The Forced Wedding
Episode 8 of Penthouse Season 2 begins with Ae-Gyo arriving at the penthouse. Yoon-Hee thinks twice about meeting her though, side-stepping to let her in without being seen. Alone with Dan-Tae, she hands over a contract for Gangnam properties and reminds him that everything is being split 50/50. When she leaves, Yoon-Hee decides to follow the girl in her car. A well-edited chase then ensues, as Yoon-Hee eventually finds herself face to face with Ae-Gyo. Only, she feign ignorance and calls her Su-Ryeon. This works until she sees the girl’s ID. During this time though, Yoon-Hee manages to install a tracking app on her phone and feeds this news back to Logan. Back home, Yoon-Cheol has divorce papers ready, claiming he doesn’t want to hurt Eun-Byeol anymore. It turns out Yoon-Hee was the one who convinced him to go back to America and get revenge all this time. He’s pretty pathetic to be honest, and eventually he walks away, leaving Yoon-Hee all alone. Ma-Ri does her best to cheer the girl up though, encouraging Yoon-Hee to join her at the bathhouse where the two clean up and sing. After, Ma-Ri admits that she’s seen everything. She mentions Yoon-Cheol leaving and tells Yoon-Hee that she needs to be strong. Specifically, she needs to stand up and fight. Meanwhile, Seo-Jin refuses to give up Cheong A Foundation. In fact, she comes to blows with her Mother over it, claiming she’d rather disown her than give up the position. Karma is a cruel mistress and as Seo-Jin heads home, Eun-Byeol takes out her frustrations on Seo-Jin, bemoaning her weak attempts at being a good parent. Not long after Seo-Jin learns about Dan-Tae, and specifically how he knows everything that’s going on. Things for Eun-Byeol continue to deteriorate though as she heads into school. All the students begin bullying her, calling the girl a fake. As she’s questioned over what happened, Je-Ni confronts Eun-Byeol and slaps her in the face. Not long after, she passes out on the floor. When Eun-Byeol awakens, Seok-Hoon is there. He has an obvious agenda though and wants her to remember everything so she can repent for what she’s done. Kyu-Jin heads in to see Yoon-Hee next, spilling details about Yoon-Cheol and what a trashy man he is. After hearing her out, he heads back to see Dan-Tae, breaking the news about the divorce and how Yoon-Cheol is seeing Seo-Jin again. Well, Seo-Jin and Yoon-Cheol meet up and discuss Dan-Tae. She apologizes for giving him a hard time and asks Yoon-Cheol to stay with her. As she leans forward and kisses him, Dan-Tae happens to be watching from around the corner. He even sees Yoon-Cheol pull away from her too. That evening, Seo-Jin eventually confronts Dan-Tae and breaks up with him. When he leaves though, he immediately makes a call and promises that she’ll regret this. And just like that, detectives show up at Seo-Jin’s apartment. The detectives believe Eun-Byeol is the main suspect in Ro-Na’s murder and even have the necklace to prove it. Of course, that necklace was from Dan-Tae and this is the revenge the chairman has been promising. As the officers look set to take off with Eun-Byeol, Seo-Jin tells them she’s responsible for killing Ro-Na. This is just the confession Dan-Tae needs, as he suddenly shows up and pays off the men around him. It turns out he’s recorded this entire confession, forcing Seo-Jin into submission. Because of this, the wedding is still on. Next, Dan-Tae meets Yoon-Hee and questions her over the land previously belonging to Hye-In. She confirms to him that her goal now is to become extremely wealthy, especially given Ro-Na has passed away. Just before she leaves, Yoon-Hee confirms to Seo-Jin that she’s got an invitation to the wedding. As wedding preparations begin, we cut back in time briefly to see Dan-Tae was the one who rang the fire alarm that night. After antagonizing Seo-Jin with her dress, Dan-Tae buys a leather jacket for Ae-Gyo. Only, Logan and Yoon-Hee happen to be listening to all of this transpire. Things do eventually blow up though, as Ae-Gyo eventually reveals that she wants his fortune. Dan-Tae holds a gun up to her head. They wrestle. Eventually, a gunshot pierces the air. Dan-Tae feels hot blood oozing down his face, leading him to check his shaky hand. Once again Dan-Tae starts to lose control after seeing blood, prompting him to begin choking Ae-Gyo. Thankfully, Logan arrives and knocks him out, taking Ae-Gyo and scooping her up in the car to safety.
The Episode Review
So based on what we’ve seen over these past 2 episodes, it seems like Su-Ryeon is actually still alive. It may well be that she switched places with Ae-Gyo at some point and that’s who died in the study. I mean, it’s a massive stretch but then again Penthouse is well known for these sort of leaps. Meanwhile, Je-Ni slapping Eun-Byeol was incredibly satisfying and my only complaint here is that she didn’t follow it up with another to the other cheek. The way Eun-Byeol stamped on the flowers was so disrespectful and while I certainly don’t condone bullying at all, Eun-Byeol getting a taste of her own medicine should hopefully be the first step to her repenting for what she’s done. At the same time, lots of character drama builds up today too. Most notably, slimy Yoon-Cheol showing his true colours and weaseling back to Seo-Jin. Well, that completely blows up in his face given Dan-Tae’s ruthless streak. The forced wedding now leaves him with nothing and that is, perhaps, the best thing for Yoon-Cheol after how he’s been acting. Overall though, Penthouse delivers a much-improved episode, one that ramps up the tension and shows that Dan-Tae was the one responsible for the fire alarm fiasco. We’ll have to wait and see what happens next but this one is just starting to pick up now.
