Recap Korean Drama "Curtain Call (2022)" Episode 5-6

The next morning, Jae-heon and Yoon-hee arrive back at the family home where they run into the perpetually scowling Se-joon. To their surprise, he was nice to them and spoke more words to them in that one conversation than he has in the past four episodes. Putting on a front to keep them comfortable, Se-joon is actually still wary of them. We see later on that he is testing them every chance he gets.

Jae-heon cooks up a meal for Geum-soon showing off his cooking skills to the family, but more importantly, his willingness to help out and do things around the house. His readiness to cook surprises caretaker YOON JUNG-SOOK (Bae Hae-sun) as none of the other grandchildren have stepped up to do anything like that. While cooking, Se-joon approaches Jae-heon unexpectedly speaking Chinese. Jae-heon stares at Se-joon like a deer in headlights, but the ever-so-sharp Yoon-hee responds in fluent Chinese, surprising Se-joon. Just him being present forces the two to be ready for anything.

After the interaction, everyone sits down to eat. Geum-soon brings up to Jae-heon the idea of him working. He reiterates that he is only there to be with her. She insists that he works at the hotel, to everyone’s dismay except Se-yeon – who was actually the one to bring the idea up to Geum-soon. Reluctantly, Jae-heon accepts.

Contrasting Se-joon’s stone-cold demeanor is his wife, HYUN JI-WON (Hwang Wol-seul-hye), who seems more open to accepting Jae-heon and Yoon-hee as extended family which only frustrates Se-joon more. Seeing it as a chance to bond with Yoon-hee, Ji-won invites her to go shopping for “retro” dresses for a party.

After their shopping excursion, they make their way to the party where Yoon-hee gets to meet Ji-won’s “friends.” Yoon-hee swiftly picks up on their condescending attitude towards Ji-won and doesn’t hesitate to step in and protect her new friend. Pulling Ji-won away from the party, Yoon-hee pushes her to be more vocal in defending herself – which makes her sincere support apparent to Ji-won. They’re blossoming into close friends quickly and I’m loving every second they’re on the screen together.

 

Meanwhile, it’s Jae-heon’s first day at work. All spruced up, he meets Se-yeon outside where she compliments his look and fixes his tie. I don’t see the sparks of their relationship just yet as I don’t get any hints of Se-yeon having any type of romantic affection towards Jae-heon. Conversely, however, we can easily see Jae-heon slowly falling for Se-yeon. I mean, look at the adoration in his eyes. He’s swooning!

At the hotel, Jae-heon is shocked to hear that Se-yeon has brought him on as a member of the planning team. This is problematic as he wants a job that will minimalize his interactions with high profile people, as he doesn’t want to risk getting caught. Speaking of high profile people, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KIM (Song Jong-hak) makes his way into Se-yeon’s office. Meeting Jae-heon for the first time, he brings up the looming notion of favoritism considering Jae-heon’s immediate entry on the planning team. Jae-heon, trying to get out of this important job, agrees with Executive Director Kim and opts to be a porter instead. Not realizing Se-yeon is banking on him for his vote to keep the hotel, his choice disappoints her.

After a long first day, Se-yeon takes Jae-heon out to dinner with her co-workers. Everybody is drinking and having a good time, and in the midst of this, HONG RA-KYEONG (Kim Hyun-sook) – Se-yeon’s assistant and friend – attempts to take a love shot with Jae-heon. Jae-heon has to pretend not to know what a love shot actually is, and awkwardly acts his way through — but there’s even more awkwardness when Se-yeon breaks the two apart and feeds Ra-kyeong a bite of food to cover up her previous action.

Being carried by Se-yeon back the the car, a drunk Jae-heon almost lets it slip to her that he likes her. She questions what he said and he covers it up by following the comment up with statements that he likes Grandma Geum-soon and he likes everything right now. Se-yeon relaxes and proceeds to bring him to the car.

At home, Jae-heon stumbles to Yoon-hee. Irritated, she scolds him for coming back so late and brings him into their room. As he falls asleep in bed, she stares at him, longing for her feelings to be recognized and reciprocated by the one she really cares for.

I love Yoon-hee’s character as she is very forthcoming and astute. We see she doesn’t delay in being there for people who need her and the ones she cares for. She’s also a lot more collected than Jae-heon is as he loses rationality at times – a lot of it branching from his growing affection for Se-yeon.

 

His second first day on the job, Jae-heon is working diligently as a porter, but Dong-je spots him and has him deliver some bags to his suite. He tells Jae-heon to open one of the bags and then to try the shoes on — part of a scheme he’s got going to bribe Jae-heon to his side. Jae-heon doesn’t take kindly to this and aggressively denies his offer, not missing out on the chance to act protectively towards Se-yeon, either (which is not exactly what Dong-je was hoping for).

