Karaoke & Drinks
Episode 6 of Hello Me begins with Ha-Ni chasing Scarlett (young Ha-Ni) straight into a storage cupboard where she happens to be hiding out. Ha-Ni fails to find her though and eventually takes off, where she runs into Anthony in the hallway. It’s a brief conversation but one that eventually sees Ha-Ni scrambling for her box again. Thankfully it’s okay and everything is still inside. Yu-Hyeon shows up in his squid-go car and offers to give Ha-Ni a ride. Understandably, she remains cautious, wondering quite what his game is. Well, there’s nothing untoward here, as he drops her off with the snacks. On the way back though, they find a boy struggling and seemingly about to drown. Strapping the snacks together, Ha-Ni and Yu-Hyeon work together to save the boy from drowning. Ha-Ni almost drowns herself though, until Yu-Hyeon helps them out. Elsewhere, Scarlett joins Anthony at the audition and wonders why he’s in a good mood. As he eats a roll, this brings back memories of the past as she remembers Chun-Sik eating and following her. Thanks to the mole on the back of his neck, Scarlett immediately realizes that this is the same boy from her school. Well, she drops a squirt of milk in his coffee and leaves red writing scrawled across his mirror, telling him she knows what he did when he was 17. Meanwhile, Ha-Ni returns to the office with bad news. Unfortunately the snacks are ruined and as word of this reaches Ji-Eun, she struggles to control her rage. Speaking in private, she tells Ha-Ni to stop apologizing and to take responsibility for her actions. She tells Ha-Ni to give up and eventually tells the girl outright that she wants her out the team. As she pushes Ha-Ni, she looks set to fall down the stairs until Scarlett shows and saves her. When Ji-Eun leaves, Ha-Ni reveals the truth over who her boss is to Scarlett, who looks shocked. When she takes the black make-up off her face, Ji-Eun spies them from the toilet cubicle and notices that Scarlett looks exactly like Ha-Ni. However, she believes that Scarlett is Ha-Ni’s daughter. Back home, Ha-Ni and Scarlett experience a blackout. They call over Yu-Hyeon to investigate but he fails to find a ghost like they were expecting. He bids them good night and shuffles away. However, someone else also seems to be lurking outside after. News of Ha-Ni’s heroics reach the mainstream news as they call her a brave citizen. Ji-Eun remains quiet though while the chairman chuckles gleefully at what’s transpired. Han Ji-Sook is not so pleased though, questioning Ji-Eun over exactly who this girl is and where she found her. She’s pretty cold toward her daughter and even tells Ji-Eun to address her correctly as ma’am rather than Mum. After, Ji-Eun approaches Ha-Ni while she holds her letter of resignation, breaking the news that she’s “scored big this time.” The rest of the staff are abuzz with news of Ha-Ni’s exploits but Ji-Eun is nonchalant and refuses to engage with her. In fact, she even tells the others gently that they need to get back to work. Just then, Yang Do-Yun shows up and encourages them all to head out for celebratory food and drink. Ha-Ni gets into the thick of the action, allowing photos to be snapped and downing alcoholic drinks. In fact, this winds up as a competition between her and Ji-Eun as they both down drinks together. That drinking competition soon turns to singing as Ha-N and Ji-Eun compete against one another at karaoke. Together in the bathroom, the truth comes out. Ji-Eun looks at Ha-Ni shamefully and talks to her about Scarlett. She admits that her younger self has helped make her a better person and allowed her to stick up for herself more. She gives an impassioned plea and hopes that she can become a better member of the team. Meanwhile, Scarlet receives her cash from the agency but is approached by Anthony’s subordinates who accuse her of being the one to leave the threatening message. She plays them at her own game and shows off photos of Anthony from the past, promising to play him at his own game if he keeps this up. The picture in question shocks Anthony as he gasps, “Ha-Ni?!” Ha-Ni eventually heads home, blind drunk from her night at karaoke. Yu-Hyeon spies her on the way back, dancing under a lamppost, and decides to take her back home. He gives her a piggyback but to her apartment. Only, when he gets there Anthony shows up too and looks set for a showdown.
The Episode Review
Hello Me bows out this week’s double bill with an episode that eases up on the comedy slightly while drip feeding a bit more exposition from the past. There doesn’t seem like any attempt to try and bring Scarlett back home or coming up with theories over why she’s here, instead we get the two characters off acting mischievously. Scarlett hasn’t really grown or changed much since the early episodes while Ha-Ni most certainly has. Standing up to Ji-Eun in the bathroom is definitely a step forward for her and it’s good to see her growing and becoming more confident over time. By comparison though you have Yu-Hyeon who’s had very little to do and still continues to have a lackadaisical plot. His whole storyline was supposed to be about trying to survive in the real world away from the cushy lifestyle with the chairman. So far we’ve had little of that. In fact, he even has his subordinate doing the kitchen chores when he bemoans how hard it has been which sort of undermines his whole purpose. Personally, it would have been nice to see a bit more screen-time with him, with more manual labour and understanding the nature of hard work and making an honest wage. Still,. the show continues to deliver some good laughs and while there are better comedies out there, this one really isn’t bad and certainly a light-hearted romp worth checking out.
