In its second week, Good Job continues to do a good job (heh) with what it’s good at: silly capers, hilarious hijinks made for pure fan service, and the hint of romances to come. I wasn’t completely sold last week, but I enjoyed this week a lot — if you come for the silly (and boy Jung Il-woo is good at it), you will not leave disappointed.
EPISODES 3-4 WEECAP
Good Job wouldn’t work as well as it does if it weren’t for our three main players and their interactions — I almost don’t care about the actual sleuthing at all — just show me scenes of our main characters being goofy and silly. And swoony.
We pick up with that most excellent ending scene from last week, where Sera outs herself (and her super vision). In Sun-woo’s own words, he proved the truth ingeniously. The scene had such a strong reveal they could have left it at that, but this is Good Job, so there has to be some childish repartee and bird poop jokes to finish off the scene properly. And I’m not complaining.
But the investigation must go on, and Sun-woo’s only lead right now is the bracelet that Sera identified. The bracelet points them to a child cancer foundation and the pediatric ward of a hospital, where a steady string of clues leads them, like so many breadcrumbs, in a circle right back to Oh Ah-ra.
Chock full of red herrings and suspicious nurses, this whole plot arc (and episode and a quarter) was really built for the hijinks — not because the rogue nurse and mystery volunteer plot line was particularly well-written. But that doesn’t matter, because we’re here for the hijinks! And what could be more fun than Sun-woo and Sera forced to play lovey dovey newlyweds?
They pretend to dote on each other with a layer of falsity that’s hilarious — Sun-woo takes the hospital bed while his “wife” the “patient,” must sleep on the cot. And as revenge, Sera makes her “husband” spoon feed her. Seriously, they are having as much fun acting this out (in real life and in-world) as I am watching.
But back to the plot. Sun-woo dons several different identities (i.e., eye glasses) and snoops around enough so we eventually discover that Jang Min-soo is actually abusing the boy he claims is his son, and that Oh Ah-ra herself was one of the volunteers in the hospital.
Sun-woo and Sera continue their snooping, and after a few red herrings with the nurses in the ward, bits of evidence, and the keychain Sera identified last week, they discover the charge nurse was involved. Oh, did I mention that Min-soo’s son is missing?
Not to de-prioritize the adorable boy that needs medical care, or the “father” that needs to meet the inside of a prison for a very long time, but again, this whole entire arc is mostly just for the pivotal fan service scene.
The charge nurse knows they are onto her, and she injects Sera in a storage room and she quickly passes out. Sun-woo comes to her rescue and despite his epic fighting skills, he too is taken down by a syringe. Next thing we know they are tied up together with IV tubing in the storage room, and since there’s no other way to try to free themselves in time and save the boy, they go at the tubing with their mouths/teeth/whatever. It’s the most weirdly erotic thing ever — and Jin-mo, who eventually locates them, also seems to agree with that assessment.
After escaping, the three head off after the nurse, and Sun-woo and his amazing deductive skills are ten steps ahead as usual. So he’s not at all surprised when he flings open the door of the vehicle they’ve been chasing to not only find the boy (Han-byul), but the definitely-not-dead Oh Ah-ra.
Ah-ra — along with the nurse — has orchestrated this whole murder ruse in order to save Han-byul. And it doesn’t take a private eye to figure out why: Han-byul is actually Ah-ra’s son! She tells our crew the entire tale, from the fact that she thought her son died at birth, to the nurse admitting that Ah-ra’s boyfriend of the time told her to tell Ah-ra the baby died. Excuse me, but is that not the most illegal thing ever??
Anyway, Ah-ra has thrown her career into the wind and only wants to save and become a mother to Han-byul, which I’m totally behind. However, before Sun-woo lets them do this, he wants to know what she knows about The Queen’s Tears. In fact, he’s awfully emphatic about not letting them go until she does, even with Han-byul feverish and looking sicker than ever.
Of course, that little teaspoon of dislike towards Sun-woo that we are fed is soon replaced by a bucket of adoration: he has his own private helicopter swooping in as he speaks (we hear it in the distance). Sun-woo’s literally saving the day on her promise to tell him about the necklace after they’re safe. Not sure why she can’t just tell him and leave, but that’s the drama’s problem right now.
However, we do learn that Ah-ra stole the necklace from her ex as revenge for lying about their baby, but then it was stolen from her (uh, why is this priceless necklace so easy to steal?). Ah-ra thought Han-byul’s father stole it back, but when she received threats about returning it, she realized it wasn’t him. Afraid for her safety – and Han-byul’s — she planned the entire murder-escape which brings us back to the present.
