Ron Does Stuff

It’s the final episode! We’ve spent most of our time in Jakarta, with some detours here and there to Seoul and Manila, and now we’re finally going to see how Ha-Joon and Maya’s story ends.

Will they end up together? Will they stay in Jakarta, in Seoul, or in Manila? How many product placements will I see? Let’s find out!

In the previous episode, after all the product placements, we finally learn that Ha Joon and Maya spent part of their childhood together and that Ha Joon left her behind just like her father did. Thems the breaks, kid. Ha Joon also called Maya, and in the cliffhanger the production made it look like Maya was about to take the call.

Of course, we don’t know exactly what happened because this new episode starts in Seoul, where Ha Joon looks set to be the chaebol he was born to be. But of course there’s a touch of melancholy in his eyes. Did Maya not pick up the phone?

Turns out she didn’t because the scene we were shown last episode wasn’t Ha Joon calling but the people from the cooking competition. Damn you editing! Anyways, the cooking competition folks tell her that she got into the finals. Turns out that the nosy Filipino that exposed Ha Joon to Maya sabotaged another contestant’s dish so he’s out. This is YAY on one hand but NAY on the other if I have to listen to that horrible voiceover again.

Back in Seoul, Ha Joon finally confronts his father, which isn’t really saying much because the guy’s comatose and can’t really respond to him.

We then go back to Jakarta — if these were flights I’d be getting miles out the WAZOO — where Maya is thinking of what to cook for the cooking competition finals. She thinks back to when her mother told her that cooking is a way to share one’s feelings without saying a word and we get that juicy, juicy product placement.

Maya cries from the memory, and boy that Julia Barretto really is a pretty crier. But if she ends up cooking chicken adobo for the finale I am going to roll my eyes so hard because COME ON. Chicken adobo = Filipino is so TIRED and EXPIRED. Sinigang gang for life.

On the cooking competition finals day, Arif approaches Maya outside the competition venue and tells her that if she manages to win this competition, he’s going to promote her. Which seems like an asshole promise because when the competitors are revealed two of them are chefs at Michelin-starred restaurant and there’s even a two-time James Beard awardee. I’m not even a foodie or a gourmand or anything but no line chef is winning against that. But then again this is a drama!

We get subjected once more to the voiceover from hell and I think I’m getting an anxiety attack? Not because the competition is full of tension or anything but that voiceover is horrible.

Back in Seoul, Ha Joon’s father rises from the grave wakes up from his coma, takes off his respirator mask thingie in the most awkward way possible, and tells him to live his life and not let love slip away from him. He then promptly dies and I am HOLLERING.

After that, we switch back to Jakarta and I think that the show wants us to feel anxious for both of our leads but it’s easier to feel that for Ha Joon than for Maya because that competition voiceover is just so hard to take seriously.

In Seoul, corporate shenanigans are ongoing as Ha Joon’s siblings try to wrest control of the company from him. But with Ha Joon’s father advising him to live his own life instead, will this corporate mudslinging even matter in the end?

Somewhat anticlimactically, Maya ends up winning the cooking competition without any moment happening to make it believable. It’s one scene — banana heart — and then next she’s holding the trophy. What is going on?

But then again, maybe that isn’t the most important part and what happens next is. Because Arif, a man of his word, offers the sous chef position to Maya and Maya refuses. She’s not going to let Arif undermine her anymore and now she’s ready to just believe in herself and become an executive chef. You go girl!

Over in Seoul, something similar happens. I totally thought that Ha Joon was going to come in with some dirt on his siblings but instead, he nominates company director Lee for chairman of the board, who all this time I thought was his butler. He even says that it’s time to break free from the shackles of family inheritance and boy isn’t that a revolutionary thing to say when it comes to the chaebols of South Korea. I really like this twist!

We then head to what is labeled as Manila even though the video being shown is clearly Makati. Maya is now the executive chef for a new restaurant but her press conference is interrupted by an RC car obviously from Ha Joon. There’s a note telling Maya to meet him at Hidalgo Street in Pasig, a street that doesn’t exist. Or at least I don’t know any other Hidalgo Street other than the one in Quiapo. I could be wrong though! But even Google Maps doesn’t show any Hidalgo Street in Pasig.

They meet at the Magsaysay Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts which, okay, is near Pasig. But it’s actually in Mandaluyong and I am laughing? THAT’S NOWHERE NEAR THE ADDRESS YOU SAID HA JOON.

ANYWAYS. This was where Ha Joon and Maya were supposed to go years ago when they were kids, and now that Maya is an executive chef and Ha Joon is no longer a chaebol shackled, it’s time to make good on that promise. He finally tells her they love her and…they hug? Not even a chaste peck on the lips? OH WAIT THEY DO KISS YAY!

And with that we’re done with Secret Ingredient! There were some ups and downs — that fucking horrible voiceover — but all in all I liked this short and sweet drama! If you’re looking for a little diversion before taking on some huge epic series, maybe give this one a try!