REVIEW: ‘Strong Girl Nam-soon’ Episodes 13-14

We’re finally reaching the end of Strong Girl Nam-soon and boy, has it been a ride. With not much time left to wrap up storylines, Strong Girl Nam-soon Episodes 13-14 move things over at a rapid pace, though at times, gets a little sidetracked by slightly less important storylines. But with all they’ve tried to tackle in this series, it’s sort of expected at this point for them to diverge. At least we finally witness Ryu Shi-O (Byeon Woo-seok) learning Nam-soon’s  (Lee Yoo-Mi) real identity after fifty billion years of waiting and we get to see some real-life consequences kick into gear for our team of heroes.

The most important revelation in Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 13 is the reveal for Shi-O that his confidant and crush has been Nam-soon this entire time. It takes time, though, for this reveal to occur. First, we have to get through the rest of the plot. Nam-soon and Lieutenant Gang Hee-sik (Ong Seong-wu) have a heartfelt moment at the beginning of the episode that loses a bit of steam due to Hee-sik’s focus on his fallen comrade. But, for Nam-soon, she doesn’t mind. Their feelings for each other have been confirmed.

Hwang Geum-ju (Kim Jung-eun), admittedly, is distracted by the disappearance of her secretary, Jung Na-young (Oh Jung-yeon). In the last episode, she was kidnapped by one of Shi-O’s men to force her into submission or kill her in the process. It is revealed in Episode 13 that she has been drugged. If she wants to survive and also keep her sister alive, she must comply with his demands. While this happens, Geum-ju’s shocking news of Shi-O and Doogo’s drug trade is revealed, exposing Shi-O and all of those involved with his enterprise.

This, of course, forces Shi-O’s hand. He mobilizes all of his contacts and orders them to get a handle on things. At the same time, he desperately further intensifies his search for Nam-soon and orders a hit on Geum-ju’s family members, starting foolishly with Gil Joong-gan’s (Kim Hae-sook), Nam-soon’s grandmother. Because, of course, older ladies are fair game. Unfortunately for Shi-O’s men, they get their butts handed to them. But, for Shi-O, his search for Nam-soon gets closer when his team discovers that Nam-soon paid the family of a deceased Doogo employee, and footage of Nam-soon is found of her rescuing people from the burning building.

Nam-soon is unaware that Shi-O is inching closer to discovering her. The bulk of Strong Girl Nam-Soon Episode 13 is focused on her finding evidence against Shi-O. His misplaced trust in her leads her to discover the shipment of sea hares monthly to the Doogo labs. Visiting the labs, she also comes face to face with the mysterious Beum, who is connected to the Russian Mafia. But, for the most part, things seem to be going normal for Nam-soon.

The same can’t be said for Hee-sik. In Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 13, he goes through some serious ups and downs but actor Ong Seong-wu is game for these changes. Realizing how fully corrupt the legal system is, he’s about reached the end of his rope. While he has been taking illegal measures to acquire evidence of Doogo’s wrongdoings, he rightfully confronts those above him over their complicity in the criminal drug problem. To try to stop Hee-sik and his team, his squad is taken off the case but Geum-ju’s financial investment in Hee-sik’s work helps Hee-sik take his team with him as he decides to go rogue and solve the case off the grid. It’s a lot but, given how Hee-sik’s character trajectory was going, it matches up with expectations.

More distracting than anything else given everything else Episode 13 deals with is the focus on Joong-gan and Seo Jun-hee’s (Jung Bo-suk) relationship. A romantic triangle forms between Joong-gan, Jun-hee, and Joong-gan’s ex-husband, Hwang Guk-jong (Lim Ha-ryong) who, for the most part, has been stuck in the hospital after being randomly thrown in for unneeded extra drama. There’s a fight between Jun-hee and Guk-jong that highlights the lack of maturity in the situation but Jun-hee perseveres. Unfortunately, Guk-jong disappears yet again with further injuries.

Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 13 ends with two major moments. Nam-soon’s identity is revealed, resulting in a sad boi moment for Shi-O. Subsequently, Na-young appears to deliver a broadcast for Geum-ju, but something’s not right. Both moments set up the high-intensity stakes leading into Episode 14 and things finally hit the fan in what is the climax of the season.

Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 14 dives straight into where we left off. Shi-O flies into a rage after grasping the full extent of Nam-soon’s betrayal. In a twist of plot armor, which is Strong Girl Nam-soon’s specialty at this point, we’re shown Na-young revealed everything to Geum-ju before resuming the broadcast. With her sister now protected by Geum-ju’s connections with Opulentia, Na-young is comfortable going forward with bringing down Shi-O at all costs.

Knowing that her family is too spread apart to be fully protected, Geum-ju brings the family together and takes them to Busan. With them all together, in Geum-ju’s eyes, she can better control the situation and protect her loved ones. However, the universe has other plans. Joong-gan announces her planned divorce, which sets off Geum-ju’s brother, Hwang Geum-dong (Kim Ki-doo). Geum-ju receives a call that her company is being raided, a retaliatory measure against her, and she says to provide them with everything asked for.

Shi-O, to further slander Geum-ju and protect himself, has a press conference where he drags her name in the mud and also showcases another jacket, filled with feathers instead of drugs. But he’s not completely out of dodge yet. Secretary Yoon witnesses the aftermath of Joong-gan’s violence against Shi-O’s henchmen. Meanwhile, Marie Kim (Park Hye-na) meets with Tae-ri (Han Da-ree) aka Red Heels, who is revealed to be working with Hee-sik to keep herself safe. She takes Kim’s contacts and sends them to Hee-sik while the woman slips into unconsciousness.

Hee-sik gets caught up in a whirlwind against this episode, with a race against time to expose Shi-O. While he is successful in revealing a video shot at a Doogo location that also exposes Nam-soon, his comrades make a scene in local courtrooms to point out the hypocrisy of those complicit. This culminates in Doogo’s reputation being blown up yet again, and Shi-O vowing revenge. For Hee-sik, that involves him and his team getting arrested.

This is where things get murdery. Shi-O makes a point to go after those who betray him. First, he finds Lee Myung-Hee (Choi Hee-jin) aka Hwa-ja, and has her murdered for her lies. It’s a sad end for a character who’d finally got her life back on track, but also seems like a fridging act to give more juice to propel things forward. He then pivots to get rid of the new commissioner, Lee Jeong-sik, who has been assigned to replace the previously corrupt commissioner. Getting suped up on his drugs, Shi-O carries out the murder himself violently and with purpose. This also likely will set back Hee-sik and his team as they were expecting to be reinstated with the arrival of this new commissioner.

Strong Girl Nam-soon Episode 14 ends with Hwa-ja seemingly texting Nam-soon informing her that she has died and that Nam-soon is next. It is then that it is revealed that Shi-O is the one texting her, setting up the stakes for what is going to be an epic showdown between Nam-soon and Shi-O. However, with all the residual plots going on surrounding Nam-soon’s family members, it is likely that the finale will be undercut by too much plot.

Strong Girl Nam-soon Episodes 13-14 propel things forward intensely, giving us the vengeful Shi-O that we’ve been waiting for. It’s taken far too long for Nam-soon’s identity to be revealed and, while Shi-O’s subsequent actions afterward are rightfully and deliciously delivered it’s hard to really embrace the tension and horror they bring with so much else taking attention away. So much happened that the revelation surrounding the character Bread Song in Episode 14 is a mere afterthought compared to everything else.

The story surrounding Hee-sik, Shi-O, and Nam-soon grows in Strong Girl Nam-soon Episodes 13-14. What drags everything down is that there are too many storylines competing still when things should be tidying themselves up, leading to a disjointed, mismatched journey straight to what should be an epic showdown.

Strong Girl Nam-soon is streaming now on Netflix.