A Shop for Killers Season 2 Episode 3, titled Past Is Past, Present Is Present, expands the story by revealing the earlier connection between Jeong Jin-man and Babylon while showing how Ji-an's attempt at a normal life is beginning to collapse. The episode moves between a sixteen-year-old flashback and the present day, introducing Q and J and establishing their complicated history with Jin-man. The episode also brings Babylon's new plan directly into Ji-an's isolated life on Hanam-do. Sixteen years earlier, Q and J are involved in a hostage rescue operation at a hotel in Japan. The situation becomes dangerous, and Jin-man enters the operation alongside his colleague Honda. He helps rescue J when the mission goes wrong and later saves Q when she is taken hostage. Q and Jin-man immediately develop a mutual respect, while J is grateful to the Korean Special Forces operative who helped him survive the operation. Q even suggests meeting Jin-man for a drink, but Jin-man has to leave Japan shortly afterward. Their encounter becomes the foundation for the relationship that later connects Jin-man to Babylon's Japanese operation. In the present timeline, Q works as a highly capable assassin. During an assignment in Osaka, she targets a man named Dmitri, who has been stealing from Babylon. Q isolates him inside a nightclub bathroom and kills him before receiving her next assignment: Jeong Jin-man and Jeong Ji-an. Q and J are subsequently ordered to travel to South Korea with the Babylon team as the organization prepares to eliminate Ji-an and deal with Jin-man. Back on Hanam-do, Ji-an is furious after discovering that Woo-jin has firearms connected to the dangerous world she was trying to escape. She returns home and investigates Murthehelp, only to find that the website is under construction. Woo-jin comes to her house to explain what happened, but Ji-an refuses to hear him out. Although she appears to cut ties with him, Ji-an remains suspicious and begins using the equipment Brother gave her before she left. She secretly installs small surveillance cameras around Woo-jin's boat and home so she can determine whether he is actually involved with Murthehelp. The investigation eventually shows that Woo-jin is not secretly working against Ji-an. Brother contacts him and provides context about the firearms, helping clear some of the suspicion surrounding Ji-an's new friend. At the same time, Ji-an's surveillance and defensive habits reveal that the trauma of the previous attacks has not disappeared. Even while living among ordinary people on the island, she continues preparing for the possibility that someone may come after her. Meanwhile, Q and J arrive in South Korea with the Babylon team. During their journey, J reveals that Q was actually the person who originally recommended Jin-man to Babylon years earlier. This information adds another layer to Q's relationship with Jin-man and makes her current assignment to hunt him and Ji-an far more complicated. Babylon's Korean operation has also developed a new strategy. Kusanagi explains that Murthehelp has effectively been recreated as an app-based marketplace for weapons. The plan is to attract enough users to the platform and then use the marketplace to distribute a bounty targeting Ji-an. By turning Murthehelp's own model against its successor, Babylon hopes to create a large network of killers capable of finding Ji-an wherever she hides. Ji-an discovers the new Murthehelp application and immediately recognizes the danger. She contacts Brother to ask about it, confirming that Babylon is no longer relying solely on conventional assassins. The new platform gives the organization a way to mobilize killers through the same type of marketplace that Jin-man once operated. The episode also continues to develop Ji-an's relationship with Woo-jin. Away from the violence surrounding Murthehelp, Ji-an begins experiencing something close to an ordinary young person's life. Her friendship with Woo-jin slowly becomes romantic, giving her a brief sense of happiness and normality. The peaceful island setting contrasts sharply with the assassin world closing in around her. That peaceful life does not last. Babylon's forces eventually move onto Hanam-do and begin searching for Ji-an. Q and the other attackers infiltrate the area while Ji-an and Woo-jin are caught in the middle of the operation. Ji-an's instincts immediately return, and she realizes that the people approaching her are not ordinary intruders. Ji-an and Woo-jin attempt to escape the attackers and make their way back toward Ji-an's house. Ji-an uses the defensive preparations she has built around her home to fight back. One attacker is caught by a trap, while Ji-an uses an explosive device to stop another threat. She then brings Woo-jin into the locked room containing her surveillance equipment and prepares to defend herself with a firearm. As the attackers close in, the situation becomes increasingly dangerous. Yong and another Babylon operative manage to reach Ji-an, but Ji-an continues fighting rather than surrendering. Just as Yong is about to kill her, gunshots suddenly stop the attackers. The unexpected intervention reveals So Min-hye standing inside Ji-an's home. Min-hye's sudden appearance becomes the episode's major cliffhanger. Her arrival suggests that someone from Ji-an's old world has returned to protect her, while the presence of Babylon's Japanese and Korean forces confirms that Ji-an can no longer hide on Hanam-do. The quiet life she built for herself has been destroyed by the bounty placed on her head. Episode 3 therefore serves as an important bridge between Jin-man's past and Ji-an's present. The flashback explains how Jin-man first became connected to Q and J, while the present-day storyline introduces Babylon's larger international operation. Q and J are now hunting the very people connected to the man who once saved them, while Ji-an's attempt at normal life ends with a direct attack. The appearance of Min-hye in the final moments sets up the much larger confrontation that follows in Episode 4.