Netflix’s K-drama The Potato Lab went from being a slapstick comedy to a proper rom-com in all of 4 episodes. The show is an easy-breezy watch because it’s exactly what it sounds like: a show about growing potatoes. However, I don’t mean this as an insult in any way. Sometimes, all we need is something to completely relax to, and this show allows you to do that without a care in the world. It’s got beautiful people falling in love with each other, so what’s not to like? But an added bonus is that their chemistry is about to go off the charts; I can already sense it. Episodes 5 & 6 are like the stepping stones for the budding romance that’s about to begin between Mi-Kyung and Baek-Ho. I’m not even going to lie; the final few minutes of episode 6 definitely had me catching my breath because dang, do Kang Tae-Oh and Lee Sun-Bin have chemistry! But with that said, I won’t waste any more time and dive straight into episodes 5 and 6.
Spoiler Alert
Who Is Yoon Hee-Jin?
The Potato Lab episode 5 is all about a new visitor at the USB guesthouse. It begins with Baek-Ho and Mi-Kyung covering up the potato fields just as the storm approaches, because Baek-Ho happens to be at the office at 2 am. I imagined, seeing how dedicated Mi-Kyung is to the potatoes, he’d let her off the hook, but instead, his own feelings come in the way of his judgment. We’ll get to that in just a bit, though. Baek-Ho and Mi-Kyung then have dinner together, which allows them to understand each other a little bit and realize there’s some sort of attraction between the two of them. However, when the next day arrives, so does a new guest: Yoon Hee-Jin. Now, we’ve met her previously, she is Ki-Se’s ex-wife (I’m not sure if they’re divorced yet, but she’s run away), but Mi-Kyung doesn’t know this. In fact, when Ong-Ju and Hwan-Kyung see her stroll into Ward B as if it’s her own flat (putting in the passcode with ease), they immediately assume she’s dating Baek-Ho. This news reaches Mi-Kyung, who begins to feel jealous. This leads to Ong-Ju and Mi-Kyung peeping into the house to find Hee-Jin staring right back at them.
Hee-Jin then invites Mi-Kyung and the gang in for a “welcome” party for herself. At night, Baek-Ho grills meat at this party even though he’s a vegetarian. This only solidifies the trio’s suspicions. Mi-Kyung then can’t hold back and tries to mock Baek-Ho for having a girlfriend and still asking her what her favorite flower is. At the same time, her brother asks Hee-Jin directly if she’s dating Baek-Ho. She tells the gang that she’s disappointed they could ever think a free spirit like herself could date a capitalist like Baek-Ho. They’re apparently just childhood friends.
At work, Ki-Se leads the new team to which Mi-Kyung has been added, which requires her to go to the head office for one day a week. Turns out Ki-Se “pulled some strings” to put her on the team because he doesn’t want her to get fired. I suppose he feels guilty for everything that happened 6 years ago. But he won’t admit such a thing to Mi-Kyung either. She’s just mad at him all the time, which is understandable.
Later, Baek-Ho hears some noises at night, and it freaks him out. It’s actually bird noises, but Mi-Kyung plays a prank on him, saying there’s no noise and he’s imagining it. Baek-Ho pretends he’s not afraid of anything and doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but he gets frightened because he sees red stains in his office. These are because the team sat in his office the one day he was gone and dropped red nail polish on his carpeted floor. Finally, he asks a shaman to come over because he’s frightened, but this is when Mi-Kyung tells him that it was bird noises that scared him. As payback, he asks her to apologize to him for as long as it takes for him to forgive her. This somehow turns into them doing work for each other, and eventually, he tells her he’s forgiven her for the prank. But he also says goodnight, which is not something he does otherwise, because he’s caught feelings now. Episode 5 ends with Ki-Se learning about Hee-Jin having come to the same place Baek-Ho is staying at. But, to his shock, it’s Mi-Kyung who opens the door.
Why Does Baek-Ho Fire Mi-Kyung?
Episode 6 begins with Ki-Se realizing that his ex-girlfriend is now staying with his rival and his ex-wife, but of course, he can’t tell any of them about the situation. At work, Baek-Ho tells the team that they’re going to have to switch to a different variety of potatoes because the yield of the current potato is low, and so it turns out to be expensive. Mi-Kyung then tells him that there’s a variety of potatoes that is local that will do better, and they just need two years to switch them out. However, she realizes then that she won’t even be around the next month. They then spend a night together, going to the field to check out those potatoes. Mi-Kyung falls asleep in the car, and Baek-Ho doesn’t wake her up. Then she plays around with the torch that he’s worn on his head and teaches him the difference between sweet potato plants and regular potato plants, and it’s all just adorable.
In the morning, they wake up in the same car, and the whole team’s seen them together. Meanwhile, back home, on the previous night, Hwan-Kyung tells Ong-Ju that he is going to go out with Hee-Jin. This makes her jealous, and she admits it to him, which makes him mad. It seems he’s asked her out 3 times before, and he’s always really liked her, but she’s never accepted his feelings. Now that he’s trying to move on, she has to go and tell him she’s jealous. Finally, Ong-Ju tells him to kiss her, and when he does, she realizes she really wants to be with him. While one romance blossoms, though, another might be nipped in the bud.
Ki-Se meets Baek-Ho at the office and calls him out for not being as attentive as usual. He’s shocked to see Baek-Ho not paying attention to important work and reminds him that his goal at the lab is to downsize. This leads to Baek-Ho realizing that he’s been too distracted by Mi-Kyung, which is why he sends in the papers to have her fired. At this time, Mi-Kyung is quietly eating her meal at the cafeteria when one of the employees of Wonhan recognizes her from 6 years ago. They then start gossiping about her, which makes her upset. But to add fuel to the fire, Baek-Ho doesn’t join her at the same table because he’s contemplating, and this looks almost exactly like the scene from 6 years ago when Ki-Se did the same thing after rumors spread that Mi-Kyung and he were dating. This is why she had to quit the job, and her reputation was ruined.
In the present day, Ki-Se calls Mi-Kyung to his office when she’s already upset because of the gossiping situation. He then asks her why she’s been crying, but she tells him she hasn’t. He tells her that her “beloved” Baek-Ho (Ki-Se is jealous that she calls Baek-Ho more informally rather than “chief” or “director”) has finally fired her. He tells her that he thought they were close, so he didn’t expect it, but she’s already too upset to care about what he’s saying. At home, Baek-Ho tells Hee-Jin about his plight, and she calls him a coward for not telling the woman he’s fallen for how he feels.
At the end of The Potato Lab episode 6, when Mi-Kyung is about to relapse and start smoking when she’s upset, she notices that Baek-Ho is growing her favorite flower. This makes her especially upset, and she goes to confront him. He listens to her getting mad about how he’s hot and cold and doesn’t tell her that he’s not interested. In the end, though, when she asks him what she is to him, he simply says she’s a line he wants to cross. Cross the line already, man! We have to wait a whole week to see if they’ll start dating immediately or not.
