Lee Soon-shin is the Best: Episode 18 Recap

by: Raine

—

IU was SO CUTE! She really had a chance to shine this episode. Too bad there was some serious mommy nastiness to counteract my happiness. But then again, more sister romance in this episode, too, which equals more happy Raine.

AGB Nielson Nationwide had this episode coming in at 26.2%. Dropped to 2nd place. Not surprised. The moms ruined it.

episode 18 recap

Yeon-ah wants to call off the bet. She’ll sign with Joon-ho’s company. He doubts her sincerity and wonders what mischief she’s trying to make. She looks genuinely surprised, but she shouldn’t be. That’s what happens when you use a person, woman!

He asks if she regrets losing him and she freezes for a moment before changing the subject to the music video. Rumors spread quickly. Yeon-ah warns him against going up against Mr. Han, a man who knows the industry inside and out. But Joon-ho isn’t worried about completing with a man who works without any plans. Yeon-ah says the two men aren’t much different from each other.

Joon-ho grows suspicious and wonders if Yeon-ah incited Mr. Han to sue his company. Han is short-fused but not smart enough to think of that. Yeon-ah is pissed he thinks she’d do that over a little girl like Soon-shin.

Soon-shin sees them in a heated discussion and watches curiously.

Yeon-ah doesn’t answer him directly so Joon-ho assumes she did suggest that Han sue. He says she would do anything to get what she wanted and she doesn’t care about hurting others. Her face pales as he declares he won’t let her hurt him again. He warns Yeon-ah not to touch her or she’ll be in trouble.

Nice warning, wrong person. But at the same time, now Yeon-ah knows exactly how she hurt him.

Soon-shin asks Young-hoon about the relationship between Yeon-ah and Joon-ho. they’ve known each other for a long time, is all he says and Soon-shin watches Yeon-ah stew. She remembers Joon-ho’s confession at that broken heart meeting, about the girl he couldn’t forget because she was everywhere.

Woo-joo is doing homework and Granny wonders what she wants for Children’s Day. Jung-ae asks if Woo-joo talks to her dad often and if he’ll come back for Children’s Day. Then badmouths him under her breath. She questions the little girl about her parents’ relationship, but is saved by Hye-shin’s arrival.

Woo-joo stalks upstairs, upset and Hye-shin follows her.

Honestly, Hye-shin shouldn’t ask a kid to keep that kind of secret. That’s terrible.

Jung-ae tries again to call her son-in-law, but he doesn’t answer. I’m guessing this secret will come out relatively soon.

Chan-woo and Yoo-shin eat lunch and she gets a call from Jung-ae. Chan-woo tries to feed her while she’s on the phone and she bats his hand away. Jung-ae asks about Hye-shin and her husband and Yoo-shin feigns ignorance and promises to come home early today. Instead of dating. Heh.

Chan-woo asks about what’s going on, but Yoo-shin doesn’t want to talk about it and cites the contract. Then she turns him down to go out that night and leaves lunch early. Poor guy must be so frustrated. But you chose her!

The chicken restaurant is busy and Chan-woo offers to help. he sets his things down and a brochure for a car falls out. His parents fawn over him and his decision to buy a car, but we all know that he wants a car to impress the girl. What a guy. He even calls to ask her what color she likes, but they get cut off by Soon-shin’s arrival. Yoo-shin is weirded out by Soon-shin’s jondae speech and polite mannerisms that have started as of late. They continue into dinner, causing the whole family to stare.

Granny wonders if she’s sick and Soon-shin drops the act as Yoo-shin explains that it’s part of acting class. She has this image she needs to project before she debuts in a music video. Everyone but mom is impressed. They have to tell Granny what a music video is, but once she understands, she is impressed and says that she’s finally doing something good after making her mom worry so much.

Then Granny asks Soon-shin to show them some acting and the others (sans Jung-ae) clap and encourage her. Soon-shin is embarrassed and tells them not to laugh. Then she does the scene from Mi-ryeong’s movie, tears and all. Everyone is super impressed, again, except for mom, who is pissed it was Mi-ryeong’s movie. Jung-ae thinks there are better actresses and if she was good Mi-ryeong wouldn’t have stopped teaching her. She only has a month to do well.

