Not Others – K-drama Episode 11 Recap & Review

Sweet Family

Episode 11 of Not Others starts with a flashback from when Jin-hee was young and was forced to take a family photo with Eun-mi. Jin-hee told her mother that she wanted to have a small family instead of a huge one because it’s hassle-free.

Present-day, Mi-jung shows up at the hospital to console Jin-hee who is crying about her mother being in the hospital. Jin-hong waits outside as well while Jin-soo shows up to console Jin-hee as Jae-won watches them from the sidelines. Eun-mi eventually wakes up after the surgery and everyone from the hospital shows up to wish her a speedy recovery.

Jin-hong moves into the empty apartment a floor below Jin-hee and Eun-mi’s apartment while Young-min and Young-kyo are awarded for catching the criminal in the stalking case. Both Jin-hong and Jin-hee are careful around Eun-mi and the trio ends up living well as a sweet happy family.

Jin-hee grows suspicious when an old man shows up at the police station and starts observing her work. The man asks Jin-hee how she was chief at the station when she looked so young but Jin-hee tells him she was 29 years old. The man thanks the officers for the cup of water and leaves while Jae-won calls Jin-hee to the side to discuss a case.

Both Jin-hee and Jae-won are called in at the headquarters. At the headquarters, the section chief tells Jae-won that Jin-hee will be called back in after the end of her suspension and asks him to watch out for her till then. The section chief then yells Jin-hee down in private for letting Young-min and Young-kyo take credit for the case when she easily could have gotten her suspension revoked by declaring that she had caught the killer.

The chief tells her that she is going to be called back in soon and asks her to be ready. Jin-hee argues that Jae-won deserved to be called back just as much as her because he worked hard on the case as well. Jin-hee complains that Namchon police station was already short-staffed and adds that Jae-won was often sent to a different division.

The chief asks Jin-hee to stay away from Jae-won and mind her own business. Meanwhile, Eun-mi is back at work and makes plans to go out drinking with her colleagues. She swears that she is okay and is allowed to drink alcohol now. Dr Park asks Eun-mi about Jin-hong joining the new hospital as a tenured worker and makes a sarcastic comment about the two running their schedules by each other because they were that kind of a couple.

After her patrol run, Jin-hee greets the chiefs who used to work at Namchon before Jin-hee and Jae-won. The men were at the station to congratulate Young-min and Young-kyo on their promotion. Jin-hee is curt towards the two men and recalls her conversation with Tae-kyung.

Tae-kyung had told Jin-hee that the two chief officers were Jae-won’s junior teammates who had taken a huge bribe. She also tells Jin-hee that the men continued to lie to Jae-won and he trusted them instead and ended up getting blamed for not keeping his teammates in check.

At the station, Jin-hee runs into Jae-won but does not tell him anything about the chiefs. At the same time, the senior patients at Dr Park’s clinic, Gang-sook and Eun-shim tell Eun-mi that they wanted her to ask Jin-hee to help their friend Ae-ja with a case.

Eun-mi asks Jin-hee to hear the woman out but Jin-hee refuses to help, stating a lawyer would be able to better help the old woman. Jin-hee and Eun-mi discuss Jin-hong’s new job and suddenly realise that Eun-mi only has one day left in her alcohol ban since the surgery.

The mother-daughter duo starts making plans to drink and celebrate the following day. However, things get serious when Jin-hong’s parents show up outside the apartment complex. Jin-hong’s father is the man who had shown up at the police station to observe Jin-hee. Jin-hong takes his parents home and they agree to accept Jin-hee and Eun-mi.

They ask Jin-hong to bring the two to their family home to put an end to their fight but Jin-hong seems uneasy. Meanwhile, Jin-hee and Eun-mi are out drinking and having all the junk food they can have. Jin-hee starts to tell her mother about Jin-hong’s father showing up at the station but Eun-mi shares a past memory from when Jin-hong’s mother had come to warn her before his family had moved away 30 years ago.

Eun-mi is mad at Ji-eun for telling her parents about Jin-hee while the daughter reveals that her aunt had given her 2 million won as allowance money. Jin-hee tells her mother she would return it and the two go back home after having some more drinks.

They find Jin-hong waiting outside for them and Jin-hee leaves her mother with her boyfriend. Jin-hong tells Eun-mi about his parents’ request to meet up for dinner at their house. He also tells her that his father had visited Jin-hee at the station to observe her.

Eun-mi is furious about the fact that the man has already met Jin-hee without her permission and asks to meet Jin-hong’s mother alone at a public place instead of their house. She claims that she wanted to meet Jin-hong’s mother by herself first. Meanwhile, Jin-hee goes to see Jae-won and notices that he is being singled out by his new team at the new station. Jae-won spots her hiding and calls her to check on her.

