[Drama Review] 'Ddanddara' - Episode 5

This episode was a very emotional, near tear-jerking experience, mostly thanks to Ji Sung's moving performance. Though the previous episodes made me feel like I was slugging through mounds of mud, this particular episode managed to hold my attention, and I found myself skipping less scenes than usual.�

Seok Ho probably jumped several rungs up the ladder of character development in just the five episodes that I've watched thus far. In the beginning, he only looked out for his own skin and was livin' large at the top of the entertainment industry food chain. Then the people he trusted pulled the wool over his eyes, and he found out the terrible truth: Jin Woo, the Jackson member whom he had cared for the most while he was at K-Top, was smack dab in the middle of the whole 'rape' case involving that skeeze Ji Young and Ha Neul.�

I'm the evil K-Top CEO and there's absolutely nothing you can do!

Oh yeah, you pathetic little fop? We'll see about that.�

But little does Seok Ho know that Jin Woo (and Ji Young) were just pawns in Lee Joon Seok and Joo Han's grand scheme to permanently ruin Seok Ho, kick him to the curb, and keep him there meek and silent. And their plan worked almost flawlessly--almost. No one, especially not Seok Ho, was supposed to know about this plan, but thanks to some unintentional sleuthing on the part of Geu Rin, Seok Ho found about it anyway.�

Joo Han claims that Jin Woo 'overdosed' on�substances�and tried to 'rape' Ji Young, then blamed Ha Neul,�who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, for the rape. What likely happened was that Joo Han and Lee Joon Seok drugged Jin Woo, ordered Ji Young to make it appear as if Jin Woo raped her to permanently taint Ji Woo and Jackson's reputation, which in turn would taint Seok Ho's reputation. But when Ha Neul had shown up at their premeditated crime scene, Joo Han and Lee Joon Seok no longer needed to frame Jin Woo; they figured they could just keep Jin Woo and Jackson at K-Top and make poor Ha Neul the scapegoat.�

Tearful, emotional, touching bro talk session that kinda led...nowhere.�

Seok Ho of course has no idea that Joo Han and Lee Joo Seok planned the entire thing beforehand, and is devastated to learn that Jin Woo is the culprit. This terrible truth leads to Seok Ho's false realization that he is not worthy to lead Ddanddara to anything. So what does Seok Ho do? He pulls the 'suddenly disappear' card on everyone, fleeing his own shame and fears because he doesn't think he has what it takes to shape Ddanddara into the greatest band in K-Pop. It's interesting how the drama draws the parallel between Seok Ho and Ha Neul. They're both in the process of overcoming the greatest challenge in their lives, and at the sign of a first major obstacle, their instincts told them both to take flight rather than fight. But giving up without a fight isn't helping anyone, especially not themselves.

Guy in the middle: please save me from these two idiots...

The greatest obstacles for Ha Neul and Seok Ho are not the external forces that work against them but rather, their inner struggles. In the last episode, Ha Neul believed that he was the woe of, and would be, the eventual death of Ddanddara. However, Seok Ho gave Ha Neul the exact remedy he needed to regain self-assurance and pursue his dreams again. In this episode, Seok Ho is afraid that he will lead the boys down nowhere but the path of destruction.�

Trying to outrun a car on a busy street = never a good idea�

Something tells me that now it is Ha Neul's turn to bring Seok Ho back to Ddanddara. And once Ha Neul succeeds--and you know he will--in convincing Seok Ho to return, no longer will the two be running from anything or anyone--not even themselves. In more ways than one, Ddanddara is everyone's ticket to redemption; it's the band's fragile existence which lends hope to the ragtag bunch that things are going to look up. They all need to band, but more importantly, they need one another to make the band happen. He can neither fight his inner demons nor K-Top on his own: this marks only the beginning of the real battle that is yet to come.