Ron Does Stuff

I’m sorry this is so late but my work life and fan life has been killer and I’ve just been trying to catch up on sleep and everything else so I’ve only got time to do this now. Let’s get into it!

At the end of the last episode, a massive fight breaks out in school just as Han Wul is about to be subjected to a disciplinary committee meeting. But we don’t get into that right now as the show instead takes us back one year ago. This is to show that Oh Jung Hwa, Han Kyeong’s mentor, was the last person to call for a disciplinary committee and it ended with her getting stabbed.

We also get a little insight into why Han Wul acts the way he does — he thinks everyone is just out to use each other for personal gain, and while there is some truth to that, acting in one’s self-interest doesn’t necessarily exclude genuine good intentions, I think.

Back in the present, Gun Yeob is telling Han Kyeong to stop the disciplinary committee, and I have the sneaking suspicion that he’s actually Jung Hwa’s kid. Which Han Kyeong confirms or maybe this has been clear from the beginning and I just somehow missed it? And no, it’s not that, Han Kyeong just found out from the police as well.

Fortunately — or unfortunately — for Han Kyeong, Han Wul has decided on a different strategy this time around. Rather than outright killing her, he’s tainting the reputation of the study group instead, releasing footage of their heist on the gangster building without any context. And considering how fucked up South Korean media is and how intense their bullying culture is, this is pretty believable!

With that out in the open, the vice principal demands a disciplinary meeting for Ga Min and the disbandment of the study group as well as the dismissal of Han Wul’s disciplinary meeting. Han Kyeong isn’t taking that lying down though and tells the guys to take it easy and that she’ll take care of it. Which is when the school-wide fight happens at the end of the last episode, instigated by Han Wul’s offer of $1,000.

And it’s not the only thing Han Wul has cooking because it looks like he’s done something with Se Hyun’s dad and he also delivers a truth bomb to the group that is a good indictment of South Korean society: “In this world, a plausible story with partial truth can become the accepted truth.” And No Reason also has the student council trash the study group room.

We then find out what’s happening with Se Hyung’s dad, which as it turns out is only tangentially related to Han Wul. He’s getting into fights with his co-workers because they think Se Hyun is a thug and I gotta say I am not into this redemption arc for Se Hyun’s father. I am also not getting into this Se Hyun fall into desperation because this is the penultimate episode and you’re falling back into behavior that I thought was already resolved in episode five.

Both Han Kyeong and Ga Min experience their dark night of the soul as it looks like all their efforts are going to waste, but Ga Min finds a renewed spark thanks to his mom while Han Kyeong…well, they don’t show us what it is she does just yet but she helps Ga Min clean up the trashed study group room.

The next day, Ga Min is out at the construction site trying to win Se Hyun back and I gotta say this is not my favorite part of the episode. I’m not saying that characters shouldn’t have challenges because of course they should but at least give them new ones? This is tiresome to me. And then you have the Se Hyun dad redemption arc? Girl bye.

The getting the gang back together montage is more to my taste. And Han Kyeong isn’t backing down either, telling the vice principal that the disciplinary committee is going to push through for Han Wul.