The Good Bad Mother (2023) Episode 4

Episode 4 of The Good Bad Mother begins with an employee asking about Kang-ho. Young-soon looks wistful and it cuts to her son hanging out with Mi-joo’s twins and them accidentally pushing him off his wheelchair. While the locals help fix it, Young-soon and Geum-ja scold the twins for teasing Kang-ho. They declare that they are friends and Kang-ho agrees since he is 7 years old.

At home, Kang-ho tries to cheat while exercising his fingers but Young-soon doesn’t mind. But she says that he is 7 years for a little while. He thinks he is stupid but she says instead he should think of it as a second chance to do things differently. 

As for Mi-joo, she goes to Sun-young’s mother who sells fish and she guesses that her daughter has run away with her money. Turns out her gambling boyfriend went into debt and she put all of her parents’ assets, her assets including the salon as collateral. The legal proceedings to sue Sun-young are delayed and Mi-joo is thrown out of her apartment for not paying rent. She looks at the fish and remembers her youth. 

In the flashback, she is out with friends at a seafood restaurant and runs into Kang-ho who works part-time. She slaps him for going MIA after missing his bar exam because of her and then hugs him. They catch up and she is sad that he is working part-time to survive while also studying.

He says he won’t give up as he thinks of it as revenge for his fate. She says that while she had no plans, her goal is now to invest in him so he can study hard and get his revenge. He quits his job and lives a happy life with Mi-joo in her Seoul apartment. While he studies, she works hard.

We get a montage of them living a domestic life and celebrating each of the exams he passes. They talk about marriage and living together for a long time. It cuts back to the present and Mi-joo tearing up. 

Meanwhile, in Jouri, the locals help Kang-ho at every step and dote on him as he keeps showing gratitude. As they go to the rehab centre, Young-soon goes to the chemist for a second and Kang-ho panics on not seeing her. He starts crying till he finds her and she assures him that she will never leave his side.

As for the bad guys, Song’s men find Yang Gu-man’s widow who says she has evidence of Tae-soo paying him to crash into Kang-ho’s car. Song also finds out that Ha-young had been prescribed tons of sleeping pills a day before the drive. As he confronts, Tae-soo explains that he did some research and found out that he is Hae-sik’s son, the same man he killed.

Kang-ho also approached Ha-young on purpose to get to him. Song is not deterred as he says he already knew who Kang-ho’s father was as he too had looked into him. Turns out, in a manslaughter case involving Song’s grandson, Kang-ho took a bribe to cover up for them and ended up joining the Woobyeok Group.

He never hid his identity and claimed that his father is someone who committed suicide and abandoned him. Song tells Tae-soo that Kang-ho’s hand is now dirty from helping him so even if the prosecutor wants revenge, Song can simply drop him. 

In Jouri, Chief Son tries to perform acupuncture on Kang-ho but he keeps messing up and the locals are scared as hijinks ensue. Kang-ho’s realtor calls Young-soon to collect his things from Seoul and she puts him in the care of the locals. He is anxious and keeps watching the clock as she is supposed to return at 5 PM. The twins find him alone and start playing with him.

In Seoul, Young-soon finds out that Kang-ho’s lease has expired. She always wanted to visit his home and is sad that this is how she sees it for the first time. While collecting his stuff from the office which includes an almost dead plant, she sees several women condemning Kang-ho and she is furious. One of the women says that Kang-ho was bribed by Woobyeok to make her innocent son the scapegoat. A shocked Young-soon doesn’t believe it and defends her son.  

As for our corrupt hero, while studying with the twins, Kang-ho suddenly recites the law on larceny. He brushes it off and plays baseball with them. They tell him about the fancy ball that Mi-joo got for them from USA while the label says China. They warn him that if he loses it they will tell their father who is horrible according to their grandmother. Kang-ho anyway loses the ball and while trying to get it he falls to the ground.

Meanwhile, while returning home, a car crashes into Young-soon’s truck. The driver tries to scam her into giving him 50 million won and badmouths women drivers. She is annoyed but when she sees the back of her truck, she notices that Kang-ho’s boxes have opened up due to the impact and she sees several gold bars. 

At home, the women wonder how to clean up Kang-ho who is covered in mud. The chief’s wife volunteers to bathe him but he rushes to Young-soon the moment she arrives. However, she is not happy to see him. As he plays with a toy gavel, she is distant. He keeps badgering her to let him go find the ball but she explodes. She beats a confused Kang-ho with the toy gavel and stops when he cries.

She starts crying as she says it is her fault as she locked him in the pigsty to study and forced him to become a cold and ruthless prosecutor who only cares about power. She hits herself and he falls as he goes to her and apologises. He wonders if his second chance is in fact a punishment and she hugs him.

She plants his office plant at the pigsty while he watches from afar as the place stinks. She says she knows how he used to feel. She shows him just how clean pigs are naturally and how they are forced to become dirty when they got locked up by humans. She tells him that the only way a pig can see the sky is to fall down as they can’t raise their heads. She says that they have fallen but that has allowed them to see a new world and he cheers up.

Mi-joo is working at a new salon but is fired after her old customers show up and make a scene. She talks to Sam-sik who encourages her not to give up. She wonders how he is doing and he says he will work hard to help her clear her debt. She is thankful for him but it turns out he is working as a waiter.

In Jouri, Young-soon dresses up Kang-ho and tells him to wait for her as she works. However, he finds a loophole that she never told him to wait for her at home and he goes out searching for the baseball. He ends up in the driver’s house who is busy trying to get out of a plagiarism suit. The man spots Kang-ho and tries to run him out of his property but he spouts a law on trespassing.

Kang-ho then spends the rest of the day roaming around the village searching for the ball. While looking in the field, he drops his phone. Young-soon arrives during lunchtime and finds his wheelchair tracks and follows it. It’s dark by the time he finds the ball stuck in a tree when he falls and looks up to the sky. He rushes to the twins’ place and as he knocks, Mi-joo opens the door.

The Episode Review

The Good Bad Mother has been quite heavy but finally, we are getting lighter and fluffy episodes full of easy-going moments and comedy. Episode 4 has its tears but it is fun to see Kang-ho embracing his child-like nature which he was forced to shut away when he was actually 7. 

It will be exciting to see how Mi-joo reacts when she finds out that her kids’ new best friend is a 35-year-old man who used to be the love of her life. We do wonder what happened there as they very much looked like they were in love. It feels that Kang-ho may have broken up with her after getting an in with Director Song and finding out about Ha-young.