The Golden Spoon: Episodes 7-8

by solstices

Now that he’s more accustomed to his new life, our protagonist takes several strides forward in pursuit of his goals. However, the world seems determined to drag him down, and he’s faced with the consequences of his spoon counterpart’s actions.

 

EPISODES 7-8 WEECAP

After all his previous failed attempts, Seung-cheon finally figures out how to help his family in a way that they’ll accept. With Moon-ki’s help, he pulls some strings behind the scenes — Dad gets scouted by a webtoon company, Mom gets lent the money she needs, and Seung-ah gets a job promotion.

Seung-cheon is on a roll, and he exposes Yeo-jin’s father for tax fraud by sending pages of evidence to the National Tax Service. Turns out it’s not a good idea to keep your enemies in your home after all, huh.

In an attempt to salvage the situation, Yeo-jin instructs her father to apologize to Mom, but it backfires spectacularly when Dad and Tae-yong overhear the conversation. Furious to learn about CEO Oh’s harassment, both father and son lose their tempers and beat the sleazy man up. CEO Oh flees to his car, but an enraged Tae-yong literally drags his chauffeur out and drives off with CEO Oh clinging on for dear life. Whoa, that escalated quickly.

Luckily, Seung-cheon arrives before Tae-yong can get into an accident with his reckless driving. CEO Oh whines like a big baby, but Seung-cheon threatens him with a list of his crimes — does he want them all forwarded to the prosecution?

Seung-cheon may have resolved the situation this time, but he knows he can’t be cleaning up after Tae-yong forever. He chastises Tae-yong, telling him that he ought to lie low and stay out of trouble since he can’t pay the price. However, righteous Tae-yong isn’t having it.

Unable to tolerate the injustice against his family, Tae-yong demands to know if being poor is a sin, but Seung-cheon yells back that it is. Everything comes back as debt. However, Tae-yong counters that he refuses to live in such a cowardly manner.

We’re introduced to an intriguing new character this week, in the form of the rich investor ALEX BOO (Lee Dong-hee). He’s the one who facilitated Joon-tae’s purchase of UBS shares, but it’s difficult to ascertain his motivations just yet. When Seung-cheon wields his power as “Tae-yong” to convince Alex to withdraw his funding and side with him instead, Alex yields much easier than expected.

It’s clear that Alex is impressed by Seung-cheon’s boldness, even if he does end up reneging on his decision when CEO Hwang interferes. On paper, it might seem like Alex is merely maximizing his potential gain, but there’s certainly more to it than that. A brief glimpse of Alex’s exhibition gallery reveals a golden spoon — huh, is he also part of the Spoon Squad? Curiouser and curiouser.

Seung-cheon isn’t the only one who’s caught Alex’s notice, though. After helping Joo-hee protect her inheritance from her greedy brothers by pointing out their contractual manipulation, Tae-yong recognizes an authentic artwork hung up on the wall of the restaurant. It belongs to a very impressed Alex, who notes that Tae-yong is the first person to recognize it in the three years he’s put it up.

Alex offers Tae-yong a 50,000 won bill to treat himself to a meal, but cheeky Tae-yong manages to coax a second bill out of him, writing his phone number on his hand with the promise that he’ll return the money sometime. Heh, cute.

Worried for Joo-hee’s wellbeing, Tae-yong packs a whole array of side dishes for her, courtesy of Mom. He’s endeared by how blissfully she’s enjoying the food, and he impulsively kisses her, but she instinctively pushes him away when he leans in for another. Hm, did Joo-hee unconsciously realize he’s not the same Seung-cheon she knew?

Before either of them can say anything, they’re interrupted by the doorbell — ha, it’s Seung-cheon, here to enjoy Mom’s cooking. He informs Joo-hee that her father’s debt runs much deeper than expected; not only will she have to give up her inheritance, but she’ll also have to move out of her family’s house. It’s a moment of maturity for Joo-hee, who realizes that her fond childhood memories were built upon her father’s wealth.

Believing that her father was murdered, Joo-hee tries to find out the truth behind his death. Her father’s ex-housekeeper offers information in exchange for Joo-hee’s suitcase of money, and despite it being all Joo-hee has left, she agrees. They arrange a meeting, with Tae-yong accompanying Joo-hee out of concern.

Both parties make it as close as the opposite sides of a crosswalk — then boom, a Truck of Doom takes the housekeeper out of the picture. Sigh. Tae-yong has a panic attack at the sight of all that blood, and by the time Joo-hee manages to calm him down, someone has already made off with her suitcase of cash.

Aside from Joo-hee, nasty uncle Joon-tae has also taken an interest in CEO Na’s murder, though for much more nefarious reasons. Having found out about Tae-yong’s suspicious movements on the night of the incident, Joon-tae is determined to uncover the truth so he can hold it against his dearest nephew.

