Summary
Strong Girl Nam-soon finds its groove in a sturdy episode that retains a light, fun tone while also adding some intriguing wrinkles to the overarching narrative.
Episode 1 of Strong Girl Nam-soon was really rather good, all things considered, but the K-Drama really finds its groove in Episode 2, which doubles down on the fun characters and light tone, folds in some more complex and intriguing overarching narrative shenanigans, and doesn’t have as many slightly questionable moments.
Our recap of the episode, streaming on Netflix, contains major spoilers for all the particulars. If that’s what you’re here for, though, then read on.
Strong Girl Nam-soon Season 1 Episode 2 Recap
Nam-soon’s entry into Korea was fraught with excitement, with her pulling a crashing passenger plane to a stop with her abilities, the use of which sent a supernatural signal through both her mother and grandmother.
There’s a definite fish-out-of-water feeling to Nam-soon’s assimilation; her bags being checked for drugs, her things – including a bone of her dead horse – being confiscated, that sort of thing. Hee-sik, with an assurance that he’ll help Nam-soon find her mother, takes her golden staff, and Nam-soon, with the money from her parents, rents an apartment in Gangnam for three months, but it quickly turns out to have been a scam.
Why did Geum-ju become a vigilante?
“Gangnam, Here I Come” does a good job of fleshing out the interlinking subplots of the drug scheme and Geum-ju’s vigilantism. After ordering her secretary, Na-young, to tail Hwa-ja – the female family members being alerted when Nam-soon used her powers kind of outed her – she tries to track down Ms. Park, the woman who took the drugs in the previous episode.
Ms. Park ends up committing “suicide” by jumping out of her apartment window, but she was not in her right mind at the time and her death was caused by hallucinations, not an actual desire to take her own life.
We also learn that Geum-ju became a vigilante in order to create good karma for Nam-soon, but she has clearly developed a real sense of moral responsibility around her powers too.
What happens to Nam-soon’s money?
Meanwhile, Nam-soon adapts to life in Korea by replicating life in Mongolia as closely as possible.
She sets up a ger – a yurt, basically – in a park near the Han River, and builds a couple one of their own. Naturally, people take issue with the perceived “homelessness”, but Nam-soon fights them also.
READ: Is Kang Nam-soon blood related to Do Bong-soon?
Also quite predictably, the police get involved. Nam-soon has earlier registered a complaint about the theft of her money and ID and tried to get in touch with Hee-sik without any success, so it’s a relief that he turns up just as she’s beginning to have her idealized vision of people in Korea challenged by her treatment.
What does Hee-sik give Nam-soon?
Hee-sik has been investigating. From Bong-go he receives a discount coupon but narrowly misses a photograph of young Nam-soon on the wall showing her holding the rather distinctive golden staff.
He also arrests a man in a sting operation that finds him disguising himself as a woman with his colleague, Young-tak, cosplaying as his husband.
When he finally reunites with Nam-soon, he implores her to rent a proper room instead of staying in the ger and gives her the coupon Bong-go gave him for his photo studio so that she can get a new passport picture. He obviously doesn’t quite understand the significance of this, but he also defends the presence of the gers to his colleagues who want to remove them.
How does Geum-ju confirm Hwa-ja is not her daughter?
Geum-ju is able to really confirm that Hwa-ja is not her daughter after Na-young catches her sneaking into Geum-ju’s secret room and suspiciously eyeing up the fingerprint-locked safe.
Through a bug, Na-young listens in on Hwa-ja bragging about her planned theft, and relays this to Geum-ju, who is disappointed not to have found her daughter but is nonetheless still convinced that she’s nearby in Korea.
However, Geum-ju is busy joining the Heritage Club, where she makes a toast about her wish that everyone in the world can have money, and is enigmatically handed a business card from a man who tells her to enter a room with a wooden door if she “really wants to change the world”.
Strong Girl Nam-soon Season 1 Episode 2 Ending Explained
The second episode ends with Nam-soon being reunited with Bong-go, who seems to recognize her immediately. She goes to see him after Hee-sik calls to remind her to go and get her photo taken.
And, a final note on the drug plot. Earlier, in a lab, we learned that a new synthetic drug can be administered through the ear, making it undetectable in one’s bloodstream, and as we leave things, Shi-O tests it out.