Before leaving on the chopper, Ah-ra whispers for Sun-woo to be wary of Tae-joon. Hmm, maybe this one-dimensional and obviously bad dude is the evil lying father of Han-byul, and the necklace thief behind Sun-woo’s mother’s death? That would be too obvious, right?
But no matter, because something even more important happens during this dying boy/helicopter/famous actress interlude. Sun-woo, in an emotional moment, explains his behavior to Sera… thus revealing to her that he’s not a playboy investigating on a lark, but that he’s a deeply wounded soul trying to uncover the truth behind his mother’s murder. Sera suddenly likes him a whole lot more.
With the hospital storyline concluded and Ah-ra and her son safely off (and Min-soo in custody), everyone heads home for the night. But Sera forgets the hot pink dress she was promised as payment, so she heads back to Jin-mo’s office to get it, and just like Alice in Wonderland, step by step she finds herself entering the batcave. It’s actually wonderfully self-conscious, because that’s really the only way you can have a spunky heroine easily uncover the batcave that no one else can seem to.
As she wanders into the basement I started thinking to myself that according to this drama’s MO thus far, there is no reason on earth for Sun-woo not to be shirtless when she arrives. Will he pop out of the shower when she walks into his lair?
Lo and behold I was not wrong. He’s only been home about four minutes but he’s already pumping iron. But I love this drama — rather than linger too long on the sweaty ~oolala~ factor, Sun-woo actually sticks his arm into the hot pink dress while making fun of it, and the jig is up for Sera, who’s hiding across the room. Oh the hijinks and misunderstandings!
And here the drama takes an upsettingly predictable turn. While in the batcave Sera noticed the childhood photo of Sun-woo and his parents. That night, she dreams/recalls some memories from the orphanage and we see flashes of the angelic woman whom they all adored, and who later died. Again, it doesn’t take a chaebol heir with the brain of Sherlock Holmes to put two and two together. Sera — deep in her memory and super powers — holds a lot of clues to the murder of Sun-woo’s mother.
Sera doesn’t know any of this yet, and right now, she’s just excited by Sun-woo’s (reluctant) invitation to work for him. He might pretend to hate it, but we know he doesn’t, and Jin-mo is right that Sera and her super vision are a big help to them.
Much to Sun-woo’s annoyance, though, Sera doesn’t show up for her first day of work. However, this is soon explained away and becomes the next mini case for the team: Sera’s beloved little sister/friend from the orphanage — HAN SOO-AH (Min Chae-eun) — has gotten into a huge mess trying to help her friend.
Said friend has been kidnapped by some drug-dealing gangsters, and Soo-ah isn’t far behind. Sera witnesses this, and soon our goofy gang of three are on the chase. And if watching them blast around in that dopey van isn’t funny, nothing is.
They follow Soo-ah to an abandoned warehouse where things escalate quickly. The gangsters are rough and awful — but really, they’re no match for Sun-woo’s fight skills, and later, Jin-mo’s cosplay, bluffing, and acting skills, all of which we have seen in action before. Seriously, Eum Moon-seok is having the time of his life with this role.
Anyway, much like the hospital caper, the abandoned warehouse caper is only fun and interesting because of our crazy threesome — these characters quite literally make the drama. And we leave off this week’s episodes with another cliffhanger: Sun-woo just barely saves Sera as she faints in the road (due to, you know, superhero reasons). This, of course, requires Sun-woo to dive on top of her and then they proceed to roll down the hill right before she loses consciousness.
Like I’ve already said half a dozen times, this drama is made to be fun — not believable or well-crafted — and when I take it in on that level, I really enjoy myself. I mean, it’s got this cheesy low budget feel to it which is nearly impossible not to giggle over.
More than the big moments and action, though, it’s the interactions among the characters that make the ride as fun as it is. I particularly enjoyed DIRECTOR HONG (Lee Jun-hyuk) getting suspicious of Sun-woo always locked in his office and sarcastically wondering why he always wants to be left alone with a lot on his mind. “It’s not like he’s a monk,” scoffs Director Hong.
But of course, the drama is mostly about the budding relationship between Sun-woo and Sera — who play off of each other beautifully and with the same level of heart — and second only to that is the Sun-woo/Jin-mo banter. Their bromance is the second highlight of the show, even if Jin-mo has to take most of the knocks, whether it’s the swollen face from his milk allergy, or being forced to “dance like a balloon” when he wrecks the bakery’s balloon decoration. I shouldn’t be laughing this hard at a grown man wiggling around in front of a bakery, but it’s downright hilarious how they play it.
The drama also sprinkles in a ton of throwaway lines that add so much color to the drama (and the lackluster plot) — like Sun-woo smarting when Han-byul called him “ajusshi.” There are other jokes that I find less funny (I just can’t laugh over back pain — it’s too real lol), but overall the zany humor carries this show hook, line, and sinker.