The Spies Who Loved Me is building its momentum to an exciting rate. Its slow start apparently aims to tidy details of where it is heading.
After the seventh episode of The Spies Who Loved Me, the excitement is bound to become a series of domino waiting to be pushed to its culmination. Setting one spy conflict that connects a wedding designer to her two husbands initially felt dry. But now that Ah-reum has pieced together disheartening details involving her friend’s death, the series has no other way to go, but to proceed with a showdown between Team Interpol and industrial spy group, Helmes.
Episode Recaps: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 – 07 | Review |
The Spies Who Loved Me Episodes 5 – 7 Key Moments
“You shouldn’t be sorry about what you can’t change in life.”
Thankfully Ah-reum is wired preventing future disaster to happen. When her ex and present husbands meet, she introduced them to each other properly.
They even share a dinner together. Quick to find a valid reason on why Ji-hoon made a visit to his wife, he explained borrowing money because of his denture. Ah-reum even smartly rides on his made-up excuse.
Ji-hoon’s observant nature also saves them when Ah-reum almost blurt their charade when Derek pretended to go to the wash room, but left his phone recording on the table. It raises a red flag on Ah-reum who is still processing her recent knowledge of her ex-husband’s real job.
Before separating ways, Ji-hoon drops quick instructions to Ah-reum and joins Derek who was waiting outside for a casual talk. Inside the car, Ah-reum mutters that she understands if he totally feels bad. Admitting she was right about what he assumed, he went on to describe how he feels.
“Do you know how that feels? It’s like there’s an amusement park that you want to go to. But you have to listen to the story of how your wife went there with her ex. You really want to go just once. But the amusement park is no longer around. So it’s only a memory shared by the wife and her ex.” – Derek
Talking openly about Ah-reum’s failed marriage, Derek proves his maturity and understands her sentiment about what happened in the past. She also points out that while her previous marriage was a failure, it does not mean Ji-hoon shares the same fate. He tells her to help him a little bit, but not make it a habit of seeing him.
Ah-reum apologizes to Derek inwardly how she has to keep a secret for now to find Sophie’s killer. At the same time, Ji-hoon meets the team revealing his ex-wife’s husband’s dubious layers.
“He was this good-looking guy with a thing for old cars.”
both checking out each other, Ji-hoon misled Derek through the report given by his right-hand man. Meanwhile, Young-gu reported the almost perfect life of Derek.
When Ji-hoon got a lead of Sophie’s groom arriving in Korea, they head to where Sophie’s remains lays and get a chance to speak with him. Recounting their good relationship and not believing the reported cause of her death to be drugs, he also revealed that Sophie used to date Derek.
While Seo-ra worked on gathering information from Doo-bong, she was able to plant a recording bug in his place to keep track of his plans. Through that, Team Interpol learned of Peter’s visit. At the same time, Ji-hoon was toured by Ah-reum to where the CCTV camera locations are, and realized a strange camera which connects directly to Derek’s observation deck.
“Why didn’t you ever ask me about my first marriage?”
Beating the traffic, Seo-ra arrives at Do-bong’s Chinese restaurant in time for a suspicious van arriving. The next day Director Ban checks on their progress as Ji-hoon is bothered about what Sophie’s boyfriend revealed to them.
The next day both Ah-reum and Derek debate in confronting each other but eventually come throws their questions. Ah-reum explains meeting Ji-hoon at her shop last night to get the money he asked to borrow. For her turn, she asked about his previous relationship with Sophie which brought them to the memory of the party where they first met.
Derek’s wedding proposal was also revealed as well as Ah-reum’s heartfelt desire to marry again after failing her first.
“They say that people repeat the same mistakes in their second marriage. No matter what people say, I think I could do better. I want to be better. And I feel I have to. I really really want to make it work. But I also know what failure is like. There’s a satisfaction of turning your world around. It’s like your whole world shifts. I’m afraid of failing a second time. But everything in life has challenges. That’s why we work hard and pursue goals. I really want to get married again. I know how hard it will be. Still, I want to shift my world again.” -Ah-reum
“Who has a lot to gain on Sophie’s death?”
After meeting Doo-bong, Peter meets Derek next and starts to question who gets the bounty after Sophie’s passing. To bait a chance to meet Peter, Seo-ra weaves a story that she needs a lawyer about a land dispute.
For his part, Ji-hoon also inches closer to who has been monitoring Ah-reum. It is quite harder than he expected though since he also has a front seat to seeing the girl he used to love in moments with her current husband.
At times, he is also caught in reminiscence of his beautiful time with Ah-reum highlighting how he knows her well. Like how she likes ramyun after a tiring work day and how she likes it when he massaged her legs while eating.
Seo-ra preps for another rendezvous with Doo-bong and finds the international lawyer he mentioned. The bug she planted was unfortunately ruined by the soup Doo-bong was holding.
