Race – K-drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Grass Ain’t Greener on the other side

Race episode 3 begins with Dong-Hoon offering Yoon-Jo a job at Earth Comms. Just then, Seyong’s PR department calls Yoon-Jo to inform her she has been selected to work at As Seyong as part of the non-discriminatory employment program. Yoon-Jo is excited and tells Dong-Hoon the news. Dong-Hoon decides not to bring up the job offer and leaves Yoon-Jo to celebrate her new job opportunity.

Yoon-Jo goes to Eun’s bar to celebrate with Eun and Jae-Min. But, Yoon-Jo starts becoming sad because she’ll be leaving her current boss, Hee-Young. Jae-Min, who’s on the phone with Yoon-Jo is having none of that. As Eun and Yoon-Jo are talking, she mentions that Jae-Min is cute. It turns out, Yoon-Jo and Jae-Min were dating. And even though they broke up, Yoon-Jo still has feelings for Jae-Min, and Jae-Min may also still have feelings for her.

The next day, Yoon-Jo tries to find a way to inform Hee-Young that she has gotten a job at Seyong, but she doesn’t dare to do so. She is also in a dilemma on whether or not she should confirm her acceptance for the position at Seyong. Finally, she masters the courage and tells Hee-Young about the job she’s gotten at Seyong. As expected, Hee-Young is upset but tries her best not to show it.

Hee-Young goes out to drink and invites Dong-Hoon, who comes to cheer her up. Dong-Hoon then asks Hee-Young if she could close down PR JOA and come to work at Earth Comms again. Dong-Hoon tells Hee-Young that she could return to Earth Comms as Co-CEO and Earth Comms could take over PR JOA’s current projects. Meanwhile, Yoon-Jo goes to Eun’s bar to celebrate with Eun and Jae-Min.

The next day, Jae-Min, Sun-Tae, Byung-Man, and other PR department team leaders meet to discuss how they’ll release the statement about Seyong’s non-discriminatory employment program. In the last episode, Ji-Hyeon ordered that the press release about Seyong’s non-discriminatory employment program not reach Daeguk Daily because of Jaerak-Ma’s article. Meanwhile, Yoon-Jo and two other new employees are in an orientation meeting.

After the PR team leaders meeting, PR Team 3’s leader, Ji Eun-Jeong, and PR Team 2’s leader, Sun-Tae, begin arguing about Yoon-Jo being placed in Team 1. Eun-Jeong doesn’t want Yoon-Jo on her team because she’s a newbie and doesn’t believe in her experience. She also mentions that Sun-Tae insisted that Yoon-Jo be hired, which Jae-Min (who was eavesdropping on the conversation) finds strange.

Yoon-Jo and the other two new employees are given a tour of Seyong headquarters. Finally, Yoon-Jo is introduced to Eun-Jeong, her immediate boss and team leader. Eun-Jeong then asks Heo Hyuk, the graphic designer, to work with Yoon-Jo. There’s one more employee Seyong hired before the non-discriminatory employment program. And that’s none other than Ji-Hyo! Well, Sil-Yang was right about her quitting because she had another job. Ji-Hyo isn’t thrilled to see Yoon-Jo, and it’s even worse for her because she’s in the same PR team as Yoon-Jo.

Just then, people at Seyong receive a memo that Goo Yi-Jung has been employed as the CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) in Ji-Hyeon’s Division. The PR team leaders, who seem freaked out by this news, are called for a meeting by Byung-Man. Goo Yi-Jung finally arrives in the country to prepare to start her job at Seyong.

Meanwhile, Gu-Young has also just found out about the CCO position. Yeon-Soo, the head of sales under the Operations Division, expresses his fear of Ji-Hyeon creating this new CCO position and hiring Goo Yi-Jung. But, Gu-Young assures him that Ji-Hyeon knows what she’s doing. Gu-Young then tells Yeon-Soo to find a new person suitable for the Chief Strategy Officer position since Ji-Hyeon took over the Co-CEO position after her father died. He also suggests they find someone under their division.

Yoon-Jo also finds out about Goo Yi-Jung’s new position at Seyong and remembers first finding out about her back in 2012. Yoon-Jo was inspired by Goo Yi-Jung’s decision to quit working at Google and become a PR consultant in the US. Back to the present, Yoon-Jo is excited she will meet her role model.

At PR JOA, Hee-Young is preparing to close down the company. She fondly remembers the times she shared with Sil-Yang and Yoon-Jo.

