I strongly believe it's either Seokmin or Dokyung who directly murdered Madam Ju. In the scene where she is talking with the person in the black leather jacket (most likely a male due to the build), she starts the conversation with, "You've killed someone again?" Seokmin has already been revealed to have killed someone before due to his drunk driving, so it could very well be him.
In a later episode, they pick back up on this scene, and Madam Ju says, "The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree." This phrase could be fitting for both Seokmin and Dokyung. We know nothing about Seokmin's father as far as I remember, therefore there is the possibility that she was referring either to how Seokmin's criminal history is similar to his father's, or maybe just his personality. This is fitting for Dokyung as well due to obvious reasons since his father has killed someone as well, and if she was simply referring to personality, I'm sure everyone would agree they're both similar in terms of having a terrible, unredeemable personality.
That sentence of Madam Ju’s also rejects the idea of it being Seokhoon since what's been shown of his father is just that he's your average hippie, along with his wife. You could argue that his father isn't an innocent one, and that he could very well be a murderer or just a terrible person due to the common trope that everyone is talking about in this discussion. However, there has been absolutely no foreshadowing of either Seokhoon or his father being a murderer, and considering the phenomenal writing of the show so far, I'd like to give the writers the benefit of the doubt that whatever the plot twist is, it would be a logical one that has already been foreshadowed and not one that is simply just for shock value.
Now, I don't think that it is only one person involved in Madam Ju's murder. My theory is that the plan was originally for the person with the scars on the back of his neck to kill Madam Ju on the command of either one or possibly multiple people in the family; however, the person in the leather jacket, in a fit of rage after Madam Ju's rightful scolding and lack of support as his economically powerful mother after he literally killed someone “again,” swapped her pill bottle with the ones she's allergic to. There are a couple of things that led me to come up with this theory, other than mostly my gut feeling lol. First off, the family, or at least Dokyung, has an obvious connection with the person with the neck scars. I'm basing this off of the locker scene, where the person with the neck scars contacts Dokyung to check the locker, in which he does. Secondly, in the scene where the person is swapping out the pills, they seem to be doing it very frantically, as if they were enraged. However, for this, you could definitely argue that they seemed frantic because they were in a rush in case they get caught, and I honestly have nothing to combat this argument with lol. Another thing is, it makes sense for a chaebol family to hire an assassin. If we're talking about tropes here, even in real life, it's a common occurrence for someone with so much economic power (or just a rich person lol) to hire an assassin if they wished to kill someone rather than killing them themselves. Also, the entire family obviously wants Dohee gone, and what a coincidence that just a few days before Madam Ju is killed, Dohee is also nearly killed by the neck-scarred person. This could be because they knew she’d inherit the company from Madam Ju’s Will. This theory also explains what the neck-scarred person said during his first attempt at killing Dohee, which was, “Blame Madam Ju for this.” The fact that he also killed that person that called Dohee saying that he had information that could help her become heir contributes to the theory of the neck-scarred guy being an assassin hired by the family. My guess about the worker’s situation (I forgot his name and position in the company <\3) is that since he works for the company, he probably overheard the family’s plan on killing Madam Ju, though there’s probably more to it. One last thing about this theory, the person with the neck scars seems to have a thing for killing office workers (or just people who work for the government, idk if they’re all ‘office’ workers) judging from the photos of his victims that were shown in I believe the first scene that showed his room. Dohee fits his victim type, which could be the reason as to why he enjoyed his attempt at killing Dohee so much. Although, it could also be just the thrill of finally catching her that made him enjoy it so much in the balcony scene, which was the scene I was referring to.
I’d also like to throw in the idea of the neck-scarred person being Seokmin’s father, which would explain the connection and why “the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” This could very well be the major plot twist of the show. The age also looks like it matches, and the neck-scarred person was revealed to be a doctor before. A woman with such an economic standing marrying a doctor makes sense, at least to me y’all. This idea could also apply to my theory of him killing her to be part of the original assassination plan, as one of his motives for agreeing to kill her could be the fallout he more than likely had with her which led to their divorce, since it doesn’t seem like she was married to anyone at the start of the show.
Let me know what y'all think of this theory, and what your other theories are!!
Niki Demonix:
He Lian:
YouToon:
morgan:
