Summary
A Virtuous Business Episode 10 focuses heavily on character-based subplots, delivering a lot of charm and some last-minute drama.
Somewhat predictably, the fractures that emerged within the group in the previous episode don’t take long to resolve in Episode 10 of A Virtuous Business. But that’s to be expected, as much as it’s a little bit of a shame that the drama couldn’t have been sustained a little longer. There was an interesting angle about how the business – you know, the one in the title – worked around this rift, but the K-Drama has long since become more interested in the character-based subplots – especially Jeong-suk and Da-hyun’s romance – than anything else.
A bad thing? I don’t think so. The thematic empowerment drama was great while it lasted, but if you spend enough time with K-Drama characters you start to expect certain things, and I think A Virtuous Business wanted to be sure it delivered them. And besides, it isn’t like all the other stuff has disappeared, there’s just a bit less of it.
Of course, the first order of business is to deal with the issue between Yeong-bok and Geum-hui following the hit-and-run. Jong-seon wasn’t the driver, just the passenger, and it was his call to emergency services that saved Won-bong’s life, so the questionable morality of being complicit in the deed and then not opening up about it straight away is somewhat tempered.
If nothing else Jeong-suk has learned a fair bit about confronting problems head-on, so she’s a good avenue of support. And really, it’s not that big of a deal, is it? Who among us hasn’t been slightly complicit in almost killing our best friend’s husband? Okay, maybe it sounds a bit more serious written down. But it is nevertheless a situation that can be repaired, and that’s naturally the direction we go.
Admittedly it takes another crisis to grease the wheels. When Yeong-bok doubles over with stomach pain, the worry of something being wrong with the baby – don’t worry, there isn’t – gives her and Geum-hui both a sharp shock in the right direction. There are bigger things than petty squabbles, after all, which is realized by both these two and Won-bong and Jong-seon, who work through their own issues too. Jong-seon will have to languish in a detention center a bit, but he’ll be out sooner than later.
Without further ado, it’s back to Jeong-suk and Da-hyun, which is fair enough. Their share of A Virtuous Business Episode 10 is entertaining and easily captures the comedy and charm that the series has become known for over the weeks. A mix-up between board games and sex toys? Great stuff.
A Virtuous Business Episode 10 Still | Image via Netflix
It’s building to a kiss, obviously. But it’s the growth of the relationship that’s entertaining, with Jeong-suk and Da-hyun both having grappled with their feelings and expectations over several episodes to arrive here organically.
With this development in his romantic life, Da-hyun also receives a breakthrough in his backstory quest – an orphanage that has recently shut down which once housed several children who might have been trafficked. Da-hyun digs deeper, starting with the midwife of those children, who now has Alzheimer’s.
Through a trail of midwifery assistants Da-hyun eventually ends up back at the owner of the video store, Cho Sun-ae, who turns out to be a nutcase. She kidnapped the children to liberate them from their lives, and they were marked with little cross tattoos so she could identify them in later life (totally normal!). Since Da-hyun doesn’t have this mark it means he wasn’t one of the trafficked kids.
Da-hyun ends up gagged and bound, and when Jeong-suk arrives and bursts inside after seeing his wallet and notebook, she knocks a lamp over and sets the place ablaze. Naturally, she’s able to save him, and Sun-ae, thanks to the other ladies, is arrested.
While he’s recuperating Da-hyun receives a package from his adoptive mother containing his baby clothes embroidered with the initials K.B.H. This comes up again shortly after when Da-hyun and Jeong-suk attend Geum-hui’s party celebrating Won-bong’s discharge. There, Jeong-suk is rooting around in a storeroom for another stove and knocks over a box of baby clothes embroidered with the same initials. Is Da-hyun somehow connected to Geum-hui?
