Welcome to Samdal-ri – K-drama Episode 9 Recap & Review

The Story of the Two Mi-jas

Episode 9 of Welcome to Samdal-ri begins with us back on the coast again. We’re in the past and a newcomer arrives on Jeju Island. She’s from the mainland and her name is Mi-ja. Just like our Mi-ja. The latter pranks the mainlander with an octopus and she’s grilled hard but ironically, the pair end up becoming the best of friends.

Fast forward to 1981 and the pair get themselves dressed up with similar hairstyles, they watch the Korean award shows, with Cho Yong-pil winning in 1982 and 1983. Fast forward to 1985 and the pair are both pregnant. The best friends end up giving birth to Sam-dal and Yong-pil. They both make a promise to be there for each other and decide to be joint-mothers.

We then arrive at 2002 and both Yong-pil and Sam-dal are going to school. Bu Mi-ja and Ko Mi-ja are still best of friends. They head down to the shore together but despite warnings about the coast, they both decide to go into the water to dive. This happens to be the biggest mistake of their life, as Bu Mi-ja, Yong-pil’s mother, passes away.

In the present, Ko Mi-ja is rescued from the water and taken to the hospital. Sang-tae shows up too and sees her taken away in an ambulance;  memories of the past come flooding back like angry waves.

Yong-pil rings Sam-dal to check up on her and encourages Sam-dal to look after herself and that Mi-ja will be absolutely fine. He promises nothing will happen, but Sam-dal is beside herself with worry and grief. That is only compounded further in the hospital when the sisters learn that Mi-ja has arrhythmia. She takes medicine for it and is seeing Mr Kim.

The thing is, arrhythmia is serious and she really shouldn’t be diving with this condition. Yong-pil knows all about this and the fact that he’s kept it a secret from Sam-dal causes a rift between them, especially when she asks him about it out in the hallway.

Yong-pil did try to encourage Mi-ja to tell the girls but she refused, telling him to stay out of this. He kept her wishes but in reality, Sam-dal believes he should have broken that promise. After all, she’s like a time bomb right now and diving with that condition is super dangerous. Yong-pil also brings up the fact that she’s been coming and going on Jeju Island, but Sam-dal Is not happy, as he doesn’t know the full story, and ultimately walks away.

While this is going on, Ha-yul ends up by the water, scared about losing her grandmother. She likens it to bottlenose dolphins, thanks to Ji-chan showing up. The poor girl starts crying though, remembering back to her grandmother discussing how scared she is of the sea and how being a haenyeo doesn’t make her immune to these things. She’s lost a lot of loved ones to the water.

In the morning, Mi-ja awakens and she starts getting ready to leave. She decides to rest at home, shrugging off her near-death experience. The sisters are all there for her and encourage Mi-ja to take this seriously. She likens it to the others on the island with their medication, and tells them all not to make a fuss.

Shockingly, it’s their dad, Jo Pan-sik, who gets involved and speaks his mind, encouraging her to stick around for longer. All of them are shocked… but Mi-ja does no such thing and they pack up to go home. Mi-ja is hard-headed and it seems she’s going to keep diving.

In the midst of this, Sang-tae heads off to a temple to pay his respects to his wife. He tries to get his anger under control but you can tell he’s really hurting right now.

Yong-pil shows up to drive the girls home. Back there, Sam-dal contemplates whether to ring Yong-pil and if she was too hasty or not. In the end, she decides not to. As for Yong-pil, it turns out he’s been keeping an eye on Mi-ja for a long while. He gave her the floral design buoy on purpose so she’d stand out in the water and made sure he’d always watch out for her. When Sam-dal does eventually catch up with Yong-pil that afternoon, he confirms as much, telling her that “my mum is your mum and your mum is my mum”.

Back home, Sang-tae confronts his son about the buoy. He’s not happy and tells Yong-pil to pack his stuff up and leave. He resents Mi-ja for what happened to his wife and wants Yong-pil to feel the same way. The thing is, he doesn’t hate her and refuses to blame her for what happened. He reuses to bring himself to feel this, while Sang-tae’s heart keeps breaking thinking about this. As they talk, Sang-tae is shocked and realizes that Yong-pil still likes Sam-dal.

Meanwhile, Sam-dal learns from Eun-u and Gyeong-tae that Yong-pil passed up joining the HQ 8 years back because his heart was destroyed after their break-up. He couldn’t bear to go to the mainland and potentially face Sam-dal there. Gyeong-tae also confirms that Yong-pil has been looking out for her family all this time.

Sam-dal drowns her sorrows in alcohol and rushes off. When she’s on her own Yong-pil shows and she asks him why he’s given everything up for her. Sam-dal points out that she found it really hard to contact them over in Jeju again because of him. She tried to erase everything about him and forget him but she keeps wavering because he continues to ask if she’s okay and keeps looking out for her.

“What are you going to do if I really do lean on you?” She says, before walking off. Yong-pil follows, holding her wrist and staring deeply into her beautiful eyes. As they stare at one another, Sam-dal leans forward and kisses Yong-pil.

The Episode Review

Another great episode of Welcome to Samdal-ri finally sheds light on the past and helps us to understand exactly what the connection is to the two families. Not only that, we also see the heartache and drama that Sang-tae is going through and understand why his bitterness and resentful attitude (regardless of how destructive it is) is directed at Mi-ja.

This ultimately translates across to Sam-dal and Yong-pil, who are both caught in the middle of this incessant parental drama. The kiss at the end of the chapter is a lovely way of bringing everything full circle and seeing all the emotion brought out. And it was a great kiss too!

The subplots, especially that involving Sang-do, are kept on the backburner for now while the drama involving Mi-ja and the family is fleshed out, but judging by the preview for tomorrow’s follow-up, it looks like we’ve got quite the dramatic episode to follow!