The Girl With The Fading Tattoo
Episode 9 of Penthouse Season 2 begins with Ae-Gyo face to face with Logan. He has a voice recording for her and threatens to show it to Dan-Tae unless she cooperates. However, Ae-Gyo simply scoffs at the blackmail attempt and walks away. As she does though, she walks into Yoon-Hee who confirms that Dan-Tae tried to have her killed. In fact, Yoon-Hee even rings Seok-Hoon to back up that story – and to confirm Yoon-Hee too was almost killed by this man. They want her to team up with them but Ae-Gyo is having none of it and leaves. Back at the penthouse, Ae-Gyo finds Dan-Tae and the two seem closer than ever. However, little does Ae-Gyo know, she’s actually being recorded by Yoon-Hee and Logan. The pair listen to their every word. Meanwhile, Seo-Jin shows up at the penthouse and starts looking for the DNA evidence Dan-Tae has against her. Only, it turns out he actually has it himself. He shows up in his office and taunts her with the bag, waving it in her face. Using Eun-Byeol as collateral damage, he tells her she needs to cooperate or there will be trouble. Defeated, Seo-Jin leaves and confirms the bad news to Yoon-Cheol – the wedding is going to continue forward. She throws some pretty harsh words at him too; a way of pushing him out her life and protecting Eun-Byeol. At school, news of Eun-Byeol dating Seok-Hoon spreads. Seok-Kyung immediately confronts Eun-Byeol and shows her arms, which are scarred from the abuse she’s suffered at the hands of her Father. She warns Eun-Byeol not to underestimate her new step-father or this could lead to disaster. At the same time, Seo-Jin attends a board meeting at school where the executives there decide whether to get rid of her off the board or not. It’s a split decision but one that eventually sees Seo-Jin allowed to stay on by one vote. Seo-Jin’s Mother and sister are livid. When they leave, Seo-Jin learns that this was the will of Seo-Jin’s Father, who asked them all to give Seo-Jin a lifeline. Meanwhile, Logan Lee and Yoon-Hee head to Golden Real Estate and break news that property value is about to increase dramatically in Dan-Tae’s property locations. This leads all the different residents at Hera Palace to begin buying out the properties, completely messing up Dan-Tae’s plans. When Dan-Tae catches wind of this, he rings Ae-Gyo and tasks her with sorting out Yoon-Hee. Only, it turns out she’s actually out having an ice coffee with her. Seok-Hoon and Seok-Kyung show up at a table across the room. Yoon-Hee sits with them and gives information about their birth Mother, including a photo and what she really looks like. Seok-Kyung walks away, unwilling to accept this is true, while Seok-Hoon begrudgingly follows. Seok-Hoon eventually catches up with his sister, telling her that Dan-Tae may well have killed Su-Ryeon. Meanwhile, Yoon-Cheol confront Dan-Tae about the wedding. He’s completely thrown off-guard though when Dan-Tae confirms Eun-Byeol was the one to kill Ro-Na. As we soon see, it was actually Dan-Tae that pulled the plug in the hospital that fateful day. But was this really Ro-Na? Still, it’s enough to rattle Yoon-Cheol, as his right-hand man arrives and beats Yoon-Cheol down to the ground. Yoon-Cheol stumbles away and speaks to Seo-Jin about this. She simply tells Yoon-Cheol to take Eun-Byeol away before it’s too late. Eun-Byeol learns about the wedding and confronts Seo-Jin. She throws her arms around her Mother and weeps, pleading with her to cancel the wedding. Unfortunately Dan-Tae’s grip is too firm and there’s no way she’ll be able to stop that. Deciding to tackle this herself, she tells Yoon-Cheol and Eun-Byeol to leave, watching painfully as they drive off. Unfortunately police stop them on the way out of town though, arresting Yoon-Cheol for Ro-Na’s murder. This, as we soon learn, is all Dan-Tae’s doing. Back at the penthouse, Seok-Hoon speaks to Yoon-Hee and confirms the necklace is with Dan-Tae. He too believes that Ro-Na was killed by Eun-Byeol. With no evidence, they don’t have a lot to go on. Meanwhile, the wedding goes ahead and Seo-Jin is forced to marry Dan-Tae. Fireworks illuminate the sky with heart-shaped sparks while everyone attends the lavish ceremony. Seo-Jin is in no mood to smile. Seok-Hoon races out to see Eun-Byeol. on his motorcycle. Scooping her up, on the way back Seok-Hoon slams on the brakes. As he does, this flashes back all of Eun-Byeol’s memories, including how she killed Ro-Na.
The Episode Review
With Eun-Byeol’s memory returning and Seo-Jin forced to face a monster worse than herself, Penthouse is doing a good job fleshing out some of its main ensemble. The wedding at the end is a nice touch while the various different subplots and theories continue to run rampant. That shower scene seems to hint that Ae-Gyo may actually be Su-Ryeon after all, which also explains why she shed a tear when Seok-Kyung rejected her birth mother and confirmed she only had one Mum. That, presumably, being Su-Ryeon. Meanwhile, Yoon-Hee continues to scheme with Logan and the pair do well to keep this going, with their moves clearly orchestrated to cause as much disruption to Dan-Tae’s operation as possible. Quite when his house of cards will topple completely though remains a mystery. The scenes involving Ma-Ri and Je-Ni were beautifully written and definitely the best moments of this episode. Seeing her proud of Ma-Ri and not ashamed of her job is a touching moment and the perfect bit of healing and warmth away from the crazy drama. One thing’s for sure though, this series is doing a great job keeping people guessing and there’s so much drama here that it’s the perfect guilty pleasure watch. The preview for tomorrow’s episode looks equally as dramatic too, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
