Strong Girl Nam-soon – K-Drama Episode 13 Recap & Review

Save the Sea Hares

Episode 13 of Strong Girl Nam-soon begins with a warm heart-to-heart between the lead pair. Nam-soon and Hee-sik lie in bed, facing each other. He tells her that after his brother died, he made a vow to not let anyone die on his watch. But with his team leader’s death, he feels like he failed. She assures him that he hasn’t and that he’s doing his best.

Geum-ju is waiting for Na-young at her news station when the latter sends a message saying she’s unwell. Of course, the text is sent by Na-young’s kidnapper.

Geum-ju calls Nam-soon and tells her she’ll send over the edited video to her soon. When she realises that Hee-sik is asleep next to Nam-soon, Geum-ju gets excited and reiterates her high expectations for him and Nam-soon.

Na-young wakes up still inside the cab and sees a drug testing kit next to her. She gets a call from Ryu Shi-oh who tells her that she’s been drugged. He expects her to do as he says now.

Geum-ju’s expose on Doogo distributing drugs goes live. The reporter proves it by pouring water on the contents of the puffer jacket.

Shi-oh calls his PR and legal teams to get a handle on the situation. He then asks his secretary, Mr. Yoon, to find out about Hong Jeong-ho, the recently expired Doogo employee. Nam-soon wakes up to a frantic text from her colleague, Ms. Baek, who tells her things in the office are chaotic.

Hyun-soo comes across a homeless person and gives him money. Seon-saeng watches him from afar, still upset with him.

Hee-sik comes into work and is reprimanded by his superior for giving up the jacket to a private news company. But Hee-sik stands his ground, knowing he did the right thing.

Nam-soon comes in to work and Shi-oh tells her to come with him for a meeting. She tells him she’ll stay at the office to handle the workload instead. Shi-oh meets with a group of influential people who are all concerned about the news report. He reveals that the police have wiretapped all their conversation and can bring down all the people in this room. He then demands they help him find who Nam-soon is.

At the office, Nam-soon pretends to be on a call with her Mongolian parents and sneaks out Shi-oh’s hidden cell phone. She then transfers the contents to her computer. She rushes back to Shi-oh’s office just as he is returning. Luckily, she puts it back right before he enters and then greets him warmly. He then gets a call from Beom on that phone.

Afterwards, he asks Nam-soon if he can fully trust her. She says he can and he agrees to take her to the research lab. Before they leave, Nam-soon calls Hee-sik from a stairwell and tells him she’s sending the phone’s contents to him. Unluckily, a Doogo manager overhears her conversation. Hee-sik receives the data and begins to go through it with Seon-gyu, his team member.

Secretary Yoon and Kyle meet with three contract killers and order them to attack Geum-ju’s family members, starting the easy one — Joong-gan. Boy are they in for a ride!

Seon-gyu finds a local Korean number in Shi-oh’s records. Hee-sik finds out that it belongs to a woman who flew down from Russia in 2021. He relays the news to Geum-ju. We see that Shi-oh and Nam-soon are meeting with the very same woman, the person named Beom who kept calling Shi-oh. Nam-soon excuses herself to use the restroom and the other two talk.

Geum-ju speaks with Hee-sik. Her company has been given a broadcasting ban but she insists on continuing the fight. He tells her about the sea hares.

While exploring the facility, Nam-soon enters the lab where the sea hare antidote is made. Back in the other room, Shi-oh insists that the antidote business is his own. Beom threatens him and we see she’s lost an eye for some past mistake. She tells him Opulentia is on Geum-ju’s side. He retorts that he can handle it all on his own.

Geum-ju decides to track the next import of sea hares. Meanwhile, Joong-gan is being watched by someone. She’s helping Jun-hee at the café while keeping up their flirtation. He tells her he can’t drop her home since he has something important to do.

Shi-oh drops Nam-soon home. Before she goes inside, she asks about the woman and Shi-oh tells her she is someone who keeps an eye on him. He even tells her about his connection to the mafia. When he drives off, Hee-sik calls and asks if Nam-soon can find out when the sea hares will be imported next. She makes a call to Ms. Baek.

