REVIEW: ‘When The Stars Gossip’ Episode 9

The last episode ended with Gong Ryong (Lee Min-ho) and Commander Eve Kim (Kong Hyo-jin) doing what the mice couldn’t do with Jin’s (of BTS) title track for the series, playing the scene out. Eve risked her life for Ryong’s as he did for her last episode and ultimately led the two to confirm the feelings they’d been dancing around before. The new couple is now on the brink of freezing to death with limited functions in the station left and the Seoul Mission Control Center (MCC) unsure of how to launch a rescue ship in just 30 hours. In When The Stars Gossip Episode 9, we head back to Earth and to Ryong’s 9th day in space.

The quick summary of When The Stars Gossip Episode 9 is that it’s all about saving Ryong and Eve. MZ Group Chairman wants to save Ryong and the morula that will become his future grandchild. Dong-a (Kim Joo-hun) wants to use his test pilot experience to lead a manned mission instead of using a test dummy. And the entire International LEO Station (ILS) crew, Kang Kang-su, Mina Lee (Lee Cho-hee), Lee Seung-jun (Heo Nam-jun), and Santiago (Alex Hafner), want to go back and save their comrades who they left behind.

The vast majority of When The Stars Gossip Episode 9 is about the race to save our lead characters, with only the last 10 or so minutes showing the actual rescue mission. The increasing erratic pacing of accelerating a space mission begins to take a toll on the series. The absurdity of the situation grows, and the reasons for trying to save the stranded dup start to fade. Everyone has their own agenda and way of solving the issue, and all of it begins to compound the series’ narrative into quite a mess.

The first episode solely focused on Earth, Episode 9 feels disconnected from everything we’ve seen before.

We can understand MZ Group’s investment. They want the morula. They want their heir. For Go-eun (Han Ji-eun), she wants a fiance that has rejected her in no uncertain terms, so much so that she drags his mothers into it, injuring herself in the process. Go-eun is so drastically out of sorts in this situation that I have nothing but pity for her. I don’t like her. I just want her to stop. She’s a character so thinly written that I get secondhand embarrassment from watching her continue on with the thought of a marriage after Ryong has explicitly told her no.

Then, there is how much Dong-a is deeply in love with Eve. Still, his quick shift from cheating on her multiple times, once in her own house, makes this feel deeply unsettling. The audience is nine episodes into When The Stars Gossip, and now Dong-a has grown a consciousness.

He risks his life to save Eve, and ultimately, even on the way back down, they almost die again. He is risking everything for a woman he just kept cheating on. And not only that, one that he talked badly about while in bed with that other woman, who just so happens to be Eve’s best friend.

Then, of course, the series’ levity ramps up even more when it allows Kang Kang-su (Oh Jung-se) to use his money to throw at the problem of keeping the rescue mission from happening. Kang and the rest of the group escape the Houston space station, get on an MZ Group private plane and try to fly to Florida to take off, only to miraculously switch course and fly to Seoul.

None of it makes sense, but at least it’s entertaining. The real comedy that the ILS crew injects is all physical-based as they struggle to walk, stand, or even hold their head up, thanks to getting accustomed to gravity again. While we’ve all been along for an often absurd but at least almost earnest ride, this section of the series feels way too forced. Kdrama disasters that force our leads into romantic situations that make them realize they love each other aren’t new. But this one is just too much at this point.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 9 also ramps up the absurdity as the rescue mission begins to take shape. They have to launch the rescue ship directly at the station, use robot arms to attach themselves and save the duo. It’s such an absurd plan but the only one that can compensate for the danger the writers have cooked up. The level of suspension of disbelief the series requires you to maintain is immense, and its absurdity attempts to come across as earnest tension and mostly fails. Still, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the plot-hole-filled rescue mission wasn’t entertaining.

While the danger and tension of needing to save Ryong and Eve can be hit or miss, it’s balanced well against everyone except Go-eun coming clean about their motives to the people they’re connected to. Dong-a (Kim Ju-hun) says he wants to marry Eve and tells Chief Kang Tae-hui (Lee El) that he doesn’t love her; he loves Eve. It’s a truth that is difficult to swallow, but ultimately, the Chief is apparently the only character in the series who actually takes the hint.

The erratic pacing of the rescue mission planning makes When The Stars Gossip Episode 9.

Ryong and Eve are found holding each other with an emergency oxygen mask naked. The audience knows what happened, and for the most part, those in the command center, which includes the ILS crew, one of Ryong’s moms, and Go-Eun, can infer. It takes Chief Kang to break the tension by saying, “This is how you survive.” It’s a moment that shows that the couple is going to have to deal with their budding relationship and the people who love them (although they have disrespected them) the moment they make it home safely.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 9 ends with Dong-a saying “We’re back on Earth now” repeatedly and laughing. While this laughter can be attributed to just being happy that they survived, it’s also clear that he knows what the duo he just rescued is about to have to deal with. I mean, he did find the woman he wanted to marry naked and in the arms of the man she risked her life to save.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 9 isn’t anywhere close to a series high, it’s honestly an unfocused part of the narrative that attempts to give the romantic partners of our leads something more than they’ve had so far. Unfortunately, it just makes them all look more pathetic in one way or another. This is a messy episode that could have been edited down deeply. It also points out that the best parts of this series are Lee Min-ho and Kong Hyo-jin.

When The Stars Gossip Episode 9 is streaming now on Netflix, with new episodes every Saturday and Sunday in February.

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