Recap Korean Drama "The Golden Spoon (2022)" Episode 5-6

After calling the wrong father “Dad,” Seung-cheon stammers out a flimsy excuse to CEO Hwang, just barely defusing the situation. He stays by Dad’s side on the pretext of boosting Doshin Group’s image, but his heart breaks once when Dad reaches out to hold Tae-yong’s hand instead — and breaks yet again when Dad suddenly coughs up blood.

Overwhelmed by guilt and regret, Seung-cheon believes that this must be his punishment for swapping lives and forsaking his family. He seeks out the peddler grandma, who rejuvenates his spoon and gives him the chance to switch back — he just has to eat one meal at his original house. Seung-ah returns home to catch him eating straight out of the rice cooker, and to Seung-cheon’s tearful relief, she calls him by his real name.

Unfortunately, more problems arise for Seung-cheon’s family. Dad sustained his injuries by falling off a building and onto the subcontractor’s car, which means the family finds themselves even further in debt when Dad’s jerk of a boss demands an exorbitant car repair fee.

Swallowing his pride, Seung-cheon goes to Doshin Group and humbly asks CEO Hwang to lend him the money. Of course, it doesn’t work, since CEO Hwang sneers that Seung-cheon doesn’t have any collateral worth the loan — not even his life.

Sweetheart Joo-hee sells her luxury bags to raise money for Seung-cheon, but she’s one step too late. Yeo-jin makes it to him first, offering him a check and slyly embracing him in a hug in full view of Joo-hee. Ugh, she’s so cunning!

One year later. Our main cast has all graduated high school and moved on to prestigious universities, except for Seung-cheon, who has to retake his entrance exams. In the meantime, he’s back to working odd jobs, which includes being at Yeo-jin’s beck and call.

That’s her price for the loan she gave him — Seung-cheon’s entire family now works at Yeo-jin’s house, serving the snobbish father-daughter pair. They’re currently living in the dingy basement room that Na-ra used to occupy, and Yeo-jin isn’t hesitant about exposing Seung-cheon’s humiliating living situation in front of Joo-hee.

Except that has the complete opposite effect from what Yeo-jin expected, since Seung-cheon overhears and decides to own up to his circumstances — he candidly admits that he hid the embarrassing truth from Joo-hee because he likes her. Omg, he said it! In front of both Tae-yong and Yeo-jin, too!

Seung-cheon leaves and Joo-hee runs out after him to confess that she likes him back, and the two embrace in a tearful hug. Yeo-jin witnesses this heartfelt scene, which is a nice parallel to the hug one year ago — except this time, it’s with the right person, and it’s genuine.

To no one’s surprise, Yeo-jin refuses to take this lying down. Having figured out that Seung-cheon switched back to his original place, she concocts yet another scheme — one that has her confronting Seung-cheon with his golden spoon and throwing it into the lake.

Of course, it’s a fake-out, just to test if Seung-cheon truly wants to stay in poverty as he claims. His panicked reaction clearly says otherwise, and Yeo-jin declares that he needs to switch again so that she can marry him as “Tae-yong” and take over Doshin Group. Yikes.

Seung-cheon may be inundated with problem after problem, but that doesn’t stop him from reaching out to Joo-hee in her time of need. When he finds out that her father’s company is facing a financial crisis due to bad decisions made by his incompetent sons, he takes her out on a cute date to get her mind off the situation.

As the date winds down, Joo-hee takes Seung-cheon to the church that she often goes to whenever she needs to clear her mind. They reaffirm their support and gratitude for each other, and Seung-cheon vows to hang in there for her sake.

To my chagrin, that doesn’t last very long. In order to pressure Seung-cheon into swapping lives, Yeo-jin convinces her father to chase Seung-cheon’s family out of the house and demand they repay their debt.

At his wit’s end, Seung-cheon invests a large sum of money in stocks, and just as I’m wondering why he didn’t do this before — the shares he bought plummet drastically in value. Welp, there goes Seung-cheon’s money, as well as the last of his hope.

Seung-cheon isn’t the only one facing major upheaval this week — his spoon counterpart is, too. Tae-yong’s traumatic memories are beginning to resurface, but every single article about the school shooting has been deleted off search portals.

With Moon-ki’s help, Tae-yong manages to sneak into Stepmom’s room, where he finds a whole binder full of newspaper clippings. The reports say the culprit committed suicide, but Tae-yong remembers witnessing him getting shot — so who killed him, and why was it covered up?

