When The Stars Gossip – K-drama Episode 1 Recap & Review

Space Vomit & Cut Toes

Episode 1 of When The Stars Gossip begins with us on October 25th 2024, at the Baikonur Cosmodrone in Kazakhstan. The astronauts show up and prepare for a system check, running down a list of safety protocols and awaiting their comrade to show.

They’re Onboard the G.O.-10 and there’s three astronauts in total, one of which happening to be the commander, Eve. We’ll circle back to her later!

For now, our attention is on Gong Ryong. He’s pretty estranged with his father-in-law, for reasons we’ll find out later on. This spills over to friction between Choi Go-eun and her dad, Choi Jae-ryong. Some of this is exacerbated by the death of Go-eun’s brother, Dong-hun. He actually saved some workers from falling debris.

Gong Ryong is an ob-gym for the MZ Medical Centre which paid a lot of money (70 billion won) for him to be one of the astronauts onboard. He’s officially dubbed a “space tourist” but does get to choose a song for take-off, so there is that! However, he’s way too nervous to follow through with this.

The mission here involves studying samples related to some of humanity’s unsolved problems, like dementia. However, its going to happen on the space station where, presumably, our story will take place.

The launch and separation process is a success, as the rocket makes it to space and all of Korea breathe a sigh of relief. When the initial G Force simmers and G.O-10 releases the solar panels, Gong Ryong ends up vomiting. As the water droplets float into the air, and the two astronauts alongside him try desperately to stop it, Gong Ryong reflects on his life.

Gong Ryong was raised by his aunties, whom we see are pretty eccentric and out there. They work at a bar and helped raise him after his mother passed away. A lot of the time Gong Ryong found himself fighting battles for his aunts, and struggling to get the money he needed for tuition.

However, he does take money from some thugs outside, showing he’s a competent fighter in the process, while Gong Ryong goes on to ace school and, with a perfect CSAT score, soar into med school beyond. There, e becomes a star nurse, working his magic as a midwife to deliver babies wherever he may be.

Gong Ryong is something of a baby-delivering celebrity and through a series of hilariously over the top montage scenes, we see just how revered he is in his role. This is why he decided to go work as an ob-gyn.

This inevitably caused him to be in charge of Go-eun’s care as a doctor. It also marks the first time he and the chairman get involved together. She and Gong Ryong end up crossing paths after a car accident and she’s not happy with her partner, calling him out for not being trustworthy (hinting at infidelity). Gong-ryong does promise to keep her upcoming surgery a secret but unfortunately, she loses her baby.

The Chairman soon finds out what’s happened and is livid. He brings Gong Ryong into the car and reprimands him over the surgery. Chairman Choi is not happy, believing he’s responsible for ending his bloodline. As a result, Gong Ryong is fired and even worse, MZ Group make it so he can’t get another job either.

When Go-eun shows up to apologize, Gong Ryong is not happy, telling her that he’s hellbent on revenge against her and her father. Surprisingly, she forces herself on him and kisses the guy, offering up a strange form of revenge. Turns out she actually likes him. But does she really?

From here, the pair end up in a whirlwind of lustful awkwardness, with us unsure if he really likes her or he’s just doing this for revenge. The same, however, could be said for Go-eun.

In this strange, blissful state, Go-eun asks him to to marry her. This catches us up to the present, explaining why Go-eun and Gong Ryong are together, and similarly why the Chairman hates him so.

Back on the shuttle, there’s big drama when the frozen corpse of that astronaut we saw earlier, hits the space station and causes the whole thing to spiral out of control. Turns out he wasn’t hallucinating this after all! And to be fair, later on, we find out this is a suit-sat, which is a satellite made from a space suit.

The Commander does manage to get things under control, stabilizing the craft before helping Gong Ryong out, who has a blocked airway. Eve saves the day, but she hurts her toes in the process. Here, there’s a prolonged look between the two, especially as Eve has just saved his life.

However, if that’s not enough drama, there’s also Go-eun’s ex, Kang Kang-su, who happens to be inside the space station. He contacts Go-eun and tells her he doesn’t want to let her go, and he’s still chummy with her father, who wants to try and get them back together.

Entangled further is the fact that Eve has just started a relationship with a man at mission control called Park Dong-a. It was actually his old suit that broke apart in space. When Eve shows to check on Gong Ryong, he turns the attention back to her feet and tries to help patch her up since she’s still bleeding a bit.

Gong Ryong believes it needs surgery so he works to do just that, threading the needle and working on her. However, threading a needle in zero G is not exactly easy and he struggles to do so, despite bragging about being a whizz with this sort of thing. He chalks it up to his own injuries but, funnily enough, Eve does it first time.

Without anesthesia, it’s not exactly a cakewalk, and Eve winces the whole time, despite allowing Gong Ryong to continue. She eventually thanks him, telling Gong Ryong to get some rest. In reply, he tells her her big toes are amazing and then lets her go. It’s clear though that, for the first time, he’s actually feeling proper attraction for someone that doesn’t result in revenge.

The Episode Review

So does anyone else thing Gong Ryong has a foot fetish here? Not that we’re about to kink shame of course, but he certainly spends a lot of time on Eve’s feet and even alone, ends up thinking about them when he calls her toes beautiful.

Anyway, this amusing titbit aside, it looks like we’re being set up for two intriguing love triangles here. The first involving Eve and her new fella at Mission Control, and the triangle between Go-eun, Gong Ryong and Eve.

The episode itself is chock full of drama but what’s certainly catching us off-guard (and I’m sure many others too), is the level of comedy in this. There’s a ton of surreal drama thrown in, alongside slapstick and just general craziness, peppered around the flashbacks which details more of Gong Ryong’s life.

So far the foundations have been set up nicely for the rest of the show to grow into, although some of the CGI and green-screen is a bit rough around the edges. Sci-fi has never been Korea’s strong-suit though, but this is a promising opening so lets hope this one breaks the mould!