Shi-oh calls Na-young and threatens her with the drugs already in her system while also putting her younger sister’s life at stake. He tells her to go live and claim that the news report on Doogo was all lies. Meanwhile, Red Heels meets Madam Kim and pretends to make amends. At the office, Nam-soon butters up Ms. Baek and turns the conversation to imports. She learns that sea hares come on the 25th of each month at Busan Port.

Geum-dong calls his mother and tells her he’s getting discharged from the hospital. His father enters the room and tearfully thanks him for nursing him.

Joong-gan gets into her car and finds herself at knifepoint. It’s Kyle and one of the men he met with. They take her to an empty warehouse. Several menacing crashes and gunshots later, Joong-gan swaggers out of the warehouse and we see the mess of the people she left behind.

Hee-sik is working with Seon-gyu when he learns that the other teammates have been called to meet the Commissioner General. Nam-in calls Nam-soon and tells her to join him in eating fried chicken. At the hospital, Jun-hee arrives to confront Guk-jong. He states that he loves Joong-gan which doesn’t go down well with Guk-jong. Naturally, it ends in a fight.

Joong-gan is telling Geum-ju off on the phone when Jun-hee arrives, flowers in hand. He tells her they can love freely now and she cheekily invites him to Netflix and chill. Guk-jong is highly frustrated but Geum-dong advises him to rest.

Shi-oh comes back to his office and texts Tsetseg, asking what she’s up to. Nam-soon sends a photo of her eating fried chicken. Across from her, Nam-in tells her about the love triangle their grandmother has landed in. Since their father hasn’t returned, Nam-soon goes to the projector room to check on him.

Shi-oh smiles at the photo Nam-soon sent him. Yoon rushes in and tells him the late Hong Jeong-ho’s family is getting financial aid from Nam-soon. He orders Yoon to find the deceased’s younger brother.

Young-tak and Hee-sik’s other team member return to the office and break the news — they have been taken off the case and their team will be disbanded. Meanwhile, one of Shi-oh’s people finds a clip of Nam-soon saving people from the burning building.

Several things begin to happen at once. Na-young arrives at the news studio but she looks off. Shi-oh meets with Jeong-ho’s younger brother. Just then, his employee tells him about the video he found. Nam-soon and Nam-in search for their father but can’t find him anywhere.

Hee-sik tells his team that he’s quitting the police force and will investigate on his own. He brings out the cash Geum-ju gave him a long time ago and ‘recruits’ all his teammates. Ecstatic, they go out for food and drinks. Hee-sik then claims he’s found their new hideout.

Joong-gan and Jun-hee are enjoying their Netflix and chill session when Geum-dong interrupts them. He rails at them for hurting his father and then promptly passes out.

Na-young is starting the broadcast when Geum-ju realises that something is wrong. Shi-oh sees the screenshot sent by his employee as well as the phone number Jeong-ho’s brother gave him. He finally realises who Nam-soon really is at the end of Strong Girl Nam-soon episode 13.

The Episode Review

Strong Girl Nam-soon episode 13 continues the thrill and intensity set up in the previous episode. Both sides are taking steps, with Shi-oh targeting the sweet Na-young and Geum-ju going after the sea hare imports. The show is at its most captivating when the two forces are actively working against each other.

The scenes with Joong-gan and Jun-hee are cheesy and adorable, even if his ‘fight’ with Guk-jong is not all that entertaining. Ultimately, it does add a bit of humour to balance out the rest of the show.

Shi-oh finally learns about Nam-soon and it’s about time. Seeing her break the mask of Tsetseg and stand up to him for real is going to be interesting. Hee-sik going out on his own with the help of Gum-ju’s funds is an easy way to give him and his team free reign. In fact, in the middle of his fight with Pavel, Shi-oh is the one who feels a little powerless. But we’ll truly find out about his strength in the coming episodes.