Summary
Gangnam B-Side gets a little wayward in Episodes 5 & 6, with some swerves that seem designed to serve drama rather than logic.
It’s safe to say that Gangnam B-Side goes a little off the rails in Episodes 5 and 6. While there’s still a lot to like – namely the performances and chemistry, some of the audiovisual flourishes, and the obligatory one-per-pair-of-episodes action sequence – I’m starting to lose track of the characters’ motivations and why we should care. Based on Jaehee’s death and Yeseo’s descent into damsel in distress territory, it feels like things are happening for the sake of being dramatic, not for the sake of making sense.
Episode 5, which is very focused on Jaehee, builds to a big midpoint moment and then is a little unfocused from there. It’s an odd structure. I didn’t mind the stuff digging further into Jaehee’s background and her highlighting her selfless motivations in the present day, surrendering herself to save Yeseo. But it does feel like we haven’t spent enough time with these characters to really grasp the gravity of this. It’s a little out-of-nowhere.
There is a race against time quality to the whole thing that’s appreciated, though. “Jennie’s” comeback livestream gets auctioned off, allowing Dongwoo to try and track the filming location. The cuts to the broadcast begin to feel ominous after a while, and it becomes clear what Jaehee’s going to do before she does. Her decision to commit suicide on camera is quite a leap – no pun intended – but if you squint a little, you can see how she’s taking power back into her own hands by deciding her own fate.
That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, but I must admit it seems too drastic. Dongwoo and Gilho racing to get there is suitably tense, but in the aftermath of the act I can’t help but feel like it was a functional decision instead of a dramatic one. Dongwoo’s search gets him drugged, and Gilho arriving just a little too late compels him to swear vengeance on Choi. That ups the drama for the remaining episodes, but at what cost?
And then there’s Prosecutor Min, who ends Gangnam B-Side Episode 5 being propositioned by Choi to join his team since he’s so impressed with her. Is this why Min’s moral alignment has been deliberately left so hazy, so that she can reasonably consider this offer in a way the audience might buy into? Perhaps.
Gangnam B-Side Episode 5 Still | Image via Disney+
Episode 6 is, I’d say, a little better. Some time has elapsed, and Dongwoo is working undercover as a chauffeur, despite having quit the force, in an effort to find Yeseo. Meanwhile, Gilho is still on the warpath, and Min has advanced in her career thanks to the backroom deal she accepted. The time skip is a bit of a lurch but the dramatic foundations are strong enough.
There’s also a new drug floating around, Neon, which adds a Big Pharma angle to the plot. It isn’t exactly revelatory to hear someone explain how that particular industry runs on the con of selling both the poison and the cure, but it adds another thematic contour. The new drug is at the centre of everything, which is unsurprising, but it gives both Dongwoo and Gilho a means by which to track the nefarious activities and, potentially, Yeseo.
Gilho isn’t Dongwoo’s biggest fan at the moment – he blames him for Jaehee’s death. But Dongwoo isn’t the biggest Dongwoo fan at the moment either, mightily struggling with guilt and a feeling of powerlessness about Yeseo.
The ending of Gangnam B-Side Episode 6 doesn’t make this any better. He’s able to track down Yeseo’s location and fight his way through, but she’s too strung out to pay much attention to him and she is once again led away. The upside is that a last-minute rescue does seem to get Dongwoo and Gilho back on the same page just in time for the final two episodes, so you can expect them to be action-packed. How much sense they’ll make, though, seems to be another question entirely.
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