Recap Korean Drama "Gaus Electronics" Episode 11-12

Then, we have Senior Manager Wi and his spying on Director Choi. He records an incriminating phone call between her and Chairman Baek, and just as he enthusiastically celebrates in his office, Na-rae pops out from under his desk. Now that she’s heard everything, she gets roped into Senior Manager Wi’s scheming to catch Director Choi red handed.

And that puts Na-rae in a quandary because he tasks her with keeping Sang-shik off Ma-tan’s project and assigning him a new project. He’s betting on Sang-shik’s carelessness, wanting him to leak their new phone model for publicity.

Na-rae is starting to feel really guilty for being the previous ringleader Sang-shik’s anti-fan club. Seeing everyone treat him as an idiot gets to her, so she makes it her mission to make him appear more reliable. This involves a makeover so he looks more professional and coaching him in how to seem more serious. Her efforts backfire since it makes Sang-shik feel like she doesn’t believe in him and finds him embarrassing.

Despite everything, they’re not able to oust Director Choi. She manages to one up them and turn the situation around through a double-double-cross. Through leaking Ma-tan’s project to Power, she got them to spend tons of money on developing a copy, while Director Choi never spent a dime on making the product at Gaus. With Power in the hole, Director Choi’s win gets Gaus’s chairman on her side.

Then, there’s Ma-tan who can’t stop thinking about Kang-mi and is determined to try to win her over, despite already being rejected. When she tells him her ideal type is unattainable drama leads, Ma-tan enlists Aziz’s help since he apparently has a wealth of K-drama knowledge.

Aziz makes him memorize iconic drama lines that he can use around Kang-mi, and it’s amazing. Ma-tan takes every opportunity at work to whip out an overdramatic romantic line that’s totally inappropriate for the situation. Kang-mi can’t take it anymore and lays out all the reasons Ma-tan would make a poor romantic partner. It’s harsh, and Ma-tan looks like a kicked puppy, but it was probably necessary to make him understand how much he has to learn.

More pressingly for Ma-tan, his secret identity has finally been discovered. Amazingly, it’s Sang-shik who puts it all together after he sees a photo of Ma-tan’s mother. Sang-shik encourages him to be honest with the team. That coupled with Kang-mi’s declaration that men with secrets make her uncomfortable makes Ma-tan decide to come clean to everyone.

No one believes him until Kang-mi puts together a presentation, complete with Ma-tan’s family photo. HA. Now that they know Ma-tan is a chaebol heir, everyone starts sucking up to him, hoping he’ll take them to Power with him.

Except Ma-tan makes the surprising decision to stay at Gaus, mostly because his father gets caught embezzling. With that, Ma-tan is back to being the powerless team maknae running errands for his sunbaes.

And for the most well-kept secret of all, there’s Marketing Team 3’s NA MU-MYUNG (Jo Jung-ji). Out of nowhere, he starts narrating in these final episodes, and we learn he’s been on the team from the start. He’s the one who made Sang-shik’s video public.

I didn’t recall ever seeing him, but he’s been in the opening credits all along. Well played, Gaus. Breaking the fourth wall, Mu-myung – whose name means “I have no name” – takes us through all the scenes where we missed him. Poor Mu-myung is so invisible to his coworkers that Sang-shik is the only one who seems to ever notice he’s in the room. But that makes Mu-myung privy to all their secrets, like he’s the Gaus Gossip Girl; he even keeps a record of all the office romances in a notebook.

Meanwhile, Sang-shik and Na-rae have another hurdle to pass. Sang-shik wants to be someone both he and Na-rae can be proud of, so he decides to take an opportunity to go to Gaus’s India branch. Na-rae tries to be supportive, but they’re both driving Aziz crazy with their Romeo-and-Juliet dramatics.

They’re prepared to say their goodbyes when Senior Manager Wi breaks the news that, when the company heard Sang-shik was the only applicant for the role, they shut the program down. LOL. So Sang-shik is here to stay.
Mun-hak, however, wins a web novel contest and decides to quit (before un-quitting later). In a bold move, Na-rae announces at the farewell party that she and Sang-shik are dating… to no one’s surprise. Ma-tan collects money for the bet they all had going over when they’d make it public. Apparently, even Marketing Team 3 isn’t obtuse enough to be fooled by Na-rae and Sang-shik’s terrible acting.

Although it proved unnecessary, I love that Na-rae was the one to make their relationship public. Given how condescending and derisive she was to Sang-shik in the past, she needed to do something to show him she isn’t embarrassed by him or their relationship.

We end with our team living out their boring office days together. Proud office couple Na-rae and Sang-shik say goodbye to Mu-myung, who is no longer invisible to the team. Sang-shik narrates that as long as you have someone by your side, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing.

Then comes the amazing epilogue. Everyone is introduced to the new recruit, and IT’S AZIZ!! The team now feels complete. Sang-shik moved in with Na-rae, so Aziz now lives with Ma-tan. Exacting revenge for being the house maknae, Ma-tan forces Aziz to call him sunbae at work. HA. We truly end with Sang-shik recording the team doing the Gaus Electronics song (from the teasers) for his channel.

What a fun ride! Very few comedy dramas have made me laugh out loud that often. I loved the antics, the wacky characters – Aziz and Ma-tan never failed to entertain me – and all the office absurdity. Not only was it funny from start to finish, but Gaus did a great job of throwing in some curveballs too. From the start, I loved the role reversal of Sang-shik and Na-rae where she got the typical male lead beats and personality traits. Then there’s the Candy/Cinderella setup for Kang-mi that didn’t go the typical route since she refused to date a man-child, and Ma-tan chose to climb down the social ladder.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this little drama that was at turns both hilarious and poignant, capturing the banality, frustrations, joys, and camaraderie of office life. The first couple of episodes were a bit shaky for me, but after that, Gaus completely won me over. Now I need a second season that’s all about Aziz’s unlikely journey as he masterminds his way into taking over Gaus Electronics.