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 8 has a runtime of 57 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 8 Review Contains Spoilers –
Race Episode 8 Recap
Race episode 8 starts with an awkward Task Force discussion wherein Yoon-jo continues to look at Yi-jung and Jae-min with discomfort and disbelief. Jae-min also picks up on her awkwardness but can’t do anything other than look after her as she leaves. That night, Yoon-jo opens up to Hee-young about her childhood and how she met Jae-min for the first time. Yoon-jo eventually learns that Yi-jung and Hee-young also know each other quite well.
Meanwhile, Jae-min remembers the night he went to have a conversation with Yi-jung and after getting brutally rejected once more, Jae-min realises that this door might just be closed forever. Yoon-jo, on the other hand, meets up with Dong-hoon, who gets too drunk in order to impress Yoon-jo and eventually has to be carried home by her.
The next day, Jae-min is left happy when Yoon-jo reaches out to him at work, and they meet at their usual meeting place. He is quite happy that she did but eventually learns that she needs some space from him for some time in order to sort through her feelings. Although sad, he tells her that he understands and agrees to do whatever he needs to make her feel comfortable.
In the meantime, we learn that, in a drunken state, Dong-hoon fell into some rose bushes outside his house, and now his face is extremely badly scratched up from the thorns! The poor guy looks traumatised from embarrassment for having done it in the first place as well as for doing it in front of Yoon-jo. Either way, Hee-young advises him to treat Yoon-jo to a nice meal for her troubles, which perks up his mood immediately.
At Seyong, Yoon-jo comes up with a fun interactive session with the employees of the company in their R&I Task Force meeting in order to build momentum for what they are trying to achieve with the company, which makes everyone extremely enthusiastic about their upcoming work. That night, Sun-tae tries to sweet-talk Jae-min to get in his good graces, but the latter has an inkling of what is going on and keeps him at arm’s length. However, he does get some sound advice from Chul-jun about sucking up to his superiors.
Also Read: Race Episode 7 Recap and Review: Love Confessions, Work Drama and a Small Win
The next day at work, Yi-jung is left surprised when her daughter comes for a surprise visit. Her excitement, however, is replaced by disappointment and heartbreak when Yoo-jin asks her to stay away from her and not to act like she knows her after all these years. Meanwhile, Sun-tae takes Jae-min back to his team and gives him back all the opportunities that others were handling up until now, leaving everyone disappointed.
Jae-min also gets handed the protein shakes account, and upon further inspection, realises that something fishy is going on with it – the reviews of the thing are absolutely abysmal. Meanwhile, Yoon-jo also gets roped into the promotional side of the protein shake, which puts her at odds with Ji-hyo.
Also Read: Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938 Episode 7 Recap and Review: Cheon Moo-young’s Truth Revealed!
Race Episode 8 Ending
As the day for the conference comes closer, Jae-min and Yoon-jo’s relationship also starts to mend slowly. However, it seems like he misses her more than the other way around. Either way, she goes out to dinner with Dong-hoon to discuss some work things and finds Jae-min there as well, spying on them. Dong-hoon bites the bullet and finally asks Yoon-jo out on a date which sends Chul-jun, who was spying on them, over the edge.
Either way, Yoon-jo can’t help but look over at Jae-min, sitting just a few tables over, before deciding to take Dong-hoon’s offer up of going out with him.
Race Episode 8 Review
This episode has a ton happening, and I think the series does a really fun job with its humorous moments as well as the moments of thrill in the workplace. Although I am yet to understand what about Su-hwan was so scary that they ended episode 6 on that dramatic note. Regardless, I think episode 8 has been quite entertaining.
The Dong-hoon and rose bush storyline made me giggle. I think it would be nice to know his character more – at the moment, we are stuck thinking of him as an NPC who likes Yoon-jo. Other than that, Yi-jung getting choked up was also a nice change of pace for her character and adds some depth to her as well.
There are also subtle hints of more thrills to come – the protein shake and Sun-tae sucking up to Jae-min leave a lot to the imagination and will make you question what lies in store for Seyong and its PR team.
All in all, this is an entertaining episode that will leave you wondering what comes next. I feel like we are running around in circles a bit with the office storyline, and I am waiting for something significant to happen. Maybe the protein shake plot will be that change of pace.
Race is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Great review! Does anyone know the song that plays at the very end (when Seo Dong-Hoon asks out Park Yoon-Jo)? I tried using Shazam, but no luck.