The Penthouse – K-Drama Episode 10 Recap & Review

The Sweet Taste Of Revenge

Ho-Dong’s confession about Su-Ryeon’s eyes last episode begin episode 10 of The Penthouse as she’s caught off-guard. From afar, Joo watches them both suspiciously.

Ho-Dong shows her the footage from the boxing ring bullying and even brings up the situation with Seol-A too, telling Su-Ryeon he wants to try and stop this violence once and for all. Unfortunately Joo takes him aside and manages to bribe him into keeping quiet.

Down in the lobby, Yoon-Hee stands in front of the horrible ladies who can’t quite believe their eyes. Seo-Jin however, tells her she isn’t able to move until they can verify what’s going on. This brings Joo out from his meeting with Ho-Dong into the main atrium. There, he admits that he signed off on the recommendation card.

On the back of this, Seo-Jin confronts Joo about Yoon-Hee moving in but he breaks the news that actually Yoon-Cheol had a big hand in what’s happened so far. While all the residents reel over what this means for them, Ro-Na shocks all the other kids in Hera Palace when they learn she’s moving in. Of course, this causes them – and the adults – to scheme over how to remove them.

That evening Yoon-Cheol returns home where Seo-Jin confronts him about Yoon-Hee’s arrival. As we see from a flashback, Yoon-Cheol gained a scholarship thanks to Seo-Jin but it was paid for with dirty money by Seo-Jin. When Yoon-Hee finds out, she berates him about his choice but he simply drowns his sorrow in alcohol. This is what caused Seo-Jin to make her move and swoop in to give Yoon-Cheol “his wings.” Back in the present though, she slaps him across the face.

In the morning, Yoon-Hee continues to stir things up, this time by teasing Kyu-Jin in the gym. She calls him sexy and eventually goes on to call him her brother. He’s clearly flustered but he’s not the only one. Out in the hallway, Seo-Jin too becomes flustered when Yoon-hee has her number and vows to take everything from the woman, including her house on the 85th floor.

At school, Ro-Na volunteers to be an ambassador for the upcoming foundation while Eun-Byeol tells Seok-Hoon that she likes him.

Meanwhile, Joo tries to meet with a man named Rogan Lee surrounding the investment. He’s got Kyu-Jin and Yoon-Cheol by his side too and they believe this could be their claim to get more money again. Only, when they try to meet him the first time he rejects and tries to renegotiate.

In an interesting turn of events, Ma-Ri leaves the Penthouse again and the truth around where she’s going is revealed. It turns out she’s a “scrub mistress” working to wash down those in the bathhouse. She apparently helped a lot of people in the past too and she pours them a drink as they lavish praise on her.

Back at Hera Palace, all the kids heads over to Ro-Na’s house but immediately take offence at the food and begin bad mouthing her. Seok-Hoon however, ignores them all and starts helping himself to the plates of delicious treats. This happens to be the cue that everyone else takes to join in too, much to Eun-Byeol’s annoyance.

When she excuses herself from the table, Eun-Byeol heads into Ro-Na’s room and starts reading her diary, including entries about her growing feelings for Seok-Hoon.

With more context on Ma-Ri, she sits awkwardly with Seo-Jin as she begins scheming on a way to get Yoon-Hee out the building. In fact, this actually makes her worse given how two-faced and spineless she is. Anyway, she – following the guidance of Seo-Jin – is going to set up a form of voting to get Yoon-hee booted out for good.

Well, one of the scapegoats here comes in the form of Ro-Na, who’s stitched up at school after the girls put cigarettes and magazines in her bag.

Do-Ki of course takes their side and tells Ro-Na she needs to go to the teacher’s office to explain her actions. From the doorway, Ho-Dong watches this take place. As we soon see from a flashback, it was Eun-Byeol who did all this in a jealous fit of rage.

Back at Hera Palace, Seo-Jin’s brings in Yoon-Hee’s mother-in-law who stands in the lobby and blames Yoon-Hee for everything that’s transpired. Of course, this big, elaborate scheme puts her in a really bad light but Yoon-Hee explains her actions.

Her mother-in-law never cared about Ro-Na and her husband was drunk and died cheating on her. Now the residents actually hear Yoon-Hee’s side of the story and Kyu-Jin comments on how pitiful this entire situation is. She’s not alone either, Seo-Jin’s big scheme completely backfires and everyone begins to rally around Yoon-Hee. Yoon-Cheol even shows up looking smug and tells Seo-Jin that she’s lost.

Later that evening, Yoon-Cheol meets Yoon-Hee and catches up with her, telling the girl to stop drinking for now. As he holds her hand, she stands up and falls forward into his arms.

Looking outside, Seo-Jin happens to be there and sees all of this transpire. Interestingly this mirrors a scene from the past where the roles were reversed and Seo-Jin spotted Yoon-Hee outside the window, kissing Yoon-Cheol in front of her. When she storms off, Yoon-Hee admits that she called Seo-Jin there after finding out about her mother-in-law.

As Yoon-Cheol chases after his wife to explain what happened, he follows her all the way to the private villa where she and Joo are together, kissing.

As he watches them through the window, he clenches his fists and struggles to hold in his rage. With a shotgun on the wall, he breaks in and heads straight to the bedroom as the noise of a gunshot sounds.

With bloodied knuckles, Yoon-Cheol heads back to Yoon-Hee’s place and struggles to hold in his tears on the back of what’s happened.

The Episode Review

Phew what a dramatic episode – as always! The Penthouse has definitely turned a corner now and with Yoon-Hee gaining the upper-hand, we see Yoon-Cheol has always been a weapon used between these two women. Now that Yoon-Cheol knows the truth about Seo-Jin’s affair, what does this mean for the rest of the drama?

And that’s to say nothing of the big gesture inside the Hera Palace atrium either, which saw all the residents gain sympathy surrounding Yoon-Hee’s situation. Her “kill ’em with kindness” stance seems to be working and slowly but surely people are coming to her side.

Could this see Seo-Jin eventually kicked out of her house? It seems that way from the looks of it but right now that’s still unknown.

The kids continue to scheme too and if this episode proves anything, it’s that Eun-Byeol is well aware that she can manipulate those around her and is capable of pretty horrible acts. With that in mind, it could mean she’s responsible for what happened with Seol-A in the past, especially given the hidden phone in the vent and her reactions afterward.

Anyway, this one has been another dramatic affair and thankfully we don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next!