S1E1 Episode 1

Defendant opens on its central puzzle immediately: Park Jung-woo (Ji Sung), a prominent prosecutor, wakes up in a death row cell with no memory of the night that apparently destroyed his entire life. The cold open drops the viewer into the disorientation alongside him, which is the episode's structural choice - the audience knows only what Jung-woo knows, which is nothing. Writer Yoo Hyun-mi establishes the premise with economy: the charges, the execution date approaching, the family whose fate is also obscured. The episode earns its hook not through exposition but through the specific quality of Ji Sung's performance - a man whose professional identity was entirely built on his position in the legal system, and who cannot access any of the knowledge or reasoning that defined him. Defendant achieved a 13.6 percent nationwide rating for its premiere, a figure that grew to 26.6 percent by the finale, making it one of the most watched dramas in SBS history.