The Loan Shark
Episode 5 of The Goddess Of Revenge begins with a short prologue involving a truck before cutting back to Chairman Song being caught out for the sexual predator that he is. Despite being seen on camera, he still chains Hae-Ra up and prepares to have his way with her. Thankfully police sirens wail outside signaling that the evil Chairman’s time is up. When Min-Joon finds out, he races to the scene but is handed a USB drive in an envelope, which constitutes as incriminating evidence against Chairman Song. As he heads out for a run, narration informs us that Chairman Song has been arrested. Prosecutor Jang phones. At Gusan Academy, Hae-Ra does her best to try and sleep but her ordeal has clearly left a mark on her. Unable to get back to sleep, she heads out and buys some drinks before eventually sitting with Eun-Hye and discussing what’s happened. Elsewhere, a loan shark called Mr Choi arrives to collect his money from a boy called Jung-Woo who’s tending to his brother, Jung-Hoon. He’s been beaten down and demands more cash than the boy’s paycheck. At FB life, Tae-On receives a call from the deputy chief regarding the current situation at the company. When she arrives at the board meeting, the Chairman shows and discusses the scandal surrounding Director Kim (his daughter of course) and chalks it up to “good experience” for her. Telling the others that his daughter is naïve, Tae-On is obviously not happy and breaks her nail on the table. Hoon-Seok is brought into police custody under charges of trying to murder Hae-Ra. When he arrives at the station, Min-Joon is there with an agreement for him to sign. Hae-Ra and Eun-Tye set up their business, complete with swanky new business cards and an online presence called “Live Revenge Agency”. After heading out shopping for lights, she returns to find Eun-Tye handing over an envelope to Jung-Woo. After Hae-Ra tries in vain to pry for more information, Min-Joon arrives and hands over the full details of this case. It turns out loan sharks are trying to get 80 million won from these minors. It’s a pretty horrific case but one that Hae-Ra wants no part of. She tells the others that the theme is “too stale” given it’s a simple case of owing and spending money. Eun-Tye remains convinced there’s more to this though and asks Hae-Ra just why she’s so cold about this. Despite clearly receiving help in the past from Cha Mi-Yeon, Hae-Ra lies and tells the others she’s never done this before. In another flashback, we see that Min-Joon knows about Hae-Ra’s lying and tries to work out what to do with this information. To begin with, he tasks Do-Yoon with investigating the publishing agency and seeing how far the issue lies with them. Hae-Ra heads off in search of new cases before eventually paying her respects to Ha Yul, the baby she lost at hospital. Speaking to her Uncle (Ahjussi), they discuss Ga-On and how difficult this month is given her conflicted emotions over this. Speaking of which, Ga On video calls her son as we see a flashback involving a ring he handed her in a bid to protect Hae-Ra from any harm in the future. Hae-Ra wishes her son a happy birthday, who thanks her for the bike she bought for him. After the call, Hae-Ra heads home but on the way sees these two boys beaten down by Mr Choi and the other loan sharks. She doesn’t get involved though and instead walks back to the office, unbeknownst to her that Hyun-Sung happens to be lying in wait. When she walks through the door, he bolts it shut behind him and comes at her with a knife. Enraged, he holds a lighter up and begins turning on the gas from a nearby cannister. “Let’s die together!” He says, maniacal and wide-eyed. However, Hae-Ra is having none of this and quickly stands up, confronting Hyun-Sung about his anger and telling her that she doesn’t want to die. Breaking the lock off the door, he suddenly steps forward and sacrifices himself in the wake of Jung-Woo showing with a knife. It turns out he’s working with Happy Credit, the same firm that she’s become entangled with. As Hyun-Sung lies on the floor bleeding, Min-Joon heads in to see Tae-On.
The Episode Review
Goddess Of Revenge is one of those dramas you really need to take with a grain of salt to enjoy properly. There’s still a lot of drama here, no doubt, but it’s also a show that doesn’t necessarily do anything to stand out from the numerous other revenge stories out there. In fact, in a way it’s only made worse by Hae-Ra’s cold demeanor toward helping others. Calling Jung-Woo’s case “stale” doesn’t put her character in a very favourable light and it’s only made worse by the contrived ending where Hae-Ra is in the firing line. Why did Hyun-Sung suddenly show back up and threaten Hae-Ra with a knife? Given he was the one who colluded with Hoon-Seok in the first place, it seems a little odd that he would just suddenly pull that card and come at her. And that’s before mentioning him saving her life too. Hopefully this is explained a bit more in the next episodes to come. While it may not be the best drama out there, Goddess Of Revenge is still enjoyable and has just enough going for it to stick with for the foreseeable future.
