As much as I enjoy this drama, it’s not uniformly interesting. Like most viewers, I’m in it for Park Shi-hoo, Kim Nam-joo, & Im Ji-kyu. So, rather than an official set of recaps, I bring you the Park Shi-hoo highlights edition, with bare bones summaries to help you skim the rest.
Episode 1
*First & foremost: There is NO Park Shi-hoo in this episode. Feel free to skip it.*
Hwang Tae-hee (Kim Nam-joo) is a successful research & design team leader for Queens Cosmetics. She’s also a stone-cold bitch (think Diane Keaton’s “Tiger Lady” character in Baby Boom), hated & feared by her staff, particularly the scheming Baek Yeo-jin (Chae Jung-ahn). Her saving grace? She’s excellent at her job, and close to her mentor, company honcho Han Song-yi (Ha Yoo-mi).
Song-yi likes Tae-hee enough to give her the good wine.
Make that very close. Song-yi sees Tae-hee as both her successor and her companion, to the extent that when Song-yi gets alcohol poisoning, Tae-hee is her emergency contact. In Tae-hee, Song-yi sees validation for the sacrifices (husband, family, friends) she made for her career, and also someone to grow old with. Tae-hee, understandably, isn’t sure if she wants to make the same sacrifices and be Song-yi’s lifetime lap-dog.
Those doubts leave Tae-hee primed to fall in love with handsome new hire Bong Jun-soo (Jung Jun-ho). It’s sweet, funny, and a little pathetic the way she uses her money and “maturity” to lure him. She’s also not above scheming to get her way, plotting out a day trip so they’ll miss the last boat & thus have to spend the night.
What she doesn’t know is that Jun-soo entered Queens to show up his ex-girlfriend, Yeo-jin. After many happy years together, Yeo-jin dumped Jun-soo because he was unemployed, and she wanted a more materially rewarding relationship. Three years onward, Jun-soo’s still bitter over the break-up. So when Tae-hee (Yeo-jin’s mortal enemy, as well as her opposite) fishes for him, Jun-soo sees his chance for revenge.
In the process of needling his ex, though, Jun-soo learns about Tae-hee’s more vulnerable side, and begins to like her, eventually asking her to marry him. As he tells Yeo-jin, though, it’s more a “comfortable love” than the passionate feelings he had for his ex; frankly, he marries Tae-hee largely as a reaction to Yeo-jin, not because he’s found his match. It’s a poor foundation for a marriage, as we’ll see later.
The other thing Tae-hee doesn’t know? That while she’s been courting Jun-soo, Yeo-jin has been courting Song-yi, and driving the wedge deeper between Song-yi & her former protégé (Tae-hee aggravates her situation by lying to Song-yi about her romance; however, based on later events, I believe Song-yi would have reacted badly to Tae-hee’s marriage, no matter how Tae-hee had gone about telling her). The result is that when Tae-hee returns from her honeymoon, she finds herself demoted, her things dumped onto another desk, and Yeo-jin sitting smugly in her former seat.
Episode 2
Tae-hee returns from her honeymoon to find she’s been demoted and Yeo-jin’s occupying both her office and old position. Humiliations & retributions ensue, both from Yeo-jin & from Tae-hee’s long-suffering staff. It’s painful to watch.
The worst is the dinner party Yeo-jin forces Tae-hee to throw in her honor. Requesting such a party was outrageous enough, but the guests are even more vile, criticizing the food, gifting Tae-hee with toilet paper as a house-warming present, and bad-mouthing her to Jun-soo. Perhaps Tae-hee was awful enough to warrant this treatment, but since we didn’t actually see her be that awful, our sympathy rests entirely with her.
More problematically, Tae-hee’s & Jun-soo’s love was “conditional.” Now that the conditions have changed, both partners have doubts. She’s deeply insecure, wondering if he only married her because she was successful and rich, and if he now wishes he hadn’t. Jun-soo’s harder to read, but I do think he’s disappointed, and that he married Tae-hee in part because of her power & money.
