I am glad HS and ahjusshi are back on good terms. I figured there would be no gold down there and that his dad was there. That was so sad. It also looks like the romance will be shoved to the last few minutes of episode 12. Sigh, good thing I watch them together, lol.

I can't believe this is soon over. It's a shame that the rating aren't as good as the show deserves.

And am I the only? Whenever our OTP were together onscreen I was waiting for a kiss and we get nothing.

Last year I was lamenting that several shows ended with a kiss as a cliffhanger just for the next episode to start at the next scene.

Now with this and The Potato Lab we get all the swooning, but no smooching. Both had early "kisses", but I need the real deal.

Hae-seong tossing that USB into the evidence box was smooth af. Of course we knew the Chairwoman would be back, but it was nice to have that little calm before the storm, especially that convo between Su-ah and Ye-na. And Su-ah's mom being a gang leader was a fun twist haha

They've definitely set us up for a wild start to the finale. I wonder if the security guard had something to do with it, and if there is truth to that last riddle if there was gold that was moved. And hopefully there was. This show isn't super serious all the time, but everyone went through too much for there not to be any gold. Hopefully most of that can be resolved with enough time for some good ol' final episode fluff too

We love communication.

Which leaves us almost love-starved enough to be kdrama leads.
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you can’t keep Quiznos down

Which takes on a somewhat different meaning after you eat one.
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He twists the bust, and the whole statue moves to reveal a trapdoor.

Because someone has been cleaning and oiling the mechanism regularly for all those years.

Thanks for the recap. This show has taken an alarmingly serious turn, considering the entire premise and tone of it was so absurd.

When Hae Song got down into the tunnel and said there wasn't going to be any gold...I had two thoughts. Either this tunnel and the room were used by the Japanese as a prison for independence activists, or the former head of school really was an independence activist and had anti-Japanese meetings in that basement.

Disappointed by our confession. I wanted a heart-fluttering confession with just the two of them in Hae-sung's house followed by a heart-stopping kiss. Not a public confession in front of their class with all the kids chanting "ppoppo-hae, ppoppo-hae" leading to nowhere.

Speaking of whom, the kids took the truth surprisingly well. Up until the moment Hae-sung bust into class, the girls were crushing on a 31-year-old ajusshi.

Why is Chairwoman Seo only now searching the school for the gold? She should've turned the school upside down searching for it even before Hae-sung's hints. The bust is such an obvious place too. I hope Dad was already dead before he went down there. I hate to think he was trapped in the secret room and starved to death.

Is it just me, or did Hae-seong actually “test” his uncle’s trustworthiness by telling him where he set up Jun-ho for the night + laying out the whole plan in detail when/where he’ll deliver him to the police? It’s not that he just gave up being suspicious. He set up to camp in front of that house he told nobody else about. If something had happened, he’d have known his uncle was the leak. … That must have been a really shitty night. 🫣 But I’m glad that’s sorted out, because how could the Quizno’s teddy be bad?!?!?!

The fun side plot with noonim Su-ah’s mom was cartoonish, but super hilarious! What would have happened to the guys in the first episode who didn’t want to pay for their meal in her restaurant, had Su-ah and Hae-seong not intervened? 🤣 I guess they got lucky!!!

I’m very glad they at least gave us that episode 9 epilogue… 🫠🫠🫠😆💖

I’ll be honest: I LOVED the confession. I’m hoping they still get a more private one later, but I thought it was so smooth and sweet and I was chanting right along with the students! And I loved her asking him out for a meal after all of this is over. And him telling her about the threat immediately. And her telling him she’s not a damsel in distress. This couple communicates and I’m so here for all of it!

I’m less confident what I think of the gold. Did the director take it all those years ago and send Hae-seong on a wild goose chase so that he wouldn’t have to admit that to the dangerous Myung-joo? Was it ever there? Did our original Japanese cooperator manage to come back for it after all? It does seem odd that he would leave all the clues for a false end.

Su-ah’s mom being a former gang leader is possibly the most ridiculous (but also fantastic and hilarious) thing to happen in this entire drama. And that’s saying a lot!

I think his father with his last breath - and especially with his watch's last tic - is pointing towards the gold and towards who the traitor is, in a way that only works if you are into astronomy and is a good boy.

