Summary
Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 demonstrates the cruel world of power and money and how an association with higher powers can unfairly give you an advantage in the world.
This recap of Netflix K-Drama series Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 contains significant spoilers.
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How does Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 open?
Episode 3 opens up in the past as Weol-ju is gathering water from the afterlife so she can help people enter the dreamworld. Guibanjang offers to be her liaison but she insists she will scam, lie and use another human. In the present day, Han Kang-bae starts trying to find another person to help bring to the Mystic Pop-Up Bar but he’s doing a very bad job. Weol-ju is angry, believing Han Kang-bae doesn’t know what a grudge is. She explains to him the making of a grudge. In a nutshell, Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 is all about money and power and how it can disadvantage people with less-fortunate backgrounds.
Park Byeong-jae
In the next scene, Park Byeong-jae is approaching Chairman Choi about applying for an opening with the hotel and wants to know why he did not make the cut. Byeong-jae is brought to the ground by the chairman’s security. One of the female bodyguards Kang Yeo-rin looks a little guilty about the situation. Weol-ju moves her bar near the hotel as it has had a recent recruitment drive and there will be a lot of depressed souls there. Park Byeong-jae sees the Mystic Pop-Up and heads in. He asks for a bottle of soju and soon begins to cry. Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 sees Weol-ju get her next grudge.
The history
Han Kang-bae touches Park Byeong-jae and he talks about his partner Yu-mi; his flashback shows he is struggling to pay rent — it’s his seven-year anniversary with Yu-mi. He felt like he couldn’t provide for her. Yu-mi wants to celebrate in an expensive restaurant but he has to pretend that he has a stomach ache. On the way home, she suggests going to a hotel for the night but he pushes back at that idea. Back to the present day, Park Byeong-jae feels guilty. He really wanted the hotel job as he’s an expert in hotel management and he was well-qualified and way above the other candidates. He thought he aced the job interview but got a text saying he didn’t get it which broke him and make him feel inadequate.
Back to the flashbacks and Yu-mi’s mother tells Park Byeong-jae that she expects more for her daughter and makes him feel guilty that her life is being wasted. He tells Yu-mi he didn’t get the job and that he wants to break up so she can date other men. Yu-mi states she will stay beside him regardless but Park Byeong-jae says he feels pathetic and useless. He apologizes and leaves. When he returns to his apartment, he learns Yu-mi has paid off his overdue rent. Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 provides the classic story of a man struggling with his own failed masculinity, feeling that he has to provide.
Dreamworld
Weol-ju pours Park Byeong-jae the magic drink. They enter his dream world which starts at the group job interview and it replays what happened that day when he went for the job — Han Kang-bae is in the interview and purposefully does a bad opening statement. Park Byeong-jae starts his opening statement and it is impressive. The third candidate barely says anything and the interviewers are impressed, which is strange — something doesn’t add up.
Weol-ju snaps her fingers to go deeper into his memories. It appears connections to assemblymen were hired as favors. They see Park Byeong-jae get disarmed outside and the chairman said he has got no-one to blame but his parents. Weol-ju experiences a flashback where she is reminded that her pain and her mother’s treatment is down to her ancestors — Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 provides a sore point for Weol-ju.
Park Byeong-jae wakes up and Guibanjang and Weol-ju tell him that the third candidate got hired as he was the son of an assemblyman. He’s distraught, wondering what he has to do to get a job and leaves the bar. Weol-ju wants to get revenge and deal with Chairman Choi herself.
Infiltrating the hotel
This becomes relevant later but the bodyguard Kang Yeo-rin tells her boss that she doesn’t want to guard Chairman Choi because he isn’t a good person. Weol-ju meets the chairman and serves him a drink — it’s the magic drink. She enters his dreamworld. Meanwhile, in the real world, Guibanjang briefly pretends to be the chairman and enters his office. In the dream, Weol-ju gives the chairman a flash drive to see where he hides it, and then in real life, Kang Yeo-rin starts waking the chairman up from his dream sleep. Weol-ju tells Guibanjang where the flash drive is and he finds it.
Security arrives at the chairman’s office to find Guibanjang standing there — he fights them all off and then runs away. Bodyguard Kang Yeo-rin finds Han Kang-bae and asks him to hand over the flash drive. He touches her and expects Kang Yeo-rin to talk and spill her soul, but surprisingly, she doesn’t. Han Kang-bae tells her the flash drive proves the chairman hired people based on connections and that one man’s life is in ruins due to the corruption. She gives him the flash drive and her door pass so Han Kang-bae can sneak out. The whole story was determined on Kang Yeo-rin having a conscience.
How does Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 end?
Han Kang-bae escapes. News spreads about the chairman’s corrupt recruitment process. The directors all agree to make out like someone leaked the lies because they didn’t get the job but Guibanjang records it all. They send out the video footage to news outlets. Choi and the executives are fired. Park Byeong-jae receives a call and he’s hired by HR and he gets back into a relationship with Yu-mi who he shouldn’t have broken up with in the first place.
There are only 7 more grudges remaining until Weol-ju is freed and Han Kang-bae is cured. Han Kang-bae realizes he forgot to return Kang Yeo-rin’s ID. He raises how when he touched her, nothing happened. Weol-ju states maybe she is worry-free but it is evident that there is more too it. Episode 3 ends with Han Kang-bae reunited with the bodyguard unexpectedly. As Han Kang-bae is about to be punched by a customer at work, Kang Yeo-rin stops him by catching the customer’s fist in flight. Mystic Pop-Up Bar episode 3 demonstrates the cruel world of power and money and how an association with higher powers can unfairly give you an advantage in the world.
Additional points
- Han Kang-bae says that when he is a normal human again, he will ride a busy subway where he doesn’t have to worry about people spilling their soul to him.
- Guibanjang tells Han Kang-bae that they shouldn’t let Weol-ju boss her around.
- Kang Yeo-rin tells her friend that Han Kang-bae is not her type.
