Destined with You season 1 episode 2 recap & review

Open Go TV / August 26, 2023 / Reviews

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In the second episode of Destined with You, Hong-jo finds an unexpected object when she manages to open the wooden box, and Sin-yu quits his job at Law & High. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

Recap

Sin-yu takes Hong-jo with him to give her the wooden box. He tells her that he is returning what belongs to her. Initially, she refuses to take it, but she gives in when he tells her that it is from Shaman Eun-wol. Sin-yu asks her to call him when she opens the box.

When Hong-jo met Shaman Eun-wol, she seemed to know a lot about Hong-jo’s life and her troubles. She was nice to Hong-jo, so Hong-jo thinks that there will not be anything strange inside the box and tries to crack it open, but she fails.

The City Hall needs to hire a competent lawyer, as lawyers hired to represent Onju City lose over 60% of the time. Kwon Jae-gyeong knows that Sin-yu is not only a good lawyer but also does not care about the pay, so he offers him the job.

Sin-yu makes the owner of Haum Construction apologize to the employees of Law & High and then quits his job to work at the City Hall, as that will give him the opportunity to go against big companies like Haum Construction.

He also keeps pestering Hong-jo to open the box, which annoys her. While fixing a light at her house, Hong-jo hurts her head. For a minute, she imagines that Kwon Jae-gyeong is there to take care of her, but she knows that she is alone.

She asks him to come to her, and her words unlock the wooden box. Inside the box, she finds a book called Spells of the Heaven. The book was written by a shaman of Joseon named Aeng-cho, and it has all kinds of spells, including a love spell.

Sin-yu tells his father about his illness. His father wants him to quit his job and get married. However, all hope is not lost because the next day, Hong-jo tells him about the contents of the box. Sin-yu’s research tells him that Aeng-cho was a real person and was killed by Jang Mu-jin.

Hong-jo finds out that Sin-yu will be working at the City Hall from now on. Additionally, Kwon Jae-gyeong compliments Hong-jo on the City Hall’s message board, which makes her coworkers jealous of her.

Later that day, Sin-yu accompanies Hong-jo to her house to see the book and finds out that she does not have a family. Hong-jo realizes that, unlike her, Sin-yu believes that the spell book is real. When he sees the spell to cure diseases, he tells her that she can keep all the spells, but he wants one of them.

At the City Hall, Hong-jo runs into the mayor’s daughter, who is none other than Sin-yu’s girlfriend. It turns out that the two of them have a history. She apologizes to Hong-jo, but Hong-jo does not believe in it and does not accept it.

Sin-yu overhears their conversation and defends his girlfriend. He tells Hong-jo that she, and no one else, might be responsible for her not having anyone and eating alone, which hurts Hong-jo.

Sin-yu’s girlfriend tells him that she knows Hong-jo because she was transferred to her high school. Since Hong-jo’s father was a driver and they lived in a semi-basement, she was bullied at school.

Sin-yu’s girlfriend pitied her and befriended her, but Hong-jo ended up stealing the boy she liked. Sin-yu’s girlfriend was sensitive at that time because of her parents’ divorce, so the end of her friendship with Hong-jo was ugly.

A woman named Ma Eun-yeong, who works in the same department as Hong-jo, has been on leave because her husband, Park Ju-won, cheated on her. Hong-jo’s team goes to discuss the matter over dinner, and Hong-jo asks them to let her join them.

Sin-yu’s words left a deep impact on Hong-jo, and she apologizes to Mr. Gong. She tells him that when she reported him, it was her third day as a civil servant. She did not know that Mr. Gong’s mother had died and that the money he had received was condolence money.

Her apology is cut short when Kwon Jae-gyeong comes to the same restaurant with the legal team, which includes Sin-yu. Mr. Gong’s team eagerly asks the legal team to join them.

One of Hong-jo’s teammates asks Kwon Jae-gyeong about complimenting Hong-jo, and he tells them that he likes her work, but Sin-yu does not think that she deserves praise for doing her job. Kwon Jae-gyeong’s compliment makes Hong-jo’s team dislike her even more.

That night, Hong-jo ends up accidentally confessing her feelings to Kwon Jae-gyeong, who tells her that he only likes her as a person, not romantically. Sin-yu overhears this conversation and makes a rude remark about Hong-jo mistaking people’s kindness for something else.

Hong-jo admits that the smallest acts of kindness make her excited and happy because nobody is kind to her. The next day, she returns to her workplace to find everyone whispering about her getting rejected by Kwon Jae-gyeong and laughing at her.

When she confronts Sin-yu, he proves to her that it was someone else who spread the news about her rejection. Upset and embarrassed, Hong-jo spends another night all by herself.

When she gets home and receives farm products from someone, she decides to use the book and cast the love spell to win Kwon Jae-gyeong’s affection. As she casts the spell, Sin-yu starts experiencing something strange while driving.

The Red Hand caresses him again. Sin-yu ends up crashing his car and destroying the potted plants that Hong-jo had used to decorate the side of the street.

Review

The second episode of Destined with You is certainly better than the first episode. The audience gets to know the characters better, and the ending makes them curious about the effects of Hong-jo’s love spell.
The episode also challenges the audience’s perception of Sin-yu. In the beginning, he appears to be quick-witted and well-meaning, but later he is quick to judge and quite harsh.
Bits and pieces of Hong-jo’s past and the touching depiction of her loneliness improve this episode. Hong-jo comes across as a good woman, but no one truly sees that. Her sadness lies in the fact that she does not get love and kindness, no matter how hard she tries.