Mr. Plankton – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

Episode 8

Episode 8 of Mr. Plankton begins with a flashback right after Hae-jo and Jae-mi broke up. Hae-jo tells Bong-suk that people leave others because they don’t care about them anymore, not out of love.

The scene cuts to the present, with Jae-mi biting Hae-jo’s nose. The entire scene is pure chaos. When everybody finally calms down, Hae-jo leaves Jae-mi alone on the street again, telling her to go back to where she came from. She’s heartbroken, and Hae-jo returns and weeps with Bong-suk by his side, confessing that he abandoned Jae-mi again.

This time, he admits that people can let go of others not out of boredom or disinterest but out of love too. In a flashback, we see Heung quietly sitting and hiding as Jae-mi left his house, letting her go out of his love for her.

It suddenly begins pouring, and after 30 minutes of drama, Hae-jo goes looking for Jae-mi and finds her at the errand house. She’d waited for him to find her, just like she did when they first broke up. Hae-jo finally caves in and kisses her. The couple finally reconciles as Jae-mi reveals that she’d found their couple rings that Hae-jo had kept inside his fish tank.

In another flashback, we learn that Jae-mi did not know her real birthday, so she celebrated her birthday on a random day every month. This is when Hae-jo gifted her the couple rings, promising to find out her real birthday.

All this happens in the backdrop of Heung being a complete mess after Jae-mi leaves him. Meanwhile, Gi-ho sets Hae-jo up with his half-sister, who turns out to be the girl who’d put in a request to find her brother. Hae-jo learns that her parents are getting a divorce, and her father isn’t very interested in her. But she still loves him for giving her life. She leaves Hae-jo with the idea that being alive is fun.

Later, Gi-ho tracks Hae-jo’s third biological father candidate, and it turns out to be a company owner. As Hae-jo goes back home, he forgets the apartment password and waits for Bong-suk and Jae-mi to return, who are on a mission to get Bong-suk’s money back from an employee who’d stolen from her. A little while later, Hae-jo collapses in front of Jae-mi and Bong-suk while Heung runs away from home.

The Episode Review

This episode clearly had a lot of character development for Hae-jo. Much of the series is focused on Hae-jo’s character, his growth as a person, and his journey of self-exploration and self-discovery. But at the same time, the spotlight is shared by several characters as well. Jae-mi’s character gains depth through dark comedy, as seen with her celebrating her birthday every month and completely failing at cooking herself a birthday meal.

On the other hand, Heung, who has always been an obedient son, fulfilling his duties and listening to his mother, has now finally broken apart. Not only does he make major mistakes while writing prayers, but he also performs the most rebellious act since his birth—running away from home. Up until Jae-mi had been with him, he’d always attributed the changes in his personality to her, crediting her with transforming him from a whispering dog into a tiger. But this time, he takes the plunge all by himself.

Clearly, Mr. Plankton is anything but a wild goose chase, and this episode is a turning point in the lives of all its characters.