Namib: Episodes 9-10
by starrygazer
In our penultimate week, tensions grow as our trainee’s fear of abandonment gets tested, and we’re left to wonder if he’ll be able to hold himself together while his life falls apart around him. As for our ex-CEO, she’s got some serious reflecting to do in order to put things right… but will her nemesis stand in her way?
EPISODES 9-10
Get your heart ready, because Yoo Jin-woo has had a very rough ride this week. And honestly, I’m not sure I can take much more of that lost/hurt look he continues to wear. After Yoo Jin-woo has his trust betrayed by Soo-hyun so she can buy her son the factory, through his tears he begs her not to abandon him. As harsh as ever, Soo-hyun tells Yoo Jin-woo he used her too. He should move on, cutting everyone from his past out of his life. Harsh.
Yoo Jin-woo resolves to do just that and promises his new agency TA Entertainment that he will do his very best, and he becomes a member of a debuting group. True to his word, Yoo Jin-woo is working hard on ad campaigns and even puts his mother in her place. (Yes, Yoo Jin-woo!!) But things start to get shaky for him when the last member of the boy band arrives: it’s his sneaky partner from the Star Rise competition, Yi-joon. Boo hiss!
To his credit, Jin-woo stands up for himself when Yi-joon tells him the message he gave him to tank his onstage performance at Star Rise wasn’t from Chris at all. Ji-yoon had just wanted to eliminate the competition. Yoo Jin-woo grabs Ji-yoon by the collar and tells him to back off. (I probably would have punched the little dweeb. Yoo Jin-woo did a good job holding back.)
After a damning article is released connecting Yoo Jin-woo and Hana to Pandora’s efforts to fix the Star Rise competition, Jin-woo starts to spiral and locks himself in the bathroom of his shared dorm. Yoo Jin-woo has been told by his director that he doesn’t care if the rumors of fixing the competition and school bullying aren’t true, and this leaves Yoo Jin-woo feeling numb and dissociated from everything. He even asks the director not to abandon him. (My heart hurts again.)
Our antagonist CEO Jang takes a bit of a hit when this article comes out too, as Hana is now known to be the trainee that got special treatment. So CEO Jang goes to Muse to get CCTV footage of the PD he was blackmailing because the PD wants Hana to drop out of the competition, now everything has come to light. But CEO Jang finds the footage of Yoo Jin-woo with Chris in the club and that is where the demise of Yoo Jin-woo this week started. It seems CEO Jang’s plan is to destroy Pandora and Yoo Jin-woo: his plan is to take Yoo Jin-woo back and make him sing live streams and do whatever people want for money so that people will come and throw stones and CEO Jang can destroy everything Soo-hyun made.
Meanwhile, Shim Jin-woo has realized that Soo-hyun sold his friend for money for the factory and he’s been reaching out to Yoo Jin-woo ever since with no luck. Shim Jin-woo is worried about Yoo Jin-woo with the article being released, and he goes to the dorm. As he arrives, they hear the glass smash inside the bathroom and Shim Jin-woo breaks the door down. Shim Jin-woo finds Yoo Jin-woo on the floor with a gash in his wrist asking Shim Jin-woo to hide him.
Shim Jin-woo tries to hide him by physically blocking him with his body, but the director with the nasty personality arrives and throws him out, telling everyone present not to let this get out to the press. (Loving the sympathy.) Shim Jin-woo happens to answer a call from Soo-hyun while all this commotion is happening, and when she hears the boys in the background ask if he’s dead, she hops in her car and has an accident on the way to the dorms that leaves her unconscious.
After all the drama, Yoo Jin-woo is at the dorm being treated like a leper by his band members. Meanwhile, when Soo-hyun wakes up her first thought is of Yoo Jin-woo and she goes over to check on him. But when Soo-hyun talks with Yoo Jin-woo, all she can offer him is work advice – Joon-seok is much better at this sort of thing than Soo-hyun is.
