Recap Korean Drama "Little Women (2022)" Episode 5

Episode 5 of Little Women starts with In-joo telling Do-il how she took a trip to Singapore with Hwa-young after her mother had passed away. She is still not able to comprehend why Hwa-young would leave behind so many riches for her, and she asks to visit the country. Do-il tells her she cannot do it now since there are people on the lookout to catch her.

He suggests that she should start working with San-a in order to build her trust and to be able to accompany him to the Orchid Festival there. He asks In-joo to prove to San-a that she is capable of doing the job by building her trust. As he drops In-joo off back home, In-kyung and Jong-ho notice Do-il.

He recalls knowing Do-il from the university he studied at in the States. In-kyung thinks In-joo is dating Do-il and tries to embarrass her in front of him. Do-il appears to understand her plan and plays along by addressing In-joo affectionately. After he leaves, In-joo tells In-kyung that she will be joining San-a as her employee leaving her shocked.

That night, In-joo recalls her trip to Singapore with Hwa-young and remembers how the two bonded over the trip. The next day, In-joo starts working with San-a and builds up her trust by being adept and useful. San-a packs her bags for a trip and asks In-joo to join her in the car. She tells In-joo that she will be leaving for an event in Singapore and asks for the matter to be hidden from Park Jae-sang and Hyo-rin.

San-a also warns In-joo about Hyo-rin’s panic attacks and hands her medication to help with it in her absence. She states she will be back in a couple of days and drops In-joo at the nearby sidewalk. In-joo, In-hye and Hyo-rin are watching the documentary from when In-hye was hospitalized. In-joo is uncomfortable with the way they are portraying In-hye but the youngest sister doesn’t find anything odd and giggles with Hyo-rin.

Park Jae-sang suddenly barges in and throws a tantrum informing Hyo-rin about the Singapore trip. In fury, he breaks the television with a golf stick causing Hyo-rin to have a panic attack. He asks Hyo-rin to call her mother back home but In-joo intervenes letting her calm down. Jae-sang invites In-joo for a chat and asks about San-a’s trip.

He looks up photos online and finds San-a at an event. Do-il comes into the room and Jae-sang tasks him to bring San-a back from Singapore immediately. Hyo-rin is calmer after taking the medicines and is grateful about the two sisters staying with her. In-joo chats up with Do-il and he informs her that they were under CCTV surveillance. He takes her away from the cameras and he calms In-joo down reassuring her everything will work out according to their plan.

Do-il tells In-joo that she will be able to live a new life with a new identity and says that he would protect In-joo with all his might. She calms down and tells Do-il she will try to trust him. In-joo goes back inside the house and tries to talk to In-hye about her plans for the future of the three sisters but In-hye does not want to hear any of it. She dismisses In-joo and walks away.

That night, In-joo is sleeping in Hyo-rin’s room when In-hye takes her to the room with the orchid tree. The two friends discuss Hyo-rin’s episodes of panic attacks and Hyo-rin reveals she practised self-harm to overcome her troubles. In-hye suggests that Hyo-rin should harness her inner demons to the canvas instead just like her and paint out her horrific memories.

As part of their agreement for helping with In-hye’s medical bills, In-kyung has to work with Hye-suk at her real estate firm. Hye-suk introduces the reporter and her grand-niece as the director of the firm shocking In-kyung. In-kyung is adamant about rejoining her workplace as a reporter whereas the great aunt hands work down to In-kyung, keeping her occupied.

Soo-in finds Do-il at Jae-sang’s house and asks him about his late-night rendezvous with In-joo. He lies that she is a fling to him trying to misguide Soo-in. At the Pilseok Real Estate agency, In-kyung is working through the balance sheets of the law firm for the past three years. She learns that her great aunt’s company has dangerous liabilities but Hye-suk states she has everything under her control. She states that In-kyung will help her company in the years to come.

In-kyung asks her about her interaction with Park Jae-sang at the hospital. Meanwhile, San-a is pissed after she is brought back from Singapore. San-a mocks Jae-sang for being her manservant and triggers and the couple ends up having a huge fight that sounds through their huge house sending Hyo-rin into another panic attack episode. San-a leaves the house and the young girl is concerned about her mother’s absence.

She looks at the CCTV footage and notices that San-a is leaving in her car. San-a is at the hospital with her father – General Won who is comatose. She watches Park Jae-sang’s statement on the news with a stoic expression. That night, Hyo-rin is painting a woman with red heels in the orchid room and In-hye praises her for her talent. The next morning, Jae-sang and San-a keep up appearances at a public event but she is still hungover from the night before.

