Summary
The Potato Lab proves it’s not an ordinary show by delivering perhaps its standout hour in Episode 9, offering important context and clear turning points at the time when most shows usually start to sag.
How a show navigates its pesky middle episodes usually says a lot about it. You expect a captivating opening, and you expect an ending to provide all the payoff you’re looking for. But it’s rare that your average show has a really stand-out Episode 9. Yet here we are. The Potato Lab obviously isn’t your average show.
Functionally, this episode isn’t much different from any of the others. But it’s the one that provides key context to flesh out some of the narrative’s weaker areas – the ones I was complaining about – and allows for the most introspection. This, in turn, leads to some of the best, most meaningful moments in the core dynamics between Mi-kyung and Baek-ho and Hwan-kyung and Ong-ju.
The focus on Mi-kyung, Hee-jin, and Ki-se’s shared past begins right out of the gate. This is definitely where The Potato Lab was at its least engaging, and Episode 9 goes some way towards remedying that with a necessary focus on the emotional stakes for everyone. It’s a long story stretching several years back and is far from resolved in the present day. Ki-se’s fuming with Hee-jin about apparently treating him like garbage, and Mi-kyung is putting all the pieces together, supported, as ever, by Baek-ho.
While Mi-kyung and Baek-ho are out on a date, they run into Hee-jin. This is somewhat less than ideal since Mi-kyung has to hear all Hee-jin’s fond recollections of Ki-se, especially since, in Mi-kyung’s mind, they’re coming at her expense. It just goes to show how fundamentally different a story can be from two opposing perspectives, both equally valid. But it doesn’t make things any easier for either party.
To make things worse for Mi-kyung, she promptly learns in The Potato Lab Episode 9 that Ong-ju has broken things off with Hwan-kyung to preserve their friendship, which Mi-kyung quickly comes to realize is absolutely not the best thing for either of them, least of all her brother. So, she – with help from Baek-ho yet again – endeavours to put things right.
This perhaps sets the ball rolling for Mi-kyung. When Ki-se clarifies that Hee-jin has no idea about Mi-kyung, and that he has been prioritizing his career over his personal happiness to paper over the cracks left behind by Hee-jin ghosting and divorcing him, she’s able to find it within herself to give him some words of wisdom and encouragement. This is the lessons she has learned through her experiences beginning to manifest.
The word is “resilience”. Despite everything, Mi-kyung has kept going. The way this cleverly loops back around to potatoes – it’s amazing the show keeps being able to do this – is because during her hardest times, Mi-kyung found a “lucky potato” that was similarly hardy and resilient; that persevered despite the conditions surrounding it. It’s an inspiring story, and Baek-ho obviously thinks so, since he takes the opportunity to plant a kiss on Mi-kyung.
Of course, things don’t stay rosy and positive for long. Towards the end of The Potato Lab Episode 9, we come to realize what was really at fault for the collapse of Ki-se and Hee-jin’s marriage – Ki-se realizing that he had made the wrong decision by abandoning Mi-kyung to run off with her. He couldn’t keep up the pretence. He was bitter and angry and resentful and pushed her away.
What this also means is that he still isn’t over Mi-kyung, regrets what happened, and would probably like to make another go of things. But this also clues Baek-ho into the fact that they’re exes, which is sure to drive a wedge between him and Mi-kyung. You can’t have a Korean rom-com without the leads breaking up for an episode or two before getting back together, but something tells me that The Potato Lab will have some new angle to approach that cliché from.
Either way, we won’t have to wait long to find out.
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