Strangers Again – K-Drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

Conjugal Rights in Marriage

Episode 2 of Strangers Again starts at the Moonlight Hotel, where Ha-Ra and Min Jae Gyeom are on a blind date. Ha-Ra does not understand why someone would want to go out with a friend’s ex-wife and asks Jae-Gyeom if he has got a kink for that kind of stuff. She also boldly asks if he dated her ex-husband Eun Beom.

At the gym, Ha-Ra tells the story to her friend Bi-Chwi who encourages her to go ahead and date him since he is handsome. Min Jae Gyeom kept texting her, asking for a second date. He says he has no problem dating her since he has lived in the U.S. for a long time, and dating a friend’s ex-wife or ex-girlfriend is not a big issue. Bi-Chwi tells Ha-Ra to sleep with Jae Gyeom.

Ha-Ra still does not feel okay going out with her ex-husband’s friend. Bi-Chwi advises her to ask Eun Beom if he has any weird feelings about it, and he says he is okay. She asks for Si-Wook’s opinion, and his conservative side argues that they are not in Hollywood and that discussing such issues in the office is already inappropriate.

CEO Hong calls Attorney Ho into her office. Then someone Eun-Beom and Ha-Ra know as a mutual friend comes into the office, and Attorney Goo decides to accommodate her as she waits for Attorney Oh. After finishing her meeting, Attorney Oh calls her friend Sang-Eun whom she was supposed to meet and finds her in Attorney Goo’s office. After talking with Attorney Goo, Sang-Eun decides that they should take her case.

Sang-Eun wants to divorce her husband due to his failure to satisfy her sexual needs. She said that she had not slept with her husband for four years. She is therefore filing for divorce because of a failed conjugal relationship due to the husband’s sexual dysfunction.

Eun-Beom argues that sexual dysfunction could be due to a man’s plummeting pride caused by psychological reasons. Sang-Eun explains that she had recently been promoted at work and earned more than her husband. The husband felt pressured. Attorney Kang thinks that a little reason to be stressed to the point of sexual dysfunction, while Attorney Kwon thinks it is a complicated and valid reason. They start arguing in the meeting room, and CEO Hong sends them out.

The husband is against the divorce, and after an investigation, Ha-Ra could not find anything to suggest that he was cheating. Eun-Beom thinks he might be cheating and is careful not to be caught. In a turn of mood in the meeting room, Ha-Ra says that Eun-Beom’s speciality is cheating without being caught. CEO Hong tells them to keep looking for evidence of adultery and schedule a meeting with the husband.

At lunch, Ha-Ra discusses her annoyance with Jae Gyeom, who is still texting her, and Bi-Chwi insists she should go on a date. She is, however, not changed her mind about being not okay with dating an ex-husband’s colleague. Bi-Chwi advises that she should date him and even sleep with him as revenge for her ex-husband, who dared to introduce them.

During the divorce meeting between Sang-Eun and her husband, he insists that he does not have sexual dysfunction. The Attorney is rude to Attorney Oh and says perverted things to her. On the way back, Ha-Ra turns down Eun-Beom’s dinner invitation since she has plans with Jae-Gyeom. She tries to provoke him by saying that she does not talk much unless she is talking with her body. He ends up getting her worked up and angry.

After dinner, back in the car, Ha-Ra tries to kiss Jae-Gyeom, but he turns her down. The dodge hurts her pride, but Jae Gyeom continues to pursue her with texts asking how she is doing. At the meeting regarding Sang Eun’s divorce case, Attorney Oh updated that she was reluctant to file a suit on sexual dysfunction because if the husband proved that was not true, the case would turn in the husband’s favour. However, all the inquiry requests they present to the judge are denied, and they decide to use the one card they still had. They requested a medical examination for sexual dysfunction, which the judge granted.

Eun-Beom convinces the husband not to get tested for sexual dysfunction since it was hard to prove in court, and refusal to cooperate would be in their client’s favour. Ha-Ra goes on another successful date with Jae Gyeom. They have their first kiss in the car. Ha-Ra tells her friend, attorney Kang that Jae Gyeom is starting to make her heart flutter, and Eun-Beom walks in on their conversation.

Ha-Ra and Eun-Beom are driving to meet a client in Eun-Beom’s car when the passenger seat malfunctions. When helping Ha-Ra pull the chair up, the ex-couple has an awkward moment. Just then, Ha-Ra notices a woman walking past their car. She seemed surprised to see her. She says it is Ki Seo Hee; she asks Eun-Beom, who says he did not see her.

Ha-Ra talks about Eun-Beom’s life after their divorce. She says he got Karma since he thought he would start a new life with his first love after they divorced. However, his mother took back the studio apartment she had bought for him and even amended her will. She says she used to get so angry whenever she thought of Ki Seo Hee, the woman Eun-Beom cheated with, but she no longer felt the same. Ha-Ra thinks they genuinely seem like friends.

They found out their client was cheating on her husband at the meeting, but she had withheld the information. Sang-Eun was seeing a university student, so she wanted to get divorced. Ha-Ra is furious with her friend, while Eun-Beom empathizes. She is more infuriated that her cheating ex-husband supports her cheating friend. After an argument, she walks away, meets her husband, and invites him for coffee. She encourages him to have a divorce, but he does not want to. He tells her that he was not having sexual dysfunction but was on medication that affected his performance. She encourages him to keep pursuing Sang-Eun.

Attorneys Kang, Oh, Goo, and Kwon have drinks together after work. Attorneys Kang and Kwon get into an argument as they always do, and Attorney Goo points out that they keep arguing because they like each other. Attorney Kang thinks Attorney Kwon looks like her ex-boyfriend, and Attorney Kwon has had a crush on her since he joined the law firm.

Sang Eun calls and tells Ha-Ra she has made a decision. She would go ahead with the divorce. The divorce is finalized at Ha-Ra’s and Eun-Beom’s law firm. The perverted Attorney makes a sexual harassment pass at Ha-Ra again. However, this time, Eun-Beom recorded the talk and threatened to sue. Ha-Ra is moved, and while waiting for Jae Gyeom, she wonders about Eun-Beom. She is curious about what he has been up to and whom he has met. She wonders why he decided to leave her for another woman.

Jae Gyeom brings her back to the present just as Eun-Beom and Ki Seo Hee enter the pub and head for the elevators together. She is surprised to see them together.

The Episode Review

The series continues to openly discuss marital issues that may be considered taboo in most cultures. Not many would agree to discuss that they are suffering from a lack of a conjugal relationship even though the reason for the dysfunction are genuine.

The husband was suffering because of medication which any spouse would understand, but he was so afraid of being honest, which broke their marriage.

The episode widens the scope of the issue surrounding Ha-Ra’s and Eun-Beom’s divorce when it introduces the other woman, Ki Seo Hee. She initially thought she had gotten over them, but the end reaction after seeing them together says otherwise.

Will she continue to see Jae Gyeom, and is Eun-Beom dating the other woman? How do Attorney Kang and Attorney Kwon feel about each other?