Summary
A plodding chapter lacks consistent intrigue.
Although it certainly had some interesting moments, Crash Course in Romance Season 1 Episode 13 failed to capture consistency. The reveal of Dong-hui as the season’s overarching villain isn’t quite working out excitingly, Seo-jin’s (Jang Young-nam) desperation can be quite grating, and Su-a’s (Kang Na-eon) story arc feels like it could use a sharper focus.
Of course, this could all change, and the show overall has done a decent job of mixing the serious stuff with rom-com tropes, but here, things sadly fell flat nearly as many times as they felt genuinely engrossing.
Crash Course in Romance Season 1 Episode 13 Recap
Hae-e becomes worried, Hui-jae clears his name
With Chi-yeol’s abrupt appearance, Dong-hui must backtrack on his plan to fire his slingshot at Haeng-seon outside Nation’s Best Banchan. Meanwhile, Hui-jae confirms to the court that he witnessed the murder of I-sang and notes the culprit had a “calloused” index finger, which we see belongs to the star tutor’s assistant. Thanks to this in-depth account, Seo-jin requests the arrest warrant request made by the police, who she alleges conducted a “prejudiced” investigation, is thrown out.
Once finished with their reading exam, Hae-e tries to get a hold of Sun-jae, evidently desperate to discuss their unintentional cheating. Though Su-a sticks in a pin in this chase, wanting to know how her adversary achieved a perfect score in mathematics, speculating Chi-yeol was somehow involved. Ultimately, things end up getting physical before Dan-ji’s intervention.
As Yeong-ju warns Jae-woo about his unsubtle attempts at being overly kind to her, Hui-jae tells his mother he didn’t clear his name sooner simply because she was just as doubtful of him as the police. Following this, Seo-jin attempts to justify her exam-leaking actions to Sun-jae, only to have her son fail to fall for the argument of it all being for the sake of him “nailing” his college admissions. Concurrently, Hae-e returns home, entirely deflated.
Chi-yeol’s love life and the way it annoys Dong-hui
While Chi-yeol agrees to put on a “maths camp” for a potentially large crowd, Su-a continues to panic and experience warped visions in the face of her midterm stress. As an aside, Dong-hui appears frustrated in the car later on when the star tutor becomes preoccupied with a phone call from Haeng-seon.
At night, Chi-yeol uses his broken thermostat as grounds to stay the night at Haeng-seon’s, yet he has to share a room with Jae-woo instead of his partner (until he craftily sneaks out, that is). Hae-e finds herself distracted amidst all the excitement, excusing herself so she can continue attempting to reach out to Sun-jae, who himself is miserable, to the point that he aggressively removes his ringing phone from sight. Fortunately, Hui-jae is on hand to console his brother.
The next day, Chi-yeol notices something is off with Hae-e, so he offers comfort, assuring her she can’t “ace every test.” Of course, this isn’t what the student is worried about. It makes the star tutor’s rejection of a meeting with her all the more deflating, given it means the painful secret of unintentional cheating will continue to go untold. Elsewhere, Dong-hui becomes increasingly annoyed by Chi-yeol’s neglect, driving a pen deep into paper upon hearing his superior is at Haeng-seon’s house, will be driving himself to work, and wishes to receive the pictures from their time on the yacht in Incheon.
As Haeng-seon silently notices Dong-hui’s strange way of recording the yacht videos (as well as the calm waves), Sun-jae nervously ignores Hae-e at school. Here, we find out Haeng-seon’s niece purposefully failed the reading exam (though she doesn’t share this information with a puzzled Jong-ryeol) before watching Su-a have a strange vision of pushing her academic adversary over a balcony.
Sun-jae rises to the top, Dong-hui reveals his true self, Seo-jin meets with Hae-e
When noticing the rest of the All Care mothers drinking coffee together, Su-hui decides to drop in, wondering who they are talking so negatively about, completely unaware she’s the subject of the bad-mouthing. Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter anyway, as all the parents quickly become more concerned with Sun-jae’s first-place finish in the midterms, an achievement they directly quiz Seo-jin about. The lawyer is effortlessly composed in this phone-call conversation, insisting to her fellow mothers there was no “secret method.” Then, Seo-jin writes a text to Sun-jae, stating, “all’s well that ends well.”
After verifying Hui-jae cared for stray cats instead of killing them, the police looked at I-sang’s activity as an active online hater of Chi-yeol. Jung-soo decides he’ll contact the last person the deceased tutor spoke to on the phone, whereas Detective Song favors a background check on a man he knows as Jeong Seong-hyeon. Concurrently, Haeng-seon catches Dong-hui discarding the food she delivered for Chi-yeol and his staff, causing her to cement an accusation of him of purposefully veering the yacht off course back in Incheon. The star tutor bears witness to the tail-end of this heated discussion, but he seems more inclined to label everything a “misunderstanding.”
Dong-hui pleads with Chi-yeol, claiming he wouldn’t have put Haeng-seon’s life in danger on the yacht while admitting he was “petty” in throwing out her food today, even if he did it because the gesture was “too much.” The star tutor looks conflicted, so he suggests they talk once they’re done with recording online classes. Elsewhere, Seo-jin becomes aware that Sun-jae shared his revision material with Hae-e.
During a meeting with Hae-e, Seo-jin dissuades the student from revealing the truth about the leak, asking her to “look the other way” for Sun-jae’s future. “Many people’s lives could be ruined because of you,” the lawyer adds. In response, though, Seo-jin hears Hae-e will do as she sees fit when reporting the incident. Additionally, we see Su-a has another extremely violent thought regarding Hae-e, this time centered around pushing her into oncoming traffic.
Hae-e goes missing
When left alone, a grumpy Haeng-seon becomes more vexed when her trash bag splits. Thus, she sends Hae-e on an errand for a new one. Yet this doesn’t quite go to plan, as the student strangely becomes unreachable, with her phone switched off. Meanwhile, Su-a tells her mother she might be “turning into a monster,” clearly plagued by stress.
As more people become concerned by Hae-e’s apparent disappearance, the situation becomes more intriguing. Firstly, Haeng-seon becomes aware her niece spoke to Seo-jin before her, thanks to the help of the police. Secondly, Sun-jae wonders what business his mother had talking to Hae-e that meant the lawyer had to lie to the side dish shop owner about their call’s purpose over the phone, which allows him to find out about the pair’s face-to-face meeting. Finally, Su-a continues to see her warped visions and is increasingly panicked.
How does Crash Course in Romance Season 1 Episode 13 End?
During the police’s questioning, Jong-ryeol informs Haeng-seon about Hae-e’s blank reading exam submission, noting how strange such an occurrence was. This sparks plenty of theorizing, but the missing student’s aunt doesn’t buy that her niece ran away purely due to a failed exam. Following this, the episode ends by showing us the real reason why Hae-e can’t be contacted. Shockingly, it’s because she was blindsided by a car while being chased by Dong-hui, who looks cynically content by the seemingly unexpected climax to his pursuit.
What did you think of Crash Course in Romance Season 1 Episode 13? Comment below.
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