Nasty bitch.

A small note: Yoo-shin slaps Soon-shin’s arm proudly as her mother leaves. Yay! Approval!

In her room, Jung-ae calls Soon-shin a bad daughter. I prepare my sledgehammer.

The three sisters congregate in the hall. Yoo-shin wants to know how Joon-ho plans to make her succeed in a month and thinks he’s unworthy. Soon-shin defends him, which does not go unnoticed. Hye-shin offers to talk to their mother, but Yoo-shin thinks she should focus on herself and tells Hye-shin that Jung-ae called earlier about the ex. Yoo-shin urges her sister to tell the truth and Soon-shin wonders what this truth is. But Hye-shin doesn’t want to tell anyone else yet.

Sexy baker Jin-wook remembers the conversation he overheard last episode between Hye-shin and her rude ex-mother-in-law. Woo-joo comes in for some bread for Granny. Jin-wook asks her what she wants for Children’s Day and she doesn’t want anything from him. She lies that her father will send her lots of gifts from Hong Kong. But Jin-wook ain’t no fool; he can see how sad she is. She keeps babbling: dad will come back; they’ll leave together as a family; she’s staying only until he comes back. Her dad is handsome with a good job and is rich. She smiles while talking about him, which makes Jin-wook smile as well.

When she sees the smile, hers fades and she leaves. He watches her sadly and wonders if she knows her parents divorced. She does, she just doesn’t want to believe it ’cause it hurts too much.

Joon-ho meets the arrogant Mr. Han. Han is pissed not about the cancellation, but the lack of loyalty – entitled rich kids like him don’t understand. He accuses Joon-ho of dropping his actress, Shin Ji-ha, for a pretty new one. Han says that Ji-ha is humiliated to the point of not eating or sleeping because she was replaced by a nobody actress. She also wanted to be in the video because she’s a fan of the artist.

Joon-ho isn’t moved. Instead, he asks Han what he wants. Han bluffs a little, saying he wants nothing. He just wants his actress in the video and if she’s not, he’ll sue. Joon-ho is disappointed in Han, he says, because he’s only doing this under the advisement of others. What’s in it for Han?

Straightening, Joon-ho admits he has material comforts, but he didn’t get where he is now because he was lucky. Han says he didn’t mean that and Joon-ho cuts him off. Yes, Han is in trouble, but he’ll be in worse trouble if he becomes Joon-ho’s enemy.

Wow, you badass boy. *hearts in eyes*

In-sung asks how the meeting went. He’s not worried about the cancellation fee, but the company’s and the employee’s images. Also, the employees aren’t happy with how Joon-ho dotes on Soon-shin. He advises his boss to consider it seriously.

Soon-shin is in vocal training when Joon-ho comes into check on her. The coach says that she’s doing better than he thought she would and Joon-ho jokes that she’s stupid if she can’t do well with the money he invested in her. She scoffs and wonders why he came to see her. He lies that he wasn’t confident about her ability.

They randomly go for a walk on a beautiful path lined with green trees and cherry blossoms. Soon-shin says everything about him is depressed: his walk, his face, his posture. He’s confused and she says he normally says things like that to her. She wonders if it’s because of “that person”. She says she knows everything: the person he talked about was Yeon-ah.

And why do you care, hrm? YAY! Finally some reciprocation of interest on her part. I was waiting for that.

Joon-ho denies it and says she’s a bad girl with a wicked temper. Soon-shin says he seems to know a lot about her despite his denial. She reiterates his words about seeing her everywhere and he snaps at her to shut up. Hehe, these two are cute.

Joon-ho says everything is over, but Soon-shin doesn’t think so. Then she asks him why he didn’t tell her that everything is over in a month. He thought she’d be too nervous to focus. Again, he assures her he’ll take care of everything and she should just focus on acting.

She thanks him and surprises him. She’s happier now than she’s ever been because of the things she can express through acting. It’s interesting and fun. She thanks him for letting her feel all of that. Then she hands him the flower she’d been twirling in her hands and he accepts it with smile. (Yay! Girl gives guy a flower!) Someone would think she’d won a best actress award or something, he comments.

