The Golden Spoon: Episodes 11-12

by solstices

Our leads finally make headway on their murder investigation, honing in on the most likely culprit. Meanwhile, having realized that things are not as they seem, our prince-turned-pauper sets out to reclaim his fate.

 

EPISODES 11-12 WEECAP

Caught with a book that isn’t supposed to be his, Seung-cheon quickly fibs that he happened to find it years ago and took it because he liked Joo-hee. Before Joo-hee can ask any more questions, Seung-cheon gets a text from Yeo-jin that has him rushing off — she’s just sent photos of Tae-yong about to eat with the golden spoon.

Well, it turns out Seung-cheon doesn’t need to worry, because Tae-yong hasn’t taken a single bite. Yeo-jin’s constant scheming makes him lose his appetite, and he ends up slamming his spoon down and walking off.

Back at home, Joo-hee connects the dots — Seung-cheon’s smiley face sketches align with Joon-tae’s nickname of “Mr. Smile.” Since she has absolutely no fear, she heads out to meet Joon-tae wearing a smiley face T-shirt, asking him pointed questions about his time in the States.

Needless to say, Joon-tae’s short fuse is lit, and he grabs Joo-hee’s hair menacingly. Out of nowhere, Seung-cheon comes to her rescue, having kept tabs on Joon-tae. But it’s Joo-hee’s taser that does the trick, and the pair make a hasty escape while Joon-tae’s reeling from being zapped.

If there’s one good thing about that reckless, dangerous experience, it’s that it finally gets our leads to put their heads together. Seung-cheon, Tae-yong, and Joo-hee convene at the latter’s house, piecing the information together and delegating the work. Seung-cheon tracks down Joon-tae’s burner phone supplier, and Joo-hee retrieves the case records of incidents in the vicinity of her house, on Tae-yong’s suggestion.

Of course, Joon-tae isn’t the type to lie low. He somehow manages to get around Joo-hee’s door lock and sneak into her apartment, finding her evidence box sitting out in the open. Realizing how far along her investigation has gotten, he rashly decides to take matters into his own hands, but Seung-cheon’s timely arrival stops him from bashing Joo-hee’s head in with a brick.

The next morning, Joo-hee and Tae-yong scour through black box footage, and it isn’t long before they find Joon-tae captured outside the Na residence. Add that to Seung-cheon’s confirmation that Joon-tae was indeed the last person who called CEO Na, through his burner phone, and it seems we’ve found our killer.

Before they can do anything about it, though, a news broadcast steals their thunder. Joon-tae has just turned himself in for the murder of CEO Na, and we see that just hours before, CEO Hwang had paid him a visit, manila envelope in hand.

Joon-tae’s explanation of suddenly feeling a wave of remorse doesn’t sound very believable, but our main trio easily accepts this conveniently anticlimactic resolution to their investigation. Of course, CEO Hwang doesn’t do anything unless he has something to gain, which makes me suspect he has a larger stake in this murder case than it seems.

Following the adage of attracting more flies with honey, CEO Hwang decides that he’ll put the Lee family in their place by displaying the power of wealth. Not only does he lavish them with extravagant gifts, but he also places regular orders for their side dishes. Then he purposely leaves expensive art supplies out in full view, as if to test Dad. Ugh, I don’t like where this is going.

Since the murder investigation is no longer on everyone’s priority list, Tae-yong’s mind turns back to Seung-cheon’s notebook. He realizes that the golden spoon swap would explain all the anomalies, like him inexplicably knowing how to play the piano, but asking Seung-cheon about his golden spoon just earns him a scornful dressing-down from Yeo-jin and a confused look from Joo-hee.

Just as he’s about to dismiss it all as a mere fairytale, though, an opportunity comes knocking at his door just as it had for Seung-cheon. As Tae-yong walks home, a glass sphere rolls to his feet, and he looks up to see the peddler grandma. She claims he must be really desperate if he can see her, and she’s not wrong. Tempted, Tae-yong ends up buying the spoon.

Thus begins Tae-yong’s spoon swap quest — believing that he’s taking back what is rightfully his, he begins to tie up loose ends. As “Seung-cheon,” he tells Joo-hee that he’d rather remain friends, internally vowing to win her heart once he’s “Tae-yong” again. Tae-yong’s mission to eat at the Hwang estate goes a lot smoother than expected, and by the time Seung-cheon catches on, Tae-yong’s already on his second meal.

Seung-cheon goes to the church to clear his mind, where he ends up getting scared out of his wits by a very drunk Joo-hee. He helps her home, where she admits to her love-at-first-sight crush on Seung-cheon. Since then, though, she feels like he’s changed, which is why “Seung-cheon” has been firmly stuck in the friend-zone for the past decade.

