Air Dates: October 17th until December 6th on tvN... Saturday and Sunday nights at 9:00 pm
tvN is a cable network so the ratings for it will be a bit lower, for this show it was 4.67% which was about 1.38 million viewers, a new high for the series and an impressive number.
Main Cast: Wrote this up after viewing the first episode so will be tweaking the bios and possibly adding in a few characters. For this recap added in the bottom person Yoon.
Bae Suzy as Seo Dal-Mi.... 27 year old(?) woman who soon will have dreams of beginning her own startup company but in what is currently unknown. She's lived with her grandmother for the past fourteen years since her father died and has helped her out at her two food cafes. She's the younger sister of the next character who had gone fourteen years without seeing each other until episode one.
Kang Ha-Na as Won In-Jae.... The reason for their different last names is that In-Jae lived with her mother after she got divorced from the father. The mother remarried a wealthy man, she's been living off and on in America for fourteen years. In-Jae is the CEO of the successful Morning Nature company which she began with money from her stepfather.
Nam Joo-Hyuk as Nam Do-San.... Main leader of SAMSAN Tech which is struggling so bad it may never officially sell a product. That could change as him and his two partners have now enrolled in the SANDBOX startup prgram.
Kim Sun-Ho as Han Ji-Pyeong.... Grew up in an orphanage but at sixteen was kicked out for being too old(?), he then lived with Dal-Mi's grandmother until attending college in Seoul. When he lived with the grandmother be pretended to be Do-San as he wrote Dal-Mi letters to comfort her after the divorce. He's now a team leader at SH Venture Capital.
Kim Hae-Sook as Choi Won-Deok... The grandmother of the top two characters but hasn't seen In-Jae in fifteen years. She's raised Dal-Mi since she was thirteen and they still live together, Choi used to run a cafe but now owns a small corn dog truck. She was also responsible for Ji-Pyeong being successful as she let him stay with her when he left the orphanage.
The characters who aren't major ones but are important
Eom Hyo-Seop as Won Doo-Jong.... In-Dae's stepfather who is quite wealthy. He gave her the funds to begin her own company and still owns 72% of the stock. However think he let her run the company so it would become successful, then his son would take over.
Moon Dong-Hyeoko as Won Sang-Su.... In-Dae's inept stepbrother, he's been her secretary at Nature Morning and his father is about to install him as CEO for the Korean branch.
Kim Do-Wan as Kim Yong-San.... A partner of Do-San's at SAMSAN Tech.
Yoo Su-Bin as Lee Chul-San.... Another partner at SAMSAN Tech.
Kim Won-Hae as Nam Seong-Hwan.... Do-San's father who invested much $$ into his son's venture but is coming close to withdrawing.
Kim Hee-Jung as Park Geum-Jung.... Do-San's mother.
Song Seon-Mi as Cha A-Hyun.... Mother of Dal-Mi and In-Jae.
Kim Min-Seok as Park Dong-Chun.... Ji-Pyeong's underling at SH Venture.
Seo Yi-Sook as Yoon Sun-Hak.... Director of SANDBOX and she briefly knew Dal-Mi's father as the company she ran fourteen years ago was going to invest in his startup.
SANDBOX is an organization that will be a very important part of the story. It helps up and coming startup teams and individuals realize their dreams. They have their own set of buildings where those accepted can have rent free offices, get tutoring on many business subeects and meet very many influential people plus much other help.
Recaps for the prior episodes
That top screenshot is of the three that have been chosen to participate in the application process to enter SANDBOX which was talked about in the last recap. We knew Dal-Mi and Do-San's dream was to enter the academy but was surprised In-Jae did. She quit her CEO position with Nature Morning last show and the main reason is she wants to succeed on her own. The company had been started by funds provided by her stepfather and he never let In-Jae forget that. But the father had an ulterior motive which was to have In-Jae make the company profitable, which she did, and then hand the reins over to his inept son Sang-Su. He's now the CEO for the Korean branch but is very disliked as four employees quit on his first day as the new CEO.
Those four have decided to follow In-Jae as she has plans to begin her own company and to prove to everyone she can succeed without anyone's help. Two did leave within a week but not to return to Nature Morning, so far it hasn't been revealed what her new company will be and In-Jae's currently using her mother's ritzy hotel room as an office. She was a character in the first two episodes you didn't like too much, she still does have devious ways but I'm kind of rooting for her. In-Jae is still at odds with her younger sister by three years Dal-Mi. The pair had gone fourteen years without seeing each other until recently but still don't communicate or have anything to do with each other.
There was an application essay to enter SANDBOX, they would be taking only 400 applicants out of tens of thousands for their new program. All three above did pass and none knew the other(s) had also applied as the lies had grown so tall. All of that will come out in the second half of the recap as the majority of the show was at an event at SANDBOX, the top screenshot below is a pic of the campus. Also in that last recap Do-San and his two mates from SAMSAN Tech won a very famous tech prize called CODA. However there was no monetary award but the winning that can be such a big help for a startup company. After the news got around soon the shabby SAMSAN office was flooded with potential investors but sadly for our down and out trio none panned out. But there was a company interested and Do-San began to show them their AI designs to impress them enough to invest.
