REVIEW: ‘When The Stars Gossip’ Episodes 13-14

For anyone who has been waiting to see whether Gong Ryong (Lee Min-ho) will ever be found out, When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14 delivers some of the goods. It takes time to get there, with pregnant mice, Eve’s search for her mother, and Kang-su hitting his lowest point to get through. But one thing is for certain. All of this is setting us up for what will hopefully be a climatic finale for the Netflix series.

Ryong and Kang Kang-su (Oh Jung-Se) are summoned to the Korean Space Agency (KSA) by Chief Kang (Lee El), who is, quite frankly, holding onto her last available nerve. Equipped with the image proving another incubator unit was on board, she confronts both of them. Ryong adamantly insists they are not in cahoots. They are enemies, which is technically true. Kang-su points out that the footage of him shows him not carrying anything, which would rule him out. Getting absolutely nowhere, Chief Kang lets them go.

It seems, for the moment, Ryong is scot-free. But Chief Kang follows him outside and lets him know in certain terms that she doesn’t trust him. She knows something is up with him, but without any additional evidence, she can’t prove things just yet. If you thought Ryong learned anything about the experience, you’d be wrong. Instead, he moves forward with scheduling implanting the illegal embryo for the MZ Group not long after.

While Ryong is dealing with continuing to commit ethical violations in When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14, Eve Kim’s (Kong Hyo-jin) plot trajectory is one of triumph and heartbreak. First, starting with the mice reproduction experiments. Much has been made about mice reproduction across the series, and Eve accidentally discovers Number 3 came back from space pregnant. It’s a moment of triumph and scientific progress, and, for a moment, the KSA is able to celebrate.

Chief Kang is sick of everyone, and honestly, who can blame her?

Unfortunately, pregnancy comes with serious risks. Without knowing how getting pregnant impacted the mouse or her pups, there’s no easy way for Eve and the team to help when the mouse starts bleeding. It is a moment of great devastation, particularly for Eve grappling with her own internal conflicts. Confronted with the possibility of losing both momma mouse and pups, she has to make a decision, and it proves to be one of the strongest moments of acting from Kong Hyo-jin in When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14.

As a child of abandonment, motherhood is a complicated subject for Eve. Across When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14, these complex emotions come bubbling to the surface when confronted by Jung Na-mi (Jung Young-joo), one of Ryong’s mothers. A flashback shows Na-mi revealing she abandoned a child on Christmas Eve, similar to Eve’s own story. It’s clear that the previous conversation with Eve sparked these memories in Na-mi, and she meets up with Eve at the KSA with a lunchbox in hand.

For Eve, the search to find her parents is one that has been at the forefront since her return to Earth. A letter opened by Ryong in Episode 13 shows that there is no record of any parents belonging to Eve. Yet, confronted with the possibility of Na-mi being her mother, it’s a shock. Na-mi’s words haunt her, particularly her admission that she wanted to die upon having her child. These words carry over when Eve does surgery on the momma mouse. If she can help the momma mouse live, it’d be okay.

Eve’s had a rough go of things, but Ryong tries to make it better in arguably the biggest leap possible. He presents her with a marriage certificate, one that they both can potentially sign. It’s done in good faith, but it’s a big leap, considering they’ve only known each other for a short time. But it again proves how foolish and illogical Ryong can be, even when his heart is in a good place. That is until he dives back into being an unethical doctor.

When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14 feature Kang-su at his literal lowest.

Ryong’s continuously getting away with his deeds proves especially sour considering Kang-su’s trajectory. Not helping him is the fact that he’s antisocial and prideful. In Episode 13, he mistakes the cheering for mice to be the KSA team cheering for his departure. Chief Kang wastes no time in stripping Kang-su of his astronaut privileges, effectively banning him from space and from pursuing his fruit fly research. The nail in the coffin? Forcing him to return his astronaut suit.

The latter is a sticking point for Kang-su and allows actor Oh Jung-Se to play with a little bit more emotion in this scene. Taking away his suit is the equivalent of spitting in his face. He worked hard for this, and he should at least be able to keep the suit, but Chief Kang refuses to budge. It’s the principle of the thing, and Kang-su’s ethical violations have a price. He turns it in but not without an emotional outburst directed at his fellow astronauts, who he knows are just as complicit as he is.

The man lost everything in pursuit of his research in space. He lost the woman he loved. He lost his child. What does any of those losses mean now that he has had everything taken away? It’s no wonder then that he shows up to Choi Go-eun’s (Han Ji-eun) hotel room drunk. She’s still the only one he thinks about, even when things continue to go wrong.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a spot of light for Kang-su in When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14. Mina Lee (Lee Cho-hee), Lee Seung-jun (Heo Nam-jun), and Santiago (Alex Hafner) find him in Episode 14 with his suit in hand. He rightfully, but mopily takes them to task for their actions, and they take his words in stride. They are, in fact, as guilty as he’s pointed out to them. Their complicity in helping Ryong comes back to haunt them and many others as we barrel toward the end of Episode 14.

Eve Kim arguably makes the right choice in the end.

An investigation on the ship triggers a whirlwind of dramatic activity, with Chief Kang calling everyone in. Ryong’s cell phone with his initial message to Eve about the eggs is not only discovered by the international investigation team, but puts the KSA in explicit jeopardy. Knowing that one egg was brought back and is viable, Chief Kang dispatches Dong-a (Kim Joo-hun) to retrieve it before the MZ Group gets away with the crime.

This leads to the most intense moment of Episode 14, with literal chases down hallways to retrieve the egg. Dong-a is successful, with everyone involved in the MZ Group looking guilty as heck. Ryong knows that he can’t implicate them and goes as far as to absolve them of all responsibility when Dong-a integrates him at the KSA. But after literally getting caught red-handed, none of this looks good for Ryong or Eve.

Eve, for the most part, knows how badly everything looks but is slow to react. Lee El’s Chief Kang leads with emotion in their one-on-one scene, the frustration and fear boiling over into anger at what this means not just for Eve but for the entire Space Agency. There are massive implications that would destroy the credibility of everyone in the unit, especially since everyone is likely involved in this unethical experiment. Ultimately, Eve knows what she has to do, but it all hinges on how Ryong reacts.

When she enters the room, Ryong’s first worry is for the egg, not for Eve. It’s subtle, but Eve’s expression changes upon the realization, adding to her slow-growing discomfort at how easily he continues to feel comfortable breaking the rules. This is likely why she tells him that she is going to dispose of the egg. It’s not only to save the KSA, but she now knows where his priorities really are. After she locks him in the room, Ryong is devasted. Actor Lee Min-ho goes all out in his physical performance here, but Ryong deserves this.

Over the course of When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14, there are highs and lows, culminating in Ryong finally getting caught for his actions up in space. Unfortunately, despite Lee Min-ho’s natural charisma, I found myself cheering when he got nabbed but also wondering how the relationship between the two lovebirds would survive. Going into the final episodes, that is the question that leads the pack.

When The Stars Gossip Episodes 13-14 are streaming now on Netflix, with new episodes every Saturday and Sunday in February 2025.

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