Summary
The Potato Lab embraces the tropes in Episode 11, working through the standard “falling out and reconciling” stage of the K-Drama romance arc.
It was obvious that Episode 11 of The Potato Lab was going to play out like this. The signs were there. You can’t have a romantic enemies-to-lovers K-Drama without the dreaded breakup period, where crossed wires lead to an absence that makes the heart grow ever fonder. This is a show that has largely embraced tropes with the intention of ultimately subverting them, but surprisingly, I didn’t really get that sense here. It plays things pretty close to the established rulebook, but perhaps now’s the time to do that instead of taking needless, risky chances right before the finale.
So, Baek-ho and Mi-kyung have fallen out. There are motions to go through. All the expected beats are there. Luckily, there’s a bit of fizz stemming from a reveal about Ong-ju that livens things up a bit, but mostly what we’re seeing here is the usual cliché filtered through the prism of two characters we’ve come to really like. The Potato Lab can be confident enough to indulge in too-obvious storytelling because it has already put the time in. We’re invested.
Of course, Baek-ho’s revelation about being responsible for the most traumatic period of Mi-kyung’s life couldn’t have come at a worse time, since she’s due to leave the lab, and this is a particularly sour note to end things on. Despite the efforts of her colleagues, Mi-kyung struggles to be cheered up, especially with Baek-ho floating around the place as a constant reminder, and the news of the break-up spreading like wildfire.
Naturally, Ki-se reaching out doesn’t help. The stress of her personal and professional lives collapsing finally gets to Mi-kyung, and despite her earlier claims to leave her alone, Baek-ho’s instinct is still to check on her. He isn’t taking the whole situation especially well, either. But as it turns out, he’s not the only one who was complicit in the detonation of Mi-kyung’s life with Ki-se. Ong-ju also knew he was cheating and said nothing, never quite being able to find the right time.
Mi-kyung finds this easier to forgive, since Ong-ju has put in the hours to prove whose side she is really on. But hasn’t Baek-ho done that too? Mi-kyung is forced to reconsider her stance at this, but it’ll come as no surprise that The Potato Lab Episode 11 makes things even more complicated by wheeling out a potato-related emergency that Mi-kyung and Baek-ho need to work together to address. You will again not be surprised to learn that this period of forced proximity gives them some time and space to communicate, which, really, is all they need.
Both viewpoints are understandable. For Mi-kyung, it isn’t just that he was involved in a particularly painful part of her life, it’s that he hasn’t fought for her since that news was revealed. She didn’t want to break up on the back of that, but he allowed it to happen. But from Baek-ho’s perspective, he already felt guilty, and then he was trying to do right by Mi-kyung and comply with her demands to leave her alone. Both are right. Both are wrong. Welcome to being in love.
And they are in love – the episode ends with Baek-ho saying it out loud, but it isn’t exactly a twist since that has been self-evident for ages. The only real question remaining is what Mi-kyung will do about it, and I don’t think there’s much suspense in that regard. We know what she’ll do. Don’t we?
A part of me quietly hopes we don’t, that The Potato Lab will upset the applecart one more time just for fun, to prove it isn’t just the standard rom-com it sometimes becomes. But a bigger part of me thinks we deserve the happy ending that we’re virtually guaranteed. We don’t have to wait long to find out either way.
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