“Reborn Rich” Episodes 7 and 8 provided answers to a lot of the questions we have had since the series began. They also served to enhance the emotional development of the storyline. Do Jun remained as unchanging and perfect as ever. It is really the characters around him that have fanned the spirit of the show. This week, we watch Do Jun as he wins a few more battles against his grandfather and Soonyang and how he comes to accept the new family he has. Let us see how that happens.
Spoilers Ahead
Does Jun’s War Against Soonyang
“Reborn Rich,” Episode 7, starts with Do Jun revealing himself to the Chairman as the majority shareholder of Miracle Investment. The Chairman is angry and confronts him about his plans for succession. Do Jun announces that he doesn’t want to inherit Soonyang. He wants to buy it. And right now, the Chairman must drop the charges against Oh Se Hyeon if he wants to protect the family name. Elsewhere, Mo Hyeon Min tells Seong Jun that they better not get married. She has her sights firmly set on Do Jun and picks him over the choice made for her. Things are looking up for Do Jun before he comes to know of another problem: the broadcasting and cable companies that were supposed to move into the offices of DMC have pulled out of the agreement. Without them, the scope of construction of DMC or the New Seoul Town project cannot be taken up by Miracle, and it is said as much to Do Jun by Chang Je in a phone call when he is egged on by Seong Jun. Honestly, it has become a matter of pride and revenge.
Chairman Jin Yang Cheol believes in the law of inheritance—that the eldest gets everything. He is also bound by some guilt regarding his son since years ago, around the time Seong Jun was born, Jin Young Ki had gone to jail to protect Soonyang. Additionally, he believes that straying from this rule would wreak havoc among his children. That is why he turns a blind eye when Seong Jun lets his father take the blame for his hand in the land speculation deals. The Chairman even goes as far as to guide Seong Jun in his revenge against Do Jun.
But there is still a silver lining. Hyeon Min offers Do Jun to move her family’s offices into DMC, thus saving his deal. But Do Jun understands the reality of the situation. She wants to marry him because of his capabilities and because she has feelings for him in some corner of her heart. But she has approached him with the idea of power, not love. She had him followed, and her proposition was also about the control she would have over their professional and personal lives. Do Jun refuses to accept her proposal and decides to find his own way, which presents itself to him soon enough through some of the insights of Oh Se Hyeon. He finds out that Joo Young II of Daeyong Group is in Soonyang’s hospitals and cuts a deal with him. He convinces him about the potential of investing in a distribution channel and, hence, finds clients willing to move into DMC. With this victory in hand, he attends the wedding of Seong Jun and Hyeon Min. Knowing about these developments, the Chairman has to make some quick decisions. It doesn’t help that he was recently diagnosed with an arteriovenous brain malformation, which means that his days are numbered. He was initially planning on giving some shares to Seong Jun as a wedding gift, but he changed his mind. He places him in charge of a warehouse instead and declares that he will no longer follow the rule of the inheritance of the eldest. Anyone who can prove that they are capable of taking Soonyang to greater heights, either with their leadership or by buying all the shares, is going to be the next in the line of succession. Seong Jun is furious and knows that Do Jun is behind this. He is just about to punch him when his new bride faints. It turns out later that she was faking it, so Seong Jun did not make a fool of himself. Something to note here is that both of them knew that it was more of an alliance than a marriage, yet Hyeon Min committed herself to the arrangement with sincerity and declared that she was a team with Seong Jun. But he is still an impulsive person who cannot see beyond his own nose. She really traded down.
The Chairman distributes the branches of Soonyang among his three children and asks them to lead it. His daughter, Hwa Young, gets into the hospitality sector, but now she owes her brothers $400 million. Her husband tells her to borrow it from Oh Se Hyeon, but she is unwilling to do that. Instead, she does something very foolish. She insults Do Jun’s mother in an effort to show them their place. We come to know that Do Jun’s father was the Chairman’s illegitimate child, whom he had just adopted into the family. That, followed by his marriage to a woman that the Chairman did not approve of, made them outsiders. Do Jun has always missed the family of his previous life. But he has come to know that even in this life, he is loved by his new parents. He realizes that when they support him instead of the Jin family, it makes him understand that he is not alone in this world. Therefore, this insult to his mother is not just an affront to him for his mission but also on a personal level. His next target is the Soonyang department store that his aunt is in charge of.
‘Reborn Rich’ Episode 8: Ending Explained: Does Do Jun Acquire The Department Store?
Not knowing where else to get the $400 million, Hwa Young calls up Oh Se Hyeon. What she doesn’t know is that Do Jun is orchestrating it all from the background. New Data Technology is the hottest investment to make, with its share price escalating beyond imagination. But since Do Jun is from the future, he knows that once the price hits $300 per share, it is going to keep plummeting. He makes a strategic investment where he buys a few of their shares and slyly gets Se Hyeon to encourage Hwa Young to do the same. But there is a plot twist. He gets him to tell her to sell it at $40; therefore, when the price rises beyond that, Hwa Young is frustrated. Do Jun very cleverly tells her that the price is speculated to hit upward of $300. To be fair, he also tells her that it is subject to stock market manipulation and could crash at any time. But it is said that greed is senseless, and Hwa Young sees this as a way to prove her capability by inheriting Soonyang.
Due to the money she borrowed from Miracle Investment, Hwa Young had to put up 30% of her shares as collateral. Knowing this, her brothers try to buy them from Se Hyeon. But he puts them off by demanding a lot more than either of them offers. Do Jun and Se Hyeon count on the animosity between the siblings due to their greed to get their advantage. And it works. Hwa Young invests $120 million in New Data Technology; all of the money is in the Soonyang branch under her. That will prove to be the final blow to her business and an opportunity for Do Jun to take over. We are sure that the episode next week will start with this.
Final Thoughts: What Can We Expect In The Coming Episodes of “Reborn Rich”?
We had been waiting for the day when Do Jun would recognize and appreciate his new family. That was the one moment that truly warmed our hearts this week. We want to see more of that. And some backstory on Young Ki and Yoon Ki, the Chairman’s sons, would be nice. We know the gist of their issues right now, but some details would make it better. Believe it or not, we want to see more of Seo Min Young, but we don’t trust the writers enough to not take her down the Hong Cha Young route. It also seems weird to us that, technically, combining Do Jun’s age in this life and the previous one, he must be more than 60 years old. It is probably better if he stays away from Min Young. Other than that, the relationship between Seong Jun and Hyeon Min could prove to be interesting. We look forward to seeing these developments play out in the coming episodes.
