The Penthouse – K-Drama Episode 18 Recap & Review

Flames

Episode 18 of The Penthouse begins with Su-Ryeon scrambling away from Joo after knocking him out, asking the maid to look after the kids while she’s gone. Seok-Hoon however, confronts his Father and tells him he’s not afraid anymore.

Su-Ryeon thanks Logan for his help in offering to keep Hye-In safe and give her care at a hospital in the US. It’s all too much for Su-Ryeon though who begins weeping and believing she’s let everyone down. Logan gives her a way out; a new life in America. This of course was Seol-A’s last wish to keep her happy and he’s determined to follow through with that.

An enraged Joo heads into his secret study and finds the place completely trashed and the safe empty. Realizing his wife has emptied everything, Secretary Cho shows up and feeds back that Hye-In has left the country. Unsure where else to turn, Joo calls to an unlikely source in Yoon-Hee, who meets him that evening.

Su-Ryeon rings while she’s having drinks with him and tells her Joo is involved in killing Seol-A. As she hangs up the phone, Joo starts kissing Yoon-Hee… and she kisses him back.

When Yoon-Hee awakens in the morning, she finds herself in Joo’s house with a note left inviting her to the lounge. There, Yoon-Hee talks about the opportunity she jumped on to get in Joo’s good books, including the fact he currently has a “vacant seat” next to him. With Seo-Jin on the way out and Su-Ryeon out the picture, Yoon-Hee intends to jump at that opportunity.

After her breakfast, she catches up with Seo-Jin in the lobby who realizes that Joo and Yoon-Hee were together. Although neither say this out loud, a woman’s intuition hints that Seo-Jin’s being misled. Joo meanwhile simply walks away and back to his penthouse after calling her a bother.

There, he finds his blood-stained maid on her knees in water. She tells him she didn’t betray Su-Ryeon but does reveal that Ho-Dong was blackmailing her.

At school, Eun-Byeol excuses herself from class and heads into Seo-Jin’s office to check through her Mother’s messages. Only, she doesn’t know the passcode and is caught red-handed. When Eun-Byeol walks away, she calls Seo-Jin “dirty” and this gets her thinking over exactly what could have caused her daughter to act like this.

Meanwhile, Yoon-Hee meets Su-Ryeon and they sit together and talk. She does her best to stop Su-Ryeon’s investigation but she refuses to let the killer go unpunished. Of course, given that killer is (allegedly) Yoon-Hee then she’s going to keep working with Joo to stop Su-Ryeon from uncovering the truth. After their meeting, Yoon-Hee immediately runs back to Joo and reveals everything she knows.

At school, Doo-Ki confronts Ro-Na before Chairman Joo calls him in to give a gift over to Yoon-Hee. He drops to his knees and promises Ro-Na will be taken care of just like the other kids.

With Ro-Na now back in Joo’s good books, Yoon-Hee decides to follow Joo’s instructions and packs up Su-Ryeon’s things. Only, before she does she tries on Su-Ryeon’s dresses and poses in front of the mirror. Joo notices her doing this when he arrives and begins kissing her, promising to get rid of Su-Ryeon and send her somewhere no-one else will find her.

Afterwards, Kyu-Jin tries in vain to hide his glee in handing over documents drawn up by Su-Ryeon. She’s suing Seo-Jin for adultery in the region of 10 million dollars while a divorce settlement with Joo would see him lose almost everything, including custody of the kids and 90% of his wealth.

Both of these villains begin to spiral out of control after hearing this, which is the perfect time for Logan to sign their Joint Investment Contract. On the back of this, Logan has a “gift” for Joo and his daughter. There’s a dinner party that all the adults will be invited to while the kids are scheduled to attend a private operatic performance with a soloist known as Grace Jo.

While the kids wait for their ride, the adults are collected up and leave. As they do, Yoon-Hee and Ro-Na arrive to thank Logan in person. Only, up on the counter behind him is a white bag which, of course, belongs to Su-Ryeon. Yoon-Hee spots this too and it seems like she knows Su-Ryeon is staying there.

In the limousine, the residents of Hera Palace all pass out while they’re on their way to dinner. Together, they’re taken to the junkyard and find themselves trapped inside a caged bus. The kids realize something is up and try to get through to their parents but fail. Even worse, the doors are bolted shut.

On the loudspeaker, they hear that the “fun is just beginning” as Logan – dressed up as Ho-Dong – tells the kids that their parents need to be punished. After dousing the parents in gasoline, Logan presses a button and ignites flames around the bus. A masked figure stands watching them as a bomb ticks down.

Video footage is hooked up back home where the kids are forced to watch what’s happening with their parents. As we see from the past though, Seol-A was actually left in a flaming car and almost burnt to death. This masked figure stands before the bus but above at a console, another masked figure reveals herself to actually be Su-Ryeon in disguise.

The Episode Review

Maybe it’s just me guys but I’m really not liking this new angle for Yoon-Hee. Unless they go the route of showing her mentally unstable and needing psychiatric help, I genuinely don’t get why she’s aligned herself with Chairman Joo.

Surely it’s in her best interest (if she wants to protect Ro-Na and keep herself out the firing line as a suspect) to work with Su-Ryeon and bring down Joo and Seo-Jin as the killers? We know both of them have ties with what happened to Seol-A and the circumstantial evidence would point to both of them rather than Yoon-Hee.

Then again, given Yoon-Hee isn’t actually inside the caged bus then it may well be that she’s been putting on an act all this time and is working with Su-Ryeon and Logan. Given her mannerisms and vocal patterns, it could well be her standing in front of the bus. I’d imagine we’ll find out in the next episode to come!

With 2 episodes to go, Penthouse is gearing up for an explosive finale and quite what will happen remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure though – this conflict is far from over and clearly there’s a few more twists to come from this one.

Edit – 30/12: Thank you to SB97 in the comments for confirming there’s 21 episodes this season not 20 as was originally scheduled!