Jeongnyeon – The Star is Born: Episodes 7-8

by mistyisles

Complicated feelings and pressure on all sides drive our up-and-coming performers to make drastic choices with devastating consequences. Our heroine has a history of learning from her mistakes, but if she’s not careful, she won’t learn some lessons until far too late.

 
EPISODES 7-8

Jeong-nyeon’s impromptu song is a literal showstopper (and not in a good way), but thankfully Hye-rang improvises a dance to bring everyone back into the story they’re supposed to be telling. Troupe Leader Kang chews Jeong-nyeon out backstage, but she has no idea what she’s done wrong. She poured her whole self into her character! And the audience went wild! Isn’t that what she’s supposed to do?? The answer, of course, is not at the expense of the story and other actors, but Jeong-nyeon doesn’t understand this until her fangirls tell her they don’t remember a single thing about the show except her song.

Banned from performing for the foreseeable future, Jeong-nyeon resolves to learn from her mistakes and spends her spare time analyzing and practicing every role in the production. In fact, everyone throws themselves into more rehearsals, and we’re treated to watching various pairs put their own spins on the same tension-fraught scene. We’ve already watched Ju-ran and Young-seo dial the chemistry up to eleven in this scene, but now we get to see Jeong-nyeon try it opposite Ok-gyung and Ju-ran in turn. With the latter, things get so intense that it unnerves Ju-ran to the point she can’t recite her own lines without imagining Jeong-nyeon in Young-seo’s place.

Then we get yet another pairing for The Scene, because Ju-ran sprains her ankle while saving Young-seo from some falling lights (we’ll come back to that). And wouldn’t you know it — Jeong-nyeon is the only person who has Ju-ran’s lines memorized. Troupe Leader Kang isn’t happy about it, but she doesn’t have much choice but to let Jeong-nyeon fill in for Ju-ran that night.

Now it’s Young-seo’s turn to be *unnerved* by Jeong-nyeon’s up-close intensity. Young-seo freezes, and Jeong-nyeon improvs just enough to bring her back into character. The show is saved (again)! Troupe Leader Kang praises both girls for their quick recovery and lifts Jeong-nyeon’s probation — she’s an official trainee now.

So, what was up with those lights? Well, the same thing that was up with someone attempting to vandalize Young-seo and Ju-ran’s costumes and with Troupe Leader Kang’s office being ransacked and its safe cleaned out. Do-aeng quickly deduces that shady finance manager MR. GO (Ryu Seung-soo) is responsible, but Troupe Leader Kang refuses to report it for fear word will get around that the troupe is going under.

Unfortunately, Hye-rang is still helping Mr. Go. She appears to have two main goals: 1) bribe reporters to cover up some unspecified aspect of Ok-gyung’s past and 2) prevent the younger generation from overtaking her and Ok-gyung as gukgeuk superstars. While Ok-gyung doesn’t know everything Hye-rang is up to, she suspects enough that they have a nasty argument and slip into a period of hostile silence (on Ok-gyung’s part) and silent looks of longing (on Hye-rang’s).

Then it’s audition season again, but with a twist. The upcoming production is a joint performance with several other gukgeuk troupes, and our trainees have the opportunity to audition for the younger versions of the lead roles. The catch? They’ll be auditioning in pairs. Jeong-nyeon, Ju-ran, and Young-seo were already teetering on the edge of an unofficial love triangle, but now there’s an outright competition between Young-seo and Jeong-nyeon for Ju-ran’s affection partnership.

To both girls’ surprise, Ju-ran chooses Young-seo. She says (hurtfully, to both) it’s because she’s scared Jeong-nyeon will get carried away again and she won’t be able to rescue the show like Hye-rang did. But she later admits to Young-seo that what really scared her was what she felt while acting opposite Jeong-nyeon. Poor girl is catching feelings and doesn’t know what to do with them. Devastated, Jeong-nyeon reluctantly partners with ex-mean girl PARK CHO-ROK (Seunghee), who at least believes in her ability to learn from her mistakes.

Pressure builds like crazy as the audition approaches. Newspapers play up the rivalry between the daughters of two famous singers, as well as the fact that whichever trainees get the lead roles are basically guaranteed to become the next Ok-gyung and Hye-rang. And if that and Ju-ran’s rejection weren’t enough to make Jeong-nyeon second-guess herself, Hye-rang swoops in to prey on her vulnerabilities. If Jeong-nyeon wants to beat Young-seo, Hye-rang says, she’s going to have to work for it. As in, practice in a mountain cave for hours every day until your throat bleeds level of work.

Never mind that an episode ago Young-seo was the one sobbing because she’ll never have Jeong-nyeon’s natural talent — now Jeong-nyeon spirals because she can’t possibly catch up to Young-seo’s years of training. They’re two sides of the same imposter syndrome coin, and much as I want to shake some sense into Jeong-nyeon, it breaks my heart the way she tells Young-seo that singing — and doing it exceptionally well — is quite literally all she has.

Everyone from Cho-rok to Young-seo to Troupe Leader Kang tries to talk Jeong-nyeon out of it, but she’s turned down a path of desperate self-destruction and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. It’s truly awful to watch, especially once we learn that this is exactly how Jeong-nyeon’s mother wrecked her voice and her singing career forever. (And speaking of wrecking things forever, I think it’s safe to say Hye-rang has crossed a line from which her and Ok-gyung’s relationship is unlikely to recover.)

When the audition rolls around, Jeong-nyeon arrives late, feverish, and barely able to speak. But she insists on pushing through. Even after her voice gives out mid-song, she begs to be allowed to finish the audition. It’s clear that not being allowed to finish would destroy her emotionally, so Troupe Leader Kang reluctantly allows it. There’s not a dry eye in the theater as Jeong-nyeon and Cho-rok deliver the most emotional performance we’ve seen yet, with Jeong-nyeon’s voice breaking horribly throughout. Somehow, her voice comes BACK just long enough for a powerful finish… and then she coughs up blood and collapses on the stage, and the episode fades to black in profound silence.

I have to say, the whole cast has been killing it, but major props to Kim Tae-ri for Episode 8 in particular. That nightmare sequence where she thought she lost her voice and couldn’t even scream took my breath away, as did the raw emotion of the audition that may or may not be Jeong-nyeon’s last.

The fact it could — and should — have been prevented just adds to the tragedy. Even if Jeong-nyeon hasn’t permanently ruined her voice, she’ll have a long, painful road to recovery, and she may never get the same chance at success that this joint production would have offered. I do expect she’ll find a way to bounce back eventually, though. Cho-rok was right that Jeong-nyeon doesn’t tend to make the same mistake twice — she makes new mistakes, and learns new lessons the hardest way possible, but she does learn. It’s just incredibly sad that she had to learn this lesson by repeating her mother’s mistake instead of being given the guidance and tools to avoid it.

 
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