When The Stars Gossip – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

Fruit Flies & Mice

Episode 2 of When The Stars Gossip begins with a brief overview of what’s happening over at the space station, including how they intend to do various experiments that can’t be done on Earth. So, what of Ryong in the midst of this? What’s his job on the flight beyond being a tourist? Well, we’ll soon find out!

On the rocket, our trio make it to the space station, although docking does take a while as they’re not in alignment to begin with. G.o-10 does eventually make it, but the scene works well to show just how meticulous seemingly menial tasks are in outer space.

After knocking several times on the hatch, our trio – Santiago, Ryong and Eve – meet their fellow comrades. Ryong comes armed with a “housewarming” gift and there are also a bunch of houseflies that join them too, thanks to Santi opening a bag of fruit.

Eve is very much onboard with this, especially when she grabs a microscope and watches the male and female fruit flies mating. We even get a shot of it too for some reason. Anyway, Eve is holding everybody up on Earth because she’s so invested and enjoying watching them mating.

Everybody on Earth is pretty impatient, especially Jae-ryong, who sits in his office wondering just what the heck the hold-up is. This is specifically due to an alternate plan he has set up (which we find out more about later on!)

Those in Seoul Mission Control Center (MCC) are also completely incredulous to the whole endeavour. Given the fruit flies are on the lever they need to open the hatch, they’re at a stalemate right now.

In the midst of this, there’s some banter from Ryong, who wants to call the fruit flies Public and Indecency. He also teases Eve and refuses to call her commander. ‘

Eventually the hatch is opened though and alongside our trio, we meet Mina Lee, Kang-su (whom we saw last episode as Go-eun’s ex boyfriend), and Seung-joon. The introductions are smooth… except for Ryong, who clings to Eve and struggles to get used to zero gravity. In the midst of Ryong floating about, trying to get used to the new accommodation, Eve shows off some lottery tickets. Ryong’s housewarming gift? Well, it’s the coup-de-grace for everybody… ice cream!

There’s another subplot woven through this which we saw a little bit of in episode 1, but here it has more explanation. It turns out Jae-ryong has a cunning plan to keep his lineage going. Dong-hun obviously passed away but his sperm has been preserved and the Chairman intends to send it into space because apparently that will help “straighten the sperm out”. Then, they can inject his partner’s eggs and hopefully get her pregnant.

The eggs are being snuck onboard via Ryong, whom Jae-ryong spoke to ahead of the launch. He explains that the sperm is being sent on a cargo ship in advance. Furthermore, if Ryong can do this, the stubborn man may reconsider the relationship Ryong has with Go-eun. However, there’s a catch.

The eggs are being smuggled onboard via the vanilla ice-cream container. The thing is, this is the blandest flavour which Go-eun intended to keep for himself. What he didn’t expect however, was Eve picking that ice cream.

Eve threatens him with a gun and tests the ice cream for drugs when Ryong is persistent and trying to get it back. There’s no sign of drugs of course, but Eve does squeeze the empty packet after, right down to a compact size. This throws question marks over whether the eggs are actually okay… until we run into an even bigger problem. Turns out it wasn’t this ice cream that the eggs were on, it’s in Kang-su’s. He feeds back to Jae-ryong in private that everything is ok, and is proceeding as normal.

As he informs the chairman, Go-eun and Min-Jung show up in the office and they’re shocked that this has been passed to Kang-su and not Ryong. That is, until Go-eun rings through and reveals that he’s just the delivery man.

Now, the purpose of this space station is actually relating to breeding and fertility, so it’s the perfect breeding ground to smuggle onboard the eggs and sperm. When Ryong tries to confront Kang-su about all of this, the latter easily subdues our protagonist given what’s transpired in the past. He also doesn’t like Ryong given he’s in a relationship with Go-eun and promises that he’ll get her back.

As Ryong turns in for the night along with the others, we cut back to the past. It turns out Jae-ryong and Ryong made a deal, with the latter wanting MZ Group to build a fertility clinic in space if this experiment is  successful. That way, other people desperate for results like this can have some hope. The Chairman initially scoffs at the idea but does shake his hand, although it’s clear he’s done so with no intention of honouring Ryong’s deal.

In the morning, there’s drama onboard the space station with the mice they’ve brought onboard. The male mouse subject is showing signs of aggression and biting into the females. The group contemplate how best to deal with this, and try to work out whether to kill it or not. Kang-su believes they need to remain objective here and stick to policy. Ie. killing the mouse outright.

When it has a heart attack, Ryong and Eve work together to revive it. In fact, this single move catapults Ryong into the popular books alongside the other astronauts onboard and with those in ground control. Even Jae-ryong is impressed. Eve hugs Ryong onboard the flight, and she’s excited that the mice will eventually mate now. She calls him a great doctor and is grateful that he’s with them.

In the midst of this celebration, Go-eun tries to ring through but given Ryong is enjoying this moment with Eve and the others, he chooses not to answer.

The Episode Review

Looks like romance is back on the menu, boys! With those little hints of romance bleeding through, this episode starts to deliver the romantic foundations between Eve and Ryong, who clearly have good chemistry together. However, a lot of this show is centered on sex and physical intimacy and it’ll be interesting to see how the show tackles that going forward while retaining the same comedic outlook, given Korea’s relatively conservative views on the topic.

There are parts of this show that do drag out, like the drama involving the fruit flies which feels like such a weird inclusion to actually show the mating scene. Did we really need that? However, there’s also some nice character dynamics starting to shine through now, although it would be good to see these characters evolve beyond the obvious tropes each adopt.

Fair play to When The Stars Gossip though, this show at least has a completely different setting and ideas compared to a lot of K-dramas out there, helping it stand out. This is undoubtedly an ambitious project, seeing the alternate settings between Earth and the space station, and it definitely has some intriguing elements.

Even with its flaws, there’s certainly enough here to stick with for next week’s follow-up.