“TRUE BEAUTY” EPISODE SEVEN RECAP
“Why haven’t you told her how you feel?”
Finally after a long time of waiting, K-Drama fans from all around the world got what they’ve been calling for: True Beauty. This episode seemed to deliver everything that the show covers well. We got comedy, drama, action and most importantly, the right to ship everyone. The South Korean show which centers on the terrible side of pretty privilege and how its leads to bullying and personal growth for the acne ridden Im Ju-Kyung (Mun Ka-Young), is pretty great.
After the dramatic ending of episode six, the excitement about what would happen next in the show had reached its peak. And so it’s only right that the follow up to a bonding moment of friends beating up the bullies targeting Ju-Kyung would be Lee Soo-Ho (Cha Eun-Woo) flexing how capable he is at protecting her. It’s actually quite clever that he decided to stock the bully instead of just repeatedly beating change into him. Genius right? He was saving energy while nipping the problem in the bud—at least for a little while, and that’s just in the first fifteen minutes of the show.
Most characters are getting a bit more screen time to connect with the audience and Ju-Kyung. Kang Soo-Jin (Park Yoo-Na) finally let down her wall enough to reveal the truth behind her rough hands, Im Hee-Kyung (Lim Se-Mi) solidified her bad ass image while pursuing Han Joon-Woo (Oh Eui-Sik), and even Han Seo-Joon (Hwang In-Yeop) showed how much of a softie he is. Yet the underdog villian of the show, who slides by without notice is Ju-Kyung’s mother. She remains as the enemy of progress as she continues to threaten Ju-Kyung about her makeup instead of asking why she needs it for school.
But wait! There’s more! Ju-Kyung is finally getting what she always wanted, to be pursued by multiple suitors, and baseball player Ryu Hyung Jin (Jung Gun Joo), is a great candidate for that. Hyung Jin is bold! Can you believe that he flirted with Ju-Kyung so quickly after meeting her, without even knowing for sure if she was interested in him? What do you call that cockiness or confidence?
In contrast, Lee Soo-Ho is good at everything except courting Ju-Kyung. Instead of being affectionate and kind, out of nervousness, he always resorts to being cold. Even so, according to Yoo Tae-Hoon, he might be experiencing infatuation for the first time because he gave her all the drumsticks they were sharing when they went to a baseball game. “That’s true love you see,” Yoo Tae-Hoon tells Lee Soo-Ho. No better words were said in True Beauty than when Tae-Hoon asked Soo-Ho, “why haven’t you told her how you feel?” He said what we were all thinking. Indeed, why hasn’t he just confessed?
Soo-Ho is so bad at communicating his feelings, when Ju-Kyung overheard him rejecting another classmate, she was disappointed to learn that he liked someone already instead of suspecting that it could be her. Still when he comforted her and told her how proud he was of her improved class rank, walked her home and cleaned her shoe, it was really sweet. He has his moments.
It’s nice to be young huh? Everything feels more pronounced when you can really focused on the little graces of life—a reprieve Ju-Kyung is owed after enduring so much abuse from her old classmates. Even the song used to underscore this romantic moment was perfect and charming and perfectly matched to accentuate their feelings for the audience.
There is still the prevailing lessons in the show that need consideration though. The fact that Ju-Kyung has had to faced so much pain because of her acne is awful and disturbing. More, Soo-Jin’s dad is very abusive and controlling and her mom is his enabler. It’s really scary to think about how much violence she’s endured since we only catch glimpses of her trauma, especially after seeing her breakdown in front of Soo-Ho. It was quite distressing. It’s too bad that her moment was overshadowed by Ju-Kyung’s misunderstanding.
Still, Ju-Kyung is a diamond. She manages to be herself no matter how embarrassing it would be (turns out she has some great physical capabilities when she doesn’t want to pee on herself in public). Also, she always manages to be kind to people even when it might cause her discomfort (telling Han Seo-Joon’s sister her secret). It’s no wonder that both Soo-Ho and Han Seo-Joon like her enough to break an elevator. The ending of that scene was so cliché it felt like something out of a comic book but her confidence to reject Ryu Hyung Jin even though she felt nervous was something remarkable given her timid personality. Hopefully she’ll have the same confidence when confessing to Soo-Ho later on.