Summary
The Winning Try effectively weaves I-ji’s story into the rugby team’s in Episode 7, and it plays out in large part like a rom-com until it’s time to expertly bring out the drama.
I’ve said this before, here and on various social media platforms, but it’s worth repeating — The Winning Try is much more than a sports drama. You can see this very clearly in Episode 7, since the only sporting action crops up at the very end, and until that point it plays out like a romantic comedy; a really good one, at that. The skillful blending of genres is also a clever weaving of storylines, with I-ji’s personal arc and romantic connection with Ga-ram being threaded into the rugby team’s efforts. By the episode’s climax, wherein I-ji is getting involved in the huddles, I barely even noticed. It was like she had always been there.
This is very good storytelling. It isn’t flamboyant or overly complex; it simply works in the exact manner it’s intended to. The laughs come at the right time. The tears, too. The alacrity with which the show moves between funny and serious, sombre and upbeat, is quite remarkable. And that, more than anything else, is why it works so damn well every week.
There’s nothing funny in the opening. First, a flashback to three years prior shows us not only Ga-ram’s retirement but also the ensuing fallout in the locker room. It shows us how close he came to reuniting with I-ji and telling her the truth, and how fate conspired to have them pass by each other without either realizing. Then, in the present day, we get confirmation that Ga-ram’s condition is worsening and that he may have a tumour that requires surgery to be removed. There’s no good news anywhere.
Ga-ram refuses the surgery because his team can’t play without a coach, and they intend to win both the President’s Cup and the Nationals. Something about this selfless gesture inspires I-ji, especially when he tells her that the reason he didn’t open up about his condition in the past is because he didn’t want to derail her career at a crucial juncture. It’s like all of Ga-ram’s detractors — there’s another instance later — are beginning to realize what the audience has known all along. This is a genuinely nice, well-meaning guy who has quietly and privately dealt with a huge amount of personal trauma.
So, no, none of this is funny. But The Winning Try quickly shifts gear in Episode 7. When Ga-ram and I-ji return to Hanyang, they’re both on the hook for leaving the school in an ambulance. I-ji covers for Ga-ram, claiming the hospital visit was on account of her having the yips, which means she’s removed from coaching duties immediately. To be fair, she does have the yips, so she’s only half lying. Ga-ram promises to help her get over them, which kick-starts a run of very funny scenes where he has her doing cardio training with the rugby team.
This all knits I-ji into the rugby dynamic really nicely, and also gives her plenty of time to work on her relationship with Ga-ram. We’re still a long way from major progress there, but there are some nice scenes of I-ji realizing that she has resented Ga-ram for so long entirely on false pretenses. Now that Nak-gyun is needlessly trying to make an example of her in front of the shooting team, she’s organically pushed more towards Ga-ram and his rebellious band of brothers.
And just in time, too. The President’s Cup rolls around, with Hanyang’s game against Daesang first on the billing. It’s a great opportunity to tie a few things together, such as Tae-pung’s departure at the end of Episode 2, and Ung’s mysterious issue with tackling, which was briefly teased in the previous episode but not explained. That’s actually where The Winning Try Episode 7 ends, with Ung freezing during a crucial tackle while Hanyang is winning the game. Given it’s quite obvious that Tae-pung has a knee injury, I do wonder if I was right in my original theory that he’s afraid of injuring another player, having seen how a sports injury derailed his father’s life.
I’m sure we’ll find out. In the meantime, there are other things to keep an eye on, including the love triangle between Seong-jun, Ung, and U-jin, Seong-jun’s relationship with his mother, who asks him to consider moving to Spain to become an agent for his more successful brother, the fact that Nak-gyun got drunk and fessed up to pushing I-ji into throwing the shooting qualifier in front of Heong-nam, and the arrival of Hui-tae, a journalist from Today Sports who clearly has some sort of ulterior motive against Ga-ram.
That’s a lot to be going on with, and it just goes to show quite how well put-together The Winning Try is that it all seems so equally important.
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