K-drama “The Good Bad Mother” Episode 10 Recap & Review & Analysis

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The Good Bad Mother (Korean: 나쁜엄마) is an ongoing South Korean television series starring Ra Mi-ran, Lee Do-hyun and Ahn Eun-jin. It premiered on JTBC on April 26, 2023, and airs every Wednesday and Thursday at 22:30 (KST).It is also available for streaming on Netflix in selected regions.

The Good Bad Mother Episode 10 Recap

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🐷 Continuing from the plot of The Good Bad Mother, in episode 9 , Song Woo-Byeok brings his henchmen to confront Kang-Ho because he found out that Kang-Ho has evidence that could put him in danger. Jin Young-Soon begs Song Woo-Byeok to spare Kang-Ho who is now completely unaware of the situation, but it turns out to be just a nightmare for her.

Jin Young-Soon overhears someone saying that getting married will make her son more stable and mature, so she secretly adds this item to her plan list. She also wants Kang-Ho to focus on running Happy Farm starting next week and forget about being a prosecutor or anything else except raising pigs.


🐷 Later on, Jin Young-Soon asks Son Yong-Rak for help in introducing Kang-Ho to a wealthy girl from an orchard family. Mi-Joo learns about this plan from her mother’s conversation with Jin Young-Soon. The village ladies dress up Kang-Ho nicely for the matchmaking event while Son Yong-Rak highlights his strengths and good qualities in front of potential brides’ families. However, every family thinks that Kang-Ho is foolish and rejects him as their future son-in-law.

🐷 After spending all day meeting different families, all Kang-Ho wants is for Mi-Joo to see how handsome he looks at the event. Unfortunately, he gets into trouble when he meets Mi-Joo there because some key moments remind him of how she prevented him from passing his college entrance exam due to his own carelessness. They end up kissing each other which catches Jin Young-Soon’s attention who realizes that Kang-ho truly loves Mi-Joo since he seems distracted by thoughts of her.

🐷 Suddenly angry and frustrated with himself over not being able to move on from past mistakes related to Mi-Joo’s influence on his life choices,Kang Ho yells “So what? Is she dead?” which reminds Jin Young-Soon of the day when she blamed Kang-Ho for not passing his college entrance exam.

🐷 Now, Jin Young-Soon prays that Kang-Ho won’t remember anything before he gets married and starts a family. Otherwise, he might seek revenge against her. Mi-Joo feels shy and awkward around Kang-Ho after their kiss but he confesses to her that he really likes her.

The next day, Sam-Sik learns about expensive jewelry in Kang-Ho’s house meant for his future wife so he tricks him into drinking alcohol by saying it will help him become a prosecutor. Sam-Sik then tells Kang-Ho that prosecutors need handcuffs and offers to get them for free in exchange for a diamond ring.

🐷 As a result of this incident, Sam-Sik is arrested by the police while Kang-ho rushes to the station claiming that the gift was from him instead of Sam-Sik. However, nobody understands what is going on.

🐷 Jin Young-Soon was particularly angry that Kang-Ho gave valuable things to Sam-Sik, especially since Kang-Ho admitted that he wanted to become a prosecutor again for Mi-Joo. This made Jin Young-Soon angry, but Kang-Ho said he had done everything his mother asked of him and endured all the pain just to make her happy.

However, his mother never let him do what he liked. Later on, Jin Young-Soon went to find Mi-Joo hoping she could help Kang-Ho because he likes her. But today there was a blind date girl who liked Kang-Ho so she hoped Mi-Joo could help him give up. However, Mi-Joo sensed something wrong with Jin Young-Soon and finally confessed that she is dying.

🐷 This reminded Mi-Joo of when she got pregnant but didn’t tell Kang-Ho because she didn’t want to ruin his plans. She decided to hide everything and have the baby then wait for Kang-Ho instead. However, Mi-Joo realized that maybe it was wrong not telling him about her bad luck earlier as it might have changed his decision back then and prevented what’s happening now which makes Jin Young-Soon worry about him even more.

Nevertheless, Mi-Joo’s mother is saddened by this fact and wants her daughter to continue hiding it because she doesn’t want her taking care of a sick person like Kang Ho; feeling sorry for their family situation but Mi-joo does not feel pity for herself or them at all so the next day she took the twins with her to visit kang-ho’s house.

The Good Bad Mother Episode 10 Review and Analysis

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Jin Young-Soon wants to find a marriage partner for Kang-Ho to form a family. Jin Young-Soon’s expectation is that Kang-Ho can become stable, but I think on the other hand, Jin Young-Soon hopes that someone can accompany Kang-Ho after she dies so that he won’t be alone.

Jin Young-Soon is a mother and since the last episode in Kang-Ho’s diary, she has noticed that he has been lonely for thirty years. This is something that Jin Young-Soon cannot give him now, so she can only find someone who can replace her to take care of Kang-Ho. She also hopes that after having a happy family, there will be no dangerous thoughts of revenge from Kang-Ho. This is the only way Jin Young-Soon can protect him.

