Agency (2023) Recap Episode 7-8

Ah-in continues catching everyone’s attention this week. Her refusal to be cowed coupled with her renowned skill has all of Hanna’s family watching her. Hanna’s grandfather Geun-cheol is taking a special interest in this ad competition for Woowon, his future in-law Chairman Kim’s company. He also seems to be using the situation to gauge Hanna’s abilities. Chairman Kang takes it as a given that his son KANG HAN-SOO will inherit the company, not even considering Hanna for the role. Geun-cheol, on the other hand, is pitting the siblings against each other and appears to favor Hanna.

Hanna, for her part, seems just as interested in proving her father wrong as running the company one day. As advised by Young-woo (a.k.a. the brains of the operation), Hanna adopts a more proactive approach to proving she’s cut out for running a conglomerate.

 

Hanna is intent on securing the ad deal for her agency and getting a useful subordinate out of it. She decides more competition is the answer because no one around her understands the concept of cooperation. With Woowon’s approval, Hanna orders Ah-in and Chang-soo to create separate ad campaigns for the project.

Now, not only do they have to beat the outside competition, Ah-in and Chang-soo have to work as fragmented teams without the full resources of the agency. Chang-soo is particularly annoyed at this ridiculous situation, but Ah-in takes it in stride. It’s not ideal for anyone, but they can’t refuse the chairman’s daughter outright.

Even without the insider information Chang-soo ferrets out for himself, Ah-in realizes their true goal is to get Chairman Kim released by manipulating public opinion. Not that the realization is much help. Turning the social tide with a single ad created within a week is a tall order, even for Ah-in.

While Chang-soo’s team immediately decides on a direction and copy, Ah-in’s team struggles to find their message. Ah-in’s stress brings out her highly unpleasant side as she pushes herself and her team to the limit to create the perfect campaign. Chang-soo plays dirty and swipes all the industry’s best freelance copywriters, so Ah-in’s team is on their own.

Ah-in is barely coping and makes an awkward trip back to her psychiatrist for more meds. An irritated Soo-jin reluctantly prescribes them under the condition that Ah-in promises not to take them with alcohol and will seriously engage in therapy going forward. Unsurprisingly, Ah-in almost immediately breaks her promise and ends up drinking with her meds. (If she keeps going on like this, she may not even make it to the presentation before she collapses.)

Wanting to assess her options, Hanna decides to visit each team during crunch time. Chang-soo falls all over himself to please and impress Hanna with the work they’ve done so far, while Ah-in doesn’t hide that she’s an unwelcome interruption since her team needs all the time they can get. She may not know much about the work itself, but Hanna appears to read people and situations well enough. She pegs Chang-soo as stable but predictable and Ah-in as unstable but useful.

Hanna weighs who she will bless with some very pertinent leaked info Young-woo obtained about the project. Hanna wants whoever will be of most use to her, and she decides that’s whoever is most hungry for information. Ah-in and her team are clearly more desperate, so Ah-in it is.

The intel gives Ah-in a major leg up, if she can figure out how to use it. Although the overheard conversation doesn’t mean much to Young-woo or Hanna, Ah-in grasps the hidden message immediately and gathers that their real target with this ad is one particular judge.

 

Ah-in’s team still has their work cut out for them since they’ve only got a few days left before deadline. They’re completely exhausted and at their wit’s end, unable to find the thread. But then, Eun-jung comes through in her unexpected way. She types up a rant about feeling wronged in this agency “prison,” and it gives Ah-in their messaging direction: miscarriage of justice with the copy, “The law isn’t perfect.”

Now that they have their message, they scramble for the necessary people and resources to complete the project. While the team puts together the proposal and shoots the video – an emotional interview with a man who faced tragedy 23 years ago (maybe falsely accused of a crime?) – Ah-in works the legal side.

She gets Young-woo to help her locate BAE JUNG-HYUN, the head of legal, at company headquarters and crashes their team meeting. He’s been tasked with trying to keep Chairman Kim out of prison, so it doesn’t take much convincing for Ah-in to get him on her side. He sends her to this dingy legal office to find a lawyer he knows. We don’t know what exactly she hires the lawyer for, but Ah-in offers him 3 billion won, so it’s not trivial. We close out this week’s episodes with Ah-in nervously awaiting the presentation, hoping she can pull off a miracle.

I wonder if we’ll deal with the potential ethical quandary of creating an ad to get a (guilty) chaebol out of prison time by manipulating the public. So far, no one seems overly concerned and is treating it just as another job. But using an ad campaign to intentionally influence a judge is a big deal that, I’d imagine, could backfire on them if their intent is made public.

We’re at the halfway point, so I’m hoping the drama starts to mix things up. I don’t want to rehash the same formula where there’s some life-changing presentation every week that pits Ah-in and Chang-soo against each other. While I enjoy seeing Ah-in ruining people’s plans, I’m ready for more character development or a plot twist — something to make me feel emotionally invested.

There are hints that several of our characters will soon be facing personal decisions that could be a turning point for them. We still haven’t dealt with Ah-in’s mom, so I’m sure that’s coming. And Eun-jung can only con her family for so long about quitting her job. Then, there’s Geun-cheol’s cryptic comment to Hanna (after seeing her with Young-woo) about having to sacrifice something big to succeed. Sooner or later, these women are going to have to make hard choices about how far they’re willing to go to get what they want.