Soon-shin grabs onto that and jumps in front of her clearing her throat. Then she makes her acceptance speech: This honor goes to Mr. Shin. Without Mr. Shin, I wouldn’t have becom who I am today. Everybody, this is such a beautiful night. She blows her imaginary audience a kiss and spins around happily, adorably.

Joon-ho laughs at the cheesy, but earnest, speech.

Suddenly, he lurches forward to pull her to him. A bike had almost run her over even though the path is, like, wide enough for a row of three cars to drive side by side. But whatever, I’ll take hugs.

They share a moment of awareness, heightened by the previous good mood and then split awkwardly. He scolds her for not watching her step and then yells at the cyclist. Then he picks up the dropped flower and they continue their walk. Um, is the flower going to be his thing he looks at and dries to remember her.

At home, Joon-ho remembers Soon-shin thanking him and smiles to himself. Then he remembers their “hug” and can’t figure out why he’s thinking about her. But he keeps smiling while fanning himself with a magazine. (Hysterically, the back of the magazine has an ad, in English, that says, “When beer is your calling.” Hehehehehehe.)

The next day, Joon-ho whistles his way into his office and tells Joon-ho to pay whatever Han wants as the cancellation fee, shocking In-sung.

Wow, you chipper for someone who didn’t even get kissed! Hear that, show? I used the “k” word. Now gimme some!

In-sung runs into Hwang who notices how down he is. He’s frustrated that Joon-ho is crazy over making Soon-shin a star. Hwang abosrbs this information evilly.

Yeon-ah broods over Joon-ho’s warning not to touch Soon-shin and then yells at her makeup artist for poking her.

Hwang reports the news to Mi-ryeong who then meets with Yeon-ah. She knows something is up with the younger woman, but Yeon-ah is tight-lipped. Mi-ryeong asks about Joon-ho and Yeon-ah opens up: Joon-ho is being weird. Yeon-ah tells Mi-ryeong that Joon-ho thinks she provoked Han into doing all that. Again, Yeon-ah says she’s not scared of Soon-shin.

The more you say that, the more I heard “DENIAL!”

Mi-ryeong says that people in the agency are upset by Joon-ho’s favoritism and the rumor is that he’s dating Soon-shin. Yeon-ah says Joon-ho isn’t that stupid. Mi-ryeong points out that men become weak in front of women no matter their intelligence.

Yeon-ah pours more wine and Mi-ryeong offers to help her “daughter” get her man.

Evil witch! Just you WAIT! “Daughter” will become as loaded a word in this show as “mother” is.

At dinner, Dong-hyuk asks Joon-ho what kinda relationship he has with Yeon-ah. Of course, Joon-ho replies that it’s strictly business. Yi-jung mentions that he was close to Yeon-ah a long time ago. The only thing dad has to say is: don’t date celebrities. Joon-ho knows. He’s heard it his whole life.

Then Dong-hyuk turns on Yi-jung: why does she come to the hospital everyday? Heh. Yi-jung says skin care is as important as marriage lessons to which daddy replies, “Get your skin care from me.” HA! FOILED!

Chan-woo buys his new car and calls Yoo-shin as Princess Brat (aka Yi-jung) shows up. He asks Yoo-shin for dinner, but gets interrupted by the brat. Yi-jung admires the car and flirts badly with him. Then she climbs in his car! She rolls down the window to tell him to take her for a ride around the block.

Wow, girl. Annoyingly bold.

She tries to get him to eat with her. Instead, he drags her out of the car and she puts on a pouty face. She is not deterred though. Sigh.

Yoo-shin gets yelled at by her boss for a fault of another team that hampered her work. That gives the chauvinistic male boss pause before he chauvinistically says that the executive team doesn’t trust her because she’s a girl.

Way to project, buddy.

She walks back to her desk, the center of all eyes, and mutters what I thought: it’s only him who doesn’t like women in the workplace. Chan-woo calls when she is at her lowest and surprises her by picking her up in his car. She didn’t even notice it until he honked.

