REVIEW: ‘Nice To Not Meet You’ Episodes 5-6

After the setup of Gwon Se-na (Oh Yeon-se) being linked to the growing conspiracy that Wi Jeong-sin (Lim Ji-yeon) is investigating, Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6 dive deeper into the mysterious character. What we do learn continues to paint Se-na with suspicion, but also homes in on an increasingly glaring issue surrounding Jeong-sin’s character development. For such an award-winning journalist on paper, she sure does some dumb stuff that makes one question whether or not her success up to this point has been luck.

When we’re not focusing on the conspiracy elements in Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6, more development occurs between Jeong-sin and Lim Hyun-joon (Lee Jung-jae). Both are slowly warming up to each other, but they keep getting trapped in a miscommunication loop, taking a step forward and several steps back when they’re in person. However, thanks to the anonymity of a Marketplace app, they’ve found themselves accidentally connecting there. 

When Hyun-joon is not focusing on dealing with Jeong-sin, he’s now having to deal with Se-na’s involvement in Good Detective Kang Pil-gu, and settling for the fact that this show may be all that he can get. That doesn’t stop him from pursuing opportunities thrown his way, but an emerging competitor for Jeong-sin’s attention starts to distract him in Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6. Lee Jae-young (Kim Ji-hoon) starts making his feelings for Jeong-sin known, and it’s making Hyun-joon uncomfortable. 

Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6 peel back the curtain on Gwon Se-na, but not too much.

Needless to say, a lot happens across Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6, with Episode 5 being markedly more chaotic in structure and plot. It is in these latest episodes that the show hits a bump in the road, with its pacing struggling and major flaws in character development being impossible to ignore by the end of Episode 6. However, not everything is a struggle to get through, and several major plot points prove fascinating.

The biggest development is how Se-na becomes a more prominent player in Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6 while maintaining mystery. Through Jeong-sin’s conversations with Bahn Soo-jung (Park Hae-lin), a connection is shown between Se-na, Lee Dae-ho (Kim Jae-chul), and the larger case surrounding Woo Young-suk. However, Se-na is involved in the conspiracy, and Jeong-sin is determined to find out how, but does so in an incredibly clumsy way in Episode 6.

As for Se-na’s current machinations, she seems entirely focused on Hyun-joon. She wants to work with him on Good Detective Kang Pil-gu and is willing to take a massive pay cut to appeal to him. Everyone involved in the show, from the CEO (Jo Hee-bong) to the writer/director Park Byeong-ki (Jeon Sung-woo), wants her on the show for the power her name recognition brings. Yet Hyun-joon rightfully can’t let go of his past hurts (she did try to ruin his life and career, after all), and he sets a series of conditions that need to be met.

As Hyun-joon’s star power wavers, so too does his grip on those who rely on him for their livelihood.

Even with his conditions agreed to (albeit with eyerolling dismissiveness once he departs the room), Hyun-joon is still uncomfortable. Yet, Se-na won’t stop persisting. With how Oh Yeon-se plays Se-na, it’s difficult to tell whether or not her feelings for Hyun-joon are genuine or if this is a part of whatever conspiracy she’s involved in. However, it is an acting direction that has worked incredibly well in maintaining the character’s sense of ambiguity so far. 

The only time this ambiguity slips is when she’s alone in her apartment, where she can be truly vulnerable. The mask she projects whenever she leaves her home is finally let go. Unfortunately, this brief glimpse into who she might be is disrupted by the arrival of a more overtly sinister Lee Dae-ho. Whatever she is involved in, key dialogue Dae-ho relays shows that she cannot easily leave the circle she’s involved in. It makes the mystery even juicier.

Where this particular plot wavers in Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6 is when Jeong-sin confronts Se-na directly, with little semblance of tact or intelligence. It also offers the most glaring glimpse into a character who continues to make dumb decisions despite her supposed award-winning journalism skills. An agreement is made between the two women in Episode 6 after Jeong-sin fails at extracting any useful information, but what Se-na offers in terms of a career-making scoop in the celebrity world puts a target on Jeong-sin’s back.

Jeong-sin and Hyun-joon continue to flounder with each other in Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6.

This also loops Hyun-joon into her orbit yet again, but let’s face it. The two are permanently trapped in each other’s paths now. Across Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6, they run into each other time and time again. Whether at the baseball stadium, where both are confused about their feelings for one another, or accidentally finding each other on a Marketplace app for a rice cooker, the two just can’t stop finding one another.

However, in the case of Hyun-joon getting involved in Jeong-sin’s work investigations, the tip Se-na gives her points the gullible journalist to the therapist’s office that Hyun-joon frequents. The therapist is rumored to be dating a celebrity who is about as old as her father (and as it turns out, he is her father). Jeong-sin is trying to find photographic evidence of the relationship. Unfortunately, due to poor timing on Hyun-joon’s part, she ropes him into using his vehicle to follow his therapist and the man to wherever they’re going.

While the skills Jeong-sin demonstrates here point to how she gets those prime-time, award-winning journalistic photos, she continues to make mistakes. One is not having her phone ready and fully charged, and the second is roping in a non-journalist to help (which could subsequently have legal ramifications). Thirdly, she fails to thoroughly investigate the rumor itself, which opens her and her company up to a lawsuit declared at the end of Episode 6. It’s all, frankly, quite dumb for a supposed seasoned journalist to screw up like this.

Hyun-joon can only try to do his best, but it leaves him exhausted and anxious.

Thankfully, it doesn’t look like Jeong-sin will have much future plot armor, but a couple of key players from Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6 are circling around her now. Former professional baseball player and current Jeong-sin fanboy, Lee Jae-young, is none too subtle with his feelings towards Jeong-sin in Episodes 5 and 6, trying to find ways to get time alone with her on a date. As her boss, he may be able to help pull her out of trouble. However, since he is associated with Dae-ho, the potential for moral dilemmas is strong.

Then there’s Hyun-joon, who is still waffling on whether or not he has feelings for the journalist. He certainly despises her methods and how she approaches her job at times, but he is gradually warming up to her. Given his hatred for Se-na and Se-na’s obsessive chasing after him, there’s potential for drama to develop between the three. And, since Se-na essentially set up Jeong-sin with this bogus tip, Jeong-sin’s poor lapse in judgment makes more sense here. 

With rivalries beginning to emerge and Se-na quickly developing into the villain of the series, Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6 lay down a lot of groundwork to set up the second half of the series. However, the episodes themselves are incredibly chaotic in their layout, making much of the dropped information harder to keep track of. And when Jeong-sin has found some semblance of footing, she continues to make rookie mistakes that highlight how questionable her character’s development actually is, making it harder to believe her credentials.

This is all to say that Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 5-6 is a mixed bag, with its continuing conspiracy keeping the mystery and fun going, while uneven pacing and poor character development deliver more questions than answers. 

Nice To Not Meet You Episodes 1-6 are now streaming exclusively on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping  Mondays and Tuesdays.

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