‘Typhoon Family’ Episode 12 Recap – Has This Show Lost Its Way?

Sixteen episodes is too many, isn’t it? I don’t mean all of the time, but generally speaking, especially for a K-Drama running 65-75 minutes per outing. You can tell it’s too many for Typhoon Family because Episode 12 is the second in a row that feels totally sapped of its pace and energy. It also highlights what has undeniably been a fairly repetitive structure to the show overall, with Tae-poong stumbling into one crisis after another and managing to freestyle his way out of it. The pattern is predictable, and it brings into starker relief that some of the surrounding storytelling is a lot more interesting than the core plot, at least when it revolves around bickering over government contracts.

I’d also make the case that there’s something even more improbable about this latest issue than usual. Thanks to Hyun-jun, Typhoon Trading don’t get an open goal when bidding for the surgical gloves, which you’ll recall don’t have a domestic manufacturer, meaning that the price is dictated by an American company. There’s no room for negotiation, and Typhoon has overheads to cover that the more established and successful Pyo Merchant Marine does not. It seems very much like a lost cause. Ma-jin even tells Tae-poong so.

But because of the way that Tae-poong operates, the latest thing is always the only thing that the company has going on, which means that an outside-the-box solution simply must be found, no matter what. I’m not sure this is necessarily the best depiction of how a financial crisis works, but it’s pretty standard from-the-ashes K-Drama business, so I suppose it’s forgivable, if a little lamentable.

The bright idea here is to buy from the factory that the American company, Blaze Eagles, outsources production to. This place, based in Malaysia, now makes pillows, but has some leftover inventory lying around. To create a ticking clock device, which this show has loved since the beginning, Tae-poong sends Song-jung to check out the factory, but the bidding war has already begun in the time it takes him to send a telegram, so Tae-poong has to hold off on making the mathematically optimal bid that Mr. Koo suggests in the hopes of a Hail Mary coming through in the telegram. Needless to say, this is precisely what happens, allowing Typhoon Trading to make the most competitive bid on account of already securing tons of the leftover stock from the factory.

It probably says a lot about how rote the business endeavours feel that Mi-ho and Nam-mo’s relationship, which gets a fair amount of attention in Typhoon Family Episode 12, is more engaging. I haven’t mentioned these two a great deal since I’ve been fixating on the lead couple, but on balance, there’s probably a bit more earnest chemistry here. And there are also more of the show’s underlying themes bundled up in it, especially with Nam-mo’s mother forming some decidedly unsavoury conclusions about Mi-ho on account of her being “poor” and just a looker. It’s intriguing to see how someone looks for ways to reinforce their personal biases – as with making comments about her outfits – even when they’re dead wrong, and it’s also interesting to see how a very real historical backdrop can colour people’s viewpoints. There’s little doubt that in any circumstances other than a financial crisis, Nam-mo’s mother wouldn’t consider Mi-ho to be such a burden, at least not in the same way.

Of course, this prompts some home truths from Nam-mo, defending Mi-ho but also reiterating the reality of their own bad financial decision-making. It’s a nice gesture, but it perhaps might not be enough for Mi-ho, who had to endure that torrent of abuse and is now naturally reconsidering her own decision-making in light of it.

And in light of this, it’s harder to care about, say, Pyo being furious with Hyun-jun for needlessly bidding on the surgical gloves out of his own ego, which has cost the company a ton of money in wasted American orange juice. The stakes just feel out of reach against the distinctly human terms of Mi-ho and Nam-mo’s circumstances. Hyun-jun’s pushy villainy is mostly just annoying. I can’t help but feel like there could have been more organic sources of conflict given the subject matter.

But, nonetheless, Typhoon Family Episode 12 ends with the Typhoon warehouse being set on fire – dramatically, with Mi-seon inside it. Whether just destroying the stock or taking her with it was the intention, there has nonetheless been a deliberate act of ruinous arson, and I think we can probably guess who’s responsible. What might this mean for the financial future of the company? Well, we’ve got four more episodes to find out.

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