The Good Bad Mother (나쁜엄마) is a Korean comedy-drama slice-of-life TV series directed by Shim Na-yeon, written by Bae Se-young and stars Ra Mi-ran, Lee Do-hyun, Ahn Eun-jin and Yoo In-soo in main roles. The series is all set to release on JTBC and Netflix (in select regions) and will take over JTBC’s Wed-Thurs 10:30 PM timeslot previously occupied by Interest of Love.
The Good Bad Mother episode 9 has a runtime of 63 minutes.
The slice-of-life series follows Young-soon and her son Kang-ho who share a tumultuous relationship with each other thanks to her strict parenting when he was a child. Now an adult, Kang-ho is a cold-hearted prosecutor who chooses to keep his distance from her mother and lives in the city. However, when a tragedy strikes, Kang-ho is forced to return home to the village, wherein he finds a new lease on life and rebuilds his relationship with his mother as well as with his childhood friend Mi-joo.
– The Good Bad Mother Episode 9 Review Contains Spoilers –
The Good Bad Mother Episode 9 Recap
The Good Bad Mother episode 9 starts with Ye-jin and Seo-jin finding out and showing everyone that Kang-ho’s ex, Ha-young, is getting married soon. Everyone is left shocked at the realisation that Kang-ho was about to be the president’s son-in-law. The villagers decide to keep it a secret to spare Young-soon’s feelings, but she appears right behind them and tells them that people have the right to live their own lives.
Either way, Young-soon takes Sam-sik’s father’s help to open the contents of the memory card, but the two of them face an issue when they realise that the file is password protected. However, thanks to Kang-ho’s smart thinking, they are able to figure out the password quickly. Inside, they find several files marked with dates that turn out to be Kang-ho’s journals.
It starts from when Kang-ho went to law school and details various instances during his time in college that have impacted Kang-ho deeply. It’s difficult to watch these instances, but they add so much more to Kang-ho’s character. Either way, in one such entry, we see Kang-ho trying to access his father’s investigation report but is denied and asked to reach out to the prosecutor, who turns out to be Oh Tae-soo. After getting no help from the detectives, he realises that his only solution is to be a prosecutor, just as his mother predicted.
He also mentions when he met Mi-joo in the journals and how she turned out to be a ray of sunshine in his life. Either way, he worked hard to make his way to work with Tae-soo and then got his hand on the trial records. In between his tough battle for justice, he continued his relationship with Mi-joo, which proves to be a light and day difference. It turns out that Mi-joo also helped Kang-ho to sort out his thoughts regarding some of the confusing and complicated elements of his father’s case.
Kang-ho also talks to Kwak Sang-cheol, who gave false testimony against Hae-sik, but Sang-cheol mentions that he didn’t really have a choice thanks to Woo-byeok’s threats. In the course of this, it turns out that Young-soon wanted her baby to be an artist like her, a dream that she could never fulfil. And even though Kang-ho had that talent, Young-soon was forced to take it away from her son as well. In another moment of heartbreak, while everyone’s parents are instructed to put on the prosector’s gown over their wards, Kang-ho does so on his own, surrounded by happy families.
After becoming a prosecutor, Kang-ho is finally able to procure the investigative reports and immediately realises that something is wrong with his father’s death. He questions the investigating officer as well and realises that he was in on it. However, he at least gets to know that it was Tae-soo who was the head of this entire ordeal and not Woo-byeok. After this, he breaks up with Mi-joo, probably realising that it would be easier to get close to Tae-soo through his daughter, which he wouldn’t be able to do while dating Mi-joo.
Kang-ho breaking up with Mi-joo and his wish for her happiness is almost too painful to bear.
He eventually picks his cases with care and frames a few people in order to get close to Woo-byeok and Tae-soo. However, in the course of getting close to his enemies, he found some shocking things about Woo-byeok and Tae-soo from Tae-soo’s former secretary Hwang Soo-hyun. He meticulously collected evidence against Tae-soo in order to prove his connection to the baby (with Soo-hyun) and eventually asks Woo-byeok to take him in as his own son.
Also Read: The Good Bad Mother Episode 8 Recap and Review: A Happy Turn of Events, Finally
On the day of his accident, he and Ha-young went to meet Young-soo in order to save the memory card behind the photo frame and also to sever his ties with her before embarking on this dangerous journey. In the end, he writes that after everything is over, he wishes to return back to her and have mung bean pancakes just like when he was young.
In the present, a heartbroken Young-soon asks her confused son not to do anything and then runs to the shed and then breaks down, realising that he has been so cold to her for all these years because he was taking revenge all on his own. She takes all of his stuff to the farm and burns everything from his life as a prosecutor that revolved around his father’s case. Fortunately, Kang-ho is able to get his hands on his ID badge. As the files burn, Young-soon tells her son that true revenge doesn’t end in us destroying our lives. It results in us forgetting everything and living a happy life.
The Good Bad Mother Episode 9 Ending
In the end, Young-soon tosses the memory card in the fire as well, for good measure.
The last scene showcases Soo-hyun’s skeletal remains floating in the water somewhere, being found by a passerby. The day Kang-ho helped her escape was the last day she was alive.
The Good Bad Mother Episode 9 Review
Well, another emotionally raw and heavy episode that just brings so much to the forefront in spite of the story not technically going forward. It’s absolutely illegal that the show has only 14 episodes instead of 16. Regardless, the episode joins almost all of the dots that were yet to come together and gives us a full picture of Kang-ho’s ability to think ahead. I am still, however, curious to learn what happened to Soo-hyun because it doesn’t seem like Kang-ho would murder a baby.
That being said, I am also curious about Young-soon’s motivations here – she is the one who never got over her husband’s death and almost tortured her son growing up. I get it; it’s a mixture of unresolved trauma and wanting the best for her son. But regardless, I find it tactless that she just destroyed all of Kang-ho’s hard work while he wasn’t even able to consent to it. Because, honestly, let’s face it – he has the mind of a child without any of the memories.
It’s just unfair of her to make this unilateral decision. But, then again – the fear of losing your child in the same way as your husband must be a tough pill to swallow. These grey characters and their muddy motivations and absolutely delicious and heartbreakingly emotional to watch every week.
And honestly, Lee Do-hyun and Ra Mi-ran are too good as actors. There are no two ways about it.
The Good Bad Mother is streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Read All of Our The Good Bad Mother Reviews