MBC legal suspense series The judge returns The story continues to move forward, with episodes 9 and 10 airing on January 30 and 31, 2026. The drama stars Ji Sung, Park Hee Soon, and Won Jin Ah in the lead roles.

story The judge returns The drama centers on judge Lee Han-young, who is killed after taking on a powerful conglomerate involved in major crimes. He suddenly found himself back ten years ago, back to his young self. Han Ying understands what is about to happen and sets out to change the course of events, combat corruption within the justice system, and hold accountable those who appear to be untouchable.

The judge returns Episode 9-10 recap: Han Ying outsmarts Kang Xin Town when the network of corruption begins to unravel

Episode 9 The judge returns The film opens with Han Ying receiving important evidence from Kang Xinzhen about the son of Judge Huang, Kang’s candidate for the next chief justice. Documents show that Judge Huang’s son performed poorly on the written judicial examination but scored unusually high on the interview, raising strong suspicions that the entire process was rigged.

This suggests that Judge Wong intervened to secure his son’s career. Han Ying leaked this information to a reporter he trusted. After the incident was exposed, Judge Huang’s son was summoned, and Han Ying served as the presiding judge.

Public opinion quickly turned against Judge Wong, and his chances of becoming chief justice were shaken by accusations of nepotism and corruption. Although Jiang Xinzhen assured him that everything would be taken care of, Judge Huang became increasingly anxious about losing his position and repeatedly sought reassurance from Jiang.

At the same time, Han Ying took strategic action and met with Liu Shanzhe, CEO of Heiner Law Firm. Han Ying urged Ryu Sun-chul to support Chief Justice Paik as the next chief justice. Hainar has long wanted Bai to become their ally, and Han Ying sees this as their best chance.

Soon after, Han Ying met Chief Judge Bai himself. He provided him with evidence of Jiang Xinzhen’s corruption and asked him to consider serving as chief justice. However, Bai Hanying was shocked by Han Ying’s arrangement and struggled with whether to intervene in the power struggle.

Later, prosecutor Zhenya approaches Hanying and asks him who he is hunting for, even if it puts her life in danger. Han Ying Telling her the truth, his ultimate target is Kang Shin-jin and he plans to root out his entire corruption scheme within the justice system. Despite being skeptical of Han-young’s methods, Jin-ah decides to join him.

From this, Zhenya also realizes that Hanying is the son of the man her father helped send to prison many years ago. At that time, her father sided with the S Group, which framed Han Ying’s father. Zhenya has been living with guilt since then and once wrote a letter to Hanying’s parents to apologize for her father.

Now Han Ying, Zhenyaprosecutor Song Zhe executed a plan to defraud those who held Jiang Xinzhen’s bribe funds. They succeeded in taking the money, dealing a major blow to Kang’s operation. However, the program was not completely scrapped.

Hanying also began to feel something strange. No one was pressuring him to give a not guilty verdict to Judge Huang’s son. He realizes that his son’s case is not Jiang Xinzhen’s real priority. Instead, the experiment was used as leverage while Kang advanced a larger plan.

Jiang Xinzhen later provided Han Ying with more evidence proving that Judge Huang accepted bribes. Soon after, Judge Huang summoned Han Ying and asked for a not guilty verdict against his son.

Han Ying refuses, and their argument escalates, with Han Ying slapping Judge Huang, accusing him of being the judge who put his father in jail. Hanying told Huang that unlike him, he would let Huang’s son serve the time he truly deserved.

However, Jiang Xinzhen began to question whether Han Ying was really loyal. To test him, he asked Judge Huang to make Han Ying hand over a USB drive filled with internal money data. Kang wanted to see if Han Ying would open it. Hanying realized that this was a trap and that opening the file would leave a digital trace, so the drive was not accessed. By staying the same, he earned Kang’s trust.

Han Ying’s reporter friend later told him that Jiang Xinzhen had the support of the former president. When Chief Justice Bai later asked Han Ying why he was so determined to appoint him as chief judge, Han Ying explained everything from slush funds to political protection to the scale of corruption.

He tells Bai that to bring down Kang Xinjin and eliminate corruption in the judicial system, he needs a chief justice on his side. Bai immediately agreed to run for the next chief justice because he had long wanted Kang Xinzhen to step down.

at the same time, Kang Shin-jin The assassin was secretly ordered to kill Judge Huang’s son and disguise it as a suicide, along with a note claiming his innocence. Han Ying remembers that in his previous life, it was this incident that changed public sympathy for Judge Huang and helped him become chief justice.

Han Ying was determined to change the outcome and sent someone to protect the boy. They arrived just in time to prevent the staged suicide. Han Ying then told Judge Huang’s son the truth, that he was being used as a pawn and that his life was in danger because he was standing in the way of powerful people.

The son followed Han Ying’s advice and held a press conference to admit his fake academic qualifications, interview manipulation, and his father’s involvement. Judge Huang’s guilty plea destroyed his standing and he resigned from the bench.

Despite this, Jiang Xinzhen promised to support him. But now he also fully trusts Han Ying and invites him to join his inner circle. He took Han Ying to the former president’s official residence, where a secret meeting with ministers and senior judicial officials was being held.

There, Hanying was shocked to witness the true scale of corruption. Bags of cash from the defence, police, prosecution, army and other systems were transported and dumped into the tub until it overflowed. With this note episode 10 The judge returns Finish.

The series The judge returns New episodes continue to air every Friday and Saturday at 9:50 pm (Korean time) on MBC. The next episodes 11 and 12 will be aired on February 6 and 7, 2026.

The judge returns Available for streaming on Viki.