Good Boy – K-drama Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Review Geek

4 hours ago

Episode 3
Episode 3 of Good Boy begins with Han-na's story, where she's about to compete in another championship and set a record. However, at a crucial moment, her long hair comes loose and distracts her, causing her to lose focus.
The scene shifts to Dong-ju, who comes across Ju-young at the customs office and ends up creating a scene until he's reported. Back at the station, Dong-ju tries to explain that Min Ju-young is the culprit behind the hit-and-run case, but without proof, he has nothing more to say. This is when Jong-hyeon arrives, and the two end up sparring, with Jong-hyeon winning the challenge and revealing that he'd practiced Taekwondo from a young age.
While the officers are out, Gyeong-il's arrest makes the news. Dong-ju visits his mother, who believes he'll be released soon once the real killer is caught. This motivates Dong-ju to investigate the imported car Ju-young had used the night of the murder.
Meanwhile, Jong-hyeon learns that Gyeong-il's case is being transferred to a new prosecutor, his own brother. From their interactions, it's clear there's bad blood between the two.
Elsewhere, Dong-ju tries to convince Gyeong-il to let the truth come out, but to no avail. In the background, Ju-young orders a prison guard to kill Gyeong-il. The next day, Dong-ju finds out that Gyeong-il has died, his death staged as a suicide. The police find the prison guard's watch at the scene.
Following this, Gyeong-il's mother cuts ties with Dong-ju as well. In a fit of rage, Dong-ju visits Ju-young and attacks him, throwing punch after punch. Dong-ju then refuses to do anything Ju-young had previously demanded in exchange for dropping the case.
In the meantime, Han-na, who had sent in her resignation, finds a watch similar to Ju-young's in her father's belongings. We learn that her father had been in the police force as well. She visits a pawn shop where the owner tells her the watch is a limited edition used by a powerful and notorious smuggler, but he's unsure whether hers is genuine.
After Ju-young gets rid of the prison guard for doing a sloppy job, which led to Dong-ju identifying him, he realizes someone has been going through the documents and suspects Han-na might be a risk to his empire.
Back in his room, we find out that Gyeong-il had been a competitor of Dong-ju's, and it had been during a sparring match with Dong-ju that he was injured. He had never been Dong-ju's brother.
The next day, a real estate agent visits Han-na's house, where she discovers that her mother, who works as an insurance agent, has listed her father's house to pay off her debt. We also learn that her mother had been the reason behind Han-na's loss of focus on the day of her championship; she'd been busy fixing advertisements.
That same day, Han-na had suffered from a long-term illness as well. After walking out of the police station, Han-na collapses, only to be caught just in time by Dong-ju.
Meanwhile, Jong-hyeon finds out that someone has been searching for Han-na's details at the police station.
After talking to Han-na, and after she returns the medal Dong-ju had pawned, Dong-ju resumes copying the book he needs to complete in order to prevent Ju-young from suing him. The next day, Han-na retracts her resignation, and Jong-hyeon joins the team to protect her from the growing threat.
Later, Dong-ju breaks into the customs office and confronts Ju-young, warning him that he's coming for him. The episode ends there.
The Episode Review
With every episode, Good Boy is turning out to be a tonal mess, with too many genres overlapping within the same storyline. Not only that, the main characters' personas clash, and apart from Dong-ju, no other character is given significant weight in the narrative. As a result, the rest of the characters often fade into the background.
The comic timing and exhilarating action scenes that had been keeping the show alive in the past two episodes have now taken a backseat. In their absence, the weaknesses in the plot and storytelling come to the forefront.
Since Good Boy hinges on a weak and underdeveloped plotline, much of the episode feels disconnected and trivial. The characters themselves are painted with a shallow hand, their traumas don't land emotionally and feel trivial, mostly because the episode doesn't give enough time for those experiences to develop or breathe.
Previous Episode
Next Episode
Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!