Bitch X Rich – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

Episode 9

Episode 9 of Bitch X Rich starts with a flashback from a year ago where Oh Si-eun’s name has been removed from the Diamond Club because her family has gone bankrupt. Since she’s no longer a part of the six richest students at Cheongdam, the other students mock her. Si-eun gets enraged and tries to attack one of the students. However, Je-na steps in and slaps Si-eun.

Je-na tells Si-eun that she no longer wants anything to do with her and asks the latter to remain at a distance. However, just then the students start talking about Professor Ha having an affair with one of the rich businessmen. Si-eun claims that it won’t be long before Je-na also is tossed into the group of nobodies, considering the rumour of her father’s affair.

Present-day Si-eun pretends to be afraid of Je-na as the two cross paths. Je-na asks why Si-eun is chumming up to Hye-in and asks what she was up to with the charity case student. She threatens to expose Si-eun but the latter states that Je-na has no proof that she’s the reason Je-na’s brother committed suicide.

Je-na is alarmed at her audacity and states that she has already confessed to doing so. Si-eun tells Je-na that it won’t be long before she also crumbles because her father’s mistress is pregnant with a child. In the meantime, Do-eon watches Je-na from a distance and is sure that she was the one behind Have-in’s accident.

He recalls how nonchalant Je-na had been about what happened with Hae-in and his father’s advice when Hee-seo asked him to be wary of the people he befriends. A frustrated Hye-in is in the art room when Si-eun shows up. Si-eun owns up to threatening Hye-in and claims that since Hye-in had not seen the face of the girl that had pushed Hae-in off the roof, she needed to blame Je-na for the incident.

Si-eun gives Hye-in 7 days to blame Je-na for the accident and threatens to release her spy cam video on a public forum. Si-eun claims that Duk-min often had a camera running in the Diamond Club room and adds that he filmed many hooking up and changing there. She adds that she had purchased the video from Duk-min and would leak it online if Hye-in didn’t blame Je-na.

That day, Do-eon goes to the Diamond Club room and finds Woo-jin, Yul-hee and Je-na there. Je-na and Do-eon are still not on talking terms and he tells the trio that he was bringing Hye-in as his plus one to their party. Je-na is pissed off and does not know what Do-eon sees in low-class people like Hae-in and Hye-in.

A flashback shows Hae-in talking to Je-na on the rooftop before her accident. Hae-in had figured out that Professor Ha was pregnant with Mr Baek’s child and claims to have seen her father’s chauffeur drop her off late at night. The flashback cuts off before Hae-in can tell Je-na what she wants from her.

Back in the present day, Je-na goes to see her mother in the hospital. Je-na’s mother recalls their fond memories together but on her way out, Je-na overhears her chauffeur talking to someone about how the shareholders will soon be reconsidering Je-na’s mother’s shares because Mr Baek was soon going to have a son.

On her way back home, Je-na sees Hye-in crying on the street. She does a half-assed job of cheering Hye-in up and tells her that crying did not suit her. Je-na claims that Hye-in was well suited grabbing people by their hair and leaving scratches on their faces. Hye-in ignores Si-eun’s calls and tells Do-eon that she was ready to help him out. The next day, Do-eon and Hye-in show up at the Diamond Club room and kick Woo-jin out.

They start looking for Duk-min’s stash of molka (spy cam) videos he had taken from the room. She takes the pen drive that had Kim Hae-in’s name on it. At the same time, So-mang has beaten up Duk-min and forces him to delete all the videos from his cloud drive. So-mang tells Duk-min that if he were to leak any video online, he would make sure to leak Duk-min’s video as well. Hye-in and Do-eon leave the room with a box full of flash drives.

Meanwhile, Professor Ha pays Mr Baek a visit and is shocked to see Je-na there. Je-na addresses Professor Ha as “Mom”. Professor Ha panics and tries to justify herself to Mr Baek. Je-na leaves the two “love birds” to go on a dinner date. Professor Ha follows Je-na outside the office and wonders what she was up to with her “good daughter” act all of a sudden.

Je-na claims that she was done waiting for someone else to inherit her mother’s wealth and claims that she would step in to stop Professor Ha’s son from becoming the Hanmyeong heir in her stead. The episode ends with Hye-in looking at the video from Hae-in’s pen drive and is shocked to see that Hae-in is hooking up with Woo-jin as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

I find it funny that the only trouble Hye-in has been in at the school is landing another 7-day warning. The bullies at Cheongdam are all talk and no bite from the looks of it because they aren’t doing any real harm to Hye-in. This drama actually just shows a bunch of ditzy high schoolers while the true nature of bullying in South Korea is far from what we are seeing in this drama.

The end of this episode features a proper plot twist and I think it is clear that Yul-hee was the one who pushed Hae-in off the roof because she found out that Woo-jin had been cheating on her. That adds to the detail that Hae-in had caught Yul-hee’s necklace while falling off. Moreover, the fact that Je-na said Yul-hee was too naive to understand Woo-jin’s true motives proves that she is also just as clueless as Hye-in is.

Je-na seems like a complicated character but I don’t think she had the motivation to go through the burden of trying to kill someone for her friend. Of all the things on the show, So-mang is the most out of place. I don’t understand his purpose here other than comic relief, which is sad and a bit disappointing. I hope he shows some character growth in the finale!