Name: The Good Bad Mother season 1 episode 6
Director: Shim Na-yeon
Released: 2023-05-11T23:21:42

In the sixth episode of The Good Bad Mother, Baek Hoon-ah mobilizes the villagers to get rid of Young-soon’s farm, and Young-soon receives some unpleasant news. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

Recap

Chairman Song’s men come to Kang-ho’s house looking for something against Assemblyman Oh. However, when Kang-ho returns home, they hide in the closet, and when he gets attacked by the man sent by Assemblyman Oh, they rescue him.

The man sent by Assemblyman Oh flees, and Chairman Song’s men chase him. They manage to injure him and catch him, but the man escapes from the hospital later on. Chairman Song orders his men to find what he needs as soon as possible.

Additionally, Chairman Song asks his men to protect Kang-ho. When Kang-ho tells his mother about the attack, she does not believe him.

Meanwhile, Sam-sik loses his job for attacking a customer and causing a mess. His employer asks him to pay him an additional 100 million won. He even gets him beaten up, but Sam-sik manages to escape and goes back home.

Young-soon’s neighbor and music composer, Baek Hoon-ah, goes to meet the village chief, Mr. Son. The two used to be classmates once upon a time. Baek Hoon-ah used to be quite popular in the village, and people still remember him.

Young-soon goes to the market and asks Kang-ho to stay out of trouble. Meanwhile, Mi-joo’s mother gives Mi-joo money to open a nail salon. Mi-joo also leaves for the market, and her wallet falls from her purse. Kang-ho picks this up and follows her to the market to return it to her.

Baek Hoon-ah cries and tells Mr. Son about how the pig farm has been bothering him. He meets the other villagers, who are happy to see him, and tells them the same story.

Mi-joo looks for shop space, but the rent is too high everywhere. Kang-ho follows her but keeps losing her. Mi-joo meets two women at a store and helps one of them by taking care of the nail that has been causing her pain.

The women suggest that Mi-joo should open a nail salon, as they do not have one around. When Mi-joo shares her problem regarding the rent with them, they ask her to open one in that store itself.

They promise the owner that they will convince everyone to buy farm products from him in return, and Mi-joo promises to deliver products whenever he needs help. The owner allows Mi-joo to use the space in his shop and not take rent from her.

Someone tries to steal Mi-joo’s wallet from Kang-ho, and while catching him, Kang-ho is accused of theft. Mi-joo as well as Young-soon find him and come to his rescue. Young-soon drives the two of them home and apologizes to Mi-joo for treating her badly in the past.

Baek Hoon-ah convinces the villagers to get rid of Young-soon’s farm. He makes false promises to the villagers about opening a concert hall in the village and giving jobs to them and their children.

The villagers agree to side with him and get the farm closed. Unbeknownst to them, Young-soon hears everything and is hurt.

Sam-sik returns home and sees Kang-ho trying to catch a fish. He thinks about the time he saw Kang-ho at a restaurant with other prosecutors and approached him. Kang-ho did not speak to him and paid him to leave him alone.

Sometime after that, he met Kang-ho again and told him that he is innocent, as he only did what he was asked to do. He sold what he got as his payment, not knowing that it was stolen goods. He had asked Kang-ho to talk to the prosecutor in charge on his behalf.

Kang-ho made it clear that they were not friends. Sam-sik got down on his knees and begged him for help. He even apologized for how he treated Kang-ho in the past, but Kang-ho refused to help.

In the present, Sam-sik approaches Kang-ho and curses him for not helping him, but Kang-ho does not remember him. Kang-ho decides to go to the twins’ house to complain to their frightening father about Sam-sik.

When the twins find out that Young-soon is not going to be home, as a pig is giving birth, they invite him to dinner, much to Mi-joo’s dismay. The children make a comment about it being a family dinner, which makes Mi-joo uncomfortable.

Kang-ho tells her that he tried catching fish because she likes it, and she asks him not to meet her children anymore or come to her house again. Kang-ho then asks her if he was a bad person to her as well. He hopes that he was not, but he assumes that he was.

Chairman Song’s men come to search Kang-ho’s house again. They end up running into Young-soon and lie to her that they are going to start farming in the village. When Young-soon collapses, they take her to the hospital.

The villagers feel guilty about siding with Baek Hoon-ah and betraying Young-soon, who has already lost so much in her life. The next day, they do not show up to protest with Baek Hoon-ah and decide to side with Young-soon.

In the hospital, Young-soon dreams about the time when she was a school student and lost her parents and brother in a car accident. When she wakes up and meets the doctor, she is told that she has stage four cancer. She begs the doctor to save her because she needs to live for her son.

Kang-ho is informed by a nurse that his mother is in the hospital. When a frantic Kang-ho reaches the hospital with some of the villagers, he falls down. Instead of helping him get up, Young-soon asks him to get up on his own and walks away.

Review

The episode managed to make the attack on Kang-ho a chaotic affair, and due to that, it was more of an amusing incident than a serious one.
Although the villagers decide to support Young-soon eventually, they are initially swayed by the promise of a better life. The audience gets to see how people betray their own for personal benefit and later try to assuage their guilt by justifying their actions.
The episode tries to show how difficult Young-soon’s life has been to help the audience understand her treatment of Kang-ho. All her life, she has been losing the people she has loved. That does not justify her actions, but it makes the audience feel for her.
This also makes the end of the episode poignant. The news of the disease makes her fear for her son’s future and not her own life, which, along with Ra Mi-ran’s brilliant performance, makes the whole scene very emotional.