Nearing its final episodes, Start-Up presents how successes and failures are constants in building a business of your own.
Start-Up is a shortcut to learn the essentials of establishing a business. While presenting diligence and teamwork fuel its goal, it also teaches how depending on industry experts may save your business to unexpected crumble.
In episodes 11 and 12 of the series, Samsan Tech finally took the Demo Day stage. Albeit suffering from heartbreaks, Do-san and Dal-mi agree to work on their differences and face what’s important ahead of them.
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Start-Up Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | Mid-Series | 9 & 10 | 11 & 12 | 13 | 14 -16 + Review |
Demo Day Victory
A reversal of fate from Hackathon happened when Samsan Tech’s NoonGil defied the heavens and proved it is better than what Injae Company advertised their app to be.
Inevitably, Dal-mi, Saha and the geek brothers secured the victory at Demo Day. They also received a too-good to be true acquisition offer for their start-up business from global company 2STO.
Yong-san’s Grudge
It was also revealed that Yong-san holds a grudge towards Ji-pyeong. The investment genius apparently threw harsh words at his brother leading to him committing suicide after his business failed.
Because of that Young-san refused Ji-pyeong’s advice to tell Do-san and Dal-mi not to push through the acquisition offer.
The shot Ji-pyeong called precedes his reputation as days after, 2STO dropped a bomb that only the engineers will move to Silicon Valley.
2STO’s almost perfect deal
Finding no fault to the contract presented to them, Dal-mi and Do-san both agree to the acquisition. Unfortunately though, the global company has an ulterior motive in buying out the business. Once they got hold of it, they only kept the talents and not pursue the business anymore.
That put Do-san and Dal-mi on a bind especially since NoonGil was inspired by Grandma Choi’s vision problem. Adding salt to Team Samsan Tech’s wounds, Ji-pyeong bluntly explained their reality to proceed with what 2STO wanted.
Do-san followed Ji-pyeong and they engaged on a fist fight with the former finally revealing the truth about NoonGil and asking him to help them.
Follow Your Dream
Ji-pyeong went on another emotional moment with Grandma Choi after finally going there with battered face. Thinking he has gotten into trouble, she asked what happened as Ji-pyeong held her in his arms after watching NoonGil helped her with her sales inventory.
Confronting reality, Dal-mi decides to follow her dream and pushes Do-san to the same. Proceeding to work at Silicon Valley, Samsan brothers boarded the plane while Dal-mi applied at Injae Company as Strategic Planning Manager.
Start-Up Episodes 11 and 12 Musings
Predicting the finale of Start-Up by now is easy. It is safe to conclude that after the 2STO stint, Do-san will return and reconnect with Dal-mi again. That is also based on the preview for next week’s episode where we see the heroine of the series eagerly working on her own start-up company.
No doubt that this series showed us an office drama that is equal parts encouraging and engrossing. However, while it is easy to root for the characters’ individual dreams, the romance built with lies, and now saddled with long-distance reality does not affect me anymore.
It might not make me happy as a viewer even if the love pairing will be together again in the finale week. Dal-mi and Do-san look good together when they work on sharing their career dreams, but the romance part, I’m really struggling to feel it.
But it’s no biggie, I signed up for Start-Up because of its interesting concept. It has not fallen short in stressing the reassuring messages it keeps imparting to audience – who may or may not be working on their start-up dreams.
Foregoing to nitpick the character development is what I usually do. Especially if there are merits that the character presented to equalize the aimless progress. But Do-san was really weakly-contrived, and honestly Nam Joo Hyuk has been struggling to fuse himself to his newest role. I kept waiting for it to happen, even when it was glaring and visible in the onset of the series. But we are left with four remaining episodes. It is hard to gamble if he will be featured in a way that will make us forget all the awkwardness.
How I loved him in Weightlifting Fairy and The Light in Your Eyes, but his portrayal in this drama really pushed me to heavily sigh every episode. He keeps thriving on disappointments. So, I’m curious how his character will move to redeem himself in the last four episodes.
Downplaying Ji-pyeong’s character was a move that makes sense to keep the main love pairing’s vision intact. Even before, I know his love story should only go to Grandma Choi. Their scenes in the series are just memorable and poignant.
Pushing for a love triangle does not fit the trajectory of the series since its hook heavily relied on its interesting premise.
Don’t miss the latest episodes of Start-Up on Netflix.
Photos: tvN
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