Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

Episode 9

Episode 9 of Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born begins with Jeong-nyeon being rushed to the doctor. The audition results are announced and Yeong-seo and Joo-ran win the roles of the young leads. Ki-joo tells Yeong-seo to say a few words to the reporters but she’s already in shock and runs away instead.

Hye-rang goes home to find Ok-gyeong sitting in a bathtub, blood dripping from her hands. Ok-gyeong says when Jeong-nyeon started singing at the audition, she was exhilarated at the idea of someone doing better than her. But now…

Yeong-seo goes home and finds that her mother has invited a pansori master named Kim No-sik. Ki-joo and No-sik plan to create a new troupe called National Gukgeukdan with only the best performances. Yeong-seo shocks them both by saying she’s not performing in the joint play anymore.

Ki-joo storms after Yeong-seo and ends up revealing that she bribed the judges into giving Yeong-seo the role. Yeong-seo cries and claims that all she wanted was her mother’s love and pride, but she’s not going to live as Ki-joo’s daughter anymore. She is her own person.

Yeong-seo tells So-bok everything. So-bok assures Yeong-seo that she was unanimously chosen for her skills and tells her not to underestimate herself. So-bok later goes to pick Jeong-nyeon up from the hospital, where the doctor says she most likely won’t be able to sing pansori again. But Jeong-nyeon is determined to heal her voice.

Jeong-nyeon returns to Maeran where Cho-rok has brought steamed buns for her. Cho-rok mentions that Joo-ran cleaned her room as well. Yeong-seo leaves her practice with Joo-ran and bumps into Jeong-nyeon outside. Like the others, Jeong-nyeon also tells Yeong-seo that she earned the role she got.

The practice for the joint performance begins. Geum-ju, a student from a different troupe, disagrees with So-bok’s training. This leads to an argument between So-bok and the other troupe’s leader, who accuses Maeran of stealing all the spotlight.

When Joo-ran leaves practice, she comes face to face with Jeong-nyeon. But they don’t say much as Jeong-nyeon rushes off to another doctor. This doctor, like others she has visited, tells her she’s already lost her singing voice. When she says she’s willing to try anything, he suggests poppy flower extract — opium.

So-bok finds Jeong-nyeon sitting with a bowl of opium liquid and berates her for even thinking of it. So-bok suggests they see a doctor she knows, who has arrived from the US. But if he says there’s no hope, Jeong-nyeon must accept it. Jeong-nyeon goes to her room to find Joo-ran there. Joo-ran says she felt sorry but Jeong-nyeon says it’s not her fault and tells her to stop cleaning her room.

Jeong-nyeon and So-bok visit the doctor who once again tells Jeong-nyeon she has to give up pansori. Her vocal cords are too damaged from overuse. Jeong-nyeon is distraught. She returns to Maeran and listens to her mother’s recording, trying to sing along and failing. So-bok finds her in a desperate state.

In the morning, Yeong-seo wakes up to find Jeong-nyeon’s side of the room empty. She’s left a note for the director, saying she’s going home. So-bok puts on a strong front but she’s clearly upset by how things turned out.

Jeong-nyeon goes home and gets a comforting hug from her sister Jung-ja. After some time, Jeong-nyeon asks her mother how long it took for her to be okay with losing her voice. Yong-rye describes her struggles and tells Jeong-nyeon to focus on the future, not the past. 

At Maeran, Cho-rok tells So-bok what Hye-rang did to Jeong-nyeon. So-bok tells Hye-rang to leave the troupe after the joint performance. She throws a fit and then storms out, saying that Ok-gyeong will leave the troupe too.

Meanwhile, Jeong-nyeon is back at the fish market when the gangsters turn up again and trash all their things. On the way back home, Jeong-nyeon hears a vendor singing pansori and the memory of it troubles her later on. 

Back in Seoul, a newspaper reports that Ok-gyeong hangs around an opium den. Investors threaten to withdraw their funds in the joint performance and So-bok tells the other troupe leader that Maeran will take responsibility for any losses. Joo-ran then gets a visit from her mother who says they have received a marriage offer for her. The man has agreed to take care of Joo-ran’s weak sister’s hospital fees for good and so, she wants Joo-ran to quit gukgeuk and get married.

Ok-gyeong gives a press conference saying she doesn’t use opium and challenges the article’s witness to confront her directly. She then goes back to Maeran, where Yeong-seo is practising. Ok-gyeong praises Yeong-seo as her successor. At the end of Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born Episode 9, Ok-gyeong asks her if she would be willing to leave Maeran with her, leaving Yeong-seo shocked.

The Episode Review

Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born Episode 9 is a fairly tragic episode that leans into the grief and loss Jeong-nyeon faces when she loses her voice. Kim Tae-ri does a fabulous job of portraying Jeong-nyeon’s desperation and sorrow.

However, the story seems to drag because of it. The thing is, as heartrending as Kim Tae-ri’s performance is, you never quite believe that Jeong-nyeon’s lost her voice. With 3 more episodes left, the stakes never feel that high and you end up just waiting out this tragic phase. And waiting things out is never a fun way to watch a TV show.

Meanwhile, Yeong-seo’s arc of finding value in her own talents is compelling. Hye-rang and Ok-gyeong get more intriguing storylines as well. Will this be the final push that leads her to leave Maeran? Will Hye-rang quietly leave or will she cause more trouble? Here’s hoping Jeong-nyeon returns stronger than ever in the coming episodes.