We stick with our assessment that Strong Girl Nam Soon is good enough in its own right, but we simply cannot digest the need to show Nam Soon, a grown woman, with the mannerisms of an infant with the excuse that she did not grow up in her home country. If nothing else, couldn’t the character have been given some redeeming quality, like a sharp sense of humor or some random quirk, or at the very least, a challenge in the love story? It is indigestible to us that in 2023, almost 2024, we have to see the trope of an adult woman behaving like a child and the audience being told to accept that this is ‘aspirational’ or ‘endearing.’ This is our only irritation in an otherwise alright show, and we simply cannot get past it because it would have taken very little to manage this thing. But we suppose there is nothing to be done, so let us go through the recap of the episode.
Spoiler Alert
What does Nam Soon find out about Doogo?
Nam Soon passes the test that Si O tried to throw at her, and she tells him not to do that again since she doesn’t like it. Elsewhere, her mother and grandmother can sense that she is out of danger, and they relax a bit: Geum Ju passes a casual threat, and Joong Gan spends some more time with her boyfriend. Nam Soon comes to know that one of her co-workers in the warehouse, Hong Jeong Ho, has passed away due to overworking, so she wants to do what she can for him. She goes to his house and gives the family some money to take care of his funeral and also for his younger brother’s upbringing. She lets them know her real name, Nam Soon, instead of just Tsetseg. That might be a problem in future episodes since Si O is already furious that a death has occurred in the company under his watch. He doesn’t care for the employee who has lost his life but is instead worried about the PR nightmare it could lead to at a time like this. He makes a call, saying that the clinical trials have been successful, and he has tested the drug himself. Whoever is bankrolling the whole thing may make an appearance soon enough.
Meanwhile, Geum Ju is still struggling to find something about Bread Song. There is absolutely no information available about him, and that makes her more suspicious. On this note, we wonder whether this show was really attempting to empower women. It is not a good look to show that a woman needs superhuman strength to be intelligent, and if she is not stronger than average, she must be simple, as the rest of the women outside of Nam Soon’s family have been shown to be. Geum Ju has tried to find everything she can about it, and her secretary asks for a photo of him to investigate further. Geum Ju is forced to ask that from Hong Do, Bread’s receptionist, and she lies that she is interested in Bread. Once Bread Song hears just how much wealth Geum Ju has, his dislike for her turns into willing acceptance as he wants her money. Also, hearing that she may be interested in him makes him think of her as some sort of easy prey. The entire situation is cringeworthy, but Geum Ju must do what she has to.
Elsewhere, Nam Soon is given a watch with a hidden camera to spy on Si O and the Heritage Club. Perhaps her juvenile antics helped her this time because every time she did something odd to keep the camera in people’s faces, it was written off as adorable and dorky behavior. It is irritatingly unfathomable, but this is our lot with this show, and we have to constantly remind ourselves not to go down the comparison rabbit hole with Strong Girl Bong Soon.
Does Nam Soon get away with the computer?
At the Heritage Club, Si O introduces Nam Soon to Marie Kim, who instantly hates that she has to hand over her responsibilities to Nam Soon. She wants to test and train Nam Soon first, and the best way she comes up with to do that is to give her a drink laced with a drug that would paralyze her for three hours. Nam Soon has it, but as usual, it has no effect on her since she is the strongest woman on earth, with “superpowers” playing in the background every time she does something. Nam Soon makes Marie Kim drink the alcohol as an act of defeat, and after she gets knocked out, she records the whole room with her watch. Nam Soon has done her job well, and she goes home.
But there are some mistakes that have happened during this time. When Nam Soon was pretending to be affected by the drug, Hee Sik tried to rush to her aid, and Si O caught a glimpse of him. If Si O ever recognizes him or sees him again, he will immediately know that Nam Soon is acting as a spy. She has also left another clue with the family of Doogo’s dead employee by telling them her real name. If Si O tries to meet the family, he may be led to Nam Soon.
Nam Soon tells Hee Sik that she will simply break into Si O’s office and get the names of his clients from the laptop. Hee Sik’s colleague is expecting that Nam Soon will behave like Catwoman and make a mission impossible by stealing the data. Instead, the reality is that during the end of Strong Girl Nam Soon episode 8, Nam Soon dresses up as a ghost to avoid detection. She is not an expert hacker but is simply going to use her strength and steal the computer in its entirety. Nam Soon is caught by one of Si O’s bodyguards, but she manages to escape, though her wig remains with the man. Elsewhere, just as Jun Hee is proposing to Jeong Gan, Geum Ju receives the news that her father is back in Korea. Even Nam In has started taking more of the drugs, still thinking of them as weight-loss pills.
Final Thoughts
The world goes round and round, and mediocre content is recycled without us seeing anything new. The next episode will be about Jeong Gan getting caught in her own love triangle and how that all connects to Si O’s shady business. It would be a sight worth seeing.
