Race (레이스) is the latest K-drama addition to Disney+ Hotstar’s catalogue of Korean content, and it has been directed by Lee Dong-yoon and written by Kim Roo-ri. Starring Lee Yeon-hee as Park Yoon-jo, Moon So-ri as Goo Yi-jung, Hong Jong-hyun as Ryu Jae-min, Jung Yun-ho (TVXQ’s Yunho) as Seo Dong-hoon in the titular roles, the workplace drama premiered on May 10, 2023, with its first 2 episodes.
Race Episode 4 has a runtime of 55 minutes.
The closer-to-life workplace dramedy and its fun ensemble follow Park Yoon-jo’s drive and professionalism at a PR agency. Despite not pursuing a formal education, her undeterred work ethic is her biggest strength. After landing a job at a Korean conglomerate, she believes that she’s finally on her way to achieve great things until the truth of her employment is revealed and brings her down again. Nevertheless, she keeps treading on the same path, charting a journey to prove she’s right where she belongs and deserves to be. Yoon-jo’s Race will stand as a testament that hustling through hardships does make a difference and that one’s worth can’t be defined by their CV.
– Race Episode 4 Review Contains Spoilers –
Race Episode 4 Recap
After the awful reprimanding from Eun-jeong in the last episode, Yoon-jo leaves heartbroken after putting herself out there. It turns out that Jae-min was also there and feels annoyed that Eun-jeong screamed at Yoon-jo for no reason.
On her way back home, Yoon-jo decides to go to a karaoke place with Tae-min to blow off some steam, and after a rather blood-pumping session of intense singing, Tae-min encourages Yoon-jo to rant about Eun-jeong to him. After calling her some names, Yoon-jo promises to put her best foot forward and show Eun-jeong that she is not someone to be taken lightly.
Filled with new resolve, Yoon-jo goes to work the next day fresh and chipper. She is immediately given a schedule for the company’s upcoming events and is pulled into an interview and photo op for the special recruitment candidates. In the meantime, Yi-jung meets Ji-hyeon, who brings up uncomfortable topics from her past.
Soon enough, the event rolls around, and everyone is shocked to see Yi-jung making her way to the hall. She looks around at everything and then chats to Jae-min about the necessity for all of this since this is a one-off event. Jae-min tries to defend his idea, but Yi-jung totally destroys his idea and his confidence and tells him that blind recruitments every year are not something they will be doing. Either way, while Jae-min and his team go out for team dinner, Yoon-jo has dinner with Hee-young, who is drinking with Yi-jung, seemingly an old friend.
Also Read: Race Episode 3 Recap and Review: Happiness Turns to Heartbreak for Yoon-jo
But before the dinner, though, Yoon-jo covertly flirts with Jae-min, who is forced to tell her and Eun about his past relationship. It is evident that she likes him quite a bit but is unable to tell him. As they all go back home, a pensive Jae-min reminisces while looking at a picture.
The next day, Yoon-jo is greeted with her interview video being played everywhere. Once inside, Sun-tae asks Yoon-jo in front of Eun-jeong why she has refused to star in the documentary. Although everyone is uncomfortable with his insistence, she takes the opportunity to give them a better idea than creating a documentary which won’t reach their target audience. The fresh perspective impresses everyone, but Sun-tae refuses to budge and later tells Eun-jeong that he will force Yoon-jo to do the documentary even if she won’t.
As the leads go off for a meeting, Dong-hoon makes his way to the office and is left confused when he learns that Yoon-jo is not in the Celltics project. He proposes to take her out for dinner, and she agrees to go with him. However, all of that might have to wait since, while having coffee in the breakroom with Jae-min, Chul-jun rushes in and tells him that BlaBla has exposed Yoon-jo.
Posts have flooded the platform calling Seyong and Yoon-jo frauds and making horrible speculations about her. Jae-min immediately jumps to work and rushes to find Sun-tae. The latter tells him to put an end to the posts and the rumours and post a clarification on the website during closing. However, that just makes it worse and fuels the fire further.
Race Episode 4 Ending
After not being able to contain it, thanks to their rather poor PR response, the higher-ups get worried and skittish, and Byung-man suggests that they should fire Yoon-jo since she is just one employee who is causing all of these issues. On the other hand, Yi-jung goes through these posts and the online articles and wonders what to do. In the end, Yoon-jo’s future in the company remains uncertain as her leads refuse to tell her anything.
Race Episode 4 Review
In spite of the ambiguous ending and our protagonists’ future literally hanging by a thread, I am just interested to know whether or not Yoon-jo went to have dinner with Hee-young that night.
On a serious note, Race Episode 4’s portrayal of politics and power struggle hits close to home, and as you see Yoon-jo’s career trajectory in her new workspace, you relate to her. The series keeps its sequence of events realistic and relatable, which, in turn, grounds the series overall. You are interested to know about the protagonists and their personal issues that trickle down to us slowly. Nothing that is shown is wasted, although sometimes the exposition is a bit in-your-face.
Regardless, I really enjoyed the episode and was hooked to know what Seyong will do once their utter lack of management blows up in their faces.
Race is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.