When the Camellia Blooms – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

When The Camellia Blooms returns this week with another decent episode, giving us more background on the Joker and the day Dongbaek became a witness. Yong-Sik still remains the optimistic and persistent admirer while Dongbaek opens up about her past.

The episode starts with Dongbaek and Yong-Sik walking home in the rain. He suggests going to Geabub Island one day together but as she rejects the idea, Pil-Gu suddenly appears out of nowhere. As they walk together, he starts questioning Yong-Sik about liking his mum, prompting Yong-Sik to promise not to let him down.

Jong-Ryeol confronts Jessica about spending 5 million won on Pilate classes. His mother tells him he should be lucky Jessica chose him, but he laments that some people can’t even afford to leave the city. Meanwhile, Mr No takes Hyang-Mi to Yangpyeong where she tells him this is their first day as a couple. Shocked, Mr No bursts out laughing, telling her she has a great sense of humour.

The next morning, Mr No tells her that they’re just friends but she insists, saying they’re more than friends as they have just spent the night together. Mr No denies it and replies that it’s because his car broke down. Getting the wrong end of the stick, his wife ends up looking at his credit card statement seeing where he’s been. The next morning, she berates him for being away.

Yong-Sik finds a bottle that someone dropped in an empty alleyway and brings it to Captain Byun to analyse. Byun then gives him all the files on Joker and, while checking the files, he sees a picture of one of the crime scenes with similar shoe prints as the one in the alleyway. Dongbaek and Hyang-Mi have a conversation about Pil-Gu’s dad soon after, and she recalls her childhood and early twenties, explaining how much they loved each other. She also remembers how she was hated by his mum, who called her a lump of germs.

Yong-Sik tells Captain Byun that he likes Dongbaek. Just as he wonders if his mum knows, she walks past, hitting him with her elbow. He later tries to convince her that she’s a good person, but asks him to choose. He replies that he really likes her, prompting her to tell him he needs to stop seeing her for 2 months and if he still feels the same, she will start to accept it.

Mr No’s wife picks up her mother-in- law and tells her she’s in no mood to make a big buffet for her birthday. After getting her hair done, Ja-Young decides to speak to Dongbaek about the lease and tells her she has to move by December. After Yong-Sik brings some red peppers to Dongbaek, she tells him to stop liking her as his Mum and Pil-Gu are against it. He replies that he might slow down for 2 or 3 months as he doesn’t want her to have more trouble in the future.

At the police station, the Captain gives Yong-Sik the murder file Dongbaek was a witness to and tells him it contains video footage of the victim and Dongbaek. We then flashback to the church where Dongbaek and her friend Geum-Ok both were before heading to the beauty parlour. Dongbaek decides to go into the tanning booth while Geum-Ok receives a call from a new client, telling him she’s free now. As he arrives, he puts the volume up and starts attacking her, killing her in the process while an oblivious Dongbaek winds up being a witness.

As the timer in the tanning booth goes off, Dongbaek hears the Joker cough multiple times and is unable to get out. The Joker then starts to walk towards her and tries to open the booth. Suddenly, the sprinklers activate and he runs off. As Yong-Sik closes the file, he vows to do anything he can to find the joker.

On his way to the Camellia, Yong-Sik encounters his angry mum and tells her he can’t stay away from Dongbaek for two months. Meanwhile, Dongbaek is heading home but is followed by a strange hooded figure. Yong-Sik finally arrives at her house but realises that someone is nearby, watching. The episode then ends with Yong-Sik running after the stranger and eventually catching up to them.

When The Camellia Blooms’ latest episode brings us quite a few tense moments. Even knowing that she escaped the Joker all those years ago, seeing those scenes involving him nearly getting to Dongbaek are still quite unnerving. However, luck was on her side as the sprinklers were activated just in time. Did someone activate them? More mystery surrounds the show and it definitely should keep people hooked.

The episode still brings some funny scenes and the show does really well to juggle the drama, suspense and humour together. Each character brings something different and while Dongbaek cries quite often, we see that she hasn’t had an easy life so far which would explain her sad demeanor. The episode does end on another cliffhanger though, leaving us one tantalizing question – has Yong-Sik caught the right person? Only time will tell!