Recap Korean Drama "Melancholia" Episode 15

Jul 18, 2022

Episode 15 of Melancholia picks up after Ji-na’s alleged attack on Si-an. After Ms. Kim tells Seung-yoo that she saw Ji-na storming toward the art room just before the incident, he and Yoon-soo confront Ms. Noh.

Ms. Noh’s attorney advises that Ji-na should state that Si-an’s fall was an accident. Ji-na insists that she didn’t do anything, but her mother doesn’t believe her.

Apparently, Ms. Noh has what Seung-yoo has been looking for: Si-an’s phone. She deletes the incriminating photos the student took of Ji-na’s notebook. Whatever happens, Ms. Noh says Ji-na must not tell the police about the Global Talent Class or her special notebook.

Seung-yoo calls Ye-rin and her brother, Yoo-chan, to meet them for lunch. He asks Yoo-chan if he has the same notebook as Ji-na. He denies it, but Ye-rin’s curiosity is piqued. She’s knows Yoo-chan has such a notebook and begins to worry that her brother is being victimized by Ms. Noh in the same way she was.

Ji-na sneaks out of her house to try and see if Si-an is okay, but Yoon-soo and Seung-yoo catch her. They gently coax the truth out of her. She relates that she went to Si-an and tried to wrestle her phone out of her hands. In the scuffle, Si-an tumbled into a table, and a sculpture fell onto her head.

Ji-na tearfully apologizes to Si-an, who is unconscious in a hospital bed. She then gives her statement to the police, but she doesn’t tell them anything about the Global Talent Class.

Ms. Noh’s father is impressed with how she’s calmly handling the situation and tells her not to worry; she’ll still join the Ahseong Foundation Board. But Seong-jae’s requested audit incriminates Ms. Noh just as she is inducted. The audit uncovered the fact that Ms. Noh, Min-joon, and the Minister of Education illegally used the construction of Seung-yoo’s museum for personal gain.

The police enter Ms. Noh’s office with a search warrant. Earlier in the episode, we saw her stash the rest of the Global Talent Class notebooks. A discovery of these notebooks would incriminate her further, so Ms. Noh sweats as the cops open the safe… to find nothing.

It turns out that Ji-na took the notebooks and gave them to Yoon-soo, along with a flash drive of her mother’s. The flash drive details the fraud committed in Ms. Noh’s Global Talent Class.

Before the police take her in, Ms. Noh asks Vice Principal Choi to call her attorney. What she doesn’t know is that Mr. Choi has turned against her and leaked some indicting information about her to Seung-yoo.

At the end of the episode, Seung-yoo and Yoon-soo plan to bring their documents to the Office of Education. Before they do, they visit Si-an.

Professor Ji is sweetly playing chess with a comatose Si-an. But just as Seung-yoo and Yoon-soo walk in, she wakes up.

The Episode Review

It’s the penultimate episode of the season, and just when you think things can’t get worse for Ms. Noh, evidence keeps piling against her.

Unfortunately, this instalment makes the same error as the last episode. There remains nothing on the horizon that could potentially threaten the protagonists. This stands to mean that either some sort of conflict will spontaneously materialize in the finale, or it’s smooth sailing for Seung-yoo and Yoon-soo from here on out.

In spite of that, a good deal of suspense lingers. Will Ji-na face repercussions for the accident? Is Ye-rin finally going to come clean about everything? Will Yoon-soo finally be vindicated? And will Seung-yoo and Yoon-soo ever pursue a romantic relationship?