They have a pleasant drive and he smiles like a fool in love. She smiles, relieved to have peace away from work…and to be with him. When she asks why he bought a car, he replies that he was worried her pretty feet would have calluses. She calls him a cheeseball, but she loves it.

She has him make a pit stop and comes back with a present: a dash ornament. It’s a little tiger bobble head. So cute. She admits that he made her feel better after a bad day at work, which makes his day.

Suddenly a phone rings and Yoo-shin finds it on the ground. She answers and we find out it’s Yi-jung, who most definitely left the phone on purpose and is not happy to hear a female voice answer. Yi-jung wants to talk to Chan-woo, but Yoo-shin’s jealousy rears it’s head and demands to know who this strange woman is. When asked the same question in return, Yoo-shin falters and then says, “I’m his girlfriend!” She also tells Yi-jung to learn some phone etiquette and introduce herself. Also: why is your phone in my boyfriend’s car?

Yi-jung sees an in and says she dropped it when she was in his car. She admits being rude and wanted to treat him to tea. Yoo-shin steams to some pretty epic music in the OST (sounds a little like Prokofiev) and tells the nosy brat to leave them to their date. Chan-woo will leave the phone at the hospital.

Foiled! I love that word. Now if only Mi-ryeong didn’t do it to Soon-shin.

Chan-woo is amused by Yoo-shin’s anger and questions. Does he let random women in his car? He doesn’t think it’s a big deal, but she’s suspicious of how he treats other women. She even imitates the aegyo of Yi-jung’s greeting, which makes me, and Chan-woo, smile. He is happy to have Lee Yoo-shin jealous over him. She’s even prettier when she’s jealous. It also means she likes him.

Aw, you ol’ sap. You got me. He definitely got to Yoo-shin.

He points out she’s never told him that she likes him and he asks her to. If he’s good to her, she promises that she will. (That’s a total non-issue with a man like him.) She also warns him not to be nice to other girls or she’ll kill him. He agrees and they giggle together.

Gil-ja is putting on make-up and Bok-man wonders why. She jokes that she’s going on a date and when that doesn’t go over well, she tells her husband that she’s going to go on a drive with Chan-woo when he gets home with his new car. She’s ridiculously excited that he bought a car for “her”. He’d mentioned earlier it was for helping her with groceries.

It’s kinda adorable how happy she is. Too bad he bought it to impress Yoo-shin.

Bok-man wonders what she’ll do when her son marries and Gil-ja assures him that will be fine: she’s choosing his wife, a woman who wouldn’t even step on Chan-woo’s shadow.

Oh. No. Is she going to be another pain-in-the-ass mom? There should be a mean mommy quota dramas should not exceed.

Bok-man says his mother was the same and look who he married. Heh.

Jin-wook is selling a cake to a happy young family and smiles indulgently at the little girl who most definitely reminds him of Woo-joo; or perhaps how she interacts with her father.

Yes, I love this father/daughter type love with Jin-wook and Woo-joo. Love. Love. Love.

On the porch, Woo-joo tries to call her father to talk to him on Children’s Day to no avail. She leaves him a heart-wrenching, tearful message:

Daddy, this is Woo-joo. Why don’t’ you call me lately? Are you that busy? I just wanted to call you. I’ll call you later.

Jin-wook has heard everything and looks sadly at her.

He calls to her, “Hey little girl.” She tries to walk past him, but he stops her with a cute bear. It’s a gift. He knows her father will buy her bigger and better gifts, but he thought hard to get her a cute gift.

Woo-joo says it’s childish. Is she a child? She throws it on the ground and he picks it up, finally fed-up with her attitude. But he stops his temper when he sees that she’s really just heartbroken. He tells her if she doesn’t accept the gift, the bear will be sad. Aw. He forces her to take it and walks away muttering that she can do whatever she wants with it.

She storms upstairs and throws the doll on the bed. Then she bursts into tears. She’s going to Hong Kong and their home to see her father. Hye-shin (infuriatingly) reminds her CHILD that she promised not to do this.

Uh, you divorced and moved your child to another country. What do you expect? Plus, the father doesn’t care about the kid. Yeah, she has a right to cry.

