Maestra: Strings of Truth – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

The Trip

Episode 9 of Maestra: Strings of Truth begins with the concert and Se-eum fainting. Detective Chu secretly tests Se-eum’s DNA against the blood on Bong-ju’s knife. At the hospital, Ru-na asks Mr. Cha to go home so she can look after Se-eum. Phil frantically asks the nurse about Se-eum but on learning that she simply has anaemia, leaves without seeing her.

At Hanphil, while everyone is worried, A-jin says Se-eum possibly has Remington’s and that she may leave soon. Se-eum wakes up and recalls her mother not being able to control her hands. Ru-na keeps trying to nurse her but Se-eum politely refuses. Jeong-jae takes her home and Ru-na looks annoyed.

At KVN, Yu-ra wants to change the documentary’s focus to Remington’s but Hangil refuses. However, he realises that she is right and the exclusive divorce news might not be enough anymore. Elsewhere, Detective Chu visits Phil who willingly reveals that Se-eum was drunk that night and rushing somewhere. Meanwhile, Se-eum gives her resignation to Sang-do and disappears. 

Everyone is shocked (except A-jin, of course) and Ru-na rants to Tae-ho. They also search for her including Phil. However, Mr. Cha stops Phil and tells him he is not family anymore. Jeong-jae calls the police chief and finds her. She is near a lake, thinking of her first suicide attempt. He hugs her and she looks sad. He stays the night but she is distant. The next morning, he does things to cheer her up and she lets him but she is morose the whole time. 

Meanwhile, the forensic report returns but the blood is not of Se-eum’s. It cuts to A-jin shopping. Next, it shows Ru-na drinking. A flashback shows her crying after her mother abandons her. Tae-ho joins her. She is upset Se-eum threw away everything without a word and that she is always left behind. He comforts her and she holds his hand.

In the hotel room. Jeong-jae finds several drafts of suicide notes and is upset. He tries to rile Se-eum up or get a reaction out of her but she has given up. She wants to live but she has no choice, she can’t end up like her mother. They start crying and hug.  

Ru-na wakes up in Tae-ho’s bed. Turns out, she had eavesdropped on him telling Jeong-jae about the documentary. She goes through his phone and is shocked. She heads home where her sister is all cheerful but the brother-in-law is in a rush to leave on seeing her. She simply smirks.

Jeong-jae takes Se-eum back to Seoul and offers to help her with whatever she wants. At Hanphil, the chairs think of ways to persuade her to stay while A-jin relaxes in Se-eum’s office.

It is the first divorce hearing and Se-eum says she is ready to meet all of Phil’s conditions. However, he tries to drag it out and she tells him never to meet her again. Tae-ho asks Jeong-jae who looks relaxed and he suspects his uncle will be leaving with Se-eum. He tells Ru-na who is furious.

Meanwhile, Hye-jeong tries to cheer Se-eum up and points out that her being sick doesn’t mean Remington’s, it could actually only be anaemia. Se-eum simply apologises and says she needs to leave. She goes to her room to be met with Ru-na who begs her to stay. At that moment, her father also shows up. He got a call from the hospital that she had been poisoned.

Ru-na thinks she knows what happened – she has screenshots from Tae-ho to Jeong-jae about leaving food and coffee for Se-eum. At the end of Maestra: Strings of Truth Episode 9, Se-eum confronts Jeongjae about the poisoning but he looks confused.

The Episode Review

The suspense and buildup of Ru-na’s character is palpable. For someone to sleep with someone just to snoop through their phone, it would be too disappointing to chalk it all off to ‘oh, she just cares for Se-eum’. There also seems to be something between Ru-na and her brother-in-law. It all feels suspicious and super intriguing. Just hope the writers don’t let us down at the last minute. 

We also haven’t been giving A-jin much credit. It seems too suspicious that after the DNA reveal it would cut to her. Maestra: Strings of Truth Episode 9 also shows her enjoying Se-eum’s absence right before the poisoning reveal. It would be way too simple if it ended up being Jeong-jae especially since he looks confused when Se-eum confronts him. There has to be some root cause, someone behind everything who started it all such as the tampering of the brakes.