Strong Girl Nam-soon – K Drama Episode 9

Episode 9 of Strong Girl Nam-soon begins with Nam-soon escaping Shi-oh’s office while dressed like a ghost, computer in hand. She jumps out the window and runs along the street while Young-tak and Hee-sik catch up in their car. Hee-sik finds her sitting on a bench with the computer and rebukes her terrible plan. She just laughs it off. She tells him that she will look into the Russian mafia group Pavel while he looks into the computer.

Joong-gan and Jun-hee are strolling hand in hand, with Joong-gan happily looking at her engagement ring. Jun-hee asks her to complete her story about Geum-ju in Kenya. Joong-gan says that Geum-ju decided to build a new building on the diplomat’s burnt residence. But the land turned out to be an oil deposit. However, even that is not the end of the story. But Joong-gan leaves it on a cliffhanger once again and runs away.

Meanwhile, Geum-ju is still in shock, speaking to her father on the phone. Apparently, he was in Tibet this whole time and is now coming back to Korea. She calls Geum-dong and gives him the news. They worry about Joong-gan and her burgeoning relationship. The couple are indeed the picture of romance at an amusement park. When a couple of young men insult them, Joong-gan takes care of them.

Elsewhere, Dong-seok is surrounded by empty bottles of water while Nam-in takes another diet pill.

We then see a flashback of kids being forced to fight by older, Russian men. The losers will not be given food. One boy named Binbin tells the other to knock him down since he knows the latter hasn’t eaten in a while. This cuts to Ryu Shi-oh hitting a punching bag while working out.

Nam-soon comes home and Geum-ju asks if she got hurt when Myung-hee attacked her. Geum-ju then visits Myung-hee at the hospital. She tells Myung-hee to repent from the heart and live an honest life. Then she can be Geum-ju’s daughter as well.

At work, Nam-soon and her colleagues are told about the stolen computer. Shi-oh stabs his Russian security guard, Kyle, in the leg for failing to protect the office. But he seems satisfied when his secretary says that all the bearer certificates were deleted.

At the police station, the cops don’t find much on the computer except for a photo of a young boy and an audio file of some classical music. Hee-sik realises something and gives Nam-soon a call. She pretends to speak to a friend and steps outside the room. He tells her to look into international deals.

At the cafe, Joong-gan literally crushes coffee beans with her hands. Jun-hee wonders where Nam-in is since he hasn’t shown up. We see that the poor boy is stuck at home, looking feverish and chugging down bottles of water.

Nam-soon becomes friends with a colleague named Ms. Baek and asks her to reveal what items are shipped abroad. She flat-out refuses.

While having lunch, Hee-sik tells his team that he will look into the Heritage Club for clues as well. Regarding Dong-seok, they’ve been told he’s working with a team in Busan at the moment.

From the Russian guard’s description, Ryu Shi-oh begins suspecting Nam-soon (who he knows as Tsegtseg) and decides to investigate her further. He visits Myung-hee in the hospital. He promises to keep her out of prison if she tells him about Nam-soon’s real identity. In a turn of events, Myung-hee lies and says that Tsegtseg isn’t Nam-soon. When he asks her why she attacked Tsegtseg, Myung-hee says it’s because she spoke down to her (not using the formal language).

The man from Opulentia gives Geum-ju the down low about Pavel. In the ‘80s, it was taken over by a man named Sabaki who turned the group’s attention to casinos and black money. Now, an heir named Nozh has come up on the scene. He also tells her that all Pavel members are orphans who have been stolen from around the world.

In his car, Shi-oh listens to the classical music that was found on his computer.

Nam-soon sees Kyle limping and carries the giant man on her back. She even gives him a snack and chats with him. Shi-oh calls Nam-soon to his office where she claims she will be his bodyguard for the day. When he asks her how her Korean is so good, she says she learnt it because she wanted to marry a Korean man.

Geum-ju arrives at the Heritage Club with Hee-sik in tow pretending to be the director of media at her new subsidiary, TGV. Shi-oh arrives along with Nam-soon and the other two are forced to hide their shock when they see her.