That said, Jun-soo wants to be a good husband. He wants to have married Tae-hee for the right reasons. He’s a man who struggles to live up to his own noble image of himself, and he also likes and respects Tae-hee. Thus, to the surprise of all their coworkers (and to Yeo-jin’s deep disappointment), he sticks by his wife when things get ugly, although a fight in this episode (over Tae-hee quitting her now-toxic work environment) hints at later conflicts.
38 minutes in, and finally! PARK SHI-HOO, aka Goo Yong-shik. He’s in bed with some power-hungry rich girl we’ll never see again. He’s also shirtless:
And pantless:
Okay, just one more:
Anyway, thanks to the exposition fairy, we learn that Goo Yong-shik is the youngest son of the Queens Cosmetics President. He’s also NOT the son of the President’s wife, making him a family outcast with little power.
Even so, he receives a royal welcome when he arrives at Queens. Declining a security escort, Yong-shik goes to the elevators, where he overhears Tae-hee’s former underlings alternately bad-mouth her & rejoice in her fall from grace. It’s telling that the changes they’re most excited about are being able to leave early & take all their vacation/sick leave/holidays. Slackers.
Everyone gets in the elevator, including just-arrived Tae-hee, who confronts her subordinates for not even saying hello anymore. As she turns around, Yong-shik sees her name tag, and laughs, making the connection. She thinks he’s coming on to her. Neither remembers the encounter later, but whatever–it’s PARK SHI-HOO, at last. See you later, sweet thing!
Back at the office, Yeo-jin’s busy being evil. First, she sets Tae-hee up with a rival company’s VIP, only so that Song-yi will see and interpret it as Tae-hee attempting to defect to a competitor (although, dude, what do you expect when you humiliate and demote her for NO PROFESSIONAL REASON). Next, Yeo-jin offers Tae-hee the “opportunity” to do a presentation on a product line upgrade. Tae-hee, more naive and trusting than expected, happily agrees.
Tae-hee preps and preps, barely sleeping for days (see where this is going? Because it’s so obvious that you have to wonder why Tae-hee didn’t see it coming). She’s done her final run-through when Yeo-jin comes and tells her to hand over her work. When Tae-hee protests, Han Song-yi arrives with a quelling glare. The result is that Yeo-jin gives the presentation Tae-hee slaved over, taking all the credit while Tae-hee cries silently (and prettily!) outside.
Say it with me now: that JERK. I get why Yeo-jin hates Tae-hee so much, but setting up that situation & then taking credit for Tae-hee’s work shows a fundamental lack of character. It’s something you don’t do, even if you hate someone, because it degrades you too much in the process.
Apparently, Tae-hee agrees, because by the time Yeo-jin returns to the office, Tae-hee’s tears are gone and a terminator smile is in their place. She demands to speak to Yeo-jin in front of the rest of the office, calls her out on stealing credit for her work, then smacks Yeo-jin in the head with her resignation letter. Bring it, Tae-hee!
Additional commentary: First, sorry for the blurry screencaps for episode 1 (it’s my least favorite one, for obvious reasons, and I didn’t want to DL it for screencaps).
Second, don’t let these first episodes decide your interest in the series. I started with episode 11, then worked my way back; the best stuff, though, has come after the extension. QoR is a drama where it pays to be intimate with your fast-forward button; that said, the good stuff is awesome and definitely worth the muddling through.
Finally, this is my first recapped drama, so I apologize for the rough patches. Thanks for your patience, & let me know if I missed anything big. I’ll try to have recaps for episodes 3 & 4 up in the next few days.
Wow, great job !
though I still wonder about watching it (I’m not that friendly with Mr Fast-forward button, and I pretty much think that a big part of the show will just spoil my fun of watching PSH), I’m very glad I’ve stumbled across your recaps !
Since I’ve read the post og Girlfriday, I’ve been wondering about this drama.
Your first recap, so far, makes me a little more interested.
Keep up the good work ^^
All dramas Park Shi Hoo is the best and Perfect Koreansderama.
We love soooooooooo much Park shi Hoo.
His very very Professional Actor.
The best wish for PSH.
Worlds girls & boys
Thanks so much for recapping this!
si hoo most often than not outshines the other male actors in any drama that he is in.he is just oozing with charisma.anyway thank you for recapping this drama.