Summary
Remarriage & Desires moves into the final three episodes feeling tropey and formulaic.
This recap of Remarriage & Desires season 1, episode 5 contains spoilers.
Picking up mostly where we left things, Hye-Seung is officially the tutor of Hyung-ju’s son now. But of course, this represents not only an opportunity to bond with him but to annoy Yoo-hui as well, who’s still fishing around for dates. Naturally, Yoo-hui also has her own plans to interfere with Hye-seung. The drama continues!
Remarriage & Desires season 1, episode 5 recap
Perhaps, though, it could be argued that it’s continuing a bit too much in obvious directions. There’s certainly an audience for these kinds of shenanigans and games of petty one-upmanship, but I’d suggest at this stage that Remarriages & Desire lacks the thematic depth to really back it up. We know, more or less, where this whole story is going, and we’re still a few episodes away from the end.
And while there has been a lot of Yoo-hui and Hye-seung clashing in every episode, it certainly feels like there’s a bit more of it here. The long stares and dramatic music cues are funny, but they’re not supposed to be, are they?
It could be argued that the stuff on the periphery of this rivalry, such as the gaming company merger and the stuff about Ae-ran trying to leverage Ms. Choi by molding Mi-jin into the perfect match for Hyung-ju is more interesting than the central conflict.
It’s definitely interesting to see Hye-seung and Jun-ho’s relationship, though, since we haven’t actually got to see much of her interacting with Min-ji. That understanding parental side is pretty new and helps to flesh out her motivations and character a little more. It also opens yet another door into a burgeoning relationship with Hyung-ju, which only seems likely to solidify as Yoo-hui plays her manipulative hand more openly, trying to force Hye-seung, primarily through her financial strife, to break.
So, the intrigue is still there, no doubt, and as I said earlier, there’s definitely a market for this particular style of melodrama. I’m not the perfect audience for it, granted, and I think there are enough similar and better Korean dramas on the market, even just among Netflix’s thumbnails, to prevent this one from standing out. But we’ll have to wait and see how much people really take to it.
You can stream Remarriage & Desires season 1, episode 5 exclusively on Netflix.
