Gi-seok saves Vincenzo

23. Fifty bucks say that Jang Han-seo is gonna be The Mole who’ll reveal to Team Vincenzo that Joon-woo is the real boss.

24. God, I can’t tell you how much I love Psycho Joon-woo. More than Intern Joon-woo, even.

25. Vincenzo is the freakin’ Corn Salad for an Italian Mafia. Write that down!

26. An Gi-seok and the random cleaning lady are gold. I knew the Director would come through!

27. This guy has a penchant for the dramatic, but given how he’s going to help out Vincenzo, I’ll give him a pass.

28. Vincenzo being devoted to Buddha is still one of my favorite erroneous beliefs of Gi-seok’s.

29. Gi-seok is officially my favorite character in this show. He deserves all the butt-grabbing hugs from Vincenzo after this.

30. Corn Salad Vincenzo is the funniest thing to happen in this show.

Han-seo and Seung-hyeok bond

31. So the “idiots” from Team Babel-Wusang are practicing how to shoot guns together. Interesting…

32. Han-seo finally saying what we’ve been thinking: Joon-woo isn’t that good.

33. I’m gonna call these two Team Phoenix from now on.

34. Uh oh, what’s Seo Mi-ri gonna do with this information?

35. It worries me every time Joon-woo calls Cha-young promising her some information.

Vincenzo gets Han-seok’s name

36. Is there a way to rig Russian Roulette? This is fucking insane, even for Vincenzo’s standards. I bet this gun is rigged though.

37. OH SHIT, NOW VINCENZO KNOWS FOR REAL!

38. Now this is how I wanted the big reveal to happen.

39. We are getting our first real face-off. I am living for this!

40. Joon-woo definitely has Cha-young kidnapped somewhere, right?

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What were your thoughts watching the eleventh episode of Vincenzo? Leave them in the comments below! And if you missed it, you can view our reactions and review for other episodes here.

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