There was a reason Ji-Pyeong suddenly swooped in and that was to give Do-San more help with
Dal-Mi. He had seen her earlier in the day when they bumped into each other at a bookstore, both were looking for manuals on the SANDBOX application process. Dal-Mi had mentioned that the following day was Do-San's birthday and could they share it together so he could fulfill his wish in the letters he wrote fifteen years ago? Do-San had no idea what Ji-Pyeong's biggest wish was in those old letters, when pressed about it Ji-Pyeong was clueless too. As far as clueless goes that's what Do-San is about females, the next day will be his first official date. So of course coming to the rescue was Ji-Pyeong who lent Do-San a suit to wear plus as you can see above trained him in the fine art of dining.
Training Do-San was a lost cause, there's a reason he's never had a date or girlfriend up until now. But in a way think Dal-Mi likes Do-San's innocent ways as she too as never had a steady mate. That birthday date though was a success and Do-San was shocked at what Ji-Pyeong's big wish was all those years ago. It was to play a game in a family setting, the name of the game was GO-STOP. It's a Korean card game which I had never heard of but looked interesting, it's usually played with 2-4 people but five played in this game. The birthday gathering was held in Ji-Pyeong's penthouse so he naturally was there along with Dal-Mi, Do-San and his two partners. The group did have such a fun time playing though at times Ji-Pyeong became a bit too peeved when he lost a round. But we noticed how much he was paying attention to Dal-Mi, he couldn't take his eyes off her and is really falling for Dal-Mi. Noticing that too was Do-San who did appear to be a bit jealous and he remained so to the end of the show.
We're at the half way point and want to add in an observation. While this is quite a serious series it's also had many subtle lighthearted moments which has worked out so well and to me have added to the story. Being lighthearted though hasn't happened with In-Jae as of yet and may never will, she's a very stern person. After the b-day bash Do-San gave Dal-Mi a lift home, before she entered her residence
Do-San was wondering something which you can see above. He was curious what Dal-Mi liked about him and none of the answers satisfied him. She said how impressed she was with the letters he wrote so many years ago and a few other tidbits about his personality which were also from the letters. Those responses kind of bummed Do-San out as those were the words of Ji-Pyeong and will those two be vying soon for Dal-Mi's affection? There was one thing Dal-Mi did like about the current Do-San which was that his hands were so large, that did little to cheer him up.
Few other minor events happened but will skip over them and you can see everything in the screenshots. For the rest of the post want to talk about the SANDBOX program as it will be the focus of the upcoming episodes. Added it's director Yoon into the cast list as we should be seeing her quite a bit. In the final seconds she was sitting in her office going over the applications again and she stumbled upon Dal-Mi's. She had written about an incident so many years ago that had to do with sand below a swing which her father had added for safety. Dal-Mi's father had mentioned that to Yoon fourteen years as she was going to invest in his company but about two hours later he died on a bus. He had been in a car accident rushing to Yoon's office, she was the last person to have a face to face conversation with Dal-Mi's father and she knows nothing of that event.
Four hundred are the SANDBOX orientation, that number was whittled down from many thousands. Yoon ran the show and she does have such a sparkling way about presenting things. The goal for this event was that forty CEO's were going to be chosen and were to lead a group in a competition called 'Hackathon'. The forty chosen were to lead their teams and could choose their own members, all four hundred won't be chosen but they'll still be in the SANDBOX program. In the crowd were of course Dal-Mi, her sister In-Jae and Do-San, none knew any of the others were present until after the selections of the CEO's. This event was aired life so Ji-Pyeong, Dal-Mi's grandmother and many others connected to them were viewing.
The competition to select the forty CEO's was one that had to deal with current trends. A word would pop up on a screen and those present had to type in five relevant words that consumers may use hunting for a product or info on a subject. SANDBOX just isn't about training to become successful at their project but to make sure their new companies were profitable. Some of the words chosen were 'Dust, Security, Sharing, Blockchain' and many others, fifty in all. Those forty choosing the most relevant words would become CEO's and lead their team in the 'Hackathon' competition. Dal-Mi was quite good at that 'game' and may have had the most correct words but that figure wasn't revealed. Also doing well at that 'word game' was In-Jae, that surprised me at first but then again running a company like she did would make her aware of what consumers searched for.
I didn't expect Do-San or his two mates to do so well and was on the money with that as they just have no real clue about the outside world. 'What can we do now?' they all wondered as probably no CEO would choose them for their team as they knew no one there save for Dal-Mi. She didn't know the trio was there until they were pointed out by In-Jae while they were on stage accepting the new positions. Both looked at each other with curiosity for they thought the other was doing so well, why would they be at such a startup program? That question entered both of their minds too about Do-San, wasn't he already the CEO of the successful SAMSAN Tech company?
To end the show off both sisters made their way over to see Do-San. In-Jae already had her two workers that had followed her from her Nature Morning exit, it appears she wants a few others on that team. So at almost the same time both Dal-Mi and In-Jae asked Do-San to be on their team, him and his mates were torn over who to choose. It's true that Do-San does like Dal-Mi quite a bit but on the other hand In-Jae has so much CEO experience, she may be better for their futures. But in the end the trio chose Dal-Mi as they also thought In-Jae would boss them around too much and for now Dal-Mi has the upper hand on her older sister. Do-San also made Dal-Mi the CEO of SAMSAN Tech as I think he's realized what Ji-Pyeong said may have ben correct. That brings this recap to an end and sure the next episode will start with the 'Hackathon' competition in full swing.
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