Recap and Review: Penthouse Season 3, Episode 5 – “Even I’m disappointed in you.”

Earlier in the day, Secretary Jo met with Dong Pil to warn him about Dan Tae’s suspicions of him, begging him to stop his quest for revenge. When Dong Pil refuses, a poison dart hits him in the neck and Secretary Jo orders the goons to take him to the villa where they lay him in a bed. After serving her spiked juice, the housekeeper tells a now-sleepy Seok Kyung to go rest in her bed as well.

Meanwhile, Seo Jin prays that Yoon Hee protect Eun Byeol and promises to beg for her forgiveness for the rest of her life. She and Su Ryeon come to a checkpoint where the police inform them of sightings near Kiam Cliffs. Seo Jin can’t wait any longer and she hops into the car and drives off ahead by herself.

After grabbing the DNA results envelope from the car, Dan Tae leaves as Yoon Hee continues to struggle against the push of the SUV. A Su Ryeon apparition asks Yoon Hee what she wanted to tell her. Yoon Hee tells the apparition that Seok Kyung is her biological daughter.

Safely in the car with Secretary Jo, Dan Tae opens the envelope to see it contains… restaurant flyers. Dan Tae orders Secretary Jo to search the water for Yoon Hee.

With the road blocked, Seo Jin gets out of the car and runs barefoot toward the cliffs. When Su Ryeon arrives, Seo Jin is with Eun Byeol. But no cars or Yoon Hee in sight.

Su Ryeon asks where Yoon Hee is, but Seo Jin only hysterically cries over Eun Byeol. Su Ryeon looks over the cliff, but finds Yoon Hee’s bloody shoes and fears the worst.

Back home, Seok Hoon tries to comfort a worried Rona who says she can’t go on living without her mother.

Su Ryeon again asks Seo Jin about Yoon Hee. But Seo Jin insists she saw nothing but an unconscious Eun Byeol lying here, especially through the fog.

Su Ryeon begs the police to search for Yoon Hee in the lake. They call for divers just as Secretary Jo deploys their own divers as well.

The police tell Su Ryeon that they must put the search and rescue on hold because of the incoming storm.

Back at Hera Palace, Dan Tae orders his goons to smash the walls open to see what Dong Pil had been searching for. Secretary Jo hands Dan Tae the DNA results and Logan’s vault key which they found in Yoon Hee’s pocket.

Dong Pil wakes up and hurries out of the villa and back to Hera Palace. But when he smashes into the wall, he finds Yoon Hee’s dead body flop out.

Dan Tae emerges from the shadows and taunts Dong Pil who realizes he is being set up. Secretary Jo comes out recording as Dong Pil chokes Dan Tae against the wall. Secretary Jo orders Dong Pil to let his boss go and he whacks his head with a rod. The goons come in to subdue Dong Pil as Dan Tae shows him Kim Mi Sook’s phone that holds evidence of Dan Tae’s evil.

Dong Pil vows to make Dan Tae and Seok Kyung pay for abusing Jenny. Dan Tae lets Dong Pil know he’s about to be painted as a serial killer who has murdered Yoon Hee and Seok Kyung as well as tormenting Eun Byeol with a fake nanny.

Dan Tae assures Dong Pil that he will be arrested in front of his daughter Jenny who, along with Ma Ri, will die as well. Jenny calls her father and Dan Tae answers it to let him hear how worried his wife and daughter are.

Dong Pil gets on his knees and begs for Dan Tae’s forgiveness. Dan Tae says if Dong Pil betrays him once more, it’s over. Dan Tae orders Dong Pil dispose of Yoon Hee’s body. He puts on a diving suit and drags her back into the lake himself.

Next morning, Seo Jin tells a still unconscious Eun Byeol that it’s all over now. Over at the villa, Seok Kyung wakes up and hurries downstairs where Dan Tae is waiting. She checks her phone and is upset that neither Su Ryeon nor Seok Hoon even called to check on her after being out all night.

Rona and Seok Hoon arrive at Kiam Cliffs where Su Ryeon has been all night. The police pull up the two destroyed vehicles from the water.

