Strong Girl Nam-soon – K Drama Episode 8

Episode 8 of Strong Girl Nam-soon begins with Geum-ju realising that Nam-soon is in trouble and rushing out to help her. Meanwhile, Hee-sik heads to Dong-seok’s house since he hasn’t been in touch. Surrounded by waves of energy, Nam-soon throws the industrial press all the way up and jumps high enough to land on the elevated platform where Ryu Shi-oh is seated.

Geum-ju stops when she realises Nam-soon is fine. She comes across two bikers who make a pass and tell her to join their club. She breaks one of their helmets into little pieces and teaches them a lesson.

Joong-gan is shaken from the burst of energy she felt but freshens up as Jun-hee comes out of the bathroom. Hee-sik reaches Dong-seok’s place and finds the man right as rain. He says water doesn’t affect him anymore, but we see a flashback of him taking more drugs so that’s a definite lie. Hee-sik gets a call about another dead body while this is going on.

Joong-gan and Jun-hee share a meal at the hotel. Joong-gan narrates the story of Geum-ju’s rise to billionaire status. She started out with 100 million won from her mother and turned it into billions through business ventures and investments. She starts telling him a story about how Geum-ju met a man who lost his house to a fire and moved to Africa. Geum-ju then bought the burnt down house and…we don’t find out because Joong-gan gets interrupted by a phone call.

At the same time, Hyun-soo and Son-saeng are having a meal at the same restaurant. Son-saeng accuses Hyun-soo of having changed since he got Geum-ju’s money. He, in turn, says they should break up since they don’t need one another anymore.

Geum-ju goes to a meeting of all the various CEOs and board members of Geum-ju Group, consisting of over 20 people. Elsewhere, Nam-in looks at the business card that was given to him by the woman who gave him the pill. After considering it, he sends an online payment to the company.

Back in his office, Shi-oh congratulates Nam-soon for joining the corporate relations team. When he asks where her strength comes from, she avoids answering. From a hiding spot at the warehouse, Nam-soon calls Hee-sik. Naturally, the latter is livid when he realises Shi-oh used an industrial press on her. Manager Heo then calls Nam-soon. He’s incredibly unwell since he tried eating 100 eggs as Nam-soon had once advised. Now, he needs Nam-soon to go to the police station regarding the Doogo employee who passed away.

At the board meeting, Geum-ju announces that she’s going to acquire a struggling TV channel and call it Geum-ju TV.

Nam-soon goes to the police station and learns that the Doogo employee, Hong Jeong-ho, was working constantly due to a lot of debt. He died due to over exertion and Nam-soon texts the news to Shi-oh as well, saying that she’ll start at her new job the next day. Shi-oh calls his secretary and berates him for not conveying this information earlier.

Nam-soon visits Jeong-ho’s family, a younger brother and an aunt. She gives them money for the funeral and for the younger brother’s tuition. When he asks for her name she says it is Tsegtseg but then corrects herself and says Gang Nam-soon.

The police team identified the man they were searching for as Shin Gang-su. He studied ballet in Russian and now works at the Heritage Club. He’s the man with the scarred face. They realise that Shi-oh is a member of that club too. As Hee-sik wonders how to get a search warrant for Doogo, Nam-soon texts him and tells him to meet her for a drink.

Shi-oh is having another one of his meeting with a group of influential people. He gifts them a bottle of wine and tie each. Meanwhile, Dong-seok is craving water again and, in his frustration, punches a mirror which breaks into pieces.

By the time Hee-sik arrives, Nam-soon’s already drank a lot of alcohol. He tells her to step away from the case but she refuses. When Nam-soon despairs about the death of Jeong-ho, Hee-sik blames it on capitalism and the wide gap between rich people like Geum-ju and those who are poor. Nam-soon says she wants to help people. Hee-sik tells Nam-soon she looks pretty with rosy cheeks. Nam-soon blushes and says she loves him but in Mongolian, so he doesn’t understand. When she’s too drunk to walk, he carries her on his back.

Geum-ju returns from a yacht ride with her friends. All of them rave about Bread Song’s skills. Then at a golf course, the women tell Geum-ju that Bread Song is untraceable but he’s making them a lot of money. The women have shell corporations under the name of homeless people to store their money.

Even Opulentia isn’t able to find more information on Bread Song but they say they could find more with a photograph. Geum-ju messages Song’s assistant, Hong-do, and asks for a photograph of Bread Song. She even has to pretend she’s attracted to Bread Song in order to get it.