A broken Yoo Jin-woo asks Soo-hyun if she will sell the factory and take him back, and Soo-hyun being as blunt as ever says no. Yoo Jin-woo tells Soo-hyun to leave and never come back. (And there’s another nail in my heart.) It’s clear that no one is happy with this arrangement, and Yoo Jin-woo’s new company couldn’t give a rat’s ass about him. I sincerely hope this doesn’t get dragged out until next week.
Still dissociating, Yoo Jin-woo is at practice standing perfectly still in the corner while the others rehearse. Yi-joon is begging for a real slap from me when the director comes in and he tells him that Yoo Jin-woo is putting this on – it’s all an act. And the director unloads both barrels at Yoo Jin-woo. *Please stop beating the puppy when he’s down*
This pushes Yoo Jin-woo to tell the director to give him the settlement statement and he will leave. The director is as lovely as ever when he gives him the settlement statement and tells Yoo Jin-woo not to do anything stupid until he leaves. It was interesting that Yoo Jin-woo told the director that he wasn’t trying to die — he was trying to live. Just how depressed and numb must Yoo Jin-woo be to harm himself like that just to feel something? (However, the director would need some modicum of humanity to understand this and I fear he is totally void of it.)
Shim Jin-woo definitely has his dad’s emotional intelligence and empathy – seeing Yoo Jin-woo in this state is troubling him, and he keeps zoning out at school. When one of Shim Jin-woo’s little helpers comes to give him his notes, Shim Jin-woo offers him the merchandise Yoo Jin-woo was bribing them with. This little helper refuses the merchandise because he doesn’t want anything from Yoo Jin-woo, and Shim Jin-woo gets mad – why would this helper believe rumors over his own eyes? (Here, here!)
Another little helper takes Shim Jin-woo outside the classroom to talk in private. He tells Shim Jin-woo he doesn’t believe any of it, but people love to build others up and then drag them down. (This is so true.) This helper also lets Shim Jin-woo know who left the bullying comments as he saw the actual bullies doing it at the internet cafe. Shim Jin-woo has a heated exchange with Soo-hyun and she confirms this was all for the factory, which makes Shim Jin-woo feel even worse.
As for Soo-hyun, she’s battling her own emotions on selling Yoo Jin-woo. She wants to believe she did the right thing, but I think she knows deep down that she has messed up. The whole family is feeling Yoo Jin-woo’s absence. None of them can sleep, and Joon-seok finds Soo-hyun’s anxiety and insomnia medication. When the article drops about Pandora’s meddling with the competition, Soo-hyun defends and confirms that Yoo Jin-woo and Ji-young had nothing to do with Pandora at this time.
At the restaurant, Jung-hwa tells Joon-seok that he should send Soo-hyun on a vacation as all she does these days is go there to watch videos of the ocean. To me, this seems more like she’s missing Yoo Jin-woo — the ocean that balances her desert. And Joon-seok, being the sweetheart that he is, has booked Soo-hyun a surprise solo trip.
While Soo-hyun is on her way to the airport, Joon-seok receives a call from his sister-in-law asking him to visit his mother-in-law. Soo-hyun’s mum has dementia and she’s waiting to meet her son-in-law to be. While having a sweet chat with his mother-in-law, Joon-seok has an important realization. Soo-hyun’s only dream was to meet her best protege, which was a dream both Soo-hyun and Joon-seok had forgotten while dealing with life.
As Joon-seok hightails it to the airport to remind Soo-hyun of their dream, he receives a call from a journalist wanting a statement on Yoo Jin-woo’s upcoming press conference. It seems he plans to take the blame for every rumor that has been spread about him. Ah, the urgency of Joon-seok reaching Soo-hyun on time has me antsy as hell! They have to get to the press conference before Yoo Jin-woo blows up his entire life.
When Joon-seok finds Soo-hyun at the airport he asks her what type of kid is Yoo Jin-woo to her? He asks Soo-hyun if Shim Jin-woo hadn’t had the accident, if she didn’t feel the need to buy the factory, if she hadn’t been kicked out of the company, and if he hadn’t nagged and tortured her as a result — what if she had met Yoo Jin-woo under those circumstances? We see Soo-hyun rewrite her memories in her head and the spark of recognition appear on her face: Yoo Jin-woo would have been the best protege of her life.