It turns out the reporter worked at UBS — the company owned by Joo-hee’s father, CEO Na — before going missing. It’s the only lead Tae-yong has, so he follows up on it by paying a visit to CEO Na and asking him about the case.

To Tae-yong’s shock, CEO Na accuses him of being the murderer, and he covered it up as a favor to CEO Hwang. What?? CEO Na says he has something more to tell him, and we don’t get to hear what it is, but it sends Tae-yong running out of the house in a panic.

 

That night, Joo-hee returns home to a dark house and a bloodstained floor — her father is dead. Then Tae-yong jerks awake. Oh phew, it was just a nightmare — or was it? CEO Hwang is in the room as well, and he reveals that CEO Na was indeed found dead the previous night. Oh no, the fearful look in Tae-yong’s eyes…

Tae-yong can’t remember anything, which isn’t helped by CEO Hwang’s firm declarations that Tae-yong was brought home drunk out of his mind, and that he never went to CEO Na’s house. Under the impression that his father is covering up his crimes to save the company’s reputation, Tae-yong is left to spiral deeper into the fear that he’s a murderer.

Seung-cheon and Joo-hee meet at the church again, where Seung-cheon prays for Joo-hee to recognize him even if he appeared in front of her as someone else. Smiling, she tells him that she always will, and Seung-cheon pulls her into a kiss. When they break apart, she pulls him back in for another kiss, except she’s smiling and he isn’t. Oh no, this is goodbye, isn’t it?

The next morning, Seung-cheon sprints straight into Tae-yong’s house with a singular goal in mind. Grabbing a bowl of rice right out of the housekeeper’s hands, he gulps it down frantically before anyone can stop him. And just like that, he’s back to being the rich young master again — but the question is, will this time be any different from before?

This week’s episodes were relentless in pushing Seung-cheon even further into a corner, and while some plot points did seem a little overwrought, they further highlighted the cruel sacrifices that the poor have to make.

Seung-cheon’s family doesn’t have the luxury of dignity, not when they have their poverty to contend with. Not only did they have to serve Seung-cheon’s friends like house servants, but Mom also had to deal with unwanted advances from Yeo-jin’s sleazeball of a father.

In addition, nasty uncle Joon-tae continues to be a whole piece of work this week. Not only does he continue to harass Tae-yong (and “Tae-yong”), but he also swaps out Tae-yong’s watches for counterfeits, taking the expensive ones for himself. I thought he was rich enough already, but I suppose a gold digger knows no bounds.

There’s no evidence other than the fact that Joon-tae was once in the States, but I’m still betting that he was involved in the school shooting incident somehow — perhaps he was the one who shot the killer, and blamed it on Tae-yong instead? Considering Joon-tae was acquiring UBS stocks prior to CEO Na’s death, I wouldn’t put it past him to be responsible for this recent murder, too.

Maybe I’m just biased, but I have faith that Tae-yong isn’t a murderer. I suppose his memory lapses do offer room for doubt, but the Tae-yong I’ve come to know doesn’t seem like someone who could stomach the thought of hurting others. Even after our spoon boys switched back, it’s clear that Tae-yong has a good heart underneath all his privileged upbringing.

Not only did post-switch Tae-yong wake up missing Mom (aww, my heart), but he’s also developed empathy for others. He defended Seung-cheon’s parents over dinner with the nasty Hwang family, and he even spoke up when he realized Yeo-jin’s father was taking advantage of them. It’s sweet how Tae-yong is instinctively protective of Mom and Dad, even if he can’t remember or figure out why.

I really felt for Seung-cheon this week, especially when he could only watch from the sidelines as his family suffered. Seung-cheon’s caught between a rock and a hard place, and while he doesn’t always make the smartest decisions, his struggle is a compelling one. If he could bring his entire family over to the rich side with his golden spoon, I’m sure he’d do so in a heartbeat; but as things stand now, he has to be selfish if he wants to survive.

Seung-cheon is an interesting anti-hero, because he (mostly) has his heart in the right place, but he often fumbles the execution or sacrifices things he shouldn’t. Now that he’s back to being rich and powerful, I wonder if he’ll lean further into the gray side of his morality in order to exploit the system and help his family. Furthermore, Tae-yong and Joo-hee found Yeo-jin’s golden spoon — will they uncover the mystery and further complicate matters, or will the secret stay buried for now?