Jenny and her mother are watching the news reporting that Yoon Hee kidnapped Eun Byeol. Dong Pil arrives home and Ma Ri confronts him, angry that he would bow down to Dan Tae once more. He screams at her to just stay still and kiss Dan Tae’s ass from now on.

Dong Pil locks himself in the bathroom and Jenny knocks on the door to hurry and watch the breaking news about Yoon Hee.

Elsewhere in Hera, the Lees are also watching the news and Sang Ah can’t believe Yoon Hee can be such trash as to commit these crimes while on probation. Min Hyuk seems to empathize with Yoon Hee since Eun Byeol still hadn’t apologized to Rona. Sang Ah piles on the mother and daughter, which seems to annoy Min Hyuk who gets up and leaves.

Kyu Jin thinks something else is at play here. A woman with ten billion dollars wouldn’t just disappear like this.

At the bank, Dan Tae enters Logan’s vault where only a few dozen gold bars are left. Kyu Jin appears and confronts Dan Tae about what’s happened to Yoon Hee. He’s here just to get his fair share of the moneys, but both are upset there’s not ten billion here. They agree to split whatever’s here. Kyu Jin says he’ll use the money to buy Cheong A shares.

At the office, Dan Tae orders Secretary Jo to find out everything there is to know about Yoon Hee’s recent movements. And he gives him a gold bar as a tip for his good work.

Meanwhile under Dan Tae’s orders, Ms. Jin holds a press conference to say that Yoon Hee kidnapped Eun Byeol after Rona helped in imprisoning her in their home. She presents CCTV footage from the garage as proof of her claims and then proceeds to pin everything she’s done on Yoon Hee and Logan.

Su Ryeon goes to the hospital and cannot believe Seo Jin’s complete 180 in thinking Yoon Hee is now scum of the earth. Seo Jin accuses Su Ryeon of being in cahoots with Yoon Hee and Logan too and says she can no longer trust her. Their alliance is over.

Su Ryeon gets a call from Seok Hoon and hurries out.

Yoon Cheol arrives to visit his daughter, but Seo Jin scolds him for being an absent father. She then proceeds to mock the fact that he will never see his precious Yoon Hee ever again, maybe.

At his gosiwon room, Yoon Cheol reminisces over the textbook Yoon Hee gifted him when they were still madly in love with each other. But he turns on the TV to see that Yoon Hee’s body has been found.

Seok Hoon accompanies Rona to the morgue where she sees her mother’s dead body on the table for the first time. Su Ryeon arrives as a distraught Rona falls to her knees in agony. Su Ryeon does not want to believe this is even happening.

Over at the office, Kyu Jin accuses Dan Tae of tipping off Seo Jin about buying shares. This is since Seo Jin is now in possession of Yoon Hee’s Cheong A shares.

Seo Jin confirms all their moves with Secretary Do, including transferring the shares as well as driving public sentiment into getting Seoul National University to accept Eun Byeol out of pity.

Rona is alone at her mother’s funeral.

Jenny and Ma Ri come to pay their respects and tearfully hug Rona.

Min Hyuk and Sang Ah also come by. But as soon as they’re outside of the room, Sang Ah stuffs her foot in her mouth by being super disrespectful about the dead. Listening to the nonsense, Jenny decides she will stay here with Rona. But Ma Ri says she will stay as well.

Sang Ah scoffs at the mother and daughter feeling so close to Yoon Hee. But Min Hyuk says even he’s disappointed in her.

Seok Hoon and Su Ryeon are with Rona in the room when reporters suddenly storm in hurling accusations and hurtful words at both the dead, Rona and Su Ryeon. Seok Hoon tries to shove the media out of the room, but Rona gets shoved to the ground instead.

Jenny, Ma Ri, Min Hyuk and Sang Ah arrive just as the funeral room is thrown into chaos when they defend Rona and Yoon Hee from the circus of media piranhas.

Over at Hera Palace, Joon Ki taunts Dan Tae before leaving to meet with Dong Pil whom he orders to do something for him. Joon Ki follows and watches them talk at the bar.

Back at the hospital, Su Ryeon remembers Yoon Hee’s final words about needing to tell her something and how Seok Kyung needed to stay away from Dan Tae. Su Ryeon asks Seok Hoon about his sister, but he tells her not worry about the brat who is just acting out. She’s obviously seen the news, but hasn’t been by yet.