There are four new gifs, https://imgur.com/a/undercover-high-school-Ue2iQnC and they are; the agents doing their Korean musketeer oath, Hyun-min looking so pleased with himself, (There's a separate one here for expressing one's own coolness in a discussion https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExa3RqOXVzbjh0Z2tiZHlhNDluMzBrOWdhZmIzZnk5Zzkza2dveGFhcSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/9xT5iGFi2fJfaKGQR5/giphy.gif )
Little Sister urgently telling Hyun to zip it!!! and the confession.

Such a fun, silly show!

Props to how they integrated the Quiznos PPL!

My favorite moment of the week was when Hae-seong confessed his age and one of the off-screen students was like "he's an uncle." and Hae-seong was like "who's your uncle?". The timing and delivery was impeccable. It was also hilarious seeing Soo-ah, Yoo-jeong, and Yena's expressions once Hae-seong spun his crazy excuse of just really wanting to go to high school. It's almost cute (and worrying) how gullible these kids are.

I was little disappointed with the fewer romantic moments initially, but then got the feeling that the show was meant to be romance-lite. Jin Ki-joo and Seo Kang-joon as their characters just had such unexpectedly wonderful romantic chemistry. It's a shame that they're in an action comedy and not in a romantic comedy.

I had suspected that the dad is dead, but it hurt to have Hae-seong see irrevocable proof that his dad was truly gone. If the dad hasn't come back in all those years and there aren't any evil vampires imprisoning him to use him as a source of food...then he was likely dead.

Plot Predictions & Random Notes:

1. To me, the spy-heist drama and the comedic hijinks are the cake, romance is a bonus topping so am not salty at all about the lack of overt romantic gestures. Their easy camaraderie and on-screen chemistry is good enough for me

2. Kim Shin-rok is definitely channeling Jin Kyung from Melancholia (2021) - her chilling Machiavellian calculation, her descent into unhinged madness, the punishing pressure to please a father, a tormenting love-hate dysfunctional relationship with a daughter. This can only end in tears. I just hope Show will evacuate Ye-Na to safety before she becomes collateral

3. Bloody Chicken Gang leader 🤣🤣: Ok I did *not* see that coming. Lovely call-back to her recent turn in Study Group where she played the ML's mom (who also turned out to be some Taekwondo master when a melee calls for these crouching tigers hidden dragons to be outed.

These two episodes were good but not like the others. A few cracks showed up in here and there. First they did not tell us how the Chairwoman got out of trouble. Of course the Director let her go but that is such an obvious move to let everyone at the agency that he is corrupt. He let his guard down too early for us and too obvious for HS to see and it made me wonder even more if the uncle will be the cliffhanger reserved at the end. First of all, I don't think the uncle and the dad are related. The show never gave us the uncle name or never said the relation between them, as in they were brothers. As we learned recently that an aunt is not really an aunt, I suspect that the uncle is not really an uncle. He also gave us a clue, he said that he was supposed to meet the dad before he disappeared but he couldn't find him. What if he did and found out that the dad moved the gold? And he realized reading the notebook that he left a clue for HS? It can be that the uncle worked alone from even the Director and he also worked with the security guy that delivered the notebook to HS. He was smart enough not to fall into HS trap because he didn't care much about the math teacher, he was not in his team. He kept his eye on the ball, getting HS trust going forward, to find where the gold really is. That is if there is any gold and not some Japanese secret documents disguised as gold, which it can be viewed as being very valuable in someone's hands. And there is also the thing of placing back of the statue to its place since I don't think it just slided itself back no matter how well self oiled it might have been, as Lord Cobol noticed. If the Director did it then why didn't he just let the Chairwoman know? Right? Or I am reading too much into it, it has happened before.
I didn't like the whole bad mamma thing (SA's mom) how it came out of the blue.
Didn't SA get out of the hospital too early from a knife wound? She did.
I didn't like that the kids got over too quickly over after the whole grade fixing thing. There were no parents complaining about it also. I would have been passed and not clean their mess also.
There better be some good kiss at the end of this, that's all I have to say. :)

I've never expected there to be actual elemental gold at the end. I've always thought the gold hunt was a wild goose chase invented by the founder- maybe the gold did exist once, and has already been spent; or maybe it is metaphorical gold.

I like that the students had some more screentime. Dong Min. Yoo Jung's epic faces at Hae Sung. It was heartwarming when the students wanted to help their teacher Soo Ah. ^^

Hae Sung and Soo Ah are wonderful together. They have always had a cute and sweet vibe. I absolutely died and replayed the scene of her giving him food on the house and his smile of appreciation. Their eye contact and whispered words. They looked so close!! I knew the romance factor would be light and not a priority though. 😭

I think this drama still manages well the balance between humor and the serious elements. But they failed to add the romance! It's sad because they really built a convincing relationship between these characters with communication and trust as main points.

