Strong Girl Nam-soon – K Drama Episode 15

Episode 15 of Strong Girl Nam-soon starts with Shi-oh’s attack on Commissioner General Lee Jeong-sik. By the time Hee-sik and his team arrive, the commissioner general is nowhere to be found. Hee-sik surmises that it must have been Shi-oh.

Meanwhile, Nam-soon and her family host Hwa-ja/Myung-hee’s funeral. Geum-ju laments the choices she made that led to her death and promises to take revenge on Shi-oh. Bong-go takes a chance and asks Geum-ju if she’s dating Bread Song. She denies it, leaving a smile on Bong-go’s face.

Nam-soon gets a call from Jeong-min who tells her that Shi-oh had asked about her. She then tells her mother she has to go after Shi-oh and Geum-ju tells her to be careful.

Back at the police station, Hee-sik suggests turning Pavel and Shi-oh against each other. He wants to wiretap Shi-oh’s secret phone. To do so, they send him a fake text using the VIP client list they received from Red Heels, in order to make Shi-oh click on a link. At that moment, Nam-soon arrives and brings them up to date.

Meanwhile, Shi-oh is casually sitting a in room while Beom is lying on the floor, clearly dead. He then gets a call from Nam-soon who tells him to face her directly instead of going after other people. He tells her he hates liars and refuses to do as she says. He then gets the fake text from Hee-sik’s team.

He clicks on the link and the detectives team can now access his phone. They overhear a phone call between him and Pavel’s leader, Nozh. Nozh mentions Tsar Bomba, which turns out to be a death order for Shi-oh.

Shi-oh then learns that Prosecutor Moon has testified against him. Shi-oh is on a warrant list and a travel ban has been issued against him as well. Nam-soon and Hee-sik discuss that Shi-oh wouldn’t take on Pavel without an ace up his sleeve.

Geum-ju isn’t sitting quietly either. She meets with Gentleman, who says his agent has found evidence of Doogo’s money laundering. The information pointed to a woman named Yeom Su-san and as it turns out, Bread Song has been meeting her as well. Back in the day, even Geum-ju knew her. Elsewhere, Song meets with Su-san, who gives him two bags as well as the location for the next laundering exchange.

Shi-oh makes a call to someone and asks for Dr. Choi, the man working at his lab. At the police station, Hee-sik hears from Red Heels who is sending him the final list of clients. Nam-soon gets a call from her Mongolian mother, who is at a hotel with Bong-go and Nam-in. Seon-gyu then finds that Dr. Choi was probably the one to create the drug and its antidote, so they have to get him before Shi-oh does.

Shi-oh calls Secretary Yoon and tells him to keep Dr. Choi hidden. He then tells him to track down everyone in Nam-soon’s family. He gets a call from Nozh and offers him Dr. Choi in exchange for Pavel’s protection. The police overhear Choi’s location. After the call, Yoon meets Shi-oh and informs him about Nam-soon’s Mongolian mother.

Nam-soon uses her super speed to run to Choi’s location while Hee-sik follows in his car. Sometime later, a group of Pavel’s men reach Choi’s location but he isn’t there.

Geum-ju TV’s news segment is about to go live and she tells Reporter Kim it will be the last one. Kim goes live and informs viewers that Geum-ju TV will be an official broadcasting studio that presents dramas, comedies and documentaries.

Hyun-soo watches the broadcast from one of his film sets. It ends up reminding him of Seon-saeng. The director of the film calls Hyun-soo aside and shows him a social media post — Hyun-soo has been exposed for living with a woman and then dumping her when he came into money. As a result, his reputation has taken a huge dive.

Shi-oh is surprised when he learns that Pavel didn’t find Dr. Choi. He realises that his phone’s been tapped.

At the police station, Nam-soon burst in with a large sack of garlic. It turns out to contain none other than Dr. Choi. Hee-sik and the rest of the team come in after having arrested Doogo’s VIP clients. They send Shi-oh a text from Choi’s phone, calling him to the company’s office. Before Nam-soon heads over there, Hee-sik admits he’s worried she’ll get hurt. He makes her promise that she won’t die.

