REVIEW: ‘When The Stars Gossip’ Episode 5

When The Stars Gossip has turned up the drama volume, no, I’m not talking about the spacewalk gone wrong. I’m talking about Gong Ryong (Lee Min-ho) drunkenly confessing his feelings to Commander Eve Kim (Kong Hyo-jin). When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 continues to crank that dial-up.

Picking up exactly where the last ended, we see an embarrassed Ryong in his quarters and find out what he said after confessing his feelings. It’s not good. Despite Eve’s rejection on the grounds of them both having people back on Earth, Ryong keeps pushing. He assures Eve that he will wait for her because he has never wanted to be a part of the MZ Group and most certainly not a son-in-law to Chairman Choi. Drunk Ryong’s honesty comes through but Eve isn’t moved, though it’s clear his confession does reach her.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 has narrowed the story threads into three avenues moving parallel to each other. There is the IVF experiment that Kang Kang-su (Oh Jung-se) and Ryong have been fighting over while also trying to hide it from the rest of the International LEO Station (ILS) crew. Then there are the romances brewing and colliding on both the ILS and on Earth, with the reason for the Seoul Mission Control Center’s inclusion in the series becoming more apparent. Then, there is the lottery ticket that Mina Lee (Lee Cho-hee) realizes belongs to the arrogant and already insanely rich Kang-su.

The three pieces of the series are moving together well, with each one sending ripples that interact with one another. All three storylines have significant shifts in When The Stars Gossip Episode 5. Still, the romance, tensions, and lies that have erupted remain the most significant piece of the series, due in large part to Lee Min-ho and Kong Hyo-Jin’s chemistry.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 is all about messy adult romances.

As awkward as Ryong’s drunken confession was, the sincerity he brought to it was palpable. He cares for Eve, he respects Eve, and, more interestingly, he’s obviously floored by what she brings out in him. As he said, “You made me the man I am now by slapping me in the face.” It’s a moment where you realize that Ryong may have started his crush when he arrived, but it was the slap that shook all of it loose and brought it to the surface. Ryong doubles and triples down as they talk, and Eve keeps pushing back.

At the end of this conversation, they will both still have people waiting for them back on Earth, and that’s an immutable fact, at least for Eve. For Ryong, not so much. To put it simply, Ryong is ready to give everything up, and while it may be because the topic of the conversation is his feelings for Eve, it’s also because it’s the first time he’s voicing out loud what the audience has observed in his narration and in the choices he’s made so far.

We know that Ryong doesn’t love Choi Go-eun (Han Ji-Eun), at least not in the way that she loves him. He didn’t come to the space station to ask for her hand, and he ultimately didn’t even call her when he almost died. Go-eun and Ryong are living entirely different lives, and now, Ryong is ready to say it out loud. More importantly, he’s ready to tell Go-eun.

The first phone call that they’ve had since Ryong almost died and Go-eun announced their engagement without his consent is an interesting one. Ryong doesn’t beat around the bush and is immediately honest. He doesn’t want to marry her. He won’t marry her. But when the phone call ends and Go-eun finds herself in front of her father, at best, she’s in denial, and at worst, she’s lying to keep Ryong by her side.

Ryong finally admits how he really feels about Go-eun. 

It’s been no secret to anyone around them, including Chairman Choi (Kim Eung-soo), that Ryong does not love Go-eun the way that she does him. And while Go-eun is set on telling her father that her marriage is still on, her father is more concerned with pushing her toward Kang-su. Surprisingly, though, he’s pushing her to the rich guy not because he’s rich but because he looks at her like she’s his world, and Ryong just doesn’t.

The complexity of the romances in When The Stars Gossip has been coming increasingly into the frame. These are adult relationships with adult problems but also adult messiness. There are familial expectations, the need to move or preserve status, and new love awakening.

But what makes the romantic threads in this series stand out is how honest it has been about letting the cracks between people deepen. When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 keeps this up and lets the audience see the flaws in the characters we’re supposed to root for. It also lets us know that the choice we’re rooting for, Eve and Ryong, coming together will have consequences for others.

While it’s clear to the audience that this is a Kdrama romance brewing, at the moment, Ryong has taken his denial in stride for the most part. Instead, he accepts that he’s just going to live in shame for the next few days before he has to return to Earth.

Commander Eve Kim is tough, but she can still get hurt.

