Race – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

 The Highs and the Lows

Episode 9 of Race begins with the R&I project team preparing for the SEUP video conference. This whole time, Jae-Min keeps staring at Yoon-Jo. He then remembers Chul-Jun telling him the previous night, while they were at the restaurant Yoon-Jo and Dong-Hoon were also in, that Dong-Hoon had asked Yoon-Jo out.

Then, Yoon-Jo asks Jae-Min, in front of the other R& I team members, why he’s staring at her that much. Yoon-Jo then jokingly tells Jae-Min that it seems she’s into her, making Jae-Min very nervous.

The SEUP video conference begins, and people first start joining without revealing their faces and real names. One worker reveals her face and shares what she wants Seyong to change regarding their working conditions.

Soon, more people join in, and they now reveal their real names. The number of employees who attend the video conference surpasses 300. This is way past the R&I project team members’ target, which was set at 50.

Meanwhile, Sun-Tae forces Chul-Jun to join the video conference anonymously and scolds the employees for “complaining” about Seyong’s working conditions. But, the video conference continues smoothly until the R& I project’s computers shut down before they conclude the conference. They try reviving the computers but are unsuccessful, so they stop the conference. The other R&I project members go home, and Yoon-Jo and Jae-Min decide to call Eun so they can go for a picnic.

Elsewhere, Byung-Man and Yeon-Soo are playing golf when Byung-Man tries to vouch for himself to Yeon-Soo to recommend him to Gu-Young as the next Chief Strategy Officer. Remember Yeon-Soo is practically Gu-Young’s right hand at Seyong.

While at the picnic site waiting for Eun, Yoon-Jo tells Jae-Min that she knows Yi-Jung is the woman he was talking about being in a relationship with while in the US. She also tells Jae-Min that she’s okay with him still liking Yi-Jung.

Just then, Dong-Hoon calls Yoon-Jo and asks her out, so she leaves Jae-Min and Eun at the picnic site. Eun then tells Jae-Min that Yoon-Jo is now dating while Yi-Jung rejected him. Jae-Min then tells Eun that Yoon-Jo still doesn’t Yi-Jung reject him.

Elsewhere, Yi-Jung meets with Hee-Young to talk about her recent conversation with Yoo-Jin. Hee-Young advises Yi-Jung to be honest about how she feels about their mother-daughter relationship the next time she meets with Yoo-Jin. She also advises her to ask Ahn Eun-Seok for help regarding talking to Yoo-Jin.

Dong-Hoon takes Yoon-Jo to a publicity study class he has been hosting for quite some time. After the class, Dong-Hoon asks Yoon-Jo if she wants to join, and she tells him she has a lot on her plate, so she can’t join the class. Yoon-Jo also tells Dong-Hoon that she doesn’t like him the way he likes her, and she apologizes for going out with him to try and forget someone else (Jae-Min). Fortunately, Dong-Hoon understands Yoon-Jo and tells her he’ll wait until she’s comfortable to go out with him.

The next day, the R&I project team members text each other about how employees have been discussing the SEUP video conference on Seyong’s online forum, BlahBlah. Most of the employees are asking for another conference, and the abrupt ending of the last one due to computer failure attracted a lot of attention.

Meanwhile, Yoon-Jo and Ji-Hyo are having a meeting about CENTUM 100’s marketing project. Ji-Hyo wants them to write bad reviews about other protein products online to tarnish their brands and promote their brand. Yoon-Jo doesn’t think it’s a good idea because it’ll cause many small businesses, including Ang’s Bread, to suffer huge losses. But, Ji-Hyo still insists on this being the best marketing strategy.

In fact, Ji-Hyo even called Sil-Yang to help with this marketing strategy. After Hee-Young closed down PR JOA, Sil-Yang started an agency specifically for writing bad reviews about other companies at the request of other companies.

Of course, Yoon-Jo is still not on board with this idea but Sil-Yang pleads with her to look the other way so she can have this project and get the money to take care of her newborn twins.

Meanwhile, Sun-Tae picks Seung-Hee to accompany him to a conference in the US. This means Seung-Hee will soon be promoted, which excites her until she finds out her due date coincides with that of the conference. She has no choice but to inform Sun-Tae that she’s pregnant. As expected, Sun-Tae doesn’t have the most pleasant remarks about her pregnancy. At least he tried to say them in the nicest way possible this time.

Yoon-Jo calls Jae-Min aside to ask him about the negative marketing (that’s what Ji-Hyo referred to as the idea of writing bad reviews). Jae-Min then tells Yoon-Jo that Seyong has been doing this for a very long time, except this time, they had the decency to try and cover it up. Yoon-Jo is now in a dilemma on whether or not to inform Ang’s Bread that Seyong is about to ruin their business.

Yoon-Jo returns to her workstation and contemplates asking Eun-Jeong about this negative marketing strategy. But she remembers Ji-Hyo asking her to stay out of it as this is her first project. She even accuses Yoon-Jo of not wanting her to succeed because she wasn’t on board with this idea.

Jae-Min meets with one of the people complaining about CENTUM 100 on the health online community. This guy shows Jae-Min the rashes he has gotten after using CENTUM 100. He then tells him that when he called Seyong to complain, Chul-Jun sent him the standard results proving CENTUM 100 was fine.

Yi-Jung goes to see Ahn Eun-Seok to ask him for help talking to Yoo-Jin, as Hee-Young advised her earlier. But Ahn Eun-Seok refuses to help her.

The next day, there’s an online buzz around a bad comment Ji-Hyeon made about a particular presidential candidate. Yi-Jung goes with Yoon-Jo to her office to explain to her the effects of her comment on Seyong’s image. But, Ji-Hyeon sees no problem with it until Yi-Jung explains to her how it will affect Seyong’s sales and stocks, making her lose authority over Seyong. She then agrees to let Yoon-Jo take care of her mess.

Yoon-Jo then decides to promote the restaurant Ji-Hyeon took a picture in and posted it with that bad comment. Soon, the online attention around Ji-Hyeon’s bad comment subsided.

Later, Yi-Jung bumps into Su-Hwan, who congratulates her for dealing with the situation with Ji-Hyeon’s negative comment. He then tells her that all this could be avoided if there was a Chief Strategy Officer.

Jae-Min later asks Chul-Jun if he ever sent a customer any standard results of CENTUM 100, but he denies it. Then, someone delivers Seung-Hee congratulatory flowers, and Chul-Jun and Jae-Min find out she’s pregnant.

Sil-Yang and her team start spreading false bad reviews about Ang’s Bread, and the business quickly feel the impact of these reviews. Earth Comms tries to save Ang’s Bread from going out of business, but it seems like they don’t succeed.

The episode ends with Yoon-Jo telling Dong-Hoon that Seyong is responsible for putting Ang’s Bread out of business. As they’re talking, General Manager An happens to eavesdrop on their conversation.

The Episode Review

I’m glad Yoon-Jo was honest with Dong-Hoon about her feelings toward him. Ji-Hyo has now placed Yoon-Jo in another mess that she may be forced to be fully responsible for. Seyong’s method of spreading false reviews about Ang’s Bread to promote its protein shake is, unfortunately, the reality in many industries. Many big companies use this method to gain a monopoly in their industry.

I feel bad for Yi-Jung’s situation with her daughter, but again I wonder what made her leave Yoo-Jin when she was that young.