Inside, Yoon Cheol pays his final respects to Yoon Hee and turns to Rona. He apologizes to her and she asks how dare he show his face here.

“Do you think that little of me and mom?”

Rona says she understands what he did for his daughter. But to treat Yoon Hee like that is unforgivable. He begs her for one more chance, but Rona refuses. What makes him think she will forgive him when her mother never did. The fact that he was like a father to her for a while disgusts her.

Rona tells Yoon Cheol to never come here ever again. She hits him with flowers and cries as she begs him to leave.

A distraught Rona returns home, crying out to her mother.

Seok Hoon accompanies Su Ryeon back home as well. But Seok Kyung is there, gleefully waiting for this opportunity to rub Yoon Hee’s death in their faces. Seok Hoon screams in anger at his sister. Su Ryeon asks Seok Kyung why she is the way she is.

Seok Kyung gets in Su Ryeon’s face and says she should be happy that her daughter’s murderer is now dead. The brat proceeds to tell her mother to drop the saintly act and just let her true feelings out.

Su Ryeon slaps Seok Kyung and says she no longer cares how she lives her life or what she does with her father.

“You are no longer my daughter.”

Su Ryeon orders the housekeepers to collect all of Seok Kyung’s things, change the passcodes and usher her out. Hye In will take her room from now on. Seok Kyung screams that Su Ryeon’s true colors are finally showing.

Seok Hoon “helps” Seok Kyung by tossing her bags on the floor. He says she will never return here unless she apologizes to their mother. He adds that watching how she is living her life makes him sick.

Seok Kyung vows to never return.

Su Ryeon remembers Yoon Hee’s gift of Paradise Lost. Before she can open the book, Joon Ki visits. He asks if she can accompany him to his lawyer while he works on regaining his identity. Su Ryeon says of course, that’s what Logan would’ve wanted.

Joon Ki wonders out loud if their fates would have been different if his parents were not murdered.

Joon Ki spills tea on himself and excuses himself to go wash up. But in reality, he searches through Su Ryeon’s room to look for Logan’s ten billion dollars. He finds nothing in her drawers until he drops Paradise Lost and finds the envelope with the ten billion dollar check inside.

Su Ryeon arrives just in time and he returns the check into the book. He apologizes for getting lost. Su Ryeon, however, is growing suspicious of him.

Over at the gosiwon, Yoon Cheol gets a call from a mysterious figure who disguises their voice. The person had ordered Yoon Cheol make Dan Tae believe he is his dog. Now it’s time for the next mission.

Yoon Cheol demands to know who this person is, but the person says he must earn his money. Yoon Cheol refuses anything that has to do with Dan Tae, but the person says this mission is worth it.

Yoon Cheol makes his way to the address given to him by the mysterious figure. He enters a strange facility and is shocked by what he encounters.

Over at Hera Palace, the Lees are celebrating Min Hyuk being accepted into Seoul National University. But Kyu Jin and Sang Ah are shocked that Eun Byeol would get a pity acceptance, probably thanks to Seo Jin’s maneuvering.

The husband and wife agree that Seo Jin much scarier than Dan Tae.

At the concert hall, Seo Jin is at the rehearsal for her inauguration ceremony.

She remembers the events of the cliff. Yoon Hee had told her it was all Dan Tae. And while Yoon Hee continued to hold the car off from falling, Seo Jin was able to pull Eun Byeol out of the car.

But as Yoon Hee’s leg gets broken by the force of the car on her body, Seo Jin begins remembering what the two of them have been through since they were in high school. Instead of saving Yoon Hee, Seo Jin shifted the car into neutral and gave the car the push it needed to drop it, the SUV and Yoon Hee.

“Our ill-fated relationship ends here.”

Seo Jin declares she is finally the winner.