When they sit down to eat, Hee-sik excuses himself for the restroom and steps outside. He pretends to get a call from Jung Dae-cheol (a VIP at the club) to convince the concierge to give him his room key. He claims Mr. Jung forgot a special handkerchief inside and he’s here to pick it up. The concierge falls for it.

Inside the VIP’s room, Hee-sik plants a small camera. As he’s leaving, he comes face to face with Gang-su, the man with the scarred face. Hee-sik says he’s here to pick up a kerchief specially used to clean golf irons.  

The club’s Madam Kim approaches Nam-soon in the restroom and tells her to meet her later. Meanwhile, Geum-ju openly asks Shi-oh if he’s funded by Pavel. When she calls Shi-oh a destroyer, Nam-soon interrupts and pretends to tell her off for being emotional. After she leaves, Shi-oh admits that Geum-ju is bothering him enough for him to want to kill her. After Shi-oh leaves, Madam Kim tells Nam-soon they are going to see the sea.

Joong-gan calls Geum-ju and tells her she’s going to accept a police award and needs someone to take a photo. Jun-hee is managing the cafe while Geum-dong is getting an endoscopy. In his drugged-up state, Geum-dong reveals that his father was soul-searching in Tibet and is coming home the next day.

After the award ceremony, Joong-gan confronts Geum-ju about her father.  When she gets a confirmation, Joong-gan goes into a fit, throwing all her things on the ground and ultimately passing out. Geum-ju calls for help.

Madam Kim takes Nam-soon to an abandoned place where a dozen other men come out of the shadows. She wants to see just what’s so special about Nam-soon. Nam-soon simply picks up the shipping containers around them to trap all of them inside, including Kim.

Joong-gan is back in bed, at home, and the doctor recommends complete rest. Just then, Bong-go visits Geum-ju and tells her something is wrong with Nam-in. He’s not eating and only having water. When Joong-gan wakes up, she tells Geum-ju that she will pick up her father at the airport.

Nam-soon then storms into her mother’s room and tells her off for speaking to Shi-oh like that. She is worried that Geum-ju is underestimating how dangerous he is. Geum-ju fights back but turns out she’s just happy that Nam-soon is taking a stand.

Shi-oh arrives at the Doogo warehouse, still smarting from his conversation with Geum-ju. He punches one of the metal stands and the whole thing tumbles down.

Geum-ju meets Bread Song and asks him if he knows Shi-oh. She shows him the photo of Shi-oh with Song standing in the background. This sends Bread Song into a rage and he orders his security to banish Geum-ju from the premises.

Geum-ju’s father arrives at the airport and Joong-gan greets him with a punch that sends him flying. Bong-go arrives at his photo studio and finds Nam-in passed out in the bathroom. Back in his office, Shi-oh makes a phone call and tells the person on the other end that he needs someone killed.

Nam-soon tries sweet-talking Ms. Baek again and learns that all export items are tagged with the letters CT. Shi-oh calls her inside his office. 

Hee-sik tries calling Dong-seok but the latter doesn’t pick up the phone.

Nam-soon enters Shi-oh’s office where he challenges her to kill someone — Geum-ju. He then laughs and tells her not to worry since she’s already dead. We see that Geum-ju’s been in a car accident and is badly injured at the end of Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 9.

The Episode Review

In Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 9, Geum-ju being injured is going to put an interesting twist to the story, since everything will now fall on Nam-soon’s shoulders. Geum-ju has the money and is a shrewd businesswoman, while Nam-soon’s approach to things is very different. It will be interesting to see how Nam-soon reacts. Nam-soon’s behaviour does still lean towards childishness but Hee-sik’s maturity seems to balance it out.

Overall, the pace of the episodes is still a tad slow. Dong-seok and Nam-in have both been on their spiral into drugs for quite a while now. And the investigation doesn’t seem to be going anywhere either. In fact, with Nam-soon’s scenes with Kyle and her colleague Ms. Baek, it feels like the show’s just rambling. Still, there is enough juice in the mystery to keep watching.