Castaway Diva (무인도의 디바) is a Korean rom-com that tells the story of a woman stranded on an island for 15 years and how she comes back into society and tries to pursue her dream to be an idol. Directed by Oh Choong-hwan, the drama stars Park Eun-bin, Kim Hyo-jin, Chae Jong-hyeop, Cha Hak-yeon, Kim Joo-heon, and Lee Re, alongside other cast members.
The Kdrama tells the story of Seo Mok-ha who dreams of becoming a singer, however, an incident leaves her stranded on a deserted island where she survives for 15 years. Now, she is finally rescued, but times have changed and circumstances make achieving her dream challenging. Will she be able to become a singer and get her own stage?
The show will have 12 episodes and be broadcast on tvN in the Saturday-Sunday slot at 9:20 PM KST time slot previously occupied by Arthdal Chronicles season 2. The Castaway Diva episode 2 has a run time of 67 minutes.
Watch the Castaway Diva Trailer
The synopsis of the Kdrama reads:
Fifteen years after being stranded on a remote island, an aspiring singer reenters society- stopping at nothing to pursue her dream of becoming a diva.
-Castaway Diva Episode 2 Recap Contains Spoilers-
Castaway Diva Episode 2 Recap
Castaway Diva episode 2 begins at the Kang house where the two brothers Kang Bo-geol and Kang Woo-hak wake up and begin arguing over separating rooms. Woo-hak is not ready for the separation while Bo-geol wishes to move to the rooftop room that has just emptied so that he can get some privacy from his clingy brother.
Woo-hak then asks Bo-geol about his plans for the day and finds out that he will be going out to volunteer after which he decides to go with him. Despite Bo-geol’s refusal, Woo-hak accompanies him to a deserted island that the volunteers begin cleaning while Woo-hak sets up his drone to check out the island.
Meanwhile, Mok-ha is unaware of the volunteers and sees the drone that suddenly comes towards her, intrigued by the device in front of her she begins to chase it. Elsewhere, Woo-hak is also surprised by her behaviour and tries to bring his drone back but the device crashes on the ground and Mok-ha picks it up to see what it is.
Woo-hak is enraged by this and runs to the place where his drone crashed while Bo-geol follows him to find out what happened. Soon, Woo-hak arrives in front of Mok-ha who is surprised to see another person in front of her after 15 years of solitude. Woo-hak is surprised by her behaviour and sudden hug but soon understands her story and is amazed by her story.
On the way back, Woo-hak records Mok-ha while she is surprised by the changes that have happened in the world in the last 15 years. Bo-geol sees him shooting her and asks him to give up on covering this story but soon sees Mok-ha’s story on the news channel the two brothers work for.
Woo-hak later explains to Bo-geol that the story came up when his superiors asked him about what happened to the drone which left him with no choice but to cover it. Bo-geol does not care about what has happened anymore but his careless attitude leaves Woo-hak disheartened.
Later, Woo-hak arrives at the Women’s centre where Mok-ha is staying for the time being and finds out that they have been unable to contact anyone related to Mok-ha. They are aware of how hard life is going to be for Mok-ha because while she is physically a 31-year-old woman, she is still a 16-year-old teenager in her mind.
Woo-hak empathises with Mok-ha but is unable to do anything more than take her back to Chunsum Island. On the way, he asks Mok-ha about why she left the island and what happened that got her stranded on the island. Mok-ha is unable to decide where to start her story when she sees a banner with her idol Ran-joo’s name on it and makes Woo-hak stop so that she can see what it is about.
As she emotionally reminisces the the past, she tells Woo-hak that her story starts with Ran-joo for whom she decided to leave the island. She then takes down the information on the banner and Woo-hak understands that she was a fangirl who left home to meet her idol, but this makes Mok-ha angry as Ran-joo isn’t just any idol for her.
The two soon reach Chunsum Island and Mok-ha is surprised by the changes that have taken place. She then goes to her old home and sees that someone has opened a restaurant there. The owners recognise Mok-ha but drive her out thinking that she has returned to take her place back.