Seemingly having had a sudden change of heart, Seung-cheon invites Tae-yong to his house for his third meal. Of course, it’s just bait; Seung-cheon switched out Tae-yong’s spoon with a different one when he dropped by his house earlier. Tae-yong almost eats, but at the last moment, he puts his spoon down.

Furious at having his plans thwarted, Seung-cheon demands for Tae-yong to eat, and the two boys get into a fight. Finally having had enough, Tae-yong yells that he won’t swap — he doesn’t want to lose the best parents in the world. Since Seung-cheon threw them away to become rich, he can live with the consequences of his own actions.

As Tae-yong leaves the Hwang estate, he reminisces about all the precious memories with his family, from a humble yet happy birthday party to the day they welcomed him back from his military enlistment. Just then, he gets a call from Mom, asking what he wants for dinner.

Mom immediately notices his choked-up voice, worrying that he caught a cold, and it moves Tae-yong to tears. Touched by his family’s unconditional love, Tae-yong simply asks for kimchi stew, saying that’s all he needs. Sobs, I want him to stay with this family forever and ever!

Chastened by Tae-yong’s words, Seung-cheon drinks his sorrows away. All this time, he’d excused his actions by telling himself that anyone would have done the same. Now that Tae-yong has proven him wrong, though, he feels like an awful person.

Yeo-jin finds him at the bar, and she can’t help but comfort him, saying that she gained strength from knowing that she wasn’t alone in her spoon deceit. Momentarily swayed, Seung-cheon kisses her, and they make it all the way to a hotel room upstairs before Seung-cheon suddenly sobers up.

Seung-cheon ditches Yeo-jin to go straight to Joo-hee, pulling her into a hug and confessing that he missed her. It’s uncharacteristic of “Tae-yong,” but it feels all too familiar, and that gets Joo-hee thinking.

Earlier that day, Joo-hee had found the destitute ahjumma who took her stolen luggage (courtesy of Yeo-jin). The ahjumma’s insistence that she used to be a rich councilwoman, as well as her mutterings about a golden spoon, had sparked Joo-hee’s suspicions. What if Tae-yong was right, and there indeed exists a golden spoon that can swap lives?

Tentatively, Joo-hee asks if he’s Seung-cheon, and it stuns him. Tears fill both their eyes, but Seung-cheon utters a quick denial and leaves before his emotions can get the better of him.

Now that Tae-yong’s made the decision to stay with the Lee family, he decides to deliver the side dishes in their stead. Except it’s our spoon boys’ birthday, and Seung-cheon panics, remembering the birthday rule. He tries his hardest to block Tae-yong and CEO Hwang from meeting, but to no avail; all three lock eyes.

Except nothing happens, and I heave a sigh of relief — until Dad comes by with more food, and all of a sudden he’s addressing Tae-yong formally and holding out the side dishes to Seung-cheon.

Nooooooo. Can this drama not let us (read: Tae-yong) have one second of peace?! I guess I should have seen it coming, given how often this drama likes to throw plot twists at us. Still, it felt a little bit like whiplash, going from Tae-yong resolutely choosing his family to being yanked back into the Hwang one against his will. Also, does this mean that neither one of our spoon duo is CEO Hwang’s real son?

I’ll be honest — this was not entirely what I expected from Tae-yong’s agency arc, and I’m somewhat disappointed (even if his final decision did redeem it a little). He switched up his tune pretty fast, and I thought the drama could have further explored his motivation of wanting to reclaim what he believes is rightfully his, versus his current happiness.

On paper, the characters and their narrative beats ought to be compelling, but somehow the drama just falls flat. As I mentioned last week, I think it’s trying to do too much at once, which means we’re swept from plot point to plot point without having sufficient time to process everything that’s going on.

I suppose it could be entertaining if I just switched off my brain and mindlessly enjoyed the ride, but I want to empathize with these characters, and it’s frustrating that I can’t. The overly fast pace makes them seem capricious more often than not, reducing them to one-dimensional motivations when their characters have clearly been designed to be layered and complex. It’s a shame that only one side comes out at any given time, whenever the plot demands it to.

The very premise of the show seems ideal for character development, but instead it feels like the characters are stuck spinning their wheels in place. Even after all these years, Seung-cheon is still ruthlessly opportunistic, Joo-hee is still innocent and sheltered, Tae-yong is still naively self-righteous, and Yeo-jin is still cruel and manipulative. It’s one thing to be consistent, but this goes beyond being faithful to their character — it just makes them stagnant and bland. Which is the complete opposite of what this show could be!

I have to admit that the more the show pushes the romantic aspect, the less I’m feeling it. Joo-hee serves as a simple (and weak) motivation for the boys, and sometimes it feels a bit like a cop-out. She deserves more agency (and I’m hoping she’ll get it now that she’s found out about the swap), while literally every other aspect of the boys’ struggles are more compelling than their romantic woes. Now that they’ve been switched yet again, I have no idea where the story will go from here, but I hope it finally spurs some much-needed character growth.

 
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