Brewing Love – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

Episode 2

Episode 2 of Brewing Love begins with Min-ju asking Yong-ju if she’s doing okay. He suddenly realises what he’s doing and steps back. He talks about it with Min-ho who comments that Min-ju usually ignores it when things like this happen.

Yong-ju goes home where her grandmother sees through her happy facade. Yong-ju assures her she’ll figure something out though. The next morning, the head of marketing drops by the Jisang office and offers Yong-ju a challenge. He says that if she joins the marketing team and convinces Min-ju to work with Jisang then the Busan branch will stay open. She agrees.

Soon, Yong-ju says her goodbyes and moves to Seoul with her grandmother. She goes to office and greets Beom Kang, who moved to Seoul with her. The marketing head tells them that Min-ju is refusing to talk to anyone from Jisang. Yong-ju says they’ll leave right away.

Back in Chungcheong, Min-ju wakes up to the village chief announcing a beer festival on a loudspeaker and asking for Min-ju to come and help plan it. Meanwhile, Ah-reum and her colleague talk about her ideas on marriage. She says her goal is to get married and she’s working to get a higher grade in the marriage mart.

At work, Chan-hwi tries to get Min-ju to speak casually with him but Min-ju draws a firm line between them. When Ah-reum arrives, Min-ju agrees to speak with them. He rejects their offer and even apologises when his hypersensitivity makes him realise he’s offended Ah-reum.

Elsewhere, Yong-ju and Beom arrive to meet with the village chief. He’s agreed to orchestrate a meeting between them and Min-ju in exchange for beer. When Min-ju arrives, he and Yong-ju are surprised to see each other again. She asks for five minutes of his time and once again, he reads her desperation.

She asks him to at least read the proposal but he says he can’t, her desperation is too much for him to handle. He tells her to visit the hospital for her injury (the one she got during the scuffle with the wholesaler) and then leaves her standing there, surprised.

He drives away and almost runs into a dog because he’s overwhelmed by her emotions. Yong-ju, who was driving behind him, asks if he’s okay. He says he is and claims that from this moment onwards, he’s blocking her (drawing a line in the air as he says so).

Min-ju returns home and goes upstairs to a meditation room set up with candles and music. He tries to separate Yong-ju’s emotions from his own. Yong-ju arrives to see that he’s locked himself inside. When the two ladies working for him spot smoke in his room and begin to panic, Yong-ju takes charge and uses a rope to rappel down to Min-ju’s window.

Min-ju is shocked but Yong-ju is relieved to see candles. She then tells Min-ju that she’s unblocking him and tells him they should work on a new beer instead, to make sure his original work isn’t tainted. He wants to argue but Chan-hwi stops him, saying she’s having a rough day.

Yong-ju and Beom then go to a supermarket where they meet Ah-reum and her colleague. Ah-reum says they should give up on Min-ju but Yong-ju doesn’t want to. Yong-ju then learns from the village chief that he is short-handed since the supermarket owner has gone abroad. Yong-ju offers to work there instead. The village chief is ecstatic but the next day informs her that she isn’t allowed in town anymore. Min-ju has told the chief and his employees to not let her in.

What follows is a video game-like portrayal of Yong-ju overcoming various hurdles. She wins the village chief over with boxes of supplements. She gets through the two ladies by saying she’s hungry and hasn’t eaten. She wins them over even more when she says her parents passed away when she was little and that she joined the Special Forces to earn money.

Min-ju then sees one of the ladies working in the field at a dangerous height and runs to warn her. He soon realised it’s not one of the ladies, but Yong-ju at the end of Brewing Love Episode 2.

The Episode Review

Brewing Love Episode 2 confirms that this is not a show to be taken very seriously. If that video-game-esque scene at the end was anything to go by, this series will have plenty of clowning around supported by funky graphics. This is a good thing considering Min-ju’s entire character revolves around being able to read, and feel, people’s emotions from the slightest offence to the most distressing desperation. The humour and fooling around counteract this intensity nicely.

We get more interaction between our lead couple in this episode and their differences are as stark as ever. It’s a nice touch to have Min-ju affected much more by Yong-ju as compared to other people, already marking out his connection to her. The tug of war between them seems to have just begun but so far, Yong-ju’s enthusiasm and Min-ju’s reclusiveness make for interesting players in the game.