Welcome to Samdal-ri – K-drama Episode 6 Recap & Review

“The Dreams” by Cho Yong-pil

Episode 6 of Welcome to Samdal-ri begins with Sang-do showing up with his umbrella to help Sam-dal. The pair flirt a little, talking about the difference between “mainland people” and those on Jeju Island. Although Sang-do claims that he’s prepared for all weather, it turns out he actually planned to be with there an umbrella, having seen the rainclouds and deciding to race back to be the knight in shining armour. Smooth! Instead of getting two, Sang-do even makes sure only to get one so he can be close to her. He even puts his arm around her.

Things are going well until Yong-pil comes into the picture. Sam-dal tellingly pulls free and they talk. Yong-pil gets two umbrellas and hands one over. The pair walk together, leaving poor Sang-do to trail behind them.

While things go well over in Jeju Island, there’s drama in Seoul as the workers realize that Eun-ju has taken the proposal from Sam-dal’s studio and photoshoot and is passing it off as her own. She’s even put her own name on it too. And the CCTV footage actually backs it up too, as the workers notice Eun-ju taking the footage for herself.

In fact, thje girls ping a video over to Sam-dal of Eun-ju’s meddling ways. Eun-bi phones and explains that the snake is lying through her teeth and taking credit for her work. Sam-dal stops the call… and runs to catch up with Sang-do. She decides to head back to Seoul and wants him to give her a ride over. Yong-pil, naturally, decides to tag along.

Meanwhile, Mi-ja looks through her medicine cabinet, feeling flustered and clutching her heart. She thinks over the drama with Yong-pil, including the seaweed fight and him spying on Sam-dal that night. She’s frightened by Jin-dal though, who’s still torn up over her ex, Jeon Da-young. The pair were obviously together in the past before all those articles spread about her leaving him.

While Sam-dal races to get back home again, Eun-ju soaks up the fake praise from the group as they talk to her about how amazing the proposal is. She claims to have rustled all of this up last minute but Chung-ki knows better. He can see Sam-dal’s work all over this. And when she’s questioned on it, she rushes away. Sam-dal returns right in the middle of this drama to figure out what’s going on.

Sam-dal checks over Eun-ju’s desk, sees the portfolio, and immediately marches up into the meeting. It’s pure drama when she shows and sees exactly what this woman has done. Chung-ki basically all but confirms it in front of everyone when he says that they have “similar ideas” but in private, when the meeting is adjourned, she silently shows off the idea to Eun-ju. 

It turns out Sam-dal really came to ask about the suicide. She’s been pondering whether there’s actually a reason for her suicide and whether Sam-dal was the one who brought it about or not. However, when she saw the stolen work, Sam-dal realizes that she did all of this just to take her down and take her spot. She eventually does admit it too, and even smiles and smirks to her face.

Yong-pil comes in to save the day and takes Sam-dal away. When Chung-ki arrives and tries to stop them, Yong-pil pushes him out the way and leaves with Sam-dal. She immediately starts crying on his shoulder in the main lobby, and he comforts her as she realizes the extent this woman will go to stop her. And Poor Sang-do is once again forced to watch this from afar.

After calming down, Sam-dal returns and decides that yes, she’s going to let Eun-ju have the project and Chung-ki too. In fact, she decides she’s going to pass all of this over and see how much everything blows up in Eun-ju’s face. Sure, she’s lost all her contacts and she’s down and out, but at the end of the day, she’s going in with a clear conscience. After a scathing comment about the flowers and the slide, she leaves.

On her own though, Sam-dal wallows but Yong-pil shows up and decides to sing to her. He does so in front of the bank and it’s enough to turn her sadness into laughs. After, the pair sit and discuss what took place inside Magazine X. Sam-dal admits that she didn’t lose her temper and pretended to be okay. She’s been doing this for a while (pretending to be okay) and in reality, she was actually scared to come back. Specifically because she wasn’t sure whether she actually did anything to make her suicidal. Now that we know the truth, Sam-dal doesn’t feel so bad. Yong-pil reassures her too and decides that she needs to have more faith in what she’s doing.

Sam-dal admits that the Bank makes her feel safe and in her “safe space”, she tells Yong-pil that seeing everything blow up like this, and everyone turn away from her despite working so hard to make a reputation for herself, is a tough pill to swallow.

Sam-dal feels lost so Yong-pil decides that perhaps they should search for who she really is. She’s been using an alias for so long now that perhaps she should ditch the Eun-hye name and instead, look for who Sam-dal really is. And with that, they head back to Jeju Island and back home again.

When she starts eating, Jin-dal notice a receipt for Seoul in the bin and she questions just what she was doing. Mi-ja exchanges a concerned glance to Jin-dal, and then brings up her attitude toward food. While she’s over in Jeju Island, she’s eating heartily and wants more… but yet when she was in Seoul, she never accepted the side dishes and food sent her way by her mum.

Sam-dal explains that she was working so hard that she didn’t have time to come home. She didn’t want to throw away rotten food because it made her feel bad. As for Mi-ja though, she knows that Yong-pil went with her to the mainland but keeps quiet about it for now.

While this is happening, there’s some drama between Sang-do and Yong-pil. They share a coffee together, and Sang-do admits that he knows everything about her. In fact, he outright questions why he showed up with two umbrellas at the start of the episode. “You’re still not over her are you?”

And as for Mi-ja, she asks her daughter the same thing… and the pair are silent.

During the epilogue, we see that Yong-pil always wanted to help Sam-dal and his mum to achieve their dreams. But his dream is to make sure they both have what they want and live life happily.

The Episode Review

So there’s lots of drama to unpack this episode and the show has done an excellent job with its characters. The love triangle with Sang-do feels like it’s not really going to go anywhere, which is a bit of a shame to be honest because Sang-do seems like a nice guy but Yong-pil just has too much history with Sam-dal.

The extra romances with Jin-dal and Da-young is a nice touch too, while the drama over in Seoul feels like it could naturally come to a close with Eun-ju falling flat on her face and being exposed for everything she’s done. It seemed obvious from the beginning that she was lying about the suicide but now we have confirmation of that. It’s a pity that Sam-dal didn’t record all of that to use against her, but to be honest it seems like her downfall is going to come as a result of her own actions so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

As for the rest of the show, the characters are all likable, there’s a great vibe to this and the themes around finding oneself and carving a unique life certainly resonate a lot.

This is definitely turning into a must-watch weekend K-drama and there’s lots to like with this one. Roll on next week!