Welcome to Samdal-ri season 1 episode 3 recap & review

Open Go TV / December 15, 2023 / Reviews

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In Welcome to Samdal-ri episode 3, Sam-Dal continues to avoid being seen in public, as more and more people find out about her return to Jeju.

Recap

In 2005, Sam-Dal, Yong-Pil, Gyeong-Tae, and Eun-U are off to Seoul, boarding the flight all happy and optimistic while their fifth friend Sang-Do remains in Jeju; he doesn’t even have money for a ticket as well.

They try their best to make it in the big city but it’s a harsh world, and eventually, they all migrate back to their hometown. In the present day, Sam-Dal hovers on the Han River’s steps in a drunken stupor.

Yong-Pil spots her and immediately rushes to save her, slipping and falling down into the river in doing so. She saves him and he tries to make up for the last time he embarrassed her, by pretending to be embarrassed himself.

This cheers up Sam-Dal a bit. He walks her back home and before she heads in, he asks her if she’s ok. This triggers the memories of all that’s happened to her in the past few days and her eyes well up with tears.

Later, his question also makes her remember all those times in their past when he asked the same question to her out of concern.

Meanwhile, her mother is fuming after learning about her debacle by others. She goes on her “Long John Marathon” later, and the whole town gets worried.

In Seoul, her assistants try to evade a persistent reporter who keeps trying to coax some dirt for Sam-Dal out of them. They don’t do that, and later tell Sam-Dal all about it on the phone. Eun-Ju keeps avoiding Sam-Dal’s calls.

Gyeong-Tae ends up finding out that Sam-Dal is back when she fails to hide from him. He takes no time to inform Eun-U about it and the two later tell Sang-Do about it too. He rushes to meet Sam-Dal at her home.

Later, she tries to go out to take a walk through the town but keeps hiding from people. She also keeps overhearing talks all over the town, and she’s the topic in each one of them. She gets hurt.

Yong-Pil meets her and talks her out of slumping down anonymously, before convincing her to go meet with her friends and talk to them about what all happened to her.

She overhears Gyeong-Tae saying he’s happy she failed and came back, and gets hurt again, rushing back home.

Yong-Pil and others follow her and stop her. She lashes out at them while bawling herself, asking why they haven’t asked if what the news is saying about her is true or not.

She cries her heart out, saying it’s not true and she didn’t do that, as her friends all stand by, sad for her.

The epilogue shows the four friends in the past having a meal in Seoul, and later calling up Sang-Do, who was in Jeju, as Welcome to Samdal-ri episode 3 rolls the credits.

Review

Welcome to Samdal-ri episode 3 shows more of Sam-Dal and her friends’ past but these routine bursts of flashbacks aren’t doing much good for the story, not to mention feeling insubstantial without a deeper meditation on each one’s struggles.
Sang-Do’s face is finally revealed and judging by this obvious treatment of this character and his overt enthusiasm at the news of Sam-Dal returning, it seems like he might be a part of a love triangle here.
Which would be really bad should it ever come to be a reality. An already by-the-booms rom-com needn’t be so prolific with the clichés.