Second Shot at Love – K-drama Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Review Geek

14-05-2025

Episode 2
Episode 2 of Second Shot at Love begins with Geum-ju running away from home. Miss Nosy spots Geum-ju heading to the river. In the morning, Geum-ju's clothes and shoes are strewn around the riverbank, suggesting that she has drowned.
A flashback shows Geum-ju taking off her clothes as she stinks. She steps on dog poop and loses her shoes while trying to wash them in the river. She then jumps in front of Ui-joon's car and he crashes and breaks his leg as he swerves. He is irritated by the whole thing as he carries her home.
In the morning, she is embarrassed and offers financial compensation. Right then, he gets a harrowing call that everyone is looking for Geum-ju's corpse. She runs over and her family is relieved to see her alive. Tired of her antics, her mom, Gwang-ok tries to drown herself.
Seon-wook and Ui-joon discuss how Geum-ju broke Ui-joon's leg and crashed his car. Of course, Miss Nosy overhears and as expected, the news spreads like wildfire.
Everyone scolds Geum-ju and to redeem herself, they order her to look after Ui-joon. It cuts to a montage of her driving him around and doing chores he would otherwise do for his patients. She is curious as to why he left Seoul and he deflects by asking about her job.
A flashback shows her experiencing sexism at her workplace. As revenge, she decides to take all of her PTO leaves. She is unfairly fired because of this.
At present, the neighbouring ladies hound Gwang-ok. In response, she berates them for selling alcohol to her family and puts a ban in place. All the alcohol sellers are forced to listen as she handles the town's quick loans.
Flashbacks show that Hyeon-ju gets pregnant, married and divorced because she drinks. She also drinks as being a single mother is tiring. As for Jeong-su, he loses his junkyard, restaurant and almost loses the house because he drinks.
At present, everyone refuses to sell the Hans alcohol. Geum-ju is annoyed and it doesn't help as Ui-joon claims that the town is trying to help her. She calls him a hypocrite as he is a drinker as well.
Later, Seon-wook reveals that Ui-joon quit so he could look after his patients. He also left Seoul and opened a clinic in Bochun as it lacked basic medical care. Young-woong doesn't buy this and does a little digging. An alumni post suggests that Ui-joon unfairly lost his tenure and his fiancée left him for someone else. He quit the hospital and became an alcoholic for a while. Now he rejects major offers from Seoul hospitals.
Geum-ju finds Ui-joon sulking at a river spot. A flashback shows her introducing it to him to cheer him up after his grandmother dies.
At present, Geum-ju tries to forget about Ui-joon but she realises that she would have liked some support when she broke up with Ju-yeop. She decides to cheer up Ui-joon by making him a lavish meal and giving him pep talks. While he is confused, his nurse warns Geum-ju not to flirt with him.
Right then, Ui-joon rejects a major offer. Exasperated, Geum-ju reveals that she knows about his past and urges him to take the offer. Suddenly, her friends alert her that the alumni post isn't about Ui-joon.
Elsewhere, Hyeon-ju hangs out while her twins take their taekwondo class with Seon-wook. She jokes around with him and we learn that he likes her. Once she leaves, her friend sadly comments on how she could have been a star. Seon-wook is irked as she is still a star to him.
Back to our leads, Ui-joon quickly masks his amusement and tells Geum-ju not to meddle in his life. She is hurt and agrees that she has crossed a line. A flashback shows them at an airport. She tries to stop him and he says that she has crossed the line.
At present, she scolds herself for not respecting Ui-joon's boundaries. However, he thinks of her all night.
The next morning, she decides to go back to acting as his driver. However, she begs Seon-wook to replace her when she gets a notification. Turns out, it is Ju-yeop's birthday and she had ordered a cake in advance. It cuts to a dramatic chase to Seoul to stop the delivery. However, she runs into Ju-yeop in the elevator.
He finally explains that the affair began because he was drunk. Upset by his hypocrisy, she orders him to get it together for his kid's sake. He tells her not to cross a line and that she should solve her issues first.
Ui-joon had said the same thing and Geum-ju is upset. After flinging the cake at Ju-yeop, she gets drunk.
Back home, Ui-joon worries about her. He finds a drunk Geum-ju who is babbling about a cake to Seon-wook. Ui-joon misunderstands and thinks she abandoned him to get drunk at a party. Seon-wook reveals that she is hurting Ui-joon and that she needs to become a decent person. As they leave, she cries.
Angry, Ui-joon drinks at home as well. He suddenly sees a comment on the alumni post and is shocked. It says that Ui-joon has killed someone.
In the Second Shot at Love Episode 2 epilogue, Ui-joon and Geum-ju are having a drinking competition in 2011. She is a sore loser and he carries her home. He wants to win in everything so he can take care of her.
The Episode Review
Having set up the drama of Geum-ju's drinking and how it affects her and those around her, Second Shot at Love Episode 2 goes back to the usual K-drama formula of misunderstandings, miscommunication and mayhem.
Not to compare, but we have seen something like this in recent rom-coms like Welcome to Samdalri and Love Next Door. The female protagonist refuses to tell the male protagonist the truth, viewers are left in the dark about what happened between the couple, and the atmosphere is quite vague and frustrating. This takes away from Geum-ju's alcoholism and tense family dynamic which are quite sensitive plotlines and need a sensitive treatment.
While there is potential for Second Shot at Love to do something good with its ambitious undertaking, we have a feeling that all of that may be sidelined for a tumultuous will-they-won't-they romance that may take up the majority of the runtime. It's a pity since Episode 1 exceeded expectations. But maybe next week can assuage our fears of the direction this show may take.
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Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!