When Ah-reum finds a package meant for her husband’s car restoration shop, she obliged to deliver it and realized the guy who broke in Sophie’s place before to be Derek’s right hand, Tinker. Escaping the scene, the creepy guy motions to stop her, but Derek arrives to break the moment.
Meanwhile, while monitoring the newest collated CCTV at Sophie’s crime scene, Ji-hoon stumbles on a familiar face – Derek Hyun, his ex-wife’s husband.
“Sometimes, I get the urge to reveal who I really am to her.”
Derek had moments when he wants to confess who he really is to Ah-reum. Confident that the lie he made won’t break their marriage because his wife loves him. He has been prepared to confront that scenario if it will happen. He has been convincing himself that he would be okay.
However, when he saw Ah-reum cornered by Tinker, he felt scared for the first time that his job would put her on risk. With Derek’s presence, Ah-reum tries to roam around, but her husband finds a convincing excuse to drag her out to eat.
Purposely being helped by Peter, Seo-ra wins the mahjong game with Doo-bong, but fails to get Peter’s contact number. Unable to hear the conversation at the restaurant, Young-gu sent a message and meets Seo-ra furtively. While she talks with her junior, Doo-bong tips Peter of how Derek has ordered one of his men at Jeju island the night Sophie went missing.
Tinker reports to someone about the movement of Interpol and worries about Derek’s wife’s involvement just as Ah-reum stumbles on his picture carrying a parcel which heightened her suspicion of the man she previously encountered.
Back at Team Interpol, they huddle on the progress of the investigation. Ji-hoon still keep to himself his discovery about Derek.
“Courier has arrived.”
Ji-hoon heads to Ah-reum’s shop and sees her borrowing her employee’s car and ignoring his marriage. He follows her at Derek’s car restoration place where she is playing Sherlock and deducing how the place is for secret dealings.
Meanwhile, Derek taps on a meeting involving Sophie’s project. Hiring two intellectuals are not showing progress because of a biometric security program used in the system which Sophie configured herself. With other countries vying to get the research details, the research team is on a tight spot. The two further update the chief officer of the subsequent plan to contact a North Korean hacker.
When Tinker made a move, Ah-reum and Ji-hoon follows him at a junkyard. There, she sees the car driven by the culprit and almost got busted when she entered it to find something of useful value.
Sending a message to Ah-reum to meet, Ji-hoon goes to her shop. But, they remain keeping their recent discoveries to themselves.
“Your wife’s ex-husband is here.”
Young-gu tells Seo-ra that the video they recently acquired was tampered and requests for a new copy. While Derek listens to the recording of the conversation about Sophie’s project, he receives a message from Tinker that Ji-hoon visited the car shop.
Derek arrives to the sight of Ji-hoon and Tinker getting chummy. Both measuring their level of patience towards each other, Ji-hoon pushes his luck and unravel the same car, Ah-reum was insisting to see las time against Derek’s permission.
Turns out, it was a gift for Ah-reum and Ji-hoon mocks how Derek still does not know his wife’s favorite color. In the cusp of a brawl, Dong-taek arrives and raises an alert to Ji-hoon that he can use him to get more information about Derek.
Finding her husband not home, Ah-reum discovers the recording in his office. Derek arrives seeing her in his private space pretending she does not know anything. The next day, the two proceed with a wedding-themed photo shoot, but Ah-reum can’t control the building fury on her husband’s sweet facade.
She keeps hinting about honesty in their relationship and even plays like a child by putting icing on his face. Fortunately, Derek was saved by the news of Ah-reum’s mom’s sickness
Four cars move to the same destination at night, Ah-reum tails her husband, while Ji-hoon follows Peter. Facing Han river, Peter and Derek talks while Ji-hoon and Ah-reum are separately in hiding, trying to whiff something from their conversation.
The Spies Who Loved Me Episodes 5 – 7 Musings
By now, we all realized that The Spies Who Loved Me is made for a binge-watch. With little to none crucial reveals each episode so far, viewers should expect an exhilarating run past the mid-point of the series.
Ah-reum’s fate of being married to two spies is getting interesting compared to how it started. The storytelling has patiently provided equally engrossing pitches on her two marriages, that would play a part down the stretch of the series.
Albeit having a big cast, I so far can still recognize them all, so it’s a good sign. The presence of a secret mole had also been mentioned in passing that would risk the on-going goals of both camps if there really is. Nonetheless, it would spice up the plot bends along the way.
Will they crack the intel of Sophie’s research? Will Ah-reum be led to a second divorce? Is there a traitor from Team Interpol or Helmes?
Make sure to catch up on The Spies Who Loved Me on MBC!
Photos: Screencaps iQIYI | MBC
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