Unwilling to give up on the place, they try to scare her with the law when Woo-hak who is unable to see this lets them know that Mok-ha is still alive and has not been labelled as a dead person yet. She is also the rightful owner of the place and the court will also help Mok-ha if she wants the place back.
Mok-ha stops him there and turns to the new owner to tell them that she wants to find out about Ki-ho and does not want the place back. They are relieved and ashamed but tell her that Ki-ho changed after her incident. He not only broke the tanks at her shop but also looked out into the sea the whole time.
Then one night, he ran away from home and also reported his father of domestic violence which got him fired. After this, Bong-wan makes his way to Seoul and begins looking for his son, but seeing how long it has been they can assume that Ki-ho is dead. Mok-ha is shocked and makes her way to Ki-ho’s now run-down house.
She tells Woo-hak that Ki-ho is definitely still alive while Woo-hak sees a post on the wall that he takes away with him. Mok-ha then forcefully makes her way back to Seoul against Woo-hak’s will, telling him that she has worked way too hard getting out of this island to just come back without achieving anything.
Later, Woo-hak is worried about Mok-ha and sneaks her into the empty rooftop room where he gives her some food and his business card. He tells her to stay there quietly until she can meet Ran-joo, however, his remarks and attitude remind her of Ki-ho. Woo-hak is hooked on these words and later thinks that he might be her friend from the island.
He tells Bo-yeol about Mok-ha’s words and that he could’ve been Ki-ho before he lost his memories due to an accident during high school. Bo-yeol turns down this idea and tells him that he has always been Woo-hak which leaves him confused. The next day, Bo-yeol’s team lead is looking for an artist to focus their program on when he points to Ran-joo.
Castaway Diva Episode 2 Ending
Meanwhile, Mok-ha makes her way to the event where Ran-joo is going to perform with Woo-hak. She even prepares green balloons which represent Ran-joo’s fans and distributes them at the venue while asking everyone to support Ran-joo. Elsewhere, Ran-joo is shocked to find out that she has been asked to sing live at the event.
Unable to change this term she gets drunk on the wine sent to her by the sponsors to make it look like the sponsors ruined her performance. Meanwhile, her manager tries to find a way out of this when Mok-ha arrives to the rescue. The event then begins and after a series of acts, it is finally Ran-joo’s turn.
However, she is drunk according to her plan when her manager tells her that he has found a backup singer for her. She is then sent to stage and seeing the green balloon everywhere, she cannot stop herself from remembering her once glorious past. The music soon begins and Mok-ha begins singing for her idol like she had always dreamed of.
The performance leaves everyone shocked as they erupt in cheers at the end of the performance which moves Ran-joo to tears. While Bo-geol and his team praise Ran-joo for her performance, the singer goes to Mok-ha and hugs her with all her might which makes Mok-ha find her years of wait worth it all.
Ran-joo had always been the light that pushed her to survive all these years and finally seeing the person who once saved her, she could not stop her tears. This scene is seen by Woo-hak who remembers the night prior when he showed the note he took from Ki-ho’s house which contains the words their mother always says. Now believing that he is indeed Ki-ho he does what Ki-ho would have done and brought Mok-ha to meet Ran-joo.
Castaway Diva Episode 2 Review
Episode 2 brought the end of the first week for Castaway Diva and this has been one of the best starts of a show in a while. The story continued the strong plot and did not leave a moment that felt like a filler, but instead made us sympathise with Mok-ha while creating a mystery with the Kang brothers.
Park Eun-bin has given us another strong start with this new character and without a doubt we can see another brilliant performance from her. The accompanying leads too are catching our hearts with their characters and I can already see Kim Hyo-jin being a thorough entertainer in this show.
Altogether, I hope the plot keeps up the level it has begun with and only bring bigger surprised for us all.
Which of the Kang brothers do you think is Ki-ho? Let us know in the comments below!
Watch Castaway Diva on Netflix.
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