Summary
Beyond the Bar Episode 5 is a nice learning experience for Hyo-min that also develops her relationship with Seok-hoon.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, or so the saying goes, but the principle applies to K-Drama protagonists in a lot of ways. Beyond the Bar Episode 5 is built on it. Hyo-min’s first solo case takes her away from Seok-hoon, giving her the chance to establish her own reputation professionally and spend some time away from him personally. Of course, he plays the guide role well enough, but the solo focus does wonders for her character and her confidence.
Seok-hoon isn’t overlooked, though. His relationship with the detestable Yeon-a helps to soften him a bit, and it’s obvious that the long-game approach to his dynamic with Hyo-min is going to be beneficial in allowing both Seok-hoon and the audience to see the differences between her and Yeon-a more starkly. That’s why an early episode like this is pretty valuable for both halves of the central relationship, even though it’s Hyo-min who gets the bulk of the focus.
There’s a personal touch to the case of the week, which involves artistic copyright infringement. The case is sent to Hyo-min by her sister, and she wants to work it pro bono, which isn’t exactly the done thing at Yullim, which was very much made a point of in the previous episode. Hence, even though Seok-hoon agrees to handle some of the admin, Hyo-min is very much on her own. She’s to prep the case herself, even though it’s outside of her wheelhouse, and if it goes badly, she’ll solely be on the hook for it.
I like seeing this more vulnerable side of Hyo-min, who has until this point been defined by relentless competency – if not necessarily good timekeeping – and it allows for some nice scenes between her and Seok-hoon as he coaches her through building and delivering her argument. In essence, two artists, Ryu Gwan-mo and Jeong-hye, are bickering over who ripped whom off over a painting that may be called Fiesta or Amusement Park, depending on who’s right. Hyo-min must prove that her client, Jeong-hye, is the original artist.
As ever, the case throws a few interesting twists in. One of them is that Jeong-hye has a learning disability, which was obscured by her mother and was similarly unknown to Hyo-min, which is a bit problematic since it makes it look like she doesn’t have a solid understanding of her clients. It mandates a different approach to the problem, since the whole logic behind keeping this disability quiet was to give Jeong-hye a sense of normality, yet the case is going to expose everything.
The ebbs and flows of the case in Beyond the Bar Episode 5 test Hyo-min in different ways and push her to contemplate Seok-hoon’s advice. It’s pretty obvious who’s who in all this – Gwan-mo is the guilty party – but as is always the case with the law, it isn’t about what’s true, but what a jury can be convinced is true (this was said aloud in the premiere of USA’s The Rainmaker adaptation, if anyone’s interested.) In other words, even though we know who’s guilty, what matters is how Hyo-min is able to prove it, and what that proof – in this case, hidden images inside Jeong-hye’s paintings that depict her father’s face – has to say about the people involved.
This entire episode is intended to be a learning experience for Hyo-min, and the reason it works is that it really feels like one. She doesn’t just flex magical abilities like she took a peek at the script; she listens to advice, mulls it over, implements it, and battles with her own anxieties. The respect she gets in the aftermath of the case feels earned, and the gradual development of the terms of her relationship with Seok-hoon is satisfying to see. Based on how cavalier Yeon-a is about how deeply she wounded him, the guy deserves a break, even if he’s not much fun to work with.
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