Summary
When the Stars Gossip has utterly run out of road in Episode 12, with every subplot plodding along with a tortuous lack of urgency and drama.
Given I’m professionally obligated to persist with shows long beyond their expiration dates, it isn’t a new feeling to be almost resentful of the time I spend with When the Stars Gossip. But Episode 12 follows one of the most inert installments yet with something that feels even more lifeless and reiterative. Whatever your preferred metaphor – losing air, taking on water, and so on, and so forth – it applies here.
I was wondering how we got here, but that’s no mystery. At least When the Stars Gossip had the decency to have a literal downward trajectory. It wasn’t great when it was in space either, but it at least had the novelty of the setting and a very out-there premise. But the idea of space fertilization has long since fallen by the wayside. I don’t recall Min-jeong even being in this episode.
We should start with something I neglected to mention in my previous recap, which pertains to Eve’s family. She was adopted by an American family after being abandoned on Christmas Eve and has apparently not been looked for since. But when this gets mentioned to Ryong’s family, it clearly stirs something. I’m not sure to what extent any of this will matter since with this show you can’t really tell, but I’m raising it now since it might become relevant as we trudge through the remaining – four! – episodes.
I don’t for a moment think that the “twist” would be Eve and Ryong being related, but it would, on balance, be one of the show’s better jokes.
Anyway, speaking of Eve and Ryong, you’ll recall we left things with them confessing their feelings for one another and getting ready to do the no-pants-dance, only to be interrupted by the sudden arrival of Go-eun and a turtle. It’s predictably awkward but only becomes more so when Go-eun confronts Eve independently and they both get very drunk and then go back to crash at Ryong’s place.
There’s a slapsticky quality to this that you can just tell When the Stars Gossip expects us to be enamored with in a girl-power kind of way, but it’s mostly just embarrassing. Both women essentially want the same thing, which is Ryong, but Ryong only realistically seems to have eyes for Eve, and we’ve barely spent any time with Go-eun, so the idea that this would affect the core dynamic in any meaningful way is a bit of a stretch.
It’s also a bit… dare I say it, childish? The whole thing’s petty. Eve and Go-eun essentially want the other to back away from “their” man, and in the meantime, both Kang-su and Dong-a are trying to use the situation to their own benefit, the former by putting the moves on Go-eun and the latter by trying to win Eve back (and remaining in denial about Ryong’s apparently ability to perform in zero-gravity.) On paper, this sounds like a high-school drama.
If there’s any functional difference it’s that the relationships in high-school dramas tend to be a bit more believable, or at least easier to excuse. Ryong going on dates with Eve while Go-eun’s dad is planning to welcome him into the family is like anti-entertainment to me.
The only hope is the investigation into Ryong and Eve’s conduct that gets a bit of progress in When the Stars Gossip Episode 12. Chief Kang and Si-won are deeply – and, it turns out, rightly – suspicious of Eve and Ryong. They check the camera footage of the space station, which also reveals that power was diverted to a sole incubator for seemingly mysterious reasons. Given Ryong’s phone is up there, and this plot threatens to force Kang-su into a situation where he’s perceived as being in allegiance with Ryong, whom he hates, and there’s the outline of something resembling drama there. I just can’t trust the show to do anything with it.
