Summer’s here, bringing sunshine and a much-needed break for our leads after a rough spring. Then, a huge storm hits, and our leads suffer their first devastating loss—one that leaves a permanent scar.
This volume revolves around parenthood as our leads strive to provide their children with what they missed and support them to pursue their dreams, even if it means personal sacrifice.
Bunny S. watches When Life Gives You Tangerines on Netflix
When Life Gives You Tangerines Episodes 5-8 Highlights
“It is the first time I have had my own home.”
Pulling strings, the nasty former suitor ensures Gwan-sik can’t get a job on another boat. Thus, Gwan-sik works as a manual laborer to support his family. But his diligence alone isn’t enough to impress his superiors. So, Gwan-sik is soon dismissed. For people who live hand to mouth, being unemployed is like a death sentence. And it is worse for Gwan-sik who used to work since he was 9. To push him up, Ae-sun suggests Gwan-sik shall take a break and she will support the family in his stead. But both of them know the harsh reality of their situation.
With rice running out and her family about to starve, Ae-sun swallows her pride and asks her father’s family for money. As usual, her uncle gives her the cold shoulder. But in a pretty unexpected move, Ae-sun’s grandma hands over her reserve funds to Ae-sun, urging her to buy a boat. When Ae-sun feels terrible about taking the money, her grandmother asserts it was Ae-sun’s mother’s will that she takes that money.
Now that they can stop worrying about making a living, Gwan-sik’s grin is back on his face. Ironically, while celebrating the new boat, Ae-sun goes into labor and gives birth to a second child, a son. With Gwan-sik returning home with full nets, money is no longer a problem. Also, in a heart-touching move, Gwan-sik surprises Ae-sun by purchasing the house where her mother used to live since he knows how emotionally attached Ae-sun is to that house. Now, Ae-sun finally has a place to call home which also holds a special meaning in her heart.
“뭐든 기어코 키워내는 여름. 방 한 칸, 살림 하나 늘려 가는 재미에 내 성실한 부모는 땀 젖는 줄도 몰랐다고 했다”
어렵사리 움튼 싹이 무성하게 자라던 계절. <폭싹 속았수다> 2막 내일 오후 4시 공개, 오직 넷플릭스에서. pic.twitter.com/G479DCcfDc
— Netflix Korea｜넷플릭스 코리아 (@NetflixKR) March 13, 2025
“Why won’t anyone call an ambulance?”
Things were going well and our leads were blessed with a third child, also a son. But then, a tragedy hit our leads, when the bleak waves take the life of their youngest son. Ae-sun keeps holding her dead son in denial while Gwan-sik cries his heart out. Blaming themselves for this son’s death, our leads lose the will to live, spending their days lying down soulless.
Only after realizing the effect of their sorrow on their remaining children, who start blaming themselves too, do our leads come to their senses and try to get back on their feet. Support from people around them also helped lift them up. It felt heart-warming to watch the montage of people backing our leads through the hardships they underwent in the past and up to this point.
Our leads might try to go on for their children, but their pain is etched deeply in their hearts. Ae-sun abhors the sight of the sea, and Gwan-sik crumbles down while registering his son’s death. In Ae-sun’s heart, her dead son remains a 3-year-old kid. No matter how much time had passed, she couldn’t look at kids this age. But to Gwan-sik, his kid continues growing. Their wound was so harrowing that they couldn’t mention their kid’s name or talk about him, striving to survive with broken hearts.
Years pass, and our leads are now middle-aged (currently played by Moon So-ri and Park Hae-joon). But in their hearts, they are the same Ae-sun and Gwan-sik we know. Geum-myeong got accepted into a prestigious university, making her parents proud. (Our hearts went out to Ae-sun questioning if it was okay to feel happy.) Though Gwan-sik is concerned about his precious daughter getting a boyfriend. On the other hand, their son, Yang Eun-myeong (Kang You-seok) is a troublemaker who keeps playing around and makes his parents worry.
