REVIEW: ‘When The Stars Gossip’ Episode 10

When The Stars Gossip Episode 10 pushes all of our characters to have conversations they’ve been avoiding—and some of the recipients continue to ignore them. Last episode, Gong Ryong (Lee Min-ho) and Commander Eve Kim (Kong Hyo-jin) were saved. Almost frozen to death, Park Dong-a (Kim Joo-hun) arrives just in time to save the two from certain death, only to find them in each others’ arms.

While Chief Kang Tae-hui chalks it up to survive in the cold, everyone watching (and I do mean everyone, since the audience includes one of Ryong’s mothers, Go-eun, the LEO Station crew, and the Mission Control Center) all had their eyes on the feed.

With everyone back on Earth, the love hexagon comes into clear focus. First, it happens when Dong-a offers a public declaration of his undying love for Commander Eve after he exits the capsule. More than any confession, he uses the largest words possible to describe his fear that she would die and, ultimately, his dedication to living by her side. It’s tough to watch because he shares his love like a man earnestly in love with Eve. But the reality is he cheated on Eve with her best friend and did so in her house.

But Dong-a’s confession doesn’t stop at showing it to everyone watching the news broadcast. He also decides to confront Ryong directly. In a pretty intense showing of aggression, Dong-a tells Ryong that since he’s back on Earth, he needs to go back to what his life was and leave anything with Eve back in orbit.

Everyone is angry at Gong Ryong in When The Stars Gossip Episode 10.

While Ryong tries to return the lottery ticket to Mina Lee and the rest of the ILS crew, he also has to pretend to be thrilled to see the MZ Group’s Chairman Choi (Kim Eung-Soo) and apparently his still future father-in-law. More frustratingly, he can’t be around Eve.

Having made romantic promises about being with each other when they’re back on Earth, going on dates and kissing, he can’t fulfill them. Instead, he sends notes with meals and shows Eve that what happened at the station was real. Their time together meant something to him, and it’s clear he isn’t trying to maintain any of his old relationships.

In When The Stars Gossip Episode 10, Ryong takes the time to reject Choi Go-eun again. He doesn’t mince words, and ultimately, Kang Kang-su had already pointed out to the MZ Group CEO that being found naked in the station means something else happened. It’s clear to him and everyone else involved he doesn’t love her. But Go-eun remains stubborn. While Ryong reiterates, for what feels like the third time now, that he doesn’t love her, she runs off to cry. Only to, in true Kdrama melodrama fashion, return and refuse to accept it.

Go-Eun isn’t just a heiress; she is a CEO. She has power, beauty, and to quote her father, a man deeply in love with her in Kang Kang-su. Yet, she’s just a crying mess of a woman who refuses to do anything but hold onto a man who keeps telling her no. It’s frustrating to watch and make her into an even more pathetic character than she was last episode, which I didn’t think could happen.

Gong Ryong is a doctor, extremely attractive, has been to space, and really does have a lot of great qualities. But for the life of me, I can’t continue to buy that a woman with so much power and influence would keep begging for his love. And to be honest, neither can Kang-su. During his oxygen therapy with Eve, Kang-su storms in and knocks him to the ground.

Now, I, for one, have not liked Kang-su this entire series. He’s arrogant, manipulative, and an all-around jerk. But one thing is for sure: he loves Go-eun. Only, instead of having a conversation with her, he’s taking it out on Ryong. And all I’m left with is the question: why are you mad that the guy your ex wants to marry has rejected her? Just why, Kang-su? But ultimately, dear writers of When The Stars Gossip Episode 10, why won’t these characters just stop pursuing people who say they don’t love them?

What’s fascinating about Go-eun and Ryong is that Ryong didn’t fall into unlikable territory because he’s a cheater. While Ryong lies to Eve about the MZ Group’s secret mission, he is frank with Go-Eun. He told her he didn’t want to marry after she announced their engagement unilaterally.

Her power as the MZ Group CEO has fueled her inability to hear what Ryong is truly saying. So when she angrily tells Ryong that she won’t believe him, as a viewer, I’m frustrated. Ryong has been hit and yelled at, and Go-eun storms in again and just says she refuses to accept his admission of rejection as fact.

It’s hard not to see Park Dong-a as anything but manipulative.

Still, Ryong is just one side of this entirely weird love hexagon. On her side, Eve is bombarded with confession after confession. And then, finally, Dong-a tells her the truth. He gets on his knees, hits himself, and admits to sleeping with someone. He doesn’t know that Eve knows what he and Chief Kang did. But he throws himself at her regardless. Admitting that when he thought she would die, he realized he really loved her.

Park Dong-a is terrible, to say the least. He makes Kang-su not look so bad. Dong-a admits to cheating because he wants Eve back, and after finding her and Ryong in a compromising position, he knows he can lose her. I don’t know how we can root for anyone on this show but our lead romance, and even then, I just don’t like these other halves as people. This messy romance isn’t enjoyable enough to continue. Dong-a wants to win Eve back with his honesty, and that act feels extremely manipulative.

There are too many romantic threads at this point, and not enough depth is added to any of them with the same intensity to make them matter. And now, Lee Seung-jun (Heo Nam-jun) and Mina Lee (Lee Cho-hee) are starting their own budding romance. Yeah, there is too much happening here.

My frustration with When The Stars Gossip Episode 10 is compounded by it ending with Eve running away from Ryong. She dreams about their date, which Ryong mentions in his cute little notes. She leaves the hospital with him, and they roll across the street in their wheelchairs. They eat ramen at a convenience store. They laugh. And then, Eve cuts the relationship apart.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 10 has been one of the most frustrating episodes of a Netflix Kdrama I have seen in a long time. To build up their romance with such drama and tension, only to have Eve tell Ryong that she wants her life to be separate from him. She wants the sex to remain in space, the relationship to remain a dream, and she wants him to marry Go-eun.

At this point, the drama feels contrived and out of character for Eve. It’s undeniably frustrating because I don’t know what to expect now. I don’t know what to do with the wide tonal shifts and mood swings, and much like Ryogn sitting there dumbfounded, so am I.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 10 is just frustrating. Despite Lee Min-ho and Kong Hyo-jin keeping me engaged because of how much I have invested in them specifically, this series has lost its way. What started as an extremely promising drama has me waiting for the last episode because I need my frustration to end.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 10 is available now on Netflix, with new episodes every Saturday and Sunday through February.