Yes, finally mission “save Yoo Jin-woo” is in play as Soo-hyun and Joon-seok race over to the press conference. Poor Yoo Jin-woo is being hounded with questions but he hasn’t actually said anything to the reporters yet. Then we have the slo-mo entrance of Soo-hyun entering the room to save him.
Soo-hyun is badass when she tells Yoo Jin-woo to raise his head from the back of the room. She joins him on the stage and tells him to straighten his shoulders she’ll answer the questions. Soo-hyun then informs the reporters Yoo Jin-woo won’t be apologizing as he did nothing wrong, and she leads him out by the hand. *Fist pump*
Ruining our moment, CEO Jang is waiting in the wings, and says he will take Yoo Jin-woo with him to a world that suits him (but we know what he’s really after). Yoo Jin-woo is in a very fragile place right now and I don’t know how much he still trusts Soo-hyun, but I really hope he doesn’t fall for this.
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Tags: Go Hyun-jung, Namib, Ryeoun, Yoon Sang-hyun
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1 Kurama
January 23, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Chris ( 😍) and Hana have all my intention!
For the rest, it's not really the story of Yoo Jin-woo but about Su-Hyun who tries to fix what happened to her son and her guilt by crushing everyone around in the process and CEO Jang doing the same to get revenge. It's sad because Chris and Hana were friends with his sister and he used and hurt them the same.
Shim Jin-Woo is cute but being a CEO at his age is so ridiculous... He needs to start at the beginning and not get already a nice office.
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2 sumi
January 23, 2025 at 1:03 PM
These episodes were definitely hard to watch, since it is showing the ugly underbelly of the entertainment business in SoKo. I wonder what kind of reception this show is getting in Korea, since I hope this makes people question how they judge their celebrities for every.single.action they do, and how the fans' opinions can change on a dime. It's sad to realize that these stories are probably not fiction and has happened to several trainees who we never got to learn about, becoz their future was cut short even before it began because they were at the wrong place in the wrong time and someone made a scandal about it.
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3 Neolttwigi
January 23, 2025 at 1:56 PM
This drama possibly has a bit too much reality. I am struggling thru it by skipping bits, because it's unrelenting. It's not that it's completely dark, there are lots of decent people doing their best ( albeit badly) But there are not any moments of lightness or humorous side stories. It would be nice to smile occasionally.
All of the characters would benefit from a large group therapy session. YJW needs a nice grandmother and a house in the country far away from the entertainment industry. SJW needs a cochlear implant.
Did I read the flight board correctly? It was a flight to Zurich? A place well known for beaches and a view of the ocean ? (sarcasm)
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sumi
January 23, 2025 at 5:42 PM
"SJW needs a cochlear implant." - SO TRUE! My aunt has hearing issues since her teens, and had no luck with hearing aids, but finally, now in her 50s she was able to get surgery, and is able to hear again. So...maybe there is hope for SJW yet (although, how did he seem to "hear" the glass breaking in the bathroom when he was at the front door of the trainee dorm? no one said anything, he could have only seen the evil trainee turn his head to look back. But I guess the writers had a momentary amnesia and forgot that SJW is not supposed to hear anything????)
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kd6606
January 23, 2025 at 8:44 PM
oh no! now the writers are getting amnesia 🤣?
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4 kd6606
January 23, 2025 at 8:42 PM
All the adults in this drama are awful and Soo-hyun is the worst. What is all this about 'selling' someone. As if Yoo Jin-woo doesn't have a choice? And hubby, who is portrayed as the caring adult, does nothing and doesn't stand up to his wife. And it is not believable that he didn't know about his wife's meds - they were sitting there in plain sight.
What this poor kid needs is lots of love and support and hugs. Not constant fear of being 'sold'.
Even at the end of the episode, what appears to be supposed to be Soo-hyun's heroic save of Yoo Jin-woo is all about her and her dream. It has nothing to do with Yoo Jin-woo and what he wants and needs.
I hope Shim Jin-woo sells his factory, pays off Yoo Jin-woo's debt and the two of them run off to the ubiquitous beaches and oceans of Zurich! (thank you Neolttwigi!)
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