Bad-Memory Eraser – K-drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

Episode 3 Recap

The recap of Bad-Memory Eraser Episode 3 begins with a happy Gun constantly flirting with an annoyed Ju-yeon who has a tough time pretending to be his first love.

Han is overjoyed with her commitment as it means the trial is salvaged. She believes it is easy work but she is peppered by questions from Gun’s parents, especially when they learn that the first love saved him from drowning when he was a kid. Ju-yeon feels like a fraud and decides to keep Gun at a distance by hinting that she is dating Tae-oh.

Of course, this does not help as Gun is jealous as he updates Guk-bong that he has found his first love. Recalling a heartbroken Gun, Guk-bong tries to steer him clear of the girl.

At the police station, Shin retells the night of Gun’s accident. After the fight with their mom, Shin follows Gun from a distance. When Gun jumps into the river, Shin calls 911 and saves him before the paramedics arrive. However, the detective is suspicious as Shin couldn’t have reached and saved his brother in that short time.

Shin’s agent, CEO Hong arrives and gets him out by playing the celebrity card. Outside, Hong threatens to publicize the investigation if Shin doesn’t renew his contract. At the same time, someone watches them from afar.

Back at the hospital, Tae-oh and Ju-yeon talk about their matching Eiffel Tower keyrings which he got for her on her birthday. She cherishes hers even though she has a metal allergy. An eavesdropping Gun gets jealous and throws his slipper at Tae-oh.

At lunch, he orders fancy food and Tae-oh joins him. Someone spills on Ju-yeon and Gun jumps to help. He is annoyed when he sees that Tae-oh just leaves. He wonders why she likes a guy like Tae-oh and vows to change her mind.

At practice, Mrs. Lee is extremely controlling as Shin gets ready for his next match. When Hong arrives, she reprimands him for not informing her about the investigation. When she spots Shin prepping to mentor the kids in Guk-bong’s class, she is furious and screams at Mr. Lee for ruining Shin’s schedule. Once Hong leaves, Mr. Lee lashes out and Shin helps mediate till his parents patch up. 

While everyone is busy, Gun heads to the agency and treats everyone to fancy meals. Hong is rude but when Gun comments on how his data analytic skills can help Shi-on, they strike a deal. If Gun can get Shi-on’s contract, he will have a guaranteed position in the agency. Gun agrees and a surprised Hong wonders if he hit his head while Shin was saving him. Gun is confused as he was told he fell from the stairs.

Back at the hospital, Gun is overtly friendly with Nurse Song and the rest which is a set-up to learn more about Tae-oh. Gun notices that they all have the Eiffel Tower keyring from Tae-oh and Song reveals that he is quite cheap and bought a bunch while on a business trip to Paris. 

While Guk-bong hypes up the kids for Shin’s arrival, the tennis player is waylaid as he needs to head to his appointment with Han first. He rushes past Ju-yeon but his bag is open and all the signed balls for the kids fall. She jumps on the ground to gather as many as she can while Shin rushes to catch the rest. Tae-oh and the staff find her lying and help her gather the balls but she is embarrassed. In her rush, she also drops her keychain in Shin’s bag.

Shin finds her and his bag in her office and turns out she is subbing for Han who is out. Shin has OCD and tries to get her to prescribe the same thing Han does so he can leave. But she refuses to let him go easily and they end up talking about his need to fulfil expectations others have of him. He is late to Guk-bong’s class and is sad to see the kids have left.

That night, Gun observes the staff leaving and Tae-oh being close to Nurse Yeo. He also notices that he doesn’t have any trauma from the stairs yet he needs counselling. He then finds Ju-yeon sleeping in front of her her research which talks about erasing bad memories. She wakes up before he can read about it. He wants to eat dinner with her but she refuses and he calls in the wish coupon.

Turns out when they were in the storage room, Gun won the rock, paper, scissors. However, he offered to hide in the laundry bin if she gave him a wish coupon.

At dinner, he tells her to be with a man who loves her back instead of Tae-oh. And she tells Gun to move on instead of being stuck in the past of his first love memory. He explains that memory for him is how a hot bowl of noodles is for a hungry man. She not only saved him, but she turned a bad memory into a good memory, she is not his past but his present. Ju-yeon feels guilty as she heads home. 

Tired, she accidentally shares the bed with the girl from the previous episode. Her mom informs that their guest is Sae-yan, an old neighbour before she moved to Italy. She is in South Korea for a month but her cheerful and bubbly attitude annoys Ju-yeon. 

Meanwhile, Shin leaves the signed balls and some extra gifts for the kids. As he practises, he spots Ju-yeon’s keyring in his bag. It cuts to Ju-yeon looking for it all over the hospital. Gun teases her before heading to his car. In the car park, he finds Tae-oh and Nurse Yeo thinking of ways to get Ju-yeon to fill in for her. To thank him, the nurse kisses him.

Gun drives off and is further upset when he spots Ju-yeon still looking for the keyring. He gets a similar keyring and pretends to have stolen it out of jealousy. He tries to give her his jacket as she is freezing but she refuses.

She then heads to the car park where Tae-oh and the nurse are making out and Gun tries to stop her. She is annoyed with him but he comments that he will be hurt if she gets hurt and he stops her from turning in the direction of Tae-oh’s car. And with that, we end the recap for Bad-Memory Eraser Episode 3.

The Episode Review

Bad-Memory Eraser Episode 3 solidifies the tone of the K-drama as we get a ton of comedy, an undertone of romance and a touch of mental health issues.

But if episode 1 has been any indication, the K-drama is not afraid to get heavy when needed to deal with sensitive issues which we are sure will arise once again when Gun learns the truth about everything. But we hope that is way later, at the end of the show. Let the poor guy be happy, the last 2 decades have not been kind to him.

As for the characters, Gun is a solid rom-com male lead, Shin is already about to give us second lead syndrome and the parents are annoying but we see glimpses of their humanity.

Unfortunately for Ju-yeon, while she is funny at times, she is still quite unlikeable. Sure, we get that she’s supposed to be the typical no-nonsense, blunt and sassy workaholic with a heart of gold. But if the writers are not careful, she will end up leaning more towards the annoyance than the loveable spectrum.