Little Women season 1 episode 2 recap & review

In episode 2 of Little Women, In-joo dives deeper into the Hwa-young’s life to find the rest of the money that she embezzled while In-kyung continues her investigation into Park Jae-sang. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

Recap

In-kyung tells In-joo about her suspension and her drinking problem and In-joo gets angry with the fact that her sister didn’t feel comfortable sharing this problem with her earlier.

In-hye is once again at her wealthy friend, Park Hyo-rin’s house. She is painting a portrait of Hyo-rin in a Van Dyck style while they discuss their facial features and In-hye’s painting ability.

In-kyung has an uncomfortable meal with her aunt who only criticises her choices. Hae-seok thought In-kyung how to trade stocks at a very young age but didn’t support her intention to study economics. She tells In-kyung to come by her office for work now that she’s suspended.

In-joo decides to go back to work and meets Director Shin and Choi Do-il. They task her with finding out where Hwa-young hid the stolen money and In-joo agrees to help under certain conditions. Director Shin gives in before showing an inappropriate interest in In-joo’s feet.

In-kyung reaches out to an old contact connected to the suicides in the Bobae Savings Bank case that Park Jae-sang was involved with. He cuts the call on her and as she’s walking down the street, her old childhood friend, Ha Jong-ho, calls out to her.

Jong-ho and In-kyung grew up together when In-kyung stayed with her aunt. In-kyung spends some time with Jong-ho and his grandfather when she gets a call from the contact. He gives her a specific time and place to meet because he knows Jae-sang’s true nature.

In-joo and Do-il go to Hwa-young’s house and In-joo begins going through all the items there to make a detailed record. She thinks back to all the advice that Hwa-young gave her and eventually learns that Hwa-young had a second life as a rich woman who lived in Singapore.

Director Shin comes to check on her progress and she tells him what she’s learnt. He approaches her inappropriately once again but when he sees a blue orchid in the house, he gets spooked and rushes out.

In-kyung goes along with Jong-ho to the fish market where she’s supposed to meet her contact and on the way, they come across a car accident. When her contact doesn’t meet her at the designated spot, she rushes back to the accident to confirm her suspicions.

The man involved in the accident is the same man In-kyung was supposed to meet. Jong-ho finds a blue orchid on the floor nearby.

In-joo doubts whether Hwa-young and Shin Hyun-min were actually having an affair so she goes to the shoe store where the velvet orchid heels were sold, one of only three pieces. Hwa-young had got them for her birthday and the clerk confirms that Director Shin had bought them.

She meets with her colleague, Hwang Bo-yeon, who stands by her accusation that the director and Hwa-young were having an affair. She tells In-joo that the director has a particular type, women coming from poor backgrounds because he’s the son of a poor cobbler.

In-joo goes over Hwa-young’s alternate social media account and comes to a sudden realization. She rushes to meet Do-il to share her discovery. She believes that Shin Hyun-min and Hwa-young were involved in the embezzlement and that Shin had something to do with her death.

In-kyung goes over the dash-cam footage of the car accident but isn’t able to find anything conclusive. She looks at the last message she got from him before he died and is distraught.

In-joo and Do-il go over Hwa-young’s phone and laptop once again since Director Shin was in charge of the forensics initially. They find all the evidence that Hwa-young accumulated against Director Shin and it all points to him killing her.

They even find another woman who worked there before Hwa-young and who died in a similar manner to Hwa-young. She was found in her apartment wearing nothing but red heels. In-joo wants to go to the police with this evidence but Do-il wants to focus on finding the money first.

He believes that Hwa-young would also focus on the money and since the two of them believed that there is nothing more sacred than money, he’s certain that his instincts are right. In-joo goes shopping to numb herself from all the secrets she has uncovered.

In-kyung and Jong-ho discuss why she thinks Park Jae-sang is the culprit. She also talks about why she started drinking to help her deal with the pain of all the horrible things she saw as a reporter.

When she gets home, she sees all the things her sister bought and asks her why she went on a spree. In-joo tells In-kyung about quitting her job and the stolen money but doesn’t tell her about the 2 billion she got.

In-joo gets a delivery of a pair of red heels and immediately realizes that it was sent by Director Shin. In-kyung realizes that In-hye left her phone at home and goes out to give it to her.

On the way, she sees a billboard advertising an art competition where Hyo-rin takes credit for In-hye’s painting. It is also revealed that Hyo-rin is Park Jae-sang’s daughter.

In-joo confronts Director Shin about the heels but he brushes her off. He tells her that he did threaten her but he’s not sure how or why she died. All he knows is that there’s someone above them who they need to be more worried about.

He says that he’s going to the prosecutor to take the blame for the embezzlement and other crimes that he has committed but insists that she and Do-il do not dig further. However, he never gets there as his car loses control and he crashes to his death, with the image of a blue orchid in his dash as one of the final things he sees.

Review

• The way each sister is involved in a different narrative that is loosely connected with the other is great storytelling. Little Women is a series that has really started strong in that aspect.
• It is quite interesting to observe the dynamic of regular people in Korea. In-joo and In-kyung had decent jobs but they were still saddled with debt and struggled to get by. There is a gross imbalance in society when it comes to the rich and the poor.
• The episodes are on the lengthier side and bordering on a drag sometimes. Some episodes could require a certain amount of conviction to get through.

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