Ro-Na Returns
Episode 3 of The Penthouse Season 2 begins with Yoon-Hee’s big reveal, showing herself to be equal to Seo-Jin’s malevolence. She tells Seo-Jin that her vocal cords have been fixed, thanks to Logan Lee’s surgery, and brings up the irony that her throat saved Seo-Jin’s career. It turns out Yoon-Hee set all of this up from the very start with Park Young-Ran. She installed spyware on Seo-Jin’s phone in the past, using an opportune time to spy on everything she’s doing. Yoon-Hee sneers and calls Seo-Jin the fake soprano as reporters race in the room and notice Yoon-Hee hugging Seo-Jin. She promises it’s just the beginning and walks away. Yoon-Hee pays tribute to Su-Ryeon, promising to avenge her. While she does, Seo-Jin, Dan-Tae and the other Hera Palace residents celebrate Seo-Jin’s big performance and hitting the high F. Attention soon turns to Yoon-Hee though, whom Ma-Ri and the others believe they saw at the performance. Seo-Jin snaps and eventually leaves. While she drowns her sorrows in alcohol, Eun-Byeol sneaks out with help from the maid and takes off with a mystery man on a motorcycle. That man, as we soon find out, is Seok-Hoon. They’re not dating though, give Seok-Hoon’s affection for Ro-Na, but it’s enough to stir things up. In fact, at school the next day Seok-Kyung remains determined to try and figure out who Eun-Byeol’s “new boyfriend” is. The Chairman is convinced there’s something going on and puts a tail on Seo-Jin. He also finds out Yoon-Hee was at the concert, immediately realizing Seo-Jin is lying and hiding things from him. Speaking of hiding, the next day Yoon-Hee hands over an envelope holding the NDA she signed with Park Young Ran, reminding her that this isn’t over. In fact, she even riles up the big crowd at the autograph signing, pleading for Seo-Jin to sing for them. Seo-Jin forces a smile and waves them away, claiming her voice still needs to recover. That evening, Seo-Jin tries to call off the big dinner celebrations but learns, to her horror, that Yoon-Hee has already organized everything. In fact, Yoon-Hee completely stirs things up and takes the limelight away from Seo-Jin. She even brings up the fact she’s married to Seo-Jin’s ex! This is one step too far for Seo-Jin, who grabs a knife and remains determined to stab Yoon-Hee in the neck. That is, until she hears Yoon-Hee suggesting the others speak to Seo-Jin about the stabbing incident in the past, then she changes her mind. Eventually Yoon-Hee confronts Seo-Jin outright and tells her to cancel all performances, informing the world she can’t sing anymore. If she does that then Yoon-Hee will spare her the humiliation. As she walks away, Seo-Jin brings up Ro-Na. Yoon-Hee immediately turns around and promises that this isn’t the end, especially given she has big plans for her daughter too. In the past, we see a flashback of Yoon-Hee in America, breaking the news to Ro-Na about killing Min Seol-A. Ro-Na is distraught as Yoon-Hee promises she’s going to make amends by going after Seo-Jin and the others. Just before heading back, she leaves Logan to look after Ro-Na and stop her from returning to Korea. At Hera Club, the boys all start playing cards where Yoon-Cheol wins around $1 million from Dan-Tae. He immediately goes on the offensive, speaking to secretary Do and learning the truth about Yoon-Hee and the opera performance. On the back of this, he decides to use Secretary Do and turn him to his side. As fate would have it, Ro-Na returns to Korea and decides to re-enroll at school. She immediately helps Je-Ni while the others are bullying her, but when Min-Hyuk falls and slips on coke, he breaks his arm. This causes a big problem for Yoon-Hee’s plans as Ro-Na is called out and accused of hurting him. Unfortunately this spills over back home too, as Kyu-Jin goes up against Yoon-Cheol and Yoon-Hee, accusing them both. As everything starts to come undone, Ro-Na heads up and begs Seo-Jin to re-admit her. The only way Seo-Jin will allow this is if she signs a written note to confirm Yoon-Hee won’t cause any problems for her going forward. Ro-Na agrees, and even confronts her Mother afterwards, telling her not to cause any trouble or she’ll expose her. Well, Yoon-Hee may be stopped but Dan-Tae most certainly will not be. He manages to obtain a lot of incriminating evidence, including text messages and everything that happened at the opera with Seo-Jin. Secretary Do eventually leaves, as Yoon-Cheol shows up at Seo-Jin’s penthouse and starts kissing her. With them both in each other’s arms, Dan-Tae shows up and sees them together.
The Episode Review
Oh, Ro-Na why would you go back? Just as Yoon-Hee started to get the upper-hand, her daughter returns and causes a massive problem for her to deal with. Although Ro-Na claims to be doing this for Yoon-Hee, it’s clear that she just wants to graduate from this top school, no matter the cost. And how did she manage to fly across to Korea? Does this mean that Logan Lee has sold out Yoon-Hee, working with Ro-Na to get her back home? I’m sure we’ll find out in coming episodes! Meanwhile, Seo-Jin starts to get her comeuppance, although her prodding the lion eventually results in Dan-Tae baring his teeth and finding out all the secrets his wife has been keeping from her. This will almost certainly explode into a very messy pot of drama in the episodes to come. And what about that ending? With Yoon-Cheol staging this whole incident to pry Seo-Jin and Dan-Tae apart, it looks like it could be the beginning of the end for this couple. For the time being though, Penthouse bows out with another decent episode, one that leaves the door wide open for Saturday’s follow-up. Bring it on!
