In true K-Drama fashion, almost everyone in 'Heirs' is sticking their nose in other people's business- in some cases they're trying to help them out, in others they're trying to take them down. Let's take a look at who's watching whose back and whether or not it's a good thing...
5. Jeguk Group has their eye on Zeus Hotel
I'll admit that with all of the compelling personal drama going on, I've kind of neglected the bigger-picture drama going on with the companies that our characters stand to inherit. However, this episode's meeting brought that drama front and center for all of us to see. Currently, Jeguk Group (the Kim's company- Won (Choi Jin Hyuk) is the president of the group and Won and Tan's father (Jung Dong Hwan) is the chairman) is building a huge project on Jeju Island called JZ Convention. The hotel that was supposed to lease twenty floors from the building is more or less backing out, leaving Jeguk with twenty empty floors. Won tells the Jeguk board to open the floors up to other investors- including Zeus (the Choi's company, owned by Young Do's father (Choi Jin Ho) ), who had previously been frozen out. He even tells them to leak rumors that Zeus is going to be involved.
Interestingly, Secretary Yoon (Choi Won Young) had just barely finished telling Won to play nicer with Mr. Choi, lest he burn bridges with Zeus. Mr. Choi wanted a last-minute breakfast meeting with Won, but Won turned him down. Thanks to the emergency meeting about the JJ Convention, Won still managed to miss breakfast on top of having missed a prime opportunity to work something out with Mr. Choi. Won's a scary guy when he doesn't get his way, and he's been pretty reckless in his personal life lately (abruptly moving away from home, putting pressure on Hyunjoo), which gives all that rage a good chance to come around and bite him some time in the next few episodes.
4. Won and Hyo Shin are both keeping tabs on Hyun Joo
We don't know a whole lot about Hyun Joo at this point- she's not rich, she's dating Won but things aren't moving fast enough for his liking and they really aren't supposed to be together anyway, and she's tutoring Hyo Shin (Kang Ha Neul), who has a big, obvious crush on her. Hyun Joo seems to just want to get through life without making any waves, but if these boys have anything to say about it, that's not likely to happen- especially not after a private eye got pictures of Hyo Shin and Won outside Hyo Shin's apartment building late at night. But whose private eye was it? Tan's mother's? Tan and Won's father's? Someone else entirely?
3. Young Do is following in father's footsteps... eww.
Young Do is on a mission to outsmart his own father, and in doing so he's having to learn to play his dad's games. "Nobody cares about the rules when there's no referee," Mr. Choi says, after beating his son in a judo match by choking him until he nearly passed out. "All they'll remember is that I won." Young Do shows he's a quick learner when he turns the tables on dear ol' dad, inviting one of Mr. Choi's former mistresses to turn up at the family photo session. Low blow? Yes, but didn't dad say that results were all that mattered? The family picture didn't happen and Young Do walked away a winner. What a charming father-son moment.
2. Tan is still following Eun Sang around like a lost puppy
Don't get me wrong- I love a strong, independent female character, I really do, but I wish Eun Sang (Park Shin Hye) would recognize that she is not safe wandering Jeguk High by herself. Young Do has shown over and over that he has no compunctions about stepping on people to get what he wants- even Bo Na (f(x)'s Krystal), who really has very little to do with this situation.
The fact is, even if Tan wasn't around, people would have noticed Eun Sang not wearing a uniform for the first few days. Eun Sang would have tried to get between Young Do and Joon Young (Jo Yoon Woo) and found herself Young Do's new target. She would have been honest about being social care and she'd be getting bullied by even more people that she is right now- even Chan Young (CNBLUE's Minhyuk) has tried to explain this to her. Eun Sang isn't a damsel in distress in need of a knight in shining armor, she's a victim of bullying who needs someone on her side so she doesn't get bullied even worse than she already is.
If Tan was just following Eun Sang around to keep her safe, she probably wouldn't make such a big fuss about it. Sure, she'd still probably be prickly at him, but nothing like she is now. It's Tan constantly shoving his feelings in her face and begging for her to like him that's ruining things. She knows she can't like him, she knows they can't be together, and she's not willing to jeopardize her scholarship to be with him because she knows that this diploma is the most important thing in her life right now. I thought we were making progress when he backed off in the closet, but then at the end of the show he just up and kisses her out of nowhere to stop her from talking to Young Do... ugh. Now she's forever going to associate her first kiss with Tan with a time she was shaking and crying in fear of Young Do. Is that what you wanted, Tan? Really?
1. Tan may be one step ahead of Young Do, but Young Do's always right behind him.
Eun Sang or no Eun Sang, Young Do has it out for Tan. We found out last episode that Young Do and Tan's rivalry started before Tan even left for the US, when he confessed to being an illegitimate son. Young Do had only just found out his father was having an affair (one of many in the years to come), and the thought of his father possibly having an illegitimate son out there somewhere really made him mad, and he's never gotten over that anger.
Young Do's shown over and over that he has next to no compassion for anyone or anything. He has a bit of a soft spot for Myung Soo (ZE:A's Hyungshik), he has an understanding of sorts with Rachel (Kim Ji Won), and he has some kind of attraction to Eun Sang, but that's the closest he comes to caring about anyone other than his dog. We've already seen what he did to Joon Young, who was just a kid who happened to annoy him- He's got an actual vendetta against Tan. Unless something changes soon, this can't end well.
I can't believe we're almost halfway through this drama! Aside from all these people following each other around, we've got a number of people playing the avoidance game- Bo Na running out of the room every time Tan shows up, Jae Ho and Esther and whatever little game of cat and mouse they're playing, and of course Hyo Shin and his eternal dodging of the comments about the medicine he's usually taking (that last comment may or may not be partially influenced by my dire need for Kang Ha Neul to get about 300% more screen time than he's currently getting...). So, what mysteries are you curious about going into our mid-season episodes? Any predictions for the second half of the show?
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