Review: ‘Butterfly’ Is a Race for Survival and Family Drama, All in an Espionage Setting

Daniel Dae Kim Headlines the Spy Thriller on Prime Video

*** Caution: Mild Spoilers ahead***

Most people probably don’t remember their first look at Daniel Dae Kim, but I do. He played the medical student who proudly proclaimed “Gonorrhea!” as the diagnosis for Kramer’s pretend STD on “Seinfeld.” And since that modest beginning, he has starred in hit ensemble series “Lost” and “Hawaii Five-0.”

But now, with “Butterfly,” Kim flexes his action chops as David Jung, a former spy who faked his death 9 years ago over differences with the private sector espionage organization he founded, known as “Caddis.” Instead of helping to solve the world’s problems, the organization has become focused on profit and assisting bad actors around the world.

The series is based on a series of graphic novels created by Arash Amel. I have watched three out of the six episodes of Season One. I focus mostly on the pilot episode for this recap.

His immediate interest as the series begins is reconnecting with his daughter, Rebecca, who has become a top agent with Caddis under the tutelage of its director, Juno (played by Piper Perabo, known for “Covert Affairs” and “Yellowstone”). He aims to extract her from her Caddis service and escape to a safe location where they and his new family – a wife and young daughter – can safely live their lives. Rebecca is played by Reina Hardesty, unknown to me, but really terrific through three episodes.

The show starts fast and brings the action right away. It begins with David, speaking to someone on the phone, saying he’s learned Rebecca is coming to Seoul, and this may be his one chance to extract her. We next see him dressed as an after-hours businessman, with loosened tie and rolled up sleeves, singing karaoke to The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” in a private karaoke room with a bunch of guys (the place is almost a dead ringer for L.A.’s own Rosen, where yours truly belted out some tunes back in the day). One gentleman turns to another and says, “Your friend has a good voice,” only for the other to say, “I thought he was your friend.” So we instantly know David doesn’t know anybody. He’s crashing the party. The reason? Next door, a Caddis operative is using the karaoke bar (for whatever reason) as a staging ground to guide Rebecca through a mission to assassinate a Russian ambassador at a nearby hotel.

We then see Rebecca, in a light, dirty blond wig and wearing a fake pregnancy bump, entering an upscale hotel under the guise of meeting with catering to discuss a baby shower. She excuses herself for a bathroom break and makes her way past the seated ambassador, where she slips some poison in his drink. She sticks around to make sure he dies by faking a fainting spell in front of the ambassador’s security. She asks them for some fruit juice, and they oblige.

Off to the elevator to make her escape, Rebecca is joined by one of the security detail. He’s none the wiser until the other agents figure out Rebecca is the culprit and radio to him to stop her. A fantastically choreographed elevator fight scene ensues. When Rebecca prevails, she has to shoot her way through security into a ballroom, whose door she rigs closed with the legs of a chair. She throws another chair through a ballroom window to give the impression she jumped to the street below, only to sneak into a stairwell, change into what looks like a flight attendant uniform, ditch the wig, and walk out the front door.

Meanwhile, her father has beaten up her handler and taken some electronic assets from him. He’s following Rebecca’s movements and dialogue with the other agents at her extraction point, so he heads to it, dispatching her extraction team and taking their van to pick her up. But Rebecca notices a broken front headlight on the van (David had rolled a stroller out into the alley to get the extraction team to stop the van, and they struck the stroller), and thinks something is fishy. She flees the scene, with David in pursuit. Ultimately, his attempts at a reunion fail.

There is a great scene away from that action where some Caddis agents have a turncoat agent captured and in cuffs, and Juno shows up to try and get him to spill what he did to betray the agency. When the captured agent accuses her of selling out the U.S., Juno retorts something like, “I’m in private sector espionage. My only enemy is peace.” It’s corny, but also an indicator of how Caddis has fallen since the days David directed the agency.

The next day, David heads to the train station to head back to his wife and young daughter. But he calls his wife, Eunju, and tells her he knows he promised just one try, but he can’t just give up. She’s not happy, but understands Rebecca is important as his firstborn.

So it’s off to Incheon to see his pal Yong Shik, who, when he isn’t running his noodle shop, can put together forged documents. Kim tells him he needs passports for four within one or two days, tops. Yong Shik is saddened knowing David will probably never return to Seoul, but says he’ll do what he can.

David then puts together a new scheme to try and free Rebecca from Caddis. He returns to where he dumped the extraction team van. He breaks a window, setting off an alarm for Caddis to find it, and writes down some GPS coordinates on the gate card he pulled to enter the lot. Indeed, Rebecca finds the card, and she and three Caddis operatives pack some gear and head out to kill the man who messed up her original extraction.

David, meanwhile, is hours ahead of them. He’s in some country property outside of Seoul. He preps some ceramic bombs that he places strategically around the property, knowing Rebecca won’t come alone. Then he takes great care to make a Korean pancake dish (bindae-tteok, perhaps?), which he leaves for Rebecca to find. Is this meant to be a hint to her? Was she fond of them when she was younger?

When they arrive, David’s plan to isolate Rebecca for a one-on-one reunion goes into place. One of the ceramic bombs takes out a couple of guys headed to the second floor of the house, leaving just Rebecca and the agent David beat up at the karaoke bar. David is able to separate them, and once again, knocks out the other agent. He runs outside and about a quarter mile to another property – more of a barn this time – where Rebecca chases him.

The reunion does not go well. Rebecca is furious that David left her an orphan at 14 years old, and never really lowers her gun on him as they talk. He begs her to leave Caddis and come with him, but Caddis, and Juno, are the only things that have cared about her for the last decade. She ultimately knocks him out in anger. Nevertheless, when her Caddis partner awakens and comes on to the scene, she chooses her father over him and shoots the agent in the head.

Episode two finds a reluctant, bitter Rebecca traveling with David. Juno is now well aware that David is alive and is with her. She’s hired a local Korean hit man to track them down, and he spends episodes two and three tracing their steps in an attempt to find them. David and Rebecca encounter resistance at a highway checkpoint set up to stop them, and have to shoot their way out.

Episode three finds the two of them reunited in a safe house with Eunju and David’s younger daughter, and the tension couldn’t be higher. Rebecca, quite frankly, is a real jerk, as her resentment has the added ingredient of her father not only disappearing, but starting a new family while in exile.

This show has great fight sequences, gunplay, and is a great chase for David and his family to get out of the country safely before Caddis catches up to them and kills them. I can’t wait to see how this first season winds up over the next three episodes, and possibly delivers a cliffhanger, given the show has clearly been built for multiple seasons. I think you’ll enjoy it.

And that’s what Todd’s watching.