In the women’s room, In-joo notices that San-a had stained her white shirt and offers her own shirt in exchange for amusing San-a. Jong-ho and In-kyung visit the address given to them by the author of the novel. The address is a school and they chat up with Sa-pyeong there. He shows them the rare plantation of a specific kind, the blue orchid and states that General Won had established the school years ago mentioning that the plant was a gift from the General.

San-a gives In-joo a makeover telling her that she will have to dress tastefully to work as her assistant. In-joo and San-a discuss Jae-sang and she tells In-joo that she purposefully tries to look ditzy to make Jae-sang look smart. In-kyung and Jong-ho are still at the Wonryeong School museum where she films the displays that praise General Won’s contribution to the Vietnam War. Sa-pyeong tells them to look at the alumni from the school and In-kyung is shocked to see her colleague, Ma-ri as one of the students.

San-a leaves the store with In-joo and notices that she is being tailed. She rushes back into the store as In-joo follows her and leaves in a taxi from the rear exit. In-joo is concerned as she asks San-a if they were being followed and the latter states it is Jae-sang treating her like a child because she is having fun. She asks In-joo to take her to Hwa-young’s house where she asks In-joo about the incident. In-joo gets emotional and San-a sits on the floor recalling her bond with Hwa-young.

San-a’s dress rides up to her knees and In-joo notices cuts on her thigh. San-a asks In-joo if she still hates her and is relieved to hear In-joo’s understanding response. San-a shares that she always wanted to be an actress but since she was unable to do so due to her affluent father, she gave up on her dream. She tells In-joo that now, she chooses to act around the clock with a different personality in real life.

San-a recalls bonding with Hwa-young about this and In-joo shares Jae-sang’s violent episode. She asks San-a to ask for help if they were being abused. San-a promises that he would never hurt Hyo-rin. That evening, In-joo is having drinks with Do-il and she mentions how she is sympathising with San-a. He mocks her for trusting things at face value and asks her to stop being gullible as she trusts San-a’s claims.

In-joo gets a warning message about Do-il from In-kyung. In-kyung tells In-joo that back in the states, he was in a car accident. Do-il was rescued from the accident but the body of the woman he was with was nowhere to be found.  In-kyung alleges that Do-il faked the car accident to kill his girlfriend. She also adds that his mother was charged with assault. In-kyung links Do-il’s connections with General Won and the Wonryeong Group asking In-joo to be careful of him.

In-joo is not having it and bickers with her sister over it. She tells In-kyung that Do-il only means money to her and that she will use him to get the money from the ledgers. In-joo notices the flower at Jong-ho’s house and reveals how she saw one at Hwa-young’s house as well as at Hyun-min’s accident spot.

The next day, In-kyung is rushing to work to tell her boss about the flower and she runs into her great aunt, who is in a state of shock. In-kyung meets her boss who suddenly gets a call from the news network’s personnel committee. He tells In-kyung that she has been dismissed from working as a reporter.

In-hye calls In-joo asking her to bring Hyo-rin’s phone to their academy. As In-joo is looking for the phone, she finds Hyorin’s morbid painting and is shocked. Hyo-rin’s painting is an exact replica of the scene where In-joo found Hwa-young’s body in the wardrobe.

In-kyung is shocked after being dismissed from her job and rushes to her great aunt assuming she was the one who made this happen. Hye-suk denies any part in having her fired and appears to be unwell. At the same time, In-joo questions Hyo-rin about the paintings and the girl starts crying. In-kyung rushes to Park Jae-sang’s press conference and uses the information from Hye-suk to ask him about his father’s wealthy investments despite being General Won’s driver.

That night, In-hye tells In-joo that Hyo-rin was nowhere to be found and they go through the CCTV footage to see her in one of the cars in the basement. The two sisters rush there to find Hyo-rin passed out from watching the dash cam footage from the car. In-joo is shocked to see Park Jae-sang entering Hwa-young’s apartment complex on the night of her suicide/murder. 

The Episode Review

So much chaos in one episode, how do we comprehend this? From Hyo-rin’s panic attacks to San-a’s questionable actions and Park Jae-sang’s temper tantrums and the finale. The episode really delivered one shock after another. I wonder why the dash-cam footage wasn’t deleted and why Jae-sang turned back.

Perhaps, San-a was in the car instructing him to murder Hwa-young? There is still so much suspense around Do-il and his true intentions which is why I am apprehensive to ship him with In-joo. There is a possibility that he was dating Hwa-young back in University and they staged her death for her to assume a new identity.

Hye-suk looks very out of character and I am worried she will soon be falling ill due to something huge that she heard at In-kyung’s workplace. In-kyung was very impulsive in this episode and now she has put Hye-suk in danger by publicly shaming Park Jae-sang. I hope he is not going to channel his rage at Hye-suk who is already in a sickly state.