Divorce Attorney Shin Episode 3

Episode 3 of Divorce Attorney Shin starts with Sung-han waking up with an awful upset stomach. He pops pills, drinks his water and checks his phone, where a video of him has gone viral. Specifically that of him playing the piano in the middle of the night while drinks. Sung-han is shocked and realizes now why his hands are aching, hysterically claiming that this is a disaster.

Seo-jin drives her son to school, quizzing him about piano lessons. However, he’s not in the mood to practice. Meanwhile, Park Ae-ran lashing out at her mother-in-law last episode has ramifications. The grandmother bemoans her son for marrying Ae-ran and promises to make sure she never does anything like this ever again.

As for Ae-ran, seeing her kids scolded is enough to make her mind up and she heads in and see Sung-han in the morning, who’s at his office anxious about the piano video. Ae-ran shows and asks Sung-han for a divorce consultation, explaining how stifling her mother-in-law is and how trapped she feels. With her kids growing up, it’s a precarious situation.

However, given Ae-ran hit her mother-in-law, that doesn’t make the situation any easier for her. Ae-ran wants the building divided up properly, along with the assets, but as the building presumably belongs to his mother-in-law, that’s not going to be easy. She believes she’s owed this much and with her kids now dragged into everything, it’s a step too far for her.

To try and quell their hangover woes, Hyeong-geun and Sung-han head out for some spicy noodles. While they slurp down their bowls, Jeong-sik inevitably shows up and demands that they pay up their “dine and dash”. It turns out they run up a bill of 310,000 won the night before and they haven’t paid him back yet.

After some back and forth banter with the noodle owner, the trio head back home where they have yet more food and mull over the piano video online. This intercuts quite dramatically with Ae-ran and her daughters sitting and eating food. The mood is sombre, but it takes a turn for the worst when Byeong-cheol comes home that night. He laments Ae-ran for striking his mother and tells Ae-ran off for not “humoring” her mum. The thing is, he’s not apologetic and tells her she should be more understanding, even going so far as to tell Ae-ran she needs to apologize.

Ae-ran has heard enough and decides to follow through with the divorce no matter what. This solidifies her thoughts on the matter and she confronts her partner too, telling Byeong-cheol that she’s going to do everything she can to get the building. Part of that comes from Sung-han, who decides to take her on as a client, given how dedicated she’s been to cleaning their office.

Naturally, Sung-han scouts out the area, using Jeong-sik as a convincing witness to get the lowdown on the area. Not only does he learn that Ae-ran is a hard working and she does everything, but she also sorts out the maintenance. However, they refuse to let him look at the apartment though, and although this is common practice, it rings alarm bells for Sung-han when he finds out and he contemplates using the neighbours as a witness testimony if it goes that far.

Furthermore, Sung-han double checks the building was paid for with her husband’s money (it was, she was there when he made the payments) and there’s even a notarized document and a recording of this…but they’re with her mother-in-law.

In the wake of all this drama, there’s extra characterization for Hyeong-geun too. He heads out to meet with his wife, and it’s clear that they’ve had problems for a while. Not only does it seem like Hyeong-geun prioritized work over her, but Ji-eun is now living with another man and decides they should get a divorce. “I just love him so much,” Ji-eun says, going on to plead with her heartbroken husband to sign the papers

That night, Sung-han decides to message the guy who uploaded the video on “NerTube” and tries to get him to take it down. The guy refuses to do so, dubbing Sung-han as the Piano Man and shrugging off Sung-han’s threats that he works in law. Given Sung-han plaued the piano in a public area and there’s not much he can do. In fact, with over 1000 comments and lots of views, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

At the law office, Seo-jin shows up and asks for a job. She needs proof of employment and shows her worth when she fixes the stiff door for them. The guys are shocked and there’s a hilarious moment as Sung-han and Hyeong-geun are over the moon with their new door, bouncing around an “Open sesame!” chant.

However, this good mood is squashed somewhat by Park Yoo-seok showing up at the law firm. If you’ll remember, this is the guy from the rival firm and Sung-han’s rival. All of this seems to have arisen from a custody dispute Sung-han’s sister was involved in, with his nephew’s life hanging in the balance. The details are hazy but it seems like his nephew is living with his step-mother and Yoo-seok is very much involved in all this.

Sung-han goes on to reveal Yoo-seok sold him out and even became partner of a law firm despite doing a poor job. Sung-han’s rage motivated him to study law and when the time is right, he’s going to exact his revenge.

Yoo-seok leaves the office and speaks to one of his subordinates, tasking him with looking into the divorce suit that Sung-han is preparing for. It would seem that sabotage is on the agenda here!

That night, Ae-ran looks for the building document but unfortunately, Byeong-cheol spots her snooping about and questions her. At the same time, we cut across to Sung-han, who ends up having a bad dream involving a woman called Ju-hwa. He wakes up crying, wracked with guilt and as he sobs, the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

As far as I can tell, Sung-han’s entire past is centered around Ju-hwa and it could well be that she was his student and it looks like they may have had some sort of disagreement, leading to Ju-hwa getting hit by a car. Or, most likely, the infamous “white truck of doom” (for those unaware, a common K-drama trope is a white truck hitting someone or causing an accident.)

The episode itself is a slight improvement tonally over what we’ve seen last week but there’s still a slightly jarring jump between the comedy and more somber, serious segments. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, as some of the comedy here is great. The “Open Sesame” moment is a particular highlight while the banter between the three males definitely helps this one stand out.