Mimicking Civility Over Hostility – Itaewon Class Ep 6 Review

Check out the previous episode review here.

Wow.

This show is actually poetry in motion.

I’m not going to lie, I was totally prepared to be upset with Sae Royi. When he went back to literally run through the streets to Soo Ah I was rolling my eyes the entire time.

I know he said jogging was his hobby, but really?

After everything she had done up until this point?

Then, it hit me.

Oh, Sae Royi wasn’t kidding about his fifteen year plan.

Oh, that’s Lee Ho Jin, the boy who was being bullied by Geun Won. When did they link back up?

Oh, 1.9 billion won is a lot of money. He has been busy these past eight years. Is this why we were shown Geun Won’s screw up and Sae Royi watching it on tv all those years ago?

Oh, Ms. Kang most likely knew he was on the list of shareholders for some time. That’s right, Ms. Kang was friends with Sae Royi’s father. Sung Yul was like a mentor to Ms. Kang and she actually fought for him to keep his job before Chairman Jang put her back in her ‘place’.

Oh, this means that Sae Royi has enough shares to influence the board of Jangga Corp.

That’s right – Ms. Kang seems to be prepared to usurp leadership from Chairman Jang so it doesn’t fall to his idiot son. Who…ran his mouth like we all knew he would and basically told Sae Royi about Soo Ah’s true role in all of this: she is a spy for his father.

So becoming drunk and suddenly wanting to hang out with Sae Royi out of the blue…during a team meeting…when she hasn’t taken him up on his offer to grab drinks yet thus far…was a scheme.

A plot to keep her job.

Which again, is fine.

I feel the need to make clear that I do not hate Oh Soo Ah. To be honest, I actually quite like her a lot. I like all of these characters, even if they do frustrate me at times – like Sae Royi for a good portion of this episode. They are realistic, and it feels like I am watching real people interact with one another.

Jo Yi Seo’s mother finally caught on to the fact that she wasn’t attending college and kicked her out? Realistic.

Geun Won clinging to the self-importance instilled within him since birth but continually cutting himself and his family down due to lack of foresight? Realistic.

Geun Won has never had to suffer consequences. Hence, he goes around bragging about murders for all to hear. He listens to his father’s secret plans and decides it would be a wonderful time to mess with Sae Royi, while trying to push Soo Ah into his arms all in one go. Which news flash: it’s not going to work. But, we won’t tell him that. I doubt anyone around him will. And even if they do, he might not listen.

It is interesting though that he has an aversion to chicken now. I didn’t think he truly had it in him to be as ruthless as his father needs him to be. Geun Won is soft. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean he is human. He has a conscience, which I mentioned in a previous review. I like that about him, it means that there is still hope for him yet.

However, concerning Soo Ah…I don’t really get her deal.

We got a quick flashback on how she wound up at the orphanage. The thing is though…her mother never explicitly told her “I don’t love you” while leaving her there. Of course the full circumstances have yet to be revealed, and maybe they never will be – but why does she believe her parents don’t love her?

I don’t know why she was “abandoned” either, but maybe circumstances happened that prevented her mother from giving Soo Ah the life she truly wanted to? Or maybe, her mother couldn’t raise her as a single parent. This is not me blaming or chastising Soo Ah for the way she feels and her outlook on life, it is understandable.

But…does Soo Ah actually want to be loved?

In the episode she mentioned something about “coming this far with one belief”, or something to that effect – I can’t recall the exact quote. Basically her lamenting that she has lived this way too long to change. With that mentality, does she think no one will love her but herself because (she perceives that) her parents don’t even love her?

Does Soo Ah have really low self-esteem? Does she view acts of kindness (and some pity) as others looking down on her? Is that why she destroyed her friend’s belongings and turned herself into a pariah?

Such an interesting character. There is so much to impact with that scene alone, but if I talked about it all we would run out of time for the other good stuff that happened this episode!

(Semi-run on sentence be damned! ☺)

So, we got introduced to Kim Tony this episode! I remember reading his name as To Ni on one of the drama list websites but would it be bad to Americanize it and refer to him this way instead of that?

Unfortunately his interactions with the core team weren’t highlighted this episode because so many other things were happening. But, I am thoroughly looking forward to what he brings to the dynamic of DanBam!

I guess the last thing I want to touch on before ending this episode review would be Yi Seo and Geun Soo.

I don’t know why on earth I thought she would end up staying with Sae Royi at his place. I guess that has been ingrained into my mind after watching so many RomCom Kdrama. Realistically, that would be absolutely stupid. Why would a grown man open his home to a stranger? Let alone, his co-worker and store’s manager?

It’d be way too weird.

Which leads me to applaud Itaewon Class once again for the realism it showcases each week.

I forgot that Yi Seo was a social media star with a large following and various business contacts. Of course she would have the means to acquire an adequate apartment on such notice. Of course she would make Geun Soo help her move in to subset a movers’ fee. He basically did it for free.

Well, she did give him a drink – so he did it for a free drink. Because he was so utterly thirsty. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)

But the most interesting part of this interaction was that he noticed Yi Seo’s drawing of Sae Royi. I wish he would have read what her essay was about, but maybe it was less important than his image on the paper. Now Geun Soo knows she may like him. Now he might understand why she forwent college and turned Danbam and Sae Royi into her pet project.

In the previews, Yi Seo seems to have told Geun Soo to become head of Jangga corp.

Geun Soo hates his family, and is currently working for Sae Royi.

Sae Royi currently owns a lot of stock in Jangga corp. He has a potential supporter in Ms. Kang. The chairman has been keeping tabs on Geun Soo because he is aware that Parakeet Geun Won is not cut out for the business. He would drive the company into the ground.

If he were to decide to go against his father and help Sae Royi in his goal to franchise, especially if he knew the history between the brother and his boss…I wonder just what he would do.

But for now, I’ll end it here.

Wow, that episode was an absolute doozy!

Who do you think is actually on Chairman Jang’s side? How do you think Lee Ho Jin and Sae Royi met up again? Do you think Soo Ah realizes yet that she’s not a player, but a pawn?

And seriously…

What exactly does Sae Royi intend to do in his 15 year plan?

Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, I’d love to hear from you! Also be sure to follow us for more Itaewon Class reviews!

Don’t fall for any schemes in the workplace, read: The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

다음 화 The True Art of War

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