Episodes 1 and 2 of Beyond The Bar are out, and it’s got some interesting things to say for sure. The first episode certainly didn’t appeal to me very much, but after having finished the second episode, I can see where this is going, and it feels a little bit like it’s treading the line in terms of similarities with What’s Wrong With Attorney Woo. Obviously, Hyo-Min isn’t autistic, but she’s socially awkward for her own reasons, which makes her similarly endearing. However, I think it’s too early to say that the shows are alike, though the feeling is a tad familiar. Beyond The Bar is also about the law, and Korean dramas often get extremely emotional when it comes to subjects that require extreme reactions. But, with that said, let’s jump straight into episodes 1 and 2.
Spoiler Alert
How Does Hyo-Min Solve the Gas Case?
Beyond The Bar episode 1 begins with Hyo-Min, a young lawyer, trying to land her first job. She’s a bit late for her interview because she missed the subway station she was meant to get off at. She’s an honest young woman who graduated top of her class, but despite that, her tardiness is a big problem. But she’s lucky enough to be allowed into the interview anyway. As you can imagine, she’s already fantastic at her job and lands the position immediately. Then, when it comes time to choose a team, she chooses litigation, the one group that no one is keen on choosing because it’s led by Yoon Seok-Hoon, our main lead. Seok-Hoon is a stickler for rules, but he’s also obviously really good at what he does, which keeps him as a partner at Yullim. Everybody is made to introduce themselves on a stage, very awkward. To incentivize the new recruits, each team is made to give a speech, and Seok-Hoon’s is the worst because he doesn’t offer any incentives to the kids. So obviously, Hyo-Min is the only one who volunteers to join that team. The team is then expanded with people who were extras on the teams they chose earlier.
Jin-Woo, who is Seok-Hoon’s associate, deals the other kids a bad hand because they didn’t choose litigation themselves, while Hyo-Min gets the best treatment. Additionally, we’re introduced to Heo Min-Jeong, who is an associate but already in her 40s and has the aura of someone with loads of power. I suppose we’re going to see a friendship bloom between her and Hyo-Min later on in the show.
Hyo-Min is no ordinary lawyer, though. We learn this not from her impeccable work, but because her boyfriend decides to brag about her being the daughter of a chief judge and a professor at SNU Law, the biggest law college in Korea. Her first case is with the Gangdon City Gas Advisory. She visits a shareholder meeting to get some information and learns of a steep drop in sales a few years ago at one particular spot. She’s quick to realize somebody is stealing gas and the company is losing money because of it. She takes 2 days to do fieldwork and returns to the firm, nearly getting dismissed for not telling anybody what she was off doing and showing up to work with her hair undried. But she defends herself, and when she shows her evidence, there’s no choice but for Seok-Hoon to go along with her plan. While she’s in court, she speaks her case quite loudly despite the judge telling her she doesn’t need to more than once. This is something to note for later on, I suppose, but she wins the case, making it clear that she’s got it in her to do great things. Guess she’s a nepo baby who actually does work. Meanwhile, it looks like Seok-Hoon’s wife/partner died, and he’s grieving her.
What Does Hyo-Min Want To Tell Her Boyfriend?
Beyond The Bar episode 2 begins with a man wreaking havoc at the Hoseon fertility clinic. The clinic ends up suing him for damages. Meanwhile, Seok-Hoon goes to see his dog Hash, and it looks like this is a weekend thing. This dog was a puppy in the video we saw of him and his partner. So it’s definitely been at least a year since she’s passed (or left him), if not more. Hyo-Min, on the other hand, decides to tell her partner something just as he proposes to her. In the previous episode, it looked as if she was uncomfortable with him using her as a trophy, and instead of telling her it was a misunderstanding, he straight up tells her that she should be okay with him bringing up her background, parents, etc., because it’s part of the package when you like somebody and gets passed onto kids. The “kids” bit is quite important here, which is probably why it triggers Hyo-Min to tell him what she tells him next.
It turns out Hyo-Min has a twin sister named Hyo-Ju who has a hereditary hearing impairment. When they were younger, Hyo-Ju was sent off to live with Hyo-min’s aunt and uncle because they didn’t have kids of their own and also had hearing impairments. To Hyo-Min’s parents, it made more sense for the girl who was deaf to live with deaf parents, which is why they sent her away. Obviously, when her boyfriend hears this story, he decides to abandon her. She’s not as perfect as he thought she was.
In Park Ki-Beom’s case, he is furious with the fertility clinic because they lost his sperm. Under ordinary circumstances, this wouldn’t mean anything because you could just repeat the process. However, in Park’s case, the sperm is lost forever because he’s now infertile. The whole reason he went ahead with the procedure was because he and his wife desperately wanted a kid. His wife suffered burns after a car accident, which left her with scars on her face. But, when she saw her niece, she started changing and healing a little bit because she started to think that she could also have a baby that would look like her. But to make matters worse, Park learned that he had cancer and would need to get operated on, which could leave him sterile. Park chose the best clinic for the sperm donation, expecting the best treatment, but instead, the clinic didn’t even bother apologizing to him, never mind compensating him. When Park has to tell the team all of this, he asks if it can just be the men because they’re talking about male genitalia, etc.
While at first Hyo-Min leaves the room to make the client comfortable, she later asks him to come see her and tells him that, as a law student, she has heard much worse when speaking about sexual assault cases. She then makes him comfortable by saying some words that would otherwise be considered taboo but are all legal terms regarding sexuality. Hyo-Min makes a breakthrough, and then the case is presented in court, where it’s made clear that Park was mistreated by the clinic and is the person who deserves compensation, not the other way around. Eventually, Seok-Hoon asks for 100 million won in compensation, and the other team (i.e., Sung-Chan, Hyo-Min’s boyfriend) agrees as long as they take it all out of the news. But despite doing such great work, nobody at the firm likes Seok-Hoon, because he’s not a “rainmaker,” or a person who brings in the big clients. Plus, he’s good at his job and doesn’t slack off. But it looks like his senior, Na-Yeon, was pushed out of the film because of a similar situation.
At the end of Beyond The Bar episode 2, Seok-Hoon finds Hyo-Min zoned out in the pantry because she’s just told off Sung-Chan for seeing other people on blind dates without as much as a word to her. He never broke up with her or reacted to what she said. Seok-Hoon offers her a cup of tea. The name of the episode is “Hot water is the test for tea and love.” Seok-Hoon and Hyo-Min talk about Park’s case and how he was very cool for supporting his wife so fiercely. Undoubtedly, Seok-Hoon comforts Hyo-Min. Before leaving her, he tells her that she did a good job in the Park case. You never know the strength of the tea just from looking at the tea bag. You can only see its strength when hot water touches it. I suppose Seok-Hoon’s the warm water in this case, and Hyo-Min is the tea bag, right? Guess they’ll make a great team from now on.
