Backstreet Rookie – K-Drama Episode 9 Recap and Review

It’s Over

Backstreet Rookie returns this week with another slice of drama as our various characters face a new problem-of-the-week while the ongoing saga with Yeon-Joo and Dae-Hyun finally comes to an end. 

Episode 9 of Backstreet Rookie begins at Dae-Hyun’s house as Saet-Byul is invited to dinner and Boon-Hee heaps praise on the girl for the good work she does at the convenience store. Only, midway through serving dinner Yeon-Joo leaves and get a taxi home, refusing to listen to Dae-Hyun any longer.

Yeon-Joo instead heads home and refuses to engage with her Mother while Saet-Byul ends up eating food with Dae-Hyun’s Father where they discuss Dae-Hyun. Eventually she’s left alone to ponder her thoughts.

In the morning, Dae-Hyun heads over to Yeon-Joo’s house to greet her but instead finds her Mother there. Sitting with her in the living room, he asks Hye-Ja to stay out of their business and let Yeon-Joo make her own decision. Although she complies, when Dae-Hyun leaves the room that’s clearly far from the truth.

Instead, she meets with Boon-Hee and sets up an insurance policy with her. Although she clearly knows who Boon-Hee is, she however does not know what connection Yeon-Joo has with her. Together they discuss class differences between her daughter and her boyfriend. Desperate to impress Hye-Ja, she tell her she should break up with him.

Saet-Byul and Dae-Hyun receive bad news when a man claims to have eaten an expired sausage from their shop and wants $3000 dollars to settle the score. Given Dal-Sik was the one in charge at that time, Saet-Byul immediately confronts him and requests he be the one to pay up.

Hye-Ja meanwhile, turns her attention to Yong-Pil. She invites him over and gives him a new proposition which involves testing his driving skills while sipping tea and making sure none is spilled on the trip.

While all this is going on, Dal-Sik’s love life looks like it’s on the rise. With his secret conversation with Geum-Bi escalating, neither realize who the other is as they start to grow closer together.

Back at the office, Yeon-Joo is tasked with the difficult job of overseeing the expired sausage incident. Saet-Byul stirs the incident up further by arriving at the hospital where she finds the man boasting about his newfound money and what he’s going to do with it.

However, she has an ace up her sleeve. With Dal-Sik disguised as a mob boss, he manages to threaten the man into dropping the amount of money down to $1000 dollars instead. Despite feeding back the good news to Dae-Hyun, he berates her and she winds up leaving.

Ji-Wok goes looking for Saet-Byul and eventually finds her on the roof. She heads over to his house for dinner and Ji-Wok shows her the footage he’s taken of Eun-Byul on her big audition.

Yong-Pil is put to work in the morning as Hye-Ja’s chauffeur and drives Yeon-Joo to work. When he arrives before GS25, he comments how much of a coincidence this is. Inside the building however, Seung-Joo asserts his authority and forces Saet-Byul’s boss to sever ties with her and prevent Saet-Byul from working.

Back at the convenience store, Dae-Hyun calls Saet-Byul in and shows her that he’s doing the honest thing by forcing an inspection and confirming that honesty is the best policy. Berating him for showing off with honesty, Saet-Byul leaves the store while Yeon-Joo requests to meet Dae-Hyun. As they sit and eat dinner together, she mentions how this is their last meal and breaks up with him. Outside, Seung-Joo picks her up and takes Yeon-Joo home, which is where the episode ends.

The Review Write-Up

After 9 episodes, Yeon-Joo and Dae-Hyun have finally broken up. That’s for the best to be honest because Yeon-Joo is a pretty unlikable character. Between the opera incident and her embarrassment at his behaviour, the two clearly aren’t compatible and he’s better off without her. Hopefully now Saet-Byul will get her job back at the store.

The expired sausage is another attempt to drum up some excitement in this slice of life drama but Backstreet Rookie continues to feel like a very average Korean drama. There’s little here to write home about and while the characters are likable enough to keep watching, this isn’t one to remember.