Namib: Episodes 5-6

6 January 9, 2025January 9, 2025

by starrygazer

Our ex-CEO is making a safe space for her trainee and the mutual trust is starting to build between them – albeit slowly. Even with some background into why our CEO has so many enemies, it’s hard to understand the level of hate going on. Relationships are starting to grow, but will they fail with all the daggers that are out for our main leads?

EPISODES 5-6

Things are tough for Yoo Jin-woo this week starting when his mum comes to his audition and plays the “we’re family” card while holding his hand. (You have some gall, woman! Now that Yoo Jin-woo may become a success you’re sniffing around again after slapping him last week? Urgh!) Yoo Jin-woo’s mother even secretly goes to see CEO Jang – what is this? All haters band together to ruin a kid…?

For Yoo Jin-woo, fortunately his mother’s visit doesn’t seem to shake him up too much. Back at Soo-hyun’s house Yoo Jin-woo notices his toothbrush has a place next to theirs in the bathroom (which was so sweet). And no one in the family is pressuring Yoo Jin-woo to talk about the audition — they’re just observing him and carrying on as normal. Yoo Jin-woo has his own role in the kitchen too! This is becoming his safe space and I am inclined to think this is a first for our trainee.

To top it off, Yoo Jin-woo is growing a sweet friendship with Shim Jin-woo, which I am totally here for. If Yoo Jin-woo passes the audition he will go to the Star Rise training camp, leaving Shim Jin-woo without a bodyguard. So Yoo Jin-woo puts a system into place where the three people he hired/bribed to help Shim Jin-woo with his class notes will keep an eye on him outside of school, too, and take turns following him.

A Human CCTV is how Yoo Jin-woo explains it to Shim Jin-woo — and they will inform Yoo Jin-woo straight away if there are any problems. Yoo Jin-woo tells Shim Jin-woo he will have to sort out paying them, and he’s giving him the responsibility. (Yoo Jin-woo plays this off as responsibility and part of his contract, but I think he genuinely wants to protect Shim Jin-woo. This is so cute.)

Both Yoo Jin-woo and Ji-young are training back at Jung-hwa’s place, and Jung-hwa notices that Yoo Jin-woo is curious about how he performed. This is a big step for Yoo Jin-woo, and both Ji-young and Jung-hwa are surprised to see him start to emerge from his apathy. (The growth for Yoo Jin-woo that is happening this week is warming my heart.)

In his own twisted way, it appears Chris is trying to protect Yoo Jin-woo… but he is definitely going the wrong way about it. Chris takes Yoo Jin-woo for a fancy meal, and tells him this restaurant is the sort of place they should open together. Chris doubles down on crushing Yoo Jin-woo’s dreams and tells him to give up on his hopes before he dies. Chris was there when the female trainee died years ago, and he’s projecting this onto Jin-woo. But to me this is cruel. Yoo Jin-woo still has a glimmer of hope inside him, and Chris is trying desperately to snuff that out.

However, we see a little of their past together and how Chris protected a young Jin-woo, aware of his self-harming. To get Yoo Jin-woo to stop scratching holes out of his arms and pulling his hair out, Chris would give him cake. (Is this where Jin-woo’s binge-eating habit came from?) It would seem that Chris’s disdain for Soo-hyun stems from his debut being put off indefinitely, which scuppered his chances at success when he was a trainee. (If this was around the time of Shim Jin-woo’s accident can he really blame her…?)

After deciding to see how the competition goes, Yoo Jin-woo talks to Chris about giving up his moonlighting gig at Muse. Our trainee is transparent and tells Chris he likes having some hope back and being curious about things again, and he enjoys singing and being on stage. As you can imagine, Chris turns nasty and tells Yoo Jin-woo he is the one that took the video that got Soo-hyun dismissed from her company. (This video recording was at Chris’s behest, may I add. Talk about setting up Yoo Jin-woo for a fall.)

Thank all the gods everywhere for Soo-hyun and Joon-seok arriving at that moment, and seeing how shattered Yoo Jin-woo is. Soo-hyun is a total badass when she tells Jin-woo to raise his head. Yes, her life was ruined, but “for someone to fly, someone else has to embrace them.” (Take that, Chris! Leave our puppy alone because Soo-hyun is taking no prisoners.)

In an attempt to talk to Yoo Jin-woo about his self-harming, Joon-seok takes him to the park to do some yoga. Joon-seok can’t bring himself to ask Yoo Jin-woo outright, but Soo-hyun is waiting in the wings and she just pulls his sleeves up to expose his scars. (Soo-hyun is a little brash, but it comes from a good place at least.)

