Romance in the House – K-drama Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Promised Eighth Inning

Episode 8 of Romance in the House starts with Mi-rae and Moo-jin heading home, unaware of the absolute chaos they’re about to walk into. Ae-yeon is stern and immediately shows off the agreement. They drop to their knees and apologize, as Ae-yeon stares daggers at them both. She’s shocked and humiliated.

In fact, she makes the bold decision and demands her daughter pack up and move out. She’s hurt that her daughter would make her look like such a fool, but Mi-rae bites back, telling her it’s difficult being head of the household and she’s in pain too.

In fact, she decides to play the sympathy card and shows off her injured arm to deflect. It seems to do the trick, and she’s allowed to stay at home. However, Ae-yeon isn’t there. She’s gone to work early. Like mother like daughter; they both handle their issues by diving headfirst into work.

Mi-rae is at a loss over what to do, but Tae-pyeong softens the blow a little by sending her over some supplements to the office to help her out. It’s a thoughtful gift, and eventually culminates in her and Tae-pyeong going for dinner together. He dotes over her, and the owner of the restaurant teases them, pointing out that as her boyfriend, he should carry her on his back home.

Mi-rae confides in Tae-pyeong though, admitting that she lashed out at Ae-yeon but he reassures her, believing everything will be ok… and then he suggests they date one another. She’s actually down for it, but has some things to figure out first, of course.

Back at the villa, Jeong-hyeok sends over the finished manuscript of his novel to his publisher. They’re impressed, and Jeong-hyeok explains that he got motivation from “someone in the villa”. However, Jeong-hyeok can’t help but get distracted by a couple of old men walking by claiming that the old landlord was scammed out of the old buildings. Could it be that Moo-jin scammed him too?

This is the frame of thinking that Jyeong-hyeok pursues when he heads back home and starts doing research. He sifts through the trash and finds something related to “dragon investment” and a photo of Moo-jin, Jae-geol and the landlord together. Alas, the plot thickens…

Ae-yeon turns her attention to Moo-jin and demands he hand over the pledge. He does just that, and she rips it up completely. Ae-yeon is concerned over Mi-rae and together, they agree that she’s definitely overwhelmed given everything that’s been going on. Ae-yeon blames herself, believing she hasn’t been taking good enough care of her girl. Moo-jin though stands up once more and takes full responsibility for everything.

When Ae-yeon leaves, Moo-jin receives a message from Mr Kim’s daughter about the villa. He’s concerned over what this means, but we’ll have to wait and see the outcome of this.

At the same time, Ae-yeon hits balls at the baseball cages, thinking over her life choices and what to do with Mi-rae. In fact, she doesn’t need to as when she heads back to the apartment, Mi-rae has redecorated the place with a big “I’m sorry” including balloons, a photo and even some cake too.

Mi-rae admits she spoke out of turn and blew up big time after holding it in for so long. Eventually the pair hug it out but there’s a lot of work for them to do. Ae-yeon thanks her daughter for working so hard all these years and promises to be there for her.

In the morning, Moo-jin sees the pair off and wishes them well. At work though, Mi-rae is called up to see the CEO and she suspects the worse. She thinks this is going to be about Tae-pyeong and she composes herself as she heads into his office.

In reality, the CEO has been watching her since the inspection and knows she has an eye for people. To acknowledge her great work, he’s called her over for some tea. He also turns the attention to Tae-pyeong and knows that he went with her to see the factory owner. He’s pretty impressed by her influence and wants her to help him coax Tae-pyeong into working at the supermarket.

Meanwhile, Moo-jin scoffs at the recent news that there’s a new coach at the stands for the Dragons. It’s Yang, the guy we saw at the funeral last episode. He’s got two tickets for the big game and wants Moo-jin to go with Ae-yeon. They’re lost 18 matches on the bounce and he’s terrified that he’s going to be the one to launch this int 19 games.

As Moo-jin contemplates whether to go or not, Hyeon-Jae shows up and admits that he’s seen his father’s secret box. He shows it off to her, and inside it happens to hold his baseball memorabilia, along with a photo album with the best moments from the kids’ life. He also has all his dreams and wishes here too, which makes Ae-yeon think.

Moo-jin does show up at the baseball game after all, and he’s shocked when Ae-yeon shows alongside him. She tells him to lend some money as she’s going to kick Mi-rae out the house. She wants her to spread her wings and believes she’s held onto her for too long. She’s worked as hard as she can and laments that she’s “reached the 8th inning already” and the only man in her life is Moo-jin. He believes there’s plenty for her to do and wants to be alongside her while she searches. As their luck turns, surprisingly it does for the Dragons too, as they end up winning the game.

At the same time, Tae-pyeong meets with Nam Chi-Yeol for his dinner. Specifically, his birthday meal. After buttering him up, Chi-yeol turns his attention to Mi-rae. Tae-pyeong is not happy that he spoke to Mi-rae and believes that there’s an alternate motive here. He fishes it out of the CEO, wo admits that Mi-rae actually stood up for him and rejected the CEO, believing it’s on Tae-pyeong to make that choice himself. When he hears this, Tae-pyeong races out to meet Mi-rae. She’s got him a cake and wishes him happy birthday.

As they stand together, he admits that he likes her and despite her feelings toward the company, she also likes him too. He leans forward and the pair finally kiss. Hooray!

The Episode Review

This really does feel like a finale doesn’t it? Most of the big plot points have been wrapped up, with the ties between Moo-jin, Mi-rae and Ae-yeon looking like they’re on track now. Moo-jin has clearly learned a lot and grown as a person, and Ae-yeon realizes that he’s always cared for the family, but he’s had to grow as a person and step up when it matters most.

On that same note, its worth pointing out that whatever secret Moo-jin is keeping about the apartment, it does have the potential to undo absolutely everything all over again. Although that may feel like spinning wheels if we get to it and we repeat the same plot points all over again.

Either way though, this episode has a lot of great moments. Ae-yeon accepting that she needs to let Mi-rae leave the nest and spread her own wings is definitely one of the stand-out moments.

The only weak link in all of this is Hyeon-Jae. He serves absolutely no purpose in this story and he feels pointless in the grand scheme of things. I’m not sure if we’re going to have anything extra for his character but so far he’s completely wasted here.

Either way, Romance in the House has been a solid watch and everything is left wide open for next week’s double bill.