The confrontation continues for Jae-heon when Executive Director Kim spots him in the lobby and chews him out for leaving his post. He’s sent to the laundry room to work instead, but what seems like a best case scenario quickly turns into a worst case scenario.

Two friends from the theatre are also working in the laundry room and immediately recognize Jae-heon — just as Se-yeon walks in to pick him up. Thankfully, they’re all actors and they play along, and later, Jae-heon explains the whole situation to them, and that he’s acting on a “huge” stage. Let’s hope the two know how to keep a secret.

 

Se-yeon continues to protect Jae-heon, and confronts Se-joon, thinking he’s instructed Executive Director Kim to be intentionally antagonistic towards him. We’re given hints of how the two siblings used to be on the same page, which is echoed again later when Se-joon and Se-gyu chat over drinks. Se-gyu brings up how there was once a time when Se-joon felt bad for Se-yeon (which seems directly related to Dong-je, hmmm). Se-joon attempts to change the subject, though, and eventually leaves; sadly, his detached personality is beginning to separate him from his siblings and other family members.

We soon learn more about Se-yeon and Dong-je’s history when he “invites” Jae-heon for dinner in his suite with Se-yeon. Yoon-hee is also at the hotel visiting her husband, so the two couples have a very awkward dinner. Here, we see the calm and rational Yoon-hee compared to the clouded head of Jae-heon. Jae-heon brings up the relationship of Se-yeon and Dong-je and pushes too far as he brings up their possible arranged marriage. This leads to Dong-je excusing himself from the table, and Se-yeon mentally checking out. After the meal, Yoon-hee reprimands Jae-heon outside for his lack of sensibility and awareness.

 

We’re given a little more insight into Se-joon when Jung-sook delivers him a drink he loved as a kid. She asks him why he is so harsh. He, surprisingly, doesn’t dismiss her and proceeds to talk about his parents’ passing. It is revealed that they died in a plane crash while working for the hotel. Se-joon thinks they overextended themselves for Geum-soon and that she has been using them all as tools to reconnect with her North Korean family.

I honestly was not thinking this would be the reason for his bitterness. I assumed it would be less rational, but this makes his reasoning seem so much more real. I think his feelings are justified but he is handling them in a selfish way. I also wonder why he is so cold towards Se-yeon specifically. My guess is that he thinks she didn’t mourn their parents enough or she didn’t show it as she was so occupied with the hotel.

 

As for Se-yeon, she has scars of her own. The next day, Se-yeon takes Jae-heon to her personal workshop and it is full of paintings that she has done in the past. He asks her about them, finding out that she has a passion for painting, which then leads to him asking why she stays at the hotel. She says it’s a part of her and she can’t abandon it. She loves the hotel but she is somewhat obligated to keep it afloat. In her case, I think she must be opposite of Se-joon where she sees the hotel as a legacy of her parents and she can’t leave it because of them.

After this conversation, it seems like Jae-heon is liking Se-yeon even more (and more obviously). From the emotional bonding when she confided about her parents and her painting to the adrenaline-filled escape at the police check-point, these two are getting closer by the day.

To end this week’s episodes off, Geum-soon decides to have her last banquet and gives each of her grandchildren ten invitations to give to their friends and family. The event quickly arrives and with it a whole host of unexpected characters converge on the scene — namely, the appearance of Yoon-hee’s mother and one of Se-yeon’s friends (who Jae-heon play-acted boyfriend for).

Yoon-hee anad Jae-heon turn about-face and then freeze, not sure what to do, while we get a giant cliffhanger. I have no idea how our actors are going to manage their escape as they are right in the middle of the vortex this time.

 

Outside of landing such a huge cliffhanger, this has been a great week for character development in the drama. In these two episodes, Se-yeon and Jae-heon have grown a lot closer, though I’m still getting more sibling than couple vibes. I don’t know how the drama will build this romance convincingly, but I’m very interested to see how she comes around to falling for him. The underlying fight for the hotel could also be affecting her outgoingness towards Jae-heon, but she also seems like a genuine person and has already told Jae-heon why she was trying to get close to him in the first place.

Finally, I’m glad we finally got to dive into Se-joon’s mind a little bit as I have been wanting more of him from the start. He is such an interesting character and in my opinion, the most interesting of the three grandchildren right now. But with Grandma Geum-soon is slowly getting worse, and the real Moon-sung trying to make his way to South Korea, who knows how all these plot threads will play out. Will Moon-sung make it in time before her death and blow Jae-heon’s cover, or will the banquet be enough to do that?