The Good Bad Mother – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Planning

Episode 2 of The Good Bad Mother begins with Young-soon trying to call Kang-ho who ignores her. He is busy clearing up nasty headlines about Director Song. He is about to give the evidence, the mobile with the recording that can clear the defendant, Mr. Park’s name but he doesn’t when Song thinks about passing his business to Kang-ho as his heir.

It is revealed he also takes bribes from him like a car and a house. Kang-ho gets nervous when Song doesn’t let him leave thinking he has found out about the mobile but the director just asks to play a game of catch. Despite having a limp leg, he likes baseball as he says he doesn’t have to run if he can get a home run. Kang-ho surmises that this is how he grew Yongra Construction into Woobyeok Group.

Song compliments his throw and Kang-ho says he liked baseball but could not play with his friends. When asked why, he says he studied to become a prosecutor because he wanted to meet Director Song. He accepts to be his son and Song is delighted. 

Young-soon keeps trying to call Kang-ho and when he doesn’t pick up, she just assumes he is busy working and she is proud. She cooks all of his favourite foods but falls while trying to get to something out of her reach. The village chief and his wife help her. But the wife keeps frightening her while the chief wonders about Kang-ho who hasn’t visited since he shifted to Seoul. 

A ballerina called Ha-young who is dating him calls as well but he ignores her too. Turns out she is getting a pedicure from Mi-joo who is working at a salon with her friend Sun-young. Ha-young throws a fit and accidentally gets a cut. She kicks Mi-joo who apologises but asks for an apology in return for kicking her. When she refuses, Mi-joo scares her away with her karate moves even though her father is the next presidential candidate.

As Mi-joo drinks with Sun-young dreaming about opening her own nail salon, her kids call. Turns out she is a single mother to two children, her older sisters are divorced, her father has run away and her mother is ashamed and pretends Mi-joo is in USA while she takes care of her kids.

Geum-ja is playing cards with Sung-ae who is praying for Sam-sik who has been imprisoned and is set to be freed soon. Young-soon arrives with some food for them and she is jealous. Young-soon reveals it is Kang-ho’s birthday and she is visiting him. Geum-ja realises she forgot Mi-joo’s birthday and calls her back to scold her and then sends some money.

Meanwhile, Young-soon reaches Seoul but Kang-ho pretends not to be home. She asks the security guard to give him the food and asks about him. She also leaves her number in case Kang-ho is in trouble and the security guard is touched that she is such a good mother. She limps back to her car and eats a choco pie for her dinner.

Inside, Kang-ho watches the news and sees that Ha-young’s father is ahead by a landslide and turns out it is Prosecutor Oh Tae-soo. In a flashback, he remembers attending a conference where Oh says prosecutors should be passionate and sympathetic. After the talk, Kang-ho is introduced to him as an alumnus. He says he is a fan who has memorised all of Tae-soo’s work. Just as he is leaving, Oh wonders why he looks familiar.

He is about to reveal that his father knows him but Ha-young interrupts them. Kang-ho sets his eyes on her and targets her at a club under the pretence of finding drugs as she has medicine for her panic disorder. He even cuts her bag to see if she has hidden something. Ha-young is furious and slaps him after he doesn’t find anything for which he apologises.

She returns and apologises for hitting him hoping that he doesn’t tell her father about being detained. A few days later, he shows up at the family’s charity event and Ha-young worries. He gives her a plain tote bag so that she doesn’t flaunt her wealth for the sake of Oh’s campaign and jujube plant for her disorder.

She is touched and they start dating. She introduces him to Oh Tae-soo, but after she leaves the former prosecutor threatens Kang-ho. He finds him suspicious and says he plans to marry Ha-young into a chaebol family so he should break up with her in a week. She shows up at Kang-ho’s house and he is heartless as he pushes her away. He tells her not to mess up his plan and she is confused. 

It is revealed that he got a paternity test done which shows the newborn baby of Hwang Soo-hyun, Song’s secretary is the child of Oh Tae-soo. Kang-ho tells Song who is excited at the idea of controlling the future president but he notices Kang-ho has not given him the original paternity test but a copy. Kang-ho says he wants to be Song’s legal son so he can marry Ha-young. That way Tae-soo will not be able to betray Song. 

Director Song tells Tae-soo not to mess with Kang-ho as he is his son and the former prosecutor isn’t happy. But he agrees if Kang-ho destroys all evidence. It cuts to Kang-ho lacing Soo-hyun’s drink and telling her that he is taking her and her child somewhere safe. After a while, he pushes the car into a river and tells Tae-soo the problem has been handled.

Elsewhere, Mi-joo opens her own nail salon with Sun-young in Seoul. Meanwhile, at Jouri village, the locals cook for a huge celebration. Sung-ae is annoyed as it is revealed they are helping Young-soon prepare a feast for Kang-ho who is visiting with his fiancee. A grumbling Sung-ae asks why she should help as Kang-ho has never done anything for the village.

Apparently, when Sam-sik got caught stealing, he begged Kang-ho to help but he never did. Young-soon however tells her she is planning on telling Kang-ho to help Sam-sik get a job when he’s freed. Sung-ae is moved and helps cook Kang-ho’s favourite pancakes and even styles Young-soon’s hair. She and Geum-ja are in awe when Young-soon buys diamond jewellery for Ha-young.

But when the young couple reaches, it is chaos as the locals are overly cheerful and loud which makes Ha-young and Kang-ho uncomfortable. They also notice that the price tag has not been cut from Young-soon’s attire. They usher her into a room and when Young-soon tries to give the jewellery set, Kang-ho asks Ha-young to go out. Alone, he gives his mother the adoption paper finalising him as Song’s legal son and tells her to sign it.

She is confused and then teary-eyed as she tries to understand. Still, she is ready to sign if it makes him happy as she says the paper won’t change that she is his mother. He is steely-faced and the moment she signs it, he rushes out. She tries to stop him and give him food and the jewellery but he refuses.

He points out that he never got a chance to have a good meal with her and she resigns to her fate. He takes out all the luxury items from the car he had brought as gifts and gets ready to leave. She quickly takes some pancakes and keeps them in the backseat before he drives away while the rest of the villagers are shocked at the turn of events.

Ha-young is annoyed by the smell and hopes her clothes don’t reek because of the pancakes. Frustrated, Kang-ho stops midway and throws the food. He looks exhausted and Ha-young offers to drive. He takes a sip of water and goes to sleep as she opens the car window while driving. Her scarf flies out and she stops by a cliff to get it. Just as she is returning to the car, a truck rams into it and it falls off the cliff with a still sleeping Kang-ho.

The Episode Review

Okay, the predictions of The Good Bad Mother’s episode 1 may just be true as it keeps getting obvious with each move that Kang-ho is approaching Song and Tae-soo with some ulterior motive. As for the secretary and her child, he must have probably smuggled them out of the country before pushing an empty car into the river.

As for the last half of the episode, no matter how melodramatic, it is never easy to see a strained parent-child relationship. While the premiere laid the foundation for why Kang-ho acts the way he does with Young-soon, it still doesn’t make things easier.

The angst keeps getting worse as somewhere she understands that she is to blame for his attitude yet she is always happy for him. Sure, her misguided love and strict parenting have played a catalyst in their estrangement, but we can’t help but feel sorry for her with every step Kang-ho takes away from her.