Yoo Jin-woo lies and tells them he fell down a lot as a child, but no one is believing that. Instead of pushing Yoo Jin-woo, Soo-hyun takes off her scarf and places it around his most recent wound on his wrist – from the car accident. And Soo-hyun pulls his sleeves down and tells Yoo Jin-woo it’s okay. This surprises Joon-seok, but I loved this. Yoo Jin-woo isn’t ready to talk about it and Soo-hyun lets him know that’s all right.

After Soo-hyun gets a phone call saying both Yoo Jin-woo and Ji-young passed their auditions and made it to the training camp, there’s an adorable montage of our newfound friends: our two trainees and Shim Jin-woo going shopping for clothes with Soo-hyun’s credit card haha. Also, when Soo-hyun drops Yoo Jin-woo off at the training camp, she gives him a bag Joon-seok made for him and tells him to build good habits by reading the success stories that are in there with other goodies. (Joon-seok’s nurturing side really does balance Soo-hyun’s feistiness out.)

Upon arrival, the trainees are told if they leave the training program without permission it’s immediate disqualification. Gulp. Because on the night of the first live show, Yoo Jin-woo’s little human CCTV team send him some pictures of Shim Jin-woo getting beaten up by the school bullies. *Slaps forehead in frustration.* Yoo Jin-woo, being the good kid he is, races out to help Shim Jin-woo.

When Yoo Jin-woo gets back to the show, he finds he’s gone viral, since they played his audition tape instead of hearing him sing live. Thank goodness for the PD who likes Yoo Jin-woo, because I suspect this was her doing. (And it’s just as well because the boy Jin-woo was partnered with wanted to outshine him anyway.)

The foes surrounding Soo-hyun are given more of a backstory this week. After a chance meeting with Joon-seok, Bong-kyu admits he took Soo-hyun’s company because she ditched him — “the alpha male” — for Joon-seok, “the beta male.” This made me laugh because Bong-kyu doesn’t actually wish harm on Soo-hyun, and he seems so meek! It does give Joon-seok a kick of motivation to go back to his old job through helping Yoo Jin-woo, so it was worth it.

Another foe gunning against Soo-hyun is CEO Jang. We see in a flashback what happened the night his sister died. Some creepy investors took the female trainees to a club, and CEO Jang’s sister was drugged. When Hana helped her out of the club she was so disorientated that she stumbled into the road and got hit by a car some rich dude was driving who wasn’t looking. Again, I can see why CEO Jang is upset — and of course the perpetrators got a slap on the wrist and that would be horrible for anyone — but is Soo-hyun really the cause of everything? His anger feels disproportionate.

At Pandora, CEO Jang has summoned the head producer of the Star Rise competition and tries to blackmail him into promoting Hana on the show and dropping Yoo Jin-woo. This looks bad trying to “fix” the competition, and the people who are friends with Soo-hyun who still work at Pandora tell CEO Jang this, only for him to threaten them as well. (CEO Jang is getting out of control. I think he is going to destroy himself trying to take down Soo-hyun.)

There is a lot of pressure being applied to Soo-hyun this week outside of work, and she handles it well, with Joon-seok’s help. These two working together is a real plus for me. First, Soo-hyun gets a call from a reporter who has the edited video clip of her “power tripping,” courtesy of CEO Jang. *Eye roll* The only way to stop the reporter from publishing the clip is to find the original unedited video. So, Joon-seok rolls into Pandora asking to see the CCTV footage to figure out who took the original video.

Bong-kyu had no idea CEO Jang had gone behind his back to the reporter, and he lets Soo-hyun and Joon-seok look at the CCTV footage, since it would be bad for Pandora if it got out. (See, Bong-kyu’s not totally mean-spirited!) We already know it was Yoo Jin-woo who took the video, and Soo-hyun handles the situation with Chris like the badass she is. Joon-seok points out to Bong-kyu that he should to be careful with CEO Jang — his money can’t control that man’s desire for revenge, and he’s not wrong.

There’s more understanding to be had about why Soo-hyun is the way she is when her next pressure point is pushed and her mum goes missing from her nursing facility. When she was as teen, Soo-hyun’s father had thrown her, her mother, and her sister out of the house and moved his mistress in. Sadly, Soo-hyun’s mum’s mind is stuck in the time just before that happened, so she keeps trying to go back to their childhood home.

