Suspicions
After the bombshell reveal at the school meeting, episode 6 of The Penthouse begins with Su-Ryeon catching up with Yoon-Hee and telling her she knows she means well. Su-Ryeon tells the poor woman to stay strong for her daughter. When she leaves, Su-Ryeon receives a message from Congressman Jo confirming that he’s accepting donations. With Su-Ryeon desperate to get back at him for the blackmailing, she manages to dig up dirt on him courtesy of her husband’s files. Su-Ryeon promises this is just the beginning and drops off the photos at the news station. When the Congressman finds out, he believes it’s Yoon-Hee who’s responsible. Only, Su-Ryeon shows up at his door and blows that theory out the water. She knows that he deported all the orphaned kids after they lost their purpose for him. She promises to get revenge for what happened to Seol-A, which happens to be the last straw for the Congressman. He wrestles with Su-Ryeon and looks set to hit her in the head with a glass bottle… until Tae-Joo shows up and saves the day. He knocks the Congressman down, who stumbles over the railings and falls to his doom. Before they can clean up the mess, Yoon-Hee turns up at the door. Su-Ryeon happens to be hiding, ignoring a call from her husband, while Yoon-Hee notices the various different papers dotted around the table. Tae-Joo records her leaving for collateral damage; an end game to acquit Su-Ryeon from any wrongdoing it seems. Meanwhile, Seo-Jin’s prospects of being in charge of the foundation slip through her fingers. Her parents take that away from her and there’s nothing she can do. Yoon-Cheol is forced into the room adjacent to them and he confronts her after their meeting is done. As the two start fighting, Seo-Jin eventually walks away while her husband continues to drink the bottle of soju he’s gripping tightly. Back home, Joo briefs Kyu-Jin and tells him they have plans to expand. That expansion comes in the form of multiple Hera Palace structures, one of which in the spot where Seol-A’s apartment burnt down. Unknown to him though, Su-Ryeon happens to be recording the entire conversation with a bug planted under the table. On the back of this, Su-Ryeon vows he’ll never get what he wants. The next day news of the Congressman’s death breaks. The police inevitably start calling for witness interviews and the last person to speak to him happens to be Yoon-Hee. As she gets in her car ready to leave, Tae-Joo lies in wait in the back seat. After hearing her side of the story, he implores her to run with the fake story that she found the Congressman dead in his bath. On top of that, she’s also told to buy out Unit 3 at Bosuk Village to thwart Joo’s plans. Joo is cunning though and he kills Hye-In at the hospital, pulling the plug and struggling to hold back his smile when Su-Ryeon shows up devastated. After the funeral, Su-Ryeon heads off alone… where the real truth is revealed. It turns out Hye In’s death was completely staged to make it seem like Joo pulled the plug. Tae-Joo has been working with her and together they managed to trick the evil chairman, with Hye-In alive and well elsewhere. Meanwhile, Yoon-Hee decides to take a leap of faith and buy out the Unit, reading through the information she’s been given in a black envelope. Only, no one seems willing to give her a loan. Unfortunately this prompts her to go and see a loan shark. Oh no, Yoon-Hee don’t do it! Well she accepts the money and signs the Unit over – now it’s hers. Su-Ryeon goes one step further, sending mail anonymously to Kyu-Jin telling him she knows what he’s done. She also sends a message to Yoon-Cheol and Joo with a picture of the pocket watch – from an anonymous number of course. With all the Hera Palace residents gathered together, they conclude that Su-Ryeon is the one working against him. Joo starts to piece everything together too and checks his office CCTV footage, where he sees Tae-Joo and Su-Ryeon together. He tells his secretary to bring him in while doing some research on Su-Ryeon. It turns out she’s been in contact with a detective agency, which sends him out to investigate. Roughing them up, he admits that Su-Ryeon hired them to look into his affair… only that’s what Su-Ryeon wants him to know. She actually paid him off to hide what she’s really doing. When she’s finally alone, Su-Ryeon phones Tae-Joo and tells him to get out of town. Joo knows about him and it’s not going to go well for him. Tae-Joo stands on a busy bridge overlooking traffic, delivering his “final act of loyalty” and jumping down to his doom. We then cut forward 2 months later. A cleaner in Hera Palace finds (presumably) Seol-A’s phone inside a drain and hands it in to reception. Meanwhile, Seo-Jin happens to be in charge of the art class and picks Ro-Na over Eun-Byeol – thanks to Yoon-Hee blackmailing her. On the way to her first performance, Yoon-Hee’s car is hit from behind. Seo-Jin receives a call confirming as much and it seems obvious now that all of this was her plan. With blood oozing down Ro-Na’s face, she pleads with her Mother to hurry up to the performance centre before it’s too late. Stealing someone’s bike, the pair race up the road and manage to arrive just in time. Ro-Na is unfortunately denied admission though until her mother comes and saves the day. As she hurries up to the backstage area, Ro-Na watches helplessly as she watches Eun-Byeol up on stage singing.
The Episode Review
It’s pure drama this week again as the balance of power starts to shift ever-so-slightly. Joo is starting to come under fire too and with the Congressman now dead, it remains to bee seen whether this is investigated further or if it really is chalked up to be a suicide. The big take away from this episode though comes from Yoon-Hee heading to see loan sharks. It’s almost certainly going to cause some serious problems for her going forward, especially with Seo-Jin already exerting her dominance and showing how cunning she is. The rest of the drama does well to set up these two conflicting sides; warring over the memory of Seol-A and just what happened to her that night. The mobile phone – presuming that it’s Seol-A’s of course – is quite the ominous sign and seems to hint that Seol-A’s death was definitely not accidental. Quite who’s responsible though remains a mystery but one thing’s for sure – this drama is far, far from over!