Nam-soon walks into the Doogo office and Ms Baek is the first one to accost her. Nam-soon tells her about the drugs and advises her to resign. She then goes into Shi-oh’s office and looks for the antidote but can’t find it. Shi-oh figures out that Nam-soon took Dr. Choi. Yoon then tells him that everything is set.

Bong-go and Nam-in drop Nam-soon’s Mongolian mother off near a store since she wanted to get some shopping done before leaving the country. Bong-go gets a desperate text from Geum-dong and they go to the hospital. Both, Geum-dong and his father are distraught that Joong-gan has gone on a trip with her new boyfriend. Bong-go tries convincing them to let her go.

Meanwhile, somebody approaches Nam-soon’s Mongolian mother. Shi-oh then calls Nam-soon and reveals that her adoptive mother is in danger. He orders her to come to the address he’s just sent. Hee-sik, who’s heard everything, calls Nam-soon and insists that he come along. But if he does, her mother could be in danger. So, Nam-soon goes alone.

At the same time, Geum-ju goes to meet Yeom Su-san. There, she easily fights off Su-san’s men and then asks for Bread Song’s location. Face to face with Song, Geum-ju accuses him of stealing from Gangnam’s ladies. Once again, she asks him who he really is.

Unable to let Nam-soon face Shi-oh alone, Hee-sik goes after her. Young-tak and another officer soon follows him.

Nam-soon meets Shi-oh at an abandoned warehouse. He gives her a small box containing his drug. He reveals that her mother has been given a gift bag with a bomb in it. Nam-soon must have the drug and then refrain from drinking the bottle of water in front of her for at least an hour. If she picks it up before an hour, a sensor will set the bomb off.

She tells him to give himself up if she can hold out. He agrees. She takes the drug and soon falls to the floor, struggling with the pain. Shi-oh leaves but we see that he has a CCTV camera pointed at Nam-soon. Outside the warehouse, he sets another bomb on the door and then leaves.

Elsewhere, Bread Song suggests Geum-ju join forces with him. Geum-ju then gets the camera footage of Nam-soon screaming in pain. She tells Hee-sik and both of them rush towards Nam-soon’s location. As Nam-soon grows weaker, so does Geum-ju. Shi-oh calls Geum-ju and tells her Nam-soon is going to die.

Nam-soon inches towards the bottle of water while Geum-ju struggles to walk. She reaches a nearby pipe and guzzles water from it. Nam-soon’s screams stop and her eyes begin to close.

While on a romantic trip, Joong-gan and Jun-hee visit a temple. Suddenly, Joong-gan begins to feel the same chest pains Nam-soon is feeling. She calls Geum-ju who tells her that she’s been trying to wake Nam-soon through their connection, by drinking water. Joong-gan says that the connection is active when one of them uses their strength.

After the call, Joong-gan tells Jun-hee that she will be using a level of power that could very well kill her. She confesses her love to him and then runs off. She goes to a statue of Buddha and then begins to lift the entire thing. The connection between the women is activated immediately.

Geum-ju and Nam-soon, both, open their eyes. Nam-soon bursts out of the warehouse and throws the door with the bomb strapped to it straight into the air, where it blows up in the sky at the end of Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 15.

The Episode Review

The penultimate episode of the show pushes the stakes high and that’s why it works. It starts off slow, as usual, but the tension and emotions of the second half are attention-grabbing. It’s wonderful to see the three women work together even from afar. Kim Hae-sook does a fantastic job as Joong-gan and you really feel for her sacrifice. Her performance somewhat makes up for Kim Jung-eun’s, which comes across as a bit over the top.

Shi-oh’s scenes with Nam-soon were compelling but the rest of his screen time was just spent in that one room with the fighting ring. Watching him brood from that one hideout is just not that impactful and reduces his villainous air. On the other hand, Hee-sik and Nam-soon’s concern for each other amplifies their romance in Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 15.

The rest of the plot continues along the lines of using little logic. We still don’t know where the commissioner general is or what Shi-oh plans to do with him. The threat of Pavel just does not seem as great as everybody makes it sound. Bread Song’s connection with the entire case is still a big question mark. But like most of the plot’s easy explanations, I’m sure the last episode will wrap it all up.