Castaway Diva (2023) K Drama Episode 3

Episode 3 of Castaway Diva begins with us back on the island with Mok-ha. In her tattered clothes, she stands on the edge of the cliff and looks down at the waves below. This stands in complete contrast to Ran-joo who, back on the mainland, stands at the top of her apartment complex and looks over the edge. While Mok-ha jumps, Ran-joo does not. She slumps down and begins crying.

Mok-ha notices something floating on the surface after jumping, which happens to be a cooler. Bringing it to the surface, Mok-ha finds one packet of Ramyeon that has long expired. Mok-ha boiled it and ate the noodles, using a saucepan and fire, savouring the flavour to do so.

Meanwhile, Ran-joo writes a note out to her fans, apologizing for her behaviour in the past. However, attention is fickle and time in the limelight is not only fiercely competitive, but also finite. Ran-joo struggles to write out her feelings, with numerous scribbles across the paper.

Ran-joo eventually sends this note over to President Lee and tells him to run it by the PR team for typos. He comes off stage from a big conference and talks calmly to Ran-joo, pointing out that she lives in a sub-basement and hangs up on her. Even worse, a couple of Ran-joo’s fans decide to kick her out and no longer be her fans either. Left all on her own, she tries to ring through to Lee, apologizing for her outburst, but he hangs up on her.

Out of all the people to pick her up, complete with her suitcase and all her stuff, is Kang Woo-hak. This is just before her big performance, where she had plans to leave and go on a big trip after. These plans are put on hold though after she puts on an incredible performance in front of everyone. It goes viral online and she starts crying. But the reason she cried was because she was about to give up on everything.

This also explains Ran-joo’s hug, as she essentially saved her life and career. Alone, Mok-ha is shocked that her agency has hung her out to dry. She’s even more shocked when she learns Ran-joo was there during the time she was supposed to be picked up. Her substitute, Mo-rae, wasn’t as strong a singer as Mok-ha, but went on to become a huge star. In fact, she’s even bigger than Ran-joo was at her height.

Mok-ha shocked by this turn of events and points out that it’s scandalous that someone would steal Ran-joo’s limelight. Woo-hak interjects and thinks it’s Ki-ho who should be blamed, given he’s the “weakling” that struggled to stop her father from boarding the boat.

After this encounter, Woo-hak heads back home and butts heads with his brother, Kang Bo-geol, again. He points out the bright star that Mok-ha could have been… and unfortunately points up to their rooftop apartment. Uh oh.

The two brothers head up and see both Ran-joo and Mok-ha practicing and singing. Bo-geol is surprisingly polite and greets them both. He then leaves, without saying a word to his brother, and confusing him to no end. In bed, Bo-geol tells his brother to stop going on about Ki-ho. This could be because he’s tired of hearing about it, or it could be because Ki-ho’s father is still on the lookout for his son.

He doesn’t know what Ki-ho looks like now, but that doesn’t stop him from fishing around town for information.

While Mok-ha reveals what was in the cooler to Ran-joo, the latter retorts that she has vocal nodules and even had surgery done. She started losing gigs because her voice was poor and she lost a lot of fans. Not only that, but the news started writing that she was washed up and done for. In a way, Mok-ha ended up serving as her cooler.

In the morning, Ran-joo wakes up massively hungover. When her memory returns, she’s shocked when she realizes she asked to be Mok-ha’s mentor. She even phoned President Lee, berating him over Mo-rae and how they’re going down compared to Mok-ha’s .

Ran-joo is shocked and bemoans herself, until President Lee phones and asks what she’s up to. She points out that she was half serious with the video call and pitches the idea of letting Mok-ha perform. She apologizes and in secret, points out she made a ludicrous promise to let her audition. She even suggest Lee pretend, and to take pity on her given she survived on the island.

Although she’s given a slot, it’s done so out of pity but she’s more concerned about how far Ran-joo has fallen and what’s led her to become broken and downtrodden like this. Is it just her voice? Or is there more to the story than this?

When Mok-ha eventually shows up to see President Lee, he calls out Ran-joo for her behaviour and believes the whole thing is a waste of time. Mok-ha is taken aback but waits in the hallway while Lee and Ran-joo talk. The former is absolutely brutal, pointing out that her being a trainee at 31 is preposterous and they basically have to double her age, given how fast-moving the music industry is.

Mok-ha is shocked and feels ike she’s drowning again. Mok-ha pities herself, now understanding how she’s fallen so far. People like Lee are leeches, prying onto the next big thing and bleeding them dry… but also afraid to take a chance.

Mok-ha realizes this and heads back in again, deciding to become Ran-joo’s manager. Ran-joo is taken aback but Mok-ha is confident. She points out that Lee is just a coward and she’s going to prove everyone wrong.

With the help of Mok-ha, she makes a bold promise, with Ran-joo confronting Lee about this right in the middle of a big meeting. Ran-joo needs to sell 20 million albums and then half of RJ Entertainment shares will be hers. That agreement will expire in 6 months though, so it’s a tight window to operate on. Ran-joo calls Lee a coward again, echoing Mok-ha’s words, and walks out.

Mok-ha takes her job as manager seriously, preventing Ran-joo from smoking and even getting her a gig on TV, with Kang Bo-geol of all people. He’s the producer there and that will give her a lot of exposure too. She also has some straws to help with her vocal nodules, using this method to try and help her voice.

Ran-joo though decides they should let Mok-ha sing the song that Ki-ho gave her all those years ago, more than a decade, to give her a chance and promising to give her a hug. His request was desperate, and when Mok-ha learns about this, she can’t stop crying. However, she decides to perform the song on Ran-joo’s behalf. She does so on the rooftop, with poignant lyrics like “I’m still waiting for you,” which is directed straight at Ki-ho. Both Bo-geol and Woo-hak are watching her, as she performs.

The Episode Review

Castaway Diva feels like it’s channelling that underdog spirit to try and mount a comeback story for Ran-joo – and we are all for it. It’s a great way of backdropping the slowly bubbling drama involving Mok-ha. Personally, it would seem that Bo-geol is actually Ki-ho, not Woo-hak, and he’s keeping a low profile to hide from his father. This would explain why he was on the rooftop watching Mok-ha perform with tears in his eyes.

This drama has been well written so far, although the few moments back on the island are full of contrivances. How did Mok-ha find a saucepan? How did she make a fire? And where did she get the water from? Is it purified? I know those are trivial questions, but they haven’t really been answered here, which is a little disappointing.

However, these gripes aside, Castaway Diva manages to help flesh out more of Ran-joo’s past this time around, and using the metaphor of a cooler to save both Ran-joo and Mok-ha is a nice touch.