Summary
We already knew The Winning Try was great, but Episode 3 proves it can also be powerfully emotional without warning, only expanding its impressive box of narrative tricks.
The Winning Try never ceases to amaze me. After the premiere suggested we had a great show on our hands, and the second episode proved that quality wasn’t a fluke, I had high hopes for Episode 3. But I wasn’t expecting a profoundly emotional tear-jerker out of nowhere. There seems to be no end to this show’s box of narrative tricks, and if it can feel this resonant with basically no build-up at all, I can only imagine how moving it’s going to get as we proceed deeper into the season.
The hook of this episode is that Tae-pung’s departure for Daesang, which turns out to have been another scheme concocted by Vice-Principal Seong and Coach Kim, has created yet another problem for Hanyang’s rugby team. They’re a man short, and three days removed from the start of the second half of the season, Ga-ram is faced with having to recruit a replacement before the second semester’s opening ceremony. If he’s unsuccessful, the team will be folded.
Initially, this takes something of a slapstick vibe. Ga-ram naturally claims he already has a player and then has to work in secret to try and find one, which entails physically examining the current team to determine the right profile, and then breaking into the school’s data room to find a student who matches it. He’s looking for someone big and fast, like him. But he’s stymied by a locked filing cabinet. To bypass that obstacle, he steals I-ji’s keys and accidentally sounds an alarm, bringing I-ji to the data room with a gun, the police not far behind.
See? It’s silly. There’s a hint of genuine sentiment when Ga-ram is arrested, and I-ji has to accompany him to the station since she was the one who made the call. While they’re both waiting for the bus home, Ga-ram sincerely implies that part of the reason he returned to Hanyang was to rekindle his relationship with her, but she’s not emotionally available for that kind of discussion yet. She still hasn’t firmly decided not to shoot him. But other than this, Ga-ram’s quest is played for laughs.
In its back half, though, The Winning Try Episode 3 narrows its focus. Before he was arrested, Ga-ram was able to pilfer the file for a special admissions application for Mun Ung, the son of Mun Cheol-yeong, a legendary rugby professional known as Rhino, whose career was cut short by a terrible knee injury. He now runs a modest diner and drinks a lot, with Ung being his deliveryman. He keeps his rugby medal hidden and is adamant that Ung won’t follow in his footsteps, even though he’d like to play rugby himself.
Ga-ram won’t take no for an answer, though, and keeps trying to lure Ung to Hanyang. His big move is to order lunch for Korea’s entire U-20 national team to trick Ung and Cheol-yeong into attending a training session. Cheol-yeong gets wistful and tearful about his own career, and Ung is fascinated, especially when he throws a ball back to the team and it becomes clear he has some natural talent. But things take a turn when a daydreaming Cheol-yeong crashes his van on the way home.
Ga-ram takes Ung to the hospital, where Cheol-yeong violently assaults him for continuing to harass them. When it becomes a police issue, though, Ga-ram agrees not to press charges so long as Cheol-yeong goes on a walk with him. They have a conversation about their respective careers that is superbly acted. Here, Ga-ram admits to ruining his own life through his greed, not trusting himself or his teammates enough to succeed without the aid of PEDs (this seems like an admission he took them, which kind of does away with my theory that there was some kind of conspiracy there). But he also accuses Cheol-yeong of holding Ung back because of his own mistakes. His injury was, like Ga-ram’s doping charge, his own fault, not the fault of rugby overall.
His words hit home. The next morning, Ga-ram gives Ung a ticket back to Hanyang, and Cheol-yeong advertises for a new deliveryman. The decision has been made. Cheol-yeong obviously isn’t one for words, but he manages to say sorry before sending Ung on his way. That medal he was hiding is now hung in the diner for all to see. It’s a lovely little moment, very understatedly effective, and it’s amazing how well it works given we’ve only just met these characters.
Ga-ram rushes Ung back for the opening ceremony and, predictably, makes a massive song and dance out of his last-minute entrance. The rugby team is ecstatic, and Seong’s face is a picture. The epilogue of The Winning Try Episode 3 does imply that there might be some funny business involved with the special admissions process, but for now, let’s just enjoy the victory. Goodness knows this team is due one.
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