Woo-joo begs Hye-shin to get back together with her ex. Her friends went on trips and got gifts from their fathers. But her father didn’t even call her. How could he? Hye-shin makes the “he was busy” excuse. Woo-joo blames it all on Hye-shin.

The conversation stops when Jung-ae comes in with some fruit and Hye-shin lies that there’s a friend issue. Woo-joo storms out.

Jung-ae notices what Hye-shin was working on, a translation, and then asks what is up with her husband. She’s translating instead of calling him. Jung-ae wonders if there are company and/or money problems, but Hye-shin lies again. Nope, nothing’s wrong. Everything’s fine. Jung-ae is only appeased when Hye-shin lies that he apologizes for not calling ‘cause he’s in Europe for business. Hrm.

Soon-shin comes home, gets yelled at by mom and takes it in stride. That’s sad.

The next day, Soon-shin gets creepier with her innocent act. Mr. Waiter is totally in love with the change in Soon-shin’s personality, which makes Young-hoon laugh. When she gives her table’s order to Young-hoon, he laughs again, telling her she got better. She is so excited by the compliment that she breaks character and sighs. It’s hard to be someone she’s not.

Soon-shin walks to her practice room and three snotty girl saunter by and glare and gossip about her. Maybe the rumor was true. I hate her, they say.

Then, in a total filler scene meant to tell us what the mean hallway girls were talking about, Chan-mi meets a friend who tells her that the boss’s girlfriend, Lee Soon-shin (yes, the friend laughs at the name), is in the music video instead of the popular actress. The friend says Soon-shin pretends to be innocent but is a slut.

Oh rumors.

Chan-mi defends Soon-shin, but when asked if she knows her, she grows strangely quiet. Yeah, that’s friendship…

Chan-mi meets Soon-shin and asks if she’s shooting the music video. Chan-mi freaks that the rumor was true and asks if Soon-shin is really dating Joon-ho and her family is rich.

Joon-ho checks on Shin Ji-ha to make sure she’s not making any more trouble. The actress has been placated by a movie offer: a role recommended by Mi-ryeong. He realizes that Yeon-ah had nothing to do with the sabotage and asks In-sung for Mi-ryeong’s schedule.

OMG! That’s a first. Someone finds out if someone else is busy before barging int!

He goes to Mi-ryeong’s where she is studying a script. He asks if she sabotaged Soon-shin and incited Han. She just smiles. He’s baffled by her behavior. Why is she doing this to Soon-shin?

Mi-ryeong replies that she doesn’t want “her daughter” to get hurt anymore because of him. Again, that loaded word. Mi-ryeong knows Yeon-ah met him and wanted to call off the bet. She said that because she still has feelings for him. How did he not notice? She wants to start over again. He has feelings for Yeon-ah, too, so he should stop using that “pathetic girl”.

Comments:

Okay Mi-ryeong. I’m not even going to hate you. It’s a waste of my energy.

But your daughter? Psssssssssh, that’s just an excuse to get rid of Soon-shin.

And Joon-ho. If he goes to Yeon-ah, I will hit him over his pretty head. If he forgets what she did and what she’s still capable of doing…fail.

I’m having a really hard time with Hye-shin making Woo-joo suffer with lying about the divorce. I know there is a HUGE social stigma against divorce, especially against female divorcees. That, and Hye-shin doesn’t want to trouble the family further. But she needs to think about Woo-joo. Honestly, Jung-ae is too nutty to lean on, but Hye-shin definitely could use the support of the rest of them. It’s horrible to make that child suffer like that. Bad move, Hye-shin. Bad move.

I love that Woo-joo’s trouble with the divorce is coming out more and being explored. It’s difficult on kids who need someone to blame and don’t quite understand why their lives have been uprooted. This is the kind of family drama I like to explore in a show.

And then we have the baker falling for Woo-joo as Woo-joo, this beautiful kid, not just Hye-shin’s daughter. I thought his present was sweet. Perhaps a little later she’ll appreciate it. Right now, she’s just too raw.

Finally, where’s my singing? SINGING!

Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Character introductions.

Lee Soon-shin is the Best: Episode 18 Screencaps.