Crash Landing on You – Episode 5 Recap and Review

The Long Train Ride

The latest episode of Crash Landing On You brings us more revelations and twists, giving us extra depth into several of its storylines while Se-Ri and Jeong-Hyeok grow closer together. However, both Seung-Jung and Seo-Dan will certainly prove to be yet another obstacle for the couple to overcome as we see that nothing really works in their favour.

We begin the episode with Captain Ri finding Se-Ri with a candle while Seo-Dan finds her fiance’s house empty. After dropping her off, Seung-Jun seems to recognise Se-Ri while driving home. Se-Ri however, tells Jeong-Hyeok how flustered he made her with the candle. This prompts him to tell her not to get any ideas as he’s already engaged. While they talk, they wind up face to face with Seo-Dan who has been waiting by the house. Shocked to see her, he asks how long she’s been back and they agree to have dinner with each other’s parents. As Seo-Dan notices Se-Ri, Jeong-Hyeok explains that she’s his colleague working with him on a mission.

Soon after, Jeong-Hyeok drops Seo-Dan home but her uncle appears out of the house and asks him to come up and meet Seo’s mum. Unable to refuse, Jeong follows him to the house, where the mother is waiting dressed up and with dinner ready.

Meanwhile, Seung-Jung thinks about his encounter and wonders if it was really Se-Ri, as we see a flashback of them going on a date. At the same time, the women of the village knock on Se-Ri’s door as they have seen what’s just happened. Feeling sorry for her, they invite themselves in and bring beer and snacks. Around drinks, they discuss Jeong-Hyeok but Se-Ri quickly defends him, saying his engagement has been arranged by their parents and compares herself and Jeong to Romeo and Juliet. This impresses Young-Ae, who vows to help her by putting in some good words about the Captain to her husband.

After leaving Seo-Dan, Jeong-Hyeok heads to his father’s house to ask him for a favour before returning home to an angry Se-Ri. He explains that he’s going to make her a member of the national track team who take part in International competitions. That way she’ll be able to fly to Europe. Unfortunately Man-Bok is listening to the whole conversation and relays it to Cho who also mentions Captain Ri’s brother’s watch and wonders where it is.

During the morning assembly, Jeong-Hyeok notices that the four soldiers are missing, which prompts him to rush over, where he finds them being interrogated by Cho. He confronts him before Cho receives a call from the Colonel who’s furious as he has just found out the accident, and himself, are still being investigated.

After returning from the market, Se-Ri helps Man-Bok’s son who’s being bullied before we cut to South Korea where Mr Hong and Su-Chan have found someone who has picked up Se-Ri’s transmission when she used the walkie talkie. Hye-Ji tries to rally her mother in law to her side while we see Se-Hyeong in China, trying to find Seung-Jung by torturing a man for his whereabouts.

During dinner, Se-Ri thanks the soldiers for what they’ve done and ends up doing the heart sign with her fingers to each of them, which seems to make Jeong-Hyeon jealous. During the night, Man Bok remembers how Chung-Ryeol helped him when soldiers were beating him up. He then silently cries himself to sleep, feeling guilty about his death.

On their way to the capital, the train is stopped due to technical issues, where the announcer claims that it will take at least 10 hours before the train departs again. After being hounded by multiple merchants, night falls and they head outside as everyone builds fires to keep warm. After eating some food they bought from the merchants, they talk about the difficulties they had to face and Se-Ri tells him to look at the future. When she falls asleep, Jeong gently puts her head on his shoulder in a really touching moment.

The next day the train finally arrives in Pyongyang with Seung also on board. As he reaches his hotel, one of the porters calls someone and tells them he’s not sure Seung can be trusted. Having heard everything, Seung Jung points a gun at the porter and takes his phone from him. He then hears Se-Hyeong on the other end of the phone who tells him that once he finds him and gets his money back, he’ll kill him. Suddenly Seung-Jeung sees Se-Ri and asks Se-Hyeong how his sister is. After replying that she’s dead, Seung-Jeung hangs up the phone and comes face to face with Se-Ri. This prompts him to take her away in the lift, shortly followed by Jeong-Hyeok who’s shocked to see them together.

In the epilogue, we see a montage of Se-Ri breaking up with her boyfriends, with one telling her that he hopes she’ll one day be in a position where she’s the one doing the waiting around. We then cut back to the present where Se-Ri is drinking and waiting for Jeong-Hyeok to arrive.

Crash Landing On You has certainly been a surprise this year, offering up a highly enjoyable and fun thrill ride. The evolution of Se-Ri’s character has been one of the more interesting plot points too, as we witness how she adapts to life in North Korea. She’s bound to go back to the South a changed woman and when the time comes, it will probably be quite emotional when she has to say goodbye to everyone.

Poor Man-Bok has trouble sleeping at night with his guilt over the death of Captain Ri’s brother while Cho continues to manipulate the people around him. However, Jeong-Hyeok is a strong character and determined to get to the bottom of what’s been happening. Seung-Jung recognizing Se-Ri definitely throws another spanner in the works for our main character, and his relationship with Seo-Dan is also bound to create some sparks. While it’s still quite early, I’m excited to see how the show will wrap things up for the couple and whether the drama will nail its ending like our top rated Korean drama of 2019, Hotel Del Luna.

Crash Landing On You is available to watch on Netflix. Feel free to click here and sign up now to check this show out!