With her sweet husband’s support, Ae-sun runs for village chief against the nasty former suitor who tries to pay his way in. When bribery doesn’t work, he talks smack about Ae-sun’s family. But against all odds, Ae-sun defeats him and achieves her dream of becoming a chief, not just a deputy. (Side note: Ae-sun was a deputy during the suitor’s term as a chief. But it was palpable who was pulling their weight and who just enjoyed being in power.)
“They wished every day that the world beyond their embrace would always be gentle. But the world away from their embrace was a jungle.”
Shifting focus to Geum-myeong’s life in Seoul, we see her bidding goodbye to her boyfriend, Park Yeong-beom (cameo by Lee Jun-young) before he enlists in the army. As typical, some mean girls envy Geum-myeong and badmouth her behind her back. Not that she cares about them. Geum-myeong even enjoys teasing them in her way.
Unluckily, Geum-myeong couldn’t receive a scholarship, making her unqualified to stay at the school dorm. To earn money to rent a room in a boarding house, Geum-myeong takes on a part-time gig as a tutor. But she comes across one nasty parent who tries to tempt Geum-myeong into taking the college exam for her daughter.
Making a fancy offer about buying Geum-myeong an apartment in return for getting the daughter into college, the nasty parent first sweet-talks Geum-myeong. You know, Geum-myeong should pay off her parents for their hard work raising her. But Geum-myeong counters that her parents would never want her to do such a thing. But then, the nasty parent calls the cops on Geum-myeong, accusing her of stealing her ring. If Geum-myeong snitches, they will be in trouble. So, the parent is preparing for it beforehand.
At the station, the officers are mean to Geum-myeong despite not having evidence to prove she stole anything. But it isn’t like Geum-myeong can say she was tutoring the daughter, as tutoring was illegal back then. Trying to contact her parents, Geum-myeong firmly refuses to hand her home’s phone number, worried about breaking her parents’ hearts after hearing their daughter is accused of being a thief.
As it so happens, Gwan-sik drops by Seoul that day to see Geum-myeong. While waiting for her outside the dorms, Gwan-sik runs into Yeong-beom. Suspecting he likes Geum-myeong, Gwan-sik’s stare is as sharp as a knife, looking at Yeong-beom. He even entertains the idea of calling the military police on Yeong-beom. What is a soldier doing outside the girls’ dorm?
Recognizing Gwan-sik as Geum-myeong’s father, Yeong-beom tries to get on his good side. Yet Gwan-sik is unimpressed, arguing Yeong-beom doesn’t cut it as his daughter has high standards since she grew up watching him. (Gwan-sik has indeed set the bar too high.) Still, Gwan-sik is elated, hearing Yeong-beom was dumped by Geum-myeong 8 times. Ironically, Geum-myeong and Yeong-beom are Ae-sun and Gwan-sik 2.0 with Geum-myeong taking the lead and Yeong-beom being quiet like a mouse. And the resemblance isn’t lost on Gwan-sik.
누가 오애순 딸 아니랄까봐 👧🏻👩🏻
어디서 많이 본 것 같은 내 딸의 연애, <폭싹 속았수다> 2막 지금 오직 넷플릭스에서.
<폭싹 속았수다> 2막, 지금 오직 넷플릭스에서. pic.twitter.com/6hSXcK63Z6
— Netflix Korea｜넷플릭스 코리아 (@NetflixKR) March 15, 2025
Luckily, Geum-myeong is released thanks to some help from a kind-hearted soul. The first thing she does is call her mother, but she can’t bring herself to tell her mother the truth. Hearing Gwan-sik is there, Geum-myeong rushes to the dorm. But the traffic holds her up. Meeting her father, Geum-myeong wants to apologize and treat him nicely but she vents at him. There are many things Geum-myeong wants to do yet her guilt holds her back. She got a chance to study abroad but backed out because her family didn’t have the means to support her.
