Yoo Yeon-seok’s presence brings chaos... E-som in “Phantom Lawyer,” highlighting interesting shifts in emotion

Actress E-som knocks down a wall of cold logic and tumbles into a whirlwind of emotions.

In SBS Friday-Saturday drama 〈Phantom Lawyer〉, E-som—playing cool-headed attorney Han Na-hyun—pulls viewers in with a subtle emotional arc that shifts from indifference to suspicion, then to bewilderment, and finally to confusion, depending on how her relationship with Yoo Yeon-seok unfolds.

In the early episodes, Shin Yi-rang (Yoo Yeon-seok) is exactly the sort of person Han Na-hyun is “not interested in” at all. Focused solely on winning, Han Na-hyun is so icy that she won’t even give Shin Yi-rang a chance to interview for the associate attorney position she handpicked. For Han Na-hyun—who carried her sister’s dream of a 100% win rate and survived harsh realities—Shin Yi-rang is nothing more than unnecessary noise.

But once she starts getting entangled with Shin Yi-rang, cracks begin to appear in Han Na-hyun’s sturdy wall. The warmth of Shin Yi-rang—someone she met right after tasting the bitterness of defeat for the first time—throws her off balance. Especially when she starts suspecting him of being a spy for another law firm, and then he names the “ghost” as her partner, Han Na-hyun keeps her anger and disregard steady, drawing a clear line. That’s because she believes this “ghost talk,” which can’t be understood logically at all, is simply a way of exploiting someone else’s pain.

The turning point comes when actual collaboration begins. Han Na-hyun decides to use the information Shin Yi-rang has only to secure the win—but as the process continues, his far-fetched arguments begin to sound believable. Watching Shin Yi-rang lay out details that only the person directly involved in death could possibly know leaves Han Na-hyun completely thrown into confusion. Another big variable in her emotions is that his bright, cheerful side—so different from her own—starts to worry her more and more.

With her heart kept tightly closed, Han Na-hyun is poised to become a key character to watch as she finds a balance between coldness and warmth through Shin Yi-rang’s character. All eyes are on what kind of acting growth E-som will showcase as she handles the full spectrum of emotions in a steady, controlled way.

Meanwhile, 〈Phantom Lawyer〉 airs every Friday and Saturday at 9:50 PM.