Jin-hee lies about being at home but Jae-won makes an excuse stating he was busy. That night, Jin-hee is alone at home when Ji-eun shows up to see her. Ji-eun talks about her parents being happy to see her and how she had grown up so well. The woman asks Jin-hee to convince her mother to get married to Jin-hong.

Meanwhile, Jae-won gets lonely at work and starts missing Jin-hee. At the same time, Eun-mi gets dressed in all black to meet Jin-hong’s mother where the old woman asks Eun-mi to marry her son. The woman claims that she wants to accept them both and asks Eun-mi to meet her list of conditions, including changing Jin-hee’s last name.

Eun-mi refuses to the requests and claims that the woman only wants to accept her and her daughter now that Jin-hong is old and lonely with no one else to marry. She yells at the woman and tells her that she sacrificed her life to raise Jin-hee and would not let the Park family have their way with her.

She accuses the woman of slapping her when she was 18 and in love with Jin-hong. Meanwhile, Jin-hee meets Jin-hong’s dad and agrees to do a DNA test as per his request. Dr Park meets Mi-jung at the clinic and tells her that her joint help is improving thanks to the medicine.

He then asks why he was given special treatment at her restaurant earlier that week. Mi-jung is weirded out by the implication and complains to Eun-mi how she did so only because he was a regular customer. Eun-mi wonders if Mi-jung has feelings for Dr Park but she rubbishes the comment.

The two friends discuss Eun-mi’s meeting with Jin-hee’s mother. Eun-mi claims that she wanted Jin-hee to have a big family with adoring grandparents but wonders if the Park family are the right people to do so. Jin-hong takes Jin-hee and Eun-mi on a family meal with his parents and Ji-eun.

The dinner is awkward, with Jin-hong’s father asking her to go back to school and study hard to become a doctor or a college professor instead. Jin-hong interjects and asks his father to respect Jin-hee’s career but his mother insists that Jin-hee should think it over because they could sponsor her education.

The dinner party breaks into a fight when Jin-hong’s parents start making comments about how Eun-mi raised Jin-hee to be a police officer instead of giving her a better career. Eun-mi asks Jin-hee to leave the table but the old man believes Eun-mi is disrespecting the elders in the room.

Eun-mi argues with the man and his wife, eventually leaving with Jin-hee. Ji-eun also scolds her parents for being too rigid with their mentality. Jin-hong tells his parents that he is sorry for their behaviour with Eun-mi and her daughter, deciding that he’ll go back to staying away from them.

He cuts ties with the pair and asks them never to see him, Eun-mi or Jin-hee again. Ji-eun also joins her brother and asks the parents to stay out of touch with them for a while. On the car ride back, Ji-eun mentions that her father had asked Jin-hee to go through with a DNA test, which further pisses Eun-mi off.

Once back home, Eun-mi scolds Jin-hee for lying to her. The mother-daughter duo have an argument and Eun-mi admits that she was hurt by Jin-hee’s actions. Jin-hee tells her mother that she is extremely sensitive and asks her to reason with Jin-hong’s parents.

The argument leads to Eun-mi kicking Jin-hee out of the house for the night. Jin-hee meets Jae-won after, and the two have drinks for a while where Jin-hee shares details of her argument with her mother. He tries to reason with Jin-hee and asks her to give her mum some time to get back to normal since the accident.

Jae-won drops Jin-hee back home after, but Jin-hee sneaks back inside after her mother has gone to bed. The next morning, Eun-mi punishes Jin-hee by hiding her underpants yet again. While looking for them, Jin-hee ends up finding the first-ever family photo she took with her mother.

Jin-hee shows up at the police station to help the elderly woman – Ae-ja. However, she goes out for drinks that night and starts thinking about Jae-won. She shows up at Jae-won’s house and asks him if he has feelings for her. Jae-won states that he does, and Jin-hee kisses him.

The episode ends with an epilogue of Eun-mi finding the family portrait of her with Jin-hee at the house. Eun-mi decides to take a photo with Mi-jung and her mother because Jin-hee had requested that when she was younger.

The Episode Review

This episode presented the reality of families and the culture of seniority in South Korea. With Eun-mi present in the same room, Jin-hee was supposed to seek permission from the other elders in the room – Jin-hong’s father and mother. The parents were the most obnoxious part of the entire episode though and I think Jin-hong handled them quite well.

I wonder what Jin-hee’s life would have turned out to be had Eun-mi called Jin-hong in the past when she just gave birth to Jin-hee. Knowing the kind of partner Jin-hong is to Eun-mi now, Jin-hee really could have experienced a normal family. However, she did turn out to be a good human being and it looks like Eun-mi did a really great job raising her daughter all by herself.