Good Casting – K-Drama Episode 15 Recap and Review

Another Botched Operation

The penultimate episode to Good Casting is here! It’s been quite the wild ride over the weeks and what began as a quirky espionage comedy has since grown into something far more melodramatic and serious. While it won’t be for everyone, Good Casting has been enjoyable enough but it also feels like a bit of a missed opportunity given how much potential this had to expand on its comedy.

Episode 15 of Good Casting begins with Mr Ok (Michael) told to leave Korea in 3 days. Laughing coldly, he looks at a picture of Chan-Mi and realizes they’ve met before. At the same time, Chan-Mi realizes who Michael is and rings Bong, who works to get a search warrant for Ok’s research lab and for Il-Kwang in general. While they do, the group listen to the audio from Seo’s final moments and realize he’s left one last message for them all – “Hong Kong”. That Hong Kong, as it turns out, relates to a withering plant in Seo’s office.

As they scramble to search the plant pot, the trio find the cell phone Michael had 3 years ago. Within that phone are audio recordings of Director Myeong and Michael discussing their plans. When Mi-Soon plays that recording to Myeong, he’s clearly rattled leading her to realize they definitely have something on him.

Mi-Soon rings “My Darn Husband” but when he doesn’t answer, she heads down to the bar to find him. Find him she does – he’s passed out in a bar with multiple bottles of alcohol lying around him and a bill for 3700 dollars. Realizing they’re conning her husband, she manages to change that to 370 and agrees to pay it across 5 months.

With Il-Kwang’s stock price plummeting, Yoon refuses to budge on his stance, especially given it may mean Chan-Mi would get hurt. This falls right into the hands of the Board of Directors though, who decide to lay all the blame on Yoon  and see him go down for the stock price drop.

Yoon is dropped as CEO and in his place, Hwa-San takes over. Yoon heads straight for the NIS headquarters and speaks to Director Myeong, where he realizes that he’s the reason his Father is dead.

Meanwhile, Ye-Eun heads over to Woo-Won’s house where he has candles, a piano and love hearts strewn around. After playing the piano for her, he awaits her confession of love but, of course, this isn’t going to happen. She rejects him again and runs when he raises his voice, believing she’s made the right choice. Only, Woo-Won follows her out and apologises, begging her to stay and admitting that he’s fallen for her. As he kisses her, he realizes she does care for him but she runs away before anything further can happen.

Mi-Soon’s husband believes his wife is having an affair, hence the drinking and depression, while Chan-Mi visits Yoon at his office and they discuss their shared past. As they keep talking, she agrees to wait for him after he voluntarily visits the prosecution service to give his side of events.

While Yoon heads in and is berated by the prosecution, Woo-Seok learns that White Collar have interest in the NAND flash drive. With Ok due to meet Wang Kai in the near future, the NIS team work together to try and bring them down once and for all. Inside Yoon’s meeting. he tries to convince the prosecutor to look into something far more scandalous, but whether he’ll take the bait or not remains to be seen.

At Jeju Island the NIS operation begins, with all three leading ladies donning disguises. Mi-Soon distracts Wang Kai while Dong and Chan-Mi work together to find the laptop and transfer the files across before leaving. Only, unbeknownst to them outside the apartment is a drone recording what’s happening inside. Downstairs, Ye-Eun and Mi-Soon’s cover is blown while Chan-Mi finishes transferring the file but the hotel door swings open just as she’s about to leave, ending things on a big cliffhanger.

During the epilogue, Woo-Seok goes clothes shopping with Yoon.

After 15 episodes, the NIS ladies are still just as incompetent as they were at the beginning of the show which is a real shame. Seeing Chan-Mi fail to spot the drone outside and once again get caught red-handed does little to further her character while Ye-Eun’s performance both in and outside work leaves a lot to be desired. I really hope she doesn’t end up with Woo-Won as his bratty attitude only works against Ye-Eun rather than enhance her personality.

It doesn’t help that she’s always been the weak-link during this NIS operation and it feels like a missed opportunity that the writers didn’t give her an arc that sees her become the strongest and most competent agent.

Alongside this though, I’ve mentioned the changing tone a lot and it’s something that’s a constant issue with this show as it jumps between comedy and drama. The epilogues don’t work that well either but the main story is enjoyable enough to see this one through to its conclusion. Will everyone make it out unscathed by the end? We’ll have to wait and see!