It’s Okay To Lose
To say people were upset over last week’s episodes would be an understatement. And it’s understandable why too. Seeing Indonesia portrayed in the way that it was has obvious rubbed people up the wrong way and the apology – on a single comment rather than the official website – has done nothing to quell that anger. I won’t goo into specifics but I completely understand why people are annoyed by this. With that said, episode 7 of Racket Boys begins with the baseball coach confident that he’ll be able to bring Hae-Kang back on the team. Only this couldn’t have come at a worse time. It’s a day before the competition and Hae-Kang is preparing for the toughest match of his career. His training is brutal, prompting him to collapse on the floor in exhaustion. As we come to learn later on, the post-it he’s holding in his hand contains the “secret training” which is basically just a series of grueling exercises. Th next day, both Coach Ra and her old rival Yu-Ri come to blows at the gymnasium as they try to win over the judges. Behind the scenes, Hae-Kang confronts Park Chan and the gang, antagonizing hem before the game. Speaking of which, Han-Sol is antagonized during her doubles match. This extends to the court, where she’s constantly harassed court-side. This completely throws her off her game, as Coach Ra leaves it up to Yoon-Dam to cover for her. He takes this a little too literally and eventually loses his temper. He uses violence to knock the guy down, culminating in the pair being disqualified from the rest of the tournament. While this is going on, Yong-Dae wins his game after finding himself anxious and struggling to use the bathroom. Hyeon-Jong is the one who manages to help him out though and the kid wins his game. Meanwhile, Hae-Kang prepares for his match against Sun-Gyun. To be honest, we might as well call him blondie since that’s how everyone else refers to him. Anyway, blondie and Hae-Kang square off on the court and Hae-Kang wins without much aplomb. After, the others all get involved with their matches, including Hae-Kang’s next game against Park Chan. Given he’s the top seed, he wins his game and beats Hae-Kang. While this is going on, Se-Yoon loses to Na-Ra which obviously rubs Coach Ra up the wrong way. Despite losing, Se-Yoon remains determined to focus on her next game, telling Han-Sol that she’s done her best and that’s all she can do. Se-Yoon eventually sits with Yeong-Ja and tells her she wants to try out to be a National Athlete. While they talk, she also mentions the pressure form her past, which allows Coach Ra to understand her plight a little better. She also realizes the girl is holding in a lot of angst. Elsewhere, the racket boys discuss Hae-Kang’s future and whether he’s going to take the offer and return to play baseball or not. As this debate rages of, Hae-Kang heads up to the roof where he finds Se-Yoon sobbing. She leans on him for comfort, allowing herself to cry as the emotion she’s been feeling finally comes out.
The Episode Review
Sometimes it’s okay to lose. You can’t always win every game and this episode seems tot be about that very notion and the pressure these characters have been put under to try and achieve their optimal performance. Hae-Kang managed to exact his “revenge” on blondie but Se-Yoon loses her match, which causes her to rethink her strategy. However, there really isn’t a whole lot else going on here. Sure, we get more matches on the court and the whole Han-Sol DQ subplot but this slice of life doesn’t have a lot else going on during this hour. It also doesn’t help that Hae-Kang’s match against blondie was cut shot too. I can’t help but feel they could have made that a bigger deal than it actually was. Despite those gripes, the show does a decent job with its characters and although there is a slow pace hanging over this, there’s at least good chemistry to keep things ticking over for the time being. Everything here sets things up nicely for tomorrow’s follow-up. Will Se-Yoon and Hae-Kang console each other and start to grow closer together as a result? We shall see!
