Our vocal prodigy’s musical career has only just begun to take off when it takes a sharp left turn. Whether that turn is for better or worse remains to be seen, but for now, she’s learning to broaden her horizons and take ownership of her decisions without regret.
EPISODES 3-4
Determined to prove herself, Jeong-nyeon declines Ok-gyung’s offer and focuses on finding the essence of her assigned character for the trainee production. And find it she does — taking inspiration from a street dancer who performs solely for the love of it — but she misses the last week or so of rehearsals in the process.
Young-seo, spotting an opportunity, prepares to play both Jeong-nyeon’s part and her own, never mind that their characters share several scenes. But Jeong-nyeon shows up in the nick of time (this is becoming a pattern for her), and Young-seo doesn’t protest. After an initial bout of stage fright, Jeong-nyeon comes alive onstage, hamming it up so much that she upstages literally everyone and Young-seo has to improvise to keep up. When Jeong-nyeon’s walking stick prop breaks and she falls flat on her face — turning a big emotional moment into an unintentionally comedic one — she and Young-seo work together to salvage the scene. The show is a rousing success (and an absolute treat to watch), and Jeong-nyeon earns the official audition script.
Young-seo, however, is quick to burst her bubble. According to her, the only reason they didn’t both crash and burn on that stage is because she matched Jeong-nyeon’s deviations from the script. In other words, “I made you look good, not the other way around.” What Young-seo doesn’t tell Jeong-nyeon is that watching Jeong-nyeon perform made her momentarily forget she was an actor on a stage.
Troupe Leader Kang uses a sword fighting lesson to point out the biggest problem with Jeong-nyeon and Young-seo’s rivalry: they’re treating the stage as a battleground instead of a collaboration. In a performance, the point is not to win over your “opponent” — the point is to be in sync with your partner.
To further expand on this idea, the show gives us a look at Jeong-nyeon and Young-seo through the eyes of another pair of stage (and, it’s vaguely hinted, romantic) partners: Ok-gyung and her leading lady SEO HYE-RANG (Kim Yoon-hye). They each have their favorite of the trainees and are quick to point out the other’s flaws. But while Hye-rang takes every opportunity to look down her nose at Jeong-nyeon (methinks she’s a bit jealous of the attention she gets from Ok-gyung), Ok-gyung is happy to offer Young-seo genuine constructive criticism. If Young-seo really wants to excel, she needs to loosen up and let herself enjoy the performance.
On the heels of her first taste of success, Jeong-nyeon’s dream comes to a screeching halt. It all starts with her new best friend, HONG JU-RAN (Woo Da-bi), who secretly works part-time at a café to pay her sister’s medical bills. While not technically against the rules (they’re only forbidden from earning money through singing, or using the troupe’s fame for profit), it’s still not advisable. But when Ju-ran fractures her arm, Jeong-nyeon insists on covering her shifts until it heals.
Unfortunately, Jeong-nyeon made enough of a name for herself in the trainee production that the café owner soon discovers her identity and coerces her into singing for the patrons. When Troupe Leader Kang finds out (it’s made to look like Young-seo may have told her, but that turns out not to be true), she expels Jeong-nyeon immediately, and not even Ok-gyung can change her mind. The one thing that might have saved Jeong-nyeon would have been for her to explain Ju-ran’s predicament, but Jeong-nyeon is too loyal. So instead, she gets tossed out into the street (quite literally). One thing leads to another, and she finds herself spending the night in the jailhouse because she got pickpocketed and couldn’t pay for her dinner.
Out of options, Jeong-nyeon calls up television PD PARK JONG-GUK (Kim Tae-hoon), who gave her his business card upon hearing her sing at the café. Park PD’s offer to make her a star still stands, and so Jeong-nyeon steps into a whole new lifestyle, preparing to become a pop singer on TV instead of a gukgeuk performer.
While PD Park’s motivations seem a little shifty at times (he’s weirdly interested in her hometown, and he doesn’t explain all the details of the contract he has her sign), Jeong-nyeon’s new mentor and vocal coach PATRICIA KIM (Lee Mi-do) is as warm and nurturing as Troupe Leader Kang is strict. She gives Jeong-nyeon an elegant modern makeover and advice about sticking to one’s convictions even when it’s not considered socially acceptable. As a divorcee, Patricia knows what it’s like to be an outcast, and I appreciate the gentle way she challenges Jeong-nyeon’s honest ignorance to help broaden her perspective.
Jeong-nyeon’s first big outing is to the concert of a familiar famous opera singer. That’s right — it’s Young-seo’s older sister. Jeong-nyeon comes face to awkward face with Troupe Leader Kang, Ok-gyung, and Hye-rang, and no one can quite figure out what to say even in greeting. At the afterparty, though, Ok-gyung calls Jeong-nyeon over to their table to save her from uncomfortable small talk with PD Park’s colleagues. While supportive as always, Ok-gyung advises her not to stray too far from gukgeuk.
There’s a general air about the gukgeuk crew here that suggests the tension between them and PD Park is about more than just Jeong-nyeon, though no one says as much. Young-seo comes the closest, bluntly stating that PD Park only sees Jeong-nyeon as a product. Still, the two girls almost have a sweet moment of connection when Jeong-nyeon admits she knows Young-seo wasn’t the one who ratted her out for singing at the café.
But then the moment is ruined when Jeong-nyeon overhears Young-seo’s mother lambasting her for “embarrassing” the family by defending her choice to pursue gukgeuk over opera. In her mother’s eyes, gukgeuk will always be a low-class art form. Instead of accepting Jeong-nyeon’s sympathy, Young-seo lashes out — verbally and physically. But Jeong-nyeon no longer has incentive to play nice and slaps her right back.
Meanwhile, it looks like there’s more trouble brewing in the background, and Hye-rang is right in the middle of it. I’d have liked to see her and Ok-gyung as a healthy example of a (secret) power couple, but Hye-rang isn’t just being petty and trying to drive Jeong-nyeon away from Ok-gyung — she’s entangled somehow with the shady guy who’s been garnishing the trainees’ wages (which is why Ju-ran and others had to find extra work in the first place).
Musically, though, I love that Jeong-nyeon’s journey has her exploring different aspects of the broader entertainment world, just as she’s learning to take inspiration from people of all walks of life. And while the whole café debacle wasn’t the best set of decisions on her part, I can’t blame her for taking the next best opportunity once she’d been thrown out. Especially when it came right after her mother disowned her to her face for not giving up on gukgeuk. That said, I imagine it’ll be harder than she thinks to avoid facing the same swift rise and hard fall her mother apparently did, and I’ll be surprised if she never finds her way back to the stage (after all, she promised Ju-ran she’d come back!).