Episode Thoughts

Well, it’s only Episode 5. So can’t declare any winners just yet. lol

So first of all, we all agree Yoon Hee isn’t dead. Okay. So proceeding under that knowledge, this was an interesting episode for me. On one hand, it’s hard to feel anything for a character’s death on Penthouse knowing that they’ll most likely pop up alive in the future. Again, I don’t have a problem with coming back from the dead. Growing up watching Days of our Lives and Passions has desensitized me to such soap opera antics. lol

At the same time, the scenes at the hospital funeral and Rona mourning were so well done. Thanks to those scenes, I felt the emotional impact of Yoon Hee’s death. If even for just those moments. I guess that’s a testament to the great actors who deliver wonderful performances in spite of the so-so material. After all, the writing is certainly not groundbreaking or profound. We’re just on an exhausting roller coaster that we’ve willingly hopped onto for the ride.

Kim Hyun Soo especially was so good in all her scenes.

Though it was played for laughs in a sort of cat fight kind of way, seeing the gang fighting against the media was actually sort of emotional as well. It was great to see, though I would’ve liked them to have gotten more violent with the press. You know? Whack them upside the head with a burning candle. Smash the picture frames in their faces. Cut them with the thorns of the roses.

Most people on this show deserve that kind of beating, to be honest. Sorry not sorry. Lol But at that moment, it was a good culmination of the scenes leading up to it with Rona’s despair and common decency in mind.

Speaking of comeuppance, the most satisfying moment of the episode was definitely Su Ryeon screaming at Seok Kyung to get out. A beautiful moment and definitely a long time coming. She deserved two slaps at that moment. How disgusting for her to relish in the death of someone. And someone whose daughter she viciously tormented too. That goes on a list of irredeemable things for her.

But even if Seok Kyung is Su Ryeon’s real daughter, Seok Kyung needs to have some sense slapped into her many times over. I hope that she ends up doing something criminal in an effort to please her father which then results in her spending time in jail. That can help in her potential redemption arc. But if she doesn’t get punished and is just forgiven easily in a Filipino soap opera kind of of way? No thank you.

Most of the other moments in the episode were predictable. Such as Ms. Jin’s press conference, which was actually kind of an underwhelming conclusion to her story? Is that the last we’ve seen of her?

We also saw Jun Ki’s shift toward the dark side which is sooner than I expected. I thought he’d romance Su Ryeon a little more before he goes full on wacko. But we’ll see. They’re already planting the seeds now. He did return the money into the book. So perhaps he will get closer to Su Ryeon in order to gain access to it.

The weakest characters this season are really Kyu Jin and Sang Ah. While everyone else has moved one way or another, they’ve remained the stereotypical selfish busy-bodies with zero character development. I guess as comic relief. But they’ve become actually quite annoying. At the very least, Min Hyuk seems to finally be seeing some growth. At this point, I’m not holding my breath for any significant story from him, though he deserves it. But at least I enjoyed him being as annoyed by his parents as I was.

Kudos to Jenny and Ma Ri though. While the writing for them hasn’t been consistent, I’ll take the positive moments from them any time.

The two big “shockers” this episode though were of course Yoon Cheol being summoned to that secret facility and Seo Jin seemingly murdering Yoon Hee.

First to Seo Jin, it wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Like, you wouldn’t put it past her to do such a thing. Her declaring victory is setting up a déjà vu moment of when Yoon Hee appears once again and she goes…

But I will take that moment as showing that there is no redemption for Seo Jin by the end of this ride. It would be much more in character for her to continue down a dark, selfish path rather than reforming and suddenly being half of an angel.

Of course, with the way the show likes to play around with the timeline, we might be missing something from those scenes on the cliff and things aren’t as they seem.

As for the secret facility, the spoiler of the person in that hospital bed spread across blogs and news sites. I can only guess the person in the bed is Seol Ah and the shadowy figure is either Logan or Yoon Hee. Or maybe the other way around. Seol Ah is the figure and the bedridden patient is Logan or Yoon Hee.

Anyway, Episode 5 was a predictable hour and a half, but somehow still exciting and at times emotional. There’s a lingering feeling of, I guess, fatigue setting in. A lot of the story beats we are seeing now are things we’ve seen already in seasons one and two. So it’s feeling a bit repetitive, unfortunately. The cast is able to carry the show though and pick up the slack so far. But with at least 7-8 episodes left, they’ll have to step it up a little moving forward.