“Tae-yong” gets arrested for murder, except it’s a fakeout orchestrated by Joon-tae. It’s actually an introductory hazing to the secret organization called Amicus, where the young and rich congregate to show off and multiply their wealth.

There, Joon-tae drugs Seung-cheon in an attempt to force him to confess to CEO Na’s murder. It doesn’t work, but it does get Seung-cheon to blearily admit that he’s not “Tae-yong,” but Seung-cheon. It’s such a ridiculous notion that Joon-tae’s simply bewildered by it, but it does plant a seed of doubt in him.

Thanks to a housekeeper who put “Tae-yong’s” soiled blazer up for sale instead of burning it like she was instructed to, Joon-tae manages to discover DNA evidence belonging to CEO Na on it. Joon-tae blackmails CEO Hwang with it, demanding for “Tae-yong’s” assets and inheritance in exchange for his silence.

Instead of investigating further, CEO Hwang immediately folds to Joon-tae’s threats, presumably to preserve Doshin Group’s reputation. I guess it isn’t all that surprising, coming from a guy who literally commissioned a Truck of Doom to seal the housekeeper’s lips, but you’d think he’d do some fact checking first.

Seung-cheon does some sleuthing of his own too, and he finds out that Joon-tae attended the same school as Tae-yong when they were in the States. Having observed Joon-tae’s violent behavior all this while, in addition to a family friend’s anecdotes about how Joon-tae often blamed Tae-yong for his own misdeeds, Seung-cheon puts two and two together — Joon-tae’s more likely to be a murderer than Tae-yong is.

A flashback reveals that Joon-tae was the real school shooter, and he murdered all those innocent children simply because they annoyed him with their noise. Afterwards, he conveniently pinned the crime on a traumatized Tae-yong, whom he’s still gaslighting to this day.

Since the truth of his supposed murder has been revealed, Seung-cheon gets forcibly sent to the States as per Joon-tae’s demands. Of course, because this show loves to play up the drama, Joo-hee connects the dots about “Tae-yong’s” alleged murder barely minutes before he has to board the plane.

Having seen Seung-cheon at the intersection where the housekeeper met her end, Joo-hee accuses him of killing her father. With his flight awaiting, Seung-cheon is forced to leave Joo-hee behind before he can clear the misunderstanding.

Time skip to ten years later. Tae-yong walks down the streets in a spiffy new suit, only to stop at the sight of a scruffy man asleep on a public bench, with holes in his socks and a newspaper for a blanket. He nudges the man awake, and who should it be but Seung-cheon, decked out with a shaggy haircut, silver accessories, and a silly grin.

That’s it for this week, and I can tell that the drama is trying to heighten the suspense for next week with a surprising ending, but I have to admit I can’t muster up much excitement. The drama has a tendency to throw its characters into one miserable situation after another, in an attempt to elicit our tears or our concern. It’s just too much to handle.

Instead of garnering my sympathy, it’s instead having the complete opposite effect of alienating me from the characters and making me feel mostly indifferent towards them. The stakes are constantly raised so high that they just fall flat, since we know by now that our characters can walk out of basically anything and still remain relatively fine.

Still, there are interesting parallels between our characters when it comes to money. Remember Joo-hee’s missing suitcase? Turns out Yeo-jin stole it so she could rub it into Joo-hee’s face, since she still holds resentment from when she was Na-ra. Joo-hee spoke up in defense of Na-ra’s dignity when the class tried to raise money for her, right in front of her, but all it did was result in Na-ra not having the money to go on the class field trip. The incident demonstrates Joo-hee’s empathy versus Na-ra’s practicality; to the latter, justice doesn’t mean much when you’re poor.

Tae-yong and Joo-hee have a strong sense of justice, but that’s also because their wealth afforded them the luxury of prioritizing their moral compass. On the other hand, Seung-cheon and Yeo-jin know what it’s like to live hand-to-mouth, back when a single dollar bill was worth more than whatever little dignity or pride they had left.

We’re already starting to see Tae-yong waver; though he’s still striving to live by his principles, he’s starting to realize how crushing money struggles can be. Not only is he unable to help Joo-hee out of her debt, but he also can’t pay for Dad’s wrist treatment. I wish the show didn’t just skip over nearly ten years like that, because I would’ve liked to explore Tae-yong’s psyche more — how did he adjust to poverty? Did he finally manage to pull his family out of their debt after ten years (as his luxury brand tie would suggest)? Or is there another, possibly magical, explanation to it?

On that note, I was quite disappointed in the cliché send-the-protagonist-overseas move until I realized it was the perfect opportunity for Seung-cheon to do some hands-on sleuthing about the shooting case — only for the drama to pull the rug out from under me with that timeskip. Sigh, what a wasted opportunity. I don’t usually enjoy a liberal use of flashbacks, but this is the rare time I’m actually asking for them. Show, you have a lot of explaining to do!

 
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