The fifteenth episode is easily the best episode of Welcome to Samdal-Ri. While the love story has always been a highlight and at the center of things, it was the overall camaraderie and sense of community that have made this part of the show so memorable. It is moments like these that prove that this is such a well-written series. Without much ado, let us dive into the recap of the penultimate episode.
Spoiler Alert
What are Jin Dal and Hae Dal doing?
Jin Dal finally gets a hold of Dae Young, and she wastes no time confronting him over his actions. She asks him why he fought to bring the theme park to Samdal-Ri when he knew his father was against it. Moreover, Jin Dal is baffled that he is doing all this for her so many years after their divorce. In Jin Dal’s mind, this is too late because, when they were actually married, he never stood up for her. What Jin Dal doesn’t know is that it is because of Dae Young’s support that she was able to reveal the abuse of power by her in-laws. Dae Young had stood up to his father and insisted that Jin Dal should be allowed to go ahead with her plans. He may not have understood that his criticism of the food she brought from home was negatively affecting her, but he wasn’t blind to her suffering. Dae Young told his father that Jin Dal was going through hell, and if she had decided to speak up, it was a decision that had come at the end of a long rope.
In the present day, Dae Young confesses that he still loves Jin Dal. He is prepared to suffer all hardships as long as he gets to be near her. While Jin Dal hasn’t answered yet, she may need to address her own feelings before she says something to Dae Young. As for Hae Dal, the dolphin man’s words are stuck in her mind about her taking up swimming again and helping her mother. She hadn’t considered before that her long-buried passion could have a future, but his words had struck a chord.
What is Eun Ju doing?
People have refused to work with Eun Ju because she is neither talented nor professional. She blames everyone for her mistakes, and most of the time, she doesn’t even know what she is doing. This has placed not just her but Cheun Gi’s job at stake as well. That is when he discovers that this whole time, Eun Ju was illegally sponsoring products by making them a part of photoshoots. Magazines often centered their photoshoots around a theme and used them to promote a product that they had taken money for. It was unethical to include items without their permission, especially when money was involved. This is why Eun Ju had kicked up a fuss about including the scarf in Sam Dal’s photoshoot in the first episode—because she had taken money for it and not because she was asserting her individuality. When Cheun Gi comes to know this, he immediately breaks up with Eun Ju, but his job is still on the line. That is when he begs Sam Dal to come on board as a photographer and save the shoot for the magazine, but she has better things to do.
Does Sam Dal escape from the reporters?
Whenever Eun Ju cannot repair her career, she focuses on sabotaging Sam Dal. It doesn’t help her, but maybe it gives her the satisfaction that her supposed ‘arch-nemesis’ isn’t in good condition either. When Eun Ju reveals that Sam Dal is Eun Hye, her exhibition gets cancelled, and once again, Sam Dal is left on a dead end. But this time, she plans on fighting back. Sam Dal already has the pictures; she just needs a place to hold the exhibition, and as Yong Pil said, why would she give up in her hometown? The plans are all set, but the reporters have descended on the town to get a hold of Sam Dal. However, unlike Seoul, Sam Dal is not alone here. The residents of the village keep misleading the reporters and don’t allow them to reach Sam Dal’s house. Meanwhile, Sam Dal’s friends decide to get to the bottom of the matter because this needs to be solved at the root. Eun Bi and Ji Eun have the clue that Eun Ju may be promoting things illegally, and all of them spend the night scouring Eun Ju’s social media to get proof of her wrongdoings. With that in place, they take that to Sam Dal’s house and make their plans, which are going to be revealed in the finale.
At the end of Welcome to Samdal-Ri episode 15, the only problem left is how to hold the exhibition. If the reporters found out, they would arrive there to trash Sam Dal, and the exhibition would be a disaster. But all of Sam Dal’s photos are in the meteorological department, and they have to come up with a plan. Yong Pil has the brilliant idea that they can simply not announce the cancellation of the original exhibition. He literally harasses his bosses to take this step and says that this is the least they can do after letting down the winner, who had put in so much hard work. Yong Pil gets his way, and the reporters end up at the wrong place. As for Sam Dal, she is being driven by Sam Dal to the original place and escorted by all her friends and the hanyeos of Samdal-Ri, who are her bodyguards and support and are going to see that she achieves what she has set out to.
Final Thoughts
The friends have planned a lot more than has been revealed in this episode. Cheun Gi’s offer is not going to go to waste. Also, the kind of allegation against Sam Dal needs to be dismantled by Eun Ju herself for it to have credibility. Anything else would just look made-up and suspicious. This exhibition is simply a part of the plan and not the whole thing, which will unravel in the finale of Welcome to Samdal-Ri.