The next day, Yoon-Jo is one of the first people to report to work. Sun-Tae comes in shortly after Yoon-Jo and gets a glimpse of her. Sun-Tae remembers Kwang-Soo, the head of the HR department, telling him that Yeon-Soo told him that Gu-Young asked him to find a suitable person to fill in the Chief Strategy Officer position. Kwang-Soo also told him that Gu-Young wanted to find someone to fill that position, meaning he wants more control over Seyong. Kwang-Soo advised Sun-Tae to use the non-discriminatory employment program to his advantage to get on Gu-Young and Yeon-Soo’s good side.

Yoon-Jo seemingly hasn’t been allocated any work. So, she goes to ask Eun-Jeong for work to do, and she asks her to research work that has been done in the PR department, which essentially isn’t any work at all. In the evening, Yoon-Jo visits Hee-Young at Earth Comms and is mesmerized by how beautiful the headquarters are.

Hee-Young finally tells Yoon-Jo that Earth Comms will be using the marketing project she created. Of course, she’s upset about it. The next day, Sun-Tae asks Jae-Min to revise the roles of Yoon-Jo in the PR department in the press statement he will release. Sun-Tae just wants Yoon-Jo to be “the face” of the non-discriminatory employment program, but, Jae-Min tells him that Yoon-Jo is much more than that.

Of course, Sun-Tae is pissed off by Jae-Min’s remark. He asks Jae-Min about Earth Comms using PR JOA’s proposal. Jae-Min tells Sun-Tae that Earth Comms hasn’t officially responded, and Sun-Tae begins scolding him in front of the other workers. Jae-Min repeats loudly the plan for Earth Comms to use PR JOA’s proposal and how strings were pulled together to get Earth Comms that marketing project. This embarrasses Sun-Tae, causing him to walk out of the office. When he leaves, the other employees commend Jae-Min for seemingly standing up to Sun-Tae.

Jae-Min calls Chul-Jun aside and asks him to take over the overseeing of Earth Comms successfully using PR JOA’s proposal. Jae-Min tells him to do so to prove his worth as he wants to get promoted. Chul-Jun mentions that the proposal was created by the “underqualified” girl from PR JOA (he’s referring to Yoon-Jo). Jae-Min tells him not to call Yoon-Jo underqualified and admits he has a crush on her. Chul-Jun has been suspecting that Jae-Min has feelings for Yoon-Jo.

Eun-Jeong, Jae-Min, Ji-Hyo, and Heo Hyuk are discussing who will oversee Earth Comms as they embark on Seyong Cosmetics’ marketing project. Eun-Jeong looks at Yoon-Jo, who’s nearby as if she wants to pick her to be in charge. But, she decides to oversee the project herself and even remarks on not getting an employee with experience. Jae-Min tries to vouch for Yoon-Jo to be assigned this project, but Eun-Jeong doesn’t want to hear any of that.

Later, Yoon-Jo approaches Eun-Jeong and tells her she was the one who came up with the proposal, given to Earth Comm. She also requests Eun-Jeong to allow her to oversee Earth Comm as they embark on Seyong Cosmetics’ marketing project. But, Eun-Jeong refuses and tells Yoon-Jo to familiarize herself with Seyong’s work style. Yoon-Jo tells Eun-Jeong that she familiarize herself with Seyong’s work style in a few days and assures her she can do a good job with the project.

Eun-Jeong refuses and starts mocking Yoon-Jo about her working in an agency no one knows about. She also tells Yoon-Jo that her proposal was given to Earth Comms because Seyong could rely on someone as inexperienced as she is. Yoon-Jo tells Eun-Jeong that she has eight years of experience but Eun-Jeong counters, telling her that regardless of how much experience she has, she’s still a newbie at Seyong, so she can’t work on the project. She even tells Seyong that she’s just as experienced as Ji-Hyo.

The Episode Review

Yoon-Jo’s experience during her first few days at Seyong exemplifies how many people get taken for granted in workplaces. I feel bad for her and honestly prefer that she accepted Dong-Hoon’s job offer to work at Earth Comms. I think she also feels the same. Seyong’s messed-up administration is also an example of how big companies look well-organized from the outside, but they are just messed up on the inside.

I was right about Jae-Min being attracted to Yoon-Jo, and Hee-Young having some connection to Earth Comms. Let’s see how Yoon-Jo copes with her new job in the next episode.