The Shopping Centre Coup
Episode 8 of The Penthouse begins with Ro-Na saved by the new PE Teacher, who berates all the kids and sends Ro-Na off to the infirmary. While she’s being tended to, he forces the rest of the kids to do laps… unless they want more penalty points of course. He’s brutal, forcing all his students to keep running until Seok-Kyeong passes out on the floor. On the back of this, Ho-Dong receives a list of students to take extra care of, including all the Hera Palace kids. Joo gets Su-Ryeon some black roses which secretly signifies hatred. She’s aware of this too but smiles as they talk, knowing that the Bosuk Village redevelopment spells bad news for him. It may bad news for him but it’s good news for Yoon-Hee, who promises to herself that she’s going to move Ro-Na into Hera Palace. As she arrives at school, Yoon-Hee realizes Do-Ki is the new Homeroom teacher and immediately confronts Seo-Jin about this. It falls on deaf ears of course as Seo-Jin walks away. Meanwhile, Joo has a new plan to take over a large lot of land. After forcing out the last resident there, he promises they’ll increase their business prospects 5x which excites Kyu-Jin and Yoon-Cheol. When the latter heads home that evening, he overhears his wife on the phone to Joo and questions Seo-Jin over what she’s doing. Eventually when Seo-Jin leaves, he checks her phone and notices a reservation being made at a Sushi Bar. Joo becomes rattled when he confronts his son over Seol-A’s death. Wondering exactly what he saw, we cut across to numerous different students, including Eun-Byeol who sees Seol-A’s ghostly presence. Seo-Jin is not happy when her daughter becomes scared, bringing her to the mechanical room to see for herself that Seol-A isn’t alive. Even worse, she forces her to perform Seol-A’s signature song right in the room this girl was tied up and captured. That evening, Ro-Na stews over the words of the various kids at school, especially given they claimed Yoon-Hee slashed her own throat. As she ponders what happened, Seol-A’s dog shows up and she takes it home. Ro-Na acts coldly toward her Mother too, eventually confronting her about the stabbing. It’s too much for Yoon-Hee to take, who breaks down into tears as she thinks Ro-Na doesn’t believe her. Eventually though, Ro-Na realizes her Mother wouldn’t do that and vows to bring the trophy back herself. Only she’s got quite the mountain to climb when Do-Ki forces her to sing soprano and a completely different type of operatic song. Showing them up completely, she manages to sing it pitch-perfect which completely throws all the students – and Do-Ki – off-guard. When Do-Ki feeds this back to Seo-Jin, she’s irate and not happy that Ro-Na managed to sing this so perfectly. Cursing herself for not getting rid of Ro-Na sooner, Ho-Dong happens to be listening from below and wonders curiously just why Seo-Jin hates the girl so much. While Su-Ryeon convinces Yoon-Hee to move into Hera Palace, Yoon-Cheol heads to the Sushi Bar and sees Seo-Jin holding hands with someone else. For now though, he doesn’t see exactly who but it’#s enough for him to drown his sorrows in alcohol. After dinner, Joo and Seo-Jin head to a cinema that has beds instead of seats. Yoon-Hee spies the couple together and sneaks out…and straight into Su-Ryeon’s path. When Su-Ryeon shows up, she sees Joo kissing Seo-Jin first-hand and it prompts the pair to head out and start drinking. As we cut back in time, it turns out Su-Ryeon was well aware of the cinema incident and she wanted Yoon-Hee to see them together. It seems obvious now that Su-Ryeon is using Yoon-Hee as her personal weapon to get back at those inside Hera Palace. After drinking, Yoon-Hee heads up and sees Yoon-Cheol at the bar, drunk and drowning his sorrows. Eventually, Yoon-Hee brings Yoon-Cheol back to Hera Palace. Only, while there Yoon-Hee learns that Seo-Jin is not willing to settle anymore. Upstairs, Yoon-Cheol is brought in and he’s completely wasted. As Seo-Jin greets him, he calls her Yoon-Hee which completely shocks Seo-Jin. Yoon-Hee meanwhile visits Su-Ryeon and promises to help her with the upcoming auction. Even worse, she throws Yoon-Hee under the bus again and starts using her, specifically regarding the complex within the area of the shopping centre. Yoon-Hee spends 30,000 dollars on that building and because she’s won the bid, the reinvestment can’t go ahead for Joo and the others. That spells huge problems for these three men who completely capitulate and turn on one another. Promising to get to the bottom of this, Joo vows to confront Yoon-Hee himself. Believing things are looking up for her, an intoxicated Yoon-Hee buys a whole host of clothes for Ro-Na and promises that things will be different for her now. That evening, Yoon-hee has a bad dream which brings back memories of the past. Those memories include Seol-A asking for help at Hera Palace the night she died. Yoon-Hee however rejected her plea for help. When Yoon-Hee awakens, their dog Sugar (who belongs to Seol-A) stops breathing.
The Episode Review
With Su-Ryeon using Yoon-Hee as a weapon, it remains to be seen exactly what the end goal is here. Will Yoon-Hee be the one who feels the wrath of Joo and the other Hera Palace residents while Su-Ryeon remains shielded and hidden in the shadows? It seems that way but it also remains to be seen exactly how this will play out. As we approach the halfway point of this K-drama, it seems like the balance of power is shifting slightly as Ro-Na and Yoon-Hee’s fortunes look up and their new PE teacher hasn’t been corrupted like the other teachers. The ideas around class and identity are the strongest elements of this drama though and although a lot of the melodramatic elements are completely over the top, they do actually work quite well once you get used to the style. For now though, it remains to be seen exactly who killed Seol-A… my money’s definitely on one of the kids though.