Soo-hyun’s mum wanders out and gets on a bus, causing Soo-hyun, her sister, and Joon-seok to go looking for her. It’s sweet that Joon-seok doesn’t even need to be asked to go and look for Soo-hyun’s mum — he just leaves right away. Joon-seok is the one to find Soo-hyun’s mum, and she tells him how her daughter (Soo-hyun) looks after anything and everything alone without complaining. Joon-seok realizes that Soo-hyun is still like that now. She takes care of everything herself when she doesn’t need to, and it hits him hard — and gives him more perspective on her behavior. It’s nice to see the contrast to this, and how Joon-seok and Soo-hyun working together as a team seems to be strengthening their bond. Let’s hope they can push through together.

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1 tabong is ironing the crosswalk

January 9, 2025 at 3:15 PM

1. Not gonna lie. If something like that happened to one of my siblings I would also start my villain era.

It seems like even after all that mess they didn't explain things properly to CEO Jang? Why is the other founder talking about him and Soo Hyun having "circumstances" at the moment? They need to explain why they let some creeps get near their trainees (his sister)????

2. Chris. I wish he would realize that the choices others make don't invalidate his own. And that regretting those choices is okay too.

Ha Na and Ji Won won't give up, and that's fine. Chris gave up, and that's fine too. But if you regret giving up, then do something about it.
Stop making other people feel bad about their own lives and stop trying to force them to make the same choices.

He says that he's trying to protect Ji Won, but the path he's trying to drag him to is just as bad (you just got slapped? Across the face my boy?? JW almost died in a car accident??? Hello???). So just shut up and live your life. 😂
I'm excited for his healing journey, tho. And I ship him with Ha Na.

3. I wonder if designer Ji Won has ever tried to talk about another of his dreams with his mom.
I feel like, if he clearly showed her that he has a goal and a plan and motivation, she would support her with that. Tell your mom you want to design or wtv it is that you like. And show her that you can do it.
There's no real reason for her to oppose to a different dream.

But how much is she gonna lose for breaking the contract tho??

4. The way the attacked Ji Won by grabbing his arm and all that at the park was INSANE. Never do that again show. That gave me war flashbacks.

5. A bodyguard during the day and an idol at night won't work. So, how are we gonna protect our kid?

6. I know Ji Won is the lead but I kinda want Ha Na to win.

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2 Britney

January 9, 2025 at 11:13 PM

I feel bad for these trainees who are at the mercy of investors and executives. And the injustice of it all. Sigh.

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3 9TailedVixen Loves Hanging Upside Down

January 10, 2025 at 1:22 AM

I like how things are progressing with our ex-CEO and one-final-chance trainee and how the different relationships are developing.

Hostile Takeover CEO, however, needs lots of *stabby stabby motions*

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4 Kurama

January 10, 2025 at 1:56 AM

I'm more interested by Chris's redeeming arc and his relationship with Hana than Yoo Jin-woo.

Being a trainee is the worst thing, you are accumulating a big debt. Now, some agencies don't make the trainees who won't debut pay it, but I don't know if it's the case in every agency. But it looked like Chris accepted it but was again trampled by the rich guys and lost a friend.

I wonder how the guys had access to the female trainees, their manager looked overwhelmed by the situation.

Su-Hyun was busy with her son's situation how did she delegate her responsibilities? As a CEO, she was still responsible.

At least, the villain CEO Kang is ready to take everyone not just her.

Why the parents do nothing in Jin-Woo's bullying? They paid students to protect him? And how surprise, it doesn't work. Either you talk with the school administration, either you change him of school. But they should spend their energy there and not in a future factory.

I'm happy to see Jin-Woo getting better but I still think a contest is not the best place for him. It's too much pression and they know he has multiple issues with self-harm. There is his mother lurking around like a vultur. They can't be with him everytime because of the show.

There are still the talk about selling him after...

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5 Kobsessed

January 10, 2025 at 2:45 AM

This show is getting more interesting every week.
The scene in the playgroung where the couple revealed the self-harm issue is not a secret anymore it was intense and difficult to watch (CEO Soo-hyun' handling was too harsh). Ryeoun nailed that scene and proved how great actor he is.
However, my main interest is still Chris who dispite his mean vibes he genuinely cares for Jin-Woo. I don't get Soo-hyun's attitude towards him, has she realized who he is and that he was one of those who did not debut because of her going to the US? She could only ask him "what's your problem?" but she does not even bother. I can't wait to see his healing journey and the progress of his relationship with Ha-na.

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6 Kafiyah Bello

January 10, 2025 at 5:59 AM

We are moving forward, which is nice. I get the CEO trying to get revenge, but Jin Woo is not at fault for any of this. Neither of the Jin Woo's are at fault.