Undercover team is apparently not the sharpest team out there 😅 It was them that made Haeseong go undercover as a highschooler, but when they heard the story on the internet, they didn't make the connection 🤣

I like Yena character very much. It takes a great deal of courage and and integrity to do what she did considering where she's from. Kim Minju is such a good actress with a very nice voice. I'll look out for her projects from now on.

After these two episodes I have realized that this show is very similar to Check in Hanyang: hiding identities, a "treasure" to find, a team, a mystery from the past, same kind of mix humour and darkness, similar villains -even one actor-... And both shows became less interesting to me in the final stretch.

Episodes 9 and 10 had some good moments but, on the whole, this drama was more enjoyable in its first half.

I haven't watched a scene as sad as the ending of episode 10 in a while. It's heartbreaking.

These last 2 eps were no exception. Thoroughly enjoyable, with emotional beats and hilarious moments sprinkled through. Yes, there could have been a hug or a handhold (I would have cheered along with the schoolkids!), but that's the only thing a bit off-pace. To my mind, this was always a fun caper show, which has utterly surpassed all my expectations so far. Them catching feelings for each other was just a delightful bonus- oh so delightful!

I have never watched any other drama smiling so widely at the screen whenever they smile or laugh or just look at each other. Not to mention, laughing so much either at all the ott situations they and the teams find themselves in. Su Ah's mum being a gang leader was such a ridiculous twist, but so in keeping with the show, that they managed to make me laugh aloud and not roll my eyes. Somehow, they've kept everything on this side of cringe, and that's the magic.

The writer and director have managed to make me invested in each and every character that's appeared on screen. Like there isn't one, however minor, that I don't watch out for, from the two ex-bullies, to Ye Na's girl-gang, to Dong Jin and the teachers, and of course, our leads and the other mains.

The other show I liked so much, also pretty similar in nature, was Flex X Cop. Waiting on S2 of that one. That introduced me to Ahn Bo Hyun and Park Ji Hyun, much like this lovely intro to SKJ and Jin Ki Joo. It's kinda funny that I'm willing to watch anything in these actors' backlist, no matter bad or good, because I now like them so much and will forgive them anything.

The top picture shows that Haeseong seems to lean forward to talk to anyone shorter than him, not just Suah 😅

To say this show has jumped the shark would be an understatement. This show started off halfway over the shark. This week just seemed like the writers room was spit balling and there were no wrong answers! Soo-ah gets stabbed?! No worries. She's backed at work the next day. Major grade tampering scandal at the country's most exclusive school? No worries. Director's back in a few days. But my favorite is - no one to storm the school? No worries. Soo-ah's mom used to be in a GANG!!??!! I can't even with this show....

Thank you for the recap. 🏫🚌🎒👩‍🏫🕵️‍♂️

Okay the good stuff first.

The hospital visit may have led to a "near confession" sadly not a kiss or kisses but it was sweet. Also why have a private confession whispered in the ear of the beloved when you can declared your love in front of the entire school class. Not Ajhusshi Hae-seong confessing to Seonsaengnim Soo-ah in front of an audience chanting ppo ppo ye, yeah that is #lifegoals. 🫰

Ajhusshi Ahn is not the mole after all. Thanks very kamsa.

Uri Soo-ah's eomma is not someone her daughter should argue with. 🙄 Ha, Kim Young-ah's drama characters sure have some kickass backstories. 😂

Myung-joo and killer Principal are arrested.

So all is well in our dramaland but, but, but, jamsiman-yo it is only episode 9 so that means we have three more hours left and predictably things go southwards. Andwae but also mwo.

So expectedly Myung-joo and killer Principal make a sweeping re-entry into the school.

As Hae-seong was exploring the secret basement I was just hoping for a clue left by Abeoji. In fact I am still hoping that it is a clue and not an actual skeleton and if it is an actual skeleton then it is of a baddie and not really of Abeoji. Needless to say SKJ nailed the scene.

I am just hoping for the mystery and revenge part to be over by episode 11 so that we can have the last episode of OTP sweetness and fluff. I like my drama endings tied up in pretty pink bows. 🎀

DId anyone else take the cartel comment to mean that the principal's goal is to take over the country/world with students from her elite school? An echo of current day RL politics.