Welcome to Samdalri K Drama 2023 Episode 12 with Ji Chang Wook and Shin Hye Sun

Episode 12 of Welcome to Samdal-ri starts with Sam-dal and Yong-pil walking together hand in hand after their kiss over on the hill. Sam-dal is still a bit embarrassed, especially as Yong-pil can’t stop looking at her on the trail. She slaps his arm playfully and tells him to look ahead, rather than in her eyes.

Eventually she concedes though and holds his hand… just as the pair realize they’re lost. Well, temporarily anyway. They do eventually make it back to the car but it takes far longer than usual. Yong-pil blames it on Sam-dal’s beauty and suggests they eat together. She’s not up for it… until her stomach betrays her.

Meanwhile Jin-dal contemplates whether to follow-up on Dae-young’s suggestion to go to the meeting. After all, she now knows that he’s doing all of this to try and stop Mi-ja from diving. Mi-ja though is caught up on Sam-dal and Yong-pil together. She’s seem the way they were looking at each other during the squad fight last episode. And then when she finds them asleep together, hand in hand in bed at the back of the hideout, she decides to leave them be.

In the morning, the pair suddenly bolt upright and realize they’ve spent the night together. With the time at a bright 6am, Sam-dal rushes out and tries to act stealthy back home. However, she soon learns that Mi-ja has stopped by and seen them together. Sam-dal is shocked and tries to explain herself but she’s spiralling.

When Sam-dal heads home, she’s taken aback when she learns Mi-ja isn’t actually too bothered that she’s with Yong-pil. She plucks up the courage and asks if it’s okay to like him… but Mi-ja is silent and doesn’t say anything. 

When Sam-dal leaves, Mi-ja heads over to see Sang-tae. She does her best to talk but he despicably spits on the floor before her. Sang-tae’s anger knows no bounds, and he even theows away the red ball of yarn that means so much to Yong-pil. Yong-pil does fish it out from the trash though, and as we see later on, it means a lot to him.

When Sam-dal has got dressed, she shows up to see Yong-pil with some kimchi. She’s embarrassed about it, but he plays on that and can’t stop smiling. He promises to eat the kimchi and asks her to stop being so cute and pretty. However, this is interrupted when a video surfaces of Eun-ju’s mother tracking down Sam-dal. She slaps the woman and constantly berates her, while Sam-dal sits and takes it.

When Mi-ja sees the video she’s shocked. This video is actually from Eun-ju, she recorded this and uploaded it herself; a big grin plastered on her face.

At the town meeting, Jin-dal does show up after all to support Dae-young’s plans. She brings up the diving and how this theme park is actually a good idea. Dae-young can’t stop smiling, but while they cycle through the slides and discuss all of this, the pair look everywhere but at each other.

There are a lot of concerns over the theme park being built and while Dae-young comes up with some outlandish ideas to rectify these concerns (turning off the lights at night? Preposterous!) Jin-dal has some good solutions. She manages to convince all the townsfolk that this is a good thing and rallies the troops to her side.

After a successful meeting, Jin-dal and Hae-dal team up to discuss the pressing matter of Sam-dal’s video. The comments are all for Eun-ju and claim it’s a super satisfying moment. Mi-ja though interjects and she wants Eun-ju’s mum’s number to ring and get this straightened out. She’s furious and demands she take action. Sam-dal though, is not rising to the occasion.

Eun-ju’s career is on the downturn and with a shoot coming up and her associates dropping like flies, she needs to do something drastic. But what? While we ponder this, we cut back to Jeju Island, where Mi-ja strokes Sam-dal’s hair and talks to her in bed. She’s calmed down considerably and this allows Sam-dal to open up to her mum.

She admits that she was worried and felt alone for a long time. Sam-dal also  promises that’s not the case anymore. She’s feeling good and is getting her act together. The pair hug and things are looking good.

There’s some lovely levity involving little Ha-yul too, who decides to join Ji-chan while he’s outside protesting for the livelihood of the dolphins and wants them to be okay. Hae-dael reluctantly tags along and is awkward when Ha-yul allows them to come over to the dolphin centre together. Whilst there, Hae-dal and Ji-chan discuss their protective nature toward their loved ones. For Hae-dal, it’s obviously Ha-yul and she’ll do anything for her child.

Given she was 21 at the time, she promised to do everything she could to protect her daughter and even cried in front of her parents, pleading them to let her take care of Ha-yul rather than giving her up.

This is not dissimilar to Ji-chan, in a roundabout way, who decides to stand by the pregnant dolphin and its child, Namchun. This eventually leads into discussing Ha-yul, and how thoughtful she is. She did everything to protect her mum, which is why she hid the diving suit that day. When Hae-dal finds out, she speaks to her daughter and the pair hug it out, crying into one another’s arms, while Ji-chan watches on from afar.

Remember the drastic action Eun-ju decides to take? Well, she flies out to Jeju Island and decides to use it as an excuse to film her “retro” shoot. She’s obviously doing this to get a rise out of Sam-dal. Of course, she underestimates the residents in town, who all know what she looks like and who she is. Mi-ja soon learns exactly what’s happening and even spots Eun-ju walking up the street.

Mi-ja is livid and dumps vinegar all over Eun-ju. She’s overheard her lies and demands to know the truth. Jin-dal and Sam-dal flank her, with Mi-ja eventually admitting that Sam-dal is being cared for by those around her. As they walk away, Eun-ju promises that this isn’t the end of everything.

Sam-dal stops though and confonts her old rival. She scoffs at the idea of stealing Eun-ju’s work, knowing that she’s struggling right now. Sam-dal also warns her too. After all, Jeju Island is her turf so she needs to watch out.

After this big encounter, Mi-ja decides she’s going to start working on herself and make things right. As for Sam-dal, she speaks to Yong-pil about how she’s feeling. She finally has a squad behind her and she doesn’t feel alone anymore. Yong-pil can’t stop smiling and he’s proud of Sam-dal as she decides she’s going to start discovering herself from now on.

Inside, Yong-pil encourages her to undo the ball of yarn he has. As she unravels it, one string at a time, Sang-tae unravels when he finds out Yong-pil and Sam-dal are working together He’s livid and marches up to see them. However, the pair are unaware of this, given the indie of the yarn happens to hold Sam-dal’s old message about her liking him. He’s kept it from her this entire time, all wrapped up in the yarn. The same yarn that was made into a scarf!

This lovely moment is broken up by Sang-tae showing up and seeing the pair together. It’s here the truth about their break-up is unveiled. He brings up how he begged her 8 years back to break up so it wouldn’t cause rift between him and Yong-pil. The latter is livid and shocked when he finds out about this and tells her to leave and go to the mainland.

As the truth finally unravels (pun absolutely intended), the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

Seeing Eun-ju with vinegar dumped all over her was certainly satisfying but it’s concerning at the same time because she could weaponize this against Sam-dal. However, it’s good to see that her actions are finally coming back to bite her in the ass and this should hopefully see Sam-dal make a triumphant return to the limelight.

Speaking of a return, Sang-tae now finally saying out loud what we’ve suspected for a while is a nice touch, especially as we now know the extent he went to sabotage their relationship and stop them from being together.

The drama continues to escalate and that ending realy does leave everything wide open for next week’s double-bill. This entire drama with the two families will almost certainly blow up in a big way but we’ll have to wait and see how this all transpires.