Second Shot at Love – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review
Episode 2 of Second Shot at Love begins with Geum-ju running away from home. Miss Nosy spots Geum-ju heading to the river. In the morning, Geum-ju's clothes and shoes are strewn around the riverbank, suggesting that she has drowned.
A flashback shows Geum-ju taking off her clothes as she stinks. She steps on dog poop and loses her shoes while trying to wash them in the river. She then jumps in front of Ui-joon's car and he crashes and breaks his leg as he swerves. He is irritated by the whole thing as he carries her home.
In the morning, she is embarrassed and offers financial compensation. Right then, he gets a harrowing call that everyone is looking for Geum-ju's corpse. She runs over and her family is relieved to see her alive. Tired of her antics, her mom, Gwang-ok tries to drown herself.
Seon-wook and Ui-joon discuss how Geum-ju broke Ui-joon's leg and crashed his car. Of course, Miss Nosy overhears and as expected, the news spreads like wildfire.
Everyone scolds Geum-ju and to redeem herself, they order her to look after Ui-joon. It cuts to a montage of her driving him around and doing chores he would otherwise do for his patients. She is curious as to why he left Seoul and he deflects by asking about her job.
A flashback shows her experiencing sexism at her workplace. As revenge, she decides to take all of her PTO leaves. She is unfairly fired because of this.
At present, the neighbouring ladies hound Gwang-ok. In response, she berates them for selling alcohol to her family and puts a ban in place. All the alcohol sellers are forced to listen as she handles the town's quick loans.
Flashbacks show that Hyeon-ju gets pregnant, married and divorced because she drinks. She also drinks as being a single mother is tiring. As for Jeong-su, he loses his junkyard, restaurant and almost loses the house because he drinks.
At present, everyone refuses to sell the Hans alcohol. Geum-ju is annoyed and it doesn't help as Ui-joon claims that the town is trying to help her. She calls him a hypocrite as he is a drinker as well.
Later, Seon-wook reveals that Ui-joon quit so he could look after his patients. He also left Seoul and opened a clinic in Bochun as it lacked basic medical care. Young-woong doesn't buy this and does a little digging. An alumni post suggests that Ui-joon unfairly lost his tenure and his fiancée left him for someone else. He quit the hospital and became an alcoholic for a while. Now he rejects major offers from Seoul hospitals.
Geum-ju finds Ui-joon sulking at a river spot. A flashback shows her introducing it to him to cheer him up after his grandmother dies.
At present, Geum-ju tries to forget about Ui-joon but she realises that she would have liked some support when she broke up with Ju-yeop. She decides to cheer up Ui-joon by making him a lavish meal and giving him pep talks. While he is confused, his nurse warns Geum-ju not to flirt with him.
Right then, Ui-joon rejects a major offer. Exasperated, Geum-ju reveals that she knows about his past and urges him to take the offer. Suddenly, her friends alert her that the alumni post isn't about Ui-joon.
Elsewhere, Hyeon-ju hangs out while her twins take their taekwondo class with Seon-wook. She jokes around with him and we learn that he likes her. Once she leaves, her friend sadly comments on how she could have been a star. Seon-wook is irked as she is still a star to him.
Back to our leads, Ui-joon quickly masks his amusement and tells Geum-ju not to meddle in his life. She is hurt and agrees that she has crossed a line. A flashback shows them at an airport. She tries to stop him and he says that she has crossed the line.
At present, she scolds herself for not respecting Ui-joon's boundaries. However, he thinks of her all night.
The next morning, she decides to go back to acting as his driver. However, she begs Seon-wook to replace her when she gets a notification. Turns out, it is Ju-yeop's birthday and she had ordered a cake in advance. It cuts to a dramatic chase to Seoul to stop the delivery. However, she runs into Ju-yeop in the elevator.
He finally explains that the affair began because he was drunk. Upset by his hypocrisy, she orders him to get it together for his kid's sake. He tells her not to cross a line and that she should solve her issues first.
Ui-joon had said the same thing and Geum-ju is upset. After flinging the cake at Ju-yeop, she gets drunk.
Back home, Ui-joon worries about her. He finds a drunk Geum-ju who is babbling about a cake to Seon-wook. Ui-joon misunderstands and thinks she abandoned him to get drunk at a party. Seon-wook reveals that she is hurting Ui-joon and that she needs to become a decent person. As they leave, she cries.
Angry, Ui-joon drinks at home as well. He suddenly sees a comment on the alumni post and is shocked. It says that Ui-joon has killed someone.
In the Second Shot at Love Episode 2 epilogue, Ui-joon and Geum-ju are having a drinking competition in 2011. She is a sore loser and he carries her home. He wants to win in everything so he can take care of her.
The Episode Review
Having set up the drama of Geum-ju's drinking and how it affects her and those around her, Second Shot at Love Episode 2 goes back to the usual K-drama formula of misunderstandings, miscommunication and mayhem.
Not to compare, but we have seen something like this in recent rom-coms like Welcome to Samdalri and Love Next Door. The female protagonist refuses to tell the male protagonist the truth, viewers are left in the dark about what happened between the couple, and the atmosphere is quite vague and frustrating. This takes away from Geum-ju's alcoholism and tense family dynamic which are quite sensitive plotlines and need a sensitive treatment.
While there is potential for Second Shot at Love to do something good with its ambitious undertaking, we have a feeling that all of that may be sidelined for a tumultuous will-they-won't-they romance that may take up the majority of the runtime. It's a pity since Episode 1 exceeded expectations. But maybe next week can assuage our fears of the direction this show may take.
