Winnie The Pooh
After Mi-Joo’s drunken antics, episode 7 of Run On begins with her waking up with a blinding hangover. Seon-Gyeom happens to be asleep in the driver’s seat. They’re both invited in by Ms Bang for breakfast. As we soon see, Ms Bang was actually Seon-Gyeom’s coach back in the day and she helped look after him. He also witnessed her beat up one of the coaches too – which he suddenly brings up in the present while sat together eating. It turns out this coach is the one currently in charge at the moment. Anyway, after their conversation Mi-Joo and Seon-Gyeom head home where the former reveals she doesn’t remember much of what she did the previous night. After dropping off Mi-Joo, Seon-Gyeom runs into Lee Yeong-Hwa who greets him warmly. He loads up his bike into Seon-Gyeom’s boot and prepares to head off with him. They both show at Dann Agency but it appears as if Dan-A has wiped Seon-Gyeom’s fingerprints. Standing outside together, Seon-Gyeom agrees to be Yeong-Hwa’s excuse for meeting Dan-A. Meanwhile, Mi-Joo is given a big opportunity to help her old friend out with a translation gig. She’s even invited to go along to the premiere for Gone For The Night too. Mi-Joo shows up at the office late and greets May, who’s been busy with the distribution schedule. While they talk, Assemblyman Ki bemoans what’s happened with his son, wanting to use him as a way of connecting to young voters. He decides to use the movie premiere as an opportunity for a PR stunt and shows up with his wife. He even invites Dan-A along to connect with Seon-Gyeom. Back home, Mi-Joo greets Seon-Gyeom momentarily before he heads off to get some stuff from his parents’ house. While there, Seon-Gyeom winds up berated by his Father who encourages him to marry and get back on track with his athletics career. Seon-Gyeom refuses though, telling his Father that it’s his life and not him. Jeong-Do doesn’t see it that way but Seon-Gyeom has had enough, turning away from his family. Just before he leaves, Jeong-Do gives him a movie premiere ticket and invites him along to attend. Mi-Joo hits the bookstore where runs into Woo-Sik. After a warm greeting, he buys her an iced coffee. The two sit together and discuss his changed career prospects, this time toward becoming a civil servant. After coffee, Seon-Gyeom shows up and walks with Mi-Joo. The pair talk about their changing career prospects and what happens to retired athletes. While he’s working, Yeong-Hwa is approached by two avid fans of Tae-Woong. Given how much of a social media influencer he is, they ask Yeong-Hwa to introduce them to the rich kid. Yeong-Hwa is confused but suddenly realizes Tae-Woong’s surname is also Seo and wonders whether the pair are family. At the same time this is going on, Tae-Woong confronts his sister about the painter (Yeong-Hwa.) She claims not to be interested, despite her dreamy, thoughtful gaze toward the honey pot. Eventually she throws his ID card in the trash but finds herself glancing at it when Tae-Woong leaves. Yeong-Hwa shows up outside with Seon-Gyeom and the two talk again. They share drinks as the latter deliberates over Mi-Joo leaving on a work trip. The conversation soon turns to Dan-A though, as he asks what relation she has to him; apparently their families are acquainted and that’s it. They soon start drinking together as Yeong-Hwa adds honey to beer. Well, these few drinks soon turn into Seon-Gyeom getting drunk and waking up in the morning clutching a honey jar. When Mi-Joo finds out she’s none too happy with Seon-Gyeom and clearly annoyed. Anyway, despite her annoyance she still shows up with Coach Bang for practice with the kids. He makes a big impression with them all while Bang and Mi-Joo begin to bond over Seon-Gyeom’s irksome behaviour. After practice, Seon-Gyeom talks to Mi-Joo about his night out and the two finally straighten out their issues. Mi-Joo admits she was worried about him but the two wind up in a pretty heated debate about the situation. Meanwhile, Dan-A shows up before Lee Yeong-Hwa and he can’t stop looking at her. Eventually he composes himself as the two head down and watch the local football team playing. Dan-A shows off her skills momentarily while admitting that she used to be in a football club. That is, until her Dad’s son ratted on her and forced the girl to quit. As she opens up, Yeong-Hwa admits that he’s grateful to learn more about her. At the movie premiere, Mi-Joo learns that May is running late. Instead, Seon-Gyeom rocks up and although they’re not reconciling just yet, they do agree to watch the movie together. Meanwhile, Jeong-Do goes ahead with his PR stunt of giving his wife flowers in front of everyone. Ji-Woo is not happy with him, especially the way he interferes with her fans too. However, it turns out his real move here is to find Dan-A and match her up with Seon-Gyeom so they can join the two families together. Well, Seon-Gyeom and Mi-Joo have other plans, as Mi-Joo stamps down her authority and walks off while holding Seon-Gyeom’s wrist. As they hurry, Seon-Gyeom can’t help but smile.
The Episode Review
Run On returns this week with another decent episode and while it’s not a twisty-turny thriller or full of shocks or twists, it is a decent slice of life series all the same. In a way, it’s quite reminiscent of last year’s Do You Like Brahms? in the way it hones in on one subject and uses that as a crux for character-driven drama. With Seon-Gyeom and Mi-Joo growing closer together, the series does well to balance that with the growing relationship between Dan-A and Yeong-Hwa. In fact, these two are arguably the more interesting pair-up as Yeong-Hwa does his best to break down the tall defences this woman has adopted. So far though, Run On has done a good job balancing both romances while delivering enjoyable character development for all involved. It’s not perfect, and at times Run On is a little slow, but it’s an undeniably enjoyable watch nonetheless.
