Hello, Me! episode 1 recap – the premiere explained

This recap of K-Drama Netflix series Hello, Me! episode 1 contains spoilers.

Welcome to a new round of Netflix original k-drama series. If you’ve started the day with Sisyphus: The Myth, then luckily, Hello, Me! offers the audience something a little lighter — though there’s still some sci-fi magic happening in this series as well.

Hello, Me! episode 1 begins with Bahn Ha-ni writing in her diary. It then flits to the hospital; she’s been in an accident, and it’s critical. The doctors have to perform CPR on her. Her spirit tells the doctors not to continue with the CPR as her life is terrible. Her heart pumps again, but she feels she would be better off dead. What a grim start for our lead character!

Ha-ni sells Squid-good, but she’s soon arrested

The series then restarts to show how Ha-ni reaches this level of depressive thinking.

Episode 1 flits to Ha-ni working at a store as a dressed-up squid, selling “Squid-good”. Ha-ni is heckled by a parent for feeding her son, even though she tried stopping the young child. He has an allergy, and he’s rushed off to the hospital. The boss is reassigned to another store because the parent is suing them. After work, the police arrest her because she has failed to answer a summon. In the police cell, she believes she’s sharing it with a pervert.

Making a bet with the father

That pervert turns out to be Han Yu-hyeon and Hello, Me! episode 2 introduces the audience to another main character.

Han Yu-hyeon gets on his horse to practise, but he’s soon berated by his father Ji-man for his life choices. Han Yu-hyeon makes a bet that he will make 1 million won in a week and prove himself. This is a character that clearly enjoys doing his hobbies for a living and enjoys a privileged lifestyle. He ends up working as a masseur and shows his father his latest earnings, and he’s disappointed. As part of the bet, it was agreed he’d be kicked out of this house, but his mother convinces the father not to.

However, his father does chase Han Yu-hyeon out of the house with barely any clothes on, and the police believe he’s showing public indecency. The scene then flits back to the police station, and he’s sharing a cell with Ha-ni. A weird way to meet each other.

Sharing a prison cell

Anthony visits Ha-ni in the prison cell, and she tells the audience that this man is her worst enemy; in a flashback, it shows Ha-ni near a warzone. It turns out to be a production set, and Anthony is acting in it. He’s full of himself, asking colleagues to discuss his acting. Post-scene, Anthony drinks the wrong coffee, and he has heavy constipation. He has to run to nearby fields to relieve himself. Ha-ni accidentally snaps photos nearby, and Anthony believes she took a photo of him taking a dump. She realises he is Anthony, the actor; he calls her a stalker, grabs her camera and takes out the film. The camera meant a lot to her, and he broke it; it was sentimental and reminded her of her father.

Ha-ni apologises and settled with Anthony.

So that gives context to why Ha-ni ended up in jail because she was angry at Anthony and decided to take it too far…

Back at the police cell, the police ask why she made slanderous comments about Anthony on social media, stating that “the film will fail”. Ha-ni reveals that the actor broke her camera and thought she was taking a “weird photo”. Embarrassed, Anthony quickly settles, and Ha-ni writes an apology. Before Ha-ni leaves the station, Han Yu-hyeon asks for her squid head so he can walk out of the station less embarrassed.

A blind date

And paths keep crossing in Hello, Me! episode 1, giving that common k-drama feel.

Ha-yeong rings Ha-ni and reminds her of the blind date she has arranged for her. “It’s a building owner’s son” so it’s a good prospect. At the restaurant, Han Yu-hyeon recognises her, and they have a brief chat before Ha-ni’s date arrives — Jeong Jun-su. When her date goes to the bathroom, he doesn’t return and sends money to her so she can pay for the meal. A date that has gone horribly wrong. Han Yu-hyeon watches her getting rejected while eating on his own on another table. The night gets worse as Ha-ni spills wine on her clothing; she tells the audience she has no dreams or goals as she gradually gets more upset in the bathroom cleaning her coat.

So far the k-drama is mixing the lighter moods with the darker moods, and it works.

Credit card declined

Han Yu-hyeon is in trouble; his credit card has been reported stolen, and it’s frozen. He rings his family members, but they all ignore him. His father Ji-man orchestrated all of his. The mother disapproves, but the father is sick of pampering him. Han Yu-hyeon asks Ha-ni if he can borrow some money, but she doesn’t trust him. When he says he’s had a “sh*tty day” she suddenly relates and turns around. He offers to pay her back tenfold.

Ha-ni wasn’t afraid to die

Later in the night, Ha-ni and Yu-hyeon bump into each other again outside a store. Ha-ni watches Yu-hyeon who seems more pitiful than her, and it provides her comfort. She offers him crisps and beer. Ha-ni then receives a call from her store manager, and he tells her to look online; the controversy with “Squid-good” has blown up. She wants to get home as soon as possible and tries to get a taxi, and by doing so, drops her phone in the middle of the road, and it starts to rain. She hears a truck come her way and rather than get out of the way, she stands there and remembers her life twenty years previously when she was full of dreams and radiant. This feels like a sad, traumatic moment, and it’s a warning to some viewers; this scene in front of the truck could be quite triggering.

The younger Ha-ni

In a flashback and at high school, Ha-ni is super popular; she’s a star, and the students love her. She was also full of confidence and defended her friends in need. As she walks out to a crowd of students, a presenter asks who her crush is on the school roof –she tells everyone that she has a crush on herself and the students go wild. During schooltime, Ha-ni sees that Chun-sik is having stomach problems, so they leave school together. However, Ha-ni uses this as an excuse to leave school. She then texts Chun-sik breaking up with him. She clearly did not sympathise with other people’s feelings, which is a stark contrast to her older self.

Ha-ni’s hopes and dreams

Ha-ni attends a talent contest and dances in front of judges and a small audience. However, halfway through the performance, her parents interrupt and take her home. Ha-ni tells her parents that she wants to be a singer and that she will audition again; she leaves the car in the pouring rain, and her father chases after her. She faces a truck in the middle of the road and believes her dreams may be over. In the past and present, Ha-ni looks at the truck coming towards her.

The ending

And then the main plot comes to fruition.

In the present day, Ha-ni wakes up in the hospital. A nurse says she was in an accident the night before and was in a critical condition. Suddenly, she hears a young girl in the next bed who was born in the same year, and she says her guardian is Bahn Gi-tae; she claims she was born in the 80s, but the nurse is confused. Ha-ni sits up and listens to the girl through the curtains. She opens the curtains and sees her younger self, who has somehow travelled to the future. The older Ha-ni is in complete shock — she tells the audience that her 17-year old self is the most obnoxious girl in the world.

Hello, Me! episode 1 is a heartwarming and soft premiere; it feeds into a young person’s dreams and signals how easy it can be for a person’s life to fall apart. There’s clearly going to be many lessons learned in this series.