Assuring Geum-myeong that she can do whatever she wants as long as he is there for her, Gwan-sik promises to catch all the fish in the sea to support her. It is all okay as long as Geum-myeong doesn’t date “that soldier” or go protesting. Gwan-sik will take care of everything.
어떤 사랑은 영원하다.
말없이 바친 20년의 짝사랑, <폭싹 속았수다> 지금 오직 넷플릭스에서. pic.twitter.com/yPxq0TSILg
— Netflix Korea｜넷플릭스 코리아 (@NetflixKR) March 16, 2025
“When you guys soar, I swear it feels like I am soaring too.”
At the train station, Geum-myeong sees Yeong-beom off. They both cry their eyes out, not wanting to be apart, and Yeong-beom almost becomes a deserter. Akin to their predecessors, Yeong-beom’s ultimate wish is to marry Geum-myeong, but she keeps teasing him about it. For now, we are left to guess if these two will make it through. But let’s have faith in the drama and not worry about their future beforehand.
Now only the issue of studying abroad remains. We can see Geum-myeong wishes to go but doesn’t want to burden her parents, especially since she knows they are struggling financially because of her. Unluckily, Geum-myeong isn’t eligible for a government-funded scholarship. Moreover, her pride keeps her from accepting a professor’s offer to lend her money.
Hearing about it, Ae-sun flips. Why would her daughter take someone else’s money to study abroad? Giving up on her dream of opening a fish shop and selling her house, Ae-sun has Geum-myeong spread her wings and achieve her dream of studying abroad, We end this week with Ae-sun and the rest of the family moving out of their old house while Geum-myeong boards the plane and cries her heart out, holding the money her mother secured by sacrificing her dream.
When Life Gives You Tangerines Episodes 5-8 Musings
Ae-sun’s grandmother’s words about the pain of losing a child not fading with time felt foreshadowing. But we still got shaken by that turn of events. With things going smoothly, we could tell that misfortune would soon hit our leads. But we didn’t expect something this grim. For the son they raised for 3 years, our leads could only mourn for 3 days. And then they had to get up, despite the pain, to look after their kids.
The loss theme isn’t thrown in to milk sympathy or just for shock value, but is used to shed light on the pain parents go through after losing their children. When Geum-myeong’s colleague thoughtlessly noted that some people seemed okay even after losing their children, it felt offending. Does she expect them to starve and do nothing so that their sadness would be acknowledged? Even if they look fine on the outside, the pain of losing a child lasts for life.
In another life lesson, the drama uses Ae-sun and Gwan-sik’s situation to remind us to try our best to survive even when everything seems bleak and we feel like we can’t go on anymore. After weathering that terrible storm, the sun will rise again and good days will come our way.
With Ae-sun losing her parents at a young age and Gwan-sik growing up with strict parents, our leads wanted to give their children the love and care they couldn’t get growing up. Our leads hoped their children would do whatever they wanted without holding back, yet sometimes being poor stood in the way and made them feel helpless. Geum-myeong knows it too, but she sometimes turns mean and prickly, throwing tantrums at her parents and blaming them for things outside their control.
Becoming parents at a young age was tough. But our leads devoted their everything to making their children happy. What is more touching than their sacrifices is the fact that Gwan-sik and Ae-sun did it out of love and not because they expected anything in return. And even if time turned back, they would do the same thing. Watching their kids soar and achieve their dreams, our leads feel fulfilled. Unlike toxic parents who want to live vicariously through their children, Ae-sun and Gwan-sik were a ray of sunshine warming their children’s lives.
Lastly, the adage of “like mother like daughter” is further emphasized this week, especially when we get parallels of our mother-daughter duo acting similarly when faced with the same situation. And for all that glaring, Gwan-sik and Yeong-beom are two peas in a pod and eventually Gwan-sik will come to accept Yeong-beom as Geum-myeong’s boyfriend.
Photos and Videos: Netflix Korea
Leave a Reply