Shooting Stars: Episodes 11-12

by Unit

It’s the dark night of the soul this week where friendships and relationships are put to the test, as a single rumor spirals into a wildfire that drives our characters to their breaking point.

EPISODES 11-12 WEECAP

A picture of Eun Si-woo hugging Tae-sung outside his apartment hits the internet, sparking relationship rumors. Thankfully, only her back view appears in the picture and the PR team is able to quell the rumors and threatens legal action – straight out of the playbook of every Korean entertainment agency these days. Lol.

At first, Han-byeol and Yoo-sung think the picture was uploaded by the housekeeper. But then, at the filming location, when Da-hye notes that Tae-sung seems to be having a hard time because of the rumors, Yoo-na’s other manager, KANG MIN-KYU (Lee Han-ik), hides a sinister smile. We recognize him as Tae-sung’s former manager and the guy we saw at the gravesite last week.

But speaking of legal action, Ki-bbeum gets sued for publishing a false article – no thanks to her annoying boss who mistook a singer’s wedding invitation to be that of another actress bearing the same name.

Naturally, Soo-hyuk’s office is Ki-bbeum’s next port of call. There, she finds out the lawsuit was filed by his brother (in a fun cameo by Lee Sang-yub), who just so happens to be the actual fiancé of the actress.

Thankfully, the lawsuit is dropped, and Ki-bbeum gets to score a proper exclusive of the actress’s engagement to a “handsome prosecutor.” And if this is how the drama wants to couple Soo-hyuk and Ki-bbeum, I’m all for it. She has already started meeting his family members anyway. Heh.

Han-byeol visits the housekeeper to return the necklaces she sent to the PR staff, and the housekeeper taunts her for thinking she’ll always be special to Tae-sung. While the housekeeper is delusional, Han-byeol can’t help feeling insecure about her place in Tae-sung’s life. But Tae-sung is quick to pick up on those feelings, and reassures her that he’ll always love her.

Yoo-sung is also quick to pick up on the awkwardness between him and Ho-young, who has been avoiding him since her confession. He tells her he will take his time to think about his feelings, and she promises not to “run away” from him going forward. Phew!

A blurred out picture of a StarForce ID card is uploaded to Tae-sung’s creepy anti-fan site, and Han-byeol mentions to Yoo-sung that the ID could belong to a former employee. Yoo-sung immediately thinks about Min-kyu and goes to confront him.

At the same time, Tae-sung is being mobbed by reporters outside his house demanding to know the relationship between him and Si-woo, whose identity has now been revealed. He has a panic attack and collapses, but Han-byeol and Soo-hyuk arrive just in time to prevent the rabid reporters from harassing him any further.

While Tae-sung recuperates, the agency tries to figure out a plan of action. Si-woo wants to tell the truth about their mother-son relationship, but she holds back for Tae-sung’s sake and wonders if it was wrong of her to return to Korea. Excuse me, ma’am, do you still need to ask?

But as it turns out, Si-woo returned because she’s losing her memories and wants to apologize to Tae-sung before she loses it all. I find this arc quite disappointing and I don’t know if I’m supposed to feel sorry for her, or for Tae-sung, whose life keeps getting more complicated.

At least Tae-sung has people on his side — like Ki-bbeum who writes an article in his support (earning a thumbs up from Soo-hyuk), Da-hye the fangirl who goes guns blazing at the hate comments, and Jung-yeol who catches TaeByeol in the middle of a hug, and pretends to go back to sleep immediately. Lol.

But there are more people against Tae-sung, like the director – and crew – of his drama. They’ve put his shooting schedule on hold in repsonse to hundreds of netizen criticizing Tae-sung and sharing absurd theories about his love triangle with “lawyer D” and Si-woo, who he supposedly has an African kid with. *Facepalm*

At this point, I just want to scream! Aside from the fact that we’ve circled back to this African nonsense, don’t these netizens know basic biology? How can an Asian man have an African kid! To no one’s surprise, though, Ki-bbeum’s boss marinates in all the craziness, and eggs his staff on to write more inciting articles.

It’s refreshing to see Ki-bbeum finally stand up to her boss on the thoughtlessness of the media, and then knock back a few drinks with Soo-hyuk after a stressful day’s work. Make this ship sail, dear drama gods.

When a picture of Yoo-sung picking Si-woo up from the airport is sent to Tae-sung, he chooses to trust Yoo-sung, instead of suspect him. But when Yoo-sung tries to convince him that admitting his mother-son relationship with Si-woo is the best way to put an end to all the speculation, Tae-sung feels betrayed. He lashes out at Yoo-sung for being just like the other managers who put business over the feelings and welfare of the celebrities in their care.

Yoo-sung is understandably hurt by this, and for someone who has been such a rock and a Mr. Fix-It for others, this is the first time I’ve seen Yoo-sung look so crushed. But for a change, it’s nice to see Ho-young give him the support he needs and play the part of being a rock he can lean on – both literally and figuratively – and this is my favorite scene of the week!

Min-kyu is not apologetic for plunging Tae-sung into this mess, and he believes Tae-sung deserves every bit of it because he didn’t show up to Yoon-woo’s funeral. He also accuses Han-byeol of not protecting Yoon-woo – something she admits to, and then says they suffered for it. Who are the “they”?

We wrap up this week’s episodes with Eun Si-woo at a press conference about to make a big announcement, but we have to wait till next week to hear what she has to say, alongside the mystery of whatever happened with Yoon-woo.

As if this week wasn’t depressing enough, Jae-hyun and Yoo-na have broken up, Dae-soo is now alone on set, and in an art mirroring life situation, actor Yoo-sung gets offered the role of a man in an unrequited love! Seriously, when will the misery end?

At this point, it feels like the drama has forgotten that it’s supposed to be a rom-com and has dived into melo territory. This isn’t what I signed up for, so can we get back to the light hearted rom-com part, please?

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Shooting Stars: Episodes 11-12