Bread Song is frustrated about Geum-ju’s efforts to investigate him. Hong-do tells him that Geum-ju is impossibly wealthy and attracted to him, which piques his interest.

Nam-soon dresses up in typical corporate garb, excited to start her new role. Hee-sik gives her a watch with a GPS tracker and a camera. She arrives at her new office and is immediately called in to see Shi-oh. He gives her a list of Doogo’s domestic partners for her to memorise as she will be meeting all of them. When she asks why he tested her strength, he says it’s because he needs a fearless person for a dangerous job. He then tells Nam-soon to come up with an English name for herself and she selects Hillary Khan.

Hee-sik, watching everything through the camera, gets annoyed at the way Shi-oh smiles at Nam-soon, and watches as they get into a car. Nam-soon reads the list of people out loud to memorise it and then sings a song, making Shi-oh sing along as well. Hee-sik watches them while he and Young-tak follow another line of investigation — following the Heritage Club’s Madam Kim. They see her meet with a politician on Shi-oh’s list.

Meanwhile, Joong-gan and Jun-hee are on a fun, romantic drive through the city in a stylish convertible. While dancing at a scenic spot, Jun-hee asks Joong-gan if they should move in together.

Hee-sik sees Nam-soon and Shi-oh enter the same building where they are watching Madam Kim. They also recognise Shin Gang-su. Inside, Shi-oh tells Madam Kim to hand over her duties to ‘Hillary Khan’. Madam Kim pulls Shi-oh aside and asks him exactly what is going on. He says he’s going to make Nam-soon his own.

Madam Kim meets Nam-soon and offers her a drink, saying that she should be able to hold her liquor if she’s working for Shi-oh. She drinks the whole glass in one go but suddenly chokes and collapses. Kim laughs and reveals she will be paralyzed for three hours. But as she turns away, Nam-soon pops right back up! Poison like this does nothing to her.

Hee-sik, who panicked upon seeing the video, starts running to the building but stops as Shi-oh steps out the doors whilst on the phone. Shi-oh notices him but keeps talking, telling the person on the other end that the clinical trials are over. Young-tak calls Hee-sik back once he realises Nam-soon is okay.

Na-young gives Geum-ju information on Madam Kim, whose real name is Kim Jeong-suk. She sends this information to Hee-sik and also tells him that Shi-oh is a member of a Russian mafia group called Pavel.

Meanwhile, Nam-soon easily defeats Madam Kim in a drinking contest. Once the latter has passed out, Nam-soon snoops around with her watch. Shin Gang-su suddenly enters and Nam-soon pretends to be dancing in a drunken manner. Outside, she meets Shi-oh and tells him she’s drunk, so she’ll go home.

Elsewhere, Nam-in gets a box of pills delivered to his door. Nam-soon leaves the building and gets into the car with Hee-sik and Young-tak. She claims she’s going to break into Shi-oh’s office in disguise and get the client list.

Dong-seok walks to a dark alleyway and texts somebody. The person turns out to be none other than Shin Gang-su. In her office, Geum-ju looks through photos of Shi-oh in Russia and spots Bread Song in the background of one of them.

Hee-sik and Young-tak wait for Nam-soon and her disguise. Young-tak expects something on the level of Mission Impossible but Nam-soon’s genius idea turns out to be dressing as a ghost, in a white dress with long hair. Instead of tech-savvy hacking like Young-tak expects, she simply grabs Shi-oh’s entire computer. The heavyset guard comes in while she’s taking it though and Nam-soon is forced to escape through the window.

In his house, Nam-in takes one of the pills and smiles. Meanwhile, Geum-ju gets an unexpected call from her father who disappeared ten years ago while at the same time, Jun-hee proposes to Joong-gan.

The Episode Review

While there isn’t a lot of plot development in each episode per-se, this show has enough storylines to offer a packed experience. Joong-gan, Nam-in and even the young couple who have now broken up; all these characters have trajectories of their own which will no doubt tie into the story in the end.

Reaching the midway point of the show with news of Geum-ju’s father was a smart choice. What’s more, Jun-hee’s proposal almost seems too hasty and it makes me wonder if he isn’t as sweet as he seems. Nam-soon and her antics continue to be whimsical but the kind of whimsy and humour that may not apply to everyone.

What’s more intriguing, is the show’s take on capitalism. Not a lot of K-dramas from the romantic comedy genre make strong political statements. But with Hee-sik’s musings on the system and the gap between the rich and the poor, even naming Geum-ju there was a commendable moment. This is something I’d like to see more of.