“Mom, can’t we just rely on each other?” When Kang-Ho said this sentence, it really hit Jin Young-Soon’s pain point because this is something she cannot do in the future. So now she can only find someone who could replace her to help complete it. However, the blind date scene in ” The Good Bad Mother ” was used by the screenwriter to reconnect the love between Kang-Ho and Mi-Joo~ After all, Mi-Joo is best at taking care of him; she once said: “I am very good at cooking food and taking care of people as well as loving them.” Of course Mi-Joo would be the best bride candidate for his later life.

The plot development speed in ” The Good Bad Mother ” episode was quite good. I loved how Mi-Joo brought back memories for Kang Ho when he remembered blaming himself for not being able to take an exam due to a car accident during high school: “It doesn’t matter Mi-joo!

You’ll just have to take it again next year.” It was such a romantic moment! However, the next scene was Kang-Ho angrily shouting “So what? Did she die?” This was the moment when Jin Young-Soon scolded Mi-Joo for causing Kang-Ho to miss his exam and also the moment when Kang-Ho decided to leave home and live on his own.

If we were to say that remembering memories is bittersweet for Jin Young-Soon, then worrying is more important. She’s not afraid of being remembered as The Good Bad Mother by Kang-Ho but rather afraid that he will seek revenge after recalling those memories.

However, in this episode of ” The Good Bad Mother ” Jin Young-Soon opposes Kang-Ho’s liking for Mi-Joo. There is no doubt that Jin Young-Soon is already a complex character. As a mother, she knows that Kang-Ho likes Mi-Joo and has even witnessed them kissing. However, Jin Young-Soon continues to help Kang-Ho find a marriage partner without considering Mi-Joo as one of the candidates. (Of course, the writer explains that this is because Jin Young-Soon thinks Mi-Joo has a husband in America and doesn’t want to disturb her family.)

Of course, Jin Young-Soon herself has every right to be extremely concerned about Kang-Ho’s future. However, I think it was wrong from the beginning for Jin Young-Soon to let Kang-Ho marry someone who didn’t understand his situation or thoughts.

So I really like how at the end of the episode, Kang-Ho firmly states his desire to become a prosecutor because of Mi-Joo. This is the first time he shows immense courage in pursuing his own goals and happiness in life. It finally makes Jin Young-Soon realize that she may have made another mistake and hurt Kang-Ho again.

“Why don’t you listen to me?” “I did everything you asked me to do! I ate well, exercised seriously; my hands and feet can move now! I took medicine and acupuncture during this period which was painful and uncomfortable for me! When you threw me into water before, I was really scared but Mom…I endured it all just so you could be happy! But why won’t you let me do what I like? Why do you always have the final say? Is it because you also treat me like an idiot?”

At the end of ” The Good Bad Mother ” episode, I really liked how Mi-Joo noticed that there seemed to be secrets or worries with Jin Young-Soon. This echoes the past where only Mi-Joo noticed Jin Young-Soon’s intention to buy pesticides. Only Mi-Joo sincerely takes care of and cares about Kang-Ho, even Jin Young-Soon. As for the character of Jin Young-Soon, she is the one who bears all this loneliness alone.

At the beginning of ” The Good Bad Mother ” she said why do villagers deliberately not look for her? Among all the characters in “The Good Bad Mother,” only Mi-Joo directly points out Jin Young-Soon’s vulnerability, which also shows that Jin Young-Soon herself is lonely.

If the audience remembers, Jin Young-Soon lost her family suddenly in high school, then lost her husband and now faces Kang-Ho’s amnesia. In the past, Jin Young-Soon didn’t want to take Kang-Ho on a hike because she was afraid of being alone again (her family died in a car accident; her husband also had an accident while going out), so the writer-director of ” The Good Bad Mother ” has already indicated that Jin Young-Soon will be lonely for life and longs to be loved and happy.

Therefore, in this episode of ” The Good Bad Mother ” when Mi-Joo discovers that Jin Young-Soon is hiding something from her and sees how fragile she is inside, Jin Young-Soon doesn’t know how to react when her vulnerability is exposed. Finally, Mi-Joo regrets not telling Kang-Ho about her pregnancy earlier instead of revealing it at the end of this episode where she wants to tell him about the twins. I think Mi-Joo feels guilty about this decision as well. This episode focuses back on Mi-Joo’s pressure as she faces everything alone.

Mi-Joo wanted to share this joy with Kang-Ho during his appointment ceremony but he broke up with her that day. The writer shows delicacy in Mi-Joo’s decision-making process because she was once someone who prevented Kang-Ho from taking his college entrance exam which made it difficult for him later on.

Therefore, at that time, she chose not to use their child as an excuse to save their relationship since it would ruin Kang-Ho’s future plans. Now Mi-joo regrets keeping this truth hidden because it seems like it caused trouble for both Kang-ho and Jin-young soon making them unhappy by depriving them of people they love.

This only makes things worse for Kang-ho if he can’t do what he likes due to these circumstances created by others. Therefore, in the end of this episode of “The Good Bad Mother,” it is unclear whether Mi-Joo will confess to Jin Young-Soon and Kang-Ho about the twins’ biological father. The next episode of ” The Good Bad Mother ” promises to be exciting!