That is until Eve finds out that what she left on Earth isn’t what she will be returning to. Slightly off-kilter from the confession, the Commander continues her routine and tries to follow through on her threat to tell Chief Kang Tae-hui (Lee El) about the alcohol on board. But when she calls the Chief, she finds out that the Chief has slept with Park Dong-ah (Kim Joo-hun), the man that Eve thought was her lover.

Only, that betrayal isn’t the Chief’s to carry; it’s Dong-ah’s. With the phone accidentally answered on the floor, Eve can see their clothes on the chair, hear them laughing, and then Chief Kang asks Dong-ah about Eve—about if he liked her. To which he responds no and adds insult to injury by saying that Eve doesn’t understand men.

It’s a gut punch; you can see Eve wearing it on her face. It’s a tough moment and one that clearly hardens Eve’s heart. The man she called her lover, the man she denied Ryong for, couldn’t be bothered not to sleep with someone else, but one step further, he couldn’t keep from talking bad about Eve. It’s a cutting moment, and she takes that anger out on Ryong.

While I questioned the inclusion of the conversations at the Seoul Mission Control Center in the beginning episodes, it all makes sense now. But to make the cheating worse, Eve, Chief Kang, and Dong-ah were all friends. They were all astronauts together. They were supposed to be close. And none of that matters.

We all know that Ryong’s actions speak to cheating as well. Granted, unlike Dong-ah, he told Go-eun that he didn’t want to be with her and, of course, wouldn’t do anything other than just develop a crush. But to Eve, it doesn’t matter. Ryong is just another man in a relationship with a wandering eye. There is comedy in the way that she delivers her frustration, but Kong Hyo-jin plays the roles with enough hurt under the surface that it’s hard to take in. Ryong mostly takes the abuse in stride but ultimately pushes back, saying that he isn’t a terrible person and feels bad about everything.

Insubordination is taking the focus of life on the ILS.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 has two other large plot points, of course, but the romantic movements in this episode are the real highlight. That said, when the episode ends, it’s clear where When The Stars Gossip Episode 6 will go—repercussions for the unsanctioned egg fertilization research being discovered.

Back on Earth, the Choi family is excited with the fertilization results, primarily because all seven eggs are viable and can be implanted. Kang-su’s success has swayed Na Min-Jeong’s (Baek Eun-hye) heart because her dream to become a mother means more than her loyalty to Ryong. But with the Commander on a warpath to bring the crew members to heel when they’re doing whatever they want, there is no hope.

Eve finds Kang-su’s experiment at the end of the episode and sets the momentum for what’s to come next. Everything is going wrong now. The eggs have been found out and will likely have to be destroyed. Ryong is stuck in an engagement he doesn’t want (even if he doesn’t know it yet), and the woman he likes hates him now. And Eve, she is hurting.

When it comes to the narrative, these two big plot points are the most important and the most intriguing. They eclipse any sort of humor or investment in Mina’s lottery ticket, even if it does mean that we get to see how an arrogant person Kang-su is to everyone around him who isn’t rich. While Lee Seung-Jun (Heo Nam-jun) spreads the word about the ticket to Santi (Alex Hafner), the goal becomes to keep it out of the hands of Mr. Moneybags. But none of it holds a candle to the more dramatic moments of When The Stars Gossip Episode 5.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 ends with the big reveal and an angry Eve.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 is a good and engrossing drama. At the same time, it’s getting difficult to be immersed in the space station happenings with the effects of work starting to wear thin. The visible harnesses on the actors make it rough not to laugh even when you are supposed to be in a serious moment. That said, the novelty of happening in a space station is starting to just become a setting and a less important aspect of, well, everything. The truth is that Ryong and Eve would be interesting regardless of whether they are on Earth or on the ILS.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 is a testament to making eccentric scenarios with endearing characters that keep you invested without ever becoming too much. The series wonderfully balances comedy and romance and how pulls all the drama into a compelling and evolving story.

The only thing I’m leaving this episode with is how good Eve and Ryong are together and, more importantly, how well actors Kong Hyo-jin and Lee Min-ho match each other’s energy and appeal. They’re endgame, and getting there is going to be a bumpy but well worth it ride. Ryong and Eve may be at odds, but Kong Hyo-jin and Lee Min-ho are electric.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 5 is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix, with new episodes every Saturday and Sunday in January and February.