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The Review Geek
29-06-2025
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Good Boy – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review
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Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
The Review Geek
27-06-2025
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Squid Game – K-drama Season 3 Episode 3 Recap & Review
Episode 3 Episode 3 of Squid Game Season 3 begins with the guards killing the failed Red Team players. To make up for the guards killed during the failed rebellion, we see that the new staff are foreigners. They seem extremely eager to kill the failed players. It is later revealed that they are the VIPs. Nam-gyu is frustrated that he lost Thanos' pill box and almost gets killed while trying to search for it. Myung-gi is relieved as Geum-ja and Jun-hee bring the crying baby in but Jun-hee avoids him. No-eul disguises Player 246 as the doctor, Staff #16 and they sneak out. He wonders why No-eul is helping him but she doesn't say. He hides in #16's room while she works on an exit plan. The game results are revealed. 25 players remain and each player gets 1.7 billion won. Meanwhile, Woo-seok asks around Captain Park's 'hometown' but no one knows of him. He decides to dig deeper, and warns Jun-ho to keep an eye on Park. 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The final plot twist with Player 96 also reminds us of the Season 1 hopscotch game, where the players started sabotaging each other. These constant callbacks to Season 1 bring back the nostalgia that was missing in the previous season. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
The Review Geek
27-06-2025
- The Review Geek
Squid Game – K-drama Season 3 Episode 2 Recap & Review
Episode 2 Episode 2 of Squid Game Season 3 begins with Player 246 waking up. No-eul kills the doctor and decides to disguise 246 as a guard. Back to the game, the Red Team enters the arena. Each member has 30 minutes to kill at least one Blue Team member. Gi-hun goes after Dae-ho who narrowly avoids him every time. The Shaman and her followers go the way the 'ghosts' tell her. However, we see that she just avoids the noisy paths. Player 100 realises his key doesn't fit all the doors. He teams up with a Blue Team member who has a different key. Hyun-ju deduces the same, that there are 3 locks with 3 keys. Fortunately, the women have one of each key. Geum-ja and Jun-hee even give their key to Hyun-ju to save time. Myung-gi and Nam-gyu aka Player 124 kill two players at the same time, so they cannot betray each other. However, Nam-gyu drops Thanos' pill box and Min-su grabs one. 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He is the one who dragged Yong-sik away from his mother during the Mingle game. The Blue Team player attacks but another Red Team player kills him while Yong-sik looks in shock. The Shaman accidentally leads her followers into an ambush set by Myung-gi and Nam-gyu. As she escapes, she runs into Gi-hun. Turns out, she is on his hit list as well. To save herself, she tells him about an injured Dae-ho leaving a trail of blood. Gi-hun leaves her and starts following the blood. She finally finds the exit but it needs all 3 keys to unlock it. Yong-sik comes across an injured Blue Team player but is unable to kill her. Player 100 plays dead and is almost killed by Nam-gyu, who is called away by Myung-gi. The Shaman finds 100 and since he has the remaining keys, she takes him to the exit. Geum-ja and Hyun-ju help Jun-hee give birth to her child. A Red Team member attacks and Hyun-ju fights back. They tussle but she kills him. She finally notices her surroundings and sees that she is at the exit. She unlocks the door as she has all 3 keys. She suddenly remembers Jun-hee and Geum-ja. She goes back to them but Myung-gi kills her. He finally notices Jun-hee and their child. He covers for them and leads Nam-gyu away. Player 100 betrays the Shaman and locks her out once he exits. She is cornered by a stoned Min-su looking for Se-mi. She tries to use her shamanic act to put him down, but it just reminds him of Nam-gyu. He kills her and then panics when he hallucinates killing Se-mi. Gi-hun finally finds Dae-ho who starts apologising and rambling. He never served in the army and lied so he could team up with him and Jung-bae. He also wanted to help bring the magazines but got scared during the rebellion. He begs for his life but then grabs his knife and attacks Gi-hun. He goes as far as to claim Gi-hun tricked them so he could get everyone killed and take all the prize money. Having had enough, Gi-hun chokes Dae-ho till he dies. Jun-hee and Geum-ja finally reach the exit, but while unlocking the door, Yong-sik finds them. With only a minute left on the clock, he needs to kill someone or he will be killed. He decides to kill Jun-hee and Geum-ja begs him to kill her instead. He refuses, going after Jun-hee and a desperate Geum-ja stops him by stabbing him with her hairpin blade. He apologises before the guards kill him for failing. At the end of Squid Game Season 3 Episode 2, Gi-hun convinces himself that it is his fault. Before he can kill himself, the guards stop him. The Episode Review Seems like the original Squid Game charm is indeed back. This game goes as far as to remind us of the marble game in Season 1, where fan-favourites were betrayed and/or killed off in bulk. It is completely action-packed and gory as even the Blue Team members fight back. The Old Man's motto of man being inherently selfish is seen in this game with players betraying even their allies. Maybe Hyun-ju should have been selfish; at least she wouldn't have been stabbed in the back, literally. The emotional quotient is even higher than the marble game, given that the characters had a whole season to be fleshed out and relatable. We already knew it was a bad move for Geum-ja and Jun-hee to switch with Yong-sik and Myung-gi, respectively. But we do wish Dae-ho could have been redeemed, as that would have made his death even more impactful. Instead, he does a complete 180 turn from his Season 2 personality, making him cruel without any set-up except for the previous episode's outburst. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
