Gangnam B-Side – K-drama Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5

Episode 5 of Gangnam B-Side has Commissioner Moon wanting Joon-seo’s case to be given to Major Crimes. Dong-woo tells Ji-su to handle it as he frantically searches for Ye-seo. All he knows is that he needs to bring Jae-hee’s video.

We see that Ye-seo’s captor, Choi Su-in knows Jae-hee. Ye-seo doesn’t know about Jae-hee’s Jenny persona and claims she just wants to help her. Su-in doesn’t care and locks her in with the other escorts.

A flashback to 2 years ago shows Ye-seo in high school. Her bullies are tormenting her and Jae-hee comes to her rescue. However, she is annoyed that Ye-seo cannot even stand up against her bullies. Encouraged, Ye-seo asks her for help in becoming strong. It cuts to the rooftop incident.

The bullies beat up Ye-seo and she fights back. It is not enough but Jae-hee shows up and scares them away. The main bully suddenly runs at Ye-seo but falls off the roof and dies. Ye-seo feels guilty but Jae-hee claims that it was the bully’s fault.

At present, Dong-woo tracks Ye-seo’s phone and comes across some vans parked at a building. They belong to Hangil Cleaning Service – enlisted by Gangnam Trading Company to clean VIP events.

Gil-ho wakes up and he’s barely recovered from his injuries. He recalls Dong-woo telling him to run and that he will protect Jae-hee. It cuts to Dong-woo visiting Jae-hee who has woken up. He updates her that Jin-young is in rehab and Gil-ho is missing. She doesn’t want him to tell Ye-seo about the Colosseum so she doesn’t worry. Instead, he asks for the video to “protect” her. She deflects and asks for some food.

At the store, he finds it endearing as she picks random snacks and ramen. Ji-su calls, worried about Ye-seo and Jae-hee overhears. She tells Dong-woo to look after Ye-seo and disappears. While he looks for her, she gives herself to Su-in who sets Ye-seo free. Su-in beats up Jae-hee while K, the pimp who called Dong-woo goes through the mysterious video. He warns her never to go against Mr. Choi and puts her to work. 

As Su-in dresses up Jae-hee, we learn that they are friends and she didn’t hurt her truly. She is upset that Jae-hee is only worried about Ye-seo and tells her to run. However, Jae-hee is done running. 

Dong-woo is at his wits’ end when Jang-ho finds a livestream of Jenny’s comeback. Dong-woo recognises the building as the Hangil Cleaning Service and rushes to it. At the same time, Jung-kwon convinces Gil-ho to run away and let Jae-hee live a new life.

Gil-ho decides to leave after getting confirmation from Dong-woo that she is safe but, of course, the scared cop doesn’t pick up his phone. The final nail is a voice message from Su-in’s phone which has Gil-ho rushing to the Hangil building. The message is from Jae-hee who tells him that she is going to accompany Jung-hwa. 

Dong-woo arrives at the building first but only makes it to the security room where a CCTV camera shows Jae-hee’s room. K takes him by surprise and injects him with a drug. As he falls, Mr. Choi shows up and tells him that he traded Jae-hee for Ye-seo.

Back to the livestream, Jae-hee breaks a window and steps on the sill. She swears at Gangnam Trading and declares that she gets to pick her ending, not them. Su-in tears up as Jae-hee jumps. Gil-ho reaches too late and finds her dead body on top of a car. He spots K and Choi driving off and he tries to run after them but a car crashes into him.

Ye-seo too gets a voice message from Jae-hee. She claims that Ye-seo is the strong one and is the one who actually saved her life. A flashback shows Jae-hee about to jump off the school rooftop when she overhears the bullies and gets down to protect Jae-hee.

At the funeral, only the Kangs are present. Ye-seo claims Dong-woo killed her and Jae-hee and storms off. Gil-ho holds his own little tribute as he burns Jae-hee’s belongings which includes photos with Jung-hwa and Ye-seo. He then calls Su-in to threaten K that he is coming for him.

At the end of Episode 5, Prosecutor Min has been demoted. Mrs. Ryu secretly leaves her evidence from Joon-seo’s case and she learns that Choi Hak-ju is the CEO of Hae-il Tech. Using Joon-seo’s phone, she sets up a meeting. She threatens to expose him and Prosecutor Tak but he claims it is futile. However, Choi likes her and asks her to join his team.

The Episode Review

We know everyone’s shipping Ji Chang-wook and BIBI together but somehow they don’t have that same explosive chemistry from The Worst of Evil. Instead, it feels more like a brother-sister dynamic while there seems to be something romantic between Ye-seo and Jae-hee. 

However, Gangnam B-Side Episode 5 is a weak start to the second half of this K-drama. The motivations of the characters in this show are completely off. At times, they are simply missing as if the writers don’t care. 

This particularly goes for Prosecutor Min Seo-jin since episode 1 and Jae-hee in this particular episode. Min’s characterizations and motivations play a pivotal role in the story; at times she is the catalyst such as acting as a hindrance to Gil-ho’s fate. However, her reasoning is never explained. It has been 5 episodes, yet we have no idea what is going on with her. 

It seemed that the writers had figured that out with her teaming up with Dong-woo but once again all of that is forgotten. And even if she is teaming up with Tak or Choi as a red herring, at times she is cunning and others, she is naive so what is up with that? 

Similarly, Jae-hee’s death doesn’t make sense in the way it has been written in this episode. Had it happened at the end of the episode, we would have likely got a reason in the next episode. But since it happens in the middle of the episode, and the aftermath shows us her reason – it just doesn’t make sense! 

There is not enough build-up to her being suicidal with that half-a-second flashback. And her later actions don’t correlate with such serious thoughts. Sure, she wants to choose her ending, but what happened to making the bad guys pay?

Especially since the main conflict of the whole K-drama so far is her recording Choi’s men to make them pay. Why does she suddenly abandon that to pick her own ending as she puts it? We really are